Soccer, Home Runs, and Exclusive Gold Toast (tm) technology!

Last week, my reliable old toaster gave up the ghost. For the past 10+ years, Old Goldie had been performing the one job it was designed to do with precision and skill: toasting bread. Up until last week, that is. Part of the elements stopped working on one side, and the other side seemed to ignore the heat settings, so if you wanted one piece of bread toasted to perfection on only one side, and the other piece burned to a crisp, then this was the toaster for you.

So I needed a new toaster. I'm a simple man ... all I want is a toaster to toast bread, maybe even an occasional bagel. Good luck finding one of those. Each toaster contained features that I didn't know anyone would want or need, including the Oster toasters which featured the "Exclusive Gold Toast (tm) Technology!". First, I find it hard to believe that a feature like that would be exclusive to the Oster brand, and second, do you really need to trademark the phrase "Gold Toast"?

Since I didn't feel like spending $40 or more on a toaster, I went with a much cheaper model, although it still has more buttons than I think a toaster should, including a Cancel button. I thought lifting the handle would stop the toasting process, but apparently, that's much too complicated for some people. I opted for the stainless steel model over the red model, because eventhough red is my favorite color (helpful hint for those of you still shopping for my birthday present ... coming this Thursday!), it clashed with my kitchen. The model I chose included a 20+ page instruction manual and a cookbook ... I guess for people who don't know how to work the oven.

A couple of other notes: on Saturday my soccer team (http://donyoung.us/soccer/) played one of their finest games, beating a team who had previously not lost before. And last Monday in my softball game, after starting out the game 0 for 3, I hit an in-the-park homerun in my final at bat, helping my team come from behind and score 12 runs in the final inning. Granted, I also made an error in the outfield earlier in the game which cost us a run, but I'll let that part fade into history. The homerun was my first since I was 9 or 10 playing Little League. Not bad for someone about to turn 37 on Thursday! I told my softball team that I was going to milk this for a little while, because it probably won't happen again.

NOTE: Yes, my thinly-veiled agenda for this post was to mention that my birthday was coming up. This Thursday! :)