Laying the Foundation, In Which Preschool Lessons Woulda' Come in Handy... oh and quinoa chili

Food Mood: optimistic and adventurous

Reno Ridiculouso: Early Warning Bells, Hubby to the rescue!

One early June day I come home to the Hubby, Bull Talker Contractor and two young guys who remain unnamed for the duration of their stay (short, let me tell ya) down in a pit in our backyard laying the cement block necessary for our dining room foundation.  The rather large hole had been satisfactorily dug the week before, as previously mentioned.

I’ve had a pretty good day, things were going well at work, the sun was shining and I’d had a lovely walk at lunch.  So I wander in my happy haze back the driveway between the two houses to see how things are going.  And find The Hubby, who clearly indicated that he was going to let Bull Talker Contractor do the job and stay out of the way, in the pit, in his good jeans, covered in mortar, earnestly and intensely explaining something to THE UNNAMED YOUNG MEN.  They are literally covered in mortar, my garden hose and wheelbarrow are fully encrusted as are all of our tools (wait, our tools!) and most of our back parking area.  What the heck happened here, did the mortar mixer blow up??!   I attempt to engage everyone in conversation, a la “Hey guys, how’s it going?” and I get the most strained of answers.  UNNAMED YOUNG MEN hang their heads, the Hubby gives me a tight smile and Bull Talker doesn’t even acknowledge my existence.  Okey Dokey.  Think I’ll take my cheery self back to the studio kitchen then.

I had preplanned a somewhat ambitious meal the night before so entered my house to the smells of a gorgeous, quinoay, chilly like concoction.  As the Hubby showed no signs of slowing or communicating, Little Girl and I sat down to a quick meal of chili before heading out to her soccer game, which I coach.  

Late that night, post soccer game and bath time, post dishes done in the backyard roughing it kitchen and with beer in hand, I hear the story.  

It seems that Bull Talker made a brief appearance this am and gave THE UNNAMED YOUNG MEN cursory instruction on how to lay block, said hi to the Hubby who was going to work and then said he’d be back soon.  Hubby assumed that that was true in the sense of “soon” meaning “before the Hubby returns from work at 4pm”, not “soon” like “5pmish”.  In the meanwhile, the Hubby returned home to find the UYM laying block stacked one on top of each other (not offset) and spreading the mortar WITH THEIR HANDS as Bull Talker had provided no tools.  Oh, and they broke the cement mixer so were desperately trying to mix by hand using all of OUR tools and my gardening stuff that I’d made the serious mistake of leaving lying around.  You’ll notice the sheer number of capitalizations in the past paragraph.

I SIMPLY DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE TO EXPRESS MY CONFUSION AND DISMAY AT THIS DAY OTHER THAN THESE CAPITALS!!!!!  Sorry.  I feel better now.

First of all, I’m no construction genius, but I think that anyone who has played with lego at all has realized that offset block construction creates a stronger structure!!!! I mean, do you remember the first time that you just stacked all your blocks straight on top of each other and then realized that nothing could be built this way?  And then some older and infinitely wiser four year old clued you into the system?  Remember?  Right.  Well clearly the UNNAMED YOUNG MEN missed that day of preschool. 

Anyhooo (deep breaths, serenity now) this insane lack of skill immediately broke The Hubby’s rule about not getting involved in the construction and before you could say “unskilled trademen doing dangerous structural things”, he was in the pit and up to his eyes in mortar.  In his best jeans, ‘cause that’s how he rolls!   To his credit he seemed pretty patient with the unskilled labour.  But apparently far less patient with Bull Talker Contrator with whom we had a signed contractor guaranteeing three skilled labourers for the entire project.  In his absence, I count…. Oh, right, none.  None skilled labourers.  

Bull Talker and Hubby had the first of many show downs and the next day he was onsite laying block by himself, having apparently fired the two hapless UYM.  

Well, at least after this day the Hubby had this slightly ambitious vegetarian goodness to scarf down before quaffing his beer, washing off the mortar and falling into bed.  Another day in paradise.

Quinoay Vegetarian Chili

A can of black beans rinsed

A can of diced tomatoes

About ¼ cup of quinoa uncooked, more if ya wanna up the protein, like if you’re a body builder or somethin’

2 cups of water

1 big sweet potato, peeled and diced

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ tablespoon adobe chili powder

2 teaspoons cumin

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Cook that for my ever-so-precise usual 8 hours.  Then eat it with some nacho chips.   You can also top it with sour cream and green onions if you’d like and are fancy enough to have them.

NOTE: There are no pictures from this day, because GDit it was not a day for pics!