Cooking Without a Stove

It's been an interesting few days, cooking for myself and not having a stove in the kitchen. Danno and I sold our stove before I flew east. I think he ate out with his friends a lot before he left town. Now I'm here with the dog and cats (who eat kibble) wondering why all my friends have to work during the week.

Anyway, I've been eating in a lot because I'm trying to finish off the food in the fridge before we leave and I feel the need to save money because canceling services is costing us an arm and a leg. Don't get me started about Earthlink. (Oh goodness, sorry folks, I can't help myself...) Danno has been a customer of theirs for more than 7 1/2 years but since there are 100 days left on this specific 1-yr contract, they are charging us a $149 cancellation fee, regardless of the fact that we cannot transfer the service to our new home because there is no DSL service available at all in the neighborhood (I know, boonie-ville). 

I spent an hour and was (ironically) late for my massage appointment (thanks, SEE-LA gang for that terrific bridal shower gift BTW) trying to reason with these money-grubbers. The response was always, "Sorry, ma'am, but you agreed to these terms." First of all, I can't take them with me because DSL is unavailable so you're punishing us for something totally out of our control. Second, 7 1/2 years! Loyalty apparently means nothing to Earthlink. It's too bad because D and I weren't planning on staying at the new place that long (who lives without DSL nowadays?). 

Instead of having good customer service and waiving the fee or reducing it so that it wouldn't cost more than $1/day, they've lost out on the thousands they would have made from us when we came back to DSL for years, even decades. Customer service is the reason I stay with DirecTV. I know cable sometimes costs less but whenever there's a problem, DTV addresses it right away and they give me discounts for any inconvenience I may have experienced.

In the end,  I suppose it's just money. The important thing is really the connections we make with other living beings--family, friends, pets, and other animals. That's why we're moving and why I enjoyed myself so much at the conference. (I don't remember ever laughing so hard or so often. Thanks, ladies. You know who you are.)

Anyway, this is what I've been cooking with...

It's like camping except I have running water, a flushing toilet and am not being bitten by mosquitoes. Oh, and speaking of relations, the other day, I was scrambling some eggs and I heard someone, uh, having fun in the morning. Sometimes I forget how close we are to our neighbors, y'know, with all the walls and things between us normally. And I guess, so do they ;-P

I'm so glad there's a burner on grill otherwise I don't know how I'd fry up my facon in the morning.