sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

April 12, 2005


found objects
posted by soe 7:47 pm

People who’ve lived in D.C. for a while will tell you one of the best things about living here is the fact that people move frequently. You can outfit a whole apartment on the cheap if you’re patient and not overly picky based on what you find on Craig’s List and at tag sales.

Two Sundays ago, Rudi and I were heading to the farmers’ market prior to the Nationals-Mets scrimmage when we saw a sign advertising a tag sale in our neighborhood later in the morning. Unfortunately, we were crunched for time and didn’t have time to do more than browse as we walked to the Metro on our way to the game. Rudi eyed a tape deck he believed to be a gem; I noticed a breadmaker. As we continued on, we debated turning back, but decided it would be more prudent just to get to RFK.

I have to admit — baseball drives pretty much everything else from my mind. (What? You’ve noticed that about me too? ;)) By the time the train arrived, I’d already forgotten about the tag sale.

So it wasn’t until we were walking up that same street after the game and saw a pile of stuff in front of the house that my thoughts returned to the potential of a find.

Lo! the breadmaker was still there. And what does this sign say?

Free.

What?

Free.

Woo hoo!

“What if it doesn’t work?” I ask Rudi.

“Leave it out on the sidewalk, like this person has done,” he answered.

“It doesn’t have a manual.”

“Maybe we can find one online or instructions for ordering one.”

So the breadmaker has come home with us. It’s still sitting on the floor in the kitchen, waiting for me to test it, but Rudi did find a PDF of the manual on the Oster website, as well as a bunch of enthusiastic reviews about the model elsewhere on the Internet.

I’ve wanted to learn how to bake bread since I moved down here, but I’ve been lazy. I’m still not sure I consider breadmaker bread to be real bread, but it’s definitely a start.

This coming weekend is supposed to be a little more chilly, and I only have two things on the calendar (a party Saturday night and the farmers’ market Sunday morning). So maybe Sunday evening will find me with a loaf of bread made by my new toy.

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