Careful use of Ebay while making Apple Crisp

Because kids say and do cute things and those moments get fewer and farther between as they grow older, I am going back in time to bring you this information. Did you know I have a time machine? It lives in my email folders. This particular folder is named “Ebay Disputes.”

Ebay has been one of my best friends for 9 years now. I love Ebay. Ebay loves me. They send me coupons (really good coupons, but not as good as the ones they send my father-in-law). Ebay has everything. They have new things, old things, useless things, weird things. You name it; most of it can be found on Ebay. I can shop for just about anything without lugging the kids along and without finding things in the cart that I didn’t put in there! Uhm. Yeah. Right. Until October 27, 2006, that is. I was watching a few items that were scheduled to end within the hour and I didn’t want to forget to bid. I had already bought a firefighter costume for Halloween and some other things for the kids. But I didn’t want to miss those other auctions…

I remember it so clearly. We were making Apple Crisp (recipe below). It’s an annual tradition after we go apple picking. Each of the kids has a role in the apple-crisp-making. We all peel. Child B cores/slices. Child A uses a super-sharp knife to cut the slices in half (because we like it that way). Child C piles the slices in the pan. Everyone gets to do something. (OK, if you’ve done the math or thought much about it, you know that Child C was only 10 months old that year. So, she really wasn’t helping much. But she did throw in some apple slices, ate some, and threw in some more. You may also be wondering why on earth I was letting my 6yo use a super-sharp knife??? Yes, she was 6 at the time. A is very responsible. And careful. Using a dull knife is more likely to result in an injury. Then she’d never want to use a knife again! She was taught to place the sharp part of the knife on top of the apple slice, then place her other hand on top of the knife and push down. This way there are no fingers under the knife to accidentally remove! Would I recommend this for all 6yos? Absolutely NOT!)

I guess at one point A got bored and disappeared to the family room. I suspected she was watching tv. Wrong child. She wasn’t watching tv, but I didn’t know that. And she came back out to finish helping, so I didn’t have to go looking for her. After the Apple Crisp was in the oven, I went in to check on the auctions. All the auctions I had already won were already paid. But I noticed that I had 2 auctions awaiting payment. That seemed peculiar, so I refreshed MyEbay, thinking maybe I was looking at a cached page. Nope, I still have 2 auctions awaiting payment. Obviously intrigued, I click through to see what I needed to pay for.

$811.82.

My heart stopped. I had a little, mini heart-attack right there. I might have peed my pants. I know I stopped breathing. How can Ebay think I bought something for eight hundred eleven dollars and eighty-two cents?

Apparently, while I was still making apple crisp, A was looking at the MyEbay page and saw the costume I had bought. She then clicked on it and clicked on the link within that auction to view the sellers other auctions. She saw auctions for:

Superman ADULT SUPREME DELUXE COLLECTORS COSTUME *NEW* for $411.83
Star Wars XL DARTH VADER SUPREME Costume *IN STOCK* for $399.99

She clicked the Buy It Now button and then confirmed. For both auctions. Lovely. I felt sick to my stomach. The auction said that non-payers would be reported to Ebay and the credit reporting agencies. I had never seen that in an auction before, but I was freaked out.

I called hubby at work, in tears. I emailed the seller and their email box was full. Messages bounced back. I tried calling them. Their voice mail box was full. Then I looked at their address. The shop is in a town only 15 minutes away (if I were able to hop in the car and go straight there.) OK, it took us about 45 minutes to get the kids out the door and into the van and us over there (and don’t forget the Apple Crisp in the oven!) We kindly explained the situation and A apologized. She was so embarrassed, but I was convinced that she really needed to in order to understand in her 6yo mind how wrong it was for her to use mommy’s computer and click on things without mommy knowing about it. The costume shop people notified Ebay that both the seller and buyer wanted to cancel the transaction. (At the time, I didn't even know you could do that!) We didn’t have to pay $811.82 for adult costumes we didn’t need or want. They didn’t have to pay Ebay fees for A being a little click-happy. Whew.

So, when leaving your computer unattended in the presence of children, don’t stay logged in to any shopping site. I don’t know what I would have done if the business hadn’t been local. Other than cry. A lot.

That Apple Crisp sure was tasty! (But NOT worth $811.82!)

Apple Crisp
Enough apples to slice and scatter all piled up in a 9x13 baking dish (I use 6-8 large)
Honey to drizzle over the apples (1/2 -1 cup if you like honey like I do)
Flour (2 parts) *
Sugar (1 part) *
Butter, melted (1 part) *
Spray olive oil (or any other oil you like)
Cinnamon, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray the oil to coat the bottom of the baking dish.
3. Peel, slice, and core the apples. Scatter and pile them in the baking dish.
4. Drizzle honey over the apples slices, sprinkle with cinnamon (if desired) and toss gently with a spoon.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and melted butter. Stir until moist. Then crumble over the apples.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

* Example: 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup butter OR 3 cups flour, 1½ cups sugar, 1½ cups butter. For however much flour is used, ½ of that same amount would be the measurement for sugar and butter.

(This is NOT my recipe and I do not claim it is. It is a super easy recipe I got from one of my local La Leche League Leaders years ago and I have no idea if it's hers or not. It is, however, delicious and easy!)