When I get all steamed up
Written by washwords on March 9, 2009 – 4:07 pmTea pots. Tea kettles.
Useful little gadgets, right? Especially when one’s sick and sniffley.

[Photo "teapot" on Flickr by Xassa]
In the move, I could have sworn I packed (and boxed and reboxed) at least 3 of them. Yah, in the great combining households after 25, we have doubles and triples of everrrything.
And yet?
Can’t find a one. Tore up the basement and the closets, untaping all those boxes so neatly labeled “give away.” Sneezing and whispering, I would have even settled for one of the many things I angrily threw in tubs, in my “get this out of here! I do not want any of these things! Next crystal bowl or vase is getting guillotined. Don’t try me? You wanna battle candlestick???? Throw them away NOW!” phase (sometimes I channel my mother.
Hi mom! This one’s for you!)
Still none. So, I’m at the mall, remember oh yah, Macy’s, they have housewares… teapots. Trot along between the ghost-town that was formerly known as major department store, to the one aisle of housewares in the sea of jampacked juniors “fashions” largely consisting of purple beaded tops and XXL “housecoats” always popular with the juniors… and voila, a not bad, pretty cute actually “martha stewart essentials” turquoise teapot. Price? $80.
Let me say that again. Eight TEE. Doll ARS. seriously.
I blinked. Further investigation revealed … it was on sale. For $63. For a tea pot!?
Had I been living in a cave? Was I the George Bush Sr. of my generation and in the years since I registered (for all those agljagjklagjlk crystal bowls), this is now what kitchen stuff cost? I wandered on and squashed, shamed in a corner with the other rif-raff appliances (“low-end mixers, kept farrr away from their kitchenaid superiors; “regular” coffeemakers that didn’t even make cappucino (as IF!), I found another teapot. $59.
I took the box down to examine – did these teapots have magical properties? come with boyfriends? insta-flu remedies? get outta work free cards? Nope. I just couldn’t do it.
Three hours later at a store whose name may have the initials B, B, and B (and is NOT buy buy baby), we found our teapot. a “curling stone” after the canadian sport, though I prefer to call it a curling iron. It’s white and doesn’t quite whistle right and the handle gets a little hot to the touch. But hey for $25, what do you want?
It was the tea kettle steal of the century apparently.

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Tags: bedbathandbeyond, bridal, economy, highway robbery, housewares, kitchen, kitchen deals, kitchenaid, macy's, overpriced, prices, registry, seriously, stuff, tea, tea kettle
Posted in bonus material, wash, words | 7 Comments »








March 10th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Ms. W. Words,
What a nicely written, humorous ride through the land formerly known as retail. . .
david zen-kennedys last post: undoingBlue
Thanks David! ahh yes, FORMERLY known
March 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Another channel…..”Don’t worry, it’ll turn up”. Now that you have a new one the other three will magically appear guaranteed.
***
Washwords says: Tri-a-minic. and if that doesn’t work…. thanks mom!
March 10th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Nice story, and Mom is right — the others will magically appear. Did you really find a teapot that looks like a curling stone? Would love to get one myself (I’m a curler). As I’m not much of a shopper, though, what does B, B, and B stand for?
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WW says: Kent, thanks for the comment. The teapot (pictured below) is called the Kitchen-Aid Curling Tea Kettle and can be found at Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBB). It says it DOES whistle so maybe i just ahem didn’t wait long enough. Find it: here
March 14th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
The kettles look a little like swans to me. Whistling swans!
WW says: ahhh, i love going to the countryside (aka the kitchen) to watch the whistling swans. so scenic, so lovely. want to meet me there tonight? mwah.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:23 am
[...] washwords » Blog Archive » When I get all steamed up [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Thanks WW. Nice kettles. I should have known the BBB reference after all.
WW says: Thanks Kent. No worries on BBB. And is it just me or does “nice kettles” sound dirty? Stopppp it.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
That really DOES look like a curling stone. The stones weigh 42 pounds, though. (I curled twice about six years ago. It’s fun!)
WW says: right? i’ve never curled but do plan to bring the teapots out to watch the winter olympics and get in touch with their ancestry. That or curl them across the table. One of those.