Christmas came early

Well, for me and J. that is, and it wasn't even something that was on our list. Welcome to adulting. J. got the new parts on the range installed, but it turns out that it was an electrical component which was sparking at odd random times and generally not working. He thought he got it fixed enough to limp through the holidays, but after a couple of dozen pumpkin muffins went in the oven, it never got hotter than 175 degrees. (Pro tip, even at 175, things will bake if you give them long enough, over an hour for muffins.) 

So, having repaired enough appliances over the years, we have learned (sometimes the hard way) that there are certain repairs that are not worth financing. This one seemed to have reached this category. J. went to the store today and brought home this.


Gas stove and oven (because it seems that while it would be a very simple thing to make dual fuel ranges, they are considered a high-end feature, you know because the average person can't have nice things... yes, I'm bitter) and has two burners with high BTU's. There are certainly some features which are better than the one we junked, not the least of which it works. I am grateful we were able to buy this, but it truly is not how I wanted to spend the money. Maybe I'm both bitter and conflicted. As a side note, J. has become extremely good at appliance installation. If I count correctly, this is the 8th (maybe 9th?) appliance that he has had to install since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. All I want is an appliance that is going to last for a long time, you know, more than a year or two. Sigh.

The other thing we did today was to break out some eggnog and listen to a radio drama production of A Christmas Carol done by the Goodman Theater. (You can listen, too. It is free for the month of December. I've linked to it.) I've always wanted to take everyone to see the Goodman's annual production, but since the tickets are very expensive and would cost more than the stove we just bought, we never have. This was a fun way to do it in a minor way.

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