Burnin' Down the House
I have this terrible habit of turning the wrong burner on the stove. I tend to stick to the front burners and rarely use the back ones, so oftentimes I forget what I'm doing. I also have this terrible habit (I blame my mom for this one) of having to have a decorative something or other covering every surface of everything in my home. Wednesday, I was running late for work so I put my espresso on the stove and went to dry my hair. Our kitchen was still a mess from the night before because we had to bring our dog to the emergency vet (he had an ear infection, but I thought he was having a seizure, it's a whole other story. He's fine), so I had two of those decorative metal element covers and two vintage straw pot holders stacked on top of a burner. I returned from the bathroom to find my apartment FILLED with smoke. Thank God nothing was actually on fire, but had I given it five more minutes it definitely would have been.
In a panic, I ran to the patio to open the window then snatched the smoldering mess off the stove. I didn't know what to do with it, so I threw it in the bathtub and ran the water on it. Then the smoke detector started going of (at least we know it works), but I couldn't just do the "wave the towel in front of it" trick because there was no moving this smoke. I yanked it off the wall and crawled across the floor to the patio and breathed in some fresh air. I called my boss to tell her I was going to be late and tried not to suffocate.
Please keep in mind that I was in my bra and underpants the entire time. It could have been embarrassing had there actually been a fire.
I called the non-emergency fire department, woke my husband up to wait for them and went to work. I reeked like noxious smoke all day and dreaded having to go home and somehow clean up that mess. The firemen did come (with two trucks and a fire marshall, awesome.) and sucked the smoke out and I spent the evening vacuuming, laundering and scrubbing walls. It's Sunday now and finally the smoke smell has gone.
Chris made me promise that I would never ever buy those decorative element covers again. And maybe not use the stove.
Thanks For Breaking Into Our Storage Locker, Jerkfaces
On the heels of the sick dog/kitchen fire fiascoes came the discovery of our being robbed. We have a storage locker on our floor in which we put all the crap we don't want to part with but don't actually want in our home. In it was two suitcases, our wedding memorabilia, a box of my teacups and serving platters and our Rock Band set. Friday, Chris went to the storage locker to look for his golf club and discovered that the door had been removed from the locker and our Rock Band was gone. Fantastic. I know renter's insurance wouldn't cover storage locker theft, but it just reinforces the fact that I need to get on that!
On the positive side, the theft forced me to find homes for the junk that was hiding in there. Nearly three years after we got married I finally put my guestbook from our wedding together. I had the chance to read all the warm wishes from our guests and see the wonderful cards they gave us. And I finally put out all my vintage teacup, saucers and serving platters!
We've had a terrible week, so things can only get better from here on in. Since three very bad things happened, I'm hoping three good things will happen. Wish us luck!
