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weekend hijinks
February 11, 2019,
When I got ready for work on Friday morning, it was another very cold morning, so I remote-started my car no issues whatever. 15 minutes later, when I started it to go to work, that m-f check engine light was on AGAIN.
I took a picture of it, texted it to Spouse, and told him "I f-ing give up on this thing".
We had already scheduled a Saturday afternoon maintenance appointment at the K-town branch, but Spouse called as soon as they opened, cancelled it, and booked us for yet another Saturday/8:00am/Burlington appointment.
I came home Friday afternoon after a furiously busy morning at work, and after a nice grilled ham & cheese sandwich for lunch, I felt weirdly purposeful. So despite there being a Michael Sarrazin movie on TV (Harry in Your Pocket), I worked my butt off all afternoon, changing the bedding and doing the laundry and baking brownies (new KAF recipe; super easy, quick, and tasty.) and assorted other miscellaneous household chores, including bringing the Oster 4-slice up from the basement, and giving it a good cleaning and warming up to burn off any stale smells, since he kept swearing that the toaster oven was "dying".
Scott picked me up when he got home and we went out for--brace yourself--more BBQ at Mission BBQ. He had joined their veterans club, and so his sandwich was free. I had another pulled pork sandwich, this time with cheesy baked potatoes (fabulous!) and their green beans with bacon (delicious-but-disappointing, only because they had red pepper flakes and triggered my allergy).
We stopped on the way home to pick up a coffee cake for breakfast, and when we got home, we tried the brownies and did some online R&A--he was trying to convince me that our much-loved Cuisinart toaster oven was dying. Which was BS--I think he just wanted a new one. And from the way he was steering the conversation and the browsing, he had a specific model, from a specific store, in mind. (More on that later).
But he'd just got a bonus, and I'd had a very long day, and had to be up early, so I decided not to argue.
On Saturday, we got up early and had coffee cake and coffee for breakfast, then got cleaned up and ran out to Burlington to the car dealer. The light went out for them, of course, and they checked everything related to the stored error code, but found nothing. They said. I'm sure if it was something they messed up on the last visit, they wouldn't admit to it. At least they changed the oil and rotated the tires, and it didn't take all morning.
So the toaster oven he seemed to be steering towards was a KitchenAid, very highly rated, just the right dimensions, most of the same features as the old one, and on sale at Farm & Fleet for $110.00. So we came home via Sturtevant and bought it. Spouse also picked up a new belt--he shrunk out of his old one again! He got smart this time, and bought one with holes all the way around!
After F&F, we drove back to town and went to Meijer for grocery shopping, and decided that we were ready for home--other errands could wait till Sunday. Came home, put stuff away, and had a bite of lunch. Spouse pulled out the old oven and took it to his car so he could take it to the scrap metal recycling on his way to work. I cleaned up the counter where it sat, so he could get the new one set up, and then ran downstairs to reboot the laundry, and to put away the 4-slice toaster since we wouldn't be needing it after all.
For dinner, he said he just wanted a pot pie, so I took the opportunity to make myself a pot of chili. I had a package of Bear Creek "Darn Good Chili" mix. It was super easy and I liked the end result. All you have to add to it is 7 cups of water and a can of tomato paste, but I added a pound of ground turkey and some spices--Penzey's garlic, chili powder, and cumin, plus fresh ground black pepper. I simmered it a good long time in the electric pot, and it came out very well.
Unfortunately, I also almost burned down the house because of that damned counter-intuitive cooktop. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get my mind around way the burner knobs are laid out. I don't know--maybe it's because I'm left handed, but even if I stare at the little dots next to the burners, I almost always pick the wrong one! (left/right should equate to front/back, and you cannot change my mind!)
So he had left the plastic clamshell package of coffee cake sitting on the left side of the stove, and of course, when I went to heat the water for the chili, I turned on the wrong burner when I meant to light the right-hand one. Result? Noxious fumes, and foul goo melted all over the stove. We had a fight about it, of course. But in the end, HE had to clean it up--because he was the one who broke rule number one, and left PLASTIC on the STOVE.
The fumes gave me a terrible headache, and the remaining coffee cake was trashed, but there was no permanent damage. Spouse did a beautiful job cleaning it off and you cannot tell anything ever happened.
As I said, it was fabulous chili--but I ate way too much. Blame the fact that it's been a long time since I had some really good chili, but I ate two large bowls--and suffered the stereotypical consequences. Through the night, and pretty much all day Sunday!
Sunday, we made exalted Exalted Egg McMuffins breakfast. And they were pretty good. But since it was our first opportunity to try the new toaster oven, I am going to need to digress a little here...
Now. Here's the thing that made me suspicious about him wanting a new oven: because of the scarcity and crappy location of the outlets in our kitchen, we have a power strip mounted to the wall over the kitchen counter. And the toaster oven is plugged into it. Now, if that's the case, and if all of a sudden the oven keeps throwing the breaker in the power strip, wouldn't you start by checking if it is the 10-year-old, $10 power strip that's dying, and not the 5-year-old, $200.00 oven? Either by replacing the strip, or by plugging the toaster oven directly into the outlet?
Well, I would. But not my ace electrical expert. Nope. It was the oven, and that was his final word.
Guess what?
Yep. The new oven threw the breaker in the power strip. So we replaced a wonderful, perfectly fine toaster oven. But breakfast went fine, BECAUSE I HAVE A BACKUP TOASTER. Went downstairs and brought it up again, and we could make our Sunday morning English muffins. And add "picking up a new strip" to our list of Sunday errrands.
Once we were cleaned up and dressed, we picked up Spouse's battery order at Batteries+Bulbs, and I popped into Penneys for some much-needed new bras (after all these years, my bra now comes in red and pale blue! Except SHIT! no pale blue in my size!)
And suddenly really tired so here is the rest of the weekend:
more goddam snow, popcorn for lunch,
lovely pork roast with roasted vegetables for Sunday dinner, and more goddam snow.
Reading: "Joan Thursday" (1913), by Louis Joseph Vance
Listening: Don Henley, Atlanta Rhythym Section, Todd Rundgren, Firefall
Inked Up: No changes: Monteverde Artista medium with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, Conklin Duragraph fine with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown, the Sheaffer 100 “Purple Patterns” fine with Diamine Misty Blue (which I really like in a fine nib. And in the VP's very wet medium. And in my custom italic. I think it is the plain blue ink I've been looking for.)
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