P365 Day 207: We bought a new microwave before the other one blew up

When Paul and I moved in May, we realized our new apartment didn't have a microwave. That's an important thing to know before you sign a lease. But, as it so happened, my parents were driving in from Memphis that weekend and brought with them a microwave we'd received as a wedding gift (I think?) and had left behind when we came to Charleston. We left behind quite a few things when we moved to Charleston.

The microwave worked fine ... for that one week we lived in our new place before we went to Memphis for the rest of the summer. That might have been sheer luck. When we came back and plugged in our appliances, the microwave tripped the circuit. That happened occasionally for a while, which was little more than a nuisance. Then, the other day, it got to the point where it would run for five seconds, trip, reset, run for five more seconds and so on.

I realized (ding!) that I was probably dealing with a fire hazard. Please don't call the fire department — or, worse, the leasing office — and tattle on me.

So last night, Paul and I went to Wal-Mart looking for a specific GE model they had on their website. Then we went to another Wal-Mart. Then, empty-handed, we drove across town to Best Buy (that's when Paul got the speeding ticket I mentioned yesterday).

This is what we ended up with:



Now, my first thought was that I'd take a picture of my nice, new, sleek microwave in its cozy spot on my counter. But then I actually looked at the box, and I realized GE is trying to market an 1100-watt microwave by advertising it popping popcorn. The whole top of the box — popcorn.

And that's all well and good, but unless you're a microwave-watching hawk, popping popcorn in an 1100-watt oven is more than likely going to end like this than the glorious, buttery goodness in that picture on the top of the box.

We've cooked a Lean Cuisine and a bowl of ramen, but for what it's worth, we haven't done the popcorn test yet — and everyone knows that the true test of microwave worth. I'll let you know how that goes.