Mixer Fixer: Part Two

The last time we left Justin, he looked a lot like this:

Except that this time, he was putting in the last screw after (hopefully) fixing this thing. I held my breath while he plugged it in and turned it on.The results?

Total success!

So I did what any grateful, self-respecting girlfriend with a newly-working stand mixer and a knack for producing killer baked goods would do. Yes, it was cookie time. Justin's favorite cookies are white chocolate chip macadamia nut ones, so I did some searching and we went to get ingredients for...

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies...With Pumpkin.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugarpacked
• 1 cup Libby's canned pumpkin
• 1 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups white chocolate chipsnestle toll house premier
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts, toasted
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine flour, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda in small bowl.
3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. 
   
   
   {Ready to fire it up!}
   Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla until blended. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto greased baking sheets; flatten slightly with back of spoon or greased bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar.
   
   
   
   {Mmm...}
5. Bake for 11-14 minutes (13 worked best for me) or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. I also put some chocolate chips into two of the later batches for those of us who are so inclined...I think I'll toss in some coconut next time. Mmmm...
   
   
   
   
   
   

Five Days Without a Face

Early Wednesday morning I did something that would shock and appaul most people:
I deleted or abandoned my social networks.

{source, source and source, respectively.}  

You saw that correctly--

No facebook. No twitter. No livejournal.

Why?
I've been thinking for quite a while that I use them too much and that they are just media clutter. There are much better things I can do with my time, especially going into my last year of nursing school. I also rely on them to effortlessly maintain my friendships. And that's really uncool.

Why now?
The final straw was thinking that I don't like it when facebook tells me that my friends are, say, getting married or having babies. This, childish as it may be, hurts my feelings. It also makes me feel like it's high time that I should be getting married and having babies (things which, though they are age appropriate and would be pretty fun, just don't fit into my life plan at the moment). Does facebook get to hurt my feelings? Does it get to make me feel like I'm weird for not doing what everyone else is doing?   No. That's weird.

As for Twitter and LiveJournal? Same bat time; different bat place. Plus I'd all but stopped using Twitter, and it seems that I only use LJ to complain about school--no one wants to read about it everyday, and there's no way I'm ever going to forget how school has effected me.

So since I identified the problem, I thought I'd go ahead and fix it.

Part of me thinks that If I'm really close to someone I'll know what's going on anyway, and the rest of me thinks that not knowing will be fun to talk about when my path eventually does cross with those of my acquaintances.

It's been five days since I said goodbye to my internet addictions, and I have to say...it's been surprisingly easy. It may not be a forever thing, but it's definitely a great thing for now. Ahh, I could get used to this...

Mixer Fixer: Part One

That mixer we found at that awesome yard sale several weeks ago? 

Beautiful. Perfect. 

...except for one thing. We knew when we bought it that the speed control was...well...out of control. Turn the thing on, and you get 400 watts worth of speed all at once. Wow. 


After a little research, Justin found what we thought would give us a normally functioning mixer, a speed control board thingy. He tinkered.

He closed up shop. I plugged in. He flipped the switch. And the darn thing did the same thing it did before we started. Sad face.


After a little more research, Justin thinks that we need the part that connects the other part to the motor. We ended up getting the part from a little appliance part shop in Bristol--wait for it--for less than we found it online. Who would have thought, right? 


Hopefully, in 7-10 business days, I'll be able to report that the finished product will be up and running...

Yard Sale Goodies

It’s not much of a secret that, along with fireflies, camping and the drive-in movie theatre, yard sales are one of my favorite things about summer.

{source}

Justin and I were driving back from the farmer's market last week, and he saw a sign for a yard sale. Now, you and I both know that yard sales are no good after about 8 a.m. because the oldies come out and get all the good stuff before us youngsters are awake. For the second time this summer, however, he convinced me to go anyway, and for the second time this summer we found awesome stuff for not much money. Actually, we found a ton of awesome stuff:

A room-dividing screen thing for $2

Going to replace the fabric…

A queen size down comforter for $1.50

I guess she just...didn't want nice things in her house anymore? o_O

Several stainless steel mixing bowls for $5

Alton Brown would be proud.

Two hand built mugs from an evil stepmother in Mexico for $1

Fun!

Four curtain rods for $5

Not useful now, but hey...why not?

A gas grill for $35

This one is actually going to take a bit of work. …sigh.

A new Kitchenaid stand mixer for $30. 

I'm going to have to sink about $35 into a speed control panel, but this will still be about a fifth of what it would cost in real life. 

A queen size canopy bed frame and drape for $12

I've always wanted a canopy bed. Always. 

There were other odds and ends, but they are already well enough absorbed into the environment that I consider them to have always been here.

Yard sales this weekend were not nearly so good, but we found a like-new electric knife and Uno Attack, each for $2. Not shabby.