There are major threads flying loose in the universe. I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with bated breath (snort of derision) wondering the outcome of these incidences. I hesitate to throw out brand names, but I think in order to follow my ravings, I’ll have to do just that.

First, what cookware did she chose? I’m sure you’re wondering and waiting, like Jack waits for your order to cook anything, before buying cookware of your own (again – snort). Circulon, from Costco, because it was the best price for the whole set. Plus, my husband preferred its sturdiness over the other brands. If used as directed, as in, heat it at the temperature you plan on cooking with, it seems to hold up, contrary to some of the reviews I read.

Second, and this isn’t product placement because the car brand isn’t important. All that ingenuity my daughter used saving the engine in her car by immediately driving to the wrecking yard upon hearing the weird noise, was for naught. It was in actuality a faulty motor. Nobody knows why it threw metal all through the rods. When it showed signs of metal shards after the first repair, it was apparent the motor caused its own demise. My husband called around and found a used motor in Yakima. Then he and my daughter jumped in the truck and went on a road trip. Not to mention Yakima is the location of Miner’s Burgers. And there it is, the advertising plug in this paragraph. Now the car has a new/used motor with only 10,000 more miles than the last one, the check engine light has finally turned off. That was one of my husband’s retirement projects. It didn’t go down the way he thought it would, but it’s finally resolved.

And speaking of retirement projects — the ones he didn’t feel like he had the time for — we had two glaring domestic ones. The ice maker was on steroids and wouldn’t turn off when the bin got full. Ice fell out everywhere when we opened the door. He fixed it easily by bending the bar down a bit. The other was the family room sliding glass door. In the past year its performance got worse and sometimes stuck bad enough it rocked the door off its track. And every year around this time, when my husband and I were out of town, one of the kids texted me to tell me the latch broke. I don’t know about you, but if you have wooden slat nearby as Band-Aid for the lock breaking, it’s time to fix the door. When we got home, he took the whole thing apart, put in new wheel bearings, and a new lock. Now it’s better than it was when it was new. Just like my daughter’s car, we didn’t know it was its own worst enemy until we repaired it.

Now the last issue, which is the most important of this whole column — crèma. I sent back a total of three espresso makers. I had accepted my crèma-less state, but my husband woke up one Thursday morning and announced he was taking me to Macy’s home at Bellevue Square to go to what turned out to be a Nespresso test bar. The crèma was so thick and gorgeous it made me want to cry. I bought one, though I’m against the whole pod trend that we have become a society that isn’t able to measure things out. However, they have a recycling program for them. I researched the safety of aluminum pods, and though they’re coated in shellac, which doesn’t seem better, I found another opinion that felt the aluminum pods were fine, but the plastic in the coffee maker was the real problem. I really couldn’t win. And as my sister pointed out, I have to die of something. I’m hooked and now I’m in the Nespresso club. I’ve always wanted to be in a club, and this one has crèma.

And that is the last of my loose threads. You can rest easy now.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing on her website livingwithgleigh.com, follow her on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh by Gretchen Leigh”or on Twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is also available at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Life section.