Demolist the old house, demo permit checklist in Newton, MA

You will need to obtain a demo permit from your city hall before you can demolist your house. The checklist are:

1. If you house is older than 50 years old, you will need to go through historical review of your property. If your property is determined to be historical significant, then the historical committee can impose one year delay on your house. Bottom line is that the city can only delay the demo, but they can't stop you demo'ing it forever.

2. You need to send a letter, certified mail with return slip, to all the adjoinning neighbors, notifying them your intention to demo the house and the builder info.

3. You need to perform pest testing (hire professional) -- making sure when your house is demo'ed, the mice (or any pest) don't spread to your neighbors

4. You need to perform (hire professional) Asbestos testing

5. You need to disconnect electricity -- if the electricty comes in your house over the telephone pole, then the disconnect is easy. The electricity company just sends someone over and cut the wire. You need to obtain the disconnect notice from the electricity company (NStar)

6. You need to disconnect Gas -- this is more complicated than electricity.
a. You first call the gas company, they will schedule a few days later and send someone to come to your house to remove the meter, and gas is shut off into your house.
b. After the meter is removed, they will direct you to one responsible person for your area to create a work request to cut off the gas in the street. For our case, it is David Bregoli. It took us a few days to get in touch of him, you could only get to his voice mail, and there is no guarantee he would call back you shortly.
c. You will need to fill in a request form, they will create a work request.
d. The next 2 days after the work request was created, we saw the marks on the ground around the property. (some dig safe is involved)
e. It takes 30-45 days for the crew to come to dig and cut off
f. After the crew cut the street, you need to get a disconnect notice from National Grid.

7. You need to disconnect water and sewer. This is similar to gas disconnect.
a. You first call the city hall, they will schedule a few days later and send someone to remove the water meter
b. After that, you need to cut and cap water and sewer outside your house, and this needs to be vitnessed by city engineer.
         i. Submit a permit to cut and cap water and sewer
         ii. You will be asked to purchase some bond (insurance like stuffs to promise you will fix any sidewalk that may be damaged)
         iii. After you get the permit, you will need to make appointment with city engineer to come and exam the cut and cap
         iv. After the city engineer examined the cut and cap, you can fill the hole back, but leave a long pole to mark the water and cap location. (green for water, blue for sewer)

With all the information above, you can obtain the demo permit same day at city hall -- over the counter review.

Demolished the old house... starting my journey of building my dream house...

Fried Broad Beans / Fava Beans

I don't know what this is called in English, by searching the web, I found some people call this "Fava Beans", some call this "Broad Bean". Whatever it is called, Chinese is "蚕豆", as we all know :)

Some people like to fry with skins, I just don't like that way.

1. Soaked half pound of Fava Beans in water overnight

2. Peel off skins
3. Boil about 1.5 minutes in boiling water (be careful not to over cooked, otherwise too soft and smashed)
4. pick up and let cool
5. cool pan, put oil and cooked beans into the pan, make sure oil over beans
6. turn on fire, let it fry :) until you hear "pi li pa la" :)
7. A little stirring, until you can feel the beans are hard, crisp sound with collision
8. oil filter, on the plate, let cool and sprinkle salt

DIY: IR5 Immigration Visa for Parents

05/13/2010: 移民申请正式开始. 发出I-130申请.


05/21/2010: 收到I-797, 所谓的NOA1, 优先期为5/13(IR5不用排期, 所以这日子不重要)

(其间国内办好所有需要公证, 美国这边准备好税单,雇主信等)

10/27/2010: 漫长的5个月等待, I-130批准, 再收到I-797, 就是所谓的NOA2

11/02/2010: 案件到达NVC

10/25/2010: 打电话查到GUZ号码, 并告知NVC申请人,收益人的email

(其间扫描所有材料)

11/03/2010: 收到NVC的email, 有3032(地址确认信), 收据号

11/03/2010: 马上OPTIN申请电子化, 3032发到NVCElectronic

11/03/2010: 马上登陆收费站, 付88刀

11/12/2010: 404刀一直not invoiced, 打电话给NVC问为什么, 被告知NVCInquiry在等3032

11/12/2010: 马上发3032到NVCInquiry

11/13/2010: 交404刀

11/16/2010: 404显示PAID

11/20/2010: 收到NVC发来的P3 email

11/22/2010: 用GUZ登陆不了收费站

11/26/2010: 等超过三天了, 打电话问到GZO号, 下午也收到GZO号的email.

11/26/2010:发出经济担保＋DS230所有材料

12/10/2010: Case Complete, 等面试通知(P4)

12/19/2010: 收到面试通知(P4), 面试日期1/20

1/20交材料: 收材料的不是VO, 是讲广东话的中方工作人员. 我父亲75岁, 高血压, 老人痴呆, 担心交材料等待时间长, 所以坐轮椅出席. 收材料的时候, 那个女的, 说话阴声细气的工作人员真TMD的讨厌, 充满歧视.


她说(指着我父亲):他这么老了还去美国干什么?

我妈:要和女儿团聚啊.

她再说:你在国内没其他孩子了吗?

我妈: 有啊, 但是还是想和女儿团聚.

她又说(开始有点鄙视): 谁照顾他啊?

我妈: 我可以照顾他

她接着说: 你们有副担保吗?

我妈: 没有, 女儿说不需要.

她还不死心(TBD她不就是个收材料嘛):他这样子批了都坐不了飞机去美国啊

我妈(脾气够好的了): 女儿打算买商务舱机飘.

她还说(我听到这都要出离愤怒了): 他看上去比你年纪大很多啊

我妈: 是的. (TMD要我在的话就把她揪出来, 告她侵犯私隐, 再告她歧视)



1/21面签

因为是老人, 所以被加急处理, 第二个被叫号的(第一个被叫的是个男的带着两个小小孩). VO是个人38,39岁的男白人.

问: 谁申请你们去

我妈: 女儿

问: 女儿干什么的?

我妈: (她不会说, 就递我的business card)

(VO把材料一页一页的翻, 每翻一页好象就签个什么记号)

问: 有照片吗?

我妈: 有(递进去)

(VO翻到体检结果的时候, 显然不太明白还是有点犹疑, 就叫了个翻译, 这个翻译工作人员比昨天收材料的好多了, 和VO小声说了一些话)

翻译: 这位阿爸身体状况到底怎么样

我妈: 他年纪大了, 有点迟钝, 脑动脉硬化

翻译: 就是老人痴呆了?

我妈: 是的

(翻译和VO有商量了一下)

翻译: 你怎么保证你女儿会照顾他?

我妈: 女儿会尽孝的.



(翻译又和VO商量, VO再叫上另一个VO又讨论了一下, 然后低头狂注释些什么. 最后抽出粉红单. 我一直和我妈说红单是通过, 其实是粉红单, 所以我妈不知道那就是通过. 那个善良的翻译轻轻的告诉我妈: 恭喜你, 他(VO)批准你们的签证了)

VO: 你们通过了.

我妈: Thank you!



(大家高高兴兴地结束了面试)



我家公公也同一日签, 但不同号. 我先生担保公公婆婆(可惜婆婆要验痰, 面签要改期, 不能一起签), 我担保我父母, 可能是这原因, 所以算分开的案例.



小结: 红单关键无非是--材料齐全, 前后一致, 关系真实, 担保充足.

Fried Chicken Wings

Fried Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1. In a small bowl, combine milk and mustard with a whisk

2. In a mixing bowl, stir together salt, papper, garlic powder and flour

3. Wrap chicken wings in a paper towel and squeeze out the extra water.

4. Dip each piece of the chicken into the milk mixture. Roll chicken in the flour mixture until covered

5. Fry chicken in hot oil until golden brown

Simplest wool neck warmer

Everyone can make: size 10 circular needle, K4, P4 until desired length. It is that simple :)

Knit a simple bag

Started with knitting a sweater for my daughter, apparently it took longer, much longer than I thought :) So seeing the right height, descreased with K2T and SSK, then close with Kitchener Closure.

Dangle Hoop Earrings

Chinese steamed rice noodle rolls (Cheung Fun) Dim Sum

1. Use Rice Flour:Singharanut (Waterchestnut) starch:Corn starch = 5:1:1 (粘米粉:菱粉:玉米粉), add water to watery texture. 

2. brush oil on container surface; Add one scoop of #1 to cover surface of container

3. Steam for 3 minutes

4. Roll it up and place to plate

5. Repeat #2, #3, #4

How to eat tortillas, in a Chinese way

Got a stop & shop coupon for tortillas for free! Never eat this before, I think it is Mexican food. It does look like Chinese pancake though... I googled "how to make tortillas", it is not any rocket science, it is made from flour :) geez... let me fry it in chinese way: heat pan, add oil, lay a piece of tortillas, sprinkle salt, until golden brown, flip, repeat.

The 3 weeks long vacation is over

Kids summer camp ended on 8/13. School starts tomorrow. So I spent the luxury relaxing vacation with them -- 3 weeks! We had a lot of FUN! Everyday is full of activities.

Projects...

Food...

Field trips

From tomorrow, all halted routines will resume. Everyone is back to school or back to work. Wishing a productive last quarter of the year!

Teacher's Appreciation

My daughter loves making necklace at school with all those fancy beads. Today she brought home a necklace she made.. I offered to do a project with her to make a pair of earrings for her teachers with the cute alphabet beads. This is what we made. She is very excited today to take this to school to her teacher.

Saute French Bread

My son can eat the whole plate... crunch outside, soft inside...

Never-fail Potato Latkes

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes
2 tablespoon flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

1) Peel and rinse the potatoes. Grate them into a bowl
2) Add the flour, eggs, salt to the mixture. Mix well.
3) Heat the oil in a frying pan at medium heat until it sizzles
4) Drop in heaping tablespoons of the potato mixture
5) Using the back of a spoon, flatten the latkes. Carefully fry both sides until they're golden brown.

Homemade crunchy french fries

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie

What you need:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

6 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp brown suger

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/8 cups AP flours

1 egg

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chip

1 tsp vallina extract

Learnt from the following great video.


Maomao Mom's Chiffon Cake @ Yahoo! Video

And mine is here:

Party Food

hot summer, cool popsicle

Suddenly feel missing the ice pop in old days... at a pulse, went to Michaels to buy the popsicle molds (found in the dollar section, a dollor each)

3/4 cup mung bead

1 fistful of rice

7 cups water

low pressure for 40 minutes

Handmade Blue Chandelier Earrings