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don't bother to make plans 2001-05-29 Mmm-mm! I had an open-faced waffle sandwich this morning and it was delicious. I mention it solely because it drives Francisco crazy when I speak of peanut-butter waffles as an open-faced waffle sandwich. He is the perfect audience for stuff like that, and it fills me with glee. I spent some time watching Iron Chef this weekend, as did Francisco, and, to a lesser degree, the Boy. The over-the-top cheesiness appeals to the Boy, and he does a great Chairman Kaga (we love the yellow pepper biting scene more than I can tell you). That kid is a natural mimic; he also does a good Mango (SNL). Anyway, I love Iron Chef, I am totally hooked on it. It took me about 2 episodes to see the brilliance of the show, and I am looking forward to the rematch with that jackass Bobby Flay. Bring it on! And speaking of tv one more time, does anyone watch Mad TV? Anyone? I prefer it to SNL, personally, because I think the characters are stronger and more innovative. Marvin is my current favorite, but there are so many good characters on that show. You should totally check it out if you've never watched it. So, you know how I was all excited to have the yard sale and get rid of the stuff we no longer want? Yeah, well the yard sale was rained out, in a major way. We had a big thunderstorm on Friday night and Saturday morning, and since we have no garage, there was no way to go through with the sale, and probably no one would've come to it if we had. Lots of lightning and torrential rain, you know. We had to box all the stuff up--it's priced now, so we can easily have our own yard sale later this summer--and store it again. That was pretty depressing, but I got over it. We went out and did some errands and those were enjoyable, and then Francisco and the Boy did some work on the Boy's new wooden sword thing he got for Aikido. They sanded it and oiled it, and I took a nap. I then went out to do more errands (return library books, buy cat food), and then back home to watch a movie we'd rented. And that brings us up to.....The Fire. We had paused the movie and were dishing up some ice cream when I began smelling smoke, and not in a good way. I traced the smoke to our clothes closet, opened the door, and smoke whooshed out at me. I'd love to say I remained calm, but I shrieked and Francisco ran in and then out to get a bucket of water. I put the cats outside and instructed Boy to go outside while Francisco came back with the bucket and moved the smoldering rag and towel from the laundry basket to the bucket, and the fire was officially out. Then the project was to get the smoke out of the closet and house asap, which Francisco did, so we could relax a little again, in our stinky house. Here's the deal: We were aware that oily rags could spontaneously combust, but since we have dealt with oily rags a few times and nothing has ever happened, we assumed that we didn't need to worry. Or more specifically, Francisco assumed he didn't need to worry when he put the rag that had linseed oil on it in the laundry hamper. Who knew it would combust? It wasn't a hot day at all; the closet was a mild temperature, so we're still not sure what set it off. We were very lucky. If we hadn't caught the situation before there were actual flames in the closet, our house would probably have burned down. Fire + clothes closet = big trouble. What if we had gone out for awhile? The house would have burned down and our beloved Lucy and Esther would have died. We were so lucky. The moral of the story is, if you're going to work with linseed oil, do not put the oily rag really anywhere after you are done. I guess you should put it in a bucket of water or something, to be safest, because it could combust under any circumstances, but I think actually the safest thing is to just not do anything with linseed oil at all. If anyone knows the official safe way to dispose of an oily rag, please leave that info on the guestbook, because others need to know and you would be performing a valuable service. The rest of our weekend consisted of fixing the closet. We took everything out of it on Sunday morning and washed the walls (Francisco did that) and took down the shelves and hanging bars so we could paint (to get rid of the smoke stench). As long as they were off the walls anyway, we decided to get different hangy bars/shelves because the ones we had were not utilizing the space very well at all. We made a trip to Home Depot and got paint and the shelf/hanging bar things, and then home to paint and etc. As far as our clothes went, the 'dry-clean only' ones went outside to hang on the deck to [hopefully] have the smoke smell blown out by the wind, and that worked for almost all of them. The rest will regrettably have to go to the cleaners. I hate paying for that; can I just say? The launderable clothes went into big piles on the floor of the kitchen, awaiting their turn in the washer. I washed everything but my stuff, since almost all my stuff has to be washed on delicate and hung to dry, and I do not by any means have enough hanging space to do all of them at once. They will be done in shifts, according to which clothes are most needed right now. As of today I had not washed any of them, so I am wearing a shirt that had been in the closet, and I smell every so slightly char-broiled. The closet, though...oh the closet. It is lovely now, it really is. Francisco picked out a beautiful light green paint--kind of like a light celery--and the hanging racks and shelves give much more storage space. Francisco also hung a mirror in there (one we had from the bathroom before we replaced that one), and he took off the door. The door thing was a great improvement because of the way the closet is situated next to the door of our room--the two doors were always jostling for space. We got a curtain to hang in the doorway instead of the door, and it's altogether a much better closet than previously. I would have preferred, naturally, to do all the improvement at a different time, but that's life for you. And I do love the closet now. Newsflash: My leg muscles are like iron. They are like iron padded with some kind of foam-rubber substance, but they are iron nonetheless. In other weekend news, we watched Best in Show and it was very funny. We also watched Erin Brockovich, which I had seen before but Francisco had not, and we enjoyed that too. When I saw it before I was on an airplane, and as you probably know, movies aren't as good when seen on a plane. Too many interruptions and heads in the way. We tried to watch Yi Yi, but didn't get very far before we were tired and had to turn it off. I heard it was good and I'd like to try it again sometime when I am not as sleepy. Poor neuroticgirl; her inlaws are driving her crazy. Write her a cheery little email if you get the chance. She is some good reading. I have run out of time to write for now, but more tomorrow, mon petite chou chous. Love,
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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