Thrift Treasures | Microwave Woes

I visited my FIL today.  We went to Williamsburg to have lunch.  I had been far too busy last year, and didn't not make or have, I'm unsure which is correct, time for such a visit before now.  Because of my crazy work schedule, weekends were spent working, etc.  I ended up with a large hole of undone things at my home.  (I did host Thanksgiving, though).

Outside of Thanksgiving, I've been MIA.  So, I both had and made time today to visit.  On the way to his house, I stopped in a Thrift Store in Providence Forge.  My last visit yielded some silicone bakeware which I use, and some beautiful crafted in Germany cookie cutters. 

Today's visit yielded a microwave turntable that fits my Panasonic, because it is from a Panasonic.  It was a whopping $1--the replacement turntable costs $33.  I managed to break mine in in a freakish accident where I pulled out my dish, but pulled the glass turntable out with it.  It crashed to the floor and broke into 1245 pieces or so.  Luckily, I had kept the turntable from my expired microwave.

Which brings me to a second expiration of a microwave.  My first expired microwave was 8-10 years old.  I consider that pretty good service for something that I use every single day.  The microwave that I replaced it with died within 2 months.  Now that is quite uncool.  And it died 5 days before my dinner party.  It just stopped acting like it was getting any electricity.

It's within warranty obviously, but nothing was going to happen to fix this within the time that I had.  So...I simply bought another microwave.  Panasonic customer service is running at a snail's pace.  They are supposed to be contacting me for sending me a shipping box to ship my old microwave back in.  For this, I was told that they will request my credit card number and charge me $50 in liquidated damages if they send the box out and I fail to send the microwave back. 

Well, I'm still waiting for them to call me.  There is something seriously wrong with their work processes as I filled out a form, and then somebody called me and asked all of the same questions.  I was on the phone for almost 20 minutes and I still don't have a frickin box or any outreach that will connect me to one.  I was told that once I ship it back, I will get it back within two business days.

Toe tapping....waiting for call.

The second thing that I got at the thrift store were two sets of 4, one burgundy moir  and one blue moir s Pimpernel placemats (hard placemats with cork bottom).  These are vintage 1990's; still had their original box and the inserts; appeared to have been little used.  They were $3 each, or $6.  I feel like they were quite a find, and they will be perfect for saving my Stickley dining table.  I use cloth placemats, but these will just need to be wiped down.

My dinner party has come and gone.  Thank goodness I had a new microwave.  Not sure what I will do with 2.  But when you have many things frozen (dogfood!) it is very inconvenient.  Paying $130 for a new microwave was not welcomed, but necessary.  The outlay surely saved me that much in inconvenience.