Friday, November 30, 2012

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?

Thursday, November 29, 2012

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


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

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!!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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.

Monday, November 26, 2012

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, November 23, 2012

Friday Cat Blogging

 
Eyes on you.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

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.

 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

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

Monday, November 19, 2012

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.

Friday, November 16, 2012

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.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

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)


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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, November 13, 2012

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, November 9, 2012

Friday Cat Blogging

 
It's still my damn couch.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

GO BLUE!




WE WON!!!!!!
WE WON!!!!!!


WE WON!!!!!!
WE WON!!!!!!



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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!

Monday, November 5, 2012

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, November 2, 2012

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.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

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.