Friday, January 28, 2011

Happy Friday

Happy Friday to everybody. I have to work tomorrow though, so its not quite as joyous as it might be. But whatever....I wanted to update that Bruce went out this afternoon and came back not only with a new microwave (Yay!), but also the range element for my oven. Its all plugged in and working so it looks like I have a fully functional kitchen again. He also came home with Chinese food, so I haven't actually put the cooking thing to the test yet. Perhaps tomorrow......we shall see.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Let's just eat out!

So, my microwave died earlier this week. We have not replaced it yet although I do miss it terribly. After work we both get all comfy and don't want to run back out again. Especially since its been chilly, damp and rainy for the most part. We will get one this weekend for sure.

But tonight my oven started working like a lame duck. It heats up really slowly because the bottom element is not turning on. It did this over Christmas, almost ruining the Christmas Eve dinner. Bruce wiggled it around a little bit and in some wonderous Christmas miracle, it worked fine on Christmas Day. Thank you Lord, cuz we had a huge 21 pound turkey thawed and ready to go. How awful it would have been not to be able to make the Christmas feast. Its worked fine since then. Until tonight. I was preheating and happened to notice it was taking forever. And yep, the bottom element is NOT working again.

Bruce is starting to accuse me of breaking all the appliances so that I can either buy new ones to match the new kitchen decor, or just eat out. LOL. I am down to only having 4 burners on the stove top and a small toaster oven to get the job done. The oven technically will cook something if you don't mind waiting for twice the time. We are hoping that its just a matter of replacing that element. Its 16 years old, but the cook top works fine (knock on wood if you are superstitious). I want this thing to hold out a while longer because I really want an induction cook top and those are still new technology and ridiculously expensive. Everything I read about them predicts that they will become more and more common and come down in price like most new things do eventually. I would love my poor old stove (being one of the smooth glass top ones) to hold out until I can afford induction. We might be eating out until the oven is fixed and the microwave replaced.......crazy how it all happens at the same time.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Conscious Consumerism

One of my goals for this new year was to be more conscious of consumerism. Try to buy less and cut out the needless shopping and the need to acquire stuff just for the short lived thrilled of having something new. But that has turned out to be harder than I thought. I have not bought anything needless lately, so that's good. But things happen and the need to purchase arises more than I wish it would. Case in point....my microwave just bit the dust. It just stopped working. We checked into getting it repaired, but repair shops who deal with microwaves turned out to be few and far between. We would have to pack up this huge heavy oven and pay postage to send it off somewhere. Bruce spent some time going through online microwave troubleshooting sites with repair advice, but none of the usual easy fixes pertained to what happened to mine (like a blown fuse....I still have power and the keypad still works....?). So it looks like we will have to go out and buy another one.

I had a discussion about this kind of thing with Lori back when we visited Asheville a couple of months ago. She said, "Its not like I am out there consuming willy nilly, but things just happen!" I think this was over the fact that her vacuum was showing some age and might have to be replaced. Oh well, I will have to be out there buying a new microwave because in this busy household it is something of a necessity.
At least....at the very least, we have a place in our local recycle center for household appliances. I can have some peace of mind knowing its not just going to go sit in a landfill somewhere. I am still trying to be more conscious of what I buy. I was off work yesterday, and I decided to go out for a little while and just shop. And I did. I went out, tried on some clothes, looked at handbags and shoes for a couple of hours. But I never felt the overwhelming urge to buy any of it. There was nothing I absolutely needed so I had my fun and then walked away without spending a dime....until I had to run to the grocery store, that is.