dianaschnuth

I bought some No-Pudge Fudge Brownies at Claudia’s a couple weeks ago, and decided to make them for our trip to Canada this weekend. All they needed was a container of vanilla yogurt, mix ’em up, and throw ’em in the oven for a half hour. That I can do, no problem. Preheated the oven, stirred the powdered mix together with 6 ounces of vanilla yogurt, put it into a lubed-up pan, and opened the oven—

Why is only one little bit of the heating element glowing red? How odd.

I turned the oven off — I’m kind of skitchy with appliances that don’t do exactly what’s expected of them, especially when it involves electricity and lots of heat — and waited for the oven to cool again. I figured that maybe something funky had been spilled onto the heating element, and I could just clean it off and be on my brownie way.

So, once the oven was cool enough, I got a sponge (for lack of anything more abrasive) and got to work on cleaning the heating element. Carefully.

But apparently not carefully enough. Where the element looked like something had spilled on it and simply needed cleaned off, the element easily snapped in two like chalk.

Um… I think I broke it? Maybe it was already almost broken. At any rate, now we need a $35 – $40 part for our oven before I can a.) make brownies, which are now sitting raw in the refrigerator; or b.) test out any luau recipes. Oh, or c.) make any more tropical-scented candles.

So, why do I say “crisis averted,” when my oven doesn’t work now? If I hadn’t noticed the weirdness with the heating element, I could have set the oven on fire with my brownie-baking. As it is, we’ll just have to buy a part and either try installing it ourselves or pay someone to do it for us. We won’t have to buy a whole new oven, or a whole new kitchen.

Crisis averted.

Aaron was assembling his lunch this afternoon/evening (since he works nights) when we heard two quick rings of the doorbell and two quick knocks on the front door. That’s usually the UPS man’s MO, so Aaron went over to the door and peeked through the peephole.

“I don’t know who that is,” he said, turning back toward the kitchen, “so I’m not answering it. Some lady with a clipboard.”

Not ten seconds later, the person rang and knocked again, and I saw Aaron’s eyes flare before he turned to stride back toward the door. I stayed in the kitchen, unseen, while I listened to the exchange:

Aaron: Can I help you?
Woman: Good afternoon! How are you today?
Aaron: Can you read?
(I assumed he was pointing at our prominently displayed “No Soliciting” sign.)
Woman: Yes.
Aaron: Thank you.
Woman (just before door closes): Piece of shit.
Aaron (yanking the door back open): Fuck you, too!

According to Aaron, the woman flipped him off from the driveway as she walked off, and her clipboard read American something-or-other. I’m guessing she was a political pollster of some kind, and I’m hoping she wasn’t working on behalf of a charitable organization, considering her reactions.

As for me, I prefer to go the more passive-aggressive route of not answering the door at all, even after the second knock, but it’s easier to go that route when the car isn’t in the driveway and I can feign not being home. Aaron’s OK with being a little more confrontational than I am, generally speaking.

Still, though, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect to be left alone by pollsters and solicitors and proselytors when you post a No Soliciting sign right next to your doorbell.

Remember when I was all excited to get my IKEA kitchen organizer hanging bar thingie? I actually purchased the Gründtal bar and spice rack and shelf and S-hooks back in early December 2007… but I haven’t installed them yet.

Why not? Let me explain.

I located the studs in the wall before I even bought the rod, just to be sure it would fit properly. No problems with the fit — however, the stud finder we bought told us that there is hot AC by one of the studs I’d planned to drill into.

Now, I’m not in a big hurry to either a.) electrocute myself, b.) screw up the wiring in my kitchen by drilling through it, or c.) all of the above. Do you guys think I’m OK to go ahead and drill through the stud and install the mounting screws and the bar, or should I not mess with it at all?

I can’t find any specific info about this online, so I’m asking my faithful readership. What do you think?

One of Saturday’s IKEA purchases was a Billy bookcase. I had previously measured the ceiling height in our finished basement, and determined that a Billy bookcase would reach to within an inch or two of our low ceiling. I had also determined that the white plastic shelving unit currently living in our basement was just plain ugly, and needed to go.

The white plastic shelving unit was a throwback to Aaron’s bachelor days, when an $8 shelving unit worked perfectly fine either as a bookshelf or for general storage. (I had one, too, I admit, but mine was black.) The shelving unit was thrown up in the basement as a stopgap measure — in my mind, anyway — until we could get some nicer-looking furniture in the basement.

So, I came home Saturday night with a couple pieces of nicer-looking furniture for the basement, including the Billy bookcase. Sunday afternoon was spent assembling the bookcase, then unloading and removing the shelving unit and replacing it with said bookcase. The assembly really wasn’t any worse than putting together a Sauder bookcase — it may have been easier, in fact, thanks to slightly different procedures with locking screws and whatnot. I did miss with one of the nails while attaching the back, and messed up the middle shelf a little. It’s not very noticeable in the grand scheme of things, though, as Aaron kept assuring me right after I did it.

Unfortunately, nicer-looking storage doesn’t magically turn the stored items into books and knick-knacks and cuteness; I still have super-8 equipment, camera equipment, sewing and craft supplies, photo storage, and other randomness on the bookcase. At least it looks a little classier, though:

The white plastic shelving unit is now in the garage, where plastic shelving units belong. 🙂