We have just saved the house from burning down.

It's a bit past 5 am. Our reptile brains noticed the smell of burning electricity again, so we went out to the kitchen and snooped around. It seemed to be coming from our backup fridge, so we unplugged that and the microwave and sat around, and kept hearing small crackling sounds.

We pull the stove (which is between old fridge and new fridge) out from the wall. Sparks are happily buzzing around its power plug, and there are scorch marks on the plug. We yank fuses and yank the stove's plug and sit around going 'eeeeeee'.

My dad who's been visiting for 2 days is driving south this morning, and was not going to stop by our place. He'd looked at the fridge and suggested that maybe a component the fridge does not need had blown, since he couldn't find an obvious flaw with it (he's an electrician, not a fridge repairman). I just left a message at his hotel saying he *has to* come see us before he leaves town.

We were going to call for a repairman to come look at the fridge on Monday. I guess that won't be necessary now. But we've been cooking on a fried stove for almost three weeks and never guessed it. (Who would, when it only catches fire at the crack of dawn when it's absolutely not in use?)

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By the way, does anyone have a simple, decent recipe for making dinner in a microwave? (We have leftover pizza from last night and we have precooked meat patties that only need heating, so we'll be able to come up with *something*...)

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A semblance of normality has been restored.

My father examined the burnt plug and found that there'd been a shortcircuit between the earth line and one of the other lines, probably due to moisture, and the insulation between them had been turned to charcoal. The socket itself is fine; no charring or anything inside that. I told the landlord, and he went out and got replacement parts for the plug and has fixed it, and now we're preparing the fridge for use again (it smells like smelly cheese at the moment).