Steely new arrivals

New stove

Three years ago, we re-did the interior of our condo - paint, flooring, carpet, new kitchen counters, sink, shower, etc. The one thing we had talked about doing as part of the project (but never did) was replace the kitchen appliances. We decided at the time they were OK and we wouldn't spend the money.

Then, this year, our stove crapped out. Not completely - just enough to drive anyone using it crazy. I described it here when I said the only goal I had for 2006 was getting a new stove. Except getting a new stove had a domino effect leading back to our original plan of updating all the appliances.

We did at least get the appliance purchases done in 2006. Drake installed the new microwave last week; the fridge and stove arrive today; the dishwasher gets installed tomorrow.

We went with stainless, which means no refrigerator magnets. I have a feeling Drake is going to find a work-around here for this. I'm fine curating what we've got now up on our current fridge, but Drake's more of a sentimentalist.

The stove in particular I think will have at least some learning curve. As an interface designer, I'm a read-the-manual type, since I know from experience most features go unused because nobody (well, almost nobody) reads the manual. I thought about conducting the whole thing as an out-of-the-box study with Drake as the subject and me as the researcher, but decided that would be going too far.