Archive for August 10, 2003

I got a new toaster oven this weekend, and I’m a little afraid of it. I am a huge fan of toaster ovens, which are both cuter and more wieldy than your typical harvest-gold Kenmore stove. Also, they actually allow you to SEE if your toast is getting overdone, which is plus ten points. (Why don’t they make toasters with glass sides? [Because the constant fluctuation in temperature would cause them to explode, showering you with glass.] Well still!)

Yet this toaster oven has me awed and a little frightened. My past experience with toaster ovens has been with old, comfy appliances, the kind that can dial all the way up to REDUCE TO CARBON and only achieve a kind of mild browning. My new toaster oven (suggestions on a name, anyone?), though, is a mite more enthusiastic. It’s the young, brash Loose Cannon from the buddy cop movie. It hits dark brown before the dial is even on medium, and I’m too scared to try the darkest setting on anything edible. I bet it could burst into flames.

Maria: ACK! Brendan, your toast has burst into flames!
Brendan: Oh no! Crap, get the extinguisher!
Maria: There’s no time! You’re going to have to throw it out the window!
Brendan: Aww MAN! (grabs oven mitts, shoulders aside balcony door and tosses toaster oven off with a smoky plume)
Maria: Where’d it go?
Brendan: I think it–
Maria: BRENDAN! You hit and killed that elderly philanthropist!
Toaster Oven: HA HA HA HU-MANS

Seriously, I do like it. It makes nachos and pot pies well, and those essential functions will serve it admirably. I was also going to buy this neat little eight-dollar Target waffle-maker; I abandoned the idea since the oven maxed out my toaster budget, but then Maria bought it anyway. This nearly doubles my breakfast-cooking options. If I learn to bake granola, I’ll be a breakfast bandit!

Maria: No, toaster oven, don’t! It’s too dangerous!
Toaster Oven: IT IS OVER FOR YOU, BREAKFAST BAN-DIT
Brendan: You’ll never take me alive, buddy coppers!
(hail of gunfire, and the smell of burned fingers)

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Maria and I saw a church marquee the other day that read

GOD IS BIGGER

We figured it was the ontological argument for God’s existence at its highest possible compression.

For the record, I know that xorph.com is experiencing outages (well, besides the failure of its cartoonist). Deep Fried, my webhost, is getting really flaky because the colo facility from which it resells is also getting really flaky, which explains the problems I’ve had with PHP, ftp and email accounts. I’ll probably be moving to PHPWebhosting soon, as it comes highly recommended and seems to have everything I need. (Stephen, we may have to talk about this–where are you, anyway?)

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