Mish-Mash Catch Up Post (long)

Okay, I'm still here. I finally uploaded a ton of pictures from my camera. Thought I'd catch up on about 10 different random things that have been going on or that I've mentioned in previous posts.

1. Grandma is doing better. She's being moved 1 1/2 hrs. closer to home to a cardiac rehab center. This is good. My Mom has been driving pretty much daily to be with her and although she'd never admit it, it's got to be taking a toll on her. I'm glad for both of them for this move.

Four Generations

************************************************************

2.Yesterday I did the craziest, stupidest thing ever. The kids finally went back to "school" (Mother's Day Out/ Little Sprouts -- whatever... we call it school). Anyway, occasionally I like to go to the heath food store to look around. I have these great plans to one day wake up a vegan health nut, long-distance runner athlete. Hasn't happened yet, but anyway.... while I was there, I saw some of this Mochi that I'd heard about online. It's this weird rice concoction that you bake. It puffs up on the outside and the inside is chewy.

So, I get home and am putting away the groceries and decide to bake up some of the Mochi to try for lunch. I turn on the oven to 450 to preheat. Not 2 minutes pass and I start to smell something strange. Sometimes our oven has a "hot" smell when I first turn it on, kind of like the first time you turn on the heat for the winter and it gives off that burned dust smell, so I didn't pay too much attention. Just another minute or two later and I really smell something not right, so I turn around and see smoke pouring out of the top of the oven. It looks like a scene out of a movie.

I open the oven door and there are FLAMES and all of this blue gook dripping all over the rack and the element. I gasp and shut the oven door, trying to figure out what was in there. Then I remember that I'd left a pan of brownies in a pyrex pan with a plastic snap on lid in the oven. The night before, I'd pryed open a corner of the lid to slice off part of one of the brownies. The family saw me, so I just pulled the lid the rest of the way off and brought out the whole pan for us all to finish. I'd left the 13x9 plastic lid in the oven and in less than 5 minutes it had completely melted into liquid!

The kitchen and house were rapidly filling with (toxic) smoke, so I ran around and opened doors and turned on fans and our exhaust fan. Then ran back to the oven -- still flaming. So I grabbed the baking soda and tossed it on the flames. That put them out, so then I called Bobby and confessed.

Anyway, the story has a happy ending. The oven rack was basically plastic-coated and I was certain it was ruined. But, with a utility knife, the plastic just peeled right off. It also came up from the bottom of the oven in big plastic chunks. The only thing permanently harmed is probably my poor brain. It's already pickled from all of the Diet Mt. Dew. The last thing it needs is toxic, burning plastic fumes, huh?

************************************************************************

3. This has been "my" spot for the last 4 years....

Bobby discovered YouTube.

I've been dethroned.

*********************************************************

4. Here are a couple of before and after pictures of our bathroom tiling that I mentioned months ago. Enjoy.

Well, suddenly Blogger won't download pictures...again. So that's it for now. I guess it was only 4 random things!