Adventures in Cooking

Our kitchen is all torn out for our mini-remodel. We've moved the toaster oven to the dining room and the kids are surviving on toast and cereal. A couple of nights ago, I was lying in bed in the evening time (around 6pm, I think). Amanda was still here painting the kitchen; I was feeling woozy from a cold/flu thingy, so I was just trying to rest.

I heard the toaster oven *ding* and thought, "Okay, August is making his dinner. Cool." About five minutes later, I hear another *ding* and think "Hmm. August must be hungry." I go back to working the crossword puzzle because I found that just lying there was making me dizzy.
A few minutes later, another *ding* and I'm thinking, "that's a lot of toast. Maybe he's sharing with Miranda or Amanda or something."

A few minutes trickle by and I hear the microwave chimer sound *beep* *beep* *beep* and I think, "Oh, right, Amanda is still here; she must be making some tea in the microwave. I better go down and check on how she's doing."
It's about 6:30 by now. I tottle downstairs and there's August looking incredibly anxious, actually wringing his hands and saying, "Dad, I need your help...." It was then that I noticed the downstairs was pretty smoky.
Turns out that the toaster over was unplugged -- the timer is mechanical and will still ding, but no power goes to the heat elements. August said he tried and tried to make some toast, but it was "taking too long" in the toaster, so he put it in the microwave.
"How long?" I ask.
"Eight minutes," he said.

Well, my guess is that the toast caught on fire and consumed all the oxygen in the microwave and went back out again and basically melted onto the plate.
We threw the toast away, after prising it off the plate. I showed August how to tell if the toaster is plugged in. But now I'm very scared to use the microwave; I'll be happy when the kitchen is done.