Just add water.

Last year for Christmas the kids bought Hubby John an electric ice maker that sits on the counter and pops out ice cubes. HJ loves his ice maker and thinks it is one of the best gifts he has ever gotten.
This past Saturday evening we had "our gang" in for our annual Christmas pot-luck and gift exchange. We also had my Cutie-Patootie Neve staying overnight.
As usual the evening ended up with us playing a card game called, Pay Me The Money, It is played with 13 quarters and as many decks of cards that are needed depending on how many persons are playing. Our gang usually uses 3 or 4 decks. There are 11 rounds to the game. You collect runs of the same suite or cards of the same face value. As soon as someone can lay down their whole hand on their turn, they yell, "Pay Me The Money", and the other players give him/her a quarter. The play goes around once more until it gets back to the person who called the hand. They lay their hand on the table and everyone else can lay cards down on the winners pile(s) and in front of themselves as well (but not on any other players piles). You add up any cards that you couldn't play and that score is marked down. At the end of the game the winner with the lowest score gets two quarters from each player. With nine of us playing that made a pot of $4.50.
People always whine when they are playing cards and winning rounds. You would think they would be grateful and say "Thank you, you are too kind." But no.... You should hear them. They are such "Meyer The Criers. You know the type, the ones that whine and complain.....poor me!....what do you mean someone called it?.....give me a break!...you are such a jerk!...I don't care if it's legal tender or not, take back the pennies and give me a quarter...... alright, who tried to pass off a peso?......hey! there are only 8 quarters here who didn't pay?.... NO you can't pay me later!...buzz off and give me my money(or something along those lines depending on who was complaining and whether Cutie-Patootie Neve was within hearing range) The winner of the final pot is very sly and sneaky. They divert every ones attention to someone else...."Oh look at so and so that's the third time they called it!" They do this so that you don't realize how low their score is. You think they are just such a nice person. Then BHAM! They zoom in and hit you right between the eyes....the little sneaks! My baby brother KD won the final pot on Saturday. The little toad! That pot should have been mine and even thought I am older and a little bit slower and fatter now (Who am I kidding? I should say a lot older, fatter and slower.), I probably could still take him if I tried. But it is Christmas and I was the hostess so I let the little wiener have the money.
I am such a good big sister to him. hee....hee...hee...
Anyway, I digress. I was talking about the ice maker. It was chugging away doing its' business when it just stopped. It didn't do nothing. Zero, zilch, Nada. Hmmm.....what could be wrong? HJ and I moved it, unplugged it, plugged in into another outlet and NOTHING......Oh no!...." The lights were on but there was nobody home. "Well maybe it takes a fuse." said Hubby John, "I'll have to look up the instruction book tomorrow".
Now I know that some of you ladies are now gasping for air, so just take slow even breaths until you heart rate settles. Yes, I know, HJ actually said he would read the instruction booklet. But he really loves his ice maker and ya know, sometimes men just have to break down and read the manual rather than just standing there and staring at the broken thingy while holding a screw driver or ice pick in their hand and putting the lid up and down and saying " I wonder what's wrong with it?"
It's OK....are you feeling well enough to read on now?
Good!
Where was I? Oh yes.....the reaction to the broken ice maker.
Awwww......disappointment was all around the table and lasted until we all threw quarters at HJ when he said "Pay me the money!" after just 3 times round the table on the fifth hand. I told him to leave the money that landed on the floor for the sweeper (that would be me) but his partner in crime, my Cutie-Patootie Neve , was his official money picker upper for the evening and made quick work of gathering up stray change. With this game we quite often throw money at HJ or PB and sometimes CD or SD, depending which one of them says "Pay Me The Money" too many times.
So while we continued playing cards, eating and threatening to break fingers and accusing some people of cheating, I eventually got up to make a pot of coffee. I don't usually make the coffee. HJ does. But really, how hard can it be?
The coffee maker was on the counter and I carefully counted the number of spoons of coffee into the filter and hit the MANUAL ON button. NOTHING. Hmmm....did I do something wrong? I hit the button again. NOTHING. I unplugged the machine, plugged it back in and hit the AUTO ON button this time. NOTHING. Oh for Pete's sake! Maybe this explains the ice machine, maybe it is the outlet after all. I move the coffee pot to another counter and plug it in. Still NOTHING. Grrrrr.......I unplug it and try a different plug....and still no success with my endeavor. Just Great! I turn to tell everyone that there will be no coffee,when it hits me......and five minutes later...ta da!....there is a lovely pot of coffee.
What did I do? How did I fix it? Did I read the instruction booklet?
No I didn't read the book.
But did you know that if you don't follow all of the steps, your coffee maker won't work?
It is amazing what can happen when you just add water.

PS The ice maker started up on it's own a short time later. HJ figured that the kitchen was just too hot and it stopped to cool down. Isn't that sort of an oxymoron? ....An ice machine needing to cool down...hee...hee...hee