11.25.06

November

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 2:15 pm by Meg

It feels like it’s been ages since I really posted on here.  Sorry about that.  It seems like when something would make a good post, I’m running like crazy and don’t have the time to ‘talk’ about it.  And then when I do have a moment, I’m a blank. oh well.

Right now I’m chased out of the kitchen.  Tochter has connected with another couple of Germans.  S is a high school exchange student, that goes to another high school in town, and M is an older student-teacher that is working on her English by staying in the States for a few months.  The 3 of them are cooking us a authenic German meal.  Yum, well worth being chased out of the kitchen.

We are having a nice Thanksgiving weekend.  Thursday was pleasant.  We spend most of the day playing games and had a great game of Monopoly, as well 15-point dominos, and Jengo (we both the Uno and Discovery Toys versions and played both after discovering that is was one of Tochter’s favorite games.)  The turkey came out great, though I undercooked the apple pie and had to stick it back in the oven.

Yesterday, we went to see the new James Bond film.  Tochter was amazed at the number of little kids that were in the theater.  She said that in Germany, kids aren’t even allowed into a movie like this until they are 12.  We all enjoyed the movie and liked the new Bond.

Ever since we came home in June, I’ve been warning Hubby that I thought the washer and dryer were on their last legs. The dryer was making a terrible noise when it first started up (and not drying very well)  and the washer was having more and more trouble getting the soap out of the clothes.  Given Girl’s skin allergies, the soap was my bigger concern and I had been rinsing some things over and over again.

Well, two weekends ago, the dryer died.  Luckily it was at the end of drying a load, but it was at lunchtime on a Saturday and both Hubby and Boy had just informed me that they were short on whites. (Not the load I was washing).  Given the machine’s ages, (16 on the washer and 10 on the dryer) Hubby said to just go ahead and replace them both.

Knowing that I had a choir performance that night and that whatever I bought would need to be delivered, I decide to just buy it over the web rather than running all over finding  something.  Big mistake.

I went to Sears, because I usually end up there when I buy large appliances, and searched through all of their listings to find the machines that did what I wanted (discovered that they now make washers that do an extra rinse automatically - definitely a must with Girl) and checked that they were available in my area.  I then talked to Hubby about what I wanted and their prices and he said to check that the ones that were just a little more to see if they had some amazing bell or whistle that would make spending a little more worthwhile.  So, I went back and did some more looking.  And came up with a washer and gas dryer that were reasonable, did what I wanted and said that they could deliver within 2 to 14 days.  Sounded great to me.

Then I went to checkout.  Remember that delivery date?  Well, when they went to actually book it, they came up with Jan 9 as the next available date.  WHAT!!  I was not going to be schlepping our laundry to the laundrymat for 8 weeks through the holidays!

So, then I went to check the other options in town - HH Greg, Menards and Lowes. I was able to find some machines at HH Greg, but they wouldn’t even tell me what the delivery date would be until after I paid and someone called me back (on Monday!!).  After Sears, I was not going to try that.  Menards’s webpage was not set up to allow you to search for machines online, so that left Lowes.

They did have machines online, but while they could find me a gas dryer, the site said to contact the store about the washer that I wanted.

So, instead of a quick purchase and arrangement of delivery (needing no personal interaction) I ended up spend over 4 hours trying to finding machines.  I was no closer to having something delivered and I had an hour to review a couple of spots in my music, change, and get to my first performance in 17 years.  YEAH!

A good ending - The performance went very well and then I ran to Lowes.   It turned out that the problem with the washer, that I wanted, was that the only one left was the floor model (10% off automatically), but they only had a few gas dryers in stock.  I was able to find one that had what I wanted and wasn’t too expensive.

And the best part?  They deliveried them both on Monday morning!!  I ended up spending a chunk of the afternoon connecting the gasline to the dryer (got it the first time when I finally got all the parts that I needed!!) and I love the new machines.  What a difference.

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