I have a new toaster!

Yesterday after work I walked to the Macy's store.  They are having big sales in most departments and that included the housewares. 

I don't normally shop at Macy's.  I generally find them to be too big and too stinky (I ALWAYS seem to enter to a cloud of perfume no matter what door I use.)  Their customer service is generally okay, but stinky is bad.  :)

But being desperate to have a toaster that works, I ventured forth.  Once I found housewares, I then had to find the toasters.  Finally found them and spent a few moments peering before a salesperson came over to make sure I was okay and didn't have questions.

After much discussion about the toasters, I asked her if she had a measuring tape.  She ran off to get one, I drooled on a couple of other appliances, just to leave a mark.  ;P

I had it narrowed down to 2 toasters.  The first was a Black & Decker Toast-R-Oven, same as my last one, just a much MUCH newer model (my previous toaster was about 15.)  This was on sale down from $45 to $25.  YAY!  It was very large, and had a good handle, and it was one of the ones that pulls the rack out for you when you open the door.  But it was all dials.  I don't like dials.  Turny-button things LIE to us!  THEY LIE!  That was one of the big problems with the Europro toaster oven that is going back to Target this weekend.  It's all turny-button things and it lies.

The second toaster I was looking at was a DeLonghi toaster, smaller than the B&D, significantly more expensive...  but it has a START and a STOP BUTTON!  This one had a smaller footprint than the B&D, but the same interior space, and it is digital, not turny buttons.  And that stop and start button pair... 

I ended up spending WAY more money on the DeLonghi instead of the Black & Decker. 

My reasoning is this:
1.  STOP BUTTON - The old toaster had the push button toasting function.  And if you wanted to stop it, you flipped the push button UP.  The EuroPro did not have a stop button, there was NO WAY to turn it off if your item cooked faster and finished early.  So stop buttons are important to me.
2. SMALLER FOOTPRINT - Turns out the counter is even smaller than I thought it was.  The DeLonghi is only about 15.5 inches wide and BARELY fits on the counter.  BARELY.  So the 18 inch wide Black & Decker would have made me upset and had to go back.
3.  Workmanship - The hinges on the B&D wobbled very badly.  The door was a sheet of glass, and the body was overly large.  The DeLonghi has an applied edging to help with heat retention on the edge of the door, very solid hinges, and the same amount of interior space with 4 inches less exterior space (the math does add up here, but it really does in person.)
4.  Digital vs Turny Button Things - I bake clay in my toaster oven pretty frequently.  I make little beads and big beads and various other clay items that then get baked in the toaster.  The more accurate I can get the heat, the better. 

And I got a Macy's card so I saved an extra 15% on the purchase which meant that while this is a $70 toaster, I only paid $3 more than I had for the EuroPro.  So I'm okay with that.  I'll pay it off next week and forget about the card.  ;)

I have an idea for a new necklace, but I haven't had time to test it out yet.  And I have the newly dyed fiber packaged up and ready to have pictures taken, I just need the time for the pictures.

And 1 of them still needs a name.  Blues, purples, reds.  Maybe a little white mixed in.  But I can't think of a name.

Work calls today.  And tonight I am going to go to a get together with my belly dance class.