We had some excitement around the house on Sunday. See, we had this tempered glass TV stand. Apparently there's a rare but not-unheard-of phenomenon whereby tempered glass, which due to being what it is is under a state of constant tension, can suddenly.... explode. Basically. Tiny manufacturing defects or scratches, plus several years of moving around and flexing through temperature changes can come together to make the stuff just detonate suddenly and without warning.

Sunday morning the middle shelf of our TV stand did exactly that. Loudly. Nothing hit it or fell on it or anything, just suddenly out of nowhere BOOM. It was spectacular and terrifying. Fortunately it was the middle of three shelves, so a couple games consoles dropped a couple inches onto the ones below but seem to be perfectly fine. Thank goodness it wasn't the top shelf with the TV itself, or things could've gotten really unfortunate.

So Zelandeth and I put on gloves and workboots and waded through glass shards to first MOVE THE FRIGGIN TELEVISION and then all the games consoles, and then thoroughly clean up the living room. That afternoon a run was made to Ikea where we procured a replacement TV stand and assembled it that night. Needless to say we have now opted for one made out of wood, which according to many long years of rigorous consumer research is reputed to be non-explosive.

We've sort of gone off tempered glass as a furniture solution for the foreseeable future.