Are you missing any remote controls?

Because it is entirely possible that you have been burglarized by the Remote Fairy.

And watch out: She's naked.

I didn't WANT to burn down our house...

...but I kinda almost did.

When I'm working in the basement (my studio and office) I need the space heater on. I finished up some computer work, and went to take a shower, figuring I'd be back down afterwards because Ava wanted to play with her trains.

Well, Mom called and invited us over for dinner, so after the shower the girls and I got ready and left the house. I got about half a mile away and realized I'd left the space heater on. It is an oil one, not a hot-coil one, so not really dangerous, but it was placed pretty much partially under my work table, which is from Ikea (read: compressed cardboard and plastic), covered in fabric, and the fabric was sprayed with Scotchguard. So yeah, I was kind of worried.

I turned around to head back home, and of course Ava asked what I was doing. I took it as a moment to keep educating her on fire safety, that what Mommy did was wrong and I need to be more careful, and that it isn't safe to leave things like that on or our house could burn down.

So I pulled in to the garage, grabbed my keys and went to unlock the inner door (the one that leads in to the house). Yeah, my house key wasn't there. Oh yeah, that's right - I took Tim's car the other day, and put my housekey on my personal set of Tim's car keys....and never put it back on my van keychain.

So now I'm locked out of my house, with an Ikea-brand timebomb about to possibly go off and engulf my home in flames.

Yay, Chrissie, nice one!

Ok, don't panic - call Tim. Problem: cell phone battery is having problems holding a charge.
Great. So I have to drive to the nearest pay phone (which are getting to be fairly rare!). In response to her questions, I told Ava what was going on....which she took to mean that our house was about 2 seconds from burning down. She was a MESS - sobbing, crying, huge tears. I felt so aweful.

I got ahold of Tim (and told him to call my Mom and tell her I would be late), he met me halfway between our house and his work and gave me his key. So then I had to drive back home, go in and turn off the space heater, and FINALLY be on my way to my Mom's house. Since I was alreayd going to be an hour and a half late for dinner, I figured I'd stop for some DQ therapy.

So, we're all safe and sound, and not crispy and siting around in ashes.

I'm putting this story right up with finding my cell phone in the microwave.