Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Fixing up and making do

Fixing up--alas, the laminator I bought a few years ago at Big Lots decided to jam. So I took it apart trying to free the laminated recipe card that decided to wrap around the rollers instead of sliding out. I'm not sure I had much luck--I had to use a utility knife to shred what I could get at because the heating element is inside something that doesn't come apart. I got most of it out, I hope. Right now I'm heating it up so I can try to laminate something else to see if that will push out the remaining recipe card. I only paid $12 for this and have gotten a lot of use out of it. I'm not sure I could find it again at Big Lots, or anywhere else.
Making do...I'm using up the last of last Thursday's turkey dinner, some leftover tortillas and cheese plus an enchilada sauce recipe from "Not Just Beans" to make lunch for my son. He loves enchiladas. The sauce is too spicy for me, but with my kids it's 'the hotter, the better.' I'm just glad to get rid of some leftovers. :)

1 comment:

moocifer said...

I'm sorry you have no comments up to now--your doggie looks so sad!

I hope now he is happy since there is a comment today.

I like fixing things too. It is very cool. Today I fixed my red vinyl rain poncho--you know, the $5 kind. I've been using it for years for biking in the rain and whatnot and it ripped all down the front so it was useless. Most people would throw it out, but I look at it and say :there's a great poncho with a rip in it that I could easily repair!" I have a tube of autobody weatherstripping glue that I realized would do a bang up job on this vinyl parka. I laid a thin stream of this glue, overlapped the ripped part and pressed the seam flat by rolling a roll of packing tape along it and left it to sit on the floor (after making sure it wasn't glued to the floor!!!). Two hours later it's looking stronger than it was when it was new. The glue reaches full strength probably in another 12 to 18 hours so I won't use it before then even though it probably wouldn't matter. I reinforced the neck seam (where the rip started in the first place) with a strip of fiberglass-stranded packing tape with the glue too, so hopefully a new rip will not start.

Hey, $5 is $5! Plus it's more satisfying to just fix something and it saves the hassle of going shopping. And of getting soaked in the rain! Who knows, this parka could last another 5-10 years at this rate.

cheers!