Further unsuccessful stove adventures

Current US COVID related deaths: 826,719

US COVID deaths as of Thursday: 823,390

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My honey headed out Thursday morning (12/16) on errands (liquor store (I'm making a candy cane martini for martini night this month), chiro, CVS, bank (he dropped off some White Trash to the tellers!), Harris Teeter) and was home in time to join me in the studio, along with Cookie on her new favorite spot:

Michael is having a colonoscopy tomorrow, so all prayers are appreciated. We have to do it at CMC Pineville, since he has a pacemaker. Our quilting Christmas party was today….and I had half a dozen reasons for finally ending up not going: Michael was a little anxious about the colonoscopy prep after reading the side effects (irregular heartbeat being one and he already has that and DEATH!!! being another…), no stove, so no way to make food for the party….yes, I could have stopped at Harris Teeter…which is always a ZOO on Thursdays…Janice couldn’t attend since the party was moved from the 9th….Paula wouldn’t be there as she had both a PT appointment, and an appointment with the surgeon, and I was feeling kinda stressed about the state of my studio and house! Anyway, I stayed home and was continuing to clean off my sewing tables…so one thing that involved was finishing up my blocks and getting them into rows for another QoV:

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As you can guess, there was not a lot of sleep in the Devo household Thursday night. They've started a new thing (at least I don't remember this from the last time I had one) where Michael had to drink half of the prep stuff from 6 PM until 10 PM, and then had to get up at 3:30 AM and drink the rest of it before 5:30 AM. We were up and on the road by 6:30 AM Friday (12/17) and I am delighted to say that everything went off without a hitch and Michael was ready to leave the hospital by 10:30 AM. We went to the BIG VIEW for breakfast….well, we tried to go to the BIG VIEW for breakfast, but as we were standing in line, waiting to be seated, the appliance guy called to say he would be at our house within 10 minutes….so we cancelled our table and headed for home…and thus our stove troubles began, yet again.

There were no problems getting the old stove out (although now I have 2 sticky patches running down the side/top of the granite, where the old stove had an overlapping lip on the granite. Paula says she has some ''GOO GONE'' and I will borrow it if I can't get it off with anything else):

or the new stove in…

-does everyone else have all of those lids in that bottom stove drawer? That's where my mom kept them.

but I kept smelling gas. Of course at first the guy told me I was smelling it because I had just leaned over the stove knobs (which drives me right up a wall….I am SO TIRED of not being believed…the gas does NOT come on just by pushing in the knob!!! Last time the gas company was here checking things out, they told me that it was probably because I accidentally turned a knob and didn’t notice it!), but when the appliance guy went behind the stove to hook it up:

he smelled it too. He was convinced it was coming from the wall, some kind of bad pipe (which was totally easy to believe given how PULTE put these houses together), so we called the gas company (where the woman on the phone was LESS than helpful. As we were talking and she asked me why I was calling, I said I smelled gas. She said ''gas has no smell!!!'' I said I know that, but I also know that the gas company puts something in the gas to make it smell so that you can tell when you have a gas leak, so she says 'are you smelling rotten eggs?'' Well, to tell the truth, that it not what natural gas smells like to me...but I have had gas almost my entire life and I am WELL AWARE of what natural gas smells like!!! Growing up we had a gas refridgerator (that I had to lie on the floor and re-light the pilot light many a time!), gas stove and gas dryer! Anyway, she finally tells me someone will be coming out, but they will NOT enter my house. I also called a plumber right after I got off with the gas company. The appliance people left (after choosing a bag of White Trash and a bag of Minty Crisps) and the gas company got there next, and I'm talking to the guy through the screen door...and I can tell we are not exactly on the same page, and finally I say to him ''would you like to come in'' and he says definitely!!! (So much for them not entering the house!) Into the kitchen, up in the attic...his machine definitely registered escaping gas in the kitchen so he headed back to the attic and shut it all off (meaning we had no furnace or hot water either). He left with a bag of sugared pecans and seemed very happy! The plumber came about half an hour later (and was there for 2-1/2 hours) and said that the gas line checked out….he checked the pressure within the line (at great cost, but totally worth it) and it showed there were no leaks….and he said the connection with the stove or within the stove was bad!!! Well, we’re getting another new stove tomorrow anyway because the electric touch panel that makes everything work with the oven/timer/clock….wasn’t working correctly :~(. So, the stove just sat there overnight:

By the time everyone had done everything and left (the plumber was over the moon to choose White Trash), it was 4:30 PM. To be truthful, I have no hopes about tomorrow’s stove adventures being any better….and I am feeling uncomfortable about 2 parties on Monday….Machine Embroidery…where I am supposed to bring food….and I am hosting martini night Monday night. Yes, I can absolutely go to the store and get stuff….but you have no idea just how many times I have been to a social gathering where people are supposed to bring food…and one (or more) of the guests sidles up to me and quietly says ‘point out what you brought’, so that they can make sure they get some :~). Oh well….in the end I have to say that the most important thing (Michael’s colonoscopy) turned out well, no problems with his pacemaker and he is fine, so that is what’s important. Since our stove/oven isn’t working, Michael ran out for Chinese for dinner. With everyone coming and going all afternoon, we never got our naps in, so we headed to bed early.

*** And....a slightly different take on the ''little drummer boy'':

Mary, exhausted after having just gotten Jesus to sleep, is approached by a young man

who thinks to himself ''what this gal needs is a drum solo...'' ***