Kitchen Progress

The demolition of my kitchen is coming along.  We have foundation and footers, the siding is all off and the inside is down to studs.  The inside of my house is covered in a fine white dust.  It actually is kind of fun to walk through the torn up space and imagine what it's going to be like when it's done.  I'm fortunate to have a lot of talented people working with me to make this right.  It's a lot more detail oriented than I ever imagined.  Needless to say I have a really big headache.

My kitchen

My kitchen could rival those on the ugliest kitchen renovation shows.  It's poorly laid out, has all really ugly 70's colors (beige!, brown!!, monarch butterflies on the tiles!!!), and it is drafty.  And when I say drafty, I mean it's usually around 50 degrees in the winter.  The people we bought the house from put a separate heater in to heat the kitchen area but it's hard to heat the arctic tundra when there is air flowing through the uninsulated crawl space and the beautiful drop ceiling tiles are moving with the blowing wind.  Why didn't we insulate the crawl space ourselves you ask?  Well, you would have to be able to get in there and you can't.  It's blocked by heat ducts.  You can't reach the plumbing under the sink either because it's down there too (and yes the pipes freeze...often).  Also, there's no hood over the stove and no place to plug one in even if you wanted to buy one.  Also, there was paneling in the table area.  Wood grain paneling.  It looked like it had animals burned into it (remember those wood burning projects you did in middle school?).  Pheasants and deer and elk and stuff.  I'll see if I can find a photo of it.  We actually painted it because it was more hideous than any of us could bear to look at every day.  All in all, it's awesome.

I've lived in this house and used this kitchen for over 9 years and we just started a kitchen renovation project.  It's been planned for more than 2 years but it's been a crazy mess to try to to figure out.  If my budget was unlimited, it would be great but it's not. 

Anyway, I thought I would chronicle the events on this blog and also see how Evil Sid deals with it.  It should be entertaining.

This is not a dog blog

I really never meant for this to be such a dog-centric place. I guess it's because I've had so much trouble with him that it makes me spew about it. Anyway, last week I made this stuff called "Chocolate Crack". The recipe is from Serious Eats. Very simple, very good, and according to 2/3 of my household y people, very addicting. You can get the recipe here: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/chocolate-crack-chocolate-bark.html

It's really simple. Just saltines covered in a buttery brown sugar goo and baked for 5 minutes then covered in chocolate that you spread around when it melts. Deceptively simple and good.

Just thought I'd share. I wish I took a picture but I didn't. Maybe next time I make something good I'll remember to do that.

Why my dog's life is so much fun

After the last dog fight debacle (see below), poor Sid started throwing up all over the place, he won't eat, he's a mess. I take the dog back to the vet (who is now wealthy because of me) and find out he has a parasite (and he lost 5 pounds...can I have some of that parasite?). $350 later I go home with 4 different medications. Dog gets better and we think all is well. But no. Apparently he has Fanconi Syndrome. This is an extremely rare disease usually found in Basenji's. You can google it. It's some renal tubule malfunction. Anyway, now the dog drinks a lot and pees a lot and it's all loads of fun. Nothing they can do but monitor the symptoms. Did I mention that every time I take him back to be "monitored", the lab work costs $200? I'm running out of dog related funds. Plus I'm tired because he wants to go outside at 4 AM. It's making me rethink dog ownership. I have had dogs since I was 4 (which is a really long time but I'm not going to tell you how long) and I have never had one that had this much trouble all within a month.

I have to take him back in 2-3 weeks which will be more like 4. Hopefully he'll be doing better.

Dog troubles, crime scenes and other things

So we went on vacation. For the past 5 years or so, we have spent a week at our friend's house in Ocean City, NJ but this year my friend quit her job and was staying with her kids at the shore house all summer. That being said, we had a great week at a place that my husband found on Craig's list. Of course the way I see renting a place on Craig's list and the way dh does is completely opposite. I'm thinking "OMG, who are these people that I'm sending vast quantities of money to? Do they even own the property? Does it really look like the pictures?" I can be a bit of a nightmare. He's thinking..."this is a good deal, the pictures look good, let's send boatloads of money". It can be stressful. Thank goodness for the internet because I could look up everything I needed to know with the exception of what the place really looks like.

After driving for 3 1/2 hours with my kid screaming that he's starving the whole time...he's 13, did I mention that (and the trip is really closer to 2 but traffic sucked), we make it to the place. Everyone is standing at the door, waiting for me to open it and either sigh in relief or go batshit crazy and start rummaging for the fabreze and a shotgun. Don't laugh. This has happened before. Fortunately for my dh and kids, the place was perfect. Clean, musty stink free, all good. We really had a great time. Evil Sid stayed with friends and all was well for the week.

And then we came back. I've been letting my 13 year old walk the dog a lot lately as part of the stuff he can do for an allowance. Even though evil Sid is insane, he's only about 60 pounds and the kid can handle him really well. I've taken many walks with the both of them before I let them go on their own. So one day last week, I see the kid bringing the dog in the driveway as I'm walking across the porch watering flowers. All of the sudden I hear all of this snarling and dog fighting noises. My kid and dog are in my yard, as are a grown woman and her beagle from hell. I walk up to see what's going on and ask her if her dog is ok since obviously the dogs have gotten in a tussle. She says yes and walks away. She doesn't ask about the dog or the kid and she's on my property. Let me say that I have seen this woman many times on my walks and I always try to keep my dog from interacting with other dogs because sometimes dogs (and obviously their owners) can be complete assholes and I just don't want to get into it. Anyway, on to the next bit.

So we think all is well, right? Wrong. We walk into the house and the kid realizes he has blood all over his hand. The dog is dripping blood all over the place. Being "smart" like I am, I bring him into the kitchen and try to stop the bleeding. My dh, the dog hater, is holding wads of paper towels to the dogs ear as I'm calling the vet to see what to do. We neglect to think that when we are not holding paper towels to his head, he is going to shake his head. I bet you can't even imagine what's going to happen next.

MY ENTIRE KITCHEN LOOKS LIKE A FUCKING CRIME SCENE! There is blood spattered everywhere. Up all of the appliances, on every single floor tile, on the cabinets, the backsplash, everywhere you can imagine. It's totally lovely. It took me almost a week to clean it all up. Absolutely unbelievable. Anyway, long story short, dog goes to the vet, gets a whole bunch of shots, antibiotics, his ear fur shaved off and ripped ear cleaned up, and I get a bill for $160. I have yet to see the formerly ubiquitous beagle and it's owner again. I can't wait to chat with her.

The kid is still upset and I personally cannot understand why you would ever let your dog run into somebody else's yard. Especially with a kid involved. I always steer clear because you never really know if kids can handle the wild animals they have on leashes.

Anyway, that's my vacation and dog disaster story. I'm still cleaning off blood splatters.

Fleeting Summer

Why does summer seem to go so much faster than any other season? I can't believe we are almost into August already. I feel like we just finished school and now I'm shopping for supplies and trying to torture the 13 yr old into reading the two books he has to finish by Labor Day. Also, the dog is shedding like a madman and he hates to be brushed. I'm being overrun by dog hair. I sound like a lot of fun, don't I?

I need to slow down and do fun stuff before it's all over.

The Crazy Dog

That dog to the right? That's evil Sid. Actually we got him when he was a tiny puppy from the pound and he is now 5 years old. He got his name because the kids were trying to come up with a human name and since they both have some musical reference in their names, my husband decided that Sid Vicious would be perfect for our tiny blue eyed puppy of sweetness.

Of course he has lived up to that name at this point. The dog is the strangest animal I have ever had. I've had dogs since I was 4 years old and never have I had one with this many neuroses all at once. It's unbelievable. He walks into the family room backwards. Every single time. He must be whacked just from the amount of spinning around he does. He will only enter the dining room by one door and won't ever walk clockwise around the table. He will only go up one side of the staircase. For a good 6 months, he wouldn't go downstairs unless I went up to coax him down at least 10 times. He'll only eat from his food dish if we are at the dinner table. He would rather have you hold his water bowl while he drinks, or better yet, just leave the toilet lid up. He likes peppers but hates lettuce. He won't chew on rawhide but he loves pig ears. He startles like crazy and barks at everything. He hates the mailman as well as any other dog and the occasional human.

My husband hates dogs and it is only a testament to how much he loves me that we have had a dog or two since 1993. I think Sid is the last one though. I'd be afraid of what I would pick out next.