The weekend plans

Last weekend, as I was out slogging through fieldwork. (Well, maybe not "slogging," it wasn't as bad as all that), I thought, "Next weekend you have a lot of free time. You could go to McKinney!"

But the weather went, "Nope!"

It's going to be, I don't know, 105* or something on Saturday? They're talking about breaking records. The meteorologists are saying "Don't do anything outside unless you absolutely have to." This displeases me heartily because

a. My reduced heat-tolerance these days tells me it's unwise to do something "nonessential" that might lead to problems

b. Driving any distance in extreme heat is worrisome: what if something goes wrong with the car and strands me?

c. It's not going to be fun to be trudging between boutiques, some of them not that well air-conditioned.

So, I don't know. I did cut the strips needed to start another quilt top last night so I might just stick at home and clean the house and then sew or knit.

Also, a (d) came up in the list of Reasons Not To Go To McKinney:

It's probably time to invest in a new microwave. Yeah, the nearly-15-year-old one I have is taking much longer to heat stuff (or so it seems) and the carousel isn't turning well - it kind of jerks and goes "er er er er er" which tells me the thing is headed for the last roundup. And it's probably preferable to go out and replace it at my leisure rather than have a panicked, "Oh no, my microwave died!" moment and then go and have to take WHATEVER I can find.

(And yes, I know: many people live very well without a microwave, but given the sheer number of vegetable dishes I have to heat up for each dinner....well, meh. I don't own enough saucepans. And sometimes it's a lot faster and easier to nuke a bowl of soup than it is to find the right pan, put it on the stove, and wait for it to heat) 

So I'm going to try the small, locally-owned appliance place and see what they have (And yes, I'm armed with a partial list of "okay brands" from Consumer Reports). I'll probably pay a bit more than I might at Wal-Mart, but I really don't want a junky microwave that's the cheapest possible that will poop out on me after five years. And the local place seems to stand behind their stuff and carry better brands. If they don't have anything good, I might take a run to Best Buy or somewhere this weekend. I don't know.

I do think I'm going to go to the Green Market again for grocery shopping. Yes, they are more expensive. But they carry a lot of things I like that I generally can't get. And the people that work there are nice - the cashiers actually talk to you instead of grunting at you like some stores' cashiers. And the somewhat-locally-grown sweet potato I got there was really, really good - better than the ones I could get at the regular grocery.