Done Just in Time!

I got a commission to embroider 11 beach towels for a bachelorette party (oh, how I hate that phrase). The customer wanted the names 2" high, with "Mexico 2009" underneath. And she needed them by March 24 at the latest -- they're leaving on the 25th!

These are really bright towels. The striped ones made my eyes hurt. I decided to wash them first -- good idea, since some of them shrank noticeably. I ended up with several filter screen "blankets" of orange and green lint.

It took me a week and a half of trial and error to get the names the right size, and 3 full days of embroidering, but I got them done with a few days to spare. :o)

Celebratory pizza and other ramblings

On Wednesday the repairman came and replaced our wonky control board on the oven. While he was at it, he replaced the thermal sensor. To celebrate the oven's rebirth, we had pizza for lunch. :o)

Right now I'm so tired from work I can hardly stand it. (Or is it, can hardly stand?) The company keeps cutting our weekly allotment of hours, but wants us to keep the store looking perfect. Sorry, ain't gonna happen. We can do a lot, but we're not miracle workers. When you only have 2 people on at night, especially when it's busy, there's no way to get everything put away before going home. And forget about making things look nice -- we don't have time for that kind of luxury, even if the big boss IS coming to visit.

This week I have to buckle down and get 11 beach towels embroidered. I wanted to do the names really big, but I can't manage to work it out with my software. I'll have to do it letter by letter on the machine, as big as possible. Oh well, c'est la guerre.

Charcoal rolls, yum!

Last week we had Sears out to check out all our appliances -- stove, dishwasher, two fridges and a freezer, and the washer/dryer. They sent 3 different servicemen -- one for the washer, one for the fridges and freezer, and a third guy for the dishwasher and stove. Everything checked out okay, even the 18 year old washer/dryer combo.

Fast forward to Sunday night. Dad put a porterhouse steak in to broil. Halfway through, the stove started beeping and flashing "F1". I dashed for the manual (in the drawer with the single-edge razor blades, mug rugs, and table butler) and learned that it was an error code. Something had malfunctioned. :o( We followed the directions to reset, and it seemed to work okay. Having decided to finish the steak in a skillet, Dad set the oven to bake and soon put the bread in and set the timer. Right before it could ring off, he checked on the rolls and found they were not so much browned, as blackened. (We saved some to show the repairman.) And the damn display was flashing that damned error code at us again.

First thing yesterday we called Sears for service. It took Ma half an hour on the automated line just to get a number to call for service! Then she's told that the earliest they can show up is Wednesday. grrrrrr

Hopefully, when i get home tomorrow we'll have a working oven.

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Update: The guy came out this morning, and our wonderful electronically controlled oven has a wonky control board. He ordered it, but it'll be next week before we get it replaced. :o(

So much for the apple pie Dad planned to make today.