Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Quilts, Crabs and Kettle.

I'm spoiled. I'll be the first to admit it. When we remodeled the kitchen about four years ago, my wonderful indulgent husband gave the green light for all kinds of luxuries, including one of my absolute favorites, a hot water spigot.

By hot, I mean boiling. Just touch the knob and it dispenses water hot enough to make perfect tea. The kids used it all the time to make hot chocolate and hot apple cider. It was one of my favorite little touches in the kitchen.

Until the day I pressed the little handle, and only got cold water.

The plumber came out and shook his head. "The heating unit's burned out, you'll have to get a new one." At that point I found out just how much we originally paid for this lovely little convenience. Yikes. I can't justify paying that right now to get a new one.

"I've been to this house before. I remember all the great quilts." His kind words completely turned my mood around.

The plumber continued to chit chat as he filled out an estimate for the work that would need to be done. "Oh I see you have a pot-filler! Those are great!"

It's not often someone admires my pot-filler. It takes a keen eye to appreciate both quilts and high-end plumbing fixtures. "Yes, it's great for big pots of pasta, or cooking crab" I said.

"Oh crab leaves a real smell in the house," he said, as he tore off my copy of the estimate and started heading for the front door. "The best way to cook them is to clean them while they're alive - just tear off the back, remove the lungs and organs, put in a bunch of butter and garlic, wrap them in foil and put them outside on the barbecue."

My brief enjoyment of our encounter came to a screeching halt. I'm all for throwing a live crab into boiling water to let it die a quick death, but this method made my stomach churn a little.

So now I am without tea until I go buy a kettle, and I have a very disturbing image of disemboweled crabs in my mind.

That's enough home repairs for this week.

4 people stopped folding laundry to write:

Lily Boot said...

Ooooooh - I just read your tale of sad crabs to my husband and he tells me there's such a thing as too fresh sushi. I definitely don't need to go there. Your tale is so funny - I can just imagine feeling chuffed and jolly by the plumber's attention to the quilts and then the downward spiral. Poor you :-) I'll put my kettle on for you and we'll have a cup :-)

Kandra said...

For a plumber to remember your quilts! WOW! That had to feel good :) What a smile that would bring to my face - for him to even remember anything about my house. LOL

I'm not a seafood kind of gal, so even dealing with live crabs escapes me... but for what he said... EWWW!

Hope you get your kettle soon ;)

owlfan said...

My mom had one of those hot water things and loved it - me, not so much, especially after I mistook it for the soap dispenser. I just barely managed not to burn myself badly. In the meantime, you can always heat up water in the microwave.

The Mother said...

Hey, haute cuisine isn't pretty.

But luckily you still have your pretty quilts.

So, how bad was the estimate?

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