Esther Ella was never at ease with her gas stove. We've had a gas stove for the last 38 years and as I said she was never at ease with it.

"It stinks, it smells, it's dirty, it's filthy. You have to light a pilot, I hate it."

Soooo�����. When we bought our new condo , one of the first promises I made to her was, "I'll buy you an electric stove".

Now I'm sure that for most of you readers, especially the North American variety this is not really the type of thing you get commended for, after all, Who doesn't have an electric stove in Canada or the USA ? What's the big deal ? Why not ? Well for those of you who don't live in Israel, the reasons for not having an electric stove are: It's expensive. The gas costs about 1/3 of the cost of electricity to operate. Practically no one has or sells electric stoves. 90% of stoves in Israel are 24" wide and we wanted a 30" range. Anyone we asked went into raptures about the new gas stoves which had automatic shut offs, and didn't leak, practically no one except employees of the electric company ( they don't pay for electricity) have electric stoves.

Now I began to make the rounds of all the best appliance stores, followed all the advertisements, asked friends and relatives, etc. all to no avail no one knew where I could buy a 30", self cleaning, ceramic top, electric stove. After a few weeks of searching, I suddenly realized that I had been missing the best source of info, and immediately called on Google. Hey are we in the 21st century or are we not? To make a long story short, the Google search turned up about 100,000 dealers in the USA all clamoring to sell the Sand's an electric stove.

I should pause here to point out that price was never an object, electric stoves don't cost that much more than gas, and I had to buy a stove anyway so what the heck. Well I checked about 3 or 4 web sites and soon learned that a 30" electric self cleaning stove with a ceramic top costs about $500. And of course I would have to add shipping, customs, etc. "nisht geferlich" (not a catastrophe) if you spend so much on a condo I guess you can afford a stove too.

Now remember all this time I'm keeping Esther Ella in the picture, printing out colored photographs, technical details etc. until finally one day I came to her with the good news, we're going to get the frigidaire 30" range from Best Buy for $549. We had made a decision, what joy, what happiness in the Sand household finally we had decided on the stove, and then��..

Someone said to me are you sure it's good for Israel ? Hey wait a minute, I'm not totally senile yet, it's 240 volts which is what I need, yes, but how many cycles ? Cycles ? who wants a bike, I want a stove, until someone explained to me that if it was 60 cycles (which it was) and I needed 50 cycles (which I needed) , the clock on the stove would run 10 minutes slow every hour.

Phew saved by the bell, I didn't know the stove had a clock, but if it already has a clock it might as well keep time , soooo I began asking around and found a dealer in Aurora Illinois who sells stoves 50 cycle for Israel and decided to buy there.

The dealer was so nice, he faxed me, he wrote me, he emailed me, he phoned me, and finally we decided on a Maytag 30" electric stove with ceramic top including 1 years free service guarantee for only $50. And the cost of the stove $725. Nuuu�. I guess we can afford that and so we placed an order.

When the dealer asked for the money to be forwarded it came to $1725. Whaaat!!!! Yep that includes, shipping, clearing, delivery to my door, insurance, etc. etc. etc. Nuuu so what you gonna do ? a promise is a promise, 'cost azoi feil' cost a little more, what the heck you only live once, and that's what Esther Ella wants, what don't you do for a wife ? after all for whom is she cooking if not for you?

Helft G-d and the stove arrives, but we were not ready yet for installation, so we left it in the carton for 3 months until our apt was ready. And then the big day arrived, I called the company and asked them to send someone to hook up the stove which they did the same day, and then this Russian serviceman appeared, congratulated me on the stove and asked what did you buy this for? it won't work here. POW !! you could have knocked me over with a feather. What I questioned ? Why not ?

And then he said "you haven't got enough power to run it, it takes 50 amps, and you have 3 times 25 amps entrance which isn't enough if you run your central air conditioning, dryer, etc. etc. and if that isn't enough , the stove is one phase and you need 3 phase.

Following my revival after a cold drink he explained that he would be able to divide up the one phase into 3 phase for only $400. Which I immediately agreed (what a metzia) he worked a whole hour. Then he said get in touch with the electric company and have them increase your power to 3x40amps which should enable operation of the stove. The electric company was very pleased to hear from me and after I paid them $700. for increasing the power I was told that they would contact my electrician to make an appointment for an inspection following which he could prepare the wiring for the increased power.

Now my electrician Vadim is a wonderful guy, a Russian immigrant who loves me, he wired up my whole condo, installed my lighting, etc. when he heard what he had to do, he put his arm around me and said " Manuel there's nothing to worry about, but I want you to understand what an inspection means" he then went on to describe how he had to remove every fixture, every light bulb, every plug, for the electric company to inspect what they had inspected last month, and so he would do it for me for only $500. Cash. No tax.

I was really on a roll, with so much good luck coming my way I didn't know what to do. My mother of blessed memory used to say "ven aza mazal geht arein in a hunt vert er meshige". If a dog had so much luck he would go crazy. What can I tell you ?

Well I'm now an expert in electric stoves, need any help?

I just ate a steak broiled on our new stove, it was worth every penny, At a dollar per steak, it will amortize in just 3300 years what a good deal.