I'm back, full, and happy that J remembered to put mushrooms in the sauce. Good stuff.

Okay, so anyhow, like I was saying, I realized that the nail was a result of the cheapo pastry brush I bought and not the fake chick'n. I felt soooo awful!

Even though the company told me that they have metal detectors in their facility that could detect anything as small as 2 mm in size, I knew that my letter probably spurred an investigation into their equipment and caused a lot of people a lot of extra work, and undue stress.

Gosh, could you imagine if they had decided to do a recall of their products?! Even though I was sure the situation wouldn't have escalated to that degree, I still felt sick over it, and again, very thankful that I was pleasant with them and didn't act like a bitch. I have a certain friend who would've totally ripped their heads off upon jumping to such a conclusion. (Actually, it's pretty embarrassing to go out to a restaurant with her even with the service is decent.)

J suggested I call the company the next day and let them know the truth, but I was faaaar too embarrassed to speak with anyone. I really don't like calling companies at the best of times, so as you can imagine, calling someone to apologize for being an idiot would be impossibly hard. Instead, since it was after 6:00 in the evening, I took the chick'ns way out and left a message with one of the individuals who had contacted me a few times the week before. I explained the situation and apologized for the huge inconvenience I must've caused.

A week had gone by and I never heard anything back... until today.

J n' I checked our mail this evening, and in it was a letter from the company who produces the fake meat products. The letter explained their policies and standards (which I had already become quite familiar with from all the conversations I had with their representatives after the incident.) They assured me that upon further inspection, their tests indicated that the nail did not come from their facility. Then they thanked me for my time in bringing this matter to their attention.

Even though the letter had been mailed after I had left my message, there was no mention of my confession . Instead, enclosed was a $50 gift certificate to Save-On-Foods grocery chain.

We're having a Murder Mystery dinner party at the end of the month for a few friends, and I know that $50 sure would come in handy towards buying the extra groceries for it (or a better pastry brush).... especially now that J n' I have to desperately get back on budget after our weddingmoon adventure. Sigh. However, we both know that the right thing to do is to probably just return the gift card, with a letter explaining that I shouldn't accept it after all the grief I caused them.

But still... part of me kinda hopes they'll send it back and say 'please keep it anyway'. ;)