Caption This 91

Please caption this image
[Click here for instructions on how Caption This works]
London, ON, October 2008 [Click all photos to enlarge]

Quick note: This week's Caption This supports the latest Thematic Photographic theme, kids. Got a kid-related pic? No matter how bizarre, we want to see it! Click here to get started.

Our toaster oven died this week. Unfortunately, it chose to not go quietly. Its timer failed, which resulted in it swiftly and thoroughly igniting itself, its contents, and very nearly our house. Two days after it sent flames shooting up the front of our kitchen cabinets, I'm still smelling smoke when I walk into the house.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the filming of this Levy family vignette. Unbelievably, there isn't so much as a mark anywhere near where the old toaster once lived. We're incredibly lucky, and we all know it.

So we decided it was time to give up on the toaster oven form factor once and for all. I've lost count of how many we've had since we got married (I know, I kill small appliances. Report me to the authorities. But I digress...)

Since we only use the thing to toast bagels and bread, we decided to replace it with a conventional 4-slice toaster. After an intense bout of online research and extensive family discussions around the kitchen table, Debbie and I picked up a lovely, retro-style unit with a working timer. I checked. Twice.

Breakfast this morning was a memorable event. I swear if I had known that a $60 toaster would get our slowly recovering son so excited about toast, I would have bought it months ago. Here, he waits for the first slice to come out of his flameless new toaster. As ever, I need your help naming/captioning the photo of our son and his new appliance (I included the other pics for context only.)

Your turn: Please suggest a creative caption for the photo at the top of this entry. You can enter as many times as you wish over the next week. I'll announce the winner next Sunday. Wagering isn't permitted, but pestering your in-laws for an idea or two certainly is. Most importantly, have fun with it - that's the whole idea of Caption This! The rules, such as they are, are here.

About last week's self-portrait shadow pic: I don't take many pictures of myself, so when I do, I try to make 'em stand out a little. It was the end of a late afternoon with the kids at the playground. I was letting them run themselves ragged in the vain hope that they'd sleep well that night. Didn't happen - and, frankly, never does - but it was worth a shot. While they played in the sand, I played with light. Here are this week's honorable menschens:

• Terri: "A shadow of your former self."
• Melissa: "Stilted?"
• Lissa: "Bigger than Life."
• Andrea: "Ho Ho Ho...Green Giant" (I loved that commercial as a child!)
• Sister AE: "Walking tall."
• Salubrina: "Human sundial."
• Sara: "Stretch of the imagination."
• Judy: "Do these pants make me look taller?"

Christy takes it with the lovely play on words, "Sanding on the Shoulders of Giants." I can almost hear the music playing as I read it! She paints, she writes and she shoots - incredibly well. Please visit her blog to congratulate her. Thanks, everyone, for playing along this week. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this one. Enjoy!