Allans Visit #3 Appliances Nightmare

Wouldn't you know, when one appliance breaks, they all follow suit. When it rains it pours, I guess.

Our fridge had been on the fritz for a while, leaking and stuff. Maintenance had been out to look at it and said they'd get back to us on what might be the problem. Well, Saturday morning we woke up and opened the door... and discovered the fridge must have finally bit the dust completely because it was no longer cool inside. We emailed maintenance, pulled out an ice chest and some ice, and deposited all extremely perishable items inside, leaving the condiments in the fridge.

No big deal. Under control.

That afternoon, during lunch preparations (remember I was hosting 3 extra adults and of course wanted to put on something delectable and special for the occasion), I began an oven preheat for our Sweet Potato fries. And suddenly, sparks started to shoot out from under the oven door accompanied with fire cracker sound effects. My mom and I were the only ones in the kitchen at the time and we both squealed. Turns out the filament burnt out. Can't use the oven for fries or pineapple. Luckily, our neighbors were kind enough to lend us the use of their oven for the fries and the broiled pineapple. Also, luckily, our stove still worked so we could pan fry our Teriyaki steaks. For a moment there was a scare because the burner wasn't getting warm, but then Eric thought to check the breaker, and sure enough the oven burn out had kicked it off. Reset, no problem. And suddenly we were extremely grateful for the functioning stove. Plan B without an oven would have been to fire up the charcoal grill. So, I began the somewhat ridiculous process of walking between our house and our neighbors to stir, flip, adjust temperatures, rotate, season, etc, etc, with Eric spearheading the cooking at our place.

No big deal. Under control.

During the final 20 minutes of lunch prep, when some things are at the ready to eat stage and we were trying not to let anything burn or get cold while the rest finished up, maintenance showed up at our back door with a temporary replacement fridge to hold us over until Monday when our new one would arrive. So, while trying not to let things burn, shuttling back and forth between our kitchen and the Harris's kitchen to check on the sweet potato fries, trying to make the Pineapple ice cream shakes before the ice cream melted completely, etc... we had to empty the rest of our fridge and freezer, deposit everything on the non-existent counter space, quickly spot-clean the nastiness that was revealed to have been hiding under the fridge, and keep out of the way of the crew moving things around. It was pure craziness.

No big deal. Under control.

Thankfully:

• when the fridge went out, we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. If we had, we wouldn't have been able to fit all the perishables in the ice chest.
• since we were eating in the living room anyway, there was no rush to try to clear EVERYTHING off the table right away. Since it was piled high with all the contents of our broken fridge--and the temp one was significantly smaller--trying to put everything away was kind of time-consuming. We could eat and then get to it.
• our neighbors let us use their oven. repeatedly. even when they had to run to the store, they trusted me to go on in.
• we got a temp fridge. and then we got a new fridge!
• the stove still worked.
• and perhaps the biggest one of all: Caroline slept til right after all the craziness was over. Can you imagine if I'd had to stop right in the middle to nurse a hungry, crying baby? Oh man, I shiver just to think of it!

Appliance Nightmare? No big deal. Under control. :)