Voluntary Smoke-Out...

Any of you ever tried the self-cleaning feature on your oven?

As you know, we have been in a variety of apartments over the last 4 or so years. Imagine my surprise upon moving last month to find that the oven in my apartment (that I had lived in for 6 months) had a self-cleaning function.

Clearly this conveys the appliance standard I have been accustomed to.

Well, we were moving out, so my very helpful Mother-In-Law (who wouldn't let me clean the kitchen or bathroom saying the bleach fumes would probably not be so great for grandchild #6) started the self-clean function.

Now first let me say that while I am not a meticulously clean cook, I am by no means messy. I clean up after myself and during the cooking process as well.

However, smoke started POURING out of the oven. I was upstairs packing my clothes and wondered why I was looking through hazy air. I started coughing and my eyes started to water. Mind you, my bedroom door was closed and the window open.

I meander downstairs to see what the heck is going on, and Lance and my MIL are busy fanning the air away from the smoke detector so it won't go off, opening windows and starting fans. We have 4 fans, but that wasn't enough, so we borrowed 3 more from the next door neighbor.

Bubbalu was napping so we put towels at the bottom of the door so his bedroom air wouldn't get too smoky. I went in and checked on him later, his fan being on and the window open worked great...his room was the least smokey in the entire house.

So, that being my first experience with self-cleaning ovens, I was wary to try mine out today. I NEEDED to use it though, as I had a messy bake-over that required my attention.

I am happy to report there was no smoke and only a minimal chemically smell that the owners manual said to expect for the first few times using the feature.

Still, I decided the minimal chemically smell warranted an entire morning and most of the afternoon of sitting outside in the sun watching Bubbalu enjoy his pool rather than us tempt fate by being inside and, you know, doing HOUSEWORK or something equally worthwhile.

So, I think I'll be cleaning my oven on a weekly basis, but only on the really sunny days...

A

Life With A Toddler...

Sometimes I think my child is exceptionally brilliant. Other times...not so much.

Bubbalu was having a full conversation on the phone with himself this morning, which made me smile. He had all the different facial expressions down and everything. Too cute. Then we read some books and he pointed out everything I asked him to find.

Oh so brilliant, right!?

Then a few minutes later I turn around and he's trying to eat diaper cream right from the tube.

Life with a toddler...

A

Sunglasses Are My Friend...

Guess who feels beautiful again!?

My eye is back to normal, THANK GOODNESS!

And NO, I won't post the picture...mostly because I can't find the camera cable, my ipod cable, the video camera cable and my cell recharge cable (and blue tooth earpiece and instruction book, which I now need to learn to use, thanks to the new law). We are in the land of lost cables. I keep reading the labels on the boxes hoping one will say:

ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED ARE IN HERE.

Anywhoo, my eye was nice and puffy thanks to a nasty mosquito bite. I am kind of allergic to mosquito bites. I mean, EVERYONE is allergic to mosquito bites, we all get some sort of allergic reaction, but mine is quite significant. I'm talking an inch wide lump of redness, not to mention itchiness. AND, they last almost 3 weeks. Yep, allergic. I have close to 10 mosquito bites at the moment, which I gladly show anyone, expect for the one on the side of my abdomen. That requires flashing a white expanse of belly that should be hidden.

The eye swelling did go down quite a bit, and is gone now. My sunglasses got a lot of action. I decided it is not rude to talk to people with your sunglasses on when you have major eye troubles.

Do you take your sunglasses off to talk to people? Keeping them on while talking to people makes me feel like I am hiding something or have the ability to be fake. So I usually take them off to talk to someone, except if I know the person really well, or if I am laying out on the beach. Which in that case means that I get wicked raccoon tan lines.

Thank goodness for sunless tanning cream and bronzing powder!

A