I recently, made a lovely nettle infusion. However, when I tried to open the jar – it wouldn’t budge. Normally, I would go find my Big Strong Man for these jobs. Yes, that is what I call Mike during these moments. Most of the time I yell, “I need my Big Strong Man” and hand him the jar. He really has a talent for opening jars. Well, this day, my Big Strong Man was out of town. Therefore, I resorted to the tools I used before I met him. I actually have 3 jar openers, yet they didn’t have any luck with the lid either. I ran hot water over the metal lid – nothing. It was so frustrating and hard to believe. It wasn’t a new lid; it had been reused at least 100 times, so how could it have created such a good seal?!

All my jar openers minus my Big Strong Man

So I decided to call upon my friends on Facebook. I posted my “dilemma” and got many suggestions. One even suggested that I find a new Big Strong Man or use an oil filter wrench (hey I really wanted to drink the infusion, but couldn’t find where ours was). Then, the miracle came – “Just take a butter knife and put the tip under the lip of the jar lid. Lift a little and it will break the seal and the lid should twist off easily.” It worked like magic! I felt so liberated! Now as long as I have a butter knife, I don’t need to depend on my Big Strong Man for opening jars. Of course, I will still need him for getting rid of wasp nests and “other things.” So, it’s best to keep him around nonetheless. But now I got this jar thing covered.

The magical jar opener

Some people might think this post is sexist and I am exploiting Mike. Well, you bet your sweet bippy I am! Aren’t most people exploited in some way? Mike and anyone I have ever worked or volunteered with has exploited my organizational skills. Writers, scientists, artists, and financial managers are all being exploited for their talents. Exploit simply means to “make full use of or to derive benefit from.” Negative connotations aside: I’ll continue to exploit my husband and butter knives equally, as long as it gets me where I’m going.