NaBloPoNo day 18: I told you a few days ago about our expensive movie afternoon that cost us $105 and we still haven’t seen the movie. Something’s wrong. Our outings are getting increasingly expensive. This is our latest expensive adventure.

The Sweet Candy Company is still a family-owned and operated American company and the third, fourth and fifth generations of the family are actively involved in the daily operations of the business. They distribute more than 250 candy items nationally and internationally—in bulk, bags, and boxes. Today Hubby and I joined other members of the UofU Osher community on a tour of the factory this afternoon.

Government guidelines require everyone touring the facility to dress and prepare themselves in the same way an employee must, so we all donned blue hair nets to cover our hair, and the men with beards wore beard covers. No coats or outer wear, no bags or purses or the like,  were allowed inside and everyone was required to remove all jewelry to be checked at the door or put inside secure pockets. To make sure no foreign matter wound up in the candy vats. A little overkill, but we did it. Anything to get free candy samples.

I haven’t eaten so many candies in one sitting since my kids used to go trick or treating years ago. The workers are already involved with Valentine’s day orders, but the sample that did me in was the Salt Water Taffy, which is one of their specialties. I ate one fresh off the line in a strawberry flavor, and it was still firm but somewhat soft.

But when we got back to the gift shop at the end of the tour, naturally I had to try one of the eggnog taffies as a nod to the upcoming holidays. Since the Christmas candies have already been completed, the eggnog piece I bit into was a little harder. When I finally got my jaws  unstuck, I chewed down pretty hard on what I thought was a piece of metal. With all the precautions we took, my first thought was no wonder we had to remove our jewelry, but how the heck did that get in there? Slowly it dawned on me that it was my four-year-old crown I was holding in my hand.

Tomorrow I will call the dentist and hopefully they’ll be able to salvage the crown if there was no damage to it,  and hopefully reattach it. I have visions of more money flying out the windows with dollar signs attached. And I vow never ever to eat salt water sticky candy again.