September 17, 2004 is a night that will live on in infamy. Andrew and I were down stairs watching "Panic Room" on tv. Around 10pm, Melissa came downstairs all half asleep. She said that while she was taking her wedding ring off in the bathroom it shot out of her hand and now she can't find it. I went upstairs with her and we proceeded to tear the bathroom apart. No Ring. So, Melissa went to sleep (she had graduate school classes early the next morning) and I went back downstairs to finish watching the movie with Drew and then play my favorite Xbox game.
I looked again when I went up to bed that night around 3am and again the next morning. Still No Ring. However, it was determined that the ring was not on any visible surface, in the magazine rack, or in any cosmetic bags on the counter. The only places left to look were the drains in the sinks and bathtub. I "snaked" them with a bent coat-hanger and came up with nothing.
The only clue I had to work with was that Melissa recalled hearing a dull "thunk" sound. Not a "plink" like metal hitting porcelain...more like the sound of something bouncing off the bathroom floormat. So, lying on my stomach I looked carefully around the edges of the floor. At this point I noticed a small space, 1/4 to 1/2 inch high, between the baseboard and the vanity cabinets. However, I had a birthday party to go to and just wouldn't have the time to rip the baseboards off Saturday night nor the next day (Sunday) since I had Search and Rescue training.
Finally, Sunday night around 9pm I had a chance to take a shot at the baseboards. I won't go through the gory details but the final solution was to drill holes in the baseboard and fish a rope through the holes. Once I had tied the rope off...I just yanked on the rope and tore the baseboards off. And wouldn't you know, against all probability, the ring had bounced off the carpet and went through that tiny space between the baseboard and the vanity cabinets and was just lying there in the dust bunnies. See the whole sage here!