Breakfast flakes

Maybe it was all the excitement of trying out the new tropical fruit blend smoothie package (peach slices, mango chunks, pineapple chunks, banana slices) purchased yesterday from Target, which we hoped would relieve the boredom of our usual morning mix; or maybe it was the excitement of seeing the big Mitt Romney running mate announcement aboard the battleship Wisconsin, we don't know. But for some reason this morning we were so completely distracted that we somehow forgot to insert the black plastic tamper through the hole on the lid of our Vita-Mix blender before stomping down on some uncooperative frozen fruit pieces.
This momentary oversight caused an immediate and unfortunate blending of black plastic with mango, peach and pineapple chunks.
A crisis over morning coffee can be most unpleasant, but the incident was quickly smoothed by the friendly Vita-Mix people at the other end of an 800 number that was answered immediately.
We read the serial number off the bottom of the blender and the young man said they would Fed-Ex a replacement tamper to us immediately. However, this mishap will have to go on our permanent record and we'll need to pay a fee next time.
Wow. They have a frequent manglers policy. So this has happened to other distracted operators.
Kind of exciting, makes you feel like a part of a wide unfocused community.