Entries tagged with macgyver-tricks

We now own three, yes count them, three iPods.
Since getting my wee little Nano for my birthday, I very lovingly allowed Miss Thing to take it with her on a business trip. I haven't seen Bette (aka wee little Nano) since except to recharge her. It also didn't help that the first iPod has been desperately in need of a battery for some time. The charge would last a while for Ronette, but for me, the iPod would be dead in less than an hour. {That's a whole other story of how I suck the life out batteries. And

curefreak, keep it clean this time! ;)} And we have been saying for a while that we should just buy another Nano for Ronette, so on Tuesday I bought another one. Not so much an impulse by, but an informed, I saved my pennies, nickels and dimes kind of thing. I also bought a new battery for the big Pod. Everything showed up yesterday. It was happiness all around. I now have Bette back and Ronette will have her Lola.

You want to know about replacing an iPod battery? Damn was it a pain to get the iPod open. My 30-second instruction video did not help at all. I ended up Google-ing information to assist me. Finally got that sucker open and then couldn't get the battery cable unwrapped. When I got that figured out and the new battery installed, then I couldn't get the hard drive to reconnect. I ended up having to reopen the case when I realized that I hadn't actually connected the hard drive on try 10 zillion. But I got everything connected and strapped back together and Oh My! I remember when we got this one and how well it worked. It's amazing what new batteries will do. {Again,

curefreak go find the soap.}

FIGJAM!!!!!!!

And since we all know what it means now, let me tell you about my most recent dilemma where I should have exclaimed "figjam!" Well, maybe it should just be "fig" if no one is around to "jam".

I've known for awhile that my hand mixer was on the blitz. For months I have sweet talked it into giving me just one more mix of the batter. I knew that its life was short lived, but I had hoped that it would last as long as my mother's hand mixer that she got as a wedding present. That one finally died around year 25 of service. They just don't make things like they used to.

Anyway, I told RTL that I would make her a cake with icing, layers and all that good stuff. I mixed the batter for the cake. I had to stop mixing every few minutes to keep the motor from overheating and to unjam the mixers. I was thinking that beating by hand might have been easier. I finally got the batter mixed and the cake in the oven. But before I tried to make icing for the cake, I decided to do the magic that has kept it running so far. Did a little test, everything was working fine.

Now the cake is out of the oven and I'm getting everything ready to make icing. First step - cream the butter. The frickin' mixer won't work! The motor is running, but the gears aren't turning. I decided to pull out my tool belt and fix the blasted thing for good. I take everything apart, clean out all the flour that has made its way through all the nooks and crannies and try to see if I can realign the gears.

I tried, I really did. I gave up when I realized that in my months of coaxing just one more batter, I've stripped the gears. I probably could have found a gear that fit and eventually fixed it, but frankly it wasn't worth it. Of course, if I were a real lesbian then I could have fixed it with some duct tape and a little WD-40. I threw the sucker away. I know, more trash for the landfill, but if manufacturers just made things like they used to this wouldn't be a problem.

What to do, what to do? I have cake. I promised cake with icing and layers and all the bells and whistles. I need icing. And I wasn't going out to buy a can of icing. So I MacGyvered it. I just needed something to turn a mixer so I pulled out my trusty drill. FIG!!!! Can you picture me in my frilly pink apron and a drill making icing for a cake? I wish I had enough thought to take a picture. Great icing too. What I need now is for Dewalt to make a hand mixer.

This is sick.

Let me just say . . .