Burning Down the House

I've decided that somewhere along the way I've ended up in a Greek epic; and as in all Greek epics, I have unknowingly offended one of those cranky gods who then decide to make me pay for it!!  Last week I began making dinner - one of Tysen's favorites - a casserole that requires that I brown the hamburger, mix it with a bunch of other stuff, then cook it in the oven.  I put the pound of hamburger in the frying pan, walked downstairs to get the tomato soup, and completely forgot what I went down for.  After a few seconds of thought, I settled on needing to sew Halloween costumes as my reason for being in the basement (my sewing machine is in the same room as our food storage).  

So I sat down and worked on sewing.  15 minutes later, I smelled something burning.  The kids, of course, had followed me downstairs and were playing, so no one had been upstairs to notice before it got pretty bad.  How stupid could I be?  I ran upstairs, threw away the large blackened bullet of burger, opened all the windows (though it was really cold outside) and started over.  Finishing up the casserole, I popped it in the oven just in time for the phone to ring.  Candace was calling with a question about the baby.  I talked to her for a while and just closed up all the windows, then I noticed smoke billowing down the hallway.  The casserole had boiled over inside the oven!  Huge mess!  Terrible smell!  Smoke everywhere!!!  And right then, Tysen walked in from work....

After a lovely dinner of twice-burnt casserole, the evening proceeded normally.  Tysen was in the kitchen doing homework after we put the kids to bed, when I started smelling something again, and noticed even worse smoke.  Rushing into the kitchen in a panic, I was greeted by a consternated Tysen who, in an attempt to help out and make it so that I wouldn't have to clean the mess out of the bottom of the oven, had turned the self-cleaning cycle on.   While he knew that the stove locks down for six hours and everything inside gets burned to a crisp, what he didn't anticipate was the toxic smoke and smell!!  It was nearly unbearable.  It burned the back of the throat and made eyes water.  

So, at the end of the day, I guess we should just be grateful that our house is still standing and that everyone is well - but no one can blame us for eating out the next night!!

Crazy, true - you are saying - but not Greek-epic-wrath-of-the-Gods worthy.  Oh, but it was only the beginning.  Stay tuned for tales of our last trip to Lagoon and the never-ending saga of the Halloween costumes.  You will believe!