the cost of bread

So last night was the maiden voyage for our new breadmaker. It was part of a group item purchase from Colby & Rachelle Ernest, friends of ours who are leaving soon. When I lived in Kulm, my family had a breadmaker. I loved putting that thing on timer, and waking up in the morning to a fresh loaf, some butter and honey! Eager as I was to embark, I set it up in the living room (our kitchen plugs aren't on the inverter...a bad thing if the power goes out). I plugged the breadmaker into a uninteruptable power supply, filled it with the ingredients for raisen bread, set the timer, and went to bed. During the night, the aroma of dough began to fill our apartment, and I even had a dream that two loaves were made (one white bread, and another was a lemon cake with frosting). These sweet dreams of hot bread shared with the neighbors, butter melting over a freshly cut slice were interrupted by...

THWACK!

THWACK!

*sigh* yes I had forgotten how loud the "knead" cycle is on those things. we couldn't shut our bedroom door because it would get too hot in there. So, from 3:30 a.m. (did I mention that I went to bed at 11:30?) to 4:00 a.m. I listened to:

THWACK!

THWACK!

Until falling blissfully asleep..until 5:00 A.M.

a long, shrill electronic noise pierced the air. It didn't stop. Julie and I both woke up, the UPS had tripped its breaker (it's a bad one, did it before with just a computer plugged in...don't ask me why I used it for the maiden voyage of the bread maker). Unfortunately, the power had cut on the UPS so we needed to reset the breadmaker. Fortunately it had made it through all the knead cycles (remember the THWACK!) and had risen...just needed to bake. There was a cycle that did 14 min of kneading, 20 rising, and 25 baking...perfect I thought. So I started it, waited 15 minutes for the knead to finish, then put the bread holder back in the machine, and went to bed for another blissful sleep (accompanied by some really weird dreams ranging from being kidnapped, to being at a leadership convention) ... until 5:55 a.m. yes folks, I brought my wristwatch in the bedroom which thankfully was still programed in housefather mode, and a "last minute" alarm of 5:55 to wake me up before getting the kids up at 6:00. Even more unfortunately I wasn't in the house and someone else was waking the kids up, therefore I had no business being up at 6:00, especially with how the night had gone. Shut it off, listened to Julie complain (rightfully so) and back to blissful sleep until...6:30 when the breadmaker beeped cheerfully to let me know it was done and warming. I didn't need to know this at that time. Fell back asleep blissfully until...7:00 a.m. until julie's alarm went off. THANK GOD I GOT OUT OF BED. otherwise it would have been a late morning.

I was in zombie bliss all day today.

next time, the bread maker is going in the spare bedroom..so the THWACK! minds its own darn biz.


until next time...