Lunching on rocket fuel

I come home for lunch almost every day. It's a nice break from the office, but the driving time both ways leaves me only about 20 minutes to prepare and eat my food. That's why I was so happy to find a tasty brand of canned chili that takes only two minutes to microwave in it's own plastic can/bowl. It's good enough and fast enough that I have it at least a couple of times a week.

The first thing I do when I get in the house is let the dogs out. Then I put the chili in the microwave, turn on my computer, fix myself a Diet Coke on ice, let the dogs back in, give them a treat, and voila! Lunch is ready. I eat it at the computer while I read as many of your blog entries as I can during the time I have left.

Sometimes, while the chili cooks, I hear popping noises coming from the microwave. It's the beans, popping and exploding inside their covered microwavable bowl. Frankly, I'm glad they do that. They get that gas out of their bean-sized systems so there's no popping and exploding later, when the beans are in my system. The firecracker noises were especially loud today, but I was busy with the two-minutes' worth of chores I mentioned and didn't check the chili even once.

Wow! I should have checked it. The bowl of chili actually turned itself over inside the microwave. Nobody could have convinced me there was enough propulsive power in that bowl to tip over 15 ounces of chili, but there the bowl was, still covered, resting on its side in a big puddle of its own "blood." It must have put on quite a show.

So, two minutes of cooking time plus ten minutes of microwave cleanup left me with ten minutes to eat half a bowl of meat and beans. There wasn't enough juice left for dipping crackers. That's okay. I didn't have time to dip crackers anyway.