As most of you know, I love a good story about an ordinary day suddenly escalating into something unexpected. So, when I landed on this short little jewel from Tina, I just had to share. Enjoy…

Yes, It’s Dead. Yes, I Killed It.

Apparently it’s fairly easy to kill.

You may remember that I purchased an instant pot sometime in mid-December. We’ve been using it almost daily since then. There are things it does really well, things it doesn’t do so well and things I haven’t even tried to do in it yet. However, it is now on the rubbish heap because I made a boo-boo and fried it good and proper.

I woke up, popped my rice into the cooker, put on the lid and smiled at the happy little tune that plays when you’ve done everything right. Well, almost everything. Turns out, if you forget to seal the bugger there are no dummy lights or idiot alarms to warn you of dire consequences to follow. So thinking all was well I wandered off to take a quick shower while the rice was on its way to perfection. Or certain destruction?

Turns out, that little round seal is vital to the survival of the unit.

The first whiff of trouble met me as I was doing battle with wet curls via comb and very expensive foo foo cream. Something didn’t smell right. The aroma of melted plastic and unmistakable bouquet of frying electric combined with a hint of burned starch sent me running naked to the kitchen.

On the counter, sparking, hissing and spewing starchy liquid all over my countertop sat my instant pot. On the kitchen table was the seal that should have been inside the rim of the pot. Burned goo was oozing from the bottom, clear goo oozing from the top. I can only assume the pot was bleeding or had wet itself in panic, because I know I didn’t put anywhere near that much liquid into that pot.

A lot of muttered cursings, two rolls of paper towels and some dismantling to be certain it was actually dead dead ensued. During which crashing about naked in the kitchen my 23 Y.O. son walked in. Having been awakened by the smoke detector and/or my antics he had come in to be sure I wasn’t actually killing anyone or being killed. It’s a tribute to his fine upbringing that the sight of his mother, completely naked, wet curls dripping and holding a now dismantled kitchen appliance didn’t seem to phase him at all. “Guess you killed it. You should put some clothes on. I’m going back to bed now. Want me to take the battery out of the smoke alarm?”

I’d like to say that I was gracious and sweet but just then, I may have hissed at him.

You can peruse more of Tina’s work by clicking here. If you have comments specifically for Tina, please be gracious enough to make them on the original post found here so Tina can be assured of receiving your thoughts.

Note: The opening shot is one of my own, yet another snap taken at Miguel’s Mex Tex Restaurant in Abilene, TX. (If you look closely, you can see my dumb ass captured in the reflection. I’m clearly not a professional.) I’m assuming that Tina’s personal conflagration was not quite as intense, but I wasn’t actually there, so…