Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Grab bag

Today I learned that I have a cavity and killed our oven.

Part One: The Cavity
I floss every night. I brush my teeth at least twice a day for two minutes each time. When I can't brush, I chew Trident. Matt, meanwhile, does everything wrong. He speed-brushes. He flosses only the week before he has a dentist appointment. He chews Juicy Fruit and drinks as much sweet tea as anyone will pour him. Today he SKIPPED his dentist appointment. And who has a cavity? I do.

Of course, since he missed his appointment, we don't know for sure that he doesn't, but since he's 28 years old and has NEVER had a cavity, it's a safe bet. Every time he goes to the dentist they tell him "Keep doing what you're doing!" which he brings up whenever I nag him about flossing.

After the dentist we went to lunch and he started giving me hell. "I'm getting Mountain Dew but you should probably have water," he said. And, "That dessert pizza has 'cavity' written all over it." It was obnoxious.

Part Two: The Oven
Maybe this whole "cooking dinner" thing is too much, too fast for our oven. For the past three years we mostly only used it for baking cookies, 12 minutes at a time, and suddenly we want more. Or maybe it's just old and cheap. Either way, it basically died tonight.

I had a lasagna in the oven and we were reading while it cooked. After almost an hour the timer went off but when I opened the oven the cheese on top wasn't melted and the air inside the oven wasn't that warm. (In retrospect, I remember thinking it was strange that we couldn't smell the lasagna from the living room after it had been cooking for a while.)

Matt looked at the half-baked lasagna, looked at me, and said, "We're going to have to go out to eat." He was jumping the gun because earlier something had gotten Dugan's in his head and he was craving their steak sandwich. I reminded him we do have a microwave, which we used ... but I'm not sure what to do about tomorrow.

Off the subject, but kind of related, do any of you have a double oven? Do you find it to be useful or is it a waste of money and cabinet space? We're trying to plan our kitchen and I would appreciate any insight. (Our other major question is whether to have wood or tile flooring in the kitchen. Thoughts?)

Our house is starting to look like a house!

Actually, that picture is from last weekend. Now the roof is finished and the windows should have gone in today.



Matt noticed this fruit (?) beside the driveway. Does anyone know what it is?

3 comments:

Libba Lemon said...

hey babe! the house is looking mahhhhvelous! i saw some pocket doors at my brother's house last night, and i love them for your house!! i wish i'd seen them before we did the walk through at your place to have had a fresher picture of what they look like.

my dad has a double oven and we only use it on holidays. i have never had a need for more than 1 other than our 3 kings party.

i don't think you can go wrong with tile or wood in the kitchen - would tile be only in the kitchen and then wood in the den, foyer, hallways? would you tile the eating area?

Amanda said...

I wish we had a double oven. Really, I'd like a quadruple oven, or just 4 separate ones. Nah, that's probably too much trouble. I like both tile and wood in kitchen areas, but tile is so much easier to clean. I guess because our wood is new and costly (to us!) I freak out everytime I get a spot of water on it. And eventually, wood will warp, fade, scratch, or rot if water sits on it too long. Tile really can only break. And other than here at work, I've never seen someone crack tile just by dropping something on it. But that's just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Your mystery plant has two names; Passionflower and Maypop (probably colloquial). If you ever see the flower, it has a resurrection legend similar to the Dogwood legend.
On the floor issue, I agree with Amanda. Longterm, kitchen spills are inevitable, and though you can sop them up fast it might be stressful. Tile is sort of cold when barefoot, but then we have linoleum, and it gets beat up after a few years (though it handles water just fine). As I told your sister, let me know when I should stop commenting!
Love, Dad