Custom Quilting Templates MORE non-skid than OmniGrip

I found something really cool with ebay seller "425rnshim", who cuts custom quilting templates. 

I bought a 4" hexagon and a 10" square for trimming my finished blocks. 

The pieces come perfectly clear, I just ran a permanent marker around the edges so I could see the thing. 

I know when you make crazy quilt squares you're supposed to make them 1/2" larger than you really want them to be, then trim off.  I don't like to build in a lot of extra only to throw it away. I understand you have to do that if you're not perfectly precise, and I can't say I'm perfectly precise. But with a clear square to overlay I can check and make sure I have the whole square completely covered, then trim around. Very WYSIWYG and very cool. 

The nifty part is that the material he uses is MORE non-skid than OmniGrip. 
OmniGrip is supposed to be nonskid, but if you're not careful and keep constant pressure on, an OmniGrip ruler will scoot all over the place. 
These clear templates, laid on top of fabric, are going nowhere. Even the slightest pressure is enough to keep it completely motionless. They really stick to the fabric.   
OmniGrip's nonskid is in the markings, not the material itself.  The clear stuff Rodney uses is inherently nonskid! And a lot cheaper than OmniGrip. 
He has templates with markings etched on them, too, if you want to pay for that. 

 

Check him out, here's the link: 

http://myworld.ebay.com/425rnshim/

The Saga of Three Crock Pots

Email I wrote to Crock Pot: 

Your crock pot started on fire. It filled the house with smoke and the foot started burning. It must've been a bad wire. My 17 year old whom I had left home alone with the crock pot put the fire out. I am not very happy about this. I thought it was supposed to be okay to leave a crock pot in the kitchen? It had been on low setting for about five hours.

Crock Pot Customer service wrote back:

Dear Janel,
Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with your slow cooker and I would like to help resolve this situation.
We take these issues very seriously here. In this situation there are two options that we would like to offer you. The first being a Customer Incident Report. This can be filed if there was any personal injury or property damage caused by this incident.
If you do not wish to file a Customer Incident Report we would be happy to replace the Crock Pot for you at no charge. Please respond to this email letting us know what option that you are liking to choose, so we can resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your business and are happy to help if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,

I wrote: 

Hi, thanks, nobody was hurt, my daughter put the fire out. We would like a new Crock Pot. Can we have one of the kind you can upload your own image?  :-)  
(Which I didn't know existed until I came to the website to complain)
Or the regular kind is fine, just make sure it's the large capacity.  Thanks, I appreciate it.

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with your scr509 and I would like to help resolve this situation. I will send you a new slow cooker, this will ship in six to eight business days, and arrive by UPS. You will receive an order confirmation, shortly as well as a shipping confirmation when our item leaves our warehouse. Please note that the slow cooker will not carry a warranty. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

At that point they mailed me the most basic, cheapo, entry level crock pot they have. 

I wrote: 

Hi, I just got the new one by UPS, only it's a 5 quart and the one I had was 6 quart! 
I don't want one that is smaller.  The old one was barely large enough.  I think you should replace the one that burned up with one the same size. 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I am happy to help you.  the model SCR509-A that you had was a 5 quart model.  This is a very comparable slow cooker. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

I wrote: 

It wasn't five quarts, it was six quarts.  In case my eyes deceived me I filled it up with water, the new one emptied into the one I had plus an extra quart. 
Five quarts is too small.  I would like a six quart crock pot to replace the one that burned. 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. The slow cooker SCR509 is older. We are now measuring in dry quarts, not in liquid quarts. I am sorry for the confusion. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

I wrote: 

"Sorry for the confusion?"  And that's it?  Does that mean all of a sudden I'm supposed to shut up and be happy with a Crock Pot smaller than the other one??? 
I think when this unit CAUGHT ON FIRE in my kitchen the least you can do is replace it with one "at least as large" as the one I had! 
If you don't have the same size any more then make it the next size up! 
And you know what else, I want one LIKE the one I had, which was white with a pretty design on it.  I don't want a stainless steel one. 
I just looked at the website and found this: 

http://www.crock-pot.com/Product.aspx?cid=113&pid=1054

That one would be acceptable. 
Are you going to make this right with me or not? 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I would like to apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused you and I would be more than happy to assist you. The original unit that you owned, SCR509, is a 5 quart unit, this is why you were sent another 5 quart unit as a replacement.
However, I do understand that you are not happy with the unit that you were sent. I have placed an order to have the 5070 Crock Pot that you requested sent out to you at no charge as a one time customer courtesy. You will receive your no charge replacement order within 6-8 business days and it will come by UPS.
We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

OooooKAY. 

In due time, the new one arrived, and it is the one I told them I wanted.  That's good, at least. 

I'm a bit less than happy with that "as a one time customer courtesy" which is code for "you're being uncooperative but we'll give it to you just this once to make you shut up". 

Less than happy that I had to basically yell just to get the one I had REPLACED, and not even "$50 coupon from kitchen store of your choice to make you feel better" which would have been more like it. 

Also, it can't really be replaced, because the one I had was made in USA, and this one's from China, and my kids have heard my opinion of painted glaze from China enough times that they don't want to eat anything cooked in it.  

"Made in China"

 

Why No Pics from Wild Waves This Year?

Because I went down the waterslide!  For the first time in my LIFE! 

I've been to Wild Waves with the kids two years previous.  Both times I'm the person with my clothes on, being a walking towel rack for the others.  That's okay and all.  But last year a desire was born to go down the waterslide myself.  So this year I talked Ed into going with us (to be the walking towel rack) and I went down the slide. 

No pictures of this exist!  (which is a good thing)

The slides haven't changed from previous years...

This is the first one I went down, because it looked more gentle than the others: 

 

It turned out not to be the right choice.  That's a big wide slide with tubes designed for three or four people, which are supposed to spin around and around all the way down.  The boys went with me, and they flung some random little girl in with us to make four, and with three little people and one BIG, there's no spin!  The big lady gets to go down backwards.  Hmph. 

Well, it was fun anyway!  So I grabbed a ring and headed for the other slide. 
  

The first time up was really quick, the second and third times up took longer because the line was backed up halfway down the stairs.  Still, didn't take that long and was HUGE FUN and very worth it.  I went down the last time in a double tube with Dave. 

Not that all of this was without conflict... Ed didn't want us to break up into groups, we had to stay all together.  Ed's the one with his clothes on this year, so that's that.  Mike started to get a bit impatient just waiting for the big slide over and over; he wanted to go to something ELSE.  I said TOUGH!!  I'm going down the big slide until I get tired of it, you can either go with me or stand by Daddy!   This is MOM DAY! 

The green spiral slides the boys liked so well last year were closed down, but they eventually got to go on a new thing that was rather like a short playground slide only perched eight feet above a deep pool of water.  That was thrilling enough, I'd say. 

Then we went to the dry section with the rides... still no pics, as it was doing the Washington thing on us and I didn't want to get the camera wet.  I suppose we all looked pretty funny walking around (the white ones of us being completely ghost white) shivering in the rain, having fun going down water slides.  Ed said he was in Nevada once long ago, when their water park was closed because it was only 80 and that wasn't considered warm enough. 

This pic from last year makes me smile.  It's the kiddie coaster: Dave and Mike are amused, Andrea is being sarcastic, Karen is making a face at Andrea! 

Andrea's idea of a coaster is the Timber Hawk, where you go rattling around a track at 60 mph.  Dave likes it too, Karen's about in between, Mike wants nothing to do with it! 

To my surprise, Ed said, "I paid to get in, that means I can go on stuff too, right?"  and hopped on the Timber Hawk.  That's the one I went on last year to prove I wasn't too old.  This year I feel no need to repeat since I'm only one year older than last year. 

Ed seemed to like it!  Unfortunately no pics exist  :-) 

The Lego Kitty House

What a sweet little girl this is... the boys made her a Lego house, and she promptly got in it and zonked out.  To everyone's delight! 

Raw Meat For Mom!

I commented to Andrea that her strawberry topping looked like raw meat. It was just that color and appearance. 
 I apologized immediately, of course!! 

The 70s and the Peasant Look

These are from "Fashionable Clothing From The Sears Catalogs", mid 70s and late 70s. 

         

Freezing Eggs in Ice Cube Trays

Today's chicken / kitchen tip, for those who might have too many homegrown eggs... and then too few  :-) 
It's convenient to freeze them by cracking them into ice cube trays.  Drop the white into one compartment and the yolk into another.  Once frozen, pop the egg-cubes out into a freezer bag for longer term storage.  And when you want to use one, you just have to take out one yolk cube and one white cube to thaw for a whole egg.