Thursday, December 16, 2010

Living With The MIL Chronicles 6 - Kitchen Scrapyard


Check it out. That's what my MIL *stores* in her oven.

So every time WE NEED TO USE THE OVEN....that pile of scrap metal has to come out and find a landing spot.

And in a kitchen with ZERO counter-space, it invariably has to go on the stove.

But if you're cooking, chances are you've got a whole lot going on on the burners already!

This is insane. Not only is there ample storage space in the cabinets and whatnot....but also this is PURE GARBAGE. She saves every piece of aluminum that enters the house. Every time someone gets take-out she has to wash and salvage the containers and whatnot (and metal coffee cans, jars, etc.).

The worst is when you forget the junk is in there and pre-heat the oven.  Then you have a whole pile of hot metal to manage!

One day, finally, I asked her if I could throw that stuff away.

MIL - NO.

CaptiousSIL - Are you going to take it to your new fancy retirement home?

MIL - YES.

CaptiousSIL - WHY? (holding up the circular pan/sheet)

MIL - Because my mother-in-law gave me that.

At a minimum that means the cookie sheet, pizza pan, or whatever it is is 40 FREAKIN' YEARS OLD - but it could easily be half a century old.

Do YOU think it's sanitary to cook on that crap?

She moves out in about three weeks...

OH, the blog material I've been sitting over the past 7 months!!!

See also:

Living With The MIL Chronicles 1

Living With The MIL Chronicles 2 - Off The Hook Phone Ringing

Living With The MIL Chronicles 3 - Already Over?

Living With The MIL Chronicles 4 - Leading 'Old Coots' To Water

Living With The MIL Chronicles 5 - What is it?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's prefectly sanitary due to the frequent preheating. Chemcially, a little carbon doesn't hurt.

Paul Mitchell said...

Your MiL needs to get a place with my ma. It would be like a landfill.

joe cassidy said...

Like my lovely children always tell me, Be Careful we are going to pick your nursing home

CaptiousNut said...

Joe,

Even if an 'old coot' or 'old bag' does get to pick their nursing home...

There's no guarantee anyone will come visit and wipe the drool off their face.

In other words, the best retirement plan they can have is to inculcate some *affection* in their brood.

Plenty of these nasty dinosaurs act like they don't care about companionship and whatnot. Guess what, they WILL care.

I spent a couple of hours with my grandmother in the nursing home last year. I sat in a circle of her *age peers* (they are thrown together for SOCIALIZATION) and all they did, in turn, was complain about how no one visited them and who sent them there. It was really sad.