For Thanksgiving dinner this year I made five pies and cranberry chutney. I was happy to do it. Except for the part where the apple pie crust was such a pain in the ass I nearly threw the whole thing at a wall while simultaneously remembering why in the few times in the past that I’ve made apple pie I used store-bought dough. Somehow I forgot that when taking on the task of baking two of them.
Thanksgiving was a lovely affair at my brother and sister in law’s house, and I spent the rest of my weekend making things out of resin and hoping I can sell them somehow.
I know you’ve been dying for a car update so I’ll give you a fast one. I called my Kia Consumer Affairs case manager and we were chatting about the car’s issues and getting some questions answered. Basically, I was collecting info, or trying to, in order to look into lemon lawing this sad car. I am not very good at keeping a poker face however, and I mentioned this to the case manager and she said “Oh, we can do that for you!”
She sent me paperwork and a list of things needed. I filled it all out and sent it back. Kia will review it to see if it qualifies for lemon law status, then they will go to the dealership to settle the matter out of court. If I am not happy with the agreement made, I can still take on the lemon case myself and take it to court/arbitration. Tomorrow I will be calling for a timeline because I was so relieved to get that off my shoulders that I didn’t even ask how long the process could take. I am also curious to know if we go this route, does it mean the car is not technically lemon lawed and as such, the dealer can resell it (because this is being done out of court). I do not want him to resell it.
Much more fun and interesting was getting together with Little yesterday. We went to Lowell, MA to check out a place called Mill5. It’s a funky shopping “center” in an old mill building that also had a handmade craft and makers show going on. I know about it because I got rejected from the crafting show. Once we arrived I could see why. I thought there would be a lot of trendy things there, and my stuff isn’t really trendy. That wasn’t the case. Very generally speaking, the entire show had a wickan, astrologist feel to it. Lots of jewelry with bones and teeth incorporated, natural salves and creams which took a long time to figure out their purpose (shampoo? Deodorant? Both?), and stickers. Everyone seemed to be selling stickers. Is that a thing now? Must be.
There were taxidermied animals too;
We still had fun exploring like we always do, and on the drive to Lowell, I told Little all about the car saga, including the fact that my Mom’s car had to be towed, to which she exclaimed “Why? What did the car do?!”
I told her I knew of a really good dumpling place in this town and wanted to take her there. I assured her that if she didn’t like that would be no big deal. I would take the rest to go and swing somewhere to get her some slices of pizza. “But they have these really great soup dumplings…”
“Soup dumplings?!” she exclaimed. She’d seen them all over TikTok and was dying to try them. She ended up very excited about the meal, and I couldn’t help but think of the time I went to see Dad at his work in Harvard Square when I was in high school, and he took me for sushi for the first time.
As we finished eating I wondered aloud what we should do next. “It’s too early to drop me off!” she told me. I mentioned there was a little museum we could swing through quickly nearby, “I have to pickup something from Michaels…” I said.
“Errands!? I wanna run errands!” So that’s what we did. In Michaels I was looking for UV Protectant spray for resin. We looked in other areas and came upon some paintable tree ornaments. I told her she could pick one out for a painting project the next time we’re together. She picked out a wooden photo frame with “2023” on it. “Oo! What photo are you gonna put in there?” I asked her.
“One of us!” she said. So of course I had to get one for myself too.
By the time we got to the resin section, I’d already picked out five things that were not UV resin protectant spray, and joked about how my bag was already full of stuff I didn’t come here for. I looked around in the resin section, curious about this and that, “Oh, what’s that!?” I said as I zeroed in on something I didn’t need.
Little knew I didn’t need it and with a raised eyebrow said in a hilariously chastising tone, “That doesn’t look like UV spray!” She was not wrong.
And here is a photo of Harlow because she is just an adorable sweetie.
BEAN'S BABBLETORIUM 