How’s this for a toaster for you?
http://www.kitchenaid.com/shop/countertop-appliances-1/countertop-appliances-2/toasters-3/-[KMT2203CA]-401854/KMT2203CA/
$399 for a two slice toaster? Not a chance! Besides, it’s downright ugly.
That’s a nice toaster, but it’s not available in a stainless finish so we bought a Cuisinart instead. All the appliances have to match according to my wife. The biggest advantage to me about the motorized mechanism vs the pop-up is that the gentle motion doesn’t throw crumbs everywhere like the cheap pop-up kind.
Ase, you apparently have much more disposable income than I. You have my respect.
Of course, I no longer have a wife to insist that the appliances match… but I do remember those days…
According to my kids all income is disposable TSM! But seriously, yeah $399 for a toaster is crazy, but the $100 or so Cuisinart seems to be working just fine. Frankly, for most of my life I refused to consider anything like that, but at this point, I’ve come to the conclusion that life is too short and I work too hard to have to eat burnt toast and pick up crumbs flung around the counter. We put a lot of hard work and money into a nice home, makes sense to me not to muck it up with 3 or 4 different colors appliances.
Extending that thought, I once worked in a shop where the owner loved Snap On. Tools and equipment were all Snap On, storage cabinets, the shopvac, floor jacks, the racks on the wall, you name it. If he thought you would be working there for a while, he would pay for half of a new toolbox for you, as long as it was Snap On and red. Once a year he would take the shop trash cans to the paint/body shop and have them painted color matched Snap On red.
Ase, I tip my hat to you.
Snap On tools are great. I’m sure you’ll agree that there is a very real functional difference between good tools and budget tools that becomes obvious if you use them every day. Budget tools are, however, fine for the average homeowner. Repainting toolboxes however… well… it’s a harmless obsession…
The same is true in the woodshop. Carbide cutting tips & heads, cobalt drills, etc. make a huge difference. But for someone who cuts a board once every decade and doesn’t need precision, a stamped steel blade is fine.
We just got a Calphalon 4 slice toaster at work, works fine.
I’ve had a 4-slice toaster for years. Works great. I think I paid less than $20 for it at Family Dollar. But it does spread a few crumbs around. And I have no wife to keep happy.
I don’t know what we paid for our 4 slice pop up. Believe it or not my wife bought it for ME for my birthday or Christmas or something. I wouldn’t dare get her a toaster. I suspect it was in the $50 plus range and a step up from our normal $20 variety. Yeah, right about the crumbs so maybe I’ll have to start hinting that we need the $300 model for Father’s Day or something. Nah.
tsm, re-read my post. It wasn’t the toolboxes that got repainted yearly. It was the trash cans. Professionally, with the appropriate PPG color code to match the Snap On toolboxes. Harmless obsession? Maybe, until you have to sit through a shop meeting where you’re told to exercise more care in throwing stuff in the garbage cans to avoid scratching the expensive paint.
Man, that IS obsessive!
My first toaster was a single slice Toastmaster that had a clock timer mechanism to time the length of the cycle. It was a wedding present that my parents received in 1938. When they upgraded to a 2 slice toaster, I grabbed ahold of the single slice. We used that toaster for years. I have been through a couple of toasters since then. I think the last purchase came from Walgreens. I don’t think I paid more than $20 for it.
Just a little factoid that may or may not mean anything in regards to the Dodge Dart. I attended the OK City Auto Show today where they had about 3 buildings full of the newest stuff and 1 building full of the old stuff.
Chrysler/Dodge had a huge area with 2 Darts displayed. I noted while there that people were looking closely at the pickups, the Challengers, the Chargers, etc and trying them on for fit.
However, other than a few casual glances from someone walking by the Darts were pretty much ignored.
The Fiat 500 was drawing more people than the Darts.
Not really related to the Darts but they had the prototype 2015 Mustang there. It looks better than the pics but does have a hint of Aston Martin to it.
They’re going to offer the Mustang with a 2.0 Liter in-line 4 putting out over 300 Horsepower. Pretty amazing.
I was wondering when they were gonna offer a turbo 4 banger for the Mustang. How long until the 6cyl ecoboost comes out for it? 
My workplace gets discounts through Gladiator, so we have all kinds of Gladiator cabinets and tool chests around the plant. Bought my step dad a cabinet for xmas one year when we had a sale going on and he had mentioned wanting to get another one for the garage; he really likes it
The rep said that the new Mustangs were going to be offered with the I-4, the V6, and the V8 for 2015 with sales beginning in about Oct. of 2014.
They had a disassembled Eco-Boost 1.0 Liter as a display. Pretty amazing also that something the size of a plucked turkey puts out 123 Horsepower. The turbocharger isn’t much bigger than my fist and the water pump a bit bigger than a pack of cigarettes.
And speaking of I-4 engines, you should have seen the 1913 Simplex race car with the I-4; all 590 cubic inches of it.
But can you give part of one to someone as a wedding gift? 
Automobile magazine had a Dart as a long term car, they liked some things but hated the dual clutch gearbox and suggested you buy the manual if you want the turbo engine.
Don’t get me started. We just recently moved and that was my opportunity to “accidentally” run over the toaster we got as a wedding present. Seven years suffering with that monstrosity. Wouldn’t you know it, it just wouldn’t die…so it had to be killed.
The pop up crumb detacher is a feature designed to keep the crumbs on the counter and out of the butter 
Consumer Reports was not very enthusiastic about the Dodge Dart. However, in the latest issue, the non-turbo Dart had a good reliability record. The turbo version had below average reliability.
Forty nine years ago I bought a 1965 bottom of the line Rambler Classic 550 for a good price. The Rambler had 7000 miles on it, but I got the balance of the warranty. It wasn’t the most exciting car on the road, but it did serve me well. If the current Dodge Dart serves the bill for basic transportation as my Rambler did, it might be a good wedding present.
The problem with toasters is that its hard to throw them up in the air enough to give it a sporting chance against a 12 guage.