I’m happy to announce that although Operation don’t-eat-all-the-donuts was a major FAIL, the rest of my weekend was a success.  It was quite productive, and an overall appliance smorgasbord.  It seems that all of our appliances either break (with a little help from me… to be continued…) or they are just old and need replaced.  Or they don’t exist in the first place – but we need them.

Appliance #1:  Coffee machine

Yes, we had one already.  Actually, we had two.  And one I broke… I dropped the carafe and it shattered.  So then I went to the backup coffee maker we had.  But we hadn’t used that one in at least a year, and it smelled really mildew-ey even after I ran over 5 cleaning cycles of water through it.  X-nay on the old-coffee-machine-ay.

So we went to buy a new carafe for the first machine, which was about $16.  We bought a new one that said it was “universal” and would fit most coffee makers – but of course it didn’t fit mine.  Rather than searching all around for one that fit, we decided to just invest in a completely new one.  With a stainless steel carafe this time… so it doesn’t break when I drop it

We got a nice Mr. Coffee one.  Nothing special, we are not picky coffee drinkers, but it makes great coffee!  It also has a cool digital clock on it that I really like.

We had two days without a coffee machine… two of the worst days of my life.  Ha.  Never again.

Appliance #2:  Water Kettle

As it gets colder, I have been getting better and better about forcing myself to drink tea.  But when we got back from Switzerland, I found that my water kettle had this yucky buildup on the bottom of it, and it was flaking off into the water.  I tried to wash it out but I couldn’t… and unfortunately it was one of those older kettles where the lid does not come off for easy cleaning.  I think it was calcium buildup and I probably could have tried to clean it out with a vinegar rinse, but I wasn’t sure that it would work and it was a really old kettle.  It kind of grossed me out, too.  So… new kettle time!

Stainless steel, same brand I had before (Oster… because I really liked that one and it lasted a long time) and of course… the obligatory blue LED light.  That was S’s one requirement.

Yay for tea and hot chocolate and other hot-water deliciousness.

Appliance #3:  New freezer!

We finally decided to bite the bullet and get a second freezer.  We have a fridge/freezer that is a pretty good size – a bottom fridge, top freezer.  But I am a bit of a freezer maniac.  My freezer was already full when I lived here alone – but since S has moved in it is ridiculous.  We have had to stop buying anything because it is simply jam-packed and not one single additional thing could fit in there.  Things already fall out on my head whenever I open it, as it is.

Our idea for a second freezer started with a simple, chest freezer (cheaper than an upright) that we could put in a closet somewhere because there isn’t any extra space in our teeny townhouse.  It slowly evolved into an upright freezer (because it is much easier and more convenient, so worth the extra money) to a much larger size (from 5 cubic feet, to 7, to 12, etc.) to a black one (which S liked much more than the white one.  Why a black one costs so much more than a white one, I have no idea… but it does.  The same model is about $80-$100 more expensive in black than it is in white!)

Sooo… we ended up with this model from Sears.  A black, 13.7 cubic foot Kenmore upright.  It is being delivered on Tuesday.  Where will we put it?  Ha, we have yet to figure that out.  As of right now, our dining room seems like the only place, unfortunately.

Appliance #4:  Pot hanger

I guess this isn’t really an appliance, but it’s another big piece of equipment for our house (specifically our kitchen) so it can be included in the appliance smorgasbord.  I have a really nice set of pans that my grandmother bought for me as a house-warming gift when I bought my townhouse.  I bought a pothanger to hang on wall to hold them.  But I did not hang it up properly – it is a thin section of wall without any studs or security to hang something heavy.  So I ended up taking it down after a few months because I was afraid that the hanger with all the pots on it was so heavy that it was going to fall down and take half the wall with it.

But this weekend, S and I bought special screws and hooks made to hang heavy things on thin walls, and he hung it back up!  It worked like a charm.

Now I have the pots hanging, and a lot more room in my cupboards.  Yippee!

So now on to my eats for the weekend.  Saturday morning we did our Barnes and Nobles ritual.  I usually take something for my breakfast, but I felt like buying something and splurging.  So I got myself a big ole’ chocolate cupcake.

I don’t know why I was totally craving it when I saw it.  I usually prefer vanilla.  But man, it was good.

We went grocery shopping and I picked up a lot of fruit.  So in the afternoon, I snacked on a pear, a clementine, a kiwi and a banana.

I also finally bought a loaf of Nature’s Pride bread, with my free coupon from the folks at Foodbuzz.  S wanted to try the multi-grain:

I had a slice with peanut butter with my dinner.  Delicious!

I had an Edy’s ice cream cup that evening,

and a pack of m&ms.

Oh well, at least I’m honest.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early (actually, it was still dark) to meet my friend Jana to run.  She was doing a 22 mile training run, and I just joined her for part of it at the Berkeley Marina.  S drove me there.   Before we left, I had some scrambled cheesy eggs.

I ran 7.5 miles with Jana.  It was beautiful and sunny, and I had a great time.  She also recently got engaged, so I got the full scoop on how it happened and what their plans were.  Congratulations, Jana!

The whole time that we were in Berkeley, there were police everywhere.  I have never seen anything like it.  Police in cars, on motorbikes, directing traffic, sitting in parking lots and on the side of the road.  It was crazy, and we had no idea what was going on.  Well… after we got home later that afternoon, my friend emailed me and told me that around the time we had been in Berkeley running, they found a dead baby in the marina.  Apparently the mother (23 years old) was found dead last Thurs/Friday and the police had been searching for her son since then. Some kayakers discovered the body of the baby floating yesterday morning.  So sad.

On the way home (we had to hurry to catch the second half of the Steeler’s game…) we stopped at Quizno’s to pick up some lunch.  I had never eaten there before, and I got a turkey pesto torpedo.  I opened it up when I got home:

I wasn’t really that impressed with it.  It was ok, but definitely did not compare to Subway.  There wasn’t enough meat or cheese on it, so I ended up taking the fillings out of one half and putting it in the other half so that I had double the fillings with half the bread.  I saved the other half of the bread and made my own sandwich for dinner by adding turkey, swiss cheese, lettuce, laughing cow cheese, and pickles.  I had carrots on the side too:

I liked my sandwich much better.

Watching football, we snacked on some pizza rolls:

some soy chips:

and some candy corn.

The bad news for the weekend?  The Steelers lost to the Bengals.  For the second time this season.  Unbelievable.