October 05th, 2023

Nothing really big to talk about today, but there are a few small, related things. Or at least semi-related.  Isn't that most of life though?  I believe that the majority of our life is a collection of little moments, small pleasures and tiny  treats.  This is more of that :)

Let's see, I suppose the first thing is that we got a new freezer for the utility room!  Yay!  You may (or may not) recall that a few months back our old utility room fridge/freezer died.  With no warning at all it went from fully functioning to zero functioning and no amount of threats or coaxing would get it going again.  Dang.  Frustrating!  Especially since it was less than 4 years old!  Grrrrr. Did not get our money's worth out of that particular appliance!  Drat.

Luckily we discovered that it had crapped out before it ruined everything inside.  And by everything I mostly mean what was in the freezer because, as it turned out, that was mostly what we used it for, the freezer compartment.  So somehow we managed to stuff the contents of the 2nd freezer compartment in the utility room into the primary freezer compartment in the kitchen. It was a very tight squeeze.  Then I cleaned the non-working appliance thoroughly and we on about our lives without giving replacing it much thought.  Let's see how much we REALLLLY need the second one.

As it turns out, it's not absolutely Essential to our existence, but it is nice to have.  And since we realized that we primarily used it for it's freezing ability, once it was replaced we determined that we would buy only a freezer.  Because we are smart consumers, we tend to shop the sales.  And when we find a great sale, doesn't it make sense to buy more than one of whatever the item is?  Of course it does!    So for example, if our local Farm Market is selling huge bags of chicken legs for $3.00 (not per pound....per bag!!!!)  Of course we are buying that. And at least two. And putting them right into the freezer!  Things like that.

And when I bake (which is often as we know) with a freezer, I have the option of making more than one loaf of something or making double batches of whatever and putting the rest in the freezer for.....I don't know what occasion but those occasions happen!  And becoz I have goodies in the freezer, we are prepared!

Sooooo, as I was saying, we are smart consumers and shop the sales.  And that means for appliances too.  Tim found a Terrific deal on utility room (actually they said garage) freezers but it had to be ordered before a particular date.   We talked it over and decided to go for it.  The day it was delivered (and they took away the old fridge/freezer thank goodness) we woohoo'd all over the place.  And once it was colded up, I moved over EVERYTHING in the kitchen fridge/freezer to the new freezer (except ice packs) and, and, and,  it was almost laughable.  Great Big stand up freezer with maybe 5 items in it.  And one of the items was a bag of banana nut muffins.  LOLOL    So we've been slowly adding to the frozen larder as great sales turn up.

Meanwhile, it occurred to me that since we have that big old freezer with all that extra space, perhaps a good idea would be to get some ice trays.  We go through a LOT of ice every day just the two of us.  If there is anyone else at the house who wants ice in the drinks, we will clean out the ice maker completely!  Tim agreed that it was a great idea and applied himself to the task of researching the subject.  Researching ice trays never dawned on me, by the way. I assumed that we would stop in a target at some point and pick up a couple of ordinary ice trays and that would be the end of it.  I was wrong.

A couple of days later several packages showed up via Amazon at the door.  Voila!  Tim says with a big old smile on his face.  Ice Trays!  All sorts of ice trays!  And I began to laugh and I couldn't stop for awhile.  Why?  Because these aren't ordinary ice trays. Of course not!    Some of these trays make HUGE ice shapes. Some of them make tiny ice.  Well everything is in some short of shape.  But I mean not run of the mill ice shapes.    It was a hilarious surprise.  

While I was beside myself laughing, Tim told me to count my lucky stars because he considered getting ice in the shape of trucks or stars or cats and instead settled on these.  And I was off again, laughing so much that my face hurt afterwards.  

So the new ice trays:  Some are spheres..great big ones and when the tray is over filled and some of the edges come out with the sphere, they look like the planet Saturn!  Some are tiny spheres...those look more like the former planet, Pluto.  Some are GIANT SQUARES!  You could hurt somebody with one of those if you threw it!  And then there are my favourites that are teensy hex shapes and the trays look like blue honey combs.  They are my favourites becoz I have always had  the terrible habit of eating ice.  These are Perfect for that!  I can fill a tiny shot glass with a bunch of them and slowly munch on them while doing another task.  

Here's the ice cubes?  Well some are cubes...what do you call the ones that aren't cubes?   I mean generically not specifically.  Thoughts?

And here are my favourite little baby hex ice cubes in their usual home, the shot glass:

I have no idea how many of those I go through in a day.  I don't want to count. It's probably embarrassing.

And then there is the last  new thing.  It involves lights.

More than 7 years ago now, we had just moved into this house and the very first thing we did, I mean Very First Thing was to have the kitchen reno'd.   And that of course, included new kitchen lights.  We requested a line of can lights  down the galley with under cabinet lights, plus several pendants over the peninsula, one over the sink and a fixture over the table.  Tim and I like LOTS of light.  So our builder accomodated all of our requests.  Yay!  We still love the fixture over the table and matching pendants but the can lights never really seemed to give the amount of light we wanted.

But you know how it is, you deal.  It was still WAY more light than when we bought the house so, we made do.  But more and more often, while cooking/baking I found myself turning on every dang light in the kitchen, including undercabinet lights and that little light under the microwave (it's over the stove) and still wishing we had more.  As time went on, suddenly one day the can lights at the far end of the kitchen by the pantry and the utility room door went out.  And suddenly there was this black hole at the end of the kitchen .  Oooo Scary!  And less than ideal.

So, last weekend Tim  replaced all of the can lights with brighter white lighting and oh my gosh the difference is incredible!  The first thing I said to him was, "Holy Cats!  I could do surgery  in here now!"  It's awesome! I can see everything!  (including the dirt, sad to say - a great deal of cleaning happened immediately aftewards...once again, embarassing).  It's Awesome!  We still just cannot get over the difference between the gloom zone that used to be the kitchen used to be and the light bright happy place that it is now. 

It really is the little things :)

Wishing you a bright light happy day and an even better weekend!

hugs all 'round.