It's a stove!

Ed came down with a nasty cold at the end of last week, which he has kindly shared with Kaye, so neither of us are feeling too wonderful right now. To go with that, after a brief taste of spring, we've had some really chill weather with more snow. It seems to be turning spring-like again, so we're hoping we'll both perk up.

At the end of last week, after still not hearing back from the friendly, cheerful, helpful person about Ed's carte vitale, Kaye called again and got another person, who wasn't as friendly or cheerful, but at least now we have some sign of action. She spoke with a person at our local CPAM office (CPAM being the people who administer the national health insurance), who in turned called us. It seems that there's some kind of problem with Ed's birth certificate, and would we please send another copy directly to her. (We think this is the fifth copy we've given them now!) We mailed this the next morning and now we're waiting again to find out what's going on. We've given up breath-holding. Progress?

Kaye went along to the new gardening club meeting on Monday evening, where the speaker spoke wonderfully slow and clear French. She came home with a sackful of plants, raspberries, a spineless blackberry, fraises de bois, horseradish, and a pretty variegated willow. Of course, it's been freezing and windy since then, so these are still in the back of the car.

Yes, Tuesday, it finally happened—the long awaited stove arrived!

It came late in the afternoon and a missing part meant a trip back to the shop, so it was 6.30 when the installation was complete. This was the first white one that the installer had put in place, so he took a few pictures for himself. (It comes in lovely colors, blue, red, and green, and even black, but those add a goodly chunk to the price.) It doesn't look as massive in place as we both feared it might, so we're not going to call it the White Elephant.

Visitors who have complained of the low counter with the kitchen sink (to the right) can see how much higher the stove surface is. Someone really must have mismeasured when that counter was installed.

The bare patch of wood is where we removed the tile which was mounted on a panel, thank you. After we get a new exhaust fan, the shelving to the left will be replaced with upper and lower cabinets, leaving a small workspace to the left. Depending on what kind of (affordable) exhaust fan we find, we might add more cabinets above the stove. Or not.

That evening, Kaye unfortunately didn't feel much like cooking and Ed, who had earlier suggested that he'd go out for a pizza, didn't feel like going out, so it the first meal it produced a hastily thrown together dinner with scallops, broccoli, and pasta. Two days later, the ovens and grill went through their first "burning", and, yes, lots of smoke came from the grill. The grill/broiler got a good workout that evening. Kaye is now busy learning to cook on the new stove, how the burners work, etc.

Wednesday evening, we attended another pub quiz/dinner at a local British eatery. We did much better than the other 2-person team, but fourth of five overall. At least we don't have to set the questions for next time. We do think they should give us a handicap for our non-Brit-centric background!

Ed's choir is having its first performance (for him) this evening, but he's still not feeling well, so he's cancelled. His next performance will be Palm Sunday.