This week’s sidequests included a few that got shifted around. One was supposed to be next week’s, but the perfect opportunity for it arose this week. The other was supposed to be a few weeks ago but kept getting shuffled back because my schedule kept interfering with it. The sidequests included fixing something broken in my home (or if nothing is broken, learn a life hack to make a task easier), to go to a restaurant I’ve never tried but always wanted to, and to write down the things I want to accomplish.

The broken item one was moved up because… quite conveniently (inconveniently?)… my oven broke this past week. I recently started dating a guy who noticed that the oven light was out and decided he wanted to fix that for me. When he went to pull the bulb out, it zapped him and caused a power surge that made the oven’s control panel die. The stove appeared to work fine at least. He felt really bad about it and offered to buy a brand new stove/oven similar to what I have, but in researching it, it looked like the oven control panel just needed to be replaced. I reassured him I could probably hire an appliance repair person.

When he mentioned it to a friend of his, his friend noted that it was an easy thing to switch out and he could probably do it himself if we got the part. With a little bit of research, I found that the part had been discontinued, but was still being sold used on eBay for roughly about $50. I ordered it and when it arrived he took care of fixing it, noting that it was so easy I probably could have done it myself. The new control panel didn’t come with the faceplate, so we used the old one, but it got a little damaged pulling it off. I’ve ordered a new one and will fix it myself next week from what I learned watching my boyfriend fix the oven.

We also got the oven light replaced, so everything works now.

The next task that I had been putting off involved going to a restaurant I’ve heard of but never tried. There’s a local German restaurant that’s tucked away off the main boulevards but I’ve always heard it was good. I’ve never tried going though. I mentioned it to a friend, but because of some trips she was going on and my work schedule and the times the place is open, we couldn’t work anything out. We did finally work out something for this weekend though, and went to Mutti’s German Restaurant. They seem to specialize in pork schnitzel, which I’d never had before. It was delicious. They also had an array of cakes to choose from that all looked so good that we each left with slices from two different cakes. We’re definitely going to go back at some point.

The last one is to write down the things I want to accomplish. I’ve never been great at setting goals or following through with them, or New Years Resolutions or anything of that sort. But I do have 3 major goals for this year:

1. Finish the rewrites and edits and publish my book.
2. Lose weight! (isn’t that everyone’s goal though?)
3. Try to update the blog more regularly with a short story, a poem, and a painting. (I have done awful at this. I make no apologies.)

Maybe I can at least accomplish one by next year? We’ll see.