Mother of All Toaster-Ovens!

The Fuzz and His Sweetie have a little system worked out to help preserve their sanity since his retirement.

Once a week, one of them will spend the evening and night over at the Old Place.This has the added benefit of keeping up with things over there.
Then, after a lonely night they will meet up for breakfast at one of the local restaurants.
One of their favorites has one of those "Thrift Stores" located beside it.  This one is run by the Veterans.  The Fuzz and His Sweetie slipped in* the other morning after breakfast.  Whilst perusing the various items, Our Fuzz came upon this gem.

This must be the Mother of All Toaster-Ovens!

Now it just so happens that since there no longer is a cookstove** at the Old Place, a toaster-oven would be useful, and in fact they already have a $2 one from the Goodwill.

But this was tempting.

Check out all these features.

But $30 for a thrift store toaster-oven?

It was tempting, but The Fuzz just had to let this one go.

*This, of course, was not the first time.  The Fuzz actually purchased his only suit here when he needed one for a wedding!

**It turned out that the old stove from the trailer had a tendency to give the occasional electric shock.  So it was discarded .

Day Trip

Being as there was no school this week, due to the Spring Break (with used to be called Easter Vacation) The Fuzz and His Sweetie decided to take the Young Daughter and her boyfriend up to the Relatively Large City for a bit of fun.
On the way they saw these guys, and stopped for a quick pix or two.

Once in the city, the first stop was the Asian Buffet for a not so quick bite.  Then they hit the Thrift Store for some cheap additions to the wardrobe.  The Fuzz found an old toaster-oven* to use over at the Old Place since there is no cookstove there.

The plan called for a session at the $3 movie.  But alas, we were informed that the show had been cancelled due to "technical difficulties".  It seems that the projector had blown up showering glass over the audience and all.  

So... No movie this time.
It was time to head back to the woods and be satisfied with a DVD from Netflix.


*These things are great although they have been largely superseded by those new-finagled microwaves.  Back in The Days, we used these things for everything from broiling a steak to making biscuits!

The Pay-By-The-Pound-Outlet-Store

On their way home from a recent family visit, The Fuzz's Sweetie and the Young Daughter prevailed upon The Fuzz to make an unscheduled stop in the Big City to hit the Thrift Store.

It must be admitted that The Fuzz has never been a big fan of this sort of thing.  But even he has had to admit, they do have their place.  He found a needed suit at one of the local places for $4.50 when it came down to it.

But this was the Big One, the Real Deal, the Pay-By-The-Pound-Outlet-Store.  

These places can get interesting.  Once at another "Outlet Store" he watched in amazement as a man checked out with an entire shopping cart of shoes!

So what are these ladies doing?

(besides texting)

Note the blue line on the floor.  This particular blue line has nothing to do with the mass transit in this city.  This is all part of a ritual of this place.  These ladies must stand behind this line as new bins of clothes are brought out.  Then the signal is given.  Then, and only then, can they tear though these latest piles of clothing.

But Our Fuzz's time was not completely wasted.  He did find a couple of serviceable shirts and a cool little book.  of course he was very glad to finally make it back to Our Home In The Woods.

The Fuzz, His Sweetie, and the Young Daughter took a trip into town for a bit of culture yesterday.  Here is a pix of the Cameron Art Museum.

There are no pix of what they saw inside since that was verboten.

But it was pretty interesting.  Among the other things, there was a dress that a woman had dirtied up by dancing around in a pile of red dirt.  Perhaps The Fuzz just doesn't understand culture.

But he does understand beer, and that was the next stop for lunch.

 The Fuzz enjoyed a couple Port City IPAs* and a Ruben Sandwich.

After being refortified, they were ready for some fun here at the riverfront in Wilmington.

One of the stops was, of course, a Bookstore.

This must be the secret entrance to the mysterious Book Club!

The Riverfront area is pretty nice.

 And across the river, of course, is the 

Battleship North Carolina.

*An American style India Pale Ale.  If you like hops you’ll like this beer.  Large amount of American hops give this ale a great citrus hop profile and large amounts of Vienna malt were used to create balance.  6.1% ABV

Mountain Adventures

With that Young Daughter off visiting family for the Holidays, The Fuzz took His Sweetie to the mountains.This place may be familiar to some.

When they got into town, it was a bit early to check into their hotel. So they headed over to King Street.
One of their first stops was this place, The Art of Oil. All those tank things were filled with different kinds of Olive Oil, or Balsamic Vinegars. There were little cups that you could use to sample them.
Here's one of the customers doing just that.
The Fuzz and Sweetie poked around in the various shops until it was time to head to their hotel. That was when they saw this.

It seems there was a bit of construction going on. They could see the hotel, but the driveway was impassible! Finally, the cellphone, and The Fuzz's Sweetie's sharp eyes, figured it out, and they made it into the place. After checking in, They made a stop at Cheap Joe's (getting lost in the process) before heading off for some supper.Here's a view from the hotel that night,
And in the morning.

They want to take good care of you at the hotel.

They don't want you to forget anything.
The Fuzz didn't, as you can see.
After checking out, The Fuzz and His Sweetie headed back over to a combination bead-store, coffee-shop, they had seen the night before. Alas, it was closed.
And so, they took off, back down the mountain. And after a few more adventures, arrived safely home.

Tequila

You like it ?

Check it out !
And Vote !
(if you can)

You can drink some later.

The Replacement

In the previous post we related the story behind the loss of our faithful tea kettle. While it is possible to boil tea water in any sauce pan, there is nothing like the whistling tea kettle. If nothing else, tradition demands it. And so as it was a rainy morning, we went off to the city in search of a suitable replacement. And here, The Fuzz is proud to present, our Brand New Shiny Tea Kettle!
Now all that remains, is for The Fuzz to find a replacement burner for our "cooker". With luck, things should be back to normal by tomorrow evening.

Candle Power

After Christmas we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This was one of those quiet candle lit dinners.
Whilst at the "Sandy's Country Christmas" store, shortly before the big day, we were picking up a few last minute supplies. When the proprietors learned that we actually burn the candles, they thew in a few damaged ones for freebies.
But what, The Fuzz has to ask, use are candles that never get burned? This is the time of year for candles on the table, even when the power's not out. The Fuzz's Sweetie knows how to make things nice.
Here's some of our cool candle holders made out of transmission parts. The semi-carved rock on the right is a souvenir of a special place on the west coast.
Well, for now, it's back to the "old grind". I guess we'll see how this 2010 thing turns out. But, so far, so good.

Big City Tradelot

During our excursion out into the wide world last week, we slipped into the State Capital. This was not for any "official business" or anything like that, but to hit the Big City Trade Lot.

Unfortunately, it was a rather cold and gloomy day.

But there was a lot of stuff there. We checked everything out and picked up a few items. One does have to be careful in these places though. Sometimes you can find the things cheaper in a regular store. The Fuzz picked up this Doggy Bottle Opener there. The guy had a whole trailer full of this stuff. The Fuzz thought it was cool and might come in handy since real beer usually comes out of a bottle.

But the weather was rather unpleasant and after meeting up with Schoolteacher Daughter, we soon cut a trail out of there to get ready for the Next Event.