Hello Lights! Goodbye Kettle! (A minidrama)

Well, this is a bit ironic after writing a post romanticizing the loss of electricity (what is the opposite of bitter grapes? sweet grapes? where you sweeten something you know you are stuck with anyway? No--I meant what I wrote). We asked our new landlady when we should expect the next blackout, and she said never. Allegedly, as of October 1 there are no more scheduled blackouts. Now there are just run of the mill blackouts if they are doing service on the lines or something goes wrong at our power station. Yowza. Thrilling.

Additionally we just got new bright lights installed in the living room and today we're getting a new toilet. All sorts of new stuff. We could really use a new bed, as I can feel each of the wood slats, but in some odd way it isnt really uncomfortable.

We did have a scandal yesterday. It went like this.

Erin: I'm going to clean out this electric kettle. How exciting, I never had an electric kettle or hotpot in college. I love this. My mom always said to clean coffee pots with a mix of vinegar and water (pouring some vinegar and water in). Now we just plug it in and let it boil a bit.

Terry: (5 minutes later) Umm, do we need to watch the pot?

Erin: No, i dont think so. We should let it run for a while.

(unspecified amount of time later)

Terry: (shouting from other room) Oh Shit! We have a problem!

Erin: What?! What's wrong? Are you hurt? (racing into kitchen)

Terry: (frantically waving dishtowel to dissipate smoke. acrid smell of burning rubber) Fire!

Erin: Fire?

Terry: Well, smoke. Hot. Yikes

Erin: Unplug it

Terry: I did!

Erin: Oh shit. I can't believe I ruined the freaking kettle. (Looks at plug). Good grief, its all melted to hell. One of the prongs from the kettle even came out and is all embedded in this plastic goo mess. Sheesh.

Terry: Look how hot its glowing. The water must have been boiled away for a while.

Erin: I'm really really sorry. I can't believe I did this. You warned me too.

Terry: It's okay.

Erin: You are a better person than I am. I can't believe you can resist doing a little "I told you so" dance. You were right.