Stir-Crazy

I love popcorn. Every country we have gone to so far I have taken a Stir-Crazy popcorn popper with me. It is kind of bulky so I don't try to take it home with me aftewards but leave it with somebody and then get a new one before our next country. I can't remember who has my Indonesia or Philippines popcorn popper but my Brazilian popcorn popper was left with Lucia who was my popcorn buddy while we were there.

So, we have been enjoying popcorn here in Malawi for 9 months now with my latest Stir-Crazy popcorn popper. I remember when I bought it. We were at one of our wonderful Birch Run weekends with Jamie and Mom and at one of the kitchen stores I had to choose between a popcorn popper and an ice cream maker. The kids thought it would be an easy choice...and it was! Of course I got the popcorn popper (not exactly what they were thinking...)!!

Well, a few days ago one of my sweet children (I name no names) plugged my popcorn popper into the wall. In the US that would be great; but here it means an instant spurt of heat and light and a large popping sound...then the child comes running "Mom! I did something to your popcorn popper!" Sigh. After living with transformers for so many years I forgot to remind them about it this time.

After being extremely annoyed for a good five minutes I decided to plug it in and see what the damage was (but my experience told me the damage would be complete) and the little stir part started going around! I was so happy...we jumped up and down and hugged and ran and got the popcorn and oil and started making popcorn. We waited...and waited...and waited some more before we were finally forced to admit that while the stir part was not broken, the popcorn popper was not heating up at all. Kaleb told us that we should have known; the whole inside would be all melted together now. (sniff sniff...what a sad thing to have happen to my favorite popcorn popper!)

While I was not a grump (for long) because of the loss of my popper, I was not ready to listen to the well meant comments from the children. "At least you can still make popcorn in a pan mom!" "It isn't like you can't have popcorn again."

At soccer yesterday somebody told me a place that fixed their microwave so I might try to see if there is any way it can be fixed (which means I have to ignore Kaleb's 'completely melted inside' comments). Now I have the fun of looking forward to making enough popcorn for 36 people on Thursday on the stove! Sigh.