Description: Yes, I am grumbling, growling, bitching, whining, and moaning tonight. You ask why? I am seriously frustrated with my roommate (lets just call him Andrew like I did in this post: http://www.i-dont-think-so.com/?p=1066)
Today’s installment of frustration came when I discovered that I was storing cookie sheets in the oven.
As the oven is rarely used by either of us, this isn’t as dumb as it sounds. Or at least it wasn’t until Andrew used the oven to cook a small pizza for himself.
I kept smelling burned ‘stuff’ even after the pizza was removed, and as he is very absent-minded (age, health, multiple cans of beer every day) I thought perhaps he’d put something else in the oven and forgot about it (he’s forgotten water running in the kitchen sink–with a pot he was washing blocking the drain–to the point it nearly flooded the countertops) or that he’d forgotten to turn off the oven (he’s also forgotten to turn off the burners on the stovetop).
The oven was turned off — but still the ‘burning stuff’ smell was persisting so I opened the oven door, and there was nothing on the bottom rack. I bent down and looked closer; that was when I saw the cookie sheets on the top rack (which is directly under the heating elements for the broiler).
Just to add to the joy of the situation the few potholders I still have are nowhere to be found. I am not self-destructive enough to remove cookie sheets from a still hot oven with my bare hands, so I found a small towel to make sure that the cookie sheets HAD been in the oven during the pizza cooking. The top cookie sheet (one of three) has charcoal on it, so the logical assumption is that the cookie sheets got baked along with the pizza. The oven door is open, the oven hood fan is on (metal is not meant to be cooked when there’s nothing on it so there’s some smoke in the kitchen), and the cookie sheets are still cooling on the rack.
Update: he started to cook another small pizza, and I heard the oven door close (I wonder if he even noticed that the oven door was open, and the fan was on). I stalked into the kitchen and said (snarled really LOL) ‘there are cookie sheets on the top rack that you’ve already fried!!” Then I grabbed the towel, grabbed the cookie sheets and trotted them out into the snow in the carport. He had the nerve to complain that I left the oven door open and there were no potholders!
This is not my first grumble with Andrew’s kitchen habits. He leaves soiled paper towels on the countertops because I haven’t lined the garbage cans (here’s a newsflash, Andrew, I am OUT of kitchen trash bags and I don’t get paid until January 7 2011). He hasn’t figured out how to turn on the hood fan when he stir fries–which he does once or twice a week–to the point that he’s set off the smoke alarm more than once. He leaves actual garbage on the countertops because I haven’t lined the garbage cans. There are three garbage cans in the kitchen, if the one closest to him isn’t lined he won’t put anything in it.
He has a small (dorm size) refrigerator/freezer in his room. When he asked to use one of the drawers (meat tray and crisper) in my full size refrigerator I said sure. Within two weeks, he’d taken over both the meat tray and the crisper. What irritated me is that he’d put vegetables on top of my boxes of ‘Boston Baked Beans’ and ‘Jaw Breakers’ (types of hard candy that comes in cardboard boxes). He forgets meat and vegetables both, to the point that they spoil. Now juices from dead vegetables and spoiled meat don’t affect normal candy bar wrappers, but they do affect unsealed cardboard boxes and their contents. Luckily I discovered that he had decided that permission to use one meant permission to use BOTH before my candy got ruined.
http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/jb_history.html
http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/beans.html
Since then–and without asking or even mentioning it before doing so–he’s taken over half the top shelf, half the third shelf and the top of the in-fridge freezer. I’m lucky that he doesn’t seem to even know where the small chest freezer is — or he’d take over that too probably with comments about ‘since you aren’t using it anyway.’
Oh yeah, he wants a cupboard in the kitchen for his food, which is fine. But when you are asking for a favor, making comments about whether or not the current contents of the cupboard are being used is not very nice. It is MY house, and I don’t have to use all the stuff in it just so I can keep the stuff in MY cupboards!
The stovetop is a disaster area because he never cleans it up after stir frying. He has not put a dish or glass or piece of silverware in the dishwasher since he moved in (August 1 2011). I suppose I should be happy he puts his dishes in the sink! But I am not his mother, his wife, or his girlfriend. He should clean up after himself!