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Practically Speaking

Kyle and her husband moved to Brookfield in 1986. She became active in local politics and started blogging in 2004. Her focus is primarily on local issues but often includes state and national topics, too. Kyle looks at things from the taxpayers’ perspective in a creative, yet down to earth way, addressing them from a practical point of view.

I love my repairman --Thanksgiving is saved!

By Kyle Prast
Monday, Nov 19 2007, 08:11 PM

My oven is back in business, thanks to my resident repairman. (My son)

Friday night, he searched the internet and ordered the parts. Today, the parts arrived. Tonight, he fixed the oven. Thanksgiving is saved!

By the way, I take no credit for his abilities. We never formally studied electronics in the 13 years I taught him. He just was interested and I had the good sense to get out of his way.

My husband and I always encouraged our son to do real work at an early age though, and he taught our son quite a bit about electricity and volt meters etc. while doing work around the house.

I think kids can do far more than we give them credit for. We tend to insulate them and keep them in the play workshop world too long instead of letting them do real jobs (with close supervision, of course).
 
Here is the culprit--a small, innocent looking relay--that because of its failure, could have burned down the house!

The surprising thing was that they were German made. We were expecting them to be of Chinese origin. Both were replaced, so the oven is back in business.

My final Thanksgiving food tip is to cook the turkey upside down.

I have done this for years and it results in very juicy white meat. I usually start it upside down for at least 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Since we don't carve the bird at the table, presentation is not an issue, so I left it upside down 1 hour longer last year. If you have those new silicone hot mitts, you can just grab the turkey and turn it back right side up after the alloted time and let it finish baking. If you don't have the mitts, turning can be a little challenging--but worth it in juicy white meat.

Maybe tomorrow I will get back to blogging about 4K. I needed to take a break and talk about more pleasant things for a bit, so thanks for bearing with me. The recipes also gave me a chance to try out an older laptop that came my way with the remote desktop feature on my computer. That was fun!

Comments

Alfred E. Neumann   

I, for one, have enjoyed your Thanksgiving meal preparation tips.  Thank you for the temporary digression from some of the more distressing/ depressing discussion about Brookfield government.  The political discourse is important and necessary, but I do appreciate the need to take a break from it now and then.  Bravo, my dear!

Kyle's reply:  Thank you for your kind words. I hope the recipes and tips help someone out there. The core of my being leans decidedly to the creative side, which lately does not get to express itself much!

It would be wonderful to live in a community where the elected officials keep themselves within a reasonable budget and make wise decisions not driven by rich developers or the desire to grow their own kingdom. Maybe then the citizenry could concentrate on more positive things.

November 20, 2007 12:47 PM

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