P_M - Thanks for such a beautiful story.

We recieved an unexected snow fall today that left everything so sparkley beautiful!!!!!!! I amsure it will be melted by tomorrow...

Back to say:

RAVE - "Walk The Line" with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. If you like country music and Johnny Cash, RUN to see this one! So good, you don't even want to take a potty break! :-d

BIG RAVE - The Carolina Hurricanes are #1 in the NHL! Way to go, Canes!!!!

RAVE - The weather has turned cold again in Raleigh. YES!!!

Congrats to all of you "losers." It isn't easy, particularly this time of year, but we WILL do it! ;;)

CaliNurse,
Claro, Shopping is a high end "artform" in D: check out www.guidelive.com

Rave: The "mop" never knew he was "fixed" on Thursday (for $300.MXN).

Rave: No need to loose weight here, as we walk at 6800 ft up and down fairly steep streets daily.

Rant: As always, Senate Dems.

BEMom, Has Teddy ever refused an invite to a bar? The entire family has certainly been blessed and cursed simultaneously for 60 + years.

Malesherbes, we get "no" rain Nov - end of May each year.

Ronkala, applaud your rescue efforts: I did retired rescued greyhounds for many years - great animals - like big cats. Still contribute financially to the GH rescue effort.
Also, I trap/release feral cats after spaying and neutering + immunizations here. Helps with the early AM Rooster noise, lol.

M

Just a quick one before I run out the door:
Rave: It's the weekend! It's the weekend!

Rant: OK, I need to warn you guys! So I'm baking brownies last night like I always do, in my 9 x 13 Pyrex dish. 10 minutes into baking at 350 degrees, I hear a noise from the oven. The dish has shattered spontaneously, and there is brownie goo all over the bottom of the oven! The baking coils are smoking, since brownie goo is now baking/burning on top of them!

Well, needless to say, I have to hire someone to help me clean this mess. In the meantime, I did some research and found that this problem is pretty common. Most other people seem to have had their Pyrex dishes shatter upon taking them out of the oven.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/pyrex.html

Just thought I'd throw that out there, in case that happens to one of you one day!

Rave: Took my godson to his first ever NBA game last night to see the Sixers. They won in TRIPLE overtime! Had to tell him that his next game will probably not be so exciting!

Rave: Cheesesteaks at Jim's Steaks, Phila. Went to eat one before the game.

Congrats to all of you on your weight loss. I work in the fitness center at the local Y. We have a promotion where members can weigh in before Thanksgiving and again after Jan. 1. Those members who maintain or lose weight get a T-shirt. We had a ton of members participate (no pun intended!) and I would guess about 95% maintained or lost weight at this challenging time of the year. Most of these were our "regulars" - those who come and work out faithfully month after month, and year after year. Exercise truly is an important component of weight loss and maintenance. And I guess another rave is these great members who I love talking to every time I come to work. I don't get paid much, but I have a great and really fun part-time job!

Melissa, thanks for the warning and the link. That's really frightening! Especially the thought of glass flying all over the kitchen. It's a wonder no one has been hurt.

oh, no glass flying for me--it just broke flat. Although for other consumers, the breakage may be different....not sure. yow!

Karen, I volunteer at my local Y and I applaud you!

Melissa, I don't bake but thanks for the warning. I do have a similar warning about something that explodes which is much more common but not talked about.

Don't ever try to break a CD in half without protection. I did this a few years ago and the CD exploded into hundred of very sharp pieces all over the room. I was trying to destroy the information on it and thought it would just break into two nice pieces. Woooow, was I wrong.

MelissaH: I recently had a pyrex glass bowl shatter in the microwave.

Also, several years ago, the clear, round lid to my corning ware dish (the white ones with the ridges going vertically...'French White Series', imploded (loud noise) into the peas that were about half cooked! ...just shattered into long pie shaped slithers!

Well, I took a picture of it and the corning outlet store honored it with a replacement. Yep, you guessed it, about a year later, the scene repeated itself!

This was the favored bowl to cook peas in, so I had done it zillons of times...don't really know why did that! Of course, I don't use them any longer!

Never had a problem with the baking oven though...but I don't often use glass in there.

Belle

OSB, I hate to keep using this phrase, but again, that's frightening. And frustrating. I keep reading that you really shouldn't cook in plastic in the microwave. I have now gotten in the habit of taking Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine dinners out of the containers they come in and cooking them in glass or pyrex dishes. Now do I need to worry that pyrex will shatter in the microwave? Your problems seem to have been with the lids. Anyone have problems in the microwave with the bowls themselves?

As soon as I posted I reread your post, OSB, and realized that you said you *did* have a bowl shatter.

And the website MelissaH refers us to states that Pyrex should not be put in a toaster oven which I do all the time, never knew that. Lets just all go out to restaurant to eat all our meals, that will take care of this problem, LOL.

What a pain in the neck to clean that mess up Melissa and OSB!

I use Pyrex for baking brownies also, but never had a problem.

When you are cooking in the microwave, don't you need to keep the bowl vented to release some of the steam/pressure? Could that cause either a bowl or lid to implode? Just a thought.

I am utterly shocked about this whole Pyrex issue, man!

I vote for LoveItaly's suggestion ~ Think I'll go and make reservations now, LOL.

Pyrex, shattering, what's next?
Thanks for the warning MelissaHI, sorry it happened to you, sweetie.

Many years ago my ex shattered a Pyrex dish while cooking. For some unknown reason, he thought he could use a Pyrex dish to boil corn on the cob on the stovetop. The dish blew, the boiling water sprayed like a geyser, and the ears of corn flew like missiles. To say the least, I was miffed. X(

"For some unknown reason, he thought he could use a Pyrex dish to boil corn on the cob on the stovetop..."

Ummmm, maybe I'm related to the dimwit, lol. I think I was married all but 1 week, and I did the same. I tried to make an alfredo sauce on the stove top...it was a mess, LOL!! :(

I'm perfect in all other ways though ;)

I vote for going out tonight!

LOL, stw!! Well, at least you only made that mistake once. The dimwit was sure that this only happened because the dish was faulty, so he did it again a few days later!! After breaking a second dish he finally got an idea and decided to boil food in a pot. ((I))

PM, I'm a quick study. I never make the same mistake twice. Now there once was this time that I served pink chicken.... :D

Pink chicken....did you cook it in white zinfandel? ~:> Do tell. :-)

Noooo, not exactly.....

It seemed, in my early days as the mistress of the kitchen, I did not know about meat thermometers, lol. It was my first *whole* chicken. I don't remember how I *thought* it was supposed to be done, but it *looked* done (I should have looked at a cookbook, but that's another story). Nevertheless, it was beautifully carved and displayed on my best china. As we sat down to enjoy a newlywed meal, my husband whispered, "Should it be pink" and of course I lovingly said, "I think so." And so we ate. :D

Thankfully we were young and healthy and showed no ill effects for my stupidity. The next time I spoke with my mother, I mentioned it. She wasn't very kind, lol.

Young love. What can I say other than it's grand :D

Just a little postscript. For Christmas my husband always buys each of us a little unusual gift. This year, he bought our oldest son a <b>meat themometer</b> for his apartment...&quot;to be sure you chicken is properly cooked...&quot; he said with a laugh. :D