A Wolf in the House!

We have shared some of our wildlife sightings in our desert environment. Well, now we have invited a Wolf into the house!

Last week, our current range was diagnosed with a serious issue. It is a Dacor 48 inch professional range. One of the ovens decided it had a mind of its own. The technician was here and he set it to 350 degrees preheat. He turned it off when it was approaching 600 degrees. There are no parts available, and the motherboard would have to be sent back East for a custom repair. And it would take weeks. It was an easy decision to replace the range. I have mentioned before that we already replaced the Dacor dishwasher. This brand has been purchased by Samsung, but the models we have are probably 15 years old, so we are moving on. We did not exactly budget for these replacements, but they aren’t a big surprise.

The old range:

Lou was never happy with the controls on this range.

We spoke to the appliance repair technician about Viking or Wolf. We had an older Wolf range at the Northport house, and Viking at Sugarloaf. The technician’s recommendation leaned strongly towards Wolf, given his repair experience. We did some research and visited a Wolf showroom in Scottsdale – they also handle SubZero refrigerators. We liked what we saw, and stopped at a recommended supplier next to the showroom. We found the range we wanted in stock, and were pleasantly surprised to get a delivery date for this week – today, in fact.

Two friendly guys showed up today and took away our old range, then installed the new one. Here is Lou, explaining the features on the new range to Stitch and Natasha. Stitch listens intently, but Natasha said, “call me when you’ve got the bacon ready.” The new range has 6 burners – they all have different heating ratings. The burners are gas, and the ovens are electric. There is also a griddle which has some cool features. We opted not to get a grill on the stove top, since we can grill outside most days of the year.


We had a choice to get the standard red knobs, a distinctive Wolf feature, or we could have picked bronze, black, blue, etc. I thought the red would stand out in our rather monochromatic kitchen.

Here are more photos of our new range:

This covers the excitement for the week. Other than buying houses, and an SUV or two, this is the first real splurge we have done in years. Even I am looking forward to testing my culinary skills on the new range. But don’t worry! I won’t go near it until it has been truly tested and vetted by our resident chef.

Stay Safe!

Another Day

Had beautiful weather today, and the forecast is low 90s for the rest of the week.

Woke up to the tail end of the sunrise:

In other exciting news, I went to the bank, the post office, and got my car washed. That is an overload of three productive activities. Lou worked on bills and other stuff, and cooked some delicious (he says) tuna steaks for his dinner. I had delicious leftovers (steak from Sunday and green beans).

Highlights


Here are some highlights of our weekend with visitors. We enjoyed seeing Beth and Todd, and the dogs all got along great again. Natasha likes to steal one of their beds, and Stitch just watches from a distance. He is the chief Deputy Dawg. Ace and Bunny are calm, and very affectionate.

Beth and Todd decided the dogs needed to go for a swim. These photos may make it look like the dogs are enjoying it more than they might have been in real life.


After the swim, it was football time. The favorite team, Georgia was playing. Thank goodness they won!


We went out to dinner at Liberty Tavern on Saturday, and had a nice time. Lou cooked steaks (with lots of four legged assistance) on Sunday. All in all, we had a great visit and can’t wait to see everyone again.


So there you have the highlights. Dogs here, and in California, were all worn out and slept well on Monday. We are looking forward to seeing Beth, Todd, Ace, and Bunny back for Thanksgiving.

Stay Safe!

Hurricane in Maine?

Hurricane Lee may drop some heavy storm weather in Maine. At one point, the area where Kathy and Steve live was right in the aiming zone. Hopefully, it will move somewhere else. They said they are prepared. Kathy sent this beautiful photo of the calm before the storm:

Beth, Todd, Ace, and Bunny arrived this afternoon. We are happy to see them.

Stay Safe!

Checking In


Just wanted to say all is well. We have just been going about our daily business. Natasha had her stitches out on Monday, and she is doing really well.

Tonight, we enjoyed a cocktail on the back patio, enjoying the smells of the light thunderstorm. So far, the new backyard is more of a hit with us than with the dogs, but they are adjusting. They think the front yard is more exciting.

just some quick snaps from the evening:


Stay Safe!

We R Green!


Our backyard grass was to be installed today. We were sad, because no one showed this morning. But, after lunch, a crew arrived and they worked diligently to give us a new backyard. It looks good, and it feels good too. I imagine we will get some care instructions, but we are very happy so far. The dogs – no overwhelming approval. They seem to enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies of the new yard. I am sure they will adapt. Perhaps they have forgotten what grass is for 😂.

Stay Safe!!!