"Don't you DARE write about this ON YOUR BLOG MOM!"

*blink*

That sounds like an invitation if I ever heard one.  Let's backtrack.

Yesterday, I'm in the front room with Kent watching "Castaway" with Tom Hanks.  We're both very engrossed, it's been a while since we've seen the film and really, when I say engrossed, I mean, it took five or seven screams before Kent and I turned towards the kitchen.

There was Jane, yelling "People, PEOPLE.. PEOPLE!!!!!!" We looked at each other, not quite sure what's going on when Jane let out a huge shriek "PEOPLE, THERE'S A FIRE IN HERE!!!!!"

More blinking.  I mean, the smoke alarm wasn't going off and even though we couldn't see the kitchen, it didn't look like an emergency.  Kate was standing there, turned towards, whatever the heck was going on, just watching the show.  If the house was on fire, I think she would be yelling too.

So I got up picturing a possible fire on the counter.  We do have a gas stove and I have a vivid memory of watching my mom cook, while standing on a chair and inadvertently pushing some newspaper into the flame.  I remember a stern lecture and my kids are about as observant as I was.  So really, I was expecting something on fire *on* the counter or the stovetop.

Noooooo.

The flames were licking up from the inside of the frying pan.  They were pretty impressive too, but entirely contained, so I wasn't worried in the least.  I glanced in and noticed a raw egg, apparently about to be cooked and a stack of paper towels next to the egg, and it was the towels that were burning. 

Jane turns to me and utters "Don't you DARE write about this ON YOUR BLOG."

So of course, I immediately called Kent into the kitchen to take pictures and we, of course, expressed how impressed we were with her fire, which was starting to go out at this point.

Later in the retelling at a friends, we asked Jane how the fire started.  She hid her head under a couch cushion.  I asked her if she was using olive oil in the pan, because she's seen me mop up excess oil with paper towels before and honestly, that was the most logical reason for the paper towels being there.  No, she was using non-stick spray, so much for that theory.  Our friend said, from the pictures, it looked like the egg was just dropped in the pan with the towels already there.  It's a puzzler for sure.

And the one kid with the answers isn't telling.  Maybe it's time to mount a fire extinguisher next to the stove.