The Blog Was Delayed By The Oven Repair Guy

It's a very late blog today because the oven repair guy was at my door shortly after 7:00 am, and subsequently tore my oven apart, pulling it partially out of its' wall setting. After running some diagnostics and looking up a bunch of things on his laptop, the conclusion is that two things are wrong with it. The first thing is more mechanical and fairly easy to fix. Cost $500+. The second thing is in the electronics, a bit more difficult to fix, and closer to $600. *sigh* I'm hoping fix #1 will resolve the issue because I really would rather not spend over a thousand dollars on the repair. 

If the oven ends up only needing one thing (which won't be 
determined until after it's been installed and tested), then 
that'll only be about $500. If the circuitry is also needing 
to be replaced, it'll be an additional $500. It's like the 
world has determined that we'll be spending money like 
there's no tomorrow! *sigh*

But that was a solid hour out of my early morning, and then I had to discuss all of this with DH who had understood maybe one of ten words. Apparently both I and the service tech were very soft spoken, and DH just didn't understand what had been decided. Now we're waiting for Step Two. I can continue using my bypass routine which will allow me to still use the oven, just without the safety feature of an automatic shut-down and a functional cooling fan. 

We do a lot of shop expenses on American Express because 
it's really designed to be a corporate card. I have one, and 
I use it for ordering some supplies, but I really don't use it 
for anything else. 

The other thing I have to do today is get in touch with American Express to get a new card sent to DH. His card is set to expire at the end of the month, and I've already received MY replacement card from them, but his hasn't been delivered yet. We use that card a lot for the shop and for orders that we place, so it has to be current. I'll be attempting to get that expedited today. 

I don't have much for salad fixings in the 'fridge right now, 
so I need to get that taken care of today. I'm not going to 
be cooking today, though.

Oh, and of course there will be grocery shopping and a bit of cooking. I don't need much - salad stuff more than anything else. I've got plenty of everything else already in the refrigerator or on the countertop. 

I was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Disorder when 
I took the various memory and brain tests in early 
March. I get occasional bouts of brain fog, and sometimes 
things just aren't quite at the tip of my finger the way 
they used to be. Right now it's a mild inconvenience, but 
if I can learn coping mechanisms and what options are 
out there, that's all for the good. 

Oh ... and yesterday's first class of the "Improving Your Brain Health" class was quite interesting. It's a very varied group of people. All of us have been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Decline/Disorder. As I recall, I was the first person to register for the class when it opened up. Claire (Chickie Mama) is attending the class along with me. I think we'll both enjoy it - it's eight weeks of learning about ourselves and ways to cope with MCD. 

So, I think I should probably get moving. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up this week. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Definitely Autumn - Time For Thoughts of Autumns Past

I'm running a little late today, so this may be a bit shorter than usual. Still, I'm here, I did my run this morning, and I took a bit of extra time to set up the portable clothing rack I had purchased from Amazon and hang my Mother's evening gowns onto it. The next stage in the photography and sale of these clothes will come with tacking a sheet up for a backdrop. Working in the spare bedroom is never comfortable in the winter - it gets the least heat of any room in the house. But, I do want to continue working on the project. I don't have a deadline, but it would be nice to progress - baby steps notwithstanding. 

Progress isn't measured by time, but by action. I made 
one more step towards my goal of fixing and selling 
my Mother's gowns this morning by setting up the 
portable clothing rack and getting them hung on it. 
Now that they're not being crowded in the coat closet, 
I can concentrate on photographing and listing them for
sale on Ebay or Etsy.   

DH and I actually had a relaxing Sunday. It was quite windy, so raking leaves, despite the (relatively) nice temperatures and full sunshine, just wasn't a possibility. I think the wind finally managed to get almost all of our leaves down, though, so DH will probably get started on raking the leaves this week. We need to get them off the lawn before the snowfall comes, and the later we get into the season, the more difficult that will be to accomplish. It's a hella-lot of work to get our leaves taken care of, and the gutters will need to be cleaned once more too. The gutters are pretty easy - a precursor for when DH will need to rake the roof after every snowfall. But when there's moisture that has frozen in them, the gutters are much more difficult. Hauling the leaves over to our compost pile is much easier with two of us but still takes a lot of trips back and forth from the upper back yard to the farthest corner of the front yard near the drainage ditch. 

Although this is NOT my yard, it looks pretty much like 
what my yard looks like right now. Fall leaves everywhere. 
In my yard, after yesterday's windy day, my trees are now 
almost completely bare. The fallen leaves are exactly 
like what you're seeing here, though. A carpet of golden 
leaves just waiting to be raked. 

Obviously we didn't get any gutter guards installed - yet. He's mulling it over, and we'll probably get some within the year. The quotation is good for a year, so we have that in our favor. We rarely jump on things as quickly as sales people would like. Even with Minion, I went back and forth to the car dealership several times and measured, then measured again. I double-checked all of the specs, made sure it would totally meet my needs, and then, finally, bought her. She's been a great car to have, and I've never regretted that purchase. So sometimes we just move slowly - but we end up with exactly what we wanted. 

I have a 2015 Mazda CX-5 and I love it. I loved it so much, 
that when Chickie needed a new car, she got a 2014 version 
of the same car. So we BOTH love our cars. I'd get another one 
in a flash - it's been extremely dependable and very easy 
to operate. Before we had the truck, Minion was our truck 
and performed the job well. I have about 65,000 miles on 
her now, so expect her to last several more years before I 
need to look at a replacement. 

The only exception we've ever made to the "check it out and then check it several more times" unspoken rule is with appliances. When the refrigerator died, we were there buying a new one immediately, even though we couldn't get exactly what we ideally wanted. We had to settle, because life just isn't good without a refrigerator. It was still several days before the installation could happen, and we were living with dry ice and lot of ice cubes in coolers for several miserable days. The oven replacement, on the other hand, took months because that was extremely size specific and we could live without an oven. Still, I'm quite happy with our new oven, and I'm getting quite comfortable with it. 

This year I'll be able to make a Thanksgiving 
turkey on time in our oven. Last year we didn't 
get our replacement oven until closer to 
Christmas, so we had turkey, but our true 
Thanksgiving turkey was a dinner out. It was 
good, but it didn't give us that lovely smell that 
we associate with Thanksgiving throughout my 
house. I've been getting used to my new oven and 
I like it. It's a delight to have a functional broiler 
once again. 

So sometimes taking some time before choosing a product or device isn't a bad thing. Some things need to be replaced immediately (when the upstairs TV died, DH had a new one installed before the day was ended). Other things can take much longer (we've needed new windows for two decades. Maybe next year). But through it all, life goes on. The sun rises and sets, people are happy or sad, and the Great Wheel turns, never-ending, in the dance of the Universe. May you find your place within the Great Dance and have a wonderful day. Slava Ukraini. 

Ice, Oven Racks and Holiday Cards - Today's Blog Touches on Everything

Yesterday dawned with an icy rain sifting over the snow that had fallen overnight, creating a crispy crust that sparkled in the light - artificial or, later on, sunlight. In some ways, it was easier to break through the ice crust to walk than it was to walk on the already-cleared portions which were treacherously icy. The part of the driveway I shoveled first in the morning - the side where my car is parked - reflects light rather like a skating rink right now, whereas the part that DH cleared a bit later in the day is dry and quite nice. I'll be putting my ice-crampons onto my boots this morning - I'm quite sure the parking lot at work will be a challenge and I don't want to slip if I can help it. 

All of the parking lots up here in the 
Frozen Northlands should have had 
signage like this yesterday. An icy 
rain after a 3"+ snowfall made for 
treacherous walking conditions. 

We were busy all day yesterday and pulled in good sales. As usual, only about half of our customers had a "Year-end Blow Out Sale" email, the other half were just miscellaneous people looking for this and for that. We sold everything from lots of beads to some pieces of jewelry and a few Christmas tree ornaments which I put on sale at 50% over DH's objections. (As it turned out, those people who bought the ornaments did so before we had a chance to get the sign up, so they actually paid full price - still a bargain, but not quite as much of one). Since DH doesn't want the ornaments on sale, I'll probably pull the sign down before we open for business today. 

Yesterday, I ordered aluminum oven racks
for my new oven, along with a broiler pan. 
The racks come in a set of three and I had 
wanted two, so I'm fine with that. I hope 
they'll slide along the guides with more ease 
than the current porcelain racks. Merry 
Christmas to me - LOL. Christmas money 
well spent. 

I telephoned the Customer Service dept at GE yesterday morning and ordered a set of three aluminum oven racks and a broiler pan. DH had given me some money for the holiday, so I spent most of it on these. I'm hoping the aluminum racks will slide on the side rails much easier than the porcelain ones the oven came with. The porcelain ones are almost immovable, and that made me quite upset when I was pulling out the roasting pan with the turkey. I expect I'll have the new supplies within a week or so, so I'll see how they operate then. 

I do love my veggie smoothies. I've gotten making 
them down to an art, my only problem being the 
blender issues which do seem to be ongoing. I have 
enough money for an industrial blender, but will 
wait until this latest blender has died before I 
order one. 

I'm mulling my schedule over in my head - I don't get my usual Wednesday off, so I have to push a lot of my usual tasks off until Friday. I have to make sure I have enough salad fixings to get me through until Friday (shouldn't be a problem) and enough "Ogre Juice" (veggie smoothies) to get me to Friday as well. I'll need to shop to make more "Ogre Juice" on Friday, but the grocery stores don't close for New Year's Eve. I'll also start my Friday out in the swimming pool - I think the YMCA might be closing early for New Year's Eve, but that won't affect my 5:00 am water time. 

Isn't this a lovely idea for a holiday card? It's one 
of several DIY ideas I came across this morning 
while looking at images. I think this is absolutely 
adorable. 

I've been getting some wonderful Holiday cards in the mail and want to thank each of you who were thoughtful enough to send one to me. I appreciate them. I usually do a recap after the beginning of the year, so keep your eyes open. I look forward to sharing the variety and beauty with all of you. In the meantime, have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Gifts and Holiday Schedule - A Bird and An Upcoming Sale

Yesterday was crazy/busy and I ended up missing a zoom call completely because I messed up the time. They always state the time in New York time zone for their US customers, and I know there's an hour difference between NY and my home state, but for some stupid reason I suddenly thought it was an hour later, not an hour earlier. Oh well, the calls are recorded. I can catch it on replay. And I was busy wrapping holiday gifts for DH at the time anyway, so it would have been hard to pay attention to a Zoom call and deal with scissors, paper and tape at the same time. 

I'm pretty plain with my wrapping - there are 
only the two of us - I'm pretty sure that if I 
didn't wrap it, it's for me, and if I did wrap it, 
it's from me - LOL. 

As some of you might remember, I had purchased a new blender in mid-November (the 18th to be precise) because the carafe on my old one (purchased at the end of March) had cracked and it was leaking badly. I had glued the cracks but that was a temporary solution. Since they no longer had the carafe available, I gave up and bought a new one. So ... I had used it 4-5 times, and noticed I was getting cracks in the new carafe on the new blender. I called customer service and they arranged for me to get a new carafe, which arrived earlier this week. 

My Ninjo Professional blender doesn't have the 
food processing bowl (far right), but it does 
have the other items. However, if the carafe simply 
can't hold up to what I make, it's worthless 
to me. 

Yesterday I use the new carafe for the first time. I took photos before using it, because I have a feeling that this is an engineering issue and that the problem will happen again, probably just as quickly. But I was able to use my blender as needed yesterday, and I'm going to keep a very close eye on the carafe. If it's the physics forces that I think - the blade and the torque causing problems - I'll be trashing another new blender within a few months and buying a different brand - something substantial that will hold up making my veggie smoothies. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to puree a bunch of fresh veggies that are cut up, but I guess I'm wrong and it's much harder than I thought. 

We usually do our holiday gift exchange on Christmas 
Eve, but since we're closed for Christmas Eve this 
year, we're doing it tonight after we close the store. 

Today is our final open day at the shop before the holiday. We'll do a small gift exchange tonight before we go home, and then we'll have three full days off. BLISS! I will be swimming at 5:00 am tomorrow morning - I really don't want to miss my time in the water - but then I'll come home and cook a turkey in my new oven. I'd better double-check my recipe file on my computer to find my turkey instructions.  I did bake my chicken breasts yesterday night, after having done a thorough self-clean cycle on the oven earlier in the day. The chicken breasts turned out perfect, so call me a very happy person. The turkey will be our "trial by fire" for the new oven, though. We'll see how well it does on my bird - LOL. 

We like a nice brown skin on our bird, which I usually get 
by basting it every 20-30 minutes for at least two hours, usually 
closer to three hours. It just gives a lovely bird. We're having 
our Thanksgiving a month late but now we have an oven, so 
all is good - LOL. 

Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow, but then I'll skip the entire weekend and relax before we dive into our 4-Day End-of-Year Sale to wrap up 2021. I'm hoping things will be a bit of a zoo, but not so busy that we can't take care of our customers with our usual level of efficiency. I'm also crossing my fingers that my computer system won't spit. It's ancient, and it's been having "issues". Enjoy your Thursday. 

The Oven Has Landed - Start to Holiday Schedule

We have oven! Although our installer was delayed slightly, the install itself went really smoothly and within an hour of his arrival, the oven was in, connected, and working properly (they even set the clock for me). DH had an opportunity to ask Jim K about range hoods with microwaves that would fit our space. 

DH sent this photo to me after the oven 
was installed. I was so happy to see 
something other than my horrid yellow 
oven. And the clock was working so 
everything was operational! 

Apparently we have a 36" opening over our cooktop, and they don't make that size any more. But, he said they do make 30" ones, and people have been getting those and adding shelves to each side/ That would be fine, but we actually need it offset to be over the cooking portion of our cooktop, so we would be moving it all the way to the left, and putting up a 6" shelf instead. We could work with that, so we'll probably start looking for that next year. 

Now it sits comfortably next to the new refrigerator we 
got in August. What a saga it's been - total appliance hell 
for months. Today I start working with the oven, getting 
the new oven smell out of it, and claiming it for my own. 

Today, after I get my errands and a grocery shop run completed, I'll do one self-clean on the oven to get rid of most of the factory odors, then it will be ready to go. I'm still a bit undecided about whether to get a rotisserie chicken tonight, or make my beloved chicken breasts once again. I've really missed my chicken breast - it's the perfect size for two meals, and it's seasoned the way I like. Tempting .... 

Chickie's Chex Mix isn't quite as flavorful as DH's mix, 
but it really hit the spot. I ate three of the small Chex 
squares over the afternoon yesterday. It was a delightful 
treat. I'll nurse that baggie for a lot of days, very carefully. 

Chickie offered me a small baggie of Chex Mix yesterday, fully understanding if I refused because it has things that are not WildFit approved (even though most of it is gluten free and sugar free). But I actually accepted it. I had three pieces of chex over yesterday afternoon. At this rate, that one small baggie might last me well into 2022. I'm just fine with that. As a small treat, it's not a problem. I just can't go absolutely crazy with it as I have in the past. DH's chex mix is a cascade food for me - tons of butter, lots of Worcestershire sauce, a salty mix that I totally adore. I'm unable to walk by the large pot of it without grabbing a handful, and it hasn't been unusual for me to carry two medium containers to the shop with me for a day's munch. I don't dare do that any more. But I can do Chickie's - it's not as saturated with sauce, and not as salty/sweet. 

I'm off to the pool, busy, busy day today. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow for my last day of working before Christmas then three days off, and then we dive into our four-day End of the Year Blow-out Sale. Exhausting, but a great time for our customers. I'm still planning to post, but they may be short and a bit truncated. 

 

Blessed Yule and A New Oven Today

A Blessed Yule to all of my readers and friends. Today is the Winter Solstice, and as usual, I made my absolute deadline and got all of my holiday cards mailed out on time. I still have cards coming into my mailbox, and it's delightful to see the various lovely images and have a little bit of love from my friends and family. 

I saw this holiday card on Zazzle and thought it was 
really cute and clever. Thought I'd share it with 
all of you to brighten up your holidays. 

Today is Oven Day - by the time I get home from work today, I should have a new oven in place and ready to start baking and roasting. I'll run it empty for an hour at 400 F to get the new oven smell out of it (after looking through the Owners Manual) and I'll have a good look through the directions. I can hardly wait to use it. I've missed having an oven. We lost it during our weeks of hell in August (refrigerator died on the 14th, oven died on the 17th and toilet cracked on the 30th). We made do with the microwave, but an oven is an important part of any kitchen. 

Apparently my friend Helen has this exact oven and loves 
it. Hers is also convection, and I can't recall if ours will 
have that option or not. If so, I'll be delighted. I've always 
thought a convection oven would be lovely. I'll also 
be very happy with a good self-cleaning option since 
our last oven wasn't able to self-clean any more. 

DH wants to ask Jim K about range hoods and over-the-stove microwaves too, while he's here. We would  love to move our microwave above the cooktop so that we could use that counter space for one of the newer all-in-one ovens that do everything but jump over the moon. Our counter space is extremely limited, and we also have to be very aware of heat overflow. Whatever we get needs to be have a fan and be able to handle being mounted directly under cabinets that are heavily used. There are no counters in my kitchen that do not have overhead cabinets, and no cabinets that aren't fully utilized. 

We would dearly love to have our microwave mounted 
above our cooktop. Most of the range hoods with 
microwave we've looked at are much too large for our 
space. We have exactly 36" within which 
to work and want a microwave with a fan in 
that space. DH is going to ask Jim K for his 
thoughts after the oven is installed. There's got 
to be something out there that would fit and
he's likely to know what is available. 

So, as you can tell, one bridge crossed, the next bridge ahead - LOL. Still, I'm going to be grateful and dance the happy dance when I have an oven again. I have a turkey thawing in the refrigerator, just waiting for the opportunity to be roasted on Friday. 

Winter Solstice at Stonehenge will be live-streamed again 
this year. It's probably going on right now, in fact, given 
the time difference of five hours between us. Have a 
Blessed Yule. 

So have a wonderful Yule, celebrate the return of the sun to the skies in the North, and the retreat of the sun in the South. I'm going to plug in pictures and jump off to make my pool reservation for Friday morning. The gym closes at Noon on Friday, but the pool will be open for swimming at 5:00 am as usual, and I plan to be there to start my three-day vacation off on a good footing. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow. 

It's Gong To Be A Great Week - We Get An Oven Tomorrow, So We Shopped

DH and I actually had a rather nice Sunday, even though we had to work-. It was our final Sunday open, and we needed to do a lot of other things too, so we were shopping for a turkey and groceries at Target and then at CUB grocery at 8:00 am. Why a turkey? Because our oven will finally be delivered and installed tomorrow, and we want a turkey for Christmas Eve. We didn't get our own turkey for Thanksgiving, went to the buffet instead for that lovely meal. I'll have to look back at my posts, but I believe it was August when the oven broke, three days after the refrigerator. I know it was before Sharon came to visit us and attend the State Fair. 

If I'm correct, our new oven should look quite 
similar to this. It's a GE oven, in stainless steel 
and black to match the rest of the kitchen 
appliances. At this point I don't care what it 
looks like, I just want a functional oven again. 

I'll check dates and talk about this in a bit more detail tomorrow, but we bought a turkey, and stuffing, and assorted other things. I'll still need to do a Wednesday shop, and maybe even an early Friday one - even though that will be Christmas Eve and shopping should be vile. But our neighborhood grocery store is closed on Christmas Day as well as the day after to give their employees a well-needed break, so if I need something over the weekend, I'm out of luck. 

I might have to use actual butter. I'm looking through 
butter substitutes for my turkey and I'm not really happy 
with any of them. I use a butter substitute for my 
grain-free toast in the mornings, but it just doesn't 
have the same properties and I want this turkey to be 
perfect for DH. 

I'm trying to think of a reasonable butter alternative for the turkey. I try to stay away from dairy as much as possible (sometimes it sneaks into something, but generally, I've been pretty successful with this goal). But the turkeys that I made in the past, used quite a bit of butter under the skin, as well as for basting the turkey. It gives a great flavor as well as that perfect brown look. This year I'll be using my remote temperature sensing thermometer, as well as the new oven which actually has a window in the door. I just hope I don't get that residual metallic odor that can sometimes happen with a new oven. Sometimes it takes several days to burn that out, and turkeys are pretty sensitive to that. 

We picked up a nice, small turkey, about 8 pounds or so. 
It should be the perfect size for DH to pick at for a few 
days, and it will give me a nice drumstick and some 
breast meat. He eats most of the turkey. I don't mind 
turkey, but I get bored with it fairly soon. Of course, the oven 
needs to be installed first ... one step at a time. 

If the gym is open on Friday, I'm still planning to be there to swim before diving in to food preparation and three days away from the shop (hallelujah!). I have a lot to do before then, however, so I'm just going to get started right now. Have an excellent start to your week and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Oven #1 Gives Way to Oven #2, and Kitchen Dreams

Yesterday, after finally catching up with my blog and posts from friends, I headed over to my appliance store. Several of you suggested that I find a good, smaller local appliance store, but I really love my local appliance store. Even though it has grown from the single store I shopped at in the 1970's to a chain of stores across the Metro area today, it's still well-run, staffed by talented people, and has a great selection of appliances. I wanted to speak to our sales guy about the 24" oven issue and see what might be available in a 27" size. 

We ended up ordering one of these - also a GE, but 
the 27" version instead of the 24" one. This oven 
has no convection option, but I didn't want to wait 
until January for an oven, and that's what would 
have been necessary if I had chosen the 5000 series. 

My sales guy, Fadel, took over and we discussed the installation issue (I was totally in favor of Jim K not installing an oven that would fit the space poorly) and the replacement oven(s) I had found on-line. GE had two different 27" models, very similar to what I had originally purchased. The one without the convection option (which DH didn't want anyway) was actually available for delivery and installation in late November. We'd miss Thanksgiving, but all of the other ovens on our short list were unavailable until 2022. 

We also looked at over-the-range microwave ovens - the 
next thing we're thinking about. This will be a lot harder, 
though, since our current range hood is 36" wide and 
microwaves average 30" for that use. I'll probably talk 
to Jim K about the possibility and what he thinks could 
be done when he's finished installing the oven in a couple 
of months. We might have to wait until we re-do the 
entire kitchen to have this dream come true and recapture 
some much-needed counter space. 

We wrote up a provisional purchase order, and I told Fadel I'd meet DH at the shop after he got off work. They didn't have a 27" model installed to look at, but they did have a 30" which was almost identical except for the dimensional difference. I specified that I wanted Jim K to do the installation because he's the best - he'll make it look amazing - and since the oven was on sale, we ended up with a 27" oven for 60 cents more than the 24" oven had cost us. SCORE. 

We lucked out on the price. The new oven was 
on sale for almost $300 off, which actually meant 
we paid as much for the larger oven as we had 
already paid for the smaller one. It was a total 
wash, and we're going to get one that will look 
great in the space we have available. 

DH looked at the oven last night, as well as a couple of others. He was pretty fine with the 27" version of the GE, and then he went away to measure and dream about an over-the-stove microwave oven - something we've been wanting for a few years, but something that may have to wait until we tear down and re-do the kitchen completely. One thing we discussed was, when we re-do the kitchen we want cabinets instead of a dishwasher (we haven't used our dishwasher in decades). I pointed out that most homes do have a dishwasher, and that whoever might purchase our home when we sell, might want one, but really ... it's not a deal-breaker for me. We could use the extra cabinet space. 

One of the things that drives me crazy about 
our current kitchen is our corner cabinet. 
We currently have a 2-level lazy susan 
in that cabinet, and it works OK, but I never 
remember to check it, and it's not as 
convenient as it should be. When we re-do 
the kitchen, I'd like to look into these 
corner pull drawers instead. I think they 
would be much more useful and attractive. 

But that's in the future - certainly nothing to get confrontational about at this time. So I now have an oven coming in that will fit my space, and we can think about the next thing we might want to do in our kitchen space before we meet with a kitchen designer and start the total re-do (in another year or two). I hope all of you have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. Stay safe and be kind. 

And ... The Saga Continues *sigh*

So, my ideal scenario was doomed to disappointment. My oven installer arrived, took one look at where he would be putting our new 24" oven, and refused to install it saying it would "look like shit". DH managed to keep his temper, but barely. The oven was taken away, the installer left, and I still have no oven. I'll be heading over to the appliance store today to speak to the sales manager and see what we can do about getting a 27" oven instead of the 24" one that, apparently, won't fit properly into our space. 

This Frigidaire 27" oven is an inch too deep for our 
space. We need no more than 24" deep, this one is 
24-3/4". Current best delivery date - December 1st. 

The major problem with this is the fact that the 24" oven was actually in stock at the GE warehouse. The 27" oven, unfortunately, is not. It is backordered indefinitely, and it could be next year before I actually have a working oven again (which would totally piss me off - I want an oven for Thanksgiving turkey). 

The 27" General Electric oven has exactly the cut-out depth 
we need, although it's a bit wider than we really want. We 
can deal with that, if necessary. The standard delivery 
estimate is : "Temporarily on backorder with the
manufacturer. Items will be fulfilled in the
order in which they were purchased."  In other 
words ... "your guess is as good as ours". 

Nonetheless, if a 27" is what we must have, I'll try my best to get one, and I'll see what magic I can make happen. It's hard to work magic when the world seems short on chips and when electronic items are gathered at ports of call waiting for available shipping containers. I'm not sure if a good attitude, determination, and a way with words will go as far as I need. However, since the smaller oven is a no-go, I at least want a full refund on the cost of that oven, or 100% of that applied to a new one of the proper dimensions. 

The 27" Whirlpool at Home Depot requires a 24" cutout 
depth, 1/2" deeper than what we have available. That's 
a no-go, even if I don't want to buy an appliance from 
Home Depot. 

*Sigh* it's something I really didn't need, but it seems as if the hoops just got a bit higher and more numerous. I applaud DH, who held on to his temper when he wanted to let loose on my installer. Jim K may be difficult, but he's the best, and when he installs something, it's a beautiful job. I really didn't need DH alienating the guy I want to install the "proper" oven. It's like we wasted the past few weeks, though. We could have been ahead of the game if we had a better handle on sizing, or had been steered better by our sales person. I'll be speaking to the Sales Manager, for sure. I think we were misled on our initial order. 

There is this Whirlpool, which is more than I want because
it also has a microwave feature. I don't mind having
convection options, but I really don't need a second
microwave. The depth needed, once again, is a little too
much for the cutout that we have. So ... no. This one won't
work either. 

So ... on that note, I'm out of here. I have a lot to get done if I'm going to spend an hour or so at the appliance store before phoning Aearwen for our weekly chat. I might actually treat myself to a drink of hot tea and rum late this afternoon. I think I need it - LOL. Have a wonderful day, think bright thoughts to lighten up your surroundings, and I'll be back tomorrow. *hugs* 

Today is Oven Install Day - It Could Be Awesome or a Clusterf..k

I should have a new, working oven by the time I get home from work today. Of course, that's not quite the way things were intended - I told my installer numerous times, "I'm off on Wednesday and Friday, please schedule the install for one of those two days". Somehow, he had Tuesday on the brain, so when I texted him last night to find out if it was going to be Wednesday or Friday, he texted back that he had the oven in his truck and had been planning on today (Tuesday) at 9:00 am. Well, I have to be at work, so DH gets to handle this one. He's none to happy about it, either. 

I'll give the answer to this riddle at the very bottom of 
today's post. 
I told Jim K at least four different times in texting 
with him that my "days off" were Wednesday and 
Friday. Apparently I should have told him yet again. 
*sigh*

But, Jim (the installer) will have to work with Jim (DH), and it'll be difficult. DH doesn't hear well (I already warned Jim K), and he's very uncomfortable dealing with people. He's stepping up to the plate, but under duress. And I'm left disappointed. I really had wanted to be the person at home for the install. I like the installer, and I wanted to see how the whole thing got put together and managed. But, it was not to be. At least I'll get a new oven out of all of it. 

It's a very pretty oven. It's small, but we don't need 
a big one. It's actually quite similar in size to the 
one he'll be removing. It'll be nice to have a 
functional oven again, and having one that self-cleans 
and has a good sized window is a bonus. 

My understanding is that Jim K will have to add some wood to the cut-out to make the oven fit properly. He'll use raw wood, of course, and it will be up to me to stain the exposed parts to match the cabinets afterward. I'm fine with that, although I'll have to determine which color of stain will give me a good blend. I think my cabinets are oak, but I'm really not sure since they're all stained a lovely rich golden color. I am hopeful that this will be the final installment in our "broken" run. It's more than tiring to deal with this stuff on an almost monthly basis. 

The current broken oven showing 
the beautiful solid wood cabinetry 
surrounding it with a small peek into 
the living room on the right side. I'll need 
to stain any bare wood Jim K will have to 
use for the install to match the cabinets. 
Not impossible, but challenging. Still, I 
enjoy that kind of work, so it won't be 
a major problem. Also, I'll be quite happy 
to get rid of the yellow monstrosity. 

So, I'll abandon DH to the install, and hope everything goes smoothly. I'll do the bank deposit, pay the semi-monthly taxes due, and generally run the shop for the day. DH will be grumpy, and have to deal with Jim K, who can take some careful handling and my DH is as good at handling as the proverbial bull in a china shop. Interesting times are NOT fun to live in ... just sayin'. LOL

I looked through a lot of stock pictures for "Bull in a China 
Shop", but this was the cleverest use of that standard saying 
I found. I rather enjoy this particular bull in the china 
shop and hope you like him too. 

I hope your Tuesday goes smoothly. Have an amazing and spectacular day and I'll be back tomorrow. As always, please be kind and stay safe. 

(Oh, and the answer to the riddle:  S)

Dental Issues and Food Allergies - I'm A Mess!

One of the things that happened within the past week was a tooth of mine falling apart. Fortunately the filling stayed in place, so the 1/3 of the missing tooth didn't actually hurt, but it was just at the start of the extended Labor Day weekend, and actually getting in to a dentist for a new crown was impossible. I talked to my dentist late that night, but she was on vacation until Tuesday. The office was able to get me in this afternoon, however, so I get to spend an hour or so in the dental office at 1:00 pm today. Oh joy. Still, I really need this done. The sharp edges of the remaining tooth are cutting my tongue to shreds. Ouch! 

I suspect they'll want to replace the 
filling in the broken tooth with a crown. 
I'm fine with that - I have several other 
crowns and they work fine. I just want 
something so that my tongue isn't getting 
cut every time I chew. Ouch! 

I've also been dealing with an outbreak of rashes on my skin. I know this is related to food sensitivity and allergies, but I have no idea which foods. So I researched it a bit yesterday and purchased a blood test which I can take and send back to the lab for analysis. It should help me pin down what foods I'm sensitive about, and what foods I'm allergic to. I'd like to get this under control again - it looks awful, and feels even worse. 

This is the oven we're getting. It's small - a 24" oven 
on the exterior, so the interior is considerably 
smaller than that. I don't use it a lot, though. It 
needs to fit my Thanksgiving turkey and our 
holiday Chex Mix stock pot, everything else is 
fairly small anyway. 

My new oven was supposed to be installed today, but we're pushing that off until next week because of my dental appointment. I had a long conversation with my installer yesterday. He's concerned that we might have purchased an oven that will be too small for us. But, after a lot of back and forth, I think we're still going to go with what we've got. It will be small, but we don't use the oven a lot, and it will fit the space with minimal adjustments. I don't think there was a 27" version available in-stock anywhere either, so if we decided to move up from the 24" to the 27", it might not be possible. I'll know more next week. 

Time to put the bed away for another year and reclaim 
the room. I can move the sports memorabilia and the 
comic books back into this room for temporary storage 
while DH continues working on the Library area. 

Sharon arrived back home safely yesterday evening. It was such a joy having her visit again. Her towels are currently being washed, and I'll disassemble the bed and get her room back in order later today. I'm already looking forward to next year, when I'll have a MUCH better idea of what foods I can and cannot eat. 

I know one of the foods I'm sensitive to 
is tomato. That isn't even listed on this 
chart. But there are lots of other things 
that I might be sensitive to that are 
listed, and I'm hoping this blood test 
will help me pin down my triggers. 

On that note, I'm out of here. I might not be getting an oven today, but it's still going to be a VERY busy day. I hope you have a wonderful day ahead of you, and that you are kind to others and happy with your life. I'll return tomorrow. 

ARGH, Just ARGH - Another One Bites the Dust

ARGH! Those of you who follow me on FaceBook might have already seen this, but ARGH!!! So, last week, as you may remember, our refrigerator died. We ran over to the appliance store, finally found a model we could live with that was in stock, and ordered it. It will be delivered on Thursday. 

So this refrigerator is being delivered and 
hooked up on Thursday. We're already plumbed 
for the waterline, so the install should be pretty 
quick and easy, as long as they can get the 
refrigerator through our doorways (which 
will be tight). 

On Sunday (yesterday) DH decided he wanted to cook a couple of frozen chicken breasts for his dinner, so he turned on the oven and prepared a cookie sheet, then he heard a loud popping noise (it must have been fairly loud since he's quite hard of hearing). He thought it might be the refrigerator giving a final death gasp. But when he opened the oven, it was filled with smoke and there was no heat. He went down, saw that the electrical breaker had been tripped, and announced to me that the oven had attempted to start itself on fire and that the breaker had shut down. It was time to get a new oven. 

Our old oven is a 1960 GE. It was top 
of the line for that time - self-cleaning, with 
a built-in rotisserie. The self-clean hasn't 
worked for years and years, and I never 
trusted the rotisserie, but it was a reliable 
oven with dependable temperatures, and it 
fit our baking sheets and pans pretty well. 
(the black hole above usually has a board
covering it. It's an access panel for the
electronics if they ever needed repair). 

Our appliance store was open for another hour or so, so we took some quick measurements and went over. The same guy who had patiently helped us with our refrigerator now was helping us with a built-in oven. Same constraints - it had to fit into the built-in space. We ended up with three possibilities, two of which we weren't very crazy about, the third of which we would need to remeasure CAREFULLY to see if it would fit. 

We're looking at replacing it with this one. It's 
also a GE, and it fits the space almost perfectly. 
The chrome will marry well with the refrigerator 
to its' left, and the black will mirror the 
cook top to the right. It'll fit right into the kitchen 
scheme we're slowly working out. But there are 
only six self-clean models in stock at the factory, 
and I'm really hoping we can get one of those six. 

Tonight we're dropping back by the store and putting in an order for that third oven, which will fit - barely. The problem, of course, is that it isn't an in-stock item for the store, although the factory has 6 in stock in the US, so there's a possibility we can get one of those. We'll put the order in tonight. We can live without an oven much easier than without a refrigerator. We have the microwave - it works for most things, and the cooktop was replaced a decade or so ago, so it's still doing fine (knock on wood). 

Argh ... just ARGH. I think it's enough now. I really 
would rather not replace a third appliance before 
Sharon arrives in two weeks. Chances are we won't 
actually have a working oven by the time she's here, 
but at least we'll have a working refrigerator. LOL

Oh ... the joys of home ownership. We had hoped to put off replacing the oven until we got the entire kitchen remodeled in a few more years, but no ... we ended up having to do it now. Like I said in the beginning, ARGH!!! LOL I hope you had a lovely weekend. Ours was delightful ... until the oven broke. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Stay safe, be kind and please do something unexpected and nice for another person or critter today.