Waffle Aftermath

So after my mother-in-law passed away, one of the things I got from the house was her Belgian waffle maker. This is the real, original deal, folks! It's from 1965 or so, makes ONE small waffle at a time, has no heat control, no timer, and no on/off switch! Plug it in, it's turned on. Unplug it, it's turned off!

Those controls (or lack of them) sort of make it difficult to make a successful waffle. The first time I attempted it, I was using a malted waffle batter (Golden Something brand, the same brand that Marriott uses for their Residence Inn and Courtyard Hotel breakfasts). That attempt came out really really dense - tasty, but very chewy - and the waffles were cooked properly and didn't stick to the waffler.

Today I used Bisquick, following the waffle recipe, and, boy, they were very tasty. However, even though I sprayed the waffler (like I had done the first attempt) and there was more oil in the batter, today's batch cooked up too brown and stuck to the waffler.

Luckily, we're not too picky about our waffles and ate them with gusto, slightly crunchy edges and all.

(When I poured the batter for the first one today, I used too much batter and it sort of exploded all over the kitchen... I'm so happy that we have a "I cook, you clean" policy in our kitchen!)

Made it back home & will be here for 3 days - then off to Vegas to spend a little time with my brother. Oh, & there will be gambling. Yes, indeed!

"Apparently not..."

So, the answer to the question "Are you ever going to stay put?" is, once again, "Apparently not."

Off to Camarillo this past Saturday so we could visit with KW's dad and get some papers signed for the house that was just sold. Plans were to spend time with him, then toodle around Camarillo/Ventura/Oxnard and look at apartment complexes in preparation for (possibly) moving down there in the not-too-distant future.

That's not what happened.

What happened was a growling/creaking/groaning noise that started to come from The Beast (KW's BMW) when he was turning the car, especially at low speed. We noticed this late Saturday when we first pulled into the real estate agent's parking lot and noticed that about an hour later, it had gotten noisier when we pulled into the parking lot of the ALF where his dad lives.

By the time we had gotten back to the hotel (a real pit, but that's another story), it was obvious that driving it around on Sunday would not be advised and driving it home on Monday was out of the question. So Sunday morning was spent trying to find where we could score some fluid for that model BMW. It seems that his year and model BMW (2001 740iL) is very, um, special. You can't just pop in to Pep Boys and pick up a can of Valvoline generic stuff. Oh no, this is going to require special stuff that's very expensive.

We learned all the above after a few phone calls Sunday morning to said Pep Boys, AutoZone, and O'Reilly, so the next phone call was to a car rental agency at the Oxnard airport (which is an airport in name only, as there are no flights in or out, but that's another story). Oh, and by now, it's raining the first and biggest rain storm in Southern California since the last first-and-biggest. The plan was to drive the rental to the local BMW dealer, which, we assumed would be open even if the service department wasn't. We would leave the car on the dealership's property, put the key in the 'night owl / early bird' box, and have them work on it.

I think we found one of the only car dealerships in California that's closed on Sundays. Not only closed, but all the driveways in were gated off. We couldn't even get the car to where the service department was. And even if we could, KW roamed around and noticed that they didn't have a drop box!

Instead, we managed to find a car repair shop that specialized in German cars (that had an after-hours drop box!), and left his baby in their parking lot with a note letting them know what was going on. The really really bad news about all this? Any other weekend, we could have waited around for them to fix the car and come home Monday evening or even Tuesday. This time, though, no such luck. We had to be back on Monday - HAD to be back - in time for KW to attend a client meeting in Sunnyvale at 2:00 PM.

So after all the phone calls today, the car will be ready by Wednesday, when we will drive the POS rental car (Nissan Versa - don't get one) back down to Camarillo, get the BMW, go back to the rental company and give them their car back, then decide if we want to drive back Wednesday night or stay over Wednesday night and drive home on Thursday - Thanksgiving Day.

Despite all this, we really are thankful, and we don't have any problems in our lives, just minor inconveniences, as evidenced by our next trip - we'll be off to Vegas on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Travel interrupted (for 12 days, anyway)

We got back from our annual Pismo Beach trip (which was lovely, by the way) on Sunday, November 6, and we're heading down to southern California to visit KW's dad on Saturday, November 19. Those 12 days between the 6th and the 19th represent the longest stretch we've been home since... well, it's been a while. This past weekend was the first weekend we've been home where we didn't have to travel or where we didn't have work to catch up on or work-ahead for.

It was glorious.

We slept in. I walked. We listened to the radio. I knit. I cooked. We watched one of the Oceans movie (can't remember which one; it doesn't really matter, does it?). We were supposed to go out to dinner with friends on Saturday, but one of them got sick and had to cancel. I hate to say it, but we didn't mind - it meant we could slug around all day and not worry about being 'on' for anyone. We know C. will recover and we'll have dinner with him and M. another weekend. For this weekend, it was okay they had to cancel.

This coming weekend will be a quick turnaround for us. Early drive on Saturday to meet the real estate agent (KW's parents' house sold!), visit with dad, poke around some neighborhoods down there, then a very early start home on Monday morning so KW can go to a client meeting at 2:00 in the afternoon. That means we'll have to be on the road by around 6:00, maybe 7:00 at the latest. After I nap, I'll be able to knit for the rest of the ride. But after I nap. Definitely after.

Is everyone sure they don't want a nice teak wine rack? Roll-top desk? Long dining room table? Well, I got rid of my knitting machine; I'm sure I'll get rid of these things before we move, too.