Nothing Interesting To Say

I'm working on the book. I'm cleaning house. I'm getting Christmas presents together. None of this makes for interesting blog posts. One thing: my microwave immolated itself. I put in a potato, hit the "Potato" button, go downstairs while it cooks and then several minutes later hear the smoke alarm go off. Run upstairs, kitchen filled with smoke, try to get the vent fan to work; Lani runs in yelling, "What? What?"; I open the door to see potato now a hollow charcoal shell, air makes charcoal burst into flame; Lani yells, "ALASTAIR!! FIRE!!;" I throw a cup of water on it saying, "I don't think this counts as a fire," Lani opens the window by the stove; I throw another cup of water on the flames; Lani says, "Go downstairs, this smoke is bad for your asthma;" I say, "No, I"m fine, no wheezing;" Alastair comes in; I say, "Really, no big deal" and throw another cup of water on the flames, extinguishing them; Alastair takes charcoal and plastic out of oven and discards them; I try to get the microwave to work and then go downstairs to check the circuit breaker but no dice; Alastair goes back upstairs to Sweetness who is having an asthma attack from the smoke; I tell Lani, "I don't mind getting a new microwave but this sucker is also the stove vent so it's going to take some installation;" Lani says, "I can do that, I've done it before;" I say, "With a vent?"; she says, "Sure;" I say, "And you yelled for your husband for a few flames in a microwave?" and it all goes downhill from there. My position on this is that I put the potato in and pushed "Potato" which should have resulted in a baked potato, so the fact that the microwave kept on going and immolated itself is not my fault. But I don't see how I can get a blog post out of that. And there's nothing else new. You'll just have to talk amongst yourselves until something happens here or I have a New Thought. Don't hold your breath.

ETA: Lucy/Lani's account of the experience is here. She's much more thoughtful about it, which figures because she's much more thoughtful.