A Tale of Two Toasters ...

 

A toaster ... I'd imagine most kitchens have one. I remember we had an old white one when we first moved into this house. When we switched out the appliances to stainless steel, I replaced the toaster to match (you can catch a glimpse of the replacement in the Pantry post).  It finally went out on us, so I ordered a new toaster off Amazon. 

I received some teasing about this bare bones tiny toaster ... "How much did this cost? $10?" It was actually $15.99, but yes, it was one of the more inexpensive (but still decently reviewed) ones there. But ... it's a TOASTER, what bells and whistles do you need?

There is actually one feature the family uses a lot. The "lift" ... bringing up the bread a bit higher, easing getting it out (we do have the little wooden tongs for when we still need additional help). The ends of the sourdough, or banana bread ... they are pretty small and that little boost is needed. This also had no "beep" when the toast is done (pros and cons to this, the old one was a little annoying with its beep). 

After some teasing, I told the others (Coop, Colton, Gray) that I was more than happy to let them pick out a different toaster. Cooper took me up on that. He saw a toaster on TikTok and it's all modern and digital with lots of options (although you do still have to push down the lever manually ... unless there's an app for that?) It does have the little lift ... so I'm happy with it.

Seedeem Toaster 

LCD Display & Touch Control: The wide slots toaster has a colorful LCD, so you can see the bread type, shade setting and the remaining time easily. You need to touch 6 buttons to select the mode you want. Memory function will keep the bread type and shade settings from the last toasting.

50% Faster Speed: Superior to the conventional toaster, the 1350W toaster has made a revolutionary breakthrough in toasting speed. It is 50% faster than leading toasters, which can get even toast and save you half the time of baking bread in the morning.

Special Mid-range: 7 Bread Shade Setting provides bread from light yellow to deep dark. The specially developed medium setting--4 gear, can bake delicious bread that is not too dry but full of burnt flavor.

Multiple Functions: Not only Cancel, Defrost, Reheat functions, we also specially added Bread Type and More Time functions. There are 6 types of bread to choose from, including bagel, white, waffle, eng.muffin, gluten free, grain. If you are not satisfied with the browning color, you can touch More Time to add time for 45 seconds.

Easy Operation & Cleaning: 1.5 inch wide slots can accommodate different thicknesses of bread. Flexible lift lever for smooth dropping and auto ejecting of bread. Removable crumb tray helps you collect and dump falling crumbs to avoid staining your desktop.

Who knew? A seven-bread-shade setting! And it's 50% faster (I actually DID notice that it seems super fast, and it's nice to have a countdown so you know exactly how much time is left). That "lift lever" though, that's the feature I'll look for on any future toaster purchases.

Colton moved into his college apartment in Oregon, and his roommates had the kitchen furnished pretty well ... but no toaster. Colton likes his cinnamon toast, and he asked me to order him one (as I now have all this experience with shopping for toasters). I had this one delivered to him ... I made sure it had the "Toast Boost" lift, and I even threw in a shaker of cinnamon sugar (not sure that the bachelor boy's apartment would have sugar, or cinnamon, or a shaker). Alas, he's too far away for my fresh sourdough!

Colton Goes to College ...

When Colton made his decision to play for Clackamas Community College, the main question was, "where will he live?"  Unlike my experience at Snow and BYU, where campus living/dorms are part of the experience ... CCC is more like SLCC, where it's a majority of students living at home, in the area. There were no dorms, no set housing.  There was another player coming from out of state, and another from Oregon, but not close enough to commute, so the three basketball boys planned on finding a place together. Sight unseen, with parents co-signing the lease, the guys had a three bedroom/1 bath apartment close to campus.

Conner (the Oregonian) had done most of the work getting everything set, and was able to round up quite a bit of communal stuff (couch, table/stools, kitchen and bathroom essentials), so that Colton and Kobe, coming from out of state, just brought their clothes and sundries. Once there, both families scrambled to get a bed, desk and whatever else was needed to set up the boy's bedrooms. 

I asked for pictures that would help me get a feel of Colton in his new place.

He obliged. 

Here's a little video tour ...

https://youtu.be/vM2hpGp3ERA

The apartment does NOT have air conditioning, as Oregon is pretty temperate. Most of the time. They were having a heat wave while Gray and Keaton were there helping Colton get settled (luckily the Vrbo had AC) and his first week+ there was HOT, even higher temps than Utah (where we have AC ... although out of possible commiseration with Colton the AC here at home decided to go out during this time too! We got it fixed pretty quick - Grayson has connections!)

There's not a washer/dryer in the apartment, but there's a laundry room at the complex. Two parking spaces and there seemed to be plenty of visitor parking too. I'm not sure how well I prepared Colton for living on his own. He CAN do his own laundry, although he doesn't have a lot of practice. Washing dishes ... cooking, shopping for groceries? It will be a learning and growing experience for sure!

 

Off to Oregon

After entertaining a few offers from colleges in the NWAC, Colton committed to Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. So at the end of August ... it was off to Oregon! Gray was in charge of getting him there, and brought Keaton along (Keaton is great at putting things together and was an extra driver for the travel there). So Colton squished in as much as he could. He could take whatever the Charger would carry (leaving room for two passengers and their luggage). 

The iconic Multnomah falls ...

...lots of eating out along the way and after they arrived. 

They stayed for a few days to shop and get Colton set up ...

... as Colton hadn't had much room to bring things with him, and the apartment was unfurnished, they had quite a bit of shopping to do! Fred Meyer and Ikea. No sales tax, but no shopping bags either. And STILL not much room in the Charger to transport purchases. Poor Keaton got squished more than once! Luckily one of Colton's new roommates had provided a lot of the community/kitchen items. You can see Colton's apartment HERE. 

... a few more pictures

Then Sunday, September 1st ... Colton drove Dad and Keaton to the Portland airport. He dropped them off ... then drove away. On his own in Oregon.