know the code.

Tonight I am at Timshel & Skip's manning the fort while they are out at a show. Easiest job ever. The boys are asleep, and I am catching up on some projects I need to get done. Just made a pot of coffee. I should be paying THEM for this. However, they are the sweetest berries in the bunch, and they know I'm broke, so they pay me anyway.
I had a hankering for some toast. Just some toast. I couldn't find the toaster, so I put the bread in the oven. I sat down with some coffee and got into a conversation with a friend in Seattle via ichat. Everything's all fun and games until you forget you've left something in the oven. For 20 minutes. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen and smoke had already begun to billow out of the cracks of the oven. I flung the door open and threw the charred pieces of toast in the garbage can and immediately started for the windows. The windows were all painted shut. Then I realized that if I didn't get to the smoke detector before the smoke did, the boys were going to be awake and I was going to be the one who was toast. I ran to open the front and back door and started wafting air at the smoke detector. It didn't do any good. The ceilings are tall, and the children's book I was waving around like a maniac wasn't any match for the thick smoke that was taking over the entire house. I then realized that I heard more beeping than just the smoke detector. The alarm!!!. I frantically tried to read the instructions on the inside of the cover, but it kept saying, "Press 1 + Code". Code...code... where's the Code button.... I just started pressing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+ to at least stop the beeping. Nothing was working. I grabbed the phone and called Skip. No answer. I tried to see if I could just take it apart and figure it out later, I was NOT going to let the boys wake up. Skip calls back. I assured him everything was okay, it was just a little toast. He told me the alarm company had left a broken-up voicemail saying something about dispatch. I looked out the front door and saw the reflection of flashing red and white lights on the neighbor's windows from across the street. Oh no. I hung up with Skip and ran out to greet the firemen who could already tell everything was fine by the lack of fire and smoke coming out of the house. I told him I was the babysitter, and I didn't have the code to disarm the fire alarm. "It was just some toast", I said. They laughed politely and told me to have a good night.

I am still smiling. I feel like such an idiot. Now I know the code, and now I'll probably never need to use it.

pre embarrassing toast disaster:



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