“Aw, shoot, we forgot to put the bread in the oven!,” I said.

It was about a quarter ’till eleven p.m. and I was just climbing into bed. Unfortunately two loafs of bread had already been rising on the stove, so it’s not like we could just put them away and save them.

“Just put it in the oven. We’ll hear the timer when it goes off,” said Sara.

“Are you sure? What if we don’t hear it?”

“Well, I’ll hear it for sure. And if we don’t, it will just keep going off until we do hear it.”

I wasn’t really sure that would be a good outcome in this situation, but I was so exhausted I did what I was told, climbed into bed, and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The next moment I was jolted awake by the timer going off on the oven. I leaped out of bed before I had time to wake up, grateful that I had heard the timer. I stared blearily at the clock. Something about the time was nagging at me. It seemed wrong.

11:45?

In my haste, I slammed into the foot board while rounding the corner, waking Sara.

“Is it 11:45?” I asked as I ran from the room, confused.

The bread didn’t seem to be burned, but it was pretty dark and I didn’t seem to be thinking clearly. Just to be sure I turned on a light to check. In my sleepy state I somehow flicked the garbage disposal switch instead of the light, even though the two are nowhere near each other. Perhaps the bread was a *little* dark, but maybe not.

Surely if it had been cooking for an hour instead of half an hour, double the correct time, it would look burned, right?

I stumbled back to the bedroom.

“What time did we put the bread in? Wasn’t it like 10:45?”

“I don’t know. I think so, but that doesn’t seem right.”

Well, apparently it was right, and the timer had been going off for half an hour without waking us. It turns out that our bread is a hearty creature who laughs in the face of an extra baking. It was surprisingly edible. The crust was sort of thicker than usual, and a slice had to be eaten with plenty of water to avoid dehydration, but other than that it was fine.

I think it is safe to say we won’t be doing THAT again anytime soon!

(and by that I mean listening to my wife)