Nom Nom Nom

Proof that yummy food doesn't have to be pricey. Since I was short on foodstuffs here at work, I stopped by the local supermarket to pick up a few items and got fixings to make this tasty aloo matar (आलू मतर). I used curry paste, which makes the prep work much faster - always a good thing at work - and I left the potato skins on, which is my usual personal preference.

Speaking of Indian food, we went to our local Indian restaurant for dinner Friday night. It was the first time we'd been there since they remodeled and put in the dining room. Before, it was takeout only, but now it's a hopping place, which was very good to see. Raj, the chef, is a very sweet guy, and it's good to see him doing well. It was also good to see him and learn that his family in Mumbai are safe.

Progress on the Japanese sweater has slowed a bit, as I've been a little distracted by a new toy from the folks at Google. SketchUp is a 3D modeling program that's both way cool and a major time suck (Thanks, Leela! I think). I've been using it to try to create mock-ups of what I'd like the interior of our house to look like someday. This is my WIP for the upstairs:

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If I had the $495 to shell out for the pro version I could make an animation of the model, but times being what they are, you're just going to have to settle for 2D. The big long-term goal is going to be to open up the floor plan so that we can really optimize our usage of the space we have. Right now the flow is very poor, but by moving a few walls around - and removing a few outright - we should be able to have a huge impact on the feel of the house. And since it's timberframe construction, none of the interior walls are load-bearing, which will make moving them a cinch. Relatively speaking, anyway.

In the meantime, we've got a little bit of a dispute on our hands over some replacement sashes we ordered from a local building supply store for David's office. We were looking for and expected clad exterior with wood interior and tried to make that clear. What we got was described as "stainable interior" but turned out to be vinyl with cheap wood-print veneer.

The window sales guy is trying to convince us that it's a great choice, since it was his fuck-up to begin with (We think he didn't do his homework and didn't realize that it was veneer.) and he doesn't want to get stuck eating the cost of custom sashes. We don't have any intention, however, of settling for something we didn't want, especially when it's liable to get dinged up and look like shit within a few years. So e-mails have been sent, and we're waiting to see if he's willing to make it right or if we're going to have to push harder.

And if it comes down to it, it really won't take much to put me in a fighting mood.