If I could outsource just one household chore, it would be laundry. It's one of those jobs that feels like it's never done, and if you let it get away from you, it goes from molehill to mountain in no time flat.

I think that Maine resident Mara Ranger has the perfect excuse for giving up laundry for good. She recently reached in to her washing machine, only to discover that something was moving inside of it. That "something" was an 8-foot reticulated python. She slammed the lid and called for help. I wonder if "called for help" is a euphemism for screaming, jumping up and down, grabbing the kids, and running outside. That's how it would have gone down at my house.

They python -- which authorities speculate came in through the water pipes -- was rescued and will spend its life at the York Animal Kingdom. No word on whether Mara has recovered, but it may be a long time until she feels like doing laundry again.