Three extra screws (by Kat)

I've spent the day cooking up a storm and cleaning my house.

This is a yearly event, preceding the Scholarship Brunch.

There lives a wonderful woman in our town, who, in 1980 or so, started a local phenomenon called the Scholarship Dinner Group. Six couples met monthly at one of their homes for dinner, and pitched in a few dollars going toward a scholarship at the local university.

The idea blossomed, and spread into not just dinner groups, but lunch, breakfast, and brunch groups as well. This wonderful woman has raised millions of dollars in our tiny community, welcoming every newcomer into town and putting them in a group of people she thinks they'll get along with. I tell you, this woman is incredible.

My mother-in-law received one of these scholarships as a young mom, newly single, entering the university to get her teaching degree. My husband received one of these scholarships when he entered the school, too.

My grades sucked, so no scholarship for me!

Anyway, once a month, the twelve women in my group meet up for brunch. Can you imagine the chatter? Can you imagine the food?!

This month, brunch is at my house. This weekend, I've cleaned the house to within an inch of its life. Windows were washed, inside and out. Furniture was moved and the floor was polished. The china is washed and my glassware is immaculate.

Glassware. Heh. That's what we call our daily drinking glasses when company comes...

So, today I was looking at the front of my oven. Sure, I'd cleaned the poor thing inside and out (and thank you, whoever you are, who invented self-cleaning ovens!), but the window was still hard to see through.

Ah Ha! The mess was on the inside of the outer pane of glass. I undid a few screws, and pulled that pane off so I could wash the inside surface.

Huh. There's yet another window pane. Alrighty, a few more screws and I get the handle off. Now I can get to that inside pane. Oh. Guess I didn't have to take the handle off. Ok. No problemo, put that back on, unscrew the other screw, take off those brackets, do the hokey-pokey and there ya' go. Another pane of glass!

At this point, I think they should be called "pains" of glass.

Ok, everything cleaned up, put back together, and there are two screw left.

Hmmmm.

Oh well.

Later on in the day, I opened up the door, and a third screw came out from I don't know where and I don't want to know.

So, while the door may fall off of my oven during brunch tomorrow, at least the glass shards will be pristinely clean!

Back to baking. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went, and show you pics of all the yummy food.