The Sofa Dunnit

Merry Christmas. Happy Yule. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you spend in peace and joy.

After bragging – sort of – about home cooking, the past couple of days have been takeout and cobbled-together leftovers in our world. My darling hubby’s been fighting the Coughing Sneezles for days and decided to share, so the past 2.5 days I’ve spent predominantly unconscious on the sofa. Didn’t even make it in to the bed, just passed out for hours while my body fought the bug.

Apparently our sofa is an excellent bug fighter. Hubby’s still dealing with the stuff but I’ve mostly beat it.

On a different note – My new pans and towels were delivered a couple of days ago. After deciding I loves them muchly, I used the remainder of the card balance and ordered a matching sauté pan with lid for pickup in-store. (Which for Target is the bomb. I think I got notification within ten minutes of ordering that it was ready for pickup.)

Yeah, yeah. It isn’t professional-quality stuff. I might be upgrading but I’m still cheap. And I’m still super happy with what I received.

I could’ve just grabbed a set of T-Fal in a box, which aren’t atrocious; but I knew specifically what I wanted this time, and it wasn’t T-Fal OR the box. I wanted a 3-quart saucepan (good luck even finding that size in a box), a medium-ish-quart saucepan, and an 8-inch skillet. And I wanted non-stick ceramic. My gift card was from Target, so I figured it was Kismet.

Well, it was actually Target’s brand, but you know what I mean.

Their house line is now called Made by Design. Redundant name aside, I know Target’s house brand is generally decent quality, so I went on a mission to find the specifics I wanted.

What I received turned out to be even better than I expected. Every piece I ordered (except the small skillet) has pour spouts. The lids have deep perforated lips, meaning you can drain with the lid in place but can turn the perforations to keep steam in. They’re kind of mid-weight and seem to be reasonably well-made. Not-heavy is a good thing in my book. My old set was so heavy it was getting increasingly tough for me to handle it. Otherwise I might’ve gone the cast-iron route.

The link to the line is here, for the record. I LOVE the ceramic finish, vs. old-school nonstick.

I like the towels too – same house brand, and seem to be a good mid-weight quality. (I don’t love ridiculously thick towels. They’re mildew traps even in this part of the world.)

If I had more space I’d buy this cart, also same house brand:

Click on the picture to see it on the site.

I like it – a little less “grunge” than usual for the style, but still slightly on the industrial side. Just don’t have the space for it. I’d like it better in a color, but there’s always paint.

Dell approved the return of my new ‘puter. I’d had it up to here with the crashes and wasn’t going to accept any other outcome. I’ll order another Dell when the credit applies, but it won’t be the same model. Too bad, because the specs on that one were awesome, at least on paper. Oh well, maybe I can score a clearance deal after Christmas and get something even better.

I almost feel guilty – almost. I’m typing this entry on a new machine, the one my sister gave me. It’s a nice little computer – but the operative word here is little. Small screen and small hard drive. I need more of both to do book cover design. But this one’s awesome for writing. The battery lasts all day. The only downside – and it’s minor – is you can’t use a regular mouse with it. I had to buy a bluetooth monster which annoys the living crap out of me. Pretty sure it’s a gaming mouse, one with side buttons that invariably undo my work if I’m not careful.

First-world problems, I tell ya.