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Having been a journalist for 35 years, I have plunged into web publishing to create the wider market for my eclectic writings. In Spinning Straw into Gold, you can follow our life in New England. Lunch with Marjorie celebrates my belief that everybody has a story...everyone can inspire. These are stories of ordinary people living extraordinary lives highlighting joys, sorrows, leadership, heroism, but always inspiration. City Cites is your guide to travel, food and entertainment Here (New England) and Elsewhere (wherever we go). I have also included my Pray for our Troops bookmark, and my resume workbook and writing services. More to come: Sourdough Cookbook, children's books, and other projects. See my contact page if you want to share YOUR STORY on Lunch with Marjorie, and I welcome your comments. Email me at marjorie@readmstradinger.com.

Almost a kitchen 4

Everyone says we will soon be living in luxury on the river. I believe them. It is hard to see the end at this stage. Our entryway still looks like a third world country. But, hey, in my defense, this is still a “contraction zone.” It says so right on the front door!  IMG_1423

It just seems silly to organize and clean up the area, when I know 1) I will have to move it again soon, and 2) soon we will have a kitchen.IMG_1422

We are pretty far away from the luxury lifestyle everyone says we will soon have. I suppose I could tidy up a bit.

Motivation is low, but looking at the picture makes it seem more real that living with it.

But our kitchen is starting to actually take shape. I told you I would report on the oven installation.

They did it!  Like I said, not much margin for error–but no errors IMG_1559were made. The oven is IN.  IMG_1555 IMG_1553

IMG_1557

IMG_1420    Yay Jay (hub), Bill(talented kitchen installer guy), Norm (LCN Kitchens in Windsor), Donney (salesman par excellence at Sears), God (He may not need an intro to some of you)–not necessarily in that order. It is perfect!

Now, after the island is installed (anchored) and the countertop template people come out, we will be ready for the counters.

There’s a little touch up painting to do because we moved the countertop vent forward 6 inches. But, hey, that’s not problem for these talented people.

Luxury living here I come. Almost.

 

Almost a kitchen 3

We have a friend named Bill. He used to install kitchens. His wife, Mary, is my dear friend too. These lovely people took pity on Jay and me, learning that Jay was about to install our kitchen cabinets at our new river house, all by himself.  IMG_1517IMG_0007

Because of Bill and Mary, we really do almost have a kitchen. Really, the cabinets were almost all installed, until they realized where the spice cabinet had to go. It meant unscrewing half the cabinets to get it in where it belonged. It is not a normal cabinet.

Jay went to our cabinet people’s showroom (LCN in Windsor–great people), and looked at how to install the spice rack cabinet (which even our cabinet company says the installers hate, it is so difficult).  IMG_1400

Last night, Bill and Jay (and Mary) installed it. I mostly tripped over the floor outlets for the island cooktop. They do not invite me to help installations. I am the Home Depot errand person.

After the spice rack was installed they tackled the installation of our oven. It is a 30″ wall oven. Our cabinet guy, Norm at LCN says it will fit.  Our sales person, Donney, at Sears both think a 30″ oven will fit into a 30″ base cabinet, with a little creative woodwork. Jay wasn’t sure.  He measured once, he measured twice, he measured thrice. Admittedly, it’s a tight squeeze.IMG_1542    IMG_1540

Now the 30″ base cabinet is cut out and ready.

Jay still isn’t sure, but Bill says it will work.

It is very, very close and requires major surgery on a $300 base cabinet.  And, when I say surgery, I mean there is now a base, and 1/8″ on each side, no back and a 12″ hole for the electric wire. But, hey, if it can hold the 30″ oven, it has done its job!IMG_1398 If it works, we can get countertops soon.

That is the soon we have all been waiting for…as in “almost a kitchen.”  IMG_1397

Tonight will tell the tale. It is going to be very interesting.

I considered a 33″ cabinet (six more weeks of waiting for a kitchen);

I considered a 27″ oven (I really like making pizza and cookies–so no small cookie sheets and pizza pans for me!). Jay loves pizza and cookies.

We will see. It is going to be very interesting, very, very close. Oh, I said that.

Pictures tomorrow. Here’s a prayin’ and a hoping’! The river house needs a kitchen–soon.

 

 

Almost a laundry

Hard to believe how excited I am about doing laundry.

6019-Housewife-Putting-Wet-Clothes-Into-A-Dryer-Clipart-Picture    But you have to understand: I haven’t had my own washer and dryer for six years. I have been doing laundry in an apartment laundry room, with front loading washing machines that never give me fresh, clean towels, sheets, bedding and clothes.   OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Do you know Bed, Bath & Beyond actually sells a product for “stinky” laundry–the stink coming from the front loaders that have that ridge that catches the rinse cycle water. That water sits there and stagnates. It causes stinky laundry.

So yes, the prospect that I might have my brand new Kenmore, Energy Star, washer and dryer, hooked up as early as tonight has me singing.

I can’t wait to smell the freshness of my liquid SA8 towelsUnknown-1 without the stagnant water smell, and without bleaching out my good clothes and wearing them out well before their life should be over.

I can’t wait to be able to separate my loads into sensible sizes, because it is right here, on my first floor, where it does not require me to lug heavy laundry bags and baskets to a basement laundry room.

IMG_1396  I can’t wait to have a dryer that dries, rather than dumping $1.50 into a machine that often doesn’t get the clothes dry, or that dries so hot it ruins the delicates.  IMG_1395

 

I can’t wait to be able to put a load of laundry in my own washer and not stress about getting it out into the dryer exactly 30 minutes from start, so that someone doesn’t use expletives about me because there are only six washers for 200 people.

And, I can’t wait to be able to do laundry every day, and not just Tuesdays, when I am pretty sure I can get two washers for my stuff, rather than a more convenient weekend day, when I am sure all of the six will be in use.

Wow! I didn’t realize I had such an extensive laundry rant. But now you know why “almost a laundry” would be cause for singing.

Ramblings on the river – Almost a kitchen 2…we have paint

IMG_1318   Once the dry wall chalk dust settled–mostly on the bottoms of all my shoes–after three days of mudding and sanding, we could wet it down, sweep it up and get ready for paint.

Now, we have the laundry-mud room painted, and the kitchen paint almost finished.   IMG_1352

So Friday we should be able to start installing cabinets, and then even get our antique sink installed in the laundry room.

Hub took out my laundry sink so we could dry wall, and I can tell you that traipsing upstairs to rinse blueberries, get a dish washed, and generally clean up things, is NOT fun.

IMG_1512      Soon. A kitchen. Soon.

Ramblings on the river – Almost a kitchen

Things are moving along at the river house. We have dry wall on one side of the first floor. We should have paint by tomorrow. It is hard to  believe we may soon even have a kitchen.  IMG_1489-2

We passed our rough framing, rough electric and rough plumbing inspections, which we credited completely to Jay’s engineering talents and hard work. We have a little help from our friends. We also passed inspection on insulation. But that almost didn’t happen–the insulation, I mean, not the inspection.

Let me reiterate for those of you who don’t know Jay and me well. He is the engineer, mechanical one–picture brain, we call him. I am the writer, producer, organizer, budgeter–word brain we call me. Jay says I am mechanically declined. That is true.  Cartoon words

So as I waited for the spray foam insulation guys to arrive, sitting on my steps, because there are not a whole lot of places to sit near the front door, since most of the area is down to studs–waiting for insulation, I was getting antsy.  They were supposed to arrive at 8 am. The time slid by, and by 9:30 am I was worried. I called the company, and they thought there may have been an accident on the 91 Interstate.

At 9:35am, I got a call from Dan , the driver/technician.

“Um, we can’t get under the bridge,” he said. “The bridge is 12’8″ and the truck is 13’1”, “he further explained.

“You have to be kidding me,” I panicked. “Didn’t your estimator, who has been here, tell you which truck to bring?”

I was beginning to feel myself getting to that wild idea stage. This was my third reschedule as it was.

Dan said he would  call me back after speaking with his supervisor. I have been talking to that supervisor three times a day on schedules, reschedules, and complications, so I was confident.

But, if the insulation had to be rescheduled, then inspection had to be changed, dry wall schedule would be upset for the third time, and appliances and cabinets couldn’t be delivered at great penalty–like paying for cabinet STORAGE. It HAD TO HAPPEN this day.  images

I jumped in my ’97 racing green Jag and drove the 1/4 mile to the bridge. Got out, and started studying the bridge from his side. There is no access to our dead-end street except by going under the railroad bridge.

Funny thing happened to word brain. She SAW something. The bridge was not straight across. It sloped a little UP at the left side. And the road wasn’t level. It was a little depressed, with a storm drain on the left side.

IMG_1409     “Back up and go under the bridge on the left side,” I said to Dan.

“But, my truck was scraping on the bridge,” he defended. “It isn’t my property,” he said.

“I know, but look! I see at least 3 inches on the left. Just try it. You won’t scrape. I am sure of it.”

He backed up, and tried it. The truck got through with a half inch to spare.

photo     They arrived, did a great job and were ready to leave when I was coming back to my house around 4pm. I saw a fire truck coming down the road, and, of course, was a bit concerned, since there are only five houses here and a fire truck is not normally cruising by.

“Any problems?” I asked.

“Just training a new fireman where these houses are,” he answered. That is a comfort. They care.

Then I told him the bridge story and asked if they were going to make it out, since I realized the truck would be higher after getting rid of hundreds of pounds of spray foam.

“You’re lucky.” the fire chief said. “It’s a hot day, and the bridge expands in the heat. They will be OK.”

They were. They got out. I had had fears that they would have to wait at the boat dock for a barge to get them out.

But, they were fine. We have dry wall. And, soon paint, appliances and cabinets. How amazing.   photo

Who is Juanita?

th    All my friends keep saying Jay had better die before me because he will never be able to figure out where all of our money is. That is to say, I do the budget, pay the bills, and decide on the credit cards, and, trust me, I have a very complicated system.

It all started because, I am dyslexic, which my friend April says I am not–she says I have a visual processing disorder (actually, it’s easier just to say I’m dyslexic. I mean, can’t I simplify even this?) Anyway, I decided, after we signed up for four extra credit cards on our 25th anniversary airplane trip to our cruise to the Caribbean, (they gave us free airline tickets) that since we were up to eight credit cards, and since I have this visual processing disorder, I would just use the eight cards as an accounting system. So I used each of the cards for a different category of purchase: Jay’s budget, My budget, travel, dining, business, household products, memberships, and business travel.  th-1

My CPA told me that was a fine system, however complex, if it worked for me.
So I created my Payment Grid, which on a monthly basis, I would fill out like a table to see the date, the balance, the payment made, the date due and which bank it would be paid from–Umm–forgot to mention that I also have five banks with several accounts in each, also in categories. *Sigh* The table also lists the last four digits of the credit cards (which amazingly I had memorized).

th-2
That worked fine until the banks started sending us REPLACEMENT cards with different ending digits, and then also sending Jay and me different numbers if we were signers on the same cards–which we always are. That meant there were now SIXTEEN credit card numbers.

Now I look at my payment grid, and NONE of the original numbers are the same as when I started this seven years ago. I also tried showing Jay the grid once, hoping he would see it, say how clever it was, and want to study it. But, no. That did not appeal to him at all. Really, the reason bill paying fell to me early on in the marriage, was that this is not Jay’s bailiwick. He hates sitting still for the time it takes. We originally tried “the sitting at the table together paying bills routine,” and we would get about fifteen minutes into it and Jay would need to go to the kitchen for something, or check something in the backyard, or the garage–which meant, I would not be seeing him again for quite awhile, certainly not in that evening. I ended up finishing the bills myself. I got the message. “How about I just do this, honey?” which was fine with him.  couple-paying-bills

th-3
So recently, I started thinking of all the pressure this system of mine puts on poor Jay to die first. I mean, I don’t want him to even have to think about doing that. So, because this system is degenerating, and because I have decided to simplify our finances so Jay doesn’t have to die at all, and because all the numbers are now on their third round of being REPLACED by the banks, and because we now use an American Express card which breaks down all purchases into categories for me, I am reducing the cards to a mere THREE: American Express, business and travel.
I still plan to do my payment grid for the three cards, and to break out all of the categories monthly to track spending. But, this is a whole lot simpler. Except I accidentally paid a couple of the EIGHT cards twice and have credit balances on them, so I can’t retire them quite yet. And I received yet ANOTHER replacement card for a card I haven’t used in months, so I don’t remember my ID and password to activate it online, so I will be able to put this card away again and NOT use it.

th-4
I tried the online chat thing with Bank of America. That was a huge mistake. After the agent apologized for fifteen minutes and told me how much she understood my frustration, she still hadn’t even asked me the first security question.

I almost worked myself into apoplexy with this person after another ten minutes, when she started the process by asking me for my daughter’s social security number (she is NOT on any of our cards). Then she asked for information about someone named Juanita! I have nothing against Juanita, and at the risk of being politically incorrect, have NO IDEA who Juanita is. I assure you this is certainly no one in our family. So, why would a B of A employee ask me this? Wait. I know. It is for my protection. Security. Right. The system to protect me is so complicated and dysfunctional that if some criminal wants to get into my account, I am sure they can. BUT I CAN’T! I am locked out by all the so-called security measures, like not knowing who Juanita is, let alone what her relationship to my account is supposed to be.  th-5

I ended the chat and called B of A. A cordial, English-speaking young man answered, and we activated the dormant card in five minutes.

Do any of you see something wrong with this picture?

I think I need to simply my life some more and get B of A out of my life completely, before I keel over from sheer exhaustion at dealing with this new world of “protecting me” from myself.

(Reposted by popular request from July 24, 2011 on www.spinningstrawintogold.blogspot.com–my original blog)

Ramblings on the river – September 16

Trains, planes, boats, autos and trucks.

5058e6df6a629340   I imagined moving out of Bigelow to our river house would bring serene quiet. It’s not that Bigelow was noisy–but there are 750 residents in six buildings there, and you’re going to have noise.

There was the laundry room directly under our first floor apartment. We knew every spin cycle and dryer roar.

The tenant above us walked around at night–who doesn’t–and we could hear her floor creak.

There were some times when drums, car radios, boom boxes and even the plaintive cry of a trumpet–reminiscent of Breakfast at Tiffany’s–invaded our quiet.  th

There were planes, cars, and trains, but they sounded faint most of the time–except if all windows were open in the summertime.

There were kids screeching, people calling out, and laughing parties.

But here in our new riverbank house, there are new sounds to get used to:

th-1    Crickets. These are really loud. After two nights, they didn’t seem as intrusive on sleep. Further research is needed to tell you if the pictured critter is a CT type.

Boats. We have a lot of motorboat traffic below us. The motorboats are further recognized, because in their wake, the waves along our shoreline sound almost oceanic for a few seconds. It’s kind of fun.  th-2

 

th-3    Planes. Now these are directly overhead to the point that one may start calculating the probability that one of these years, one may not be high enough over our heads. Hubby says very unlikely. Still, it gives pause. Mostly these are the landing path, which Hub says is the quieter plane. I can’t tell. A little scary.

Autos. There aren’t many autos coming down our dead end street, so we are always aware that when we hear a car, it is probably a neighbor or a visitor. That is kind of good.

Trains. Now these are directly across from our front door. I have learned to tell time by them. The Amtrak ones woosh by in a few seconds. The freight trains, at night, are much longer. I like trains. These sounds are kind of comforting, like meat loaf or mac and cheese.  I won’t mention the crash of freights carrying toxic chemicals. That won’t happen here.th-4

 

 

Unknown Trucks. I like knowing when UPS and FED EX and the mail are here. And I like knowing trash is being collected at 7:30am. I love waving to Max, our wonderful mail carrier, almost every day at 10am.

I suspect we will be getting more of these truck sounds as construction for the new transit center will begin soon. Also there may be condos beside us where woods currently are. Truck sounds will be accompanied by heavy equipment sounds. Not looking forward to these.

IMG_1365  Other than these sounds, it is pretty quiet here on the river.

Ramblings on the river – September 10

The peanut gallery (my daughter) wants to see the before and after pictures, so I will accommodate.

In case there is any confusion, the following are the BEFORE pictures. If I had the after ones, we wouldn’t be talking.

Here goes.

Our kitchen:

IMG_1248

Another angle of our kitchen:

IMG_1249

 

I KNOW, there’re are a lot of bottles there. Please read 100days-1000boxes, Day #2 for that story. It’s on MENU. Click on the boxes.

Our breakfast room:

IMG_1250

We face the river as we eat and keep telling ourselves the AFTER WILL BE WORTH IT!   Here’s a better look at what we stare at:

IMG_1089

 

 

 

 

My office and another section of our kitchen:

IMG_1247You guys do understand this is temporary, right?

OTHER parts of the kitchen–these are in our entry way where some of the old kitchen cabinets were just sitting there doing nothing. Can’t have that now, can we?

OK daughter dear. What do you think of our BEFORE kitchen? Let me tell you, it requires a lot of walking–around things like:

This is especially hard when sleepy or when breakfast seems to come early. But, we will survive.

Pot boil -September 8

Not having a kitchen is a challenge. Everyone says, “It’s an adventure. It will be like camping.”

Well, yes and no. When you are camping you know how many days you will be cooking over fire, or grills, or whatever the real campers do.   campfire

I always got disenchanted with the whole idea about the third day in, when I was ready for real food–you know, food with nutrients, food that is green and not brown and white.

But, I took on this river house adventure, thinking: “I have my George Foreman Grill, my crock pot, a microwave, and a propane grill.   th

Reality: Haven’t gotten up to trying the GFG. I look at the size of my crockpot, and then at the size of my little pawn shop refrigerator, and I think I had better not make that much food with no where to store the leftovers. As it is, I have to move the ketchup in the door column to get to the coconut milk every morning for Hubby’s homemade granola, which I had the presence of mind to make while still at Bigelow.

I didn’t have an  outlet for the microwave until a couple of days ago. Most of the outlets had to be off, while wiring was being accomplished.

And propane grill? Well that’s a man job, and my man is dead tired from a full time job and this huge house project, and I don’t have the heart to add dinner to that task list.

DSC03451-LouMaZi-Fried-Rice-Pot-of-rice-_1682x1274-1024x775   So I made a discovery. This little rice pot, which I seldom use, after realizing I could put a casserole of rice and water in the oven and not have to clean out sticky rice after the process, has become a great little pot.

I experimented one day, putting in the brown rice and water, and then adding frozen peas (which I have to use to make room in the tiny freezer), and a filet of wild salmon. Twenty minutes later I had a really tasty one-pot meal, all ready for serving. And, how did I clean it without hot water? I used the Chinese cooking trick of returning the sticky mess to the heat source with a little more water added to the pot, and presto, there it was, boiled rice easily scraped off the bottom of the pot.

We repeated this meal a couple of times. Then I tried oatmeal in the pot for a breakfast. Excellent. Almost like home. Added nuts and cinnamon and coconut milk. Got the sticky oats off the pan bottom same way as the rice.  th-2

Tonight, I am really pushing the rice pot. I put in rice, water, a can of black beans, and a market pre-cooked meatball, broken up–and some cheese. We shall see. I will let you know tomorrow. Of course all of this would be better in a real kitchen. Stay tuned.

But, I am certainly grateful for the just right sized little pot, where a one-pot meal has been exactly what this happy camper needed.