eep

ok.. this is a first in my apartment-renting appliance-having career. my toast just started on fire. it was toasting for maybe three minutes max. i'm not sure what made me get up and check it.. it smelled very toast-y right off the bat, and maybe in the back of my mind i thought, 'it shouldn't be toasting this fast..' in any case, i saw smoke coming out the front of my toaster oven, opened it up to see if anything was in there besides toast that was screwing up the process.. and a small lick of flame started to form. turned it off, freaked out, realized i don't have a fire extinguisher, got out some baking soda from my fridge.. it burned itself out in about 30 seconds, however. the plug felt hot when i went to unplug it. normal? not really sure.

this oven's always been kind of iffy. smelled like plastic far longer than it should have after its first use. i've toasted in it 95% of the time i think; i can also remember making two grilled cheese sandwiches in it with no ill effects. i don't know if the toast was just too close to the heating element, or if there was too much energy going through the thing. either way, i'm kind of tweaked right now. must pick up extinguisher and look into renter's insurance. :/