Firebug

On Monday, when my pizzelle iron arrived, I was unpacking it and reading the little manual out loud to amuse Frank. There was a line in there about removing all the packing. That caused Frank to have a flashback to the time I tried to set the house on fire.

Just over a year ago, Theresa was bugging me about getting a toaster oven. I forget exactly why she wanted one but I do remember she made some valid points so I said what the heck, might as well get one. It was delivered just after Christmas. (Did I mention I love shopping online?) I unpacked it and set it on the kitchen counter.

A couple of days later, on New Year’s Eve, Frank went out to buy bagels for breakfast. We decided to toast them in our new toaster oven. I put them in and wandered off to do something (probably checking email). Then we smelled smoke. I went into the kitchen to see flames shooting out of our new toaster oven.

“Honey, open the front door!” I yelled at I unplugged the toaster oven and grabbed it with oven mitts. I put it outside on the porch so that my entire kitchen wouldn’t go up in smoke. It seems that I overlooked a piece of packing that was shoved all the way inside the little oven.

At the time, we had guests visiting from out of town. Luckily they were staying at a nearby hotel rather than our house. If they had been here, they would have been woken up by the smoke alarm. I’ve never been woken up that way but I can’t imagine it being a pleasant way to greet the day.

Now everyone double checks to make sure I didn’t forget to remove all the packing in any new electrical appliance. Geez, you make one tiny little mistake & they never let ya forget it!