Of Chocolate Muffins and Smoke Detectors

Today for breakfast Melinda decided that she wanted chocolate muffins. So she found a recipe on the internet and we started making them! ...Well, actually, she made them, I just read the directions. Anyway, the fun thing about this was that we had to use the oven. What's so funny about using an oven? Well, I'll tell you. When I first arrived here one of the things Melinda warned me about was the Smoke Detectors. "They go off at the tiniest hint of smoke," she noted. "They are very sensitive."

It's been about two months now (Holy Jersey Cow! Thats quite a while!) and I haven't heard them go off once! I admit, I began to wonder if the Claybrooks really had been telling the truth. (Haha, just kidding) They mentioned that if the oven was ever used, or if the toaster was ever used, then the Smoke Detectors would go off. (Let's just say, my Toast and Jelly days were finally over, just because I'm too afraid to use the toaster)

Then the other thing about the Smoke Detectors: They are all linked. If one of them goes off then they all go off. It's like when a baby cries during the Sunday meeting. When one starts, they all start. And before you know it the entire congregation is crying. Even the ones that aren't children. -Or like when you yawn. If a person sees you or hears you or even thinks about yawning, they unavoidably, without fail yawn too. How bizarre is that!?

So, the chocolate muffins were made and divided up into their own little hole, then placed in the oven to cook. After about ten minutes or so Melinda asked me, very serious, I might add, if I was ready. I had to ask why.

"Because," she said handing me a checkered hand towel with an earnest look, "I'm going to open up the oven and the Smoke Alarm is going to go off."

I took the hand towel slowly from her grasp and remained in the hallway, just under the small white sensor pressed against the ceiling, while she disappeared into the kitchen.

"Okay!" she hollered. "I'm opening the oven!"

Quick as a flash Melinda opened the oven and quick as a flash she yanked the muffins from the depths of the oven. (She did it so fast, in fact, that on the last round, more than half the muffins fell to the ground. It was really rather funny. I laugh just thinking about it! Of course, they're were only three muffins in the pan to begin with, but hey, it was still more than half)

I remained under the detector watching as Melinda worked. So far the alarm hadn't gone off and I was beginning to wonder if it ever would. I guess I wasn't too surprised when it finally did. (Beep! Beep! Beep!) I was a little busy laughing at folly's to fan the smoke away. Melinda came round bopped me lightly on the head with another towel and started whipping away the smoke from around the abhorrent sphere.

Although I had plenty of good laughs at this small act, I was a little disappointed that I had not been entreated to the full effect. The alarm only went off twice. The other detectors in the house hadn't had a chance to go off yet. Oh well. I'd like to say simply, "better luck next time" but somehow that doesn't seem to fit right. Oh well.

When we were each done eating our muffins (which turned out rather well, if I do say so myself) we decided on a couple of things. The house, for one, is a boy. The car, however, is a girl. The car is a girl simply because she has her days of when she feels like starting or not. Plus, it just looks like a girl. Then the house is a boy because, as Melinda put it, "It makes weird noises." And it does. Really. Whenever I find myself home alone, the house makes the strangest of sounds. There are times I even think that I'm not alone, because it makes so much noise. We also decided that the smoke detectors alone aren't really a he or a she. They're just an "it".

So yeah. That's how my day went. Interesting hu? ....yeah, you're right. It was actually very boring....Oh well. That's life!

I guess the lesson to be learned here is that the unpredictabilities of life are indeed very unpredictable. Strange things can happen and quite often do. …-Oh, and another lesson is that you should always have a towel handy when cooking muffins. You wouldn’t want to disturb the neighbors or give yourself a heart attack.