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And, we’re off..

I went by Home Depot yesterday. I have so many ideas about how to upgrade this house and I’m just absolutely itching to get started. I decided to begin in the main bath, so yesterday was mostly a trip to look into the approximate cost for a customer cut piece of marble with a built-in sink for the vanity. I cannot really replace the vanity, because the tiling on the wall is in such good shape and it goes right up to the current vanity. To replace the vanity would mean retiling the entire bathroom and that just doesn’t need done. So, I am going to refinish the vanity to make it look distressed, sort of Shabby Chic. The, we will drop the new counter and sink back onto it with some new plumbing and hardware. I’ll get some antique glass knobs and I really think the bathroom will be all but transformed. It will just be a matter of some new cabinets and perhaps a more decorative mirror.

There are a few other small fixes I can have done here at the beginning: a new garage door, a whole-house air-filtration system, and some new window treatments in most rooms.

I don’t really want to turn to outside funding to do the work, but my plans also include adding a porch to the front of the house, new windows, and eventually redesigning the entire kitchen. I want to move the layout around and make more room to work. Several of our neighbors have gone the way of remortgages to fund their own remodeling. There are a number of cheap mortgages out there right now, so if it comes down to that point, I think I can find a broker with good fixed rate mortgages.

Around the middle of last week, Burger King released information about new items they are going to add to their menu to introduce healthier choices for the children’s meals. I read all of the information and I have been giving it a lot of thought all week.

Somehow, it just seems like in the long run, the best choice you can make for your child is to not eat fast food at all, or at least not very often. I admit that I do take Gigi out for fast food from time to time, but it always labeled a special event. We don’t just stop for a last minute meal. I want her to know that decided to have fast food is something you should not allow yourself to work into your regular schedule and that even when we are in a hurry, we can find healthier options by quickly stopping by the supermarket for fruit or a veggie tray.

I do appreciate Burger King adding a non-friend chicken dish to the kiddie options, though. I still wonder about how much salt the chicken will have in it. Often, restaurants soak chicken in salt water to add volume and flavor. I’m also not comfortable with any chicken items that use mechanically separated meat as an ingredient. I’m not making the claim that burger King’s new flame-broiled Tenders will use that sort of meat, but until I find out for sure I will avoid the product.

As fort the apples, I applaud the addition. Unfortunately, as much as both I and my daughter adore applies, we are both mildly allergic to them. I’m holding out for grapes.

You know something I have not seen around here lately? Kids playing with model rockets, model airplanes, parachutes and other outdoor toys I enjoyed as a child. When I was growing up, we had this massive field at the end of my street and through the row of houses backing up to the field. It has baseball fields and soccer fields and just endless room to run and play. There was this little white snack shack and I used to go up and buy sodas and those little hard candies that have fizzy in the middle after you suck on them long enough.

Anyway, there were always kids up there messing with model rockets and airplanes. And when it was windy enough, particularly in March up there in the DC suburbs, kites. I had a kite up there all of the time. We lived around so much wooded land that a wide open clear place was where everyone would go for playtime that involved the sky. I have so many good memories rushing back.

So, I wonder where the kids around here are playing with these kids of toys. I don’t see them at the parks or in the fields? I suppose my pessimistic nature wants to assume they are all inside sitting on sofas in dark rooms playing with the Xbox 360 or something similar. My theory is supported by the kids in my old neighborhood and the whole golf cart controversy (parents fighting the county to try and allow golf carts driven by kids to be OK on our streets, because God forbid their precious children have to actually ride a bike or hoof it to get to the community pool). Kids just don’t seem as active these days. When I take Gigi to the park and we are sweating it out on the swings in the 96 degree heat (Yes! It is 96 here today), we all but have the big, new playground to ourselves.

I get food cravings a lot. I’m not talking about the bad ones that hit you in the middle of the night, though I get those from time to time. I am talking about good food, specific flavors. For the past several days I have craved to my core spinach. I looked in the freezer and there were two containers of nice, green leaves I’d put away months ago I thought for sure were spinach, so I cooked one of the packets with dinner last night. As the leaves cooked and refused to lose their tough quality, I realized they were actually collard greens. How had I forgotten that? That was fine, though. I love almost any green: mustard, collard, spinach, etc. Nonetheless, I was specifically craving spinach.

So today I made a special trip to the market to pick up spinach. Much like someone who is compelled to stop at the store for sweets or soda, I was on a mission. I passed the sweets and the soda, because all I wanted was spinach. Actually, they had some nice chicken breast on sale, so I got that as well, but it is a great companion for tonight’s spinach, so all is well.

I feel like a vegetable junkie ready to have my fix.