I've washed and dried a lot of money in my days, but a hidden, half-pack of Bubble Yum in the jeans pocket almost sent me into therapy.

I'm not a domestic goddess by any stretch of the imagination, and I rarely get excited about appliances but I will confess, if I could have sex with my front loading washer and dryer, I would. It's amazing how much you can shove in those things and how clean and dry everything comes out.

During the summer months, when my house is deliciously full of visiting relatives, they run non-stop. They're guaranteed for a lifetime of 3500 loads which translates to, under normal use, about a ten year span. They way I use them, we'll be lucky if we get 5 years.

So earlier this week, happily into our year number three, I unknowingly washed my sons jeans with a half eaten pack of bubble gum in the pocket. It made it through the washer unnoticed but blew the shit out of my dryer. Melted gum everywhere. Stuck to the clothes, stuck to the drum, sealed permanently by the high heat. The sick part is, I didn't care about the ruined clothes, I only cared about the dryer.

After a 10 minute F-bomb tirade, and some picking at it with an icing spreader, I called my sister, who really is a domestic goddess.

Her words, "Been there, done that" brought me instant relief because I knew that she had a solution.

"Take a dryer sheet, like Bounce. Get it wet and then use it in a circular motion on the gum that's fused to your dryer drum. It will lift the gum right off. But before you do that, maybe you should pour yourself a big glass of wine?"

Once again, all hail to my mighty Big Sister.