appliance coup

In a matter of thirty minutes last night, four major (i.e. expensive) machines/appliances had malfunctions. Adam was working on his papers for his Greek class. I was doing laundry when the dryer started to smell like fire.

"It smells like a good fire," Adam quipped.
Sorry, there is no such thing as a "good fire" in your dryer.

I decided to give the lint trap a good, thorough cleaning with the vacuum. (Side trip to the bedroom to put a movie on for the kids...the volume is stuck on 40 and won't budge. After restarting all AV units, the volume worked again and we didn't have to have Little People blaring through the house.)

I turn on the vacuum and it begins to smoke and smell like burned rubber. Yum...there goes the "good fire" smell!

Turns out the belt broke. No big deal. I fix that and then clean out the dryer vent. I decide to make sure the outlet outside is not plugged with lint. I go around the house to find Adam's car with it's lights on....very dim, but on. It won't start, of course.

Well, the tv resolved itself, I fixed the vacuum belt and Adam jumped his car easily this morning. The dryer is kaput, and Adam wouldn't let me near the computer last night! He kept resaving his paper every time I walked by.