The Little Stove That Could... and other adventures.

I am pleased to report that Longfellow is holding on tenaciously. She still doesn't look very good. In fact, she still doesn't look like she has much of a chance. However, while she still draws breath, I'm hopeful. Skeeter still steadfastly refuses his bottle, so I've been tubing both of them. Hopefully mom has a little better luck than I have. The penicillin seems to be helping clear up the congestion with both of them.

This leads us to the story of "The Little Stove That Could." Because Longfellow has soremouth, everything she touches has to be sterilized. Yesterday, dad sterilized the syringe by soaking it in rubbing alcohol. That made the numbers come off the syringe. So then he decided it was a better idea to boil it. He did so, and forgot all about turning it off, thus blackening the pot, filling the house with acrid smoke and incinerating said syringe to a crispy little wisp of ash floating on top of the water. At least now we know the smoke alarm works... And it has inspired me to write the story of "The Little Stove That Could." It would probably go something like this...

Steve Stove was a very cold little stove. All the other stoves laughed at Steve because it was so hard for him to even boil water. One day, someone came and bought Steve from the appliance store. When he came out of the box, he found that he was in a house. Steve waited and waited for the man who bought him to give him something to do. Finally, the man came into the kitchen with a pot of water. The water had a syringe in it. "Oh boy!" Steve thought. "Boiling water for sterilization purposes! I'd better not let him down!"
The man set the pot of water on Steve and turned the burner up. "I can do it," Steve thought. "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!" The more Steve thought he could, the hotter the burner got. The hotter the burner got, the more the water bubbled and boiled. "I think I can!" Steve thought. "I think I can!" The water boiled furiously and a thin wisp of smoke began to waft up from the burner. "I think I can!" Steve shouted victoriously as the burner burst into flames.
At that moment, the man came back into the kitchen, coughing at all the smoke. I spied the furiously burning stove and gasped. He filled a pot of water and flung it in Steve's face, drenching the little stove and extinguishing the flames. When the fire was out, the man picked up the phone and made a phone call. "Yes," Steve heard him say. "I left the room for a whole minute and it was on fire when I came back!" Steve was proud that all his effort had paid off. He had proved the other stoves wrong.
Later that day, a truck arrived and some men put Steve in a cardboard box. "...obviously a manufacturing defect," one of them said. "We've brought a replacement." When the box was opened and Steve was shoved out, he realized he was back in the appliace store. The other stoves stared at his blackened burner. "I thought I could do it, and I did it," Steve explained. One of the older stoves spoke up. "Thinking you can... that's all well and good, kid, but when thinking you can puts you in overkill mode, that's when it proves you can't."

I'm still working on it, but that's my idea so far. :P In the meantime, I have my drivers' test today and I need to check my flower garden. Should be an interesting day!

More adventures to come!
--Anna Grace