What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[REPO Man]

Gave Veronica's kids their presents. They were definitely excited, though not as much as me! I was probably the biggest, most excited kid there!

They loved their presents.

[MrPopo]

Frown. My fridge has died; I discovered it today when I saw water coming out the freezer door and it turned out to be a defrost. Got a new one coming Wednesday and just pitched a ton of frozen food (I had just gotten a meat delivery so that really sucks). I have a mini fridge to make do in the meantime.

[REPO Man]

Thankfully I'm very spartan in how much space I use with my fridge and freezer, but I would absolutely HATE! HATE! HATE! if my freezer crapped out after buying a ton of food. Especially if I buy out all of a single product, like when they've got Pizza Rolls on sale and I load up on the pepperoni ones. Or if it's ice cream, which I seldom buy even though I fucking love ice cream.

Hope the new fridge works out.

[marurun]

Don’t keep your freezer or fridge too sparse. Optimal cooling performance comes from keeping them both relatively filled.

[REPO Man]

Well, I do nearly all of my shopping after work and only have a milk crate on my bike to carry bags back to my house. So it's not like I can buy a crapton of stuff to stuff my fridge and freezer.

[Limewater]

Frown. My fridge has died; I discovered it today when I saw water coming out the freezer door and it turned out to be a defrost. Got a new one coming Wednesday and just pitched a ton of frozen food (I had just gotten a meat delivery so that really sucks). I have a mini fridge to make do in the meantime.

Good for you getting a replacement so quickly!

Our refrigerator went out in summer 2021 and it took many weeks to get a replacement. First we tried to get it fixed by a professional, but had to wait for the part to come in and it didn't work. Then we started looking for a replacement.

First place took our order then told us two or three weeks later that they wouldn't have the model we wanted after all. So we ended up having to settle on a different model an it took a few weeks to get in.

In the meantime I spent some time trying to fix the refrigerator myself, but also had no luck. I think the problem might have been in the wiring harness, but it was routed in such a way that I would have had to disassemble a LOT of the refrigerator to fully check it/replace it.

Having a mini-fridge made the wait a lot more manageable.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, I didn't bother trying to fix it because replacing it was always on my list of things to do. And when I was at the store I made it clear that I only wanted to look at in-stock items.

[marurun]

And any fridge made in the past decade will cost as much to repair almost as to buy a new one. It's kinda gross.

[REPO Man]

I forgot to mention how much different the energy in the room was with Veronica's five kids compared to Betty's three kids. Like it wasn't just the addition of two twin boys, who like most boys their age are rambunctious as hell. But even then, I was probably more excited. Imagine a toddler on Red Bull.

And I also forgot to mention but Rosalina, not unlike Daisy, is a total horror fan. So maybe I actually WILL be able to get the kids some of the horror classics next year for Christmas after all. I'll mostly be sticking with the basics, like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. NOT Hellraiser. I'll probably wait until Paulina, Peach, Daisy and Rosalina are all in high school until then.

And speaking of Friday the 13th...

That's when I'll be getting my Retroid Pocket 3+. I know not to expect it to run EVERY PS2 or GameCube game decently at best, but GOD DAMN this thing looks to be a BEAST of a retro emulation machine. Folks have managed decent speeds with Switch emulation, though mostly on 2D indie titles and even then it's still a handful of titles at best. But between owning a Switch and a softmodded 3DS, I'm not TOO worried about that.

Plus it's a BITCHIN' Android gaming device, even being able to run Call of Duty Mobile, though one will have to use the system's keymapper.

If it's decent enough I might talk my mom, brother, sister-in-law and everyone else into chipping in to get the kids their own RP3+ consoles for Christmas. Thankfully the ability to pay off the devices in four equal payments every other week might make chipping in for such a thing a much easier sell to the adults.

Of course with everything going on, I don't even know if Veronica's going to stay on Hatteras Island when next Christmas rolls around. She STILL can't find a place of her own for her, her boyfriend and her five kids.

[Ziggy]

And any fridge made in the past decade will cost as much to repair almost as to buy a new one. It's kinda gross.

Not unless you know someone that can repair them.

To anyone that considers themselves at least somewhat handy, you may consider this book...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071770186/

I don't know if it's the best book out there or not, but the few times I've skimmed it, it seems pretty good.