The Curious Incident of the Dog Biscuit That Nearly Resulted in PoMonkey Blowing Up Our New Condo

One day in early August, PoMonkey was at home getting ready to go to work. I had left early to go to a meeting at the convention center. I don't think I mentioned that our new place in the city is a bit smaller than the last place we lived, so we've had to test out various placement of things. Case in point: the ironing board.

So PoMonkey is getting ready for work, ironing a shirt and doing a few chores around the house like drying clothes. As she was ironing her shirt, she smelled something unusual, as if perhaps something were burning. PoMonkey checked the dryer and found several pieces of dog biscuit rattling around with the clothes and stuck in the lint trap.

My family reunion this year was at my maternal grandparents' house, which is located on several acres in Virginia. My uncle lives there on the "farm" where there is a chicken coop, old pig pens, a couple of barns, and several dog kennels. At some point during the day, I walked down to the kennels to visit a hunting dog that my uncle had found, and I took a couple of dog biscuits with me to offer to Brenda (as my aunt who lives across the street has named her). It turned out that Brenda wasn't that interested in dog biscuits. When I offered her one, she simply sniffed it and walked away with out even touching it.

I guess I must have left the other dog biscuit in my pocket, and it ended up going all of the way through the wash and most of the way through the dry cycle. PoMonkey finished her ironing and left for work. As she was walking down the hall to the elevator, she thought, that unusual smell didn't really go away when the dryer stopped, and it didn't really smell like one would imagine a burning dog biscuit would smell; it was something more familiar.

That day she had set the ironing board up in the kitchen, right in front of the stove. When she returned to double check on the smell, she noticed that one of the burner controls was on, apparently having been bumped by the ironing board or some part of the ironing process. None of the burners were lit, so the condo was simply filling with natural gas.

Thank God she had second thoughts about that smell so that this story remains, The Curious Incident of the Dog Biscuit That Nearly Resulted in PoMonkey Blowing Up Our Condo.

Post Script – We now put the ironing board up on the other side of the condo, by the exercise bike and far away the stove.

How MrG Spent His Summer – July

In July MrG flew on four different airlines, through six different airports in four days. Lesson: you can save a lot by purchasing one way tickets, taking advantage of airline code share flights, and MARC. Of course you may will pay for it with your time and sanity.

MrG stayed at Hotel Helix in between two of those flights/airports. Hotel Helix is a themed boutique hotel, whose theme is . . . Austin Powers' version of the late 1960s. The room included a leopard print robe and a faux bear skin blanket for the bed. Thanks Capt’n. At least a few people who have stayed there have found it fascinating enough to take and post pictures.

July also saw MrG get the worst sunburn of his life (while under an umbrella) at the beach. Finally in July, and actually spilling over into August, was the Curious Incident of the Dog Biscuit, which nearly resulted in PoMonkey blowing up the new condo. But that's another post for another day.

UPDATED: How Mister Ginger Spent His Summer

Fall is here, and with it an accounting of how Mister Ginger spent his summer.

June – In June MrG traveled to Washington DC and Kansas City. The DC trip included staying at the hotel where President Reagan was shot in 1981. Interestingly (at least to MrG), the KC trip did not include actually entering Kansas. It turns out that Kansas City, MO is much larger than Kansas City, KS. MrG has somehow visited all of the states that border Kansas, but never Kansas. This is just the kind of odd fact that he not only keeps track of, but likes to share. Aren't you glad he finally posted something?!?

Late in June—actually on the first full day of summer—MrG and PoMonkey moved to downtown Chicago. They now live in a 75 year old warehouse that has been converted to condos. Their unit overlooks a rail yard, and from their deck one can occasionally see hobos gathering around campfires, eating from their bindles, and swapping stories.




Coming soon: July (planes, trains, and hotels), August (no travel for MrG), and September so far (automobiles).