As of August 18th I will have a kindergardener in my home! Thursday was my daughter's last day of preschool but there was no hoopla as its a mixed-age class so some kids return in the fall (or summer, I should say - AUGUST?!?) while others (like my kid who is 5 1/2) go on to kindergarden.

Last week I attended a kindergarden orientation for parents of incoming students and it didn't tell me much. Perhaps the problem was that I kept reminiscing on my kindergarden days - especially my fascination with the the Letter People: inflatible characters for each letter of the alphabet. My favorite (or maybe I was scared of it...I forget WHY I was obsessed with it) was "Mr. M, with a munching mouth..." With the aid of a portable phonograph, Inflatable Mr M, who looked like a gangster out of "Guys and Dolls" sang about the various foods he enjoyed, like meatballs, macaroni, milkshakes...you get the idea.

Our class was lead by a truly groovy young male teacher, Mr. Varoski. I'm not sure how old he was, but I'm guessing he was in his early 20's or so. It was 1974 and my "cool" and exuberant teacher wore colorful psychedelic "blouses" (as my mother referred to them) and silver bangle bracelets. He drove a lime green VW bug. He had frosted blonde hair. In fact, I freaked out the first time I saw HGTV's ReDesign because Mr. V could have been the 70's version of none other than Kenneth Brown. Oh, wait a minute, Kenneth Brown IS the 70's version of Kenneth Brown!

(You gotta love that designer wisdom)

 

The Architect is coming over tonight to go over our revised addition plans which have changed since we are now chukking the septic and well. Oy vey, that water/swewr upgrade alone is gonna run just under 20g's. *Gulp!*

Plus the design and  construction drawings will be another $1800.

The bad news: we will have alot less moolah left in our budget to do much of the addition! There will be MUCH of the project left unfinished by the end of the year, I'm sure. But as long as it gets framed, sided, roofed and drywalled (oh yeah, and heating and water, electricity, etc.) that's enough to tide us over. Hubby can paint, do crown moulding, install interior doors and closets. He can also install bathroom fixtures but it would make more sense to have the tub brought in, 'cause Lord knows I ain't gonna help with that! Technically we won't HAVE to have the bathroom stuff done at first, either, if we run our of money. Just those functional bedrooms will be the bare minimum until, say, we get our 2005 tax refund! I do dream about the EVENTUAL completion of all this stuff but considering what's in the bank, I'm getting more pragmatic about it.

The good news: getting rid of the well allows us to do my "ideal" plan which will be a 2-car side-load garage, 2-story with 2 bedrooms and bath above. This allows some savings in that we can do a slab-on-grade foundation instead of trying to match up to the exisiting house with a more expenisve trenched foundation and crawlspace. It also means we can attach it to the area at the back door which is a rather unnattractive entryway, currently. It also will allow us to put in (finally!) a "real" foyer, coat closet and possibly a powder room, too.

But first things first...

I am still waiting on a second bid for the well/septic conversion. Once that is done THEN I have to wait some more for permits from the Village. THEN I have to coordinate the water hookup with the well sealing. And once the construction designs are completed then I have to face the daunting task of finding a budget-friendly-but-non-crapulent General Contractor. It was bad enough trying to even get plumbers to BID on my current job - some people totally blew off their appointments to give me an estimate! I guess they don't need or want the work. Must be nice.

I just got in after making a few copies of our plat of survey at Kinkos. So technically I spent my first $ on this project: $5.21 for 2 oversize map copies.

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Post-script: oh fartypants, the Architect called; he had to reschedule for Monday.

As promised:

Chicken & Asparagus Casserole

1. Trim asparagus (if needed) and steam until bright green - if using frozen, also steam it.
   
2. Trim chicken into tenderloin-sized strips and poach (boil in water) for 10 minutes.
   
3. Spray a large baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and place steamed asparagus in it.
   
4. Place cooked chicken pieces on top of asparagus.
   
5. Mix together mushroom recipe mix, sour cream and milk and pour over chicken and asparagus.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
   

Anyone who has read Raejane's blog has (hopefully) both chuckled and huffed after reading her tales of the uber-rudenicks that she somehow manages to be next to in line at the supermarket or unfortunately seated next to at a restaurant. Well I had a "raejane"  encounter - or NEARLY one of my own today.

Sorry folks but I won't be making that Chicken & Asparagus dish modification (and thus, then reporting the hopefully-corrected recipe) to you this week either as the price of boneless skinless chicken in my 'hood has just been too high lately.

Also, since hubby is still working that swing shift, we aren't eating "big" family dinners - we all have a lunch together then he sleeps and goes to work at 9:15 or so. Kiddo and I have just been eating small microwave-oriented meals for dinner.

Lately our life around the house has been a bit nutty:

Hubby is woking a swing-shift (middle of the night) for a few weeks in order to support and work with users and programmers in Europe and Asia for the project he is managing, so that's got the family schedule a bit haywire, but we are managing.

Then I spend each day researching and meetng with contractors, county, state, and town officials about converting our house to municipal sewer and water. Its like jumping through hoops and then realizing you have a long row of hurdles after that. I'm not frustrated YET... actually the sewer part is fairly straighforward. Its eliminating our well that is a real headache, due to the number of contractors that have to do their specific parts of the job  - so until I get all of the specific County legalities spelled out (the single guy who handles this is, naturally, on vacation until next week) I can't get an accurate estimate on the cost of the job. There is nothing WRONG with our well or the water pouring forth from it - in act its like drinking and bathing in Evian, its so pure and delicious. BUT the location of the well is directly behind the house - in the only location where we can build an addition. If I can get nail down exact requiements for easments from the vault and well head from the county, then it might be possible for our architecht to come up with a design that would allow us to keep the well. But until I know for sure...I'm gonna keep "diggin'" for as much information as I can get.

Per the requests for the Chicken & Asparagus in Mushroom Creme Sauce...

I will post the recipe BUT I first have to make it again with one change in ingredients. While the dish turned out delicious, hubby and I agreed that the "visual presentation" was somewhat lacking (i.e. - it looked kinda yukky but tasted kickass.)

So...

I plan to change one ingredient in the sauce that should make for a smoother, creamier look to the sauce instead of the lumpy look the first try revealed. If it turns out well then I'll post it for anyone adventurous enough to try it. (Actually its pretty easy and only has 5 ingredients in the whole dish.)

:)

Its quite sickening, really, how much cooking I've been doing since getting my new kitchen "toy". Well, not sickening per se, unless you consider that it was 83 degrees here yesterday, we don't yet have our air conditioners installed, and I decided to whip up a new recipe for dinner that required baking something for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Man, this place was SWELTERING but DAMN! that chicken-and-asparagus-in-mushroom-creme-sauce was DELICIOUS! As I type, I await the completion of an oven-baked apple-cinnamon french toast. (Insert drooling emoticon here.)

My oven bit the dust; apparently both the ignition and gas regulator are failing. :(

By request some more Percy the kitten pics, plus my birthday "portrait":

 

"2 sleeping babies" - Hubby insisted on allowing the kitten in our bed. About an hour later he was dashing around biting our ankles (Percy, not my husband!)


Buster the senior-citizen (15 yrs old) and Percy cuddling together.


"Dangit, I need a haircut!" is the title of this pic...

Here for all to see and adore is the relied-upon, constantly re-used birthday gift bag...this one had some pretty cool gear in it this year:

• a microdermabrasion kit (which is nothing more than some pumice cream, moisturizer and what I was disappointed to learn is simply a 2-speed vibrator to use on your face!) No, hubby ain't in the doghouse for the microdermabrasion spa kit - I specifically requested it and he obliged, but I used it tonight and its a totally lame piece of cr*p, so save your $$ ladies and gents, and just get a good exfoliator cream and moisturizer with SPF in it. Or go the glcolic acid route if that suits your skin. Update: I will admit that my skin feels very soft this morning after a session with the vibe 'n grit cream last night!
  
• a large bath scrubbie (chosen by my daughter)
  
• a generous Target gift card
  
  I plan to buy a new dinette table with the gift card to replace the college-days cast-off we've been using for many years now.  Hey, I have a kid (think: crayons, play-doh, markers, spills) and pets not to mention a BUDGET so no Ethan Allen or Walter E. Smithe in the gameplan for quite awhile. And perhaps I'll have some dough left over to replace those Stevie Nicks-wannabe pieces of shite earrings I wore last night. Oh man what was I thinking...