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Lily (130 lb bullmastiff) is wherever I am - she keeps my kitchen floor impeccably clean :), but is afraid of the mixer. She can hear the fridge open from any room in the house.
In 25 years of large dogs and a small kitchen, there have only been 2 mishaps. Gracie, our last Neapolitan mastiff, learned how to open the oven, the microwave and the refridgerator - so I lost the Thanksgiving leftovers when I went shopping on Black Friday about 8 years ago. Locks were put on the fridge after this. Rip, another Neo, got splashed with boiling pasta water - he stayed away from me when I carried pots from then on.

Ok, I'm going waaaaaayyyyyyyy back. I was a newlywed, working 2 jobs, 7 days a week, while my husband was a college student. I took laundry to the laundromat on my lunch 45 minutes and picked it up on the way home if nobody stole it out of the dryer. Had a few minutes to cook and eat and off to job #2, which was full time on the weekends. My ex liked to go through the fridge in my presence and ask, "what did this used to be?". My reply was, throw it out. He'd get mad. And so it went. I could never understand why it was my job - just because I did all the cooking and cleaning and laundry and working? How did I last 30 years?

Yes ikasenter, the notice would be nice, but the gesture would also be appreciated, in my case. I think many many years ago it was asked if they (family members) could bring anything and, having the dining experience all planned already, I said no. Unfortunately, they took it quite literally and never bring or ask - EVER. And I'm such a pushover wussy girl, I never say anything. Everyone knows we just love to cook so there will always be plenty of good food. But trust me, if they ever ask, I won't say no again! Ok, maybe to gray spinach eggplant casserole...

Frederika,

I don't know, but I wish they would stop. Or at least give me advance notice so I don't bake a pumpkin pie when there's one on the way.

The ones that are most bothersome are the ones that require half an hour of heating and no one touches anyway. Hey, here's my famous gray spinach eggplant casserole... just pop it in the oven if you don't mind... oops, not the microwave, it's in a foil pan...

I'm late to this, but I'll rant anyway.

The whole extended family comes here for Thanksgiving (20+ people). Everyone walks into my small kitchen (with about 8 feet of counter space) and plops down their purses, presents and food contributions. I'm in the middle of trying to prepare a turkey and a ham, stuffing, potatoes, etc. in that same space. Never mind that there's an empty ten-foot dining room table in the next room.

Then there are the surprise dishes brought to the celebration that need to be reheated, but not in a microwave, since they brought them in aluminum foil trays. Sorry, the oven is booked solid for the afternoon.

And of course there are the conversations about the awful thing that happened to them at work while I'm trying to get the turkey out of the oven. I'm followed from stove to sink to fridge with non-stop dialog about whatever is important in their lives.

Arrrgghhh. Then dinner is served, with all dishes on the table. The alpha wolves stand up with their plates and start cruising the table to get to all the dishes, reaching over the elderly, the civil and the young. I was absolutely aghast when that happened this year.

Then after dessert is served and everything is cleaned up and the leftovers divvied up to the needier nieces and nephews, the sixteen-year-old who spent the day upstairs doing God knows what, comes down now ready to eat.

And this is why my husband and I are spending next Thanksgiving at Disneyworld.

That was a great rant. Ever heard of the concept of "justifiable homicide"?