Speaking of which, I need to figure out what to buy a 5 year old girl between now and then.
My niece is turning 5 in a couple of weeks (how is that possible????). I got her a little Tigger backpack and a Paul Frank Julius memory card game (she loves playing memory): [link] She also loved the Cranium game I got for my nephew for his b-day back in July: [link] Oh and both nephew and niece love the Rody, but it's kind of pricey: [link]
Barb, you should be ok. If it's not still smoking, should be fine. Feel the wall right above the outlet where the cable would be heading, if it feels warmer than the wall areas around it, then there might be a problem. But if it's the same warm from sun beating on it as the rest of the wall, you should be fine. Hopefully it's just some gak that got power washed into the outlet, and shorted it out. If you know what breaker it is on, you can flip that off. The electrician will need to do that to replace the outlet anyhow. But that should put your mind at ease.
Well, it's been raining all morning and the house surface is actually pretty cool so if there was appreciable warmth around it, it would be easy to feel. Since everything, including the outlet itself is cool to the touch, I'm going to attempt to relax. A little.
The breaker is off, o_a-- that was the first thing I did. And I've got the extinguisher nearby.
if the breaker is off, no power is going down that line to the outlet, so you should be fine. See, you reacted perfectly! Killed the breaker, and had extinguisher on the ready! Nothing to fear.
Barb--o-a is wise. Electricity is really really predictable. Now that the breaker is off, you really are fine. Think of it like water--once you close a valve, water is not going to sneak in.
Scary, Barb! You did exactly the right things, though.
Oh, Barb. {{{}}}, although I didn't understand what the problem was (I tried Google some of the things, but alas, it just confused me more). So sorry, but I can't be useful.
But it'll turn out alright. Eventually.