What happens when…?

What happens when you have packed a large portion of your belongings into storage?

Inevitably, you will need something.

That is the story of my life right now.

…you need that small kitchen appliance…

 I had intentions of making something for dinner last week. I bought the ingredients for it and everything. There was only one problem. The one thing that I needed for making it was a small kitchen appliance that I own. The catch? It is already packed away in a box in storage. Why? Surely I would not need or want it for a while.

I contemplated whether or not to pack it. My use of it goes in cycles. I use it a lot sometimes and then not at all. I have owned this device for a LONG time so it has lived up to his hype in my opinion and in all honestly it is wearing out but I have been babying it along the past year or so because I use it that much. I have owned it since I had my first apartment in college. What is it? A Braun Handi Mixer and Chopper. I have used (and to some degree abused) it a lot over the years. It is roughly 20 years old and it is still going. It is definitely showing its age at this point and I have contemplated many times in the past year whether I should just get a new one. The Braun brand, however, can be very expensive so it was not something I really wanted to spend the money on since I had one that worked. Besides, I had a full sized food processor. The need for another food processor just did not seem right in my mind. Logically, it did not make sense to get yet another device to do something I had already between my little trusty Handi Mixer and accessories and my full-sized Cuisinart.

This week, however, necessity drove me to a decision. I have fresh basil in my fridge to use up after all.

Aldi had these little things in their stores. I walked past them and eventually went back and grabbed a box. Why? It was just too easy to make my life whole again. It was small and compact. This is small! It was cute. I hate to say that I bought a small kitchen appliance because it was cute, but it is and I did. Its box is compact and it will fit in the cabinet and hardly be noticed. Most importantly, however, the price was right. For $7.99 I could solve multiple problems quickly, easily, and without stress. I needed to use up my fresh basil and other ingredients that I purchased. I could spend time trying to find someone that had something that work or I could purchase this little device and be done. Remember I already had a device that I was contemplating replacing. This is actually more compact than the one that I have and probably more convenient in many ways.

The drawback of this little thing is that it does NOT replace my full sized Cuisinart food processor in any way. This thing just will not have the horsepower for that. It also does not have the accessories to make it that attractive. It also is probably not going to be a replacement for my Braun Handi Mixer accessory as again I am not sure it has the horsepower for it. That Braun has been a work horse for many years. What it does do, is give me something nice to get me through until I can find a replacement for the Braun Handi Mixer and accessories. The Braun’s chopper bowl has ridges in it that have always been a pain to clean. This little device has a smooth bowl like the Cuisinart.

The advantages that this has up on the Cuisinart that will probably give this more mileage most days is that I will use this for small jobs that I just won’t use the Cuisinart for. I am not going to use the Cuisinart to chop a handful of nuts. I am just not going to do it. I am going to make pesto in small batches for myself most of the time, this little thing is perfect for that. That is what I bought it for after all…

…you need to sign something with a real signature…

I have a digital drawing pad and I normally have it all together in my laptop bag, however, a while back the place where I normally keep the stylus/pen developed a hole so I took it out because it kept looking like it would fall out. I just was not happy with it. Most people would think “just put it in the pocket.” I would, except I have done that with a previous version of the tablet and I had the pen go out so I am kind of unhappy with that prospect. I am kind of protective of the pen.

As a result, I took the pen out and I put it on my sewing table. It has been moved around a bit, but it was still with stuff that I would use it with for the most part. It was some graphic stuff. I vaguely remember where it was. It was with this other thing that also went with the tablet.

Of course that recollection is now after thinking about it…

Initially, I had to go through the steps and think about it…

Why is this an issue? Our realtor needed us to initial a document and send it back to him. He just wanted us to email it back to him. NO PROBLEM! I thought I would just get the tablet out, hook it up, we’d initial it, and email it back. No big deal. At least it was no big deal until I couldn’t find the pen/stylus.

No big deal. Ben had one that I bought him a while back with some Staples Rewards for practically nothing. I remembered sticking it in the room with the boys’ computer. I remembered handing it to Kyle and telling them “don’t lose it and don’t break it.” That was more of an expression of my displeasure with them that they break stuff sometimes just because they don’t take care of things by putting them back in safe locations after using them. Go figure, they are kids and boy kids at that. I went and looked in the room and couldn’t find it. What?!. It was not that long ago. I do not remember packing it up. How could it not be there?!. Kyle could not find it either. Not good! Of course I am not a happy person at this point and I am even less happy with the children who have misplaced the item after being told “not to lose it.”

The good news is that life does go on. I check out box inventory. It is fairly thorough. It is in the house somewhere according to it. I am not sure where. Of course, some boxes have a LOT of little misc things in them so they may not have every single item in them. The box that has my pen/stylus in it is probably not inventoried with the pen/stylus on the list. It probably just does not have it on the inventory. Not an oversight, just it was inside a container or stuff that went in the box and the container got inventoried of what was in it generally. I know roughly which one it would be, but I can’t venture to guess where it is in the storage unit at this point with everything else that has gone over there.

So…I am have this decision to make. We will have a LOT of documents to sign in the next few days and weeks to come. I can order a replacement pen/stylus and save myself a huge amount of headache and frustration. This can be a huge time savings. OR I can just deal with it and we can physically print and sign all the documents and I can run them all back to the realtor or fax them back. Both are feasible options, but not as quick or easy.

Just how much is my stress level worth? I am leaning very heavy to hitting purchase very quickly because my stress level needs to stay low with everything else going on right now and these pens/stylus do go out. Not to mention that I do have a tendency to lay it down and misplace it from time to time around the house and have to go looking for it. That is why I have kept it in my laptop bag or on my sewing area as of late. I am pretty sure I am going to just buy it and I will have a spare and not have to worry about it so much. I do use it often and enjoy it a lot. Most people do not carry them around in their laptop bags but I am willing to carry the extra weight because I enjoy mine that much and am willing to put up with it just to have the flexibility of having it with me all the time.

Now to start the search for a better laptop bag that has better options for storage for the pen/stylus.

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