ever done this?

i had turned the oven on to warm up a bit before i stuck the rollo covered pretzels in to melt. problem was, i forgot that i had candied popcorn hidden from the kids in the oven. the funny thing is that i smelled it before i realized what i had done.

"something smells like burning plastic..ohhhhhaghhhhhh!!!"

i opened the door and the plastic bowl had melted in on itself. the red candied popcorn had melted everywhere covered in the plastic from the bowl. it was dripping on to the oven floor. i cautiously flung the remains of the bowl to the sink and drippy popcorn syrup went everywhere. all over the counters, the cabinets. red sticky ooze covering everything... and of course, it dropped on the oven door, sizzling sweet popcorn.

the whole house was smoky. that acrid burning plastic smell. the boys ran and opened every window they could, turned on all the fans (including the ones in the bathrooms). fussy was trying to get to the oven door. the phone was ringing.

strap fussy to his high chair and feed him something sweet. send the boys upstairs to monitor the smoke problem. forget the ringing phone.

i took the oven racks out to clean them off, and as they cooled, the melted plastic cooled. it formed a nice sheath around the racks, sealing off any possibility of cleaning it easily. i scraped the floor to the oven, and the door. i scraped with all my scraping might. but there are some things you just can't get off when it is burning hot. i took out the knives and sawed through the cooled plastic on the oven racks.

the sad part is, i've done this before. when will i learn that hiding things in the oven is not wise? in the end i lost my favorite popcorn bowl, and a good amount of tasty candied popcorn.