As long as I can remember my parents have had one of those domed popcorn poppers where you add the oil and kernels and the little thingy spins around and mixes it all up. After the corn is popped, my Dad dumps the corn into a paper grocery bag, adds some salt, folds over the top of the bag, and shakes. This way, the salt gets all over and well…that’s just how you do it, ya know?

I had an air popper for a while, but it met an untimely death at the bladders of the cats. Or maybe Andy killed it because he does not like air popped corn. Either way, we’ve been without a popper for at least a year, and lately I’ve really been wanting popcorn. Andy likes the microwave stuff, which is nice, but it’s not the same. And it’s expensive. And I’m cheap.

We were in walmart the other day and I saw a popper there and almost bought it but decided to wait. A few weeks later, Andy was browsing around on Amazon (he likes to web window shop) and saw a popper for a decent price. He ordered it and we waited. For some reason they wouldn’t ship it. And we waited. And waited. ARG. WHERE IS MY POPPER??

Finally, one day we came home from work and there was a nice happy box on the porch. YAY! We’d bought a bag of corn on our last shopping trip so we’d be ready. What a very good idea because if that popper arrived and we hadn’t had corn, I probably would have tried to pop something else. Like sunflower seeds. Or pepper corns. Or cotton balls.

After digging the popper out of its box and setting it up on the counter and adding the oil and the kernels and putting the top on and plugging it in, I waited patiently. (Okay, there may have been some bouncing involved.) This is what I saw:

Did you know, they’ve made innovations in popcorn poppers in the last ten years or so? It seems like such a basic device to me that I never thought there’d be popper engineers sitting around trying to make a better popper. But, I guess there have been.

As the little spinner thing spun, I started to get hypnotized. Then it happened. the spinner thing stopped.

“Aie! It’s broken! Annnddddddddy!”

Andy came in and we stared at the popper and the spinner thing. The spinner thing spun some more. Then stopped again. Then it spun in the other direction!! Whoa. Popcorn popper evolution.

A few minutes later…light, fluffy success. And a cat.

Now all we need are a few paper grocery bags, and we’ll be set.