sobo

More @Fit... [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyL_jIZodiM

That's pretty funny, Wes, but actually the really evil one is my 4 yoa daughter...

Pleeeeeeeeeeease don't close the Cafe'. It serves a very important niche here. sickie w00t w00t!!!1 That's 8,000 posts, bishez!

I never knew Brutus personally either, but also remember him, Dingus Milquetoast, Karl Baba, and many others from the early days of rec.climbing. Loved BoW's prose and his musings upon the webs. I am truly sorry to hear this mews. I hope his family and friends are holding up as well as can be expected. And Snowman, that MP Holy Grail parody is pretty funny. I should know...

Wow, thanks for that scintillating observation. Would you have preferred for my son, daughter, and wife to have died in the fire? Would that have made it "shit" (as opposed to "ain't shit") in your esteemed opinion? This event has, however, cost me untold hours of time away from work dealing with insurance agents, adjusters, restoration companies, and appliance salespeople that I wouldn't otherwise have had to fuck with for the past two weeks.

Well, I got the insurance settlement check... $6,128.04 after subtracting the deductible. So I just got back from Sears where I dropped over $1,500 on a new range (with one of those ceramic flat tops with the radiant burners) and microwave. You were right, Porter, the wife started turning it into a kitchen remodel. She's always wanted one of them new-fangled burnerless stovetops... The stove: the burner in question... The microwave: whaddaya suppose "F2" means, huh? The ceiling: the wife tried to wipe it down to see if we can pocket the clean-up adjustment. looks like that might work out OK...

Change your tune After hovering my cursor over that link, I am afraid to click on it while at work... very afraid... ETA: ee-yup, got the proxy server warning for blocked sites.

Folks, we have a winner!

So she voluntarily let this guy pimp up her face? WTF did she expect?

What, doesn't everyone? ooops...

It's the Petzl-Edelrid Helmet Show-Down! Looks like your boy is taking a beating, and you don't appear even the slightest bit fazed by the force of the impact. In fact, you appear to be enjoying it.

Thanks Keith!

And thanks to you also, Mel. Yes indeed, I downloaded and showed that very same vid to my wife just last year when Nick started cooking as a reminder of what not to do in the event of a grease/oil fire. I'm glad she remembered it.

And thanks to you, too, Steve. Yeah, both Nick and Elaina like meat, the wife is a vegetarian, and so my kids and I bemoan our fate at her cooking hands and commiserate on how we can sneak out of the house and chow down on pig, hen, and cow...

Thanks, Brad, but puh-LEEEEEEZE don't make me take that bet... The flooring's safe, though. Real ceramic tile. Can't burn that. I hope...

tin foil hats take care of those types of conspiracy theories...

I've actually already taught him how to use a fire extinguisher, because he's become the de facto cook at the house on weekends, and I felt it was important for him to know the procedure for using it (shit, a 2-pack of those things are cheap at Costco and well worth the practice). Why he didn't go for the extinguisher when it was really necessary is beyond me. We'll have to include that point in tonight's incident debrief and analysis/discussion. The little guy knows how to make pancakes, French toast, muffins, brownies, and chocolate cake, and he'll be 7 in August. He says he wants to be a chef when he grows up.

Ken is cool, I can vouch for that, if'n you don't trust the word of that ivan character. We took a trip to Clearwater last summer (ill-advised) and it was so goddamned hot that we just sat around camp and baked for most of the trip. Well, Ken got baked. I just got drunk.

Daniel Harro and Elisif? Or did she come to the site after they met up? My wife and I met up through the local climbing/hiking club here in the Tri-Cities over 10 years ago. I was giving an ice climbing presentation at the local WSU branch campus, and afterwards a bunch of piled over to Baron's for Black & Tans. I was smitten... the rest is history.

The house is only 7 years old, and we've been in it for the last four, so it's pretty "new" already. But if the restoration folks can't save the cabinetry over the range, then I'm gonna have to get new cabinets all around if they can't match the rest of the kitchen cabinets that weren't damaged. The MW is toast... literally.

Holy Jeebus H. Fuq'n Christ! What a shitty day. So I'm on my way to work, and halfway there I get a call from the wife. I open the phone, and all I hear is wild screaming/blabbering, smoke alarms going crazy in the background, and dogs barking. I yelled over top of her to call 911 and get the Fire Dept. on the way and GTF out of the house, not knowing how big/small the fire was. Then I spin a brodie in the middle of the road and high-tail it back home and beat the FD to the scene. Seems my son (6 yoa) decided to "cook" some oatmeal for breakfast, and his mother decided it was high time to take a shower while he did so. Nick runs into the bathroom and informs Mom that there's a "little fire" on the stove and wants to know how to put it out. Wife exits shower, and finds the stovetop, range hood, built-in MW oven, and cabinet engulfed in flames, the house filling with smoke. Instead of using the fire extinguisher that I had intelligently located in the kitchen when we moved in several years ago in anticipation of just such an emergency, she douses the blaze with whole wheat flour. That flour's some stinky shit when it burns up. The FD shows up and checks things over, says it's all out, and offers their fan to clear the smoke. I politely decline, bid them adieu, open some windows, and survey the damage... It seems Little Nickie changed his mind from boiling water for oatmeal to boiling olive oil to "see what would happen." Thank Dog the wife put it out with flour instead of throwing water on it Bottom line: no one hurt, a destroyed range hood, a MW oven that looks like a blob, burnt cabinet doors, singed ceiling. My $500 homeowners deductable is well-met, and the restoration folks have already surveyed the scene and estimate the damage at over $2,500. So I'm starting early tonight... Redhook ESB. Nick and I will have a little talk this evening about doing what you say you're going to do...

Christ, I didn't realize I had that much shite blowing around teh interwebs! Better watch my postings here from now on...

Make sure you're wearing plaid... I'm jus' sayin'...

Work it, people... keep working it!