Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Can You Relate???

My niece, Patti, made the comment about my pancake post, you remind me of Erma Bombeck. With Patti's comment in my head, I listened when my husband commented today  as he witnessed my daily battle with our toaster over,
"why don't you do a blog on the toaster and the coffee pot?"



Meet our toaster oven. Our beloved undercounter Black and Decker died and I searched high and low for one just like it. Seems they no longer make them to hang under the counter.
I suffer from NEAT disease. Dirt does not bother me, clutter does. This pretty little (note little is clue here) toaster oven at first glance fit my criteria. I thought If I can't hang it under the counter, this one is small and will not take up much counter space AND it is pretty and The Right Color (as if that really matters, says my husband).

  1. It sometimes throws the toast out on the counter, others it clutches it in a grasp that forces me to dig it out in pieces.


  2. One day it burns the edges, leaves the middle raw. Next day it burns the whole slice OR does it the way it should be. The darn thing has a mind of its own. The little oven when requested to make cheese toast, leaves the bottom un-toasted, burns the top, the cheese drips off into the drip pan, the drip pan is to small, so it goes UNDER the drip pan and that pab needs a surgeon to remove it from the toaster.


  3. The designer also chose to make a  door that catches crumbs in the door hinge and nothing short of a vacuum will get it out (so now I need a mini vac, dare I look for one?).


  4. It dominates our breakfast conversation! We both make the same comments over and over, like it will change the thing overnight. We both growl and grump each time we use it. we have discussed daily for a few months now the fact it had to be an idiot that designed it. If I bought another one, would we have any thing to talk about at breakfast? Would it be any better?


Enter the New Mr Coffee! In our 25 years we have owned THREE Mr. Coffees. the first two we loved, they were UnderCounter models, easy to use and obedient.
 The reasons I hate it. (note I say I because my husband never touches it)

1. I need  a college degree to set the timer each time the power goes out. the timer being The Reason I bought it (plus it was The Right Color and Small)
2. Look at the pretty glass pot. Guess what? when tilted to POUR it leaks down the front of the pot, every single time. It leaks so bad, I use the old coffee pot to pour water in it when I sat it up at night.
3. The darn thing does not come on UNLESS I remember to push the timer button.

Don't you think someone could invent one that KNOWS to come on whether the Senior Moments Queen forgets to push the button?
So far, I have not pushed the delay button, pushed the button but forgot to add the water, pushed the button, added the water and forgot to put the filter and coffee in it.
I close with this comment from Erman Bombeck
"If you can't make it better, you can always laugh at it"


4 comments:

Madeline (Mrs. Snapper II) said...

Good blog! Funny!! If I were you I would throw them both out and start over. We never spend much money on those items, so ours work just fine! Sometimes, if the bread is light weight, it will fly out of the toaster, like on "I Love Lucy!" Remember that?
Oh well, we need a little aggravation at this point in our lives to keep our blood pumping. :-)

Catherine said...

Cute blog, but I know it's frustrating. I'm with Madeline, put them in a garage sale & get new ones! Then you can talk about how good they are.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Oh Sandra, you are just so funny!!!!! Oh--the little hastles in life. I have a Mr. Coffee (fairly new) also--but it's not a fancy one like yours. Ours seems fine...

Now---about that toaster.. Just bite the bullet and give it to the Good Will (or someone). Start over --and buy something else you like. That hastle is not worth the aggravation. I find that the older I get, the less aggravation I want in my life.

Good Luck!!!!
Hugs,
Betsy

Ginny Hartzler said...

I love it!! Yesterday I said as well that you remind me of Erma Bombeck. You are hilarious, and now you need to look for household stuff to blog about to tickle our funnybones! I have two words for you:replace them! Look in Consumer Reports, or better yet, go to www.consumersearch.com and you will find professional ratings of everything under the sun. They take all the magazine ratings together. Coffee makers are surely the hardest to find!! No matter what kind you get, there's always something wrong with it. And the higest rated ones have pots with openings too small to fit your hand in and clean. I totally agree with you on dirt and mess. A fun day for me is organizing my drawers and cabinets. I have to have things neat, but don't care about dirt. Too bad, since I'm allergic to dust! Now for your next blog, how are your vacum and microwave running?