Cat Blogging

 

Mine all Mine! Meeeoowww!

Yay!!!

I wraappppt my presents! I got it dooonnneeee!!!!

Oh, and its December 21! We're all still here! And, its BROSKEYS BIRTHAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY  BROSKEY!!!!!

Green Christmas

I was all set to wrap gifts tonight but then I came home after work and there was an electric throw blanket waiting for me! I had to walk the dog and run some errands but then I really had no choice but to change into my PJs and try out my new toy. Pity that.

I will absolutely get those gifts wrapped or Christmas morning I'll be Santa and just hand out everyone's gifts! So much more festive! and much less waste!


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Yay Christmas carols!

Hey, what are the lyrics to Jingle Bells in Hungarian?

Rohant a hóban
Az egy ló nyitott szán
Járdal a mezők megyünk
Nevetve végig
Csengőkkel bob farok gyűrű
Making szellemek fényes
Milyen jó, hogy nevetni és énekelni
A szánkózás dal ma este

Ó, Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy ló nyitott szán
Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy ló nyitott szán

Egy-két nap ezelőtt
Gondoltam tegyen egy kört
És hamarosan Miss Fanny Bright
Ült mellettem
A ló volt, sovány és karcsú
Balsors látszott a sok
Kaptunk egy sodródott bank
És akkor mi van upsot

Ó, Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy ló nyitott szán
Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy lovas szánkózás, igen nyitott

Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy ló nyitott szán
Jingle Bells, a Jingle Bells
Jingle egészen
Ó, milyen jó is vezetni
Az egy ló nyitott szán

Should also add to list

"Discover boxes the wrong size"
"scour house for smaller boxes"
"thank God"
"remember to return grossly over sized boxes"
" remind self that the household has many, many tape dispensers, do not buy more tape"
"be unable to find any tape dispensers"
"buy more tape"
"investigate gift bag options"
"go to Itunes"
"obessivly listen to single Gotye song"
"wallow in rage"
"decide world needs more cornbread"
"make more cornbread"
"go two for three with cornbread"
"unsuccessfully search through card collection to find card for non-Christmas celebrating card needers"
"hope that non-Christmas celebrating folks refrain from sending card"
"get card from non-Christmas celebrating folks"
"decide computer needs to move upstairs"
"drop computer desk down the stairs"
"be thrilled that desk is now in two pieces, thus easier to get upstairs"


Have done list
Cookies made
Cookies bagged
Doggy Santa picture
Doggy Santa Card
Diana Christmas card
Marquette Christmas Card
boxes bought
label's updated and in pipeline
gifts bought


To Do List
search for other Christmas CDs for work
display received cards
put boxes together
fill boxes
label boxes
remember to insert cards
remember to insert ingredient slips into dog cards
Remember to mail Marquette cards to Marquette
mail boxes
bring cookies to work
bring cards to work
buy stamps
mail cards
review gifts
wrap gifts


Tured all ready

Fun WIth Latin

What does this does this translate to? Hint, is the North Carolina state motto!

verberationes continuabunt dum animus melior fit

Which Christmas anthem is this? Its easy!

Primo die Natalis amator dedit mi
perdicem in piro.

S'cunda die Natalis amator dedit me
d'os turtures et perdicem in piro.

Tertia die Natalis amator dedit mi
tres gallinas, d'os turtures et perdicem
in piro.

Quarta die Natalis amator dedit mi
quattuor aves, tres gallinas, d'os
turtures et perdicem in piro.

Quinta die Natalis amator dedit mi
quinque anulos, quattuor aves, tres
gallinas, d'os turtures et perdicem in
piro.

Sexta die Natalis amator dedit mi
sex anseres, quinque anulos, quattuor
aves, tres gallinas, d'os turtures et
perdicem in piro.

Sept'ma die Natalis amator dedit mi
septem cygnos nantes, sex anseres,
quinque anulos, quattuor aves, tres
gallinas d'os turtures et perdicem in
piro.

Octava die Natalis amator dedit mi
octo quae mulgent, septem cygnos
nantes, sex anseres, quinque anulos,
quattuor aves, tres gallinas, d'os
turtures et perdicem in piro.

Nona die Natalis amator dedit mi
novem salt'trices, octo quae mulgent,
septem cygnos nantes, sex anseres,
quinque anulos, quattuor aves, tres
gallinas, d'os turtures et perdicem in
piro.

Dec'ma die Natalis amator dedit mi
decem salt'tores, novem salt'trices, octo
quae mulgent, septem cygnos nantes,
sex anseres, quinque anulos, quattuor
aves, tres gallinas, d'os turtures et
perdicem in piro.

Undec'ma die Natalis amator dedit me
undecim tibic'nes, decem salt'tores,
novem salt'trices, octo quae mulgent,
septem cygnos nantes, sex anseres,
quinque anulos, quattuor aves, tres
gallinas, d'os turtures et perdicem in
piro.

Duodec'ma die Natalis amator dedit mi
d'odecim qui pulsant, undecim
tibic'nes, decem salt'tores, novem
salt'trices, octo quae mulgent, septem
cygnos nantes, sex anseres, quinque
anulos, quattuor aves, tres gallinas, d'os
turtures et perdicem in piro.

Because I can.

Visions of sugarbones...

Christmas Kitty

Santa's work

Okay, instead of writing an entry I  did actual work. I still have work to do so prepare yourself your a seasonal slow down.

What I did instead of writing an entry: I took  twelve varieties of cookies, some twenty four hundred of them...

And counted them out dozen by dozen by dozen and went around and around the table and bagged them up. This took a long time.

All of those went into fifteen snowman bags with three bags left over with varying numbers of cookies for extra folks that didn't make the list this year. Ten of these bad boys get mailed and the rest I will hand deliver. The next big job is going to be getting everything boxed up and labled and shipped and then we move on to Christmas cards! Both mine and Rockets! Wheeee!

Yeah, about today...

Well. Um. I got a lot done but I didn't get my entry written. Oops.

Friday Cat Blogging

Adventures in baking: Food meant for human consumption

Instead of getting anything really useful done, i.e make more dog treats, think seriously about getting started on my Christmas cards, doing a gift census : what I have, what I need what I bought too much of, I decided to take pity on these poor, lonely, long frozen blueberries I rescued from my freezer. They were really sad and I felt bad for them.

In the spirit of that sacrifice and in the interest of helping these poor berries at long last live their destiny, I made a blueberry crumble. I had no idea that there was a use for rolled instant oats beyond that of a dog treat ingredient. But shockingly, the instant rolled oats industry does not just stay in business for the one time a year I buy their product. Who knew? Right?

But Thank God for those once a year dog cookies because without them I wouldn't have had the ingredients handy to whip up the crumble but still, color me impressed with the multiple uses of instant rolled oats.

Unbelievably good. And right out of the oven?  Its just too much.

Oh and today in Pearl Harbor Day. The day that did absolutly change eveything for everyone forever.  For real, no kidding.

Project Santa Barf

Mission Accomplished!

Flower Power

I had every intention of getting at the very least my fireplace mantel decorated this evening. I had every intention of getting it done. I need to get it taken care of ASAP or I won't do it at all. I all ready decided that the Santa's are not going to wake up from their long winter nap this year either and now the really pretty, really fairly easy mantel might not get done either.

Why?

The seed catalogues have landed. One yesterday, two today.

 

 

Its really hard to get my Christmas on when 1) its 65 degrees and 2) Spring 2013 Home Garden Catalog!

 

Normally these things don't arrive until January, when I have hours to spend perusing the hot new tomatoe varieties and deciding what kind of  exotic flowers I think I can keep alive will kill through the summer, this year with only one catalogue featuring flowers, the contenders are :

 

Easter Egg Plant

 

They aren't edible and they only available in seed form, not my favorite because I don't have great luck with growing from seed. I'm a plant girl. However, how cool does the plant look?

 

 

Green Wizard

 

Again available in seeds only. I'm also definitely going to go with sunflowers. Lots and lots of sunflowers, hopefully really big varieties. I think they would love life next to the house and be pretty and feed the birds. I also see them in with the watermelon bed and along the back fence. Speaking of watermelons, the watermelons are going to be  oblong this year for a change of pace. There will also be no peas. The peas didn't produce like I would have expected and when they did produce, it was too little for too much effort, not a way to earn a repeat engagement in my garden.

 

Time has past and while I have spent a lot of time with my catalogues, and have my garden half in the ground my mantel is still undecorated. Pri-orities.



Jumping bean

Rocket and I have reached a new stage of our relationship : The pinch collar stage.

I had been very proud of the tow of us - strutting around just using his collar or harness and looking all "well behaved" and "under control". This was all well and good while he was wee but he isn't as wee as he was and all of a sudden he's a lot stronger than he used to be.

He will never be the tank that Daisy was but he's well on his way to being at the very least a very heavy bicycle and I really think anyone wants a bike grabbing them by the shoulders and checking out their fillings.  Its frankly embarrassing when you are at the other side of the leash and your "bike" is getting up close and personal with passersby and there isn't anything you can do buy yank on the leash and watch nothing happen.

Enter pinch collar.It makes things happen. The puppy school guy just had a wave of disappointment wash over him, he does not  approve of pinch collars, hes a good trainer but his dog is short and has little arms, he can't know the heart break of pulling your dog off someones head. He can disapprove all he wants, I do not approve of my dog getting caught in  ladies shawls (happened, not our best moment). Its a thing.

The final straw was during our walk Monday night. He was pulling, pulling, pulling and we went on a long walk, this usually helps to defuse a lot of that behavior but it didn't work this time. We're about eight blocks from home and we're burning daylight. We pass a townhouse with three generations hanging out on the porch. Rocket launches himself at a guy trying to get past us and I yank him back. He goes airborne and the crowd reacted like they were watching an air show gone bad.

I came home, fed him and did some body work on Daisy's' old collar. He can still reach for the stars but hes not going to be able to jump on them.

Angel

He jumps on people, counter surfs, yanks on his leash and harasses the cat. Best puppy ever.

Tree IV

Treating myself.

Puppy's newest trick to bark!bark!bark! whenever I am not in the same room as he is. I do not believe he does this when I am not at home. Puppies are such fun. I have no memory of Daisy doing this, she seemed very happy to be on her own. Weims are called he "Velcro breed" and this must be a breed trait. He doesn't understand that I do not need him with me while I am in the basement or making the bed or anything else that I really do not need company to complete. I think the solution is just move his crate from room to room so he can at least be closer to me while I am getting work done. He seems to not mind the crate as long as he can feel as though he is a part of the activity. He is completely calm and happy and silent while he is with me.

Puppy was with me in the kitchen for the baking and to keep him safe from the stove and my temper, I tied his leash to the door and thus he could be with me without being with me. We were both satisfied with the arrangement.

 I have gotten much done on Operation Cookie 2012. Thus far I have made ten varieties to the tune of just short of two thousand cookies. I have two kinds  left that will add more or less three hundred and fifty to the number and then all that's left is to fill the bags and get them mailed or delivered. Yay.

In between batches, I got my outdoor decorations up. Its a very small display this year  and I'm happy-ish with it, but I'm not done yet so there is hope for full on "happy". What I did not get done was my indoor decorating -other than the tree, which is fabulous, but the rest of the house is bare and I need to get on it. I don't think the Santa's are coming out this year either, possibly some of them but I still need somewhere to display them properly where they can be seen but not disturbed . I also attened Raleigh's "Winterfest" and a new thing for me, "Artwalk" though the Boylen Heights neighborhood. I was hardly chained to my stove.

Maybe just the big Santa's. Or the really cute Santa's. Or the really nice Santa's...

Downtown dog

Tree III

Friday Cat Blogging

Tree II

My plan for the evening was go to the store and buy pie and dog cookie ingredients and then bake said pie after I get home and make cookies all weekend.  Went to the store stuck more or less to my list. Score.

And then I came home and looked at my sink full of dishes and decided that I couldn't do anything about the pie until I emptied and then refilled the washing machine. Then the rest of the kitchen looked bad so that had to be taken care of  then with the kitchen less gross and more pie worthy the rest of the house looked bad so that had to be  looked into and then I thought about the ornaments that also had to be brought down and by then I decided that I could bake the pie tomorrow and that that would be better anyway .

But then I thought Just because I'm not actually making it tonight does not mean that I can't prep what I can to save time tomorrow after work! and so I ground the walnuts. Well, that saved four minutes. And then I started to wonder if it was more important for the house to be clean or for the to be ornaments downstairs to put on the tree in the first place?

We can't decorate the tree with out them ready to go and they are not easy to get to. So Ornaments. Okay, what about that cat? Kitty can't be with me getting them because I don't want him to get into the attic, so he's locked downstairs.

Fine, but, post ornaments getting, I don't want the cat to play with them all day while I'm at work, so he then has to be locked upstairs all day. He hates this. And now that the ornaments are down stairs everything looks like it did before - messy and un-tidy. Is it more important top vacuum or have the ornaments ready for go time? Its not like I can't do both but I can't do both and do both.
And then I start to wonder if maybe it wouldn't be a better idea to do the pie now verses tomorrow after work beause I'm still going to have to take care of the dog and that's going to take a lot of the immediate after work period and if I want to make this pie maybe I should just make the pie now because its not likes it complicated after all, its ground walnuts and apple pie filling - hardly a big job or time consuming but why not just do it after work instead if its such a quick job?

How many things can I not get done in a single evening?

Tree Part 1

I was going to post a picture of it but my camera battery was trying to die and lets just say the quality of the pictures did not meet expectations. Its okay though,  the tree is up, the lights all work and I was only frustrated for about four minutes total. I have decided that I am going to look for silver garland for it this year. I like silver but for whatever reason, I have none in the house! Lots of gold tones - which I don't like when I see them anywhere that is not here - I think it will be a nice bit of bling. Silver is blingy-er than gold.

Or, I am watching too much Say yes to the Dress. You don't see many dresses with gold blingy. It would be easy to make a tree look like a dress though. Use a white tree,  cover it with silvery spangly ornaments and drape it with bows, you can use heavy satin for the tree skirt and you have your own train.  Presto! Wedding dress.

Pictures that did turn out (kind of). From Thanksgiving. Thanks be to Picasa and its Photo-shop Lite settings

Good News

Bing Bong the Witch is Retiring! Happy dance of joy! Yay! Yay! Now, to school myself to not to react that way when the formal announcement is made. I'm pretty sure that bouncing around and squeeing is not the way to respond to this news, I would also guess that forming my own praise band and screaming Hallelujah at the top of my lungs is out of the question.

Perhaps quietly expressing my congratulations and then politely gazing at the floor is more appropriate reaction. I am planning a post-retirement buffet though, something tasteful and low key and then we'll be able to acknowledge each other birthdays and then move on to celebrate each others  birthdays and Secret Santa and everything else that cow decided for us that we wouldn't do. And no, she didn't belong to a faith that doesn't do those kind of things, she was just a bitch. Was! was!

My next question would be : How long does it take you to get retired anyway? She decided today that she wants to leave and I'm pretty sure that its a process and not a fast one either. It would be just like her to get our hopes up about her getting the hell out, only for her to stay around for months being a bitch instead. I'm pretty sure that retiring isn't like quiting, but I'm not sure she grasps that. You just don't walk into the boss's office and declare I'm Retiring! and then walk into the sunset, I think there is a lot of paperwork and channels that have to be gone down and meetings to attend and all of that sounds time consuming and her staying-ing.

Sigh. But, Bing Bong the Witch is Retiring!!

Sleepless

I woke up in  the middle of the night because, 1) I forgot to put food in Small Cats bowl or 2) I remembered I am in charge of one of the customer service surveys we are conducting at work and half my group is either out sick or on vacation and the two of us remaining aren't worrying enough.

I blame the proliferation of Christmas trees. The survey is due to be rolled out sometime around Christmas and it had seemed like a really long time from "now" - when "now" was before Thanksgiving. Its "now" almost Christmas.

Whatever the reason, I needed to be awake and worrying. I like the Small Cat option because he was being so lovey and sweet and there and it was so easy (after I was up and around) to fix. Note to self though : Don't make you cat beg. They don't forget that.

I went to work and put some time into our survey as well. I think I feel better now. That does not make me proud but... Oh, I don't get paid enough and I have co-workers that make me homicidal on a daily bases and yet I still wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the status of a completely bogus customer service survey, we don't really care about their thoughts but its on our bosses job description. it technically her job, but we do all of the work. Love. Her.

 I prefer to think about how I could have possibly not realized that Small Cat was out of food! I mean, I am his sole support and yet I still let him go hungry!

I mean how awful is that!? Poor little kitty had no food and he was sad and weakened and was reduced to begging. I didn't even put it together! I thought Oh,  sweet, he lurves me1 The fuzzy and the  fluffy and the purring! Oh, so a good baby! It didn't even occur to me that he was whoring himself.

And worse, this went on for hours. He was  all but wearing thigh highs and red lipstick and I was just not seeing it! I blame Tex  for this. When he was hungry he destroyed anything he thought he could break and get my attention, he didn't ask, he told.  Baby Kitty asks politely and I ignore him for hours. I think I'll get rid of the new breakables just in case he decides to really get my attention.

Crunchy

How is it the more free time you have the less you get done? I've had four days in a row off and all the work I got done I got done in the last day and a half.  I did spend a lot of time shopping... and I even bought a few things for people who were not me. I'm growing as a person.

I did a lot of laundry, put away a lot of laundry, and discovered that I genuinely like fried onion bits - although, not at the same time. First I discovered I like the onion bits and then I did laundry. I would not enjoy onion bits in my laundry.

I found time to rake the yard, twice but the second time I used a blower so I feel a little like I am being disingenuous by claiming to have raked the yard twice, because I didn't, in reality I raked the yard once and then I paced back and forth once.

I will either have to rake or  pace at least twice more . Yay. This makes me wonder why I bothered to rake the first two times at all. It really didn't matter because the tree was still full of leaves. To add insult to injury one of the neighbors said he watched me rake the other day and he said every time I got a row raked to the curb, he counted six more leaves fall from the tree. I laughed but I was crying inside.

Friday Cat Blogging

 

Eyes on you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Girls best friend

This evening instead of buckling down and writting a real entry, I did this instead:



I also chose today to be the first day since before I brought Puppy home to actually eat lunch like a grown up. I lunched with a friend from work instead of rushing home at lunch to relive my dog for the first time in four months. I might have pull the trigger too soon, to add insult to injury, I had a meeting after work and didn't get home until after five. A whole hour late. The results were predictable. I don't see myself enjoying a lunch out until he's a lot older, I had hoped that after four plus months that he might be closer  (closer? I had hoped after four months of intense training that he would be trained! He isn't any closer than he was at eight weeks! I do not believe he will ever be house broken. On the upside, I will get lots of exercise running him outside eight or nine times a day forever.) but we soldier on.

To make up for being all selfish, we took a walk and then played in the yard, he played and I played with my phone. He ultimately lost interest in his chicken and decided to join me. We spent a good forty-five minutes enjoying the night air together and not being too cold. It was nice,

But all good things have to come to an end, he was beginning to shiver and I had things to do, this  thing in particular . A pie so rich a single serving will propel you into the 1%, a pie so bad for you it will make you thankful for your gym membership, a pie so good you can sin guilt free for a good two weeks.

That's it fresh out of the oven and just after it was doused with a heated honey-lemon juice sauce. Tomorrow I make pie two.

 

Blogger still bloged, no spell check

I made about 900 cookies over the weekend. I worked so much over the weekend that I didn't even have time to walk puppy! I always walk puppy! I felt I owed him so today after work I rushed home and changed shoes and off we went, this time I drove to just this side of downtown so that we could not walk home in the dark. And we walked and walked and walked.

On that walk, I found another store I didn't know about, Design Box and window shopped some more Christmas gifts. The real challenge is going to be to remember to find my way back to the store sans dog.  It looks like a really neat store so I'm going to make sure I go back there.

While I was walking Puppy I found places that Puppy needed to get his picture taken, and then I remembered we had been here before.

 October 16



 

November 19

October 16

November 19

Bloggers bloged so no spell check.

You know the holidays are close because I went from having no food in my refrigerator to have too much food in my refrigerator. I couldn't keep eating out every night and I decided I need to make a change. I went shopping, but while I was shopping for dinner I started to think about The Dinner. I needed food and I needed it now.

Did you know that it really doesn't matter when you are at Wallyworld, there is going to be more people there than you had thought? but I am now ready. I am officially going to make two pies and green bean casserole. We've never had green bean casserole for Thanksgiving dinner, or for any dinner actually, so its going to be a new thing for us. I hope its good, but I think its a good way for sub-par beans to make it to the Big League.

I also bought up for Aunt Cookie 2012 and so far I have made five different kinds - cheese, bacon, peanut butter, beef bouillon, and chicken bouillon, I had thought it was six - which made me very happy because I would be half way to done and now I am less than half way done and this makes me sad. I'm not going to be able to deal with dog treats because I'm going to be busy with people treats. I might try to get my sixth vairiety tonight, but I am awfully tired of cookies right now but usually I don't make five batches in such a short time, although one year I did get seven done the first weekend so in reality, I'm slacking despite all the effort it feels like I'm expending. I'll tough it out because I have so many more to make.

After the first batch was finsihed up, I took a break and raked the front yard. The city is coming around to take away colected leaves and I wanted to have something for them to collect. I could have done a second pass  Sunday and should have but I ran out of  time and light. If it really bothers me and it does,  I'm always looking for outdoor work to do during the week. Not.

My first real task of the weekend was taking Rocket to the vet. He is now 32 pounds and street legal. He now has all his vacines and is ready to go. The vet and I think that now that he is clear of whatever infection he may or may not have had and so I didn't have him tested. The vet thought he looked very good. It made me happy and I can live with him drinking all the water he wants and wetting more frequently and more well, more but he is eating a lot better and his pee doesn't stink the way it did. So he's still not even close to housebroken at almost five months old and is peeing everywhere but now my house smells less of pee. Yay.

He's too sexy

I found a new thing Puppy likes. Puppy likes to be tall

Puppy met his first retaining wall and fell in love! He jumped straight up and made like a gymnast! He was so excited! And so, so tall. I had all ready figured that he is going to be a small weim, but now I know for sure.

Napoliweim. He didn't just walk on those walls, he got his strut on. And he didn't care about how far off the ground he was, he just kept right on going and got a little put out when he ran out of wall. he is lucky that he is still small and light because while he can hop right up, he can't just hop down. Maybe I'll try to make him concentrate on lower walls.

We went on a different route then we usually do so we could search out walls for him to scale. Actually, there as so "scaling" there was a lot of hopping. I knew he had been spending too much time with the cat. I didn't know he had that much strength in his little legs but he can blast off and up like a baby kitty.

I started to think what we could do with his new skill - jumping over toddler gates, counter surfing, molesting my furniture. I thought about Agility training!  he seems to likes heights and has good balance,  he could have a future there. I was a little disappointed in his new found skills as when  he was faced with an actual balance beam sized wall to play with he wasn't down with it! I thought he would just take to it like the others but it was too narrow. He thought it made him look fat.

He could walk a few steps but he couldn't walk the whole bar.  This is something we can work on, I know that no on will mind us walking back and forth in front of the federal court house. The puppy is so cute, you don't think they would mind? If they don't like the beam training maybe they would like it better if we stuck to his other favorite spot: He really likes their planters. He struts on them like little Cat Walks, well, like little Dog Walks. He is a super model dog after all, I think they should be happy that such a hot model wants to cavort in front of their building.

Happy Birthday to Ace!

I almost forgot, November 15th is Aces birthday! He's four years old today! I celebrate January 18th as our official anniversary, but today is his day. Happy Birthday Baby Guy!


( blogger isn't working tonight, I'll post a picture when I can)

I blame the change in the weather.

I was going to write an entry, but I was watching last weeks Fashion Police and then the puppy fell asleep on me and I was warm and  he was snoring and well one thing clearly did not lead to another.

Dinner

I am watching the cooking network with the idea that they are going to enlighten me to the ways of Thanksgiving Dinner. Like there is a chance I am going to make Thanksgiving Dinner. Or have input into Thanksgiving Dinner. I will eat what is placed in front of me and I will like it.

But that doesn't stop me from fantasizing about making my own meal - Turkey and turkey only, an entire bird made with white meat only,  my own self home made seasoned butter under the skin! and my sides - only the ones I like, gorgeous, plain stuffing, lovely blue mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, rice and cheese sauce! crescent rolls! Because what are the holidays without way too many carbs?

This year I am only going to make one pie. Last year we ended up with six pies and it was just too many pies - Yes, it is possible to have too many pies on hand. You really lose the desire to conserve pie when there is so much of it, it almost becomes less special! You can pick and chose between pies, you can not eat pie. Its not natural.

So.\ this year I'm limiting it to the walnut pie. Its like a very large piece of baklava. The worlds largest baklava. It is very, very good. Too good, its so good it must be bad for you.

And maybe, if I have time, key lime, for old times sake.

I was hopeing this show was going to give me some new ideas but all its doing in explaining how apple cider is made. I don't need to know that. I want to know new and better ways of baking turkey so I can make a really good soup with the bones.

According to the show, green bean casserole is on everyone's Thanksgiving table. Oddly, no, its never been on our thanksgiving table. I grew up in a green bean  casserole free environment, I had no idea we were  a minority group. Today, I have green beans that are looking for something to do, maybe casserole? It might not be a bad idea, I wasn't especially thrilled with the quality of bean I harvested this year so  a casserole setting might be a good outcome for my beans.

Tuesday!

And I'm back!

I had to take some time off to let my FOUR MORE YEARS hang over to heal up a little. I was pretty useless, happy but useless. It turns out my place of work does not really look kindly on my happy dance, especially after eight hours of it. Joy killers.

I went to Asheville with my Mother, it was a therapeutic thing, get a way for a while, eat much better than I could possibly feed myself and shop like a rich person - It turns out that power shopping is really, really good for you! I think we actually helped the economy all by ourselves.

I did my best to be Santa and then with that mission accomplished,  I started to look inward what did I want, what did I need, what can I buy for myself... After a lot of introspection, I bought a cape! Its reversible, vintage and awesome.

After we shopped the hell out of downtown Asheville, so we had to move on to greener pastures. We went to Biltmore.

 What we spent at Biltmore alone probably moved the family into a new tax bracket. Sadly, Biltmore wouldn't sell me a cheap plastic snow-globe, so I had to buy a carnivorous plant for a souvenir instead.

This is Bill. He eats meal worms. They don't sell cheap plastic snow globes or cheap anything, so I had to get a expensive plant instead. I read that these boys can eat cockroaches! I wonder how you tell if your pitcher plant is getting too fat? Because I could over feed this thing in a heart beat, I would be willing to put out a little cockroach live trap too, if they won't go to the plant themselves... I wonder how easy these plants are to propagate... (insert Jeopardy music while I tool around and do some research)  It turns out this is possible but you have to have balls to to it (checking to see, nope, but my ovaries are solid steel) Maybe I'll see if anyone around here sells them. I all ready have the meal worms.

Friday Cat Blogging

 

It's still my damn couch.

GO BLUE!

WE WON!!!!!!

WE WON!!!!!!

WE WON!!!!!!

WE WON!!!!!!

Vote like you know what will happen if you don't.

My cake was popular at he cake raffle. I'm not sure it was the most popular but it certainly was a part of the home coming court. I didn't win any of the raffles I entered, I guess in reality I didn't really need cake around the house. Even a dreamy looking, if a little lopsided lemon cake. Grumble.

I did score for $5 some nice art for the office wall. Its a multi-media piece featuring oils and buttons. Shut up, its cute.

After work I agreed to go work a phone bank downtown but before that I had to walk and feed the dog, go to the pharmacy, eat dinner myself and get myself ready for tomorrow.

So. Tomorrow. Election Day. Vote like reproductive rights of all the women you know, depend on it. Because it does, if The GOP takes office, women will no longer have the right to chose how to manage their fertility.  Your gay friends will be further marginalized if not criminalized , our educational system will evolve into  a morass of "home schools"and segregated private academies and and all that is good will be destroyed. everything that everyone has worked for and towards will be history. We will enter a time of darkness . A period of cultural and educational hell that will make the Dark Ages and the days of the Cultural Revolution look placid and fair. You will wake up Wednesday in a GOP dominated world,  its ideal civilization, a male dominated heaven where women nearly invisable and totally dependent and socially humiliated for "out own good", think world ruled by a Republican dictated Sharia law .


VOTE FOR A FREE WORLD! VOTE FOR NOW!

Yay Me!

I did stuff this weekend. Hard stuff. Work.

I also took the dog on two very long walks so not only did I do Work, I worked out. I was very happy to see on both walks Obama volunteers going door to door in both the lovely historic district and the not-as lovely hysteric district as well. The folks I saw in my neighborhood were so cute, they didn't even have their blood type written on their arms or anything! I thought that was cute for outside white people to not do that. It says "Hi,  black people! We don't know enough to be aware that this street is called "Little Hell"  We come in peace! Are you registered to vote?

I saw them coming down one street that I haven't used since, oh, the guy with the house arrest bracelet wanted me to come up to his porch so he could visit with then baby Daisy. I made my excuses Oh, I;m sorry, my puppy is sensitive to radio waves...
and fled, er, walked the other way and I haven't even driven down that street again.
While I was walking I got a call from the Obama people beseeching me to come and volunteer. I always want to say Yeah. About that. I've been donating $5 a week for months to the campaign, so really, I think I've bought my way out of this by now, dontcha think?. Sadly, no it seems. They wanted  me to go to a distance office but I told them if I would go, I would go to the office closest to me and because I have this tiny bladder at home waiting for me, for less time than they wanted me to and lo and behold, this was possible. I will be calling you to make sure you go vote. Be ready.

I also hit four different grocery/Walmarts/Sam's Club to see if any of them would be willing to sell me one of those plastic bubble things they sell their cakes in. The answer is No. Not one of the places was willing to do that. I even pulled out the Charity aspect of the request and they still said No. Four times. Hateful.

I ended up buying a paper box to transport the cake in, a paper box I had to put together myself! Paper folding is not a part of my skill set tool box. I persevered but just barely.

Things I learned about Layer Cakes -  If you don't want the cake to "dome" in the oven, bake the cake at about fifty degrees cooler than the directions, for one and one half times the directed cooking time. This makes the cake cook slower and prevents doming. It makes for a flatter, more even cake experience. It worked too.

I also learned that if you want to use less oil in your cake and want to substitute , say, applesauce, that this is doable but you should not completely eliminate the oil because using applesauce only leads to a heavy cake. You should cut the oil in half instead. And it works!

There was also the tip about leaving the cakes in the cake pans for ten minutes post baking before putting them on the cooling racks - after the cake as cooled completely ( lets hear it for an ice cold back bedroom, those colanders slash windows useful at last!), wrap the layers separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. A cool cake is easier to decorate and work with. For real.

The next thing I learned (Thanks Be To The Internet) was prior to putting the first layer down on the surface, put a dab of frosting down to act as a glue to hold the cake in place through decorating and transportation. Really, really good idea and it worked. Then I learned to keep putting the cake back into the fridge after ever step of the decorating process, a cold cake is a happy cake.

I now also can do a "crumb coat" AKA a skim coat of frosting. You put a light coating of your frosting over the cake and then stick it in the refrigerator. This gives you a smooth ,even, crumb free base on to which you can put your final coat of neat and tidy frosting. Also,  this worked. My Mom gave me the brilliant idea of instead of going out and buying a special tool for frosting (which I will never use again) , that I could substitute a butcher knife - and this also worked. I am going to have to buy it some steak now because it is totally emasculated and depressed. Tough cookies, I like the cleaver better for cutting meat.

Friday Cat Blogging

 

Why yes, I am still here. Thank you for noticing.

Work

And its Friday. God. What took it so long? I am so tired.

I think it will get better when I'm not waking up at odd times to take Puppy out, I am hopeing that he will someday be potty trained and I will be able to sleep through the night. I am also hopeing that Puppy will also someday learn how to go down the stairs unaided.

You really haven't lived until you've carried an excited twenty five pound puppy with a full bladder down a step flight of stairs in the middle of the night. I have learned things along the way, for instance, I learned that I can save time, paper towels, midnight spikes in blood pressure and cold toes by having my flip flops stationed by my bed instead of leaving them by the back door.

Its the seconds that it takes to slip on the flip flops that opens the door for kitchen floor piddling. You really have to keep the whole thing in motion, the time it takes to open the door you can have a puddle of piddle.

I have figured out that if I am carrying him through this process I can stave off accidents but I have to be carrying him and that can make things like opening doors and using keys difficult. I am also trying to teach him to walk down the stairs, and he is learning, he;'s learning so well that he piddled on the stairs the other night! I love cleaning up pee at 2:30 in the morning while trying desperately to not to become too alert in the process.

This morning I over slept and didn't get him outside until almost four, which means I made it back to bed by a little after four but then my alarm goes off at five and I never really was able to go fully back to sleep before I had to get up for real. I am getting our routine in order now though. I take him out to pee (again) as soon as I get up, we go out and after he's done we come back in and I deposit him in his big crate downstairs while I do my morning ablutions. I then head back upstairs and get dressed and bring his sleeping crate downstairs to the office.

Crate transport finished I can get my tea taken care of and feed the outdoor cat and then search in vain for my paper. Post paper search, I lock Small Cat upstairs so he doesn't eat the puppy chow then  I watch Puppy eat ebcause he likes an audience, cheer-leading when I have too and then I can read the paper and drink my tea and rest  for  moment.

Then Puppy needs to pee and I need to get my stuff finished up and Small Cat really wants some attention - so post pee Puppy goes into his big crate to play. If there is tine I take Puppy out again and I can leave for work.

Costume parade

So far three groups of children and bonus, they were all actually children. Its early yet.

The kids were so young that one of them was open;y unimpressed by my pretzels. he kept digging through the container to see if perhaps I had hidden something he actually did like in there. Nope. Just the pretzels. Lots and lots of bags of pretzels. Sorry kiddo, I don't like them either.

I had thought I would take Puppy for a run at the baseball field but then I remembered that it was halloween and he has a costume! Its a little scary how close I came to blowing the whole opportunity off.  Instead of hiding at the field, we went on the long walk that we both needed and he got to be admired by many, many passerbys. He was either a Craydog or a Zombie Lobster
.

Daisy was always admired by passerbys. Sigh. If Daisy had made it until Halloween, she would have worn one of these costumes I got after halloween last year. I am so glad I had her model them.

Oops

Okay. Instead of writing an entry I went for my yearly mammogram on one side of town and then I went to a fundraiser for a co-workers' animal charity on the other side of town.

I am also learning that Rocket isn't really this preternaturally calm puppy, Rocket is a puppy that normally gets a lot more exercise  then he got the last couple of days and when  he does not get a lot of exercise he is just like all the other puppies. Note to self,  look into doggy treadmills or arrange for nasty storms to not blow through and bring hours of puppy unfriendly rain and also never make appointments or plans after work, or make appointments but not also plans or plans but not in addition to appointments. Lesson learned.


Happy Halloween!

Naked.

Today was at long last Flu Shot Day. I knew  flu shot day coming for months. I cut out for lunch a little early and went across campus for my flu shot. While I was walking (in the rain) to the building I discovered that I couldn't find my card! Where was it? Didn't I just see it? When was the last time I used it? Didn't I have it over vacation, brought along for emergencies? Did I leave it at any one of my doctors offices during any one of 10,000 appointments last winter? This was not good because I have an appointment Tuesday and I need my card and the nurse wouldn't give me a shot if I didn't come across with the card. Paper nurse.

I had to go home to take care of Puppy so i wasn't a total loss to head home to fetch my as it turned out, out-of-date card back up card, return to get my shot, hopeing that the bored nurse wouldn't really look at the card. She didn't and I got my shot. I got back to my car and went through my wallet again only to find the correct un-lost card in my wallet stuck to the back of another insurance card.

BCBC are cheap bastards who make cheap bastard cards. They aren't even cardboard, the cards are made of cheap typing paper that sticks to better quality insurance cards and makes you think you have lost the card.

On the upside, I made it home to take care of Puppy earlier than normal an thanks to the quick action, he was dry when I came home. He has been such a good boy that in honor of it being cold, I'm going to put his bedding in the crate.  Poor little guy is naked!

Speaking of his nakedness, lets hope he can hold it all night so we aren't outside at 1:45am in the cold and rain. But, if you are going to have cold and rain I'm glad it's the kind we're getting and not the kind they are getting back east. Think positive thoughts for our people in The City who have never really experienced real weather.

Doggy yoga

Lake Johnson

I was going to sit down and start this earlier and I would be done by now and half way through my shower but I remembered that  earlier, I had decided to save time and make up a batch of treat dough and then I made dinner and then I forgot about it.

Well. Cookies made. Not as many as I would like but the turkey is just a fatter cookie all around and the beaks are very hard to get right, without a beak they end up looking like peacocks in silhouette - not a bad look, if you are making peacock dog treats but a big loser if you are going for turkey.

I'm going to have to make more because I won't have any to spare when it comes time to bag this batch up. I'll make a second batch but they won't be turkey shaped and I'll get more of them and more is better.

What I really did today was take Small Dog on his first trip to Lake Johnson!  We waited and waited and waited for Sandy to ruin the weekend but she never showed. I did get my front closet cleaned out and winter ready, though so that was a positive. Once at the lake, we didn't spend anytime in the lake but we did spend a lot of time lake adjacent and he seemed very comfortable with that, so progress made. He did however love, love, love running on leash through the forest  and leaping over tree roots and down trees and going up and down hills, all the good sniffs to sniff!. He had a great time and then we walked on the paved path and he met a lot of people and seven dogs and I didn't have a stroke! Yay!

He is going to go in the damn water though at some point, the breeder told me it was okay for him to swim in the winter if I got him dry and warm when we were done and also said that a good swim in the winter won't do him any harm at all. After all, hunting season is in the winter and he would be in and out of the water all the time.

I got him the little sweater at Big Lots because it was getting cold and he hasn't quite grown into his real winter coat yet. Its also going to double as his Halloween costume - Lars, your ski instructor.

Friday Cat Blogging

 

I will win.

Flashing Back

I called the dog "Daisy" twice today. I chalk this up to having to tell a record number of people a couple of days ago that Daisy died in June. It was cancer and it was fast. There are weeks that depended on where we go for our walk, this happens several times but it hasn't happened in a while and then it was three times in less than an hour.

Ouch.

I am assuming it was cancer because I turned down the vets offer of doing a necropsy. I didn't really need to know what officially did her in, well, officially it was a needle full of whatever they euthanize animals with but I knew what he meant. She was gone and I didn't want her body violated to satisfy anyone's morbid curiosity, all be-it professional curiosity. It was a natural death.

What led us there was a lethal combination of end stage liver cancer and an out of control infection that might have been another immune disorder like the Addison's.They wanted to treat the immune disorder with more prednisone in the short run until they figured out which immune disorder it was - their version of thinking positively... but it was going to have to be a short term fix because she was experiencing high speed liver failure  and she was dying too fast for the pred to fix anything.

After my uplifting conversation with the vet, I just knew she wasn't coming home with me, once there, I sat outside for an hour before I could bring myself to come inside to all her stuff. Her old stuff. Sometimes I miss her so much it like being slapped.

When I am asked about Daisy, I always tell her friends : It was over really fast for her and it was a blessing. She's happy and in a better place. It was awful for me but she didn't suffer, so its okay.. And now I can add to that,  She's happy, and now I'm happy because of Rocket.

Busy, busy!

I left the house to walk Puppy at 4:30 and didn't get back to the house until 6pm. Then I made him dinner and begged him to eat said dinner (he did, eventually) and while he had his post-dinner "quite time", I got the dough togther for pumpkin cookies. The recipe I found online was a lot nicer than what I've made in the past. It included peanut butter, ginger and and cinnamon and it wanted ground allspice  it didn't get, but I included powdered milk and some brown sugar as not really substitutes. I came out with 109 for the Craft Fair and fifty or so for Puppy and friends.

Puppy helped me with the actaul cookie cutting and was a real help while we waited for them to come out of the oven. I also found out that he is a climber.

Next up is the turkey gravy cookies. The turkey cookie shape is larger and I'll end up with fewer so I'll make a double batch because while pumpkin can look like anything, turkey needs to look like turkey. I have standards.

While Puppy and I walked, I took pictures

still working on getting him to look at the camera. He was distracted by a lady on her cell phone walking a grown dog the size of a tissue box.