Growing old is full of surprises.

Last night I went in to preheat the oven to 425. A short time later, I noticed a rather caustic odor. As I walked into the kitchen, the smoke alarm sounded....and smoke hung in the air.

In The oven, I found something in the bottom bubbling away. Shut the oven off...let it cool down. I pulled out the bottom rack to clean the oven...my pizza cutter was on the rack....absent the handle. The smoking, bubbling mess in the bottom of the oven was the handle to the pizza wheel.

The lesson here....only buy pizza cutters with wooden handles.

I recall this one time a lady co-worker came to work one morning and was all T'd off at her husband. I asked her what happened. She was pissed but I found the story to be funny. She said she had specifically asked her husband to clean/rinse all the dishes off in the sink and put them in the dishwasher. Well apparently he was being lazy and instead threw them in the oven thinking he would put them in the dishwasher the next morning. Well that next night she did as you did and turned on the oven to preheat it. She said the next thing she knew there was smoke billowing out of her oven and all the smoke alarms were going off. She had no idea what was going on until she opened the oven and saw all the previous night's dirty dishes in there that were on the verge of bursting into flames. She wasn't really happy about it...I couldn't help but laugh when she told me.

Been there. We had a small apartment years ago with very little storage space. We decided to store pots and pans in the oven.....until we preheated without thinking.

To put it gently, being an absent-minded knucklehead has nothing to do with growing older.

Have you ever seen a teen or a twentysomething text and drive?

Addendum: Many young people probably have to google who to turn on a stove!

...!

wife used to stick the pots and pans in there for some reason and the same thing basically happened I tried to grab the pan that was in there ( by the handle that was almost molten plastic) I screeched a few choice words . Then laughed really hard at myself

You're not old till you accidently brush your teeth with Preparation H. (told to me by a friend)

First rule of using the oven no matter your age;

Always

Always

Always


Open the oven and look inside before using.

Now you tell me...

Don't worry.
Next week I'm giving free advice on microwave do's and don'ts.