Weird wiring

My day had an interesting start. The following text message conversation might give you a hint of what happened.

Me: Any idea why the lights in the kitchen have stopped working?

Me: *dining room. Kitchen is fine.

Mom: Is the dimmer switch all the way off?

Me: It's on. First thing I checked.

Mom: Does the switch feel hot?

Me: No

Mom: Have you checked in the garage to see if any of the breakers are blown?

Me: Oh

Me: They look fine

Mom: Haven't a clue. I'd trouble shoot by replacing one of the light bulbs. But before that, I'd make sure that the other switches on the opposite wall are all turned off. I don't think they are related, but it's basic trouble shooting protocol.

Me: The lights are also controlled by one of the light switches under the coat hanger thingy!!!!!???!!?!?! Had no idea. Problem solved.

Me: We have too many switches in the dining room that are too confusing.

Actually, I guess that to say my day started like this may be a bit misleading. I discovered the problem pretty much first thing, but decided that I had to eat breakfast before I could be bothered to do anything about it. I'm not sure what that says about me.

I say again, we have too many confusing switches in the dining room. It isn't helped by the fact that we also have some outlets that don't seem to work. I can't even keep track of everything, as evidenced by the fact that Tall One later explained to me that I've made the discovery of the weird light switch before. So I was really just rediscovering it, not discovering it for the first time.

Whoever did the wiring in the dining room must have been drunk at the time.