Why I eat out a lot

That, my friends, was my toaster oven. The little black things inside? Leftover crab rangoons from my weekly Tuesday post-weigh-in Chinese dinner. It's become a bit of a tradition (the Chinese food, not the appliance-scorching), but last night I ordered a little too much food, so I had a lot of leftovers.

This morning I decided to skip class (I just needed a break) and thought, what better way to spend a drizzly, gray day than catching up on homework and snacking on Chinese leftovers? It was just a couple of crab rangoons - nothing to go firing up the big oven for. So I popped them in the toaster oven, turned it on, and walked away. I sat down at the computer, chatted with a friend for a few minutes, got up and went to the bathroom, and then went into my bedroom to change. One of my cats was laying on the bed looking really cute, so of course I had to lay down next to her and cuddle for a minute until she got annoyed and ran off. I changed my clothes and went back out to the dining room to get back to work on my paper that I was writing. Suddenly the smell of burnt something came wafting my way and when I looked up I saw a haze of smoke hanging out by the kitchen door. Oh, shit. I forgot all about the toaster oven. When I ran in to the kitchen, there were flames licking up at the top of the oven, and when I opened the door they roared out at me. I really thought, "oh my god, I'm about to burn down my entire house." I'd bought a box of baking soda a few weeks ago in a fit of "I need to learn to cook" grocery shopping, so I grabbed it, opened it, and threw it on the fire. Flames were quickly put out (thanks Arm & Hammer!) and I just kind of stood there for a second, not really knowing what to do now.

I'm so inept in the kitchen I can't even heat up leftovers. But hey, at least I got to use the baking soda.