Something to Laugh About

There is nothing better than a sister. Truly. I love my sister so much and I 'm glad I'm living closer to her. It's funny how you never appreciate them when they live in the same house though!

So last Thursday afternoon, my dear sister made the 3 1/2 hour journey from her home in Minnesota to my sweet suburb in Des Moines because we were finally closing on our house. She arrived during the closing and Ollie went running to his Auntie Jade. After closing, we did some work at the house and then went to rest as the next day she and I were on the huge task of super cleaning it! That evening when ordered the most fabulous Chinese food and carefully stored our delicious left overs in the fridge.

Friday morning we were off. At breakfast, we sat and discussed just how we were going to heat up our gourmet leftover since we have no microwave. We decided we may just have to drive back to my father-in-law's house to warm. Off we went. A few blocks from his home, we spotted a garage sale. I suggested we pull over and see if they have a microwave. After a few minutes of looking around, I finally asked if she had one. The woman told me she did and it was such a monstrosity that she planned to give it away. So my dear sister and this woman carried the microwave to my van. At this point it really hadn't occurred to me that we wouldn't be able to get the dang thing back out of my van but before we got to the house, Jade asked, "So do you have an extension cord?"

Pause. "Why?"

"Well you know we will never get this into your house right? Do you think there is an outlet in the garage? Oh and by the way, I'm pretty sure this thing has a 3-prong outlet since it is so old."

Haha. Let the games begin!

At lunch time, we discovered there were outlets in the garage and I did have a three prong one. We came up with the brilliant plan of backing into the garage and plugging it into the wall. We laughed and laughed as I tried to maneuver into this space and then laughed again and we tried to move the giantotron over to get the cord to reach and laughed even more as it was just an inch too short. Finally, I moved a bit and it was able to be plugged in.

Now for those of you who have never used the first microwave ever invented, they can be kind of tricky. Our first thought was, "Great all that work and it isn't even a working microwave." A few words-- NOT USER FRIENDLY. MUST BE A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO USE. No wonder most of our parents are technologically inept. Anyway, after I squeeze myself out of the driver's seat (I couldn't open the door all the way and I was 36 weeks pregnant at the time). We sat and pushed buttons and stared at this complicated piece of equipment. Now at first, it seemed that none of the buttons worked until we discovered the magic blue button which made all of our dreams come true. Well not really but it did allow us to pick the temp and time (Yes it it that old. No one button starting here.) We just couldn't find the start button. Finally, I slammed my hand on it and it started. The humongous sliver button that we had mistaken for the door opening button was the start button! Hooray!

So then, just how long does it take to heat up Chinese food in a microwave made in 1953? Well, for both of our food, it was a total of 8 minutes. That is once you find the start button. Our total time getting the microwave plugged in and figuring out how to work it? 30 minutes. Should have just drove to Jim and Mel's house. Oh well. We had a good laugh anyway.