Fort Knox Smoke Out

Calix and I spent a large part of the afternoon in the backyard huddled up to one another while we watched smoke pour out of the house and listened to those danged alarms blasting with phone in hand waiting for Orion to come home and make it all better.

What happened's quite silly, really and it just makes me angry. So..I've been getting a headstart on making the Thanksgiving desserts (I made apple pie 2 days ago..uh..and Orion ate it all. It was *that* good) and today was the day for Pumpkin Cheesecake in a sexy gingersnap crust. So la la la..I'm workin in the kitchen..Calix is upstairs taking a nap..and Orion's home for lunch. Everything's normal. I finally finish up and pop the cheesecake in the oven. About ehh..20 minutes or so later..smoke is starting to rise up from the oven and I'm like "why's it smoking?" so Orion opens the oven and it doesn't look like anything's really wrong (figured maybe something dripped to the bottom of the oven and was burning itself off. it happens..no big deal). Orion leaves for work..and the smoke starts to get worse..so I think to myself..hey, how about putting the springform pan inside a cookie sheet and filling the sheet with water. I've made a cheesecake that asked me to do that before..can't be sooo bad. I do all of that and then head upstairs to get Calix out of bed. By the time we come back down, there's smoke just..*everywhere* so I open all of the windows and doors and turn the oven off. Then it happens. Two smoke alarms decide to go off..and these? ARE LOUD!! I have my son in one arm and I'm carrying a dining room chair with the other over to the smoke detector in the living room to turn the dang thing off. It won't shut up..I can't untwist it to take the battery out or anything. So I grab the phone and head outside because please, we don't need to be inhaling this stuff. I call Orion and tell him to "come home come home..hurry..the alarms are going off and I can't get them to stop..it's loud and we're scared". While waiting for O to get here, Calix and I are trying to pass time..and Calix plays this "game" or whatever it is (hahah) where he'll point to random things and ask what they are "dat?"..and I'm getting pretty tired of telling him it's a leaf...or a fence..or the freaking shed. 20 minutes or so go by and the alarms *finally* stop. Yeah, Orion walked in about 4 minutes later.
Apparently, grease from the springform ("grease and flour pan") pan had been dripping out and burning like crazy on the bottom of the oven. As soon as the oven cooled, I cleaned it all up and popped the cheesecake back in. It may have gotten a crack in the middle from the entire process..but hey, at least it's cooked now..and at least my house smells of lovely pumpkin and spices instead of thick dirty smoke.