I Think I Just Destroyed Our Nearly New Toaster Oven

2013-10-25T01:45:38Z

We have an old house, and it has old-house problems, including lots of lousy, ancient wiring. One of the main kitchen circuits can handle only one significant appliance at a time. The tea kettle, the slow cooker, and the rice cooker are all OK, but if you have both the toaster oven and the microwave on, the circuit breaker trips and takes 4 of the 5 ceiling outlets, as well as (ironically) the light near the breaker panel in the basement.

Tonight I was broiling a piece of lamb in the toaster oven and absent-mindedly put some baked sweet potatoes into the microwave to re-heat. After about 30 seconds, the breaker flipped. When I flipped it back on, the microwave came back to life, but the toaster over — didn't.

Goddammit, we've only had the thing for about 3 months!

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With a Bang and a Whimper

2012-05-29T00:42:18Z

So this is how our (Memorial Day) holiday weekend ended:

1. We discovered that our refrigerator has died (just before I went off to go grocery shopping, which I suppose beats having it happen after I returned with the groceries) and

2. While I was ordering a new fridge online, we discovered that the attic exhaust fan had burned itself up.

The second event was definitely the more melodramatic. The Mr. called down from upstairs "I smell plastic burning!" The Young Lady (who was going to accompany me to the grocery store) and I called back "nothing is burning down here!" We all snooped around the upper floor and found nothing burning, but the smell was definitely stronger around the ceiling vents (where the house air conditioning comes out). The Mr. got a ladder from the basement, put on his headlamp (don't laugh - it's a very useful item in many circumstances), climbed up to the ceiling hatch for the attic, popped the hatch, and yelled "Get a fire extinguisher!" I fetched one from the kitchen, and he put out the (small but smelly) fire and disconnected the fan.

Meanwhile, we have hooked up the Young Lady's half-height fridge (just recently retrieved from her university dorm) and are trying to decide what is worthy of being moved into it. The volume is probably only a quarter of the larger unit's, and even less in the freezer compartment.

I guess something else could still happen - there's more than 3 hours of holiday weekend left!

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Dream with Our Eyes Open

I Think I Just Destroyed Our Nearly New Toaster Oven

With a Bang *and* a Whimper

With a Bang and a Whimper