R.I.P. Coffee Maker

My coffee maker, which is less than 6 months old, died yesterday. I killed it. 😦 In a blur careless moment, I stupidly absentmindedly plugged it into the 220V output of the step up transformer in the kitchen. I had meant to plug in my 110V hair dryer, which I was using these few days after my regular hair dryer decided to give up the ghost, but grabbed the wrong 2-pin plug instead. The moment I flipped the ‘ON’ switch on the transfomer and heard a sound like a thud, I knew I had done something wrong. Yup, I shot my coffee maker and it fell down with a thud. The fuse and possibly something else must be short-circuited. I haven’t found someone locally who would repair small appliances. Also, the labour cost must be $$. A new one costs $80, so fix or burial??

Notice the shiny, new looking glass carafe? It’s new looking because it is new! I got this replacement carafe just a week ago because I had, in yet another  distracted state  one of those moments, turned on the wrong heating element on my stove and melted the carafe which was sitting on it. I don’t even usually leave the carafe on the element but just that day, I thought I’ll leave it there instead of putting it back on the coffee maker warming tray. And that day was the day I put on a pot of water to boil for pasta but turned on the wrong heat. 😦 There was a fire even and the good thing that came out of it was we know our smoke detector works.

In the meantime, there will be no coffee until my Bodum french press new parts arrive in the mail. Yes, I have a spare coffee maker. which I remembered after the carafe accident, but the parts have rusted so I have to replace them. By the way, if you own a Bodum french press and if the long plastic nut part which holds the 3 pieces together on the shaft (they call it a shoulder nut) needs replacing, email them and they’ll send you one free. The new ones are made of metal. I’m still waiting for mine but it’s in the mail.

This morning I decided to give myself some therapy so I bake a Devil’s Food Cake from Anna Olson’s new ‘Bake with Anna Olson‘ show and also write a blog post. Now that this is done, I have to go and face my kitchen…. And I hope I won’t have any more of these ‘OOPS!’ stories to tell!

 

One of those moments…

I had one of those moments where I did something stupid. I accidentally inserted the camera’s memory card into the CD slot! Tried to get it out but instead pushed it in all the way. It just dropped in and vanished!

Fortunately, hubbie was home and he managed to get it out. He rotated the Mac and somehow (I wasn’t watching!) got the card out. Phew! My hero!!

Well, that’s enough excitement for today but it also took whatever time I had to write a blog post. Pizza’s on the menu tonight (no cooking!) so I thought I had time… Will try again another day!

 

 

The Pioneer Woman’s in the House

UPDATE just minutes after hitting post: 

Wait a minute, this is her second cookbook! I thought I was checking out her first book! So does this make my library cool after all for being so quick to get Ree’s book? 😉

(The first cookbook is still not available, by the way!)

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Back in the summer of 2010, I searched for this book in my local library but it wasn’t available. I submitted a purchase suggestion. Late Winter 2012, I did a spontaneous search for the book and behold, it was on order and I could submit a hold request! Second day of Spring 2012, I picked up the book and brought it home. Ree Drummond is obviously not high priority to the library (although her novel was available before the cookbook was) but I still love my little town.

(Yes, I know RD’s second cookbook is out!)

 

Raccoon Thwarted

Ok, it has been three nights and there has been no raccoon incidents. We’re not sure if it came and was defeated by the cords or if it didn’t come at all. The bin look untouched and the latch was still locked down. It’s a little disappointing, actually! I guess we’ll have to test if the raccoon is still around with dummy compost in the bin and cords removed. For now, I shall say the score is Raccoon: 1 Man: 1

 

Raccoon Problem

Two nights ago when it was very windy, my husband heard bangs in the backyard and thought it was our bins falling over. It turned out a raccoon had knocked our compost bin over and had a party all over the yard! Fortunately the bin wasn’t full, only one bag of compost was inside.

My husband secured our bin so it couldn’t be knocked down and thought that would be good enough. This morning, this was what he found:

Raccoon: 1 Man: 0

I did some research and it seems lifting the latch is no problem at all for these urban pests! The one that frequents our backyard didn’t climb all the way in but he did rip a bag that was inside. He didn’t do a full rummage this time and I wonder if it’s because of the soiled (with pee) diaper that was it in, courtesy of a friend who visited last night with her toddler! You see, ammonia is a raccoon repellent!

This is my husband’s next strategy:

The cords are so tight that even he finds it difficult to remove them. We’ll see if it works tonight! Stay tuned!