Not that I need your leave to be absent, but for the rest of this week I will be anyway. What can you do about it, eh? 😉
Come back next week when my usual babbling curmudgeonry will be back.
I Do Love It When a Plan Comes Together
So, this was to be the summer when we purchased a new fridge. The one we have has served us well, but it entered this house two owners back and has definitely reached the effective end of its service life.
The glass shelves are still good, though. *heh*
So, we looked around, doing our due diligence, researching options on the web, and selected one from a Big Box home improvement center, the same one where we bought our Whirlpool washer/dryer set and nice Bosch dishwasher last summer. Yes, we would like to have purchased a new fridge last year, but we prioritized things a bit, ran the numbers and decided not to spend the cash that way last year. Instead, we lump summed out of our mortgage.
Now, with more than enough cash on hand, we decided to purchase the fridge we’d selected in July. Then, two days ago, my Wonder Woman noticed that it had gone on sale “through June 27” for $300 off the price we’d decided was our sweet spot. So, we went in to make the purchase and arrange delivery, instead of ordering online (because I needed some plumbing and electrical supplies and because I like making sure the salespeople there get their commission. Makes ’em glad to see me coming *heh*. It was no surprise they had none in stock. No problem as they could order it in. But while we waited for the salesperson to finish up with another customer, we looked around a bit anyway.
Oh. Wait. My Wonder Woman saw a fridge that had been on my own short list but t aprice point we didn’t want to (not couldn’t but didn’t want to) pay. The manufacturer was running a (apparently, “Gotta clear out our inventory!”) special: $610 off, placing it, with nearly 8 cubic feet more storage and a couple of other gewgaws and gimcracks, at juuuust under the one we’d come to purchase.
Got it. The four year extended warranty was also less. Got that. The plumbing kit for the icemaker (to replace the old, old line now semi-installed *heh*) was also less. Heck, with the savings on the bigger fridge with more doodads (features), etc., my additional plumbing and electrical supplies only brought us about even with what we’d been planning to pay for the fridge alone.
Not too shabby.
I love it when a plan comes together. I’m also thankful that “lucky” can still beat “planning” every now and then. 🙂
This One’s Almost a Recipe
*heh*
I made a new BBQ sauce the other day.
-
3 Roma tomatoes, quartered
1/2 large Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 dime-sized dollops of
Put everything but the vinegars a in a food processor and whir away until all is very finely minced.
Dump that and the vinegars in a saucepan, then add the Dave’s Insanity Sauce and stir. Bring it to a boil, then back it off and let it simmer a while. How long? I dunno. I think I let it go about 30 minutes. Oh, I added a little olive oil, which I didn’t bother to measure–probably 3 tablespoonsful–to the saucepan before adding the other ingredients.
Meanwhile, microwave a pint jar full of water until the water’s boiling well. Just before th next step, pour some of the boiling water to cover a lid (use a lid-and-ring Ball-or-Mason-type jar). It’s not going to really be water bath canning, cos it’s going straight into the fridge, but this will lessen the chances of contamination with something nasty.
When you think it’s pretty well come together and the tomatoes, especially, are cooked, dump it all back in the food processor and whir it until it’s smooth. Dump it, still hot, into the hot jar, cover with the lid and screw down the ring. Refrigerate. It’ll keep just as long as it takes to use it up, I suspect. It went very nicely on last night’s grilled burgers (just for Son&Heir and I–my Wonder Woman doesn’t partake of Holy Hotitudinousness *heh*).
I Just Hate It WhenThis Happens…
… no, I REALLY hate it.
Bought a window AC unit for that never-cool-enough room. Long story. Unboxed and installed it. Plugged it in and followed the directions to turn it on, checking off the steps in the owner’s manual (cos it had a hi-tech remote sensor unit and a buncha other gewgaws and gimcracks and I wanted to make sure no one sneered at me later, “RTFM!” *heh*).
Nope. DOA. Ran through the simple troubleshooting checklist in the back that’s designed for people who are too stupid to even be able to read it. Nope, of course I had plugged it into a live circuit of the correct voltage and amperage rating. *sheesh!* Who did these people think they were talking to? An idiot?
After I got through being insulted by the troubleshooting page, I dialed the toll-free number listed right after the words, “If these solutions fail, call… ”
Yep. Nothing but an automated line directing me to call a toll line for support.
Now, I’m not just insulted but pi**ed off.
Rude cretins and beating down on me with a stupid support process.
So, I finally got some nice lil gal with a checklist to make sure I had already done allthe things in the insulting “troubleshooting” checklist in the owner’s manual. Finally, I had to tell her what was wrong, since her lil list ran out of things. The “reset” switch on the plug was dysfunctional. She offered me three “solutions” to that, and then deleted one for some inexplicable reason.
- 1. Send me a new cord.
- 2. Send me a new cord and make an appointment for a service person to come and install it.
- 3. Give me an RMA number for the AC unit.
And guess which one she deleted from the list? Right, just sending me the cord. I had to talk her back into that one. *arrggghh!*
So, the cord I know would solve the problem will be here next week. And? I already replaced it with one I had laying around. (I just had to recall I had it and go get it.) 20,000 screws (well, it felt that way *heh*) and some finicky and delicate plastic clips later, I had a functional unit. The cord I used had the same circuitry for line test and overload/reset, so it fit just fine. Now, I suppose I’ll just have a spare when the other one comes in. And since no provision was made for return of the dysfunctional cord, I’ll have that to play with (and probably repair when I get around to it).
But that was time I’d rather have spent on something else than a BRAND NEW DEVICE that came from the factory broken. Oh, and the dimensions on it were 1/4″ larger (height) than the listed specifications (both at the seller and the manufacturer–I checked). I had to disable the lift mechanism on the aluminum-framed window I installed it in–in addition to removing the storm window. If I’d had the 1/4″, I’d not have had to do that.
I just hate it when companies can’t get their products or their facts right and it costs me, with no real repercussions for the company.
Oh, Frigidaire. The unit had good reviews and ratings, but the company probably changed the production line after the reviews to save $0.25 per unit and invalidated all previous ratings and reviews…
It’s a Good Thing These Kids Are Italian
They’d never have had a chance getting started with the music industry/media *gag-spit* here in the USA. But now that they’ve gotten a start via a sort of Italian version of “[Wherever] Has Talent” (“Ti Lascio Una Canzone”–something like, “I Leave/Sing/Give a Song for/to You”) in 2009 and a follow up hit album (Gold and heading for Platinum in Italy, since its release there last year, and just released in the US) it’s a tad hard for the media to overlook them here. And of course, the big shake-up at American Idol caused someone to say, “Hey, let’s have these kids on for a spot!” (Probably because Geffen Records pulled some strings to coincide with their album release here, of course).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbfuYUy3Org
There are plenty of these kinds of YouTube videos posted, including more than a few of their recorded performances before live audiences in their home country a couple of years ago (fun to watch folks singing along at places :-))
But if you enjoy their performances, don’t just leach off low-fi YouTube recordings. Buy their CD or the MP3 album.
At a little over half “classic” songs like “O Sole Mio”, “Un Amore Cosi’ Grande” (a 70s-era Italian ballad–great song) and “Smile”, and just under half new stuff, I could’ve just bought the “classic” songs as individual downloads (since the new stuff isn’t quite as good as the older songs), but I’d not have saved any money, really, and I’d not have been able to make a fair assessment of the new stuff. (Assessment: not crap, and in fact pretty good just overall less worthwhile listening than the older, better-crafted songs, although Notte Stellata, a newer piece, is saved by its musical derivation from a Saint-Saëns tune. And “El Reloj” is very good, despite being written and performed in a language I’m mostly boycotting. *heh* “Painfully Beautiful” is almost painful to listen to, though. Bo-ring. *heh*)
I’d buy more recently recorded music if more of it were this musical, but no. The “recording industry” in this country has its production line and “artist” plantations and absent a revolution, it’s just going to keep feeding crap to folks, making sure the masses are kept musically dull.
*sigh* I’d not downloaded mp3s from Amazon for a lil while here. Amazon is apparently becoming another #@^*$# tyrannical Apple clone, dictating that one MUST use its downloader to download mp3 albums and then f’n associating everything with the crappy M$ Media Player AND, as it downloads another mp3 in an album, starting up the crappy M$ Media Player and bringing it on top of any other app.
What utter crap! Frankly, crap like this makes me want to pirate music instead of buy it. I don’t, but this crap is way,way beyond annoying, all the way into, “I’d like to go to Amazon’s corporate offices and burn the thing to the ground!”
Sure, AFTER it’s downloaded the album, I get my first chance to go in and change preferences, but there’s only one thing to change that will alleviate ANY of the bad behavior–and changing just one of the bad behaviors is not good enough. If I wanted to have someone dictate to me what app to play music with put on an Apple straitjacket, get an Apple-performed lobotomy and use iTunes.
Asshats.
I will give Amazon this: at least it’s still allowing plain old everyday mp3 downloads.
The Zero’s Take on Debt
Quick-n-Tasty Coffee Addition…
…and a bonus tip or three.
Use a stick of cinnamon (it’s just a lil dried roll of cinnamon bark) as a coffee stirrer. Nah, you don’t have to add cream and/or sweetener (sugar or other). Just use a stick to stir your coffee for a subtle cinnamon kick.
Update: forgot to mention that if you don’t just use the cinnamon stick as a stirer but leave it in the cup as you sip (you do sip, not gulp, right? hmmm? ;-)), it’ll continue to add cinnamon flavor and it’ll soften enough as it soaks up some of the coffee that you can actually nibble on it. Chewing a wee nibble of cinnamon stick along with a sip of coffee is… nice. And cinnamon is good for both weight control and boosting brain functions, particularly recall.
Bonus hot weather drink: Do add some cream (the real stuff) and some sort of sweetener to some hot coffee in a thermos. Add a stick of cinnamon and leave it in the fridge overnight with the lid cracked open on the thermos. Or, instead of the cinnamon stick, grate some nutmeg into the coffee (I’ve done that into the brew basket when I was making some for just my own consumption). I normally do not like cold coffee, but this lil tip makes it drinkable, even enjoyable, for me. While it’s not “coffee-coffee” in my mind, it’s still tasty.
Try other “bright” spices that come to mind, or add some cocoa powder or whatever for your own unique cold coffee-based drink.
Beats the snot out of buying some refrigerated coffee drink crap from Starbucks or whatever.
BTW, do make sure you buy “food grade” cinnamon sticks/bark. Apparently some is available that’s some sort of manufactured crap for “decorative” purposes (whatever that means). I generally get six-ounce bags for a buck. YMMV.
Oh, and when you think you’ve sucked all the flavor out of your cinnamon stick, think again. Let it dry, then put it through your coffee grinder (we have three: a burr mill for coffee and two blade grinders, one for “sweet” spices and herbs and one for “hot” spices”). Even with the flavor pulled from it by several cupsa coffee (or the equivalent), ground up it’ll probably be more flavorful than the pre-ground crap that’s been sitting, losing flavor, on some grocer’s shelf for who knows how long. Ditto for just about any spice. Buy whole and store well, then grind however much you need a bit at a time.
And (tightwad tip!) always buy bunches of whole spices whenever they go on a blowout sale. If you’re really concerned about preserving them, use a vacuum sealer and mylar bags and store ’em in your freezer (or, with the mylar bags and O2 and H2O absorption packs, just store ’em on a pantry shelf–most folks say the O2 absorption packs are unnecessary with vacuum sealed mylar bags, as in the linked video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU8W92U37PU
A “Not-Quite-a-Recipe” Egg Dish
Mostly ingredients and process, no amounts; you decide those.
-Eggs
-Butter (no, not margarine)
-Cream
-Cooked bacon, chopped into ~1′ pieces
-Onions, minced and either sautéed or “microwave sautéed”*
-Jalapeños–sliced, canned works best for this one, IMO, and/or
-Other diced peppers
-Shredded cheese
-S&P to taste
Baking dish
Oven at 350 °F
Melt some butter for the bottom of the baking dish–however much will cover it when melted; whisk together eggs and cream; bacon in bottom of dish, onions on top of bacon; pour in egg-cream mixture; slide jalapeños on top and then sprinkle with shredded cheese. About 25 minutes more or less in 350 °F oven. Remove and let it set up for a bit. You could turn th oven to broil for the last few minutes if you want to get a lil more top browning. Eat it up.
*”Microwave sautéed”=some olive oil and/or butter in appropriate-sized (for amount of onions) microwavable dish, uncovered. Microwave for a minute, first, then 30 seconds at a time until the onions are nicely translucent and, when sampled, have sweetened a bit.
Also, if you want to go ahead and make a “piperade” sauce, then fine. Peppers, chopped; onions, minced; sauté in butter or olive oil and then add some diced, canned tomatoes. Let it simmer a while to come together. Heck, a little garlic wouldn’t hurt.
Avoid This Printer
I don’t usually dump all over a piece of hardware, but I’ll make an exception in the case of the HP Deskjet F4580 AIO. I bought the thing because I read the wrong reviews, apparently. Oh, boy did I! *sigh* Nice, thought I: a wireless-enabled printer by HP, a company whose printers I’d always had good experiences with in the past. Cool. That way, I wouldn’t have to leave a computer on and connected to the network with printer sharing enabled in order for users on the network to print to it.
Besides, it looked like it’d save desk space, given that I’d be able to scan documents as well. (Sure, we have a couple of other scanners, but again, to not have to have it connected to a computer… and the space issue.)
I should just have bought a device to connect our 13-year-old, failing, HP workhorse printer to the network. I’d have gotten better service. Sure, the printer was failing, but still…
Oh, when it prints, it prints very nicely. When it scans, it does that nicely too. But. Keeping it connected is a PITA. Sometimes, the only thing that I’ve been able to do to get it to connect is to completely uninstall the thing (and the humongous software package that should NOT be required to install the printer) and then reinstall it. Again and again and again.
Router shows it’s connected? Nope. The printer isn’t. Print a document and the print queue shows it’s printing? Nope. Not until the thing’s turned off and then turned on again. A whole mess of things like that. HP’s diagnostic utilities and installation wizard and cleanup utility? All junk. Utter, completely useless crap.
Oh, and did I mention that we’d scarcely printed 10 pages of text (all black ink) before the damned thing (yes, I think it was designed and manufactured by demons in hell) was reporting both cartridges nearly empty?
I was already POed at HP for some of its crappy notebooks/netbooks it’s shoved out the door recently, but this thing takes the cake. The other day, it performed a partial print of a document four times before it printed the whole thing. And I’d cleared the print queue each time it tried and failed to print the thing and did not resubmit the document at all.
What a PITA.
Oh, and the scanning? Yeh, still pretty much need to have the nearest computer on, since one has to place the document to be scanned and it’s far easier to control the scanning from a nearby computer (wirelessly, there’s pretty much only one way: via the web interface; that’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but invoking the scanning facility via one’s graphics software or even the HP imaging software has about a 50/50 chance of working at best). Of course, since most printing/scanning away from my desk is from notebooks, bringing one in and doing the scanning (via the web interface) would let me leave the always nearby compy off, I guess…
All in all, aside from the demonically-engineered and manufactured piece of crap dropping its wireless connection willy-nilly all the freakin’ time, the sheer clunkiness of the thing is irritating.
Avoid it.
Tightwad Electrical
OK, I’m a patzer in the area of electrical work (OK, perhaps just lacking the practice necessary to own a high level of skill, ‘K? :-)). I know that. It means, for one thing, that I work very, very slowly when working with electrical wiring, etc. BTDT as a young kid with the live socket thingy. *heh* It also means… tools. As in, my better tools are designed for car mechanicking, plumbing and wood working.
The “proper” tools for doing electrical work are fairly expensive. I’m talking about the screwdrivers and pliers, etc. (I have circuit testers that work for the simple electrical circuits I work on around the house. Yeh, they’re overkill, but I’ve also found them useful for electronics stuff.) Since the electrical work I have planned will end when everything at twc central’s finished, I didn’t want to spend $20 for a pair of pliers, etc., but just have some tools that’d do the job–safely. Of course, almost all of it could be done with uninsulated tools as long as I were pretty darned careful (shut down circuits, etc.), but rewiring electrical panels w/o detaching the meter (detach meter=get the electrical company pi$$ed off at me) does require working around some hot lines, so…
Bought some new, cheap-a$$ed tools and wrapped the handles with some self-fusing silicone/live rubber tape rated for high-voltage electrical wire wrapping that I always have laying around.
Works. Cost me about $2/tool. Added to the $1/”cheap-a$$ed” tool price, I came out of the operation with tools as safe (electrically) as $10-$20 tools (screwdrivers in the “pro electrical” range are still expensive) for about $3 apiece. Yeh, yeh, the tools backups. I already have one designed for wiring work (has the nifty lil wire bender for socket/junction box, etc., installations built in–and it’s had its insulated handle beefed up by rubber tape wrap, just ‘cos) and a couple of better wiring pliers, but @$3 apiece, making sure I have one to leave behind at one end of a run can be really handy for my work style.
Besides, if I “lose” one of these, I’ll not weep and moan and gnash my teeth as badly as if I lost one of my better (still not “pro” grade) tools.
Oh, first up? Running a new circuit off an outside circuit that’s been unused for ten years or so. Still not planning to use it for the purpose it was once used for (above ground pool, now gone), so re-routing it inside as a new, dedicated, circuit for the overloaded kitchen. There’s another unused circuit available on that panel (it’s a simple two-circuit sub-panel) that I think I may dedicate to the freezer or the dishwasher, just for the heck of it. Three more unused circuits on another outside panel that may get used outside in the near future, but they’ll just have to wait.
Some strange stuff in this house’s wiring already, so I don’t feel too weird about these lil projects, even though I know it’d be best to just rewire the whole house “correctly”. I’ll settle for safe, for now. Heck, four years ago, I started tracking down a “mystery circuit” that was wired in the main breaker panel but didn’t feed to anything in the house I could find. It was in a terminated box, unused, coming out of the basement ceiling. It’s now serving ONE room downstairs… Son&Heir’s electronics only. Gotta love 12-gauge Romex. (Strangely, that circuit was wired with 12-gauge from the box, whereas the rest of the house 110 has 14 gauge wiring… weird. I kept that circuit at 12-gauge throughout.)
I’d like to pull new wiring, circuit by circuit, throughout the house and rationalize some of the weird layout, but that’s something I’ll just have to do a teensy bit at a time, I think. May take me the rest of my lifetime, as I have plenty of other projects to complete around here. *heh*
Anywho, the “proper tools for the job” don’t always have to be expensive, special-purpose tools. As I did with these, they can be common tools adapted and repurposed to very closely approximate the special-purpose, “pro” tools while maintaining both functionality and essential safety features. Less expensively.
After all, I don’t plan on making a living with ’em, nor do I plan on willing ’em to my heirs.