Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

The people we were leasing from went into bankruptcy, and the house we are living in went to auction on Monday. DEl called that morning and told me some prospective buyers from a real estate firm wanted to walk through it. He recommended I make an extra effort to be nice, as they expressed interest in letting us work out a deal to buy it from them.

When I opened the door, three gentlemen walked in - all with the same last name. There was an older gentleman, one who appeared to be middle aged, and a young guy.
I instantly grabbed my first opportunity to be friendly.

"How nice to have three generations working together," I said with a smile.

The middle guy shook his head. Instead of waiting for the answer, I plunged ahead to correct my mistake.

"Oh, do we have some uncles and a nephew?" I asked. This time, the youngest guy laughed out loud.

"No," he replied with a huge grin while pointing to the middle aged fellow, "He and I are brothers. He hates it when people think he's my dad or uncle."

Well, at least the I wasn't first to make that mistake. I could still salvage the situation if I were careful.

"I know how that is," I told the middle guy, "I'm the oldest of eight kids and am fifteen years older than my youngest sister."

"Well, there's only five years' difference between the two of us," he informed me.

So much for being nice. I humbly shut my mouth - after removing my big fat foot from it.

4 comments:

Denise said...

eek. embarrassing. lol! i hope things work out for you guys!

Seth and Emry Gubler said...

That is too funny!

McKay Missy and Boys said...

I think I do that way too many times. How's your house coming?

Matt, Kim, Barrick and Jakey Boy! said...

I'm always sticking my foot in my mouth. After a while, it starts to taste pretty good!