The Big Box

Two guys on a truck came yesterday to bring us this big box, which has been turned into a fort that is obviously very holy and angelic, seeing as it's bathed in light and all.

Prior to being fort-ified, the box contained our new refrigerator! See, on Friday, Bill stayed home from work so we could go to Sears and take advantage of the one-day government incentive to get 15% off energy-efficient appliances. (Am I the only one who wishes the government would put its money toward universal healthcare instead of bribing us all to buy appliances? I mean, I'm sure the appliance money wouldn't go all that far in terms of healthcare, but it could at least buy some band-aids for a clinic or something.)

So, the reason for our new refrigerator was that our old one was totally decrepit. It was manufactured in 2000, and it seems to me that a refrigerator shouldn't fall apart after 10 years, because didn't everybody's grandma own a refrigerator from like 1952 or something? Oh well, they don't make 'em like they used to. Also, I am a very destructive appliance owner.

On the old refrigerator, both the refrigerator and freezer handles had broken off. (Talk about Life telling you to go on a diet.) Every single drawer was cracked. On the lunch meat/cheese/tortilla drawer (what, that's a category, right?), there was such a large hole in the front that you didn't even have to open the drawer to put the stuff in. It was actually really efficient. Also, the ice maker no longer dispensed on the front.

Plus, it was nasty. I have to confess that in the time we have lived in this house (which is the better part of 3 years), I really only did one serious scrub-down of the fridge. Is there any bigger pain in the ass than cleaning spills in a refrigerator? Everything you spill seeps down into every crack and crevice, including ones you can only reach with a toothpick, and also all the substances congeal and cool so you can't clean them with ordinary household cleaners.

So when we decided to get a new fridge, I just decided to stop cleaning the old one altogether.

Our new fridge really isn't different than the old one, except for the non-nastiness and the full functionality. But it's nice to start fresh. I was ruthless, ruthless I tell you, in my cleanout of the old fridge, throwing out every barbecue sauce with only a quarter inch of sauce in it and getting rid of the little applesauces that I thought would solve all my problems with getting Nathan to eat items from the plant kingdom.

And now all we do is just sit and stare at our new fridge in awe. Which is just totally dumb because a new fridge doesn't cook the food for you or make it so delicious foods are somehow healthier. It just cools your food, same as your old fridge. And you're out a lot of money for it, even if the government did subsidize a small part of it.

But there's something so nice about having something clean and efficient. It reduces a lot of stress. Plus, there's the bonus of having a really attractive giant box fort in your living room! Buzz Kill that I am, I wanted to have the delivery people take the box with them. But my husband's inner child, as well as my actual child, wanted to keep the box. And man, has this fort been exciting! We have played several rounds of a game known as "knock on the door and come in," and I even typed part of this post in it.