Mr. Noodle... How do YOU fix an oven door???

The glass in the inside of our oven door broke recently. (o.k. it’s now been probably a month... and I’ve had a LOT of baking to do... how many birthday cakes? And not to mention, I do actually make dinner occasionally). I was preheating the oven, then Bill put the food in, while I ran someone somewhere... can’t remember who, what or where. When I came home I checked on dinner, and noticed the glass inside my oven door had basically shattered in a starburst pattern. (why in all this time I don’t have a picture of it, I can’t even figure out now!!!). A few small shards of glass had actually fallen or blown out in the center. Luckily for us, the dinner had a cover on it, so we went ahead and ate the dinner. (thank goodness for small blessings).
Another small blessing: Bill called about it the next day, and figured out our service contract was about to end – we had 3 or so days left. YAY! It wouldn’t cost us anything to get it fixed. Bill had also checked on line and the part was only $35.00 so it might have been possible for him to fix it. Anyway, Bill called me to tell me they would be coming to fix the door on Thursday, and I said fine. He had given them the part number and figured they’d order the glass and get it in that week. Awesome!
Amanda was home sick all that week, so when the guy came, she was witness to what happened next. The guy came, said, I’m here to look at your stove, I guess. I am thinking, “Wait a minute! My husband gave them the part number, model of the oven, etc. you were supposed to be here to FIX the door! I have birthday cake to make for a party tomorrow!!!!!” I opened the oven door, he said, yep, it’s broken. Thanks, I hadn’t noticed. He then went on his little computer and was putting in the information to order the parts... O.K. so why did they bother to take down all the information, from my husband??? Then he said his computer was down or something like that, and he couldn’t put in the actual order until he went back to the warehouse or somewhere... and the parts would come in the mail, to us, and they scheduled someone to come back the following week on Wed. to repair the oven.
Wed. came and went... no parts, no repaired oven door. Remember all the cake baking I HAD to do??? I covered the inside of the oven door with a sheet of Aluminum Foil, and went on about my baking business. I figured as long as the glass couldn’t get into the food I was preparing, I was o.k. basically.
On about Friday the parts showed up.

I have to insert a ***********RANT*********** here!!!!!!!!

I HATE (not just dislike, HATE, HATE, HATE), all those 800, 866, etc. phone numbers that call my house! I can not tell you how many times I have had a baby just about asleep in my arms, or some other inconvenient time, and the phone rings! I think, Oh, it could be one of the kids calling from school, or my hubby calling with some need, or something... so I haul myself and the no longer sleeping child up off the couch, (or my nakey self out of the shower, or, or, or...), to run for the phone and it is some stupid 1-800- number! You all may have heard my screams of frustration at this moment, on many occasions. O.K. so, IF by chance I answer the phone, and I get some dumb computerized voice message trying to get me to do something, sell something, etc. I just want to nearly rip the phone from the wall – oh ya, It’s cordless these days, NO satisfaction there! Not to mention then, I’d be the one without a phone, no effect on them.
I also have to say, I think that the police, the firemen, the K-9 unit with the dogs, that go into the schools to teach the children... etc, etc, etc. are all good and worthy causes, however; I hate that once you have actually sent any ONE of them a monetary donation, you seem to be on some calling list where EVERY needy organization wants to guilt you into making a donation to their organization! And on top of that, they all seem to call at the same time (we only have so much money to throw around at any given time...). Then, their tactics! They thank you so much for your donation from the last year, tell you all about how good their cause is, then ask if you’ll commit to sending them money again this year. I generally say, if you can send me the information, we’ll send what and when we can. Oh, no mama, that is just not good enough! We need to have your commitment of a dollar amount, with the assurance that you will return the money (as though you owe it to them somehow) in a timely manner, once the info (return envelope for you to put your money in) arrives at your house in approximately 3-5 business days. Yada, Yada, yada! Well, for one, as I’ve said, I’m sure they are all worthy causes, or have the potential... but I’m tired of it! And, I don’t pay the bills at my house (I don’t like math all that much and I’m not computer savvy, and Bill has everything computerized, etc, etc.) so I can’t guarantee them how much I can send and if or when I will send it back to them with my money.
Then there is the fact that often they will call and ask for my husband, I ask who is calling, having a pretty good idea – and they say whatever organization they are with, and could they speak with my husband? Well, it is the middle of the day during a work week, 9 times out of 10, and NO he’s not here! He is at his job! Working! If he wasn’t we certainly wouldn’t have the money to send to them anyway!!!!! The other time they seem to call is on Sunday evenings! UGH!!!! Hate that!

O.k. so my kids now know if the phone rings and it’s a 1-800 number or the like, they are not supposed to answer the phone! I don’t WANT to talk to them! Sariah thinks it’s great fun to answer the phone anyway, with a, “Hello, Papa John’s Pizza! May I take your order?” then when they act confused, she hangs up!
I have even in my complete irritation at the phone begging, been known to answer periodically and tell them, I’m tired of all the phone calls (that are basically harassing me!), and to take me off their calling list! I had one guy ask me one time, if I had answered the phone all of those times, and that if you just don’t answer, then they continue to call back, until you ask them to remove your name from the calling list. He wasn’t very nice about it, acted all snotty about it, but now I do feel somewhat obligated to answer the phone (and I admit, not so kindly most of the time), periodically to tell them to bug off and stop calling my house!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POST~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My phone had been ringing with some 1-800 number a lot recently! I hate to answer the phone, so I try to ignore it! After a week or so, I answer one of them, and I say, please take me off your calling list, and hang up! I think I might have heard the woman on the other end of the line trying to say something like, but wait!..... this isn’t, who knows what. At some point Bill says, who was it, I tell him, and he says something like, could it have possibly been the oven repair people! Oh great!!!!! Probably! I’m even more annoyed now, that they call from some random 1-880 number with no identifying name to make me WANT to answer the phone. Bill happens to check the messages and hears that they’ve been trying to call us. OOOOOPPPPPSS!!! So the next time the phone rang with an 800 number, I almost didn’t answer, then remembered and barely got the phone before it switched to voice mail. Some lady with whatever repair company, wanting to schedule our oven repair. Fantastic! (I am personally really, really annoyed they are calling from the 1-800 number!), and so we schedule, for two weeks out! Greeaaat!

So, they asked would I prefer morning or afternoon! Good, they can narrow it down for me... I don’t have to sit ALL DAY LONG and wait!!!!! I say morning. The weeks come and go, and today is the day! Amanda is sick... still! So I call first thing this morning to get her an appointment, they had one available at 10:00 am, but I couldn’t do that, since I had to wait for the oven repair guy. I took the appt. at 2:10 this afternoon.

As it neared mid-day, I was getting a bit frustrated. I checked my phone calls list and there was a 1-800 number. I remembered they called a day or two ago too confirm that we did have the parts, so I was hoping it was the correct 1-800 number as I called them. It was the right place, but the guy in Texas couldn’t tell me anything, about when the repairman would come to my house. He passed a message along that he needed to call me. He calls and figures, he might be at my house about 2:00 p.m. So sorry, that just WON’T work for me today, he suggests calling to reschedule some other time. NOT!!!!!!!! I’ve been waiting nearly a month already! We figure out he could come after 3:30 and I would have a pretty good chance I’d be back home from the Dr.
He arrives just after 5 p.m. A long day for him, I’m sorry. He came in, took the oven door off and started right to work. The longer he worked, the more he talked to himself, under his breath (something... this should go here, I think this goes here...) I would look over at Bill, and we’d give each other looks, like, oh my goodness, this is not going well, the more he seemed less and less competent. After an hour and a half, he put the oven door back on, got on his little phone, went outside, came back in, and finally said, he thought he did it right, but it’s only the 2nd oven door he’s ever worked on, and the inner glass in the middle (a third layer between the inside and the outside glass), slipped and so another technician and he would come back NEXT WEEK on WED, to see if they can actually FIX the door. He’s sorry, but at least next time I’ll have Two guys working on it, like I should feel special. WHATEVER!!!!!

I was frustrated, but not saying anything. He cleaned up his stuff, and finally left. We went into the kitchen to check it out, and don’t think I should use the oven until he gets it fixed, since if you open the door, the glass slides and moves around. We don’t want it to break so it will take even longer for them to again order the glass and then come back and fix it again...
Here comes the post title: Do you remember it??? I swear the second he left, Bill said, “Hey, Mr. Noodle, how do YOU fix and oven door?” I laughed so hard I cried! I was coughing, and trying to breathe! I had tried to be really nice and not think too poorly of the poor guy, but after Bill said that, I couldn’t believe it! He looks almost exactly like Mr. Noodle! I had to write this all down now while I was thinking about it, but I can’t post it yet, since I posted Marissa’s baptism story today, and certainly didn’t want to over ride her nice day with this ridiculous post!

Oh well, that’s life...