I was just talking to my daughter about our fondue plans. As we were talking, she took a look at the box with the spare burner I got.
The one that was on the shelf right next to the burner fuel that I got.
Unlike me, she turned the box around to read the side.
Oops.
It’s compatible with gel fuel only.
So I went and brought down the oil fondue set and checked the burner.
They’re the same.
I’m going to have to try and find gel fuel, after all.
Looks like I might be going further afield than originally planned, tomorrow. I will try a specific hardware store in town, first. If they don’t have it, I’ll have to drive to the nearer Walmart, where I’m sure I saw some in stock before.
What I can’t understand is why the Canadian Tire had only liquid fuel with only gel fuel burners. It’s not like there were spaces on the self for gel fuel or liquid fuel burners. They are even the same brand.
As for the liquid fuel, unless I can find the right burners for them, I’ll return them.
Danity. I never expected this to be a hard thing to find! But then, fondue aren’t as popular as they used to be, and oil fondue even less so.
Depending on how things go, I wonder if we would be able to use the hot plate as a heat source, instead?
I headed into the city to pick up mostly stuff for our New Years fondue plans, though of course, I got other stuff, too. I ended up going to 3 different places in the city, then swinging by town to pick up my husband’s insulin, before heading home.
I’m totally drained.
My first stop was actually the post office, where I found a package I am quite excited about. I haven’t opened it, yet, but it’s a book I won.
My next stop was in the city. The international grocery store is part of a franchise, and there is a new location near the Costco we normally go to. It’s not an international store, but we used to shop this franchise all the time before we moved, so I decided to check it out. They had hot food available, too, so that was where I had breakfast.
Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. Not in the food. That was delicious. There just weren’t a lot of options. The store may be about the same size as the international one we normally go to, as far as I could tell, but all the departments seemed like they were half the size. I was particularly surprised by how small their meat section was. The beef section was not only small, but many of the choices were discounted “cook tonight” packs that were near the end of their shelf life. The Cat Lady often buys these to use as cat food! Even the regular cuts, though, were looking oxidized.
Still, this is where I got the bulk of my list.
This is what $229.84 looks like.
Yeah. Pretty sparse.
Here’s what I got.
For the meats, I was looking mostly for stir fry type cuts, but there weren’t any. So I just got trays of beef, pork and chicken breast that we could cut to size ourselves. Then I found a package of frozen hot pot combination meats – beef, pork and lamb. So I got one of those, too. I also got small frozen scallops. Together with the frozen prawns I got earlier, we have plenty of protein for our oil fondue. I got 2 bottles of peanut oil for that.
I found a basic recipe for the cheese fondue, and was looking for Swiss and Gruyere, but was really surprised by how small their fancy cheese section was. I got two cheeses there, but I wasn’t sure if they would be enough.
I got a tempura batter mix, plus a mixed vegetable tray and some pears, strawberries, and tiny crimini mushrooms. The pears and strawberries are for the cheese fondue, along with the French bread. The mushrooms are for the tempura batter and the oil fondue, while the vegetables can be for either.
I picked up various sauces for dipping, but could not find marinara sauce anywhere. That was unexpected.
Aside from other household stuff, I also got two tubs of seasonal ice cream- Eggnog flavour – that were on send of season clearance.
My next stop was Walmart. The main thing I was looking for there was fuel for the oil fondue burner. I’d seen the gel fuel we’ve used before at another location, so I figured I’d find it at this one.
This is what $74.43 looks like.
Also very sparse!
You’ll notice there is no fondue burner fuel in there.
I looked all over that store! I even asked for help. The employee I snagged looked up gel fondue fuel on her phone at the Walmart website, which said it was in stock, but she couldn’t find it. I went through the housewares section it should have been in, the camping fuel section, the grocery aisles, and even end cap and aisles displays. Nothing!
I did find stir fry beef, though, and grabbed a package as an extra. I also got another cheese for the fondue.
Still no marinara sauce!
Along with drinks and household items, there are mini cupcakes for dessert. While still looking for the burner fuel, I spotted an excellent sale price on Kraft Dinner, which my daughters like, so I snagged a case. By this time, I was also feeling really dehydrated, so I got some drinks for the road.
I still needed burner fuel, though. I can’t say I was too unhappy about not finding it at Walmart. The employee that tried to help me showed me her search results to confirm the item, and it cost almost $40! For one bottle, not a case. I was shocked, to say the least!
So, it was another trip up the road to a Canadian Tire.
I’m happy to say, I found what I needed, and more!
This is what $54.24 looks like.
It wasn’t the gel fuel we’d used before, but I confirmed it was for fondue burners.
They were $9.99 each, so I bought two.
I also got a little strainer to scoop out anything that might fall off the fondue forks. Plus, an extra burner. That way, if we used up the fuel in the burner, we can just switch and not have to wait for it to cool down.
And yes. That is a second vegetable peeler you are seeing in there. We need to replace the ones we have, and are forever losing track of them.
Since I was there anyhow, I picked up a tri-light bulb for my bedside lamp, which has a normal incandescent bulb right now. I also picked up no-mortise door hinges. The girls took measurements of where they need to hang a door. It may be possible we have an interior door in one of the sheds they can use. If so, these hinges can be used. We shall see. If they can’t be used, it won’t hurt to have them for the future.
That done, my next stop was for gas at Coscto. Prices around the city have dropped to 129.9 cents/L, but Costco was 117.9!
From there, it was time to drive the hour or so to pick up my husband’s prescription. By then, it was getting quite dark.
It was also a long time since breakfast, so after I got the prescription, I went to the Dairy Queen and got us burgers for supper.
That and I really needed to use a bathroom, and the one in the pharmacy was out of order!
Yeah. That’s my excuse!
As of now, the only thing we are missing is dry white wine for the cheese fondue sauce. I will pick that up tomorrow!
Somehow, I didn’t expect that doing a fondue for New Years would make it more expensive than having all finger food for Christmas!
I tapped away at a blog post this morning. Tried to publish it, but it wouldn’t work. Turned out we lost power while I was writing it.
So I set it aside for later.
Later was a few minutes ago, when I discovered it hadn’t even been saved as draft.
*sigh*
I’ll try to remember what I meant to write, and try again, later.
Well… I guess if I’d been writing it on my computer, I would have known the power was put because my machine would have died as I was typing, so… I’ll take the W for that, at least. 😄
The Re-Farmer
Update: oh!!! I just realized why it didn’t save to draft! My phone published it on its own!
Freezing fog rolled in last night, making for a gorgeous morning!
It didn’t go away.
My daughter and I headed into the city pretty much as soon as I was done the morning rounds. The roads were good and the visibility was okay, so long as no one tried to pass anyone. We made a quick stop at a gas station in my mother’s town to pick up drinks, and I sent an update to a road conditions group I’m on. When a was able to check it later on, people driving a highway almost parallel to the one we were on described several times when there were people trying to pass others in the fog and almost causing accidents! That highway is notorious for dangerous drivers.
Once in the city, our first stop was the computer place to drop off my tower. I told them, no hurry, for budgetary reasons. We talked a bit and I got an idea on what things might cost, depending on what he finds. The prices were quite reasonable, though if it’s a worst case scenario, replacing the valves on the truck tires will have to wait a month. In talking budget, I mentioned the various expenses that crop up, especially this time of year, and he totally understood. Turns out his engine blew on his own vehicle, recently! He’s got a loaner that needs to be returned today.
When I mentioned the valves on our tires, he immediately asked if the rims were aluminum. Why, yes. Yes, they are! He suggested getting steel ones, as soon as we can afford it. Which is funny, because the mechanic that checked my tires was saying much the same thing! 😄
With the computer, I’d things turn out to be badly damaged, we might need a new hard drive. He told me the cost for a 1T drive, which was very reasonable. Except, it turns out we have a spare! A recent care package we received included a hard drive, in case we found it useful. When I messaged my husband about the computer and the worst case scenario, he checked, and it’s a 1T hard drive.
Thank you, M! We may not need it, but what a serendipitous gift!
Once that was taken of, we went across the street to the Costco. We topped up on gas, which was 123.9 cents/litter. Higher than last time, but still 10 cents lower than everywhere else. After tanking up, I dashed in to get more eggs and cream. The girls are planning to make eggnog.
After that, we finally went for breakfast, though it was noon by then. We then went to a Sobeys I wanted to check out, which had a liquor store attached. I got stuff for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, which will be all finger food this year. My daughter went to the liquor store and picked up what they would need for the eggnog, and for both Christmas and New Year imbibing.
Our last stop was supposed to be the Superstore, where I got the last of what we needed for our celebrating. We will need to pick up other stuff for our New Years fondue, but that will wait until after Christmas.
I was also looking for a gift for my mother. She always says, she has too much stuff, so I wanted to get her food gifts as treats. I had no luck, so I left my daughter to pack away the purchases (I even got $50 off with loyalty points!) while I walked over to a Walmart.
I took me so long to settle on something. What did you get for the person who hates everything?
I ended up getting a little gift set with tea, crackers and tiny jam jars, which is the sort of thing she eats when she takes her medications. I got a pretty cup for the tea. I also found a Hickory Farm set with beef sausage, cheese, crackers, and a little cleaver. Again, stuff much like what she likes to have. Just a bit fancier.
I got a gift bag for it all, with plans to drop it off at her place on the way home.
I was settling into the truck and about to call my mother to let her know I’d be dropping her gift off, but not staying, because of the fog, which was still just as dense, when I saw a message from my husband suggesting we bring home McDonald’s. The budget was getting slim by then (McRaunchies is not a cheap deal anymore!), plus burgers from the city would be cold and wet by the time we got home. I’m not sure why he didn’t suggest the new Dairy Queen that’s closer to home!
I called my mother, and my daughter started messaging her sister. Before I knew it, she’d sent me the funds to stop at the Greek restaurant in town.
Before all that was settled, though, we’d reached my mother’s place and I ran in to drop off her gift.
She had already forgotten I was coming.
When I gave her the bag, she asked what it was, and I told her it was her Christmas present. She promptly started telling my she didn’t need it, and we needed it more (even though she had no idea what “it” was).
Then she wanted me to sit and visit. I reminded her, I was just dropping the gift off, because its foggy out there, and it was going to get dark, soon. I made the mistake of mentioning my daughter was with me, to help look out for deer. She started going on about how she didn’t even come in to say hi…
I left, with her glaring daggers as me.
*sigh*
With supper arrangements made, we crossed to the next highway to go to town and order four meals to go. This place is so generous in their portion sizes, it’ll be enough to feed us for 2 days!
Unfortunately, by the time it was ready, it wS fully dark. Thankfully, the fog was not as dense, so I could use my brights at times. We only saw one deer along the way!
Though it felt far later, it was only past 5 when we got home and unloaded. My daughter parked the truck while I distracted the outside cats by feeding them, while my other daughter put the shopping away.
It was a couple of hours late, so we went straight to cleaning that cats’ ears with mineral oil. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find one cat. Grandma. Even when we started putting out wet cat food, she didn’t come out. I still haven’t seen her.
Unfortunately, with a senior cat, I can’t help but think she found a quiet place for her final nap. But where? My daughter even checked the basement. We can’t find her.
I’ll try looking in the basement myself, later on. I hope I’m wrong in my concern.
It’s been a while, and we’ve had our supper (the girls and I all ordered pickerel dinners, and I got a burger meal for my husband), but as I tap away, writing this post, I have eleven greasy cats on the bed behind me, most of whom are still grooming either their own ears, or the ears of a cat next to them! They all look so bedraggled. 😁
I really hope this treatment does the trick. Some of them still have such dirty ears, which means they still have active mites. At least some of them are noticeably better! Some were never bad at all. We’ve got at least 4 more days of this, though if we feel they still need more, we might switch to using aloe vera gel, which should also help with healing. We shall see.
Beyond that, I’m just glad we got this trip in and, hopefully, we won’t need to go anywhere until after Christmas!
With all the running around I did, I was happy to get the Costco shopping over and done with!
We’ll still need to make another trip, though.
When I got to the city, I noticed gas prices were 132.9 cents per litter, so I figured Costco would be the usual 5-10 cents lower. They turned out to be 119.9 cents per litter! It’s been ages since I’ve seen a price like that.
As you can imagine, the lineups were insane. They went by fast, though.
Once tanked up, it was time to get all this.
Not my biggest shop, by any means, but it still totalled $719.81
I got the pet supplies on a separate bill. Eight bags of Kirkland 9kg dry kibble ($215.92), 1 case wet cat food ($24.99) and one case of puppy pads ($38.99). After taxes, it totalled $313.49
While we no longer have the problem of Toni peeing on my bed, or kittens not using the litter boxes, we still use the puppy pads. There are spots where other cats have been making a mess, regularly, so we use them to help with clean up. For example, I keep one under the litter box under my desk, with another in front, were my feet and chair got. I would leave the room and come back to find a pee spot next to the litter box. Always in the same spot. Only this morning did I catch Leyendecker doing it! Which is frustrating, because he will go from litter box to litter box and use them. I was afraid he might be getting blocked again, but given the size of the puddle on the puppy pad, I know think he’s marking territory!
The puppy pads may be an expense, but they do save out carpets and make cleaning the lino easier.
So that’s the cats stuff.
Then there was the shopping for us.
I won’t list the prices this time because it’s such a pain to tap out on the phone, but this is what I got today.
Two 1L of whipping cream, a pack of 60 eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, stewing beef, 2 packages of wraps, three 2pks of rye bread, 1 brick Old Cheddar, 1 brick mozzarella, a wheel of brie, 5 pounds of butter, 6 pk of canned chicken, peanut butter, truffle parmasan seasoning mix, mayonnaise, a case of mixed fruit packs (with cherry!), kitchen garbage bags, and toilet paper. Oh, and a 20kg bag of sugar!
We are doing a finger food Christmas dinner, so for that, I found mini quiches – we like those a lot, so I got 2 boxes – bacon wrapped scallops, fried pickle chips (!!), and garlic stuffed olives. I also got raw frozen shrimp, but that will likely be for our New Years fondue.
All of this, after taxes, totaled $406.32
Meat is getting insanely expensive. Especially beef. Thankfully, we still have meat in the freezer, and we are getting our quarter beef next month.
We still have other things we need to get for both Christmas and New Years, but that will be for other stores. I’m sure I have the gel fuel for our oil fondue burner, but I can’t remember where it was hidden, so I will get more. I also need to get peanut oil or some other high smoke point cooking oil. The final things for the dinners will be picked up fresh, closer to when we need them.
I rather look forward to a Christmas dinner that will involve so little cooking, and so few dirty dishes! 😆😄
On the way to the city, I took a side trip to the clinic to get some scheduled bloodwork done. It was awesome to go to the reception desk and find the plastic wall gone. I just had to comment on it, saying, I can hear!! One of the receptionists, who knows me by now, was absolutely giddy about it!
She found my requisition on file and printed it out for me, and didn’t have to push it through a slot. 😁 The staff is so happy.
Then I walked across to the lab and their reception. Where I had to pass things around a barrier, and stick my ear around it to hear and confirm I was fasting. One guy was wearing a mask, still.
I got sent straight to a room, though, and he very quickly took some blood, and I was on my way!
I’d made plans to meet my SIL to break my fast, so I messaged her to let her know I was done already. I even got to the restaurant before her, for a change! We had a fantastic time together. Gosh, I love her so much! My brother found himself an amazing woman to marry! I managed to treat her for the meal for a change, too. 😊
She had some things for me to take home with me, so we transferred those to the truck, which she finally got to see for the first time. She understood why I parked so much further out, rather than the closer spot she ended up parking in. The truck would barely have fit! 😄
My next stop was to try and find a recovery USB for my computer. There was a Best Buy not far off, so I went there, first. They hadn’t even heard of one before. She thought I meant a basic thumb drive. The saleswoman tried to look it up, but only found it on Amazon. They don’t carry them at all.
I’d noticed a Visions Electronics while driving over, so I tried them next. The guy I approached wasn’t sure what I meant at first, either, but understood when I explained what it was for. After confirming with other staff, he said they did not carry them, but told me about a computer place, just up the block. So I went there.
The first guy I spoke too immediately sent me to one of their tech guys. He asked various questions, and I showed him the pictures I’d taken. Including this one.
This is what I got after trying the F1 option on the previous screen. I later tried the F8 option that was next, which took me yo a more extensive menu. I wasn’t going to start fussing with it at the time, though, and went to bed, instead.
Turns out that was probably a good idea.
After asking me more questions, and what options there might be, he said it sounded like a hardware problem – then asked if there was data I wanted to save on there.
Yes. Lots!
He asked if I considered bringing it in. I told him, we weren’t at that point, yet, and I was there to determine exactly that!
He talked about different things we could try, but recommended bringing it in, since every time we tried something, if the hard drive were the issue, we’d be risking damage to it. Which is something I was already aware of and concerned about.
So that is what we will do. It’s just a matter of when. There’s no way of knowing how much it would cost until they look at it, but given how much a new tower would cost, it would be the cheaper option.
Unless it can’t be fixed at all. Something else I need to be prepared for.
This place happens to be across the street from the Costco we go to, which is handy. It’s also next to some other shops I’ve been interested in checking out. Convenient!
Until we can get that done, though, I’m stuck using my phone as my computer, and I don’t like it! 😄 I’m so spoiled by my big monitor, ergonomic keyboard and elbow room! That, and there are so many things I just can’t do on my phone.
I decided to try starting my desktop again, after wibbling the wires in back to make sure everything was all the way in. It’s been a while since the kittens have gone back there, but you never know what’s been knocked loose.
Much to my shock, I got this, right away.
Well, that’s something, at least!
My husband is the tech guy, so I went to get him before I tried anything. Unfortunately, it shut itself off, just as he walked into the room.
I restarted it, but it just went to the black screen with the HP logo, and started spinning.
When it became clear that was as far as it would get, I did a hard shut down. After waiting a few minutes, then wobbling the connections snug in the back again, I turned it on.
I got the blue screen message again.
This time, I hit enter.
It’s still spinning.
It’s been about 10-15 minutes, now. Time to shut it off and try again.
Next time, I’ll try the F1 key. If that doesn’t work, I’ll make my way down the list.
I got the computer going, did a test blog post, uploaded and went through the trail cam files, then started some browsing.
Things seemed okay, in general. Images were slow to load. Video would not load.
I decided to head out to get more cat food, but decided to empty the recycling bin, first. It was emptied last night, so it should have only had the deleted trail cam files in it.
It froze. Not Responding. Do you wish to end task?
Yes.
Not Responding.
End Task.
Not Responding.
Cancel.
Not Responding.
Basically, my screen was frozen, while the computer tried to do whatever with the recycling bin.
I left it and headed out, asking my husband to check on it.
The local general store only had tiny bags of cat food, so I had to head to town. I did check the mail and there was a parcel waiting for me, but the post office was closed for lunch. I headed to town, got what I needed, then picked up the parcel on the way home.
Altogether, I was gone for about a hour. Maybe a bit more.
In that time, my computer was still frozen, so my husband did a hard shut down, then tried again.
It was still trying to boot up when I got back. It had been spinning for about half an hour, by then.
I did another hard shut down and tried again.
It’s still spinning.
It looks like my desktop is toast.
Crud.
Unlike my husband, I’m willing to take it in to get checked and possibly repaired, but we won’t have the funds in the budget for at least a month or two.
I might be stuck using my phone as a computer until then.
Too funny. I did a search in the WP’s Pexels Free Photos for “old computer”. I got lots of images of old people using laptops! 🤣
We opened up my computer and cleaned out the dust – there wasn’t all that much, really – and checked the fans, since it seemed to me that that was where the noise might have been coming from. They were fine.
Since I had to do a hard shut down, it took forever to reboot, but now that it has, everything is working as it was before. Slowly.
I need to clear more stuff out of my machine.
Still no idea why the computer wouldn’t shut down properly. Best guess is that it didn’t like the clean up and maintenance I did last night, and hiccupped.
On the plus side, half of the table I’m using as a desk is now much cleaner and organized!
Also, most of the “dust” was cat fur. Go figure.
It’s still -12C/10F out there, with a wind chill of -21C/-6F. I will have to go into town and pick up more cat food. We have enough for today, but not for tomorrow – and I’m going into the city the day after tomorrow for the big shop. Maybe I’ll just go to the local general store/post office, instead, and see what they have in stock. It’ll be more expensive, but worth not having to drive to town for it.
Then I need to dig around in my computer some more, and see what I can clear out. I’m sure there’s software I don’t use anymore that I can uninstall, too.
The Re-Farmer 