Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Fire Up Old Sparky

I've had a tiring week, but pretty much only because I'm badly addicted to Downton Abbey and I've been staying up late watching it.  It is fantastic. 

Honestly, I'm pretty sure that Mitt Romney wants to cut PBS funding because he's jealous that Ann's got a major crush on the Cousin Matthew. 

I mean...I get it girl.  I have a crush on him as well.  I mean...hello?



Sorry.  I know that if you don't watch that show, that was totally boring. 

In case you were wondering, I have been trying to run more and I even put in a 55 mile week last week.  I'm still slow though.  I can't believe that taking only a couple weeks off (and a couple months of half-assing) has had such repercussions on my speed.  I probably shouldn't be surprised though.  Running doesn't lie.  And not working hard for a couple months doesn't lie either.

I'm going to try to regain as much as I can before NYC/Ragnar.  Fingers crossed. 

I've also managed to do several electricity / fire themed things in the past week. 

1)  Set My House On Fire.

You know that "storage area" underneath stoves?  Yeah.  Turns out for a gas stove, it's not exactly storage.   Or at least not for my gas stove storing a sandwich maker and a still unidentified additional now-melted appliance. 

There go my dreams of hot sandwiches at home. 

Last Sunday night, I wanted to bake a Butternut squash.   I started pre-heating the oven, like a normal human being would, and I noticed some white smoke coming out of the oven.  Since the place is new, I figured maybe there was something random down there that needed to burn up, so I turned off the oven and waited.

However, the smoke kept coming.  And there were some small flames at the bottom of the oven.  I figured they would go out.  Go out they did not.

I went next door to ask my neighbour what to do, and he didn't know either.   It didn't seem like an emergency just yet.  So we just stood there staring at the stove.  And then black smoke started coming out. 

"F it I'm caling 911!!!" 

My hands were shaking as I dialed 911 and as the fire in the oven grew bigger and bigger.  Then the alarms throughout my new complex started going off as the sirens of the fire-trucks approached. 

"Holy shit", I thought, as I frantically moved boxes out of the way of the growing flames. 

But thank god for emergency services - those firemen were there and putting out the flames in no time.  They pulled out the remains of the sandwich maker (with melted plastic everywhere) as I apologized profusely for my mistake. 

"If you wanted to see us so badly, why didn't you just come down to the station and say hi?".  

Haha.  All's well that ends well though, and nothing got damaged.  My night just ended with me feeling a little bit shaken and under a lot of ashes. 

Pretty crazy and embarrassing though.  A banner way to introduce myself to the new neighbours!  

2) The Gaslight Anthem I only mention this part because of the irony.  The night prior to setting a fire in my gas stove, I went to go see the band, the Gaslight Anthem at the Honda Center in Anaheim. 

They were pretty rocking and I love them. 


I mean... I guess it would have been more funny had the band's name been the "Gas Fire Anthem", but you get the idea.

3) Compex Electrostimulation Machine:  As you may have heard, our ultra relay is sponsored by a company called Compex (along with Pro Compression.  Woot!).  Compex makes electro stim machines that basically serve to help build muscle as well as to help recovery. 

Frankly, I'd never heard of a machine like this until I mentioned our sponsor to my boss (a former ridiculously good track athlete) and a couple other people who have gotten physical therapy.  They were all jealous that we each got a machine!   Apparently this method for recovery is legit.

But the thing is...I am too dumb to use it.  Tonight I followed all the steps in the manual and I'm still not sure if it worked.  I'm also kind of scared to put it on anything but the lowest setting (uh after I nearly burned the house down).  Here're some pictures of the attempt:


I don't know about you, but the cartoon of the naked man with socks on in the middle diagram is enough to make me keep using this machine. 

In all seriousness, I am really excited to learn proper usage because I don't recover well from workouts and this could be a great tool.  If you've ever used one of these, tell me about it!  I'd love to hear more.  

Also, if you've ever set your house on fire, perhaps you can tell me about that one too.  I'd like to think I'm not the only one who has burned up a sandwich maker in a cloud of black smoke. 

21 comments:

  1. Glad that you didn't burn the complex down! A couple of years ago we had some candles on top of our fireplace insert when we decided to have our first warm fire of the year. Turns out you shouldn't have candles on top of the insert because the wax got super hot and started a fire. We were an hour away from having a birthday party at our house so I had streamers taped to the brick on the fire place that also caught on fire. We were trying to move the candles (they were effing hot!) and got hot wax all over our hard woods that is still there today. We had to call the fire department- it was embarrassing, but the most embarrassing thing was having to host the birthday party outside in 40 degree weather!

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  2. Haha, I had some stuff in teh oven catch on fire, but it didn't seem to be going out so i used our fire extinguisher when the flames seemed to be "too big." What a mess to clean up that was. Ugh. There's still white powder in the oven door joint. Oh well, at least the house is still standing.

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  3. I wonder if it is the same sort of machine they put on my shoulder in PT? Should make everything start to twitch. Feels very cool. Speaking of compression, I need to be better about putting those puppies on after my runs.

    The Kidless Kronicles

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  4. I started a fire on top of our stove trying to make fish and chips. Apparently aluminum pans can't tolerate that kind of heat and it burned and melted. Huge effing mess! At least I will never deep fry again...

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  5. I don't think I've ever started a fire. My oldest daughter caught her hair on fire once, though. That was hilarious.

    I've used those machines in PT, and they're magic. Lucky duck!!

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  6. Did you know that if you heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a pan with the lid on and then take the lid off to add popcorn, the addition of oxygen (by virtue of the lid now being off) will cause large flames to shoot out of the pan? I have done this.

    Toast CAN catch on fire and produce flames in excess of 24 inches. I have also done this.

    An overheated heat pack can smoulder in a microwave. Do not put this smouldering item on your wooden deck. The smouldering can ignite the wood of the deck. More flames. *sigh* I did this, too. But the most embarrassing part was calling my husband and asking "what do I do?" His response: throw some water on it. Duh.

    E-stim is pretty awesome. Totally worth figuring out how to use that gizmo.

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  7. So glad you are okay and that you got to hangout with the hot firemen! Oh and I am jealous of the e-stim....not that I'd be able to work it either. But I'm still jealous!

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  8. E-stim is awesome. You'll figure it out. If not, my bday is soon. You know who would be a great sponsor, too? A cold laser company! Work your magic.

    Sorry about the fire, but not the firemen.

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    1. I don't know what a cold laser is but it sounds very futuristic!

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  9. Gas stovetops freak me out. I'm constantly expecting ours to go kaboom, even though it's new...

    The awesome thing about running is that even though you might be feeling slow right now, it's always hardest to get fit the first time around - now that you're back into decent training and more motivated you'll speed up again in no time! Our bodies seem to remember what they can do, they just need a bit of prompting.

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    1. Fingers crossed! My workout yesterday was a little better!

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  10. I haven't had e-stim, but I've had "stim" in conjunction with the dry needling I had done earlier this year. It felt weird, but seemed to work. It would be cool to have one of those machines at home.

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  11. I saw on SR's blog that Mark Sanchez used to use that thing, so I'm fairly certain that that's the perfect case for NOT using is because I don't know if you watched MNF vs Texanas or last week when they played SF but if he's using this thingy then it's probably what's making him a terrible QB and should be a warning not to use it :p.
    Sighhhhhhh Markkkkkkk, I've given up on him :(. It was a really painful but I'm managing, although I might need therapy to fully recover.

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    1. I've kind of stopped watching football. I need you to get me back into it!!!
      But Mark is still cute, right ;) ?

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  12. Just wanted to come out of hiding and say Hi since I've been reading for a while now! So...Hi! And, you're fast! :)

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  13. I forgot to add, that is a scary experience with the stove! Glad everything is OK.
    I once (stupidly) microwaved hershey's kisses while still wrapped in the aluminium foil thing..yep, flames, sparks..all the rest of it!

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  14. I'm sorry but your fire story made me giggle lots, but only because you're okay, obviously. One of my friends' house burned down the other week...not funny at all. But your fire (and the firemen) was funny!!

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  15. Glad the fire worked out for you. It is scary how many house fires start with a stove.

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