Last night

I opened the preheating oven the oven to put the first part of dinner in, and saw something I have seen in an oven once before, about twenty years ago. Guess what? This is not really something you want to see happening to your oven element. I decided to go ahead and chance cooking dinner in there and see what happened.

Dinner cooked, and apparently the problem moved along too, which I have to admit to not really expecting. The last time I had an oven element look like that, it flamed up and made a puddle of melted metal in the bottom of the oven. This time it kept sparking its way along the element, around the curves and turns. Yes, I know I should have turned it off and I probably spiked our electrical usage for the month (or more), but I really wanted to eat dinner. I did check on it a couple of times to make sure it wasn't doing anything drastic (and Chan, I promise the fire extinguisher was right there).
Sometimes when I checked it, the element just had a red hot spot, and sometimes it was white hot and sparking like a sparkler.

Which is pretty much what it looks like all cooled off and ready to have a new element installed. We are hoping that Home Depot sells them so that life can be back to baking as normal around here before Tuesday.

Today it was cold.

Not only outside, -2F at 8:30 AM; but inside too, 55F at the same 8:30 AM. It turns out our twenty-year-old furnace decided during the night that it didn't want to see another birthday. Of course, we didn't know of that final decision until after the repairman had come out to look at it. The fan had some issues, as did the circuit board, both of which could be fixed. Apparently the furnace has decided it would rather have cracks in its main and secondary heating chambers than reach a legal consumption age.
(With any luck the temporary fan fix will last until tomorrow. Right this minute, it isn't looking as likely as it was at noon. I think we might know around eight tonight.)

Public Service Announcement, AKA Hubband's big weekend project.

Did you know that the smoke detectors we all have in our homes (you do have one, don't you?) wear out/become ineffective after about ten years and need to be replaced? I bet Chan knew. (Or maybe the smoke detector makers are just pulling our leg and finding a way to stay in business; I guess I can't really blame them at this point.) Anywhos.... I looked at some at the store last week, realized we needed to consult Consumer Reports, and figure out about the whole hard-wired to the house category that ours fall into. So, research was done, and we were able to determine that we could get ones that were carbon monoxide/smoke combos so that we wouldn't be breaking the law any more, as well as be able to have a temporary override button. (MN passed a law last session that all single family homes needed CO detectors as of last July 1st. Multi-family/rentals don't need them in place for either six months or a year after that.) The one in our kitchen tended to go off a fair amount. Not that I really burn stuff very often, other than spilled cornmeal, but it was very sensitive. (I was told by a friend of our that when they go off that easily it is a sign that they are wearing out.)
Anyway, Hubband went off and bought three new proper detectors and a new fire extinguisher. These need to be replaced every some number of years too; I just don't know how many, maybe it depends on the size and type. We knew that needed replacing as the last time it was recharged (I hope everyone knows that they have to be recharged periodically even if you don't ever use it) we were told that it was old enough that they couldn't do it again after that. Then he and DTE did a bit of research to determine which circuit breaker shut off the power to the smoke detectors and all were replaced and set up. The new extinguisher is in the kitchen pantry and the old one is out on the patio. (Even if it doesn't work exactly like it should, we are hoping that it buys a little bit of time to come out with the new one and place the proper phone call if we were to have an issue with the fire pit. Well, we can always hope we never need to test the theory.)

So, there you have it, a weekend report that is also a very important PSA. Please check the date sticker on your smoke detectors, replace them if they are more than ten years old, make sure you have a charged and current fire extinguisher, and a CO detector. 'Cause as they say, "Hey, let's be careful out there," [and safe].

Life is full of choices

Choices about what to read and/or listen to.

 

Choices about what to knit.

 

Choices about which washer to use

 

and which dryer.

 

Choices about whether to fix a broken washer or just get a new one.




Choices about what washer to buy.

What do I take with me today is the question

I have determined that I really can't wait until Monday to do laundry. The drawers are getting empty and the basket is overflowing (and that is just one of them). Plus if I wait until then, it will take me forever to get caught up. I would probably just be almost there when the two plus weeks x 2 of camping/backpacking stuff would show up. The dishes will be bad enough, though they always promise to do those. There will actually be an extra person arriving for two weeks just before Hubband and DTY get home. We get to have Mr. A come visit again! He is my "Baby Brother's" oldest son. (Please note that that my baby brother is two and a half years older than I am, but he is the baby of my brothers.) Any who, Mr. A is our annual summer visitor for a couple of weeks. The first year he came, I flew to CA to get him, and Baby Bro flew out here to retrieve him. Since then he has gotten to fly on "unaccompanied minor" status. We are all really excited to have him come visit, BTW. I digress from my less than exciting day however. Back to the laundry issue. I have to do laundry, so I have to go to the Laundry Mat. So that brings me to the question of what should I take with me to do while I wait for stuff to do its "get clean and dry thing"? Do I take Shiny, do I take a book, or do I take knitting? I am not currently reading anything that I am finding super engaging, but I have stuff that I am happy to keep reading. Well one of the books I haven't really gotten into yet and I stared it at two in the morning, so I shouldn't rush to anything about it yet. The other book I have been reading is something that I can easily put down (hence why I started a new novel while in the midst of a smallish one). Do I take knitting that is easy to carry along? Do I check to see if I have easy knitting that I can do while reading in case I can't make up my mind? Oh, the dilemma. I could spend more time wandering around figuring out what to take with me than I actually spend at the laundry mat. I just wish I had the option of playing pool while I did the laundry. (From the one review, I am guessing the owner has changed sometime in the last ten or twelve years. This place is located on a bus line/walking distance from the University area, so it has done well in the past as a business. I just haven't been there in at least one lifetime.)
On a more exciting note, I get to go to the post office today. I have books to send off to BB, Mr. A and Miss D (Baby Brother's wife). They are getting the first two books in a series that is every bit as good, if not better than the book the three of them will be fighting over this weekend. And a movie is coming out of the first one in December. I can't tell you what they are until they have the box in hand. I just hope it helps the problem of three people trying to all read the same book at the same time. Unless someone there just has the sense to read it out loud to everyone. They could take turns reading out loud after all. Because that (the one that comes out tomorrow) is not the book I have planned for reading to Mr. A this summer. I am also mailing off my Dog Days Dishcloth Swap box and my HSKS2 box. That one is a lot closer to the wire than I wanted, but the yarn I had ordered took longer to get to me than I had expected. Oh, well, all is good and off it goes today.

I am going to leave you all with these YouTube links DTE gave me. Apologies to all you avid Star Wars fans out there (and I know there is at least one:) ), but I hope it makes you laugh as much as I did. The second link is an apology to all you Queen fans, but I hope you also get a chuckle out of it. I will let everyone know, that I am a Queen and Star Wars Fan (perhaps not of the magnitude of Bubblesknits but we can't all be like that.) I guess I can listen to Shiny Queen while I read while knitting at the Mat.
(As an aside to some folks in my family who are still learning these things, click on the grey words and it should send you to the link referenced.)

I'm Not Ready! Wait! I'll manage somehow

This is what Ravelry has to say about me today.

You signed up on May 29, 2007
You are #5812 on the list.
64 people are ahead of you in line.
11655 people are behind you in line.
32% of the list has been invited so far

I'm not sure I'm ready. The camera is on vacation. Most of my yarn is weaving yarn (think very, very thin), I have to do dishes and go to the laundry mat! I am not sure I can stand the pressure! Oh, I haven't even really seen it yet, maybe I should just take a deep breath and wait to see how it is. Oh, wait, maybe I'll find other weaver/knitters! Who knows who/what I'll find? How long do I have to wait?

The dishwasher is toast. The dryer's motor is on its way out (as in, it still starts but shuts off right away). On the bright side, they fixed the refrigerator with no problem. Thank goodness for that! A cooler really isn't a viable alternative like a sink full of soapy water or the laundry mat. Do you think they have WiFi there? I better pack books and knitting with the rolls of quarters. Did I mention it is supposed to rain here?

A Picture of the Potato Salad

This a the potato salad we are having for dinner tonight. I didn't get it made yesterday, something to do with the dryer not working and needing to get the laundry done for backpackers... I get to have the appliance folks in twice this week it looks like. Once to replace the gasket for the dishwasher and the refrigerator. The second time to see if the dryer can be fixed. They'll hopefully be back after that with a part.