Spatula City

Sadly, with the Kitchen largely unpacked and set up, the unpacking I have managed over the past few days has not been all that infused with everyone's favorite: kitchen items.  It's been some blankets, shoes, random things.  I am avoiding the books.  Sad but true.

Good news, though.  There was a tragedy awaiting me in the dishwasher the other morning:

Now, you know when your spatula is this shade of "Country Blue" or its complement "Dusty Rose" even, you've had it at this point for a good, well, going on 20 years, and getting whacked by the dishwasher blade is just going to be the last straw.  I said to Andrew:  "We're not old enough to have a 20 year old spatula that just got killed in a dishwashing accident!"  He consoled me with the fact that it was only 19 years old.  Such a relief.

When I went to throw this away after taking the pictures, I actually bent that little piece back and forth a little and it just started cracking into a million tiny pieces.  When it's time, it's time.  And time marches on.  But first one other funny little story about this spatula:

During the first, few years we had this, at some point while cooking a big holiday meal, it ended up getting kind of close to the heat for too long.  I think this is when we were living in Burnsville.  I was smelling burning plastic, discerned what was going on, picked it up and mushed that plastic back into approximately the right shape with my own fingers.  And we proceeded to continue on as if nothing had ever happened.

Ah, a spatula with character.  A spatula that wasn't too tall...until it was.  A spatula that was born out of the fervor over those country geese and their attendant colors and need for full-kitchen coordination, I have no doubt.  It's friends the "dusty blue" spoon and ladle continue on without it.  For now.

I mentioned the possibility of replacing it and was told in no uncertain terms:  No.  We have more spatulas in storage. Ah, but do they have this much character?  Well, one never knows.  I do know that there will never be another spatula quite like this one.  And that is OK.


Edited to add:  This.