Karma Comes Back Around

I just recently posted about how we got a new microwave and we are oh so delighted because it has buttons, right? In particular, we are happy because it has a popcorn button. That has been Lewis' dream for a while: to have a microwave with a popcorn button. It's a simple dream, but he owns it.

Naturally, when we were finally able to put the microwave up (we managed to make room on the shelf, and although we can now fit fewer items on that particular shelf, and in spite of the fact that I am certain it will all come crashing down and smash our table, it looks nice up there and it works) we wanted its maiden voyage to concern popcorn. So we threw a bag in there and hit the blessed button of popcorn.

And the microwave sparked.

Thinking there might be some metal in there, we took out the bag and inspected, both the bag and the microwave. Nothing. We put the bag in and tried again.

And it sparked again.

Crud.

We finally have a new microwave and it's sparking like it's got a roll of aluminum foil inside. Fantastic.

I immediately knew what the problem was. I had publicly dissed our old microwave, the one we got for free, the one that was donated to us by my dear, loving sister. Call it karma, the force, string theory, whatever. It had caught up to us.

The next day I decided to try microwaving something else. Maybe it just needed to settle or something. I noticed the inside could use a wash, so I stuck a bowl of water I there so I could wipe it down with ease.

And... It didn't spark. It ran beautifully, as if it were new.

What the what? You mean my "settling" theory was correct?

Hardly. I put another bag of popcorn in there and guess what? It sparked.

It's a marvelous machine, unless you want to pop corn. Then it decides to recreate Dante's inferno right over its turn table.

So we finally get a microwave with a popcorn button and what does it have problems with? Popcorn. Is that irony? Or just interesting? Either way, I've been craving popcorn ever since.

In any case, I hereby renounce any ill will I had towards our old microwave. Your knobs and lack of reasonable second intervals give you character and remind me of simpler times. You were a shining beacon of hope in our dimly lit apartment. May you rest in peace on the chair under our coat rack and next to our keyboard.

All the Statuses I Didn't Post

First of all, thank you to everyone who voted for us. We spammed you til you wanted to kill us, no doubt, but it paid off! And we're very grateful for all the support.

There were a lot of statuses I wanted to post on Facebook over the past week, but I couldn't because I had the eye of the tiger and didn't want to distract from our iPad winning cause. So I'm going to post them all here for your enjoyment. These might not be entirely true to the dates that stuff happened, but I'm estimating.

Wednesday, April 7th
Alyssa Young what the weather? Isn't April a Spring month?

Thursday, April 8th
Alyssa Young nice weather today. I wore sandals. And then I was ashamed because I haven't painted my toenails all winter.

Friday, April 9th
Alyssa Young seems like a nice night for a luau, eh?

Saturday, April 10th
Alyssa Young Lewis is off skiing today. I've done not a thing. Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored.

Sunday, April 11th
Alyssa Young I KNEW that scratchy throat and painful cough had a malicious intent!

Sunday, April 11th
Alyssa Young naturally, on the day that we don't want to sit near anyone at Church so I don't spread my diseases, there are two baby blessings so we're shoulder to shoulder.

Monday, April 12th
Alyssa Young is basically drunk. I took some NyQuil and then went over to the in-laws' casa to watch 24. My mouth tastes like purple.

Tuesday, April 13th
Alyssa Young last day of classes as an undergrad. Seems a shame I'll be starting up again as a post-bacc during Spring Term. Little to no time to celebrate my graduation!

Tuesday, April 13th
Alyssa Young 's seven-year-old nephew just taught me how to Rip Stick.

Wednesday, April 14th
Alyssa Young is enjoying her reading day by reading. Not any textbooks, of course, but a delightful children's book followed by another. Boo-ya.

Wednesday, April 14th
Alyssa Young paper towel dispensers in the ladies restroom on the third floor of the Wilk are mysteriously disappearing. Does the janitorial staff think this will make for cleaner restrooms? Maybe. More'n likely it'll just make for wetter restrooms.

Get Out the Vote, For Real For Real

Voting for real this time. Click here and please, please, please vote for Lewis and me, number 4 ("5th Grade Persuasive Writing (Young & Young)")

Thanks blog readers, especially for your patience.

The Vote 2.0

Well it looks like we got punk'd. They opened the poll to vote for everyone and then changed their minds and started a new poll. I'm rather annoyed at the whole thing, but now is not the time nor the place to go into that. In any case, the new poll will "open" on Thursday, April 8th (although it's technically open now) and I'll get everyone voting details then.

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the apparently fake poll. Please vote again when the real poll opens!

Vote for Us!

Hey-oh!

So last week, Lewis and I competed in the Innovative Instruction Competition through the Teacher Education Department at BYU. We didn't win the grand prize, but there's still going to be a "Peoples Choice Award." The winner of that gets an iPad for each member of the team. Naturally, Lewis and I want to win. A lot.

As my delightful blog readers, I would like to ask you to vote for us. Pretty please? Just click here and vote for number 4 in the poll. I surely would appreciate it.

Thanks, readers. You're the bomb-diggity.

You Don't Really Notice Until You Don't Have It

Back when Lewis and I got married, my sister very kindly donated her old microwave to us. It's little, but we don't have that much space anyway. It's noisy, but that's why they created volume buttons on TVs and stereos. It doesn't have buttons, but hey it heats up our food fairly decently. And the knobs technically give you all the settings of a normal, buttoned microwave.

Don't get me wrong. I'm very grateful that my sister was so willing to give us this little machine. A microwave is just something you need!

That being said, I must say that I hate the stupid thing. Who makes microwaves without buttons? I mean, really! How difficult are buttons? But if you absolutely have to have a knob, can't you make one with more widely spaced numbers? Or more than two ticks between them? What if you only want 30 seconds? The first tick is for 1 minute! And two ticks between minutes gives me twenty second intervals! 30 is a basic microwave number!

Knob < Buttons

As you can tell, there's a lot of rage in my heart directed towards that microwave.

We've been wanting to get a new one for a while. Pretty much since the first time we used that one. But new microwaves are expensive, and we got this one for free, and it was doing the job so we dealt with it.

This microwave would be awesomely ridiculous.

My parents moved to Idaho from Kenya this past weekend. Since the move was back to the states, they got back a lot of their stuff that they had put in storage six years ago. Including (I think) a microwave! With buttons. Which they very decently donated to us!

Why would your microwave need two doors? Answer: It wouldn't. This is stupid. Also, it has knobs so it probably sucks.

So now we have TWO microwaves. We're really rolling in it now. Except there is a very real problem about our new microwave. It's huge. Since I've been spending all my time with this itty-bitty microwave of ours, I had forgotten the size microwaves generally come in. Apparently the typical size is enormous, bigger than my whole apartment.

This microwave and I would get along.

We're trying to figure out where to put our new machine. We can't put it where the old one is because it's too big for the shelf. We can't store it on the table because it's too big for the table. We can't store it on the counter because we only have two and the other one is for the cleaning the dishes process and also it's too big for the counter. We're thinking of storing it on the shelf above our fridge, but that's where we keep all of our, you know, food.

Maybe we just need a new house to go with our new microwave. Whatever. As long as we have a popcorn button.

This is not a microwave.