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Casserole Remorse

Two casseroles

The prep time on this casserole recipe from Cooking Light may not have taken into account my lack of a lackey to be my Sous chef. That 50 minutes ended up being closer to an hour and a half — plus, I got interrupted once by my son. That was my entire stretch of “me time” that I get after my son goes to bed, and I’m not entirely sure it was worth the effort.

I may appreciate this as Time Well Spent come tomorrow, when I stick one of these in the oven for 25 minutes and poof! dinner is ready. Or in another couple of weeks, when I make the casserole I’m about to freeze.

Honestly, though, unless this is The Best Damn Casserole I’ve Ever Had, I’m unlikely to go to the trouble again.

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Kodak S100 EF Test Roll

Kodak S100 EFI picked up this late ’80s – early ‘90s fixed focus point-and-shoot at Goodwill for a few bucks late last summer. Since discovering that my son’s generic blue 35mm camera actually takes pretty cool and hipstery pictures, I decided to take a chance on romance and start picking up some more point-and-shoot and “trashcam” models.

TL;DR: This point-and-shoot takes pretty decent photos overall. Pretty sharp focus at midrange, some vignetting in certain situations. Feels comfortable to use. I kinda like it. I might experiment with the apertures a bit in the future.

Kodak S100 EF

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A New Chapter Begins

“So, how are you this morning?”

I paused. “Excited,” I answered.

We were sitting across from each other at a small table, in the very same room where my son had been screened for early kindergarten admittance exactly one year before. This time, though, I was submitting Connor’s kindergarten registration forms.

The table where Connor had sat during his screening was now filled with stacks of paperwork. I recognized pieces of the registration packet I’d filled out, yanked from their staples and stacked in piles topped with the names of the district’s elementary schools.

How analog, I thought. Someone has to go through all these papers later and enter the information into the school’s database.

The woman asked for Connor’s registration packet, medical information, proof of residency (i.e. utility bill), birth certificate, and my photo ID, checking off each on a half-sheet checklist — and we were done.

She gave me a checksheet of all the school supplies Connor will need for kindergarten, with important dates on the reverse. I asked the few questions I had (when can I sign Connor up for Latchkey, and when will I know his bus schedule), got my answers (for Latchkey, ask the Latchkey people; for the bus, at the Open House in August), and I was on my way.

I get the impression that a lot of this school stuff will be us flying by the seat of our pants and trying to be as proactive and involved as possible. It’s only March — we have five months until school starts — but it’s a totally new thing for all of us, and we want to be as prepared as we can. We like our routines, and this is going to be the biggest upheaval in our routine since Connor starting daycare back in the day.

It’s exciting.