Last week we got a message from Hubby's cousin, telling us about a kitchen cabinet that was not being used, and we could have it free if we picked it up soon. The cabinet was miles away, and our car had bald tires, but we grabbed the roof racks and headed off. After a few passes on a busy road, we found the driveway and house. The cabinet was very tall, free-standing, and well made. It also could be separated into two sections. The smaller section fit into our trunk (after putting the trunk stuff into the back seat) and the bottom we put on the roof. It was heavy and I almost couldn't handle it, but two men talking in the next driveway came over and offered to help. I gladly stepped away and watched. We got it home, but only after stopping twice to reposition the piece on the roof.
Now we had the problem of size. The cabinet turned out to be 5" wider than the space. After some consideration, we decided to find a smaller desk for the computer. The current desk was 41" wide and looking very worn, the wood-print paper veneer was scraped off along the front and there were other problems.
So we went shopping. We spent all weekend making the rounds of our favorite thrift stores and measuring desks. We also kept an open mind and looked at bookcases and similar things. We found, late on Sunday afternoon, a free-standing cabinet that was the cousin of the one we had been given! So we spent $35.00, some gas, and lots of time, but now we have two new cabinets in the kitchen, both white with glass doors on the top and butcher block work surfaces. The $35 one was less well made, and the drawer was falling apart, so we removed the drawer and the bottom doors, and that is now our "new" desk.
I love treasure hunts like this. Things don't always work out this well, but when they do it's great.

What's up with Tasters' Choice? We used to buy it all the time. It was the only coffee we drank. But when our income went down, we switched to regular ground coffee in a little Mr. Coffee machine. When the machine broke we bought a jar of Tasters' Choice (now made by Nestle), but we found it to be weak. On reading the label, we saw the suggested measurement and realized that we were not using enough crystals for the size of the mug. But we were using the same measurement and the same mugs as before!

We wonder if the bean-counters at Nestle wanted to keep the price down, and did it by making the crystals fluffier or somehow with less coffee in them. This is one of the reasons "They" say there is no inflation.