Patterico’s new related site is now open for business!

The other day my microwave oven’s turntable motor decided that it was time to quit. It’s probably about ten years old, so I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it. (I pulled it out and looked at the back. It’s 11-1/2 years old, manufactured April, 1997).

Now it’s time to start researching new ones. I don’t have have room for a toaster oven too, and I’ve seen a microwave with a 2 slice toaster on the side of it, so I decided to see if there was a toaster oven/microwave combo…

There is it’s a Sharp R-55TS Warm & Toasty Toaster/Microwave there are also microwave/convection ovens and microwave/convection/grill combos.

Sharp Convection Microwaves

Sharp Grill 2 Convection Microwave

Haier Microwave Oven for Convection, Grill and Microwave Cooking

So, can anyone tell me if these are any good? I do have convection on my regular oven, but this could be nice in the summer when one may not want to heat the house with the oven… Also nice for one small batch of cookies.

She’s 18, 18! years old today. Where did the time go, I was sure it was only yesterday or the day before that she was born.

She was born on November 19, 1990 at 6:47 am EST. 4 pounds, 10 ounces. 18 inches long.

Now she’s 18. She’s special needs. She has a developmental delay, moderate hearing impairment, epilepsy, and lupus. When we went to Legoland on Saturday, I asked her how old she was. She told me nine. When I asked her again, she said ten. She loves Barney, Dora, Steve of Blues Clues and Bumblebee from the Transformers movie. She’ll often put a cd of kids’ songs into the DVD player part of her TV and just listen to her “radio”.

She adores roller coasters. It’s a good thing we live near an amusement park and can get season passes for the summer. We can go many times and she can go on all the roller coasters.

Baby Girl Hours Old

Baby Girl 21 days old

#dontgo has a petition up to send to Congress to protest bailing out US automakers.

You can go here to sign it.

CW has it that American car makers don’t make cars that people want to buy. I don’t think that’s the real reason. People want the cars that Detroit builds, otherwise they wouldn’t buy those cars at all. I see so many pickups and SUVs around, especially here in northern Illinois. Often times, the only way to get out of the driveway after the snowplow goes by is with a 4 wheel drive vehicle.

The reason is that people don’t want to spend that $5K-$10K premium per vehicle that is added to the price of the vehicle to cover the unsustainable labor contracts that the Big Three are currently burdened with.

Smaller, more fuel efficient, more eco-friendly vehicles are all well and good, but a Smart car, adorable as it is, can’t carry my family. A Smart car won’t get over the plow sh*t at the end of my driveway. And that’s the stuff that’s the hardest to remove… Icy, watery, heavy crap that the plow leaves along the side of the road. Depending on the accumulation, those piles can be more than a foot high. Easy to traverse with a four wheel drive SUV, impossible with a smaller car.

People also don’t want to pay a premium in the thousands for eco-friendliness (e.g. 2009 Saturn Vue FWD base price $23,745 eMPG 19City/23Hwy vs Hybrid Saturn Vue $28,625 eMPG 25City/32Hwy – a $4,880 difference.) We have one vehicle, an SUV. It handily accommodates our entire family. A sedan could accommodate the three kids and two adults too, but that’s all. We couldn’t take Grandma or a friend, or my sister, her husband, and her daughter with us as we can with our 8 seat vehicle.

And don’t even try a run to Costco or Sam’s Club with family in a small sedan. We once had a 1982 Toyota Corolla Tercel and only two kids at the time. You should have seen it. We had to pack it like a clown car with all the stuff and try not to suffocate two children while doing it.

Since we just have the one vehicle, I have to walk to the elementary school to pick up The Little Guy. It’s a mile there and back. I wear a leg brace and use a cane too. One of those Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) or a Smart Car could work for that, and for the small amount of close-in travel to the Post Office, Dunkin Donuts, the grocery store, etc that I might do during the day, but these little, tiny, eco-friendly vehicles cost about the same as a larger compact car does. And the gas powered car goes much further than the 40 mile range of a plug in electric.

Let’s not bail out the US automakers. Let’s allow them to declare bankruptcy and shed the unsustainable labor contracts. Let’s give the US automakers the same advantages that the foreign automakers here in the US currently enjoy.

We went to the Legoland Discovery Center on Saturday since the Little Guy will be 8 years old tomorrow and The Big Girl will be 18! years old on Wednesday. Yep, he was born the day before his big sister’s 10th birthday.

The Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg, Illinois is one of three in the world, the only one in the United States. It’s also America’s only indoor Legoland.

Legoland Discovery Center Entrance

More after the jump…

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Patterico readers!

Patterico is opening a new, related blog called The Jury Talks Back. He was looking for a header for the new blog and I designed this one for him.

and here’s a sidebar ad in two different sizes:

225px x 225 px

120px x 120px

My cousin is in this group (in the yellow shirt, playing guitar). Good music.

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away so it’s time for a Thanksgiving plans poll.

Thanksgiving poll direct link

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915)

Remember me:

The Christmas tree lots are being set up. The red wooden racks are up and ready for a tree delivery in the Super KMart parking lot. Yesterday I went to Walmart for Kung Fu Panda. Walmart was packed. I also went to JoAnn Fabrics to get a few things and it was packed too. Lots of stuff is on sale especially Halloween leftovers, but Christmas stuff is on sale too.

We did a lot of movie watching this week, Get Smart, The Forbidden Kingdom, Incredible Hulk, and The Love Guru Mariska Hargitay…

The CGI Hulk was incredible, his face was so expressive.

We also watched The Land That Time Forgot on one of the Encore channels. 1975. Very visible strings/wires on the pterydactyl that made off with the Neanderthal. Very obvious models and puppet monsters. Fun to watch with an almost 8-year-old who doesn’t really know those crappy special effects.