Exploding Televisions

Our television is on the fritz. So is my dad's cell phone.

Our television doesn't receive any channels, so we only use it to watch movies. My dad's cell phone isn't sure when it's open or closed, so it randomly disconnects phone calls and the front display is constantly flipping around.

My mom brought the phone over to us last night when she came to pick up Josie to see if we would be able to resurrect it. We were busy, so I just put the phone on top of the TV, out of Rachel's reach.

She loves phones so we try to keep them out of her reach. Sometimes she loves them a little too much, if you know what I mean.

We finished our party. David brought the game Fluxx. It is one of the most confusing games I've ever played, except maybe Backwards, but it was really fun. Our party actually went until 10:00! That's the latest one of our parties has gone in a long time! I think it helped that the party was at our house because we could keep playing games after Rachel went to bed.

After our guests left, we cleaned up the perishables and went to bed, leaving the non-perishables to clean up the next day.

Today we woke up and took Rachel swimming. Andrew noticed that she was much, much braver than she was last week. Still, she got too cold after about a half hour, so we couldn't stay long.

We got out, got dry, and went to run some errands, stopping by RC Willey's for a free hot dog.

"We're a real family now!" said Andrew while we were eating.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Going swimming and then stopping by RC Willey's for a free hot dog! That's like a real family activity!"

Alright then, we're a real family now! After we ate we ran our errands and then came home.

I started blogging and Andrew started cleaning up from the party. He's being really nice and letting me write because I've felt like I've had a bit of a writer's block for the past few days and am just getting over that. I think it's a good trade-off, personally. He cleans up. I write.

Rachel took a nap. Could life get better?

We heard Rachel banging around in her crib. Sometimes she bangs her head into the bars. She's a violent sleeper--she gets up on her hands and knees and propels herself forward, which is alright if she isn't near anything hard. It's not so good if she's a couple of inches away from the crib bars.

She squawked, but then quieted down, so we ignored her.

We had just gotten back into our business when we heard a rumbling noise, combined with an electronic buzzing, whirring, and beeping.

We looked at each other, slightly worried.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I don't know," said Andrew.

"Is it outside?" I asked.

"No, I think it's our TV," Andrew hypothesized.

I came over to stand where he was standing. We realized, with horror, that our TV really was making those horrible noises.

"Is it going to explode?" asked Andrew.

"I don't know," I said.

He was obviously too petrified to check on it. Ever since he helped his mom install new light fixtures in our kitchen he's been afraid of being electrocuted. I don't know why because he didn't get electrocuted when he was working on the lights, but he's afraid.

I went to check on the TV. The closer I got, the louder the noise got. It was kind of eerie.

The TV really was vibrating. It really was making weird noises.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do once I got to the television, but I kept walking closer.

Just when I had decided that the safest thing to do would be to just unplug it, the noises and buzzing stopped.

"BEEP! BEEP!"

I looked on top of the television and noticed my dad's cell phone.

"1 new message," it blinked at me.

I picked up the cell phone and showed it to Andrew. We both collapsed onto the couch, laughing.

"I guess it's not going to explode after all," said Andrew.

Yes, we're safe from the television, for now. With our luck, though, it really will explode...