The toughest job you'll ever love

This is the end. Farewell.

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

I know it has been a LONG LONG LONG time since I have posted here, but I think I have outgrown this blog. Or at least no longer fit the mold.

When I started writing back in 2009 I was still working full time. When I left science I never thought I would still be a stay at home mom 3 years later. But I am.

I never would have predicted that I would move across three different states and live in 6 different homes. But I did.

I have been blogging elsewhere about more benign things than balancing life in the lab and life at home. I no longer feel like I fit in the science blogger community and so I am closing up shop.

I have enjoyed blogging along side so many other wonderful people and I was honored to spend my time over on lab spaces. I have learned so much from this community. There was laughter, support, anger and sympathy. Much like life in the lab.

But all good things must come to an end.

If you would like to follow my new blog, please feel free to email me (labmomsblog@gmail.com) or tweet me (Lab_Mom) and I will give you the new URL. I am not posting it here since I am no longer using a pseudonym. (Unlike my previous gig, blogging about my current employment won't lead to my termination.)

Thanks so much, and I wish everyone else the best of luck. May your RO1s be funded and may your grad students not be morons!

Getting to Know Rachel Better.. A LOT Better.

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:06:00 +0000

Once again, Rachel has quickly become the most annoying player in the Big Brother house. And even when the main drama in the house has absolutely nothing to do with her, she is still grasping to be the center of attention.

And just like last season, her obnoxious run of Head of Household wins (where she gets to choose who is up for elimination) continues. Let the self-centered proclamations begin:

"WHO WANTS TO SEE MY HOH ROOOOMMM???"

Ahh! My ears are bleeding.

I think another member of the cast said it best:

"Anytime anyone [says] 'Wanna see my HOH room?' I don't care if it is Rachel or if it is Jesus Christ, I could really give a shit."

Amen!

However, with the revelation of her HOH room, we do get a little more insight into our favorite chemist. Baby pictures, pictures of her as a teen (Pouf hairdo anyone?) a goody basket filled with rice cakes, beef jerky and oranges (huh?)

Unfortunately there are no chemistry text books or molecular model kits. Bummer.

We do learn during this episode however that Rachel has fake teeth. Yes! FAKE TEETH. "They make her more confident." Umm.. yeah. Yikes.

She does go on to have a little pissing match with the 'love of her life' about whether or not she should have plastic surgery. Brendon tells her he thinks she is beautiful, and his comments are met with eye rolling and big sighs.

In the diary room Rachel points out:

"Brendon hates botox, lip injections, anything that is plastic surgery... but he never complains about these" [Points to her breasts]

EWWW! Does that mean she also has fake tatas? Told ya we were going to learn a lot more about her this season.

Sheeesss baaaaccckk...

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Just when I thought my Big Brother blogging career was over, I sit down to watch the new season of Big Brother 13 and what is the surprise twist this season?

Oh yes..

Wait for it..

RACHEL!

Yes, our very own "Chemistry Grad Student" Rachel.

When we last left her, she and the love of her life she met in the Big Brother 12 house were busy registering for mustard and a TV console after being voted off the show.

Well, the geniuses at CBS decided this season wouldn't be the same without her and they have brought her back. If this sounds familiar, it is. CBS has done this before, bringing Rachel back last season after she was voted off. Her entry back into the house was even the same..

"I'mmmm baaackkk bitcccchhhesss" as she walks through the door.

If you missed tonight's episode, it looked pretty much like the first 15 seconds of this clip:

Now, this season they are no longer promoting or titling her as a "Chemist" like they did during last season. I think they are pretty sure nobody is falling for that story anymore, especially after her scientific brilliance shined though last season. (Although I must note that Brendan is still being called a "PhD student" just like last season)

And although there were big twists thrown in by the producers this season, and even though our girl Rachel won head of household, this was STILL the best line of the evening:

"It is all well and good riding a banana all night, and then you get a shot of whipped cream in the face.. " followed by weird mule-like braying laughter

But if this is any indication of how the season is going to go, bring on the blogging!

And welcome back Rachel!

House Staging 101: The Master Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:12:00 +0000

I figured I may as well finish up this series of posts on staging. Since I showed you pretty much the entire downstairs I figured you probably would want to see the bedrooms as well.

So here it goes. Our house has 3 bedrooms upstairs, and one bathroom. We use the largest bedroom as the master since we use the lower level bedroom as an office. Both the Princess and the Peanut have their own rooms. Tonite I will feature the Master Bedroom.

When we moved in we did not change any paint colors upstairs. Therefore all the differences you see in these pics is SOLELY from staging.

Before:
Eh, nothing special. The bed laying so close the floor is a little odd, plus the funky red throw pillows aren't really a consistent color with the dusty green walls. (I am not even sure what that red santa looking thing on the far right is.) Plus this photo is not indicative of the actual size of the room

There is so much wrong with this. First off the photograph is awful, all bleached out. Secondly, I am pretty sure this photograph was trying to capture the closet space and built ins, but the angles are just not showing the room in it's best light. And finally, there is a space heater in the room. BIG RED FLAG. Yes, it is true, the money pit is a heating nightmare and the bedrooms do get really cold, but you don't want to point that out to your buyers!

There are some additional minor things I dislike about the way this picture is staged. The two prints on the wall are undersized and it is strange that one has a thick framing mat around it and one does not. All the electronics and bric-a-brac on top of the built in is also very unappealing. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better.

After:We have a very high bed. The bedside lamps throw extra light in the dark back corner of the room and their vertical outline draw your eyes up so you don't notice the slope of the walls. Extra pillows on the bed give it a more luxurious feel.

The photographer wanted to make sure he got a photo down the hall. It shows how much natural light pours in though the hallway and it also gives you a better idea of the upstairs layout (that the master bedroom is at one end of the hallway)

All the frames on the wall are different but they contain black and white photos of the kids. You often hear that you need to depersonalize your house when selling because you want the buyers to feel at home there. I believe that is true in common spaces like living rooms, dining rooms etc. But in the bedrooms I like to leave personal touches. Our target buyers were going to be families (since we have a 4 bedroom house). We wanted to make it seem like this house was a good place to raise kids. That is also why we left the kid's rooms staged as little girls' rooms instead of depersonalizing one into a guest room.

By keeping everything black and white (which works as a neutral) the photographs don't become distracting. If I had my preference we would have got rid of that TV for staging, but LabDad vetoed that. We did get rid of the VCR and DVD player so there wasn't a big distracting tangle of cords.

Instead of the angle (away from the windows) the previous sellers used, we chose to shoot into the window. It is one of the big selling features of this room, and although you don't see all the closets, you see the built ins and get the idea that there is plenty of storage.

So that is the master bedroom. Clean, neutral and well lit.

This post is also included in Adventuroo's meme: Capture the Everyday!

Reading Challenge: Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:50:00 +0000

We are still hard at work plowing through the Kindergarten Reading list for our Spring/Summer Reading Challenge. It has been a little rainy here and so we have been hanging out at the library quite a bit.

In the past seven days we have read 16 of the remaining 122 books, bringing our total books read to 29!

This week, one again there was a clear favorite: Take Care, Good Knight by Shelly Moore Thomas.
In this darling story, 3 little dragons are asked to take care of a wizard's cats while he is away. Silliness ensues when they realize they cannot read his note on how to care for his pets. The Good Knight comes riding to the rescue (with his trademark "clippity-clop") and helps translate the note. The cartoonish drawings are adorable, and not the least bit scary. The Princess loved it immediately and we had to read it at least two additional times.

This book is actually a sequel (I have noticed a lot of books on this list are sequels) to the 2000 book Good Night, Good Knight by the same author. We of course checked that book out on our next trip to the libarary along with the others in the series: Take Care, Good Knight, A Cold Winter's Good Knight, Happy Birthday Good Knight and A Good Knight's Rest (aren't these titles a hoot?)

It was also funny that in our search for Thomas' Good Knight series, we stumbled upon very similar books series by David Melling. The first Good Knight, Sleep Tight came up when we did a title search but his other two (Three Wishes, The Kiss that Missed) were equally enchanting. I am pretty sure princes and princesses, handsome knights, horses, magic and humor would always be a sure win.
So once again this week's books spun off eight additional books and two new favorite authors. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Books on List: 135

Week 1: 13 read (10%)
Bonus Books Read: 3

Week 2: 16 read (12%)
Bonus Books Read: 8

Total Read: 29 + 11 = 40
Books Remaining: 106 (78%)

LabMom's Top 5 Open House Visiting Tips

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:50:00 +0000

I have been keeping myself busy on the weekends attending open houses for comps in our neighborhood. Because TheMoneyPit was about to hit the market, I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly what competition we were up against. What they were selling for, what condition they were in, how they were staged etc.

Well, these weekly visits have opened my eyes to the fact that people just do NOT understand proper open house etiquette. Honestly people.. you may one day own the home you are viewing for for the time being you are a GUEST in the home of the people holding the open house. SHOW SOME RESPECT.

Here are my top 5 tips for people visiting an open house.
Honestly, I can't believe I need to even point these out, but because I have seen these behaviors (either in real life or in shows on TV like House Hunters and Property Virgins) I guess I need to point them out.

1. IF IT DOESN'T CONVEY YOU DON'T NEED TO TOUCH IT
This weekend I almost fell over when a woman at an open house with me started to paw through the homeowner's underwear drawer. It was in a large armoir which clearly was not included in the sale. I was shocked. What in the world makes you think you have the right to handle someone's skivvys? What exactly are you looking for? Don't you realize that her Victoria's Secret collection is NOT included in the sale? Keep your hands off!

2. DO NOT LAY ON THE HOME OWNERS BED
Yes, I get it. You feel at home. You are so in love with the house you feel like you need to lay down... but don't! This isn't a hotel. This isn't a slumber party. Get out of the bed.

3.DON'T GIVE A RUNNING COMMENTARY ON THE HOME OWNER'S POSSESSIONS
Sure, maybe the seller has a giant collection of Virgin Mary Shot Glasses. So what? It may be an odd thing to collect but it has little to nothing to do with the sale of the house. We don't really want to listen to you extrapolate on how it must be their way of using divine intervention to battle alchohol addiction. There is no point in oohing and ahhing over the wedding pictures on the nightstand or the funky modern art over the toilet tank. The people who currently live in the house (and all their crap) are not what you are shopping for. This isn't a museum. Stop focusing on the personal effects and start looking at the house. Or else you are just annoying to the rest of us.

5. READ THE DAMN MLS LISTING
Pretty much every open house hosting agent provides a listing sheet when you enter the home. Consider it the cheat sheet with all the answers to your questions. If you want to know something about the house check there first. There is nothing more annoying than trying to tour an open house in peace and instead being forced to listen to someone play 40 questions with the broker.

"What year was this built? How many bedrooms does it have? How much are they asking?.. blah blah blah"

Read the listing already! Sure, if you have a question that isn't on the sheet of course you should ask, but simple things like square footage, bedroom/bathroom number, lot size, and number of parking spaces etc are right there in black and white. Stop being annoying and read it. (Plus it begs the question why are you at an open house if you don't even know the number of bedrooms and/or price of the listing?)

5. YOU DON'T NEED TO TEST OUT THE BATHTUB
This is a lot like rule number 2. Until you own the house, it isn't your bathtub. Don't crawl in there and make some comment about how you "could get used to this." It is a freaking bathtub. We all have seen them before, there is no reason you need to give it a dry run. Take a bath before you leave the house.

So there you have it. Stating the obvious that needed to be said. You wouldn't behave like an idiot in a home you were visiting (well, at least I would hope not), so don't do it at an open house. The home sellers (and your fellow house hunters) thank you.

House Staging 101: The Office

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:09:00 +0000

The house is about to hit the market! We are wrapping up the staging and tonight I am going to feature the office/master suite. It is a fourth bedroom on the living level of the house with an attached bathroom. We use it as an office and common bath, since we prefer to sleep on the same floor as the kids, but it could be used as a master if the new buyer wanted to.

When we bought the house, they were using it as a den/family room and this was the photo from the MLS listing:

Honestly, we actually weren't even using it as an office. We were using it as a storage unit. We had boxes and boxes of stuff we never unpacked from the move a little less than a year ago. The room looked a lot like this:

Looking into the bathroom hallway (closet doors on right)

The first thing i did was repaint the room. I wanted it to be a different color than the living space, and I wanted it to be darker to accenutate the white crown molding (it is the only room in the house with crown, which once again implies it is the master)

Yes, we have crap piled halfway up the wall.. it was like an episode of hoarders

Paint before (left) and after (right)

Then we decluttered, decluttered, decluttered. I used all my sewing notions and antiqu sewing machines along with LabDad's giant book collection to stage the shelves.

This is the result:

Looking in the opposite direction (at the closet doors)

Looking into the bathroom

Yes, that is the very same bathroom I made over earlier this year. In case you have erased the horror from your memory, it looked like this:

Of course there is no MLS listing photo, because nobody would be crazy enough to feature this ugly ass bathroom on their listing

Fortunately now the bathroom looks like this:

Much better.

Time for a Moms Night Out!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:03:00 +0000

In honor of Mother's Day, I present you this video:

To all the moms out there.. take the night off. You deserve it.

House Staging 101: The Dining Room

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:58:00 +0000

The house staging continues, this time in the dining room.

You had a little preview of what this room looked like back when I was renovating the kitchen:

But that isn't reality. This is what the room looked like when we were actually living and dining in it:

Yes, we live like pigs. Notice the two booster seats and sippy cup on the table. The playfood on the floor, and I am not exactly sure why that footrest and tupperware is there. I think it was headed down to the cellar for staging the upstairs.

I want to point out the kitchen table and how it blends in with the floor. That is NOT COOL. I knew it wouldn't show well in the MLS pictures, so I knew I would have to do something about it.

That became the first project. The table is actually a cheap assemble it yourself number we got at Kmart. Nothing special. I actually have always hated it:

It is solid wood, and it has a good profile, so I knew it could be salvaged.

Step 1: Sand it. I used a fine (220 grit) sandpaper to remove the finish from the table. Although it was cheap, the table and chairs were actually solid wood, so I wasn't worried about oversanding.
Step 2: Wipe down furniture with damp cloth.

Step 3: Paint it.

I used Valspar Latex Enamel. It has a satin sheen (easy for spill clean up) and the enamel is more durable than regular latex paint. It is a great alternative to spray paint which is the paint type I normally use to paint furniture. However, in this case I wanted to paint inside the house, and I had a large surface area which would have required many many cans of spray paint. Because the table was previously stained, I didn't need to use a primer.
There is a great step by step tutorial on the Valspar wesbsite on how to refinish wood furniture.

The original finish was a reddish oak color. I chose Java Brown as the new table color. This was to correspond to my dark furniture in my living room and my dark brown wrought iron side table in the dining room. Here is the difference between the old and new color:

After two coats and complete drying, the table was dark brown. Beautiful:

Now to go on and use my "new" table to stage the rest of the dining room:

You can see I placed a large mirror, some artwork and a vase on the mantle to draw focus to the fireplace. I moved the plate collage to the left hand wall and added a lamp to that table to balance the light from the large bay windows on the left.

Once again however, my personal pictures don't do it justice. The professional photographs give you a much better sense of the room:

I chose dark frames for the mirror and artwork to match with the tables and the orangey-brown vase picks up the warm tones from the floor and fireplace brick.

Normally, when staging a dining room I would have set the table with two place settings, however in this case we are still using this space to eat our meals. Removing and replacing the place settings would be a huge hassle (espeically with two kids under five) so a simple green plant in a basket complete the table.

The left hand wall:

I chose a bowl of fresh fruit and a vase of dried eucalyptus in reds, browns and greens on the side table to stay in the same color family. The dark wrought iron furniture has a glass top which keeps it from feeling too heavy against the light walls and white chair rail and molding.

The window wall:

Two small framed prints, once again in dark frames complete the room. That wall wasn't left blank so that the heavy elements (art, mirror and fireplace) didn't make the room feel unbalanced.

So there you have it. The MoneyPit dining room. Doesn't even look like the same place.

Can money really grow on trees?

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:50:00 +0000

In order to get the house ready to sell we needed to spruce up the landscaping for exterior photos. The Princess and I spent a couple afternoons planting a bunch of annuals all around the yard. Great to add a pop of color and make the exterior feel a lot more friendly.

Hopefully the approximately $200 we spent on new plants, mulch and grass seed will pay off in the long run, by making the house more appealing since something the Money Pit really lacks is curb appeal.

Exhibit A: Back Yard of the Money Pit. Can't get much more blah than this:

(How do you like our pirate ship bird house?)

Anyhow.. Here are some of the flowers we planted in our back beds:

Over the summer the beds are full of ferns but because they haven't completely spouted yet, we filled in between them with some pansies:

Hidden away inside a windowbox is St. Joseph, the patron saint of house sales. (Yes, for $4.43 you too can own your own Saint!) In a few weeks he will be buried in the front yard, but for now, the Princess thinks his place of honor should be among the miniature yellow pansies:

And although we all know that money doesn't grow on trees, maybe it will grow among the pansies! Fingers crossed!

This post was actually prompted by the Capture the Everyday Assignment from Melissa over at Adventuroo. I have wanted to do one for a while now, but I finally had an excuse to link up.

Reading Challenge: Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 04 May 2011 21:43:00 +0000

It is time for an update on how our Kindergarten reading challenge has been going since it has been one week since we started.

The reading list (found on the bottom of the right hand column of this blog) is 135 books. In the first seven days we read 13 books. Some were hits and some were misses.

There are two books that were our clear winners this week:

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Madeline is a little Parisian girl (one of 12 who live in a house covered with vines, and walk around town in two straight lines) falls ill and must have her appendix removed. Written in 1939, the storyline, although predictable and not really interesting, is delightful in its simplicity and character development. The story is told completely in rhyme which is why it was a favorite of ThePrincess, plus I enjoyed reading it.

Bemelman went on to write six additional Madeline Books (a seventh was discovered after his death and published posthumously.) After his death the series was continued by John Bemelmans-Marciano, which actually defies the story's famous last line: "That's all there is; there isn't any more."

Our other favorite book this week was:

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

The story is about Strega Nona ("grandma witch") and a magic pasta pot. Her young assistant, Big Anthony, learns his lesson the hard way when her pasta pot overflows unstoppably after he disobeys her instructions to not touch it.

The book is beautifully illustrated and the moral of the story is conveyed without being preachy or heavy handed. The simple line drawings, earthy colors and fantastical characters are timeless.

It also should be pointed out that this book is a 1976 Caldecott Medal winner for best children's picture book.

The princess enjoyed this book so much, that we actually went off-list read the sequel: Strega Nona's Magic Lessons (where Big Anthony once again is up to no good), and two prequels: Strega Nona: Her Story (a tale of her childhood) and Big Anthony: His Story (yes, a tale of his childhood.)

All in all, we had a great time this week. If we get nothing else out of this project, we have discovered a new favorite author or two and I would call that a success.

Books on List: 135

Week 1: 13 read (10%)
Bonus Books Read: 3

Books Remaining: 122 (90%)

I am linking up this post for Working Mommy Wednesday. The prompts were Setting a Goal and Reading. Pretty sure I nailed them both.

House Staging 101: The Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:00:00 +0000

As you may recall, my big kitchen makeover was not because I want to live in a home with my dream kitchen. Is was, in fact, a way to make sure we could sell our house for our long distance relocation.

Now that the kitchen is complete, and I have finished cleaning up the mess that was left in its wake, it is time to get onto the home selling process.

I am fortunate that I have sold a house before, and I am addicted to HGTV so I am pretty familiar with the ins and outs of getting a house ready for the market.

For this sale I knew I wanted professional photographs of the house taken, since you can clearly tell when a professional has taken images vs. some relatively clueless realtor.

People's exhibit 1:
Both of these were taken from currently active MLS listings I stumbled upon

Realtor:

Listing here.

Professional:

Listing here.

Now which kitchen do YOU want to buy?

So that brings me back to my kitchen. These were the shots that I took:

And my photographer:

You can get a much better feel for the true size and layout of the kitchen in his photographs. He was able to capture a lot more light (even though they were taken at the same time of day as mine) and his wide angles allow you to actually see the whole kitchen not just short segments.

You can also see how much more I removed from the counters. The coffee pot, knives and fruit have been removed. I replaced it with my white stand mixer which gives you a better idea of how large the counterspace really is. I also replaced my brown utensil holder with a stainless one. I moved the coffee pot and a potted plant on top of the radiator cover (to convey that it is a workable surface) and where a toaster oven used to be, I put a simple tall spikey plant to play off all the circular patterns in the room (the valances, the wreath, the lights, the spice jars and the doorfronts on the washer and dryer). There isn't much on the counters really.. but you can never have too little on your kitchen counters.

LESS IS MORE people!!

Fun Stuff: When Hats Attack!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:58:00 +0000

I only have one comment on this week's Royal Wedding:

"What the hell was she thinking?"

If you don't know WHO I am talking about, let me clarify:

Princess Beatrice and her hat made from a killer Wreath? Octopus? Uterus?

Once again I implore you to tell me "What the hell was she thinking?!"

But really, when I look though her hat history I guess I should have expected it. Clearly she likes the "I'm being attacked by an animal" look.

Previously she was attacked by butterflies:
And attacked by a blue bird:

And even flowers attack her:

Poor girl.

The Grand Finale: The Kitchen AFTER!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Here it is.. the final kitchen. I can't believe it is over.. But THANK GOD it is.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And here it is.. THE FINAL BUDGET!

$4081 Cabinet
$2763 Countertops
$1280 Cabinet Installation
$455 Flooring
$279 Sink
$240 Plumber
$188 Electrician
$150 Microwave/Range Hood
$138 Faucet
$71 Cabinet Hardware
$24 Floor Installation Supplies
$55 Wall Paint
$12 Paint Testers
$26 Baseboards/Molding
$33 Radiator Piping
$20 Joint Compound
$12 Patching Compound
$16 Kilz Primer
$14 Plaster Mesh Patches
$27 Drywall
$18 Dimmer Switch
$1 Switchplate
$4 Phone Jack
$15 Shower Curtain (for Valances)
$8 Undermount Light

TOTAL: $9967
$33 UNDER BUDGET!!!!

Amount saved by doing it myself:
Approximately $4000.

What a bargain!

Spring/Summer Kids Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0000

In the spirit of Andrea's Reading with Redneck 2011 Challenge (of which I was aiming to read one book per month.. and so far I have read 1.75 books in 2011. Sigh.) I thought I would do something similar for ThePrincess.

Our library puts out a "Kindergarten Booklist" of suggested reading for kids in Kindergarten. My goal is to have her read all 135 books on the list by the end of summer. It sounds like a lot but in most of these cases the books are so short you could easily read 3-4 a night without much trouble. The key will be finding them all at the library.

In case you are interested, this is the list:

Picture Books
Aliki: Overnight at Mary Bloom’s
Anholt: Magical Garden of Claude Monet
Asher: Too Many Frogs!
Bardhan-Quallen: Tightrope Poppy the High-Wire Pig
Becker: Visitor for Bear
Bemelmans: Madeline
Berger: Little Yellow Leaf
Brett: Honey Honey-Lion
Brown: Arthur Writes a Story
Brunhoff: Travels of Barbar
Buehner: Superdog: the heart of a hero
Bunting: Wednesday Surprise
Burton: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Cannon: Stellaluna
Carlson: Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come
Carrick: Big Old Bones
Charlip: Perfect Day
Cocca-Leffler: Jack’s Talent
Cooney: Miss Rumphius
Daly: Ruby Sings the Blues
Desimini: Dot, the Fire Dog
Ehlert: Oodles of Animals
Elschner: Max’s Magic Seeds
Ericson: Most Beautiful Kid in the World
Faller: Polo: the Runaway Book
Fox: Koala Lou
Funke: Princess Knight
Goldfinger: Fish Named Spot
Goode: Mama’s Perfect Present
Grambling: Here Comes T. Rex Cottontail
Graves: Unexpectedly Bad Hair of Barcelona Smith
Gravett: The Odd Egg & Monkey and Me
Griesman: Like a Hundred Drums
Hamilton: Let’s Take Over the Kindergarten
Henkes: Old Bear
Howe: Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores
Isaacs: Swamp Angel
James: Baby Brains Superstar
Janovitz: We Love School
Jarman: Class Two at the Zoo
Johnson: Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
Karas: Class artist
Keller: Geraldine and Mrs. Duffy
Kimmel: Rip Van Winkle’s Return
Krensky: My Teacher’s Secret Life
Kroll: Jungle Bullies
Lasky: Show and Tell Bunnies
Lawler: Father’s Song
Lester: Sam and the Tigers
Levitin: Taking Charge
Lionni: Extraordinary Egg
Luenn: Gift for Abuelita
Marshall: George and Martha
McCloskey: Make Way for Ducklings
McPhail: Teddy Bear
Meddaugh: Martha Walks the Dog
Mitchard: Ready, Set School
Montanari: Very Full Morning
Mosel: Tikki Tikki Tembo
Neubecker: Wow! School!
Noyes: Red Butterfly
Payne: Katy No-Pocket
Pinkney: Fishing Day
Pitzer: Not Afraid of Dogs
Polacco: Just Plain Fancy
Rex: You Can Do Anything Daddy
Rosen: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Rosenberry: Vera's First Day of School
Rumford: Don’t Touch My Hat
Russo: Waiting for Hannah
Schubert: Here Comes Darrell
Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are
Schaefer: Big Little Monkey
Scotton: Splat the Cat
Silverman: Don’t Fidget a Feather
Slate: Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
Slobodkina: Caps for Sale
Stanley: Saving Sweetness
Steig: Brave Irene
Stein: Monster Hug
Tavares: Oliver’s Game
Thomas: Take Care, Good Knight
Uegaki: Suki’s Kimono
Van Laan: When Winter Comes
Varennes: Jewel Box Ballerinas
Waber: Evie and Margie
Wells: Max’s ABC
Wolf: Truck Stuck
Wood: King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub
Wright: Jake Stays Awake
Yolen: How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
Zolotow: My Friend John
Zschock: Journey Around Cape Cod & the Islands from A to Z

Easy Readers
Capucilli: Biscuit find a friend
Cazet: Octopus
Hall: Ballerina Girl
Hoberman: You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You
Hoff: Oliver
McConnell: What a Baker Makes
McMullan: Pearl and Wagner: Three Secrets
McPhail: Jack and Rick
Minarik: Little Bear
Namm: Pick a Pet
Rylant: Henry and Mudge

Non-Fiction
J398 DeP: Strega Nona
J398 F: Pecos Bill and the Mustang
J398 Hym: Sleeping Beauty
J398.2 Bre: Mitten
J398.2 DeP: Legend of the Bluebonnet
J398.2 Fle: Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal
J398.2 Kim: Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock
J398.2 Mar: Red Riding Hood
J398.2 Mit: Ugly Duckling
J398.2 Nes: Jack and the Beanstalk
J398.2 Pay: Head, Body, Legs
J398.208 Bru: First Strawberries
J398.245 Bre: Town Mouse, Country Mouse
J567.9 Hey: Great Dinosaur Search
J595.789 Fro: Monarch and Milkweed
J595.79 Dor: Ant Cities
J597.3 Dav: Surprising Sharks
J636.7 Gib: Dogs
J752 Mic: I Spy Colors in Art
J791.3 Car: Circus Stars
J792.8 Mau: Ballet
J796.33 Edo: Starting Soccer
J808.81 Sin: Sing a Song of Popcorn
J811.54 Flo: Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars
J817 Dah: Monster Laughs
J818 Ter: Eight Ate
J818.54 Sch: Game-Day Gigglers
J910.45 Mal: How To Be a Pirate Biography
J Biography/Mozart: Mozart: Scenes from the Childhood of the great composer
J Biography/Pocahontas: Pocahontas
J Biography/Washington: George Washington’s Teeth

I have decided to track what we have read so far, I will create a sidebar with the list and I will white out the ones that are read. Hopefully by the time we move out of this house (in August/September) all the books will be crossed off.

The Kitchen: Cabinets, Counters and Floors!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:29:00 +0000

This is how I have been spending the last few weeks of my life:

Finally I get to take off the dust mask and head on to bigger and better things.. LIKE CABINETS!

Yes this is my dining room, filled with cabinets and a dishwasher

They have arrived and this is one task I am NOT taking on myself. I am paying someone to install them. ($1280) If you are interested, they are Merillat Solid Maple Cabinets. The style is Portrait. (They cost $4081.)

This is the new cabinetry layout:

When the cabinets went in, I (with help from my dad) installed the new floor as well. ($455 plus $26 in installation supplies.) We ripped up the god awful fake wood peel an stick floors and put in what looks like tile. (Shhh.. it is laminate. We needed to stretch the budget)

To save some money I did my own finish work (base molding and trim work)

Before (you can see in the upper right where I also needed to add new baseboards)

Cut down the trim with a mitre box

Hide the nail head with a nail set and wood putty

After (see the new baseboard as well?)

The baseboards (a 1x4 with decorative molding on top) $26

I also had to encase the steam pipe I relocated previously.

We also had the new countertops installed. The counters are Quartz (Silestone) and the color is Grey Expo (from the Volcano series). They were $2762.00 installed.

So.. Ready for the big reveal?

Here it is:

These pictures are also a giveaway of the new paint color(s)! I also got a new sink ($279) and a new faucet ($138).

Like the bathroom, I once again used Martha Stewart's line of paint. The colors are Saguaro and Timothy Hay. ($55)

I also installed the dishwasher and hooked up the electrical. I needed to call a plumber in to do the drain because I had to reattach both the disposal and the washing machine drain. Best $240 I spent.

You also can see where we installed the new microwave ($150) and had to have a new outlet installed to accommodate it ($188.)

I will do another post with the revised budget numbers. Remember I was shooting to keep this whole endeavor under $10,000?!?!

Do you think I did it?

The Money Pit Kitchen: We have a layout!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:44:00 +0000

It has been a while since I updated my kitchen progress, but the projects have seemed to multiply around the money pit.

We have put off tearing out the kitchen sink and dishwasher because without it, that means we need to wash the dishes (and paintbrushes, spackle buckets, putty knives etc) in the bathtub. The same bathtub which drains at a rate of about 14 drops per hour. It isn't pretty.

Once again, I played plumber (and even electrician) and using directions from good old google, I figured out how to disconnect the plumbing and electrical on the dishwasher and garbage disposal. We are going to reuse them both so I needed to keep decent notes on how they were hooked up.

The tearout on this wall was interesting, in that it no longer was plaster, instead the old paper fiber insulation (it is an exterior wall) was just pushed up against the cabinets.

I also had the joy of discovering loads of mouse poop and even an old mouse nest. Gross.

The other interesting discovery was that the drain from the washing machine fed into the sink drain. Therefore, until the sink is hooked back up we also CANNOT DO LAUNDRY! The electric conduit, water pipes and drains both ran along the wall, and the cabinets had to be notched to accomodate them. This will have to be true of the replacement set since we cannot run water lines inside a poorly insulated exterior wall.

I cut down sheets of water resistant drywall (the purple stuff) and basically just sealed up the wall. Nothing fancy. The pipes remained exposed.

I then finished the plaster work and repainted the entire kitchen.

To appreciate how much plaster work needed to be done, I shot this video of all the newly painted walls. Pretty much all of the walls are brand new:

Then, using painters tape I mapped out where all the cabinets were going to be placed. This was for 2 reasons.
1. To see exactly where exposed wall surfaces were going to show. I wanted to make sure the plaster was nice where it would be visable
2. To see how the cabinet layout would sit in the kitchen.

Sink and dishwasher

Corner cabinet with pull out shelves

Empty spot=range and microwave hood

Pantry cabinet and built in bookcases

Next step: Ripping out the peel and stick floor and then cabinet install!!

LabMom's Top 5 Painting Tips

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:50:00 +0000

In order to prep the money pit for sale I needed to do quite a bit of touch up to both the plaster and paint. At first I thought this was going to be a simple job, but now I am in the middle of painting hell.

We never repainted any rooms in the house when we moved in, we left the color the way it was and decorated around it. The previous owners left at least 2 dozen cans of paint in the basement, so I was sure it was going to be smooth sailing retouching up the patches.

I was wrong.

So if you are currently painting, will paint, or are planning on thinking about painting your house anytime in the future take my advice and do the following.

LabMom's Top 5 Painting Tips

1. Remove the switch plate covers.
Seriously folks.. it isn't not actually *THAT* much more work to unscrew a single screw on an outlet cover and paint under it than it is to try to paint right up to it. Plus nobody likes to look at paint on the switchplate covers. It is just DAMN ANNOYING, so don't be a lazy fool.

2. Just because you removed the switch plates, doesn't mean you should be a pig.
This is a caveat of rule number 1. Once the switch plate covers are removed, it is much easier to paint, but there is NO EXCUSE for painting the outlets or switches themselves. Yes, you want to paint with the least amount of work, but if you are sloppy it will show.

3. Label paint cans by room.
I really appreciate that you like the color tan.. and all 15 shades of it you used in this house. But it would have been really great if you would have written on the paint can "laundry room" or "downstairs bathroom" or ANYTHING that gives the person an idea of what exactly is in the can. It also makes it much easier to pick out the right can when you are down in the dark basement, since in case you didn't know it, humans don't have color memory.. by the time we have walked from the 3rd floor to the basement and back, I can't recall exactly which shade of green I needed.

4. Use a paint pourer on your paint cans (or at least clean up after yourself)
If you have never used one of these:
I suggest you go out and get one RIGHT NOW. Best $1.97 you will ever spend. If you haven't seen them before, they insert in your paint can rim and prevent paint from getting in the little groove where the lid sits. It also makes it really easy to pour the paint out of the can.
But the real thing that makes this the.best.painting.invention ever is the fact that if the rim of your paint can stays clean, it won't RUST! There is nothing more frustrating that giant flecks of rust in your paint. Plus dealing with a crumbling paint can is downright annoying. (Says the woman who discovered a whole in the bottom of a rusty paint can only after having it leak all over her hardwood floors, interior floorboards of her car, her good wool winter coat and the floor of the paint store.)

If you are too cheap to pony up the two bucks for the paint pourer, at least make sure you clean off the paint REALLY REALLY REALLY well before you re-hammer on the lid. Or else you (or others) are destined to regret it down the line.

5. Find a brand of paint you like and stick with it.
God only knows who exactly bought the dozens of cans of paint in the basement. Knowing this house has had dozens of owners, it is most likely a few cans came in with every new owner (lord knows I have added at least half a dozen cans of my own) but if you are purchasing paint for your own home, I really suggest you find a brand of paint you like and try to always use that brand. If you jump around from Valspar to Sherwin Williams to Behr to Benjamin Moore to Glidden, you will be making 10 different trips to all corners of town to buy replacement paint. The other problem is that using multiple brands of paint, makes matching colors later much much harder. You are suddenly selecting from an unlimited number of color chips instead of being limited within one brand.

Well, there you have it. LabMom's top 5 Tips. If the people who owned the Money Pit before me had only followed them, my life would have been a lot easier.

Do yourself (and anyone who may purchase you home down the line) a favor and follow them. Trust me.. I know what I'm talking about.

Faux Painted Countertops: $30 worth of AWESOME

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:08:00 +0000

Since I am in the midst of my kitchen makeover from hell, I have been surfing the interwebz looking at what other people have done on a shoestring budget.

Now to be fair, my new kitchen is going to be complete with solid surface, a.k.a. Quartz countertops, but if I hadn't budgeted the $3000 bucks for them, I am pretty sure I would have thought this was a pretty damn good alternative.

Pretty Handy Girl's guest blogger Kristi (aka Creative Kristi) actually repainted horrific blue laminate countertops so they looked like granite.

I SHIT YOU NOT! A pretty darn good look for a mere $30.
From this:

To this:

If you want more details she has a video tutorial here.

It looks really good in photographs, which would have been perfect since now our only goal is to have a kitchen that is photo-savvy enough to get interest on the MLS and sell this beast of a money pit. Is it perfect? No, but is it 100X worse than the $3000 ones? I am not so sure.

I am going to keep it in mind for the next house we end up in, since god only knows what kind of countertops I may end up with.

LabMom's future kitchen?

What do you get for the Chemist that has everything?

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:21:00 +0000

If you recall, I spent last summer blogging about Reality TV's "sexiest chemist" Rachael from Big Brother 12.

Well, it seems my snide cynicism about her and her showmance Brendon may have been out of line, since it appears their relationship has stood the test of time. In fact, not only are they are engaged, but they are fighting to win a prize package from Crate and Barrel.

My absolutely FAVORITE part of their "Love Story" as described on the contest site:

" It was a fate fostered by TV & our love for science."

I find myself choking as I type that. Uh, yeah, sure.

Maybe I am wrong, since it appears I was mistaken before when I questioned the romance, so only time will tell.

In the meantime I find myself deliberating over what exactly to get for them off their registry:
The 3$ milk chocolate chick (why would you register for that, and if you did, why would you only want one?)
Or maybe the $8 mustard. It seems that they registered for quite a bit a food actually.

Honestly, I think the most appropriate gift would be the $1700.00 TV console. I mean it is only fitting, since my relationship with them has been fostered completely over the airwaves, it seems appropriate that I contribute a place to house their TV, so they can enjoy watching re-runs of their antics as much as I did.

Anyone else wish to contribute? I'll be sure to include both our names on the card.. as soon as I receive my invite to their Vegas barge wedding in the mail.

The Money Pit Kitchen: Finishing the Demo

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:00:00 +0000

It is time! Time to remove the last of the cabinets. With the exception of the sink and the dishwasher (which we are keeping hooked up until the very.last.minute) everything has to go.
The remaining wall cabinets and the countertops.

But first things first. Where the paneling was pulled off the wall, there are huge chunks of plaster missing:

Some of the holes are too large for simple plaster patches.

They require drywall:

And I am getting really good at taping and plastering joints:

Skim coat, sand:

Repeat:

And look at that corner. Hand molded over a peice of half round pine trim:

Okay.. moving on. More tear out. We are saving the stove, but it had to come out in order to remove the paneling.

Unfortantely, the rest of the wall reveals more of the same:

And even more:

Patch, sand, repeat.. Oh you know the drill by now:

This is what we are left with. A tiny section of countertop and a sink. Plus a whole lot of plaster dust. (Oh, and in this picture the broken window still isn't installed yet. Nothing like having no window when it is 20 degrees and snowing!)

Hopefully the demo is the worst part of this remodel, since it is taking forever!

MORE Knock-off Girl Scout Cookies (Tagalongs)

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Our Girl Scout Cookie order arrived this week. The darling little neighbor girl toddled over and dropped off what I had requested a good month ago. Thin mints, and of course Samoas (you can tell I'm obsessed with those) but unfortunately for me, and LabDad, there were no Peanut Butter Patties, also known as Tagalongs, in my order.

The beloved Tagalong

I don't know what he was thinking, since I do KNOW they are LabDad's favorites, and I don't think they are half bad either.

So there is was.. 10 minutes after the cookie order arrives in the house, a sleeve of Thin Mints already down for the count and no Tagalongs to be had. Fortunately, I knew just where to turn. Once again, Nicole at Baking Bites was able to hook me up with a homemade recipe and so of course I had to give it a shot.

I did modify the recipe a little bit (since the cookie itself is in fact the same as the Samoa base I used before and I knew it was too moist when I prepared it last time. My recipe was:

1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk

Mix, roll and cut (although next time I would make them smaller and thicker for a better cookie to peanut butter ratio)

While still piping hot out of the oven. I dented them with the back of a serving spoon (again they were too wide and flat to do this well) Many of them cracked when I smooshed the spoon in, but they were still so soft and hot that I could easily push the crack together and they solidified just fine.

After allowing them to cool a good while, I mixed up the peanut butter filling, again with a small modification to the original recipe.

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
generous pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

This turned out to be way too much filling. I would only use 1 cup of peanut butter if I was going to do this again. I used a zip top bag with the corner cut of to add a dollop of the mixture to each cookie. Now, if the cookies were smaller in diameter and had a deeper well I think this would have gone better. Instead they sorta looked like a blob of {edited since we are going to eat these things} on top of a cookie.

I then set up my make shift double boiler (a pyrex bowl on a 4 quart pot) and melted down an entire bag of Hershey's Kisses. (This was because clearance Valentine's day milk chocolate candy was way cheaper than milk chocolate chips)

There aren't any pictures of the actual dipping stage because there was no way I could deal with scortched chocolate coated fingertips and my camera at the same time.

To cover up the fact these were lumpy little cookies (and the fact that I didn't have enough chocolate to cover all of them), I thought I would accent them with dark chocolate drizzle. I microwaved dark chocolate chips in a zip top bag. I stood the bag up in the microwave inside a beer glass so that the chocolate would all stay down in one corner.

My tip for this step is cut the TEENIEST hole in the bag that you can. That chocolate runs out of there fast and a thinner, finer stream is much easier to work with.

I allowed these to harden for a few hours and here is what we ended up with:

They aren't really impressive until you cut those babies open:

OH YUM! I ended up once again with 3 dozen.

The cost breakdown for these came out to:
Clearance bag of Hershey's Kisses: ($.49)
Extra chocolate chips, half a bag ($.99)
Peanut Butter, half a jar ($.75)
Butter: ($1.25)
Flour/Sugar/Baking Powder/Milk/Vanilla/Salt: (~$3.50)

Total:$6.98

The Girl Scouts are selling them for $4 a dozen (I was wrong in my last post, this year the sales price in my area is $4/dozen), or $12.

Not bad, I came out $5 ahead.

Fun Stuff: Knock-off Girl Scout Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:57:00 +0000

Mmmmm.. Samoas (aka Carmel DeLites) Girl Scout Cookies! If you haven't had them (and a lot of you coconut haters out there probably haven't) let me describe them to you. Chewy caramel coconut goodness smeared on a delicate cripsy shortbread cookie which has been layered in chocolate and then the whole sha-bang is drizzled with additional chocolate.

How can you not resist?

I saw this post on Blog-her by Caitlin of A Bicycle Built for Two about how to make a homemade verstion of the Samoa Girl Scout Cookies and was inspired to give it a shot.

Now this isn't to say I have heard that this recipe may end in disaster, but I was really craving the caramel coconut chocolate delight. (I also was thrilled with the idea that I could save a couple bucks by not having to shell out big bucks for the original cookies from those little Girl Scout extortionists.. but that didn't really work out. More on that later.)

It turns out Caitlin got the recipe from Mari at Once Upon A Plate who got the original recipe from Nicole at Baking Bites (fantastic cooking website by the way.) Between those folks who had gone before I figured I had all the tips I needed to make sure they turned out great.

Eh. Sort of.

I did end up with FANTASTIC cookies:

And Caitlin's pictures of the process are pretty much what my endeavor looked like, but I do have a couple of tips to add if you are going to try these yourself:

Toast the coconut first. Then, if you melt the caramels while the cookies are baking, you can go ahead and add the coconut right away. Because i needed to use the same cookie sheets to toast the coconut, I had to take a long break between after the cookies came out of the oven and when the coconut was ready to mix into the caramel. By then the caramel had re-solidified. If you toast the coconut first, you can melt the caramel and mix in the coconut while the cookies bake. By the time the last batch of cookies is done baking, the first batch is cool enough to start spreading the coconut/caramel mix.
Give up the dream about them being donut shaped. Making the hole in the center was a giant pain in the ass. You couldn't spread the coconut mix around it and it just wanted to fill in with chocolate. I ended up just making them round. More cookie for your money!
Keep your caramel/coconut mix warm. If you don't keep it warm (I just kept reheating it in the microwave for 30 seconds) it will start to solidify and you will end up breaking the cookies as you try to spread it on.
Hold back some of the chocolate chips. When you go to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies at then end, don't melt all the chocolate and add it (already melted) to a piping bag. Instead melt only half the chips to dip the bottom of the cookies and put the remainder of the chips in a ziplock bag and microwave THAT. Then cut a tiny corner off the bag and use it to pipe the chocolate. SO MUCH LESS OF A MESS. I also was able to use milk chocolate on the bottom of the cookie (which I prefer the taste of) and dark chocolate on the top (so the contrast against the color of the caramel was better.)

Needless to say, they came out pretty well.

And to put it in perspective, I ended up making 3 dozen cookies. I needed to buy chocolate chips ($1.99), caramels ($2.39) and coconut ($1.89.) The rest of the supplies I already had in the pantry (Butter: $1.25, Flour/Sugar/Baking Powder/Milk/Vanilla/Salt: ~$3). So it cost me about $10.25 all in.

The Girl Scouts are selling them for $3.50 a dozen, or $10.50.

Uh, yeah. I saved 25 cents and have about a weeks worth of dirty dishes to deal with. I think I better go eat a cookie.

The Money Pit: Coming into the light

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Tonight I saw this post by Pretty Handy Girl and was inspired to show you a little side project I worked on a while ago.

Although most of our living spaces have been updated with contemporary light fixtures, our laundry room and back hallway still had some awful lights.

Not only were they a strange copper color, but they also were undersized for the room.

A simple $15 flush mount fixture (twice as many bulbs for twice as much light) and the room has a more contemporary feel.

I actually replaced 3 fixtures, and so I needed to buy a contractors pack of lights (two in a box.)

Now I understand that the majority of do-it-yourselfers are men, but seriously I don't think you need to put THIS on the box in order to grab their attention:

How can you NOT see BOOBIES in this picture?

I guess all I can say is now the room seems much more... uhhh.. PERKY!

How to Boil an Egg: You have been doing it all wrong!

noreply@blogger.com (LabMom) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:42:00 +0000

Remember the good old days? When preparing a hard boiled egg was a tedious process:

Step 1: Drop Egg into Boiling Water
Step 2: Peel and Eat

It is so refreshing to know that modern science is making that process so much easier!

In my last post I talked about EZ Cracker. I was convinced that was the stupidest, most useless device ever.

I was wrong.

During my late night TV watching I was introduced to the EGGIE. Believe it or, it is even stupider. Basically it is a plastic container shaped like an egg shell used to hard boil an egg. (I don't know what was wrong with the egg's own shell.. but clearly it must be somehow inferior.)

Instead of peeling your hard boiled egg, you can throw away that defective shell nature incorrectly designed BEFORE you boil it, and can spend all that time you saved washing your Eggies.

How helpful! It ranks right up there with the Inside-The-Shell Electric Egg Scrambler, since we all know how much work it is to scramble an egg once it is outside of that damn shell.

So now, thanks to the good people at As Seen on TV, the "easy" way to make a hard boiled egg is:

Step 1: Use the Inside-The-Egg-Scrambler to scramble an egg.
$14.99 (plus $9.95 S/H)
Step 2: Use the EZ Cracker to open previously scrambled egg
$9.95 (plus $6.95 S/H)
Step 3: Pour pre-scrambled egg into Eggie and boil
$10 (plus $15.98 S/H)
Step 4: Peel out of Eggie and Eat
Step 5: Clean your Scrambler, Cracker and Eggie

How much will this easy process set you back?
$67.82 plus cost of egg.

Ahhh! Yes. Totally worth it.

Image courtesy of howtoboilanegg.wordpress.com (where you can find instructions on how to boil and even poach an egg.. No fancy gadgets required)