As I mentioned before, we spend Thanksgiving with close friends. So close we’re like family. The homeowner grew up with my husband, and his neighbor is my husband’s ex BIL.
A good time was had by all.
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Great minds think alike and there was twice as much Sangria.
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Though mine emptied more quickly.
😉
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My husband found the dart board before dinner and a close game of sharply pointed projectiles ensued.
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And then we all had to trot out to the garage to check out our friend’s new (old) toy.
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A fully restored 1972 Jeep.
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Later that afternoon it was time to carve the turkey and make the gravy.
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And sit down to feast.
I stopped taking pictures at this point and happily sampled a little bit of everything.
Hope your holiday was full of food and fun as well.
He bores easily with vehicles and is always looking for something different. No matter how much he likes what he’s driving, he’s the guy who stops on the side of the road whenever he sees something better for sale. Since he’s always on the move and puts high miles on his cars, we buy him used every few years.
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I, on the other hand… heavily research, shop around and buy new every decade or so. My current ride is a much beloved 2014 Subaru Forester. Her name is Ethel and she only has 75,000 gentle miles. Every year my husband sputters about trading her for something newer, but the supply of new vehicles on the lots is still a problem here and I’m not buying anything I can’t personally test drive.
Ethel will be 10 next year so I suppose I’d better start researching.
Harvest Sangria has been my go to holiday libation for the past few years and it’s been a resounding success with our annual crowd.
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Filled with apples, ginger, oranges and cinnamon it positively screams autumn.
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Here are my tweaks…
I leave out the pomegranate.
I make a batch and a half to fill my jug…
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But double the cinnamon, orange and ginger.
This is potent stuff so taste as you go. More cider is sometimes necessary.
Serve in a wine glass with a sprig of fresh rosemary, a single star anise, a wedge of orange and a few apple chunks from the jug. It’s pretty as well as delicious.
I’m having a hard time believing it myself and I live here.
When last we spoke… I still had two new windows with large air gaps, we’d gotten into a pissing contest with the store manager, were waiting on the report from the second supposed expert and our contractor was going to fight management for a full refund.
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Fast forward a week and I’m out shopping with a girlfriend. I get a phone call from our contractor who says the store manager bumped the problem up to corporate… who slid it over to the manufacturer… who wanted to come out and inspect the windows that day, right that minute. Thankfully the husband was home teleworking so off they went.
I heard this second hand, but gather it went something like this –
The top Marvin window guy arrived with the store manager we bumped heads with in tow. Husband wasn’t pleased with that, but managed to be civil.
Our contractor was there and went through all the steps he’d taken to fix the problem. The window parts were examined, measured and proclaimed well within acceptable limits… because hey, nothing’s perfect. The Marvin window guy asked my husband what he wanted… fully functioning windows or a full refund? Since hubby has been spitting mad for over a month I thought for sure I’d come home to gaping holes in the bedroom. But we’d chosen this particular product for a reason… good insulation rating, ease of tilting for cleaning, wood interior, low U factor, etc and no other window we looked at checked all the boxes…. so he said if the windows were installed properly and operated as advertised he’d be happy.
Agreeing that the two sashes were slightly off square, Mr. Marvin said his company would replace them and we could keep the others as spares.
And then?
Then he did something that left my both my husband’s and the contractor’s mouths hanging open.
He removed the right window sash and replaced it with the left.
He removed the left window sash and replaced it with the right.
The result?
No more gaps.
No more air leaking through.
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Oh, he’s still going to order replacement sashes for us… but as of this minute? The windows seem to be fine and my mind is blown. The one on the right is a little stiff and harder to close, but it’s airtight and a little silicon spray on the sides should help it glide more easily.
What the hell!
Was that all it took? Why didn’t the other “experts” think of this! A simple switcheroo solved the problem we’ve been fighting since October 6th and I don’t know whether to scream or cry because it’s so ridiculous.
Needless to say our contractor was dumbfounded. He spent all that time trying to make things right and never thought of swapping sides.
So…
The contractor is the middle of another job for our neighbors which means we’ll have to wait a week or more till he’s free to come back over here and finish installing the rest of the windows and buttoning these up.
I’m shaking my head as I type this and still can’t believe a month and a half of frustration and inconvenience was completely unnecessary.
Growing up in New Jersey, I was raised a Yankee fan and if my father’s office didn’t have a visiting client, we had free use of the firm’s box seats. Lots of good memories for me at that old stadium.
We moved to Maine in 1978 but I stayed loyal to the Yankees for decades… which did not endear me to New Englanders believe me. But by the turn of the millennium I gave in and switched my allegiance to the Red Sox.
I was a Sox fan in 2004 through Schilling’s bloody sock in the ALCS and the long awaited curse breaking World Series win. Good times.
It took us 86 years to break the curse of the Bambino after we sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1918. And growing up with that story from both sides, I always thought the Babe started his career with the Sox.
Turns out I was wrong.
He started with Baltimore.. and his rookie card is about to go up for auction.
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I have a handful of baseball cards, nothing special … just a few players I like. And I’ve never paid more than $20 for any of them. But boy, I sure wish I’d stumbled across this one in a box at a yard sale.
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My husband swears he had a Mickey Mantle rookie card as a kid. And he could have. The time frame would be right. But … are you ready?…. he says he put it in between the spokes of his bicycle tire to hear the nifty flapping noise.
Thoroughly disgusted with everything about Hammond Lumber due to our ongoing window fiasco, we instructed our contractor never to buy anything from them for us again. This includes the back doors that poorly run excuse for a store couldn’t manage to find after 3 weeks of trying.
The mind boggles.
With those instructions… our poor, beleaguered, probably sick of us contractor went across town to another building supplier called Hancock Lumber and opened an account.
Within minutes they found the odd sized bedroom door with the decorative window we wanted in the correct size.
It’s a miracle!
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They actually laughed when told what an issue we’d been having with it.
And not only did they promptly order that door, but they had the full glass panel door with built in blind we need for the living room…the one that baffled the other place… on the display floor.
Another miracle!
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Our contractor was so thrilled he took photos and texted them to me.
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And that my friends is how it’s supposed to work.
You go to the store.
You tell them what you want.
They order it.
In a matter of minutes.
I’m not religious, but thank you Jesus!
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Oh, sure. We paid more than I expected…but the damn things will here in 10-14 days and with any luck will be installed before it snows.
Finally!
Some good news.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 