NightStands have improved this room

 At the end of 1996, the beginning of 1997, I invested in a grown-up bedroom set. I was living in Berwyn and had some extra money since my rent was cheap, and I needed a bigger bed than the twin I grew up with.  

I honestly don't remember where I bought the set from but I think it was Polk Brothers.  In the late 90s, there were three popular bed styles:  The Sleigh bed.  The Mary Poppins bed. The Four Poster bed (what I call the Alister Scrooge bed.)

Even though I had cheap rent I was still not earning big bucks and always looking for a bargain.  The salespeople talked me into buying the store model of the four-poster bed along with a matching dresser. 

 I declined the nightstands because 1) I couldn't imagine any bedroom in Chicago (or even Berwyn) that could accommodate two nighttables 2) I'm cheap and 3) I figured I could always add them on later.

Flash forward to my Albany Park Condo.  That bedroom could have accommodated a couple of side tables but it wasn't a priority and I think by then Polk Brothers had gone out of business.

When we moved into our Portage Park home, we didn't have enough space for a king bed and large nightstands, which would never have worked.

But it was cozy

Our Mississippi house has a master bedroom that is the biggest bedroom I have ever lived in.  We have a king bed, two dressers, and a sofa (the remnants of the Costco sectional we bought and the kids and cats destroyed)

We have been looking for good but inexpensive nightstands for a while now.  We also could use a set of matching end tables for the living room.  My FIL sent me a link to a yard sale that was going on near my kids' school.  In fact it was on the 2nd day of school (Friday) that it started and went through the weekend.  I decided to check it out and I was not disappointed.  

I found these and sent the picture to NG.  She immediately liked them and I asked the Proprietess how much.  Let me back up.  She was ready to sell everything she could but she didn't have everything ready by the start of the sale.  These were in the garage attached to the main house.  That's right main house.  They own a small walking horse ranch and most of the garage sale was out of the Pole Barn.  

I'm gonna skip ahead because this is getting long in the tooth.  She asked for $250 for the set and my cheap self felt that was fair.  These are good quality, mostly wood not cheap pressboard nightstands.  Yeah, there might be some veneer instead of pure stain but these are the perfect fit for our space.  Could I have talked her down to $200? maybe but why not give her her asking price as I can still afford to do so.

Sheet Pan Recipes to the Rescue

As the primary cook at House Icarus, my job is feeding the family.  It's not easy because Boris is very picky and really only eats a handful of things.  Currently, that list is:

• Hot Dogs*
• Chicken Nuggets
• Pasta
• Fish Sticks* 
• Scrambled Eggs
• Bacon.  all the bacon.
• PBJ*
• Popcorn (don't judge)

Between his dairy allergy (which he has finally grown out of) and his textual issues, it's hard to come up with things to feed him.  To his credit, the other day he did try a piece of broccoli.  He didn't like it but I'm proud that he tried it.

* he's currently bored with these but I'm hoping to eventually get them back in the rotation.

Luckily, I subscribe to several recipe blogs that have given me some great options.  My favorite is The Food Charlatan.  I found her years ago when I was trying to figure out the best way to cook some different types of steaks my FIL had in his freezer.  This was before we moved down here and were visiting for Christmas.  

What I like about her blog/email is she offers alternative options.  Like if you don't have *this specific item* you can use *plain old this item*.

Her last meal had several Sheet Pan recipes that coincidentally had a lot of overlapping ingredients.  As it turns out, I had most of them in stock and didn't need to run to the grocery store for anything if I didn't want to.  I opted too because I needed to hit the store anyway for my salmon cream cheese spread which I can only find at the Walmart in neighboring South Haven.  

So this week we have had or will have:

Sheet Pan Rosemary Lime Chicken

Not only does Natasha eat it, she helped prepare it

Sheet Pan Asian Salmon with Broccoli, Carrots and Rice Noodles​

Sheet Pan Chicken Fried Rice

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Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Cherry Tomatoes

We have 4th graders

School starts early down here, August 1st to be precise. I don't know why since it doesn't seem like we get out of school significantly before other regions, nor do we have more days off.  But to be honest, I still need to do the maths to be certain.

Now I'm back to having my days free from 8:15 to 3:15 pm.  By free I mean I can work on things that weren't easy to do while also taking care of two/three kids all summer.

When we started First Grade, I used to go wait in the car pickup line at 2:30 pm.  They release the kids at 3:15 so there I sat listening to podcasts, or talking to the recruiter who would ghost me the next week.  With my last contract gig keeping me busy and not respecting my calendar -- I negotiated that my lunch would be 2:30 - 3:30 so i could pick up my kids.  I discovered that getting in the queue at 3:15 is better because it only takes 15-30 minutes at most to get to the front of the line.  So it's better all round while we get home closer to dinner.

This elementary school is from kindergarten to 5th grade.  That gives us roughly two years to figure out our next move.  Housing prices are skyrocketing and returning to Chicago doesn't not seem to be on the table.  

I'm Not Lovin It

It will come as no surprise to anyone with small children that we visit McDonalds an average of once a week.  Usually, it's because we are on a road trip, or we want to burn their energy so we go to one with a playroom.  Sometimes there's a playdate involved or it's a reward bribe for good behavior.

In any event, we use the McDonald's App because it's easier to order Natasha's special cheeseburger (ketchup, pickle only) than to trust a drive-through window order.  And in theory, there are some rewards and deals.

In Theory

As you might expect with a points system, the amount of points you need to purchase any item is high.  something like 4500 for medium fries, 6000 for large.  And you can only redeem one item per order.  So even if you have enough points to get a sandwich and fries, tough.  You have to pick one.  This seems like Bullshit because I've already paid for those points, I should be able to buy as much as my points allow.

And they don't let you redeem points on the same order you are using a Deal.  Also Bullshit.  I only put up with it because we do it frequently enough and it's better than nothing.  

Oh and the app defaults to the closest McDonald's, which is 2.2 miles away in neighboring South Haven.  But the one with the playroom is 4.6 miles away in Olive Branch.  [We live practically on the border of South Haven and OB].  So even though I explicitly selected the OB one today, it flipped back to the SH and I had to cancel the order (the cancel button is buried within the app) and re-order.  

I have found some workarounds that I'm sure McD's Headquarters is working on fixing.  

When the kids were younger, Boris wanted the chicken nugget Happy Meal and Natasha wanted the cheeseburger one (it's a burger and you have to pay for the cheese upgrade!).  

When we visit to play at the playpen in person, I will place the kids' order and usually get the Happy Meal with points for one of the kids and pay for the rest.  This earns me more points.

After their food comes, I will place my order.  Often I have enough for a free sandwich myself.  So I just get a free sandwich and pay for my fries.  Now that they are older, using some of the Deals is advantageous instead of getting two Happy Meals.  Especially since Boris's appetite is larger.  

Case in point: today I used their $5 bundle to get the cheeseburger for Natasha -- the McDouble is essentially a double cheeseburger and I could customize it.  I still got Boris his 6 PC McNugget Meal which then gives him 10 total McNuggets.  Natasha got both the small fries with her order and the medium I got for the Happy Meal, so I ordered Boris a large fries.  I also got to use a 20% off Deal on the meal because none of those items are Deals themselves.

Together this cost $14.45 with tax.

After their food arrived, I had to wait a few minutes to place my next order since I wanted to use a deal.  I think the default is 15 minutes.  They had a Deal where you can get 30% off ANY Quarter pounder.  The assumption is you're gonna grab one of the cheaper ones but I opted for the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe.  This normally sets you back $6.99 but I got it for $5.33 after tax.  

I suspect this will be quietly coded such that you cannot select certain quarter-pounder options the same way my free breakfast sandwich won't show me the Steak Biscuit option anymore.  

 Immediately after placing it, I ordered a medium french fries using points.  The girl behind the counter knew what I was doing and gave me a smile since Gaming the System is the War Cry of the working class.  

Between the three orders, I got to feed two kids and myself for $19.78.  Go me.  

Last Sleep in Day for a While

The kids go back to school on Thursday.  Tomorrow is Boris' OT appointment so we get up at 7 to be out the door by 7:50 for a 30-minute session that begins at 8.  And Saturday at 8:30 is Natasha's soccer practice.  

One of the problems with living in the South is the summers are just too hot to really be outside.  And almost everything we can do inside costs money.  it's not that we cannot afford it, but like a lot of things, it has its limits.  We can only do so much bowling, arcade, Urban Air, and swimming pool (that one is free) before the kids get tired of it.  

The seasons down here kinda work like this:   

• From the end of May to the middle of September it is too hot to do much outside and it doesn't really cool off in the evenings.
  
  
• From the middle of Sept to mid-November it's nice and you can get things done.  Even on the hotter days, there is a morning window and an evening window.
  
  
• mid-November to the end of February is what is considered winter here. And it might snow or you might need some warmer clothes but it's great for being outside.
  
  
• March to Mid-May is spring and it's the opposite of Fall.

Wild, Wild, Week Review

 Last week Katniss and her boys came down to visit.  They were supposed to fly in late Friday night, July 12 but one of the kid's softball team made the playoffs, so they rescheduled for late Saturday night.  This had advantages and disadvantages but it is what it is.  We were more distraught that our cleaning lady had to cancel so we didn't have a spotless house.  Reminder to the future: it takes 20 minutes to get to the airport from here and usually incoming flights are delayed.

We had enrolled our kids and hers in a day camp because she and Nightingale had to work, or at least so no need to consume too much PTO, thus stretching vacation time.  This meant I got to drive them to and from camp, which is only 25 minutes away.  

We bought more food than we could eat.  We also went out for Pizza on Tuesday because we found a place where the kids eat free if you order a large or extra large pizza for the adults.  The kids get to build their own pizza, while the adults try to compromise on the toppings.  Katniss is a picky eater.  

On Thursday the weather broke and we decided to go out to eat and later watch the bridge change colors.  We went to our newly discovered haunt, the Overton Square area.  

At the end of the week, we left for Hot Springs to visit the Magic Springs, the water park that our kids love so much (and we have season passes for).  It was just a 2-night stay but even so, with seven people, the trunk was full and the seats were up.

We stayed at the same motel as the first time we visited and though we got a non-smoking room, since people go outside to smoke, the room smells a little smokey.  however, it is only 6 minutes from downtown and Magic Springs (in the other direction), and it costs less than half what the higher-end hotels cost this time of year, we dealt with it.  That's easy enough to do when all you do is use the room to sleep.  The hotel pool was open so we took advantage of that too.  

Unfortunately, the restaurant we went to Friday night had a kitchen fire so our food was delayed getting to us.  They did the best they could and gave us a 20% discount on the food (not the expensive drinks) but it was still tough because we were getting hangry.

For the most part, this was a fun visit.  There were some tense moments scattered here and there.  Katniss parents different than we do.  A lot of times we'd be in a shop and she'd get something her kids were asking for, so we had to do the same with ours, whereas we'd normally either skip the gift shop or not get anything.  She also manages to find something wrong with any restaurant we go to but that is just her nature.

We will next see her and the boys in November when we visit my mom for her birthday and Thanksgiving.

Salt Shaker and Baseball Games

This isn't a Living in the South Thing:  Even back in Chicago, even before the World Series run in 2015, it was getting harder and harder to watch Cubs games.  

Pay Us! 

I'm too lazy to look it all up but it might have started with the 2015 playoff games and only being able to watch those on streaming services.  

I don't like the Cubs, let alone baseball enough to pay for a subscription.  But i do like the Bears and football.  It was worth it to buy the YouTube TV Sunday package (or whatever they call it) so I could watch my terrible Bears games.

I have to make a decision on whether to renew the package this year in the hopes that Caleb Williams elevates the Bears and they are at least exciting to watch, or save the money and do something else on Sundays.  

What a waste of a perfectly good power cord:  For Christmas last year, at Nightingale's request, I got her this electronic salt and pepper shaker set.  it came with a warranty and I actually remembered to register the product.  

One of the shakers broke, in that you couldn't lock it closed because the glass was broken.  I contacted Cuisinart support via telephone and they told me they don't replace individual shakers and would have to send me a new unit.

Wasteful, but okay.  But the catch was, I had to cut the power cord and send them a picture.  I asked why and the support person agreed this was wasteful, but policy.  Also, while she took all my info, she did not send me any email with instructions or confirmation.  She said that the email address was just to send me tracking information after I sent the picture.

So I do as instructed, which admittedly is a rarity for me when something doesn't make any sense.  I get a confirmation "we got your email" message.  After a bit of time goes but I contacted them again, via the website online form (I should have done this in the first place).

They claimed they never got my email with the picture of the severed cord.  Oh no, now you've done it.  I emailed back attaching the email with my picture and the "We got your email" message attached.  They respond that they cannot open/read the attachments.  I copy and paste the picture within the email and they tell me they will expedite sending me the shaker.  It still took another week or two before it arrived but I did get it.

Since the warranty is now completely over and I don't want to go through this again, I've saved the working shaker and power station although I really would have liked to have a second working cord.