Challenge Accepted- Life without a microwave

My trusty microwave has given up!!  My husband was hoping that it just didn't like to pop popcorn but I think that important magnetron (doesn't that sound like a super hero name??) has broken.  I am not sure how long they are supposed to last but I am blaming my father (joking, of course).  When my father was here last time, he talked very negatively about my microwave right in front of it because someone else had one and it broke.  I think that it got its feelings hurt!!! Okay, maybe it was just it's time.

I wanted to see how long we could go without a microwave but my husband disagrees and wants to replace it soon.  It is our vent fan and light over our stove top but those two features are currently working so it doesn't seem that we should "need" the microwave part right?  What do you use your microwave for?  I don't know about you but we got our first microwave when I was growing up so I don't really remember a time in life without out one.

Over the past few days, we have realized that we use the microwave way more than we think we do.  My son likes to have milk in the morning and likes the chill taken off with a few seconds in the microwave so my husband has been heating it up with his hands and legs which is not the joyful experience at 4:30 am when he has decided to get up recently.  We had to make popcorn on the stove top since I usually use my microwave popper with my neat jar of popcorn (a family heirloom which is actually a Planters jar).

Last night, my favorite story so far happened when I asked my husband to make me a hot tea.  He had just finished heating water in the tea kettle to make a big pitcher of ice tea.  We normally boil the water in the tea pot and pour it in my big pottery pitcher with a family sized tea bag.  This pitcher makes me smile.  I love the bright color and the stars!!

He went back into the kitchen and said that he couldn't make me hot tea because the microwave was broken.  I laughed because I thought he was joking.  The tea pot was right there in front of him and he just used it to make the ice tea.  He was really tired and we usually make the hot water for tea in the microwave because it really isn't that much water.  It really makes you question your habits and how you "always" do things the same way.  How about using the tea pot? 

I did get my hot tea that night and now I am trying to come up with other surprises that we only use the microwave for.  Do you have something you always do in the microwave?  How long could you go without using a microwave?