I think the SkyPilot knows when people are planning to be on vacation, because they like to throw little curveballs in the way that make getting out of town more challenging. I thought I’d made some good progress as a human being by planning for and buying tickets to Europe months in advance, and securing the services of a pet sitter right after that. I had some vague ideas for how to map out our two weeks, and we arranged for a cleaning service to come and work on the house before we left. There are a ton of things left on the do-this-before-boarding-the-plane list, but the big stuff seemed to be under control.

A few weeks ago, Jen tried to use the oven to cook something and it just never got hot. She transferred the dish to the microwave (which is also a convection oven) and it finally finished, but that wasn’t a good sign. Today she pulled something out of the microwave and closed the door, but it just continued making the “I’m cooking something” noise; the only way to get it to shut off was to open the door or throw the breaker. Attempting to clean the oven only resulted in filling the house with the sour egg smell of gas and a dirty oven.

So, it looks like we’re going to go shopping for a new microwave when we get back, and I’ve got to find someone who can fix the oven before we leave. Super.