We just toasted hamburger buns in our toaster oven!!!

This is very exciting because two months ago our toaster oven caught on fire. I called up Black&Decker and it turns out they have a great warranty policy and they offered to send a replacement and a shipping label so we could send the old one back for free.
The new toaster oven came within a week but when we went to our package store (I'll get to them later) they brought out this box that looked like it had been thrown down several flights of stairs. Black&Decker had shipped it in the display box with no cardboard shipping box; it looked so bad that the people who signed for it made the delivery man write on the box that this was how it arrived and sign his name. It didn't look like there was any way that it would work. But when we got it home we didn't even care about that -- it was a totally different toaster oven and it was tiny! So I called back and the guy said that apparently I didn't understand the warranty and they could send me any model of equal or greater value than my old one. It took quite a bit of convincing to get him to believe that they were not of equal value because the two toasters were both "four slice toasters"... but I had price comparisons from online stores and the calculated percent difference in toaster rack size and so on. So he put me on hold. He comes back several minutes later (I didn't hang up! HA!) and says that my original model is out of stock until the middle of May, but if I didn't mind waiting until then they could send out the exact model. And, he would send me another return shipping label so we could mail this second toaster back.
So several weeks later our third toaster oven comes. Of course, it's not our original model. Also, they shipped in the display box again and although it wasn't destroyed, the pictures on it were so faded that only the blue and black ink were left -- mmm blue lasagne. It looked like it had been sitting in a window for 15 years. So we opened this one, and although it wasn't the same it was just as big and we really couldn't call and complain if the warranty only guaranteed equal value (although the guy said... nevermind).
So now we've got three toaster ovens and one shipping label so I make a third call to request the second shipping label that never came. We'd started using the third toaster over and it was working but there was this odd smell of burning plastic that we were sure would burn off. After using it for a week, the smell was just getting worse and was burning Glen's lungs. Of course, we'd started studying for the boards by then so we just unplugged it and went on with our lives... although they were lives without a functional toaster oven.
So on our first boards studying break day I made my fourth phone call. This lady was super nice and explained that although they couldn't guarantee any particular model (I had gotten that point by then) that she would make note of which model we had started with. We were running out of room to store broken toaster ovens in our apartment, so we went to the package store and shipped back the first two for which we had shipping labels. I think they had fun covering that very broken box in many layers of packing tape in some hope of it getting back in one piece.
Apparently our fourth toaster oven came in just a few days -- usually our package store sends us a text message when we get a box but we hadn't heard anything and with all the studying we hadn't had time to walk over and see. A few days ago though we made a big purchase of snorkling equipment for our upcoming vacation in Sanibel, practically the sea shell capital of Florida. We have AmazonPrime (which is awesome) so to get stuff to us faster, they packed every item (two pairs of flippers, two snorkles, two pairs of water shoes) each in its own huge box. So I think just our packages were taking up half the store room at this little package store and they actually called us yesterday to ask us to come get our stuff. Along with all of our snorkling equipment was our new toaster oven! In an intact brown shipping box! With the model number of our original toaster oven on the outside!!!
We opened it up at home and it was packed in official new styrofoam and everything. It's gorgeous! And it works and doesn't smell like burning carcinogens!
I got my first toaster oven sophomore year of college because my suite had a range but no oven. After you get one you can never live without one again! It's the best for reheating things and baking when you don't want your apartment to be 400 degrees and toasting big things like frozen hamburger buns. As I've said before, it's obvious that my threshold for excitement had declined over the past few weeks, but still it's very exciting to have a functional toaster oven again. Four toaster ovens I can live without, however; and, we still have one broken one in the corner waiting for a shipping label, but that's on them.

Also I want to give a shout out to our package store -- South Street Mailbox Plus. It's this little store on South between 8th and 9th run by a family. They sign for all of our packages and can ship stuff through the post office, UPS, FedEx, or DHL. On top of all sorts of packaging stuff, they also have gift wrap and bags and cards and they do copying and faxing and stuff. They're super nice and the store is super clean. We buy almost everything online now but we would always miss our deliveries to our apartment and then have to drive down to the 19147 post office which is like 25 blocks away and that only worked if the box was shipped through USPS. So then we got a PO Box up at the post office on Chestnut but half of the stores won't ship to PO boxes! And when we went we'd have to wait on a 20 minute line to claim one package and they lost several items! So when we found this little store a block and half from our house, it was perfect. We just renewed our yearly membership. If you have any issues with package deliveries, get a mailbox there.

Finally you might notice in the photo that we finally got Cranium! Several of my 20-something friends have been amazed that we've never played and yelled at us to get it. So now it's first on the To Do list when we're finally done in 6 days!! We'll try to fit it in the suitcase for Florida :)

OK that definitely exhausted all my chattiness for the day. Hopefully I can focus on my books for my LAST DAY of studying new material. I take a long practice test and start reviewing tomorrow!