What the....?

I had this post mostly completed before we left on vacation, but didn't get a chance to finish it or post it- so now I've had a chance to add to and update it... so here it is.

Wednesday, June 22:
In all honesty, I'm not as tired today as I thought I would be after being up for half of the night.
Let me run you through a normal night- eat supper, play with the kids, go to bed. If I wake up thirsty, unless it's that "I'm so parched I'm going to choke" dry mouth/throat, I don't get up- I just go back to sleep & get a drink in the morning.
Now let me tell you how last night really went- eat supper, turn on news & weather because it was looking nasty outside, grab kids & run for the basement when the sirens went off, spend 1+hrs downstairs, came upstairs, got kids in bed & got to bed ourselves.
Somewhere between 1 and 1:15am I wake up thirsty. It's not the "important" thirsty that would cause me to take action, it's just that normal thirsty that happens occasionally. But this time I can't ignore it & I'm not sure why.
I get up & go downstairs to get a drink & immediately am anticipating someone grabbing me in the dark. Someone was there watching me. Obviously this was ridiculous- the doors were all locked & if someone was going to grab me I would have already seen them & they would have already done it before I got my glass & poured myself some O.J. (which is about the time my brain was actually having this thought.)
I turn around & face the sink chug-a-lugging my OJ & behind me the microwave starts running. WHAT THE....? And it's not like someone pushed the button & the button beeped & then it started running for 60 seconds- NO! It just put itself on 60 sec & starts going- double WHAT THE....?!
So here I am, pushing the clear/off button trying to get the stupid thing to stop fearing it would wake the kids (which was a stupid thought anyway- our microwave is not that loud, but I was still 1/2 asleep & probably more worried about the "cook end" beeps than anything) and this thing isn't stopping! I open the door thinking I've been pushing the wrong button & again try pushing the clear/off button multiple times with no result.
"Ok" I say to myself, "I'll just restart this, let it run & complete the cycle & it will be done." right? NOPE! Now it won't restart. (Yes, I closed the door first.)
Suddenly BEEP-BEEP-BEEP "KEYPAD SHORTAGE- MAY NEED REPAIR" scrolls across the screen. WONDERFUL! Finally the thing stops beeping after a minute & I go upstairs not entirely sure what I just experienced. "Brian, are you awake?" "uh" "No, I need you fully awake because I need to know you understand what I'm telling you." As he says "was something beeping" the microwave starts beeping again! So we both go downstairs with the same results as before. We even tried unplugging it & plugging it back in with no better resolution- so he just unplugged it. Luckily we kept the counter-top microwave from the apartment- so I cleared a space on the counter & he brought it up from the basement.
Tonight my FIL came over to take a look & since we couldn't find the book for it at the time we were looking the microwave up online & were shocked to find a number of complaints about these "blowing up", starting on fire or smoking! WHAT THE...!!!

Monday, July 4:
Happy 4th to all my readers! Not that there's that many of you, but hey- you deserve some credit if you're reading my boring blog.
Needless to say- we left the GE mounted & the counter-top microwaves unplugged while we were gone.
After regaling my Mom, MIL & SIL with this adventure I am convinced that someone was looking out for us. Someone made me get out of bed & be in the kitchen when it started running so we would know it was happening before we left. I have no doubt that had we not known & left for vacation with it plugged in, we may have come home to a pile of ashes where our house once stood.
I feel blessed that someone is watching over my family!