Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Well, today is Grandpa's 84th birthday and it's too bad he doesn't have a blog that I can direct you all to visit and leave a comment. Oh well.

I asked him if he wanted anything special for his birthday dinner, and the only thing he cared about was that at some point during the day, he have waffles. I decided to make them for breakfast. Now, I have not even attempted to make waffles since The Great Waffle Debacle back about six months ago when Stan got into the batter and my waffle iron died. So I went out yesterday and, along with my weekly purchase of groceries, bought a new waffle iron. Of course I didn't read the instructions or turn it on until this morning. And seeing as how I was not the first person to use our original waffle maker ( Brad and Andrew made the first batch of waffles on it), I did not think that anything special had to be done. A tiny, niggling voice in my head wondered about trying it out just to see if it worked so that I wouldn't be in a pickle if it turned out to be a dud in the moment of need. But that tiny, inner voice was so faint that I ignored it.

However, when I plugged in my new appliance this morning and a strange smell came forth from its innards, the small voice roused itself into a loud, "I told you so!"

I pulled out the instruction manual and sure enough, they mentioned the fact that the waffle iron should be cleaned and plugged in prior to its first use and that there would be a strange smell and some smoke perhaps...but just to let it do its thing for ten minutes or so, until the smell dissipated, and then turn it off and let it cool down before heating it back up again for its first use. ARGH! Ten minutes? Whatever! It was more like half an hour! ! ( *sniff-sniff* Nope, still smells weird.) ( It doesn't help that I happen to have one of the more sensitive schnozzes on the planet.) And to compound matters, I was crunched for time, seeing as how Wednesdays are my morning appointment days with my student. "The CURSE OF THE WAFFLES CONTINUES!" I thought to myself. But all's well that ends well- Grandpa was more than satisfied with the final product, even though he had to wait a little while and they came out strangely a little flatter than I'm used to. I did actually make it to work on time, thanks to the help of my husband, who joined us and took over the latter part of the breakfast carnival so I could go make myself presentable to the world before I left.

Let this be a proverb and a warning to all who, like me, think the instruction manual is for nerds: ALWAYS READ THE STUPID BOOKLET FIRST.

Hurray! Back on the waffle circuit!