The right answer to the right question.

I worked so much over the weekend, when I woke up Monday morning I was convinced that it was Tuesday at the earliest. Imagine my surprise.

I gave the downstairs freezer some  (on sale) pie dough, ( on sale) pork ribs, (on sale) chicken wings and baby meat loafs to look after. I also made cookies, again and cleaned the living room.Whew!

I made one big meat loaf and three babies. The big loaf has provided  three dinners and will be at least three lunches. This one is really good! I credit onion soup mix and Italian style bread crumbs.

Monday I took Rocket to the vet for answers. I got answers. He is perfectly healthy, blood panel was great, urine was super, weight on target. He is in perfect health, except for the unexplained urination thing. I suggested that he might have a problem from his surgery, it does occur - "Oh, that is really, really rare" Okay, but "rare"does not translate as "Never, ever happens, ever." I'[m not suggesting that he is so special that this would happen to him, but what if he is the one dog in a thousand or even ten thousand? It has to happen to someone. The vet suggested that he is "marking", in his own room? Why?! I think he has a problem. This evening I found the source of the most recent "marking" - the futon! A puddle in the middle of the mattress. I soaked the bag and then the mattress and then laundered it in hot water. I am hoping it doesn't shrink in the drier.

 I am very happy and very lucky that he is healthy and everything is okay, but I would like an answer! There is a question and I want it answered. I think I have the answer, I just have to make my vet get it to.

Dumb things to do just before bed : Decide that the newly laundered slip cover for the violated futon be put back on to the futon right now. It was done, but it wasn't pretty. Note to self, if  this should happen again, new covers are available from Walmart for $30. Also, $30 futon covers' zippers life cycles are short, launder at your own risk.

I'm actually happy the Seahawks are going to win. There, I said it.

Fun in the Snow.

The Wake County schools will be closed again on Friday, further proof that education is Job 27 in NC.

The snow is a little bit of an issue when it comes to successful dog walking though. The dog comes with all weather, four paw drive as well as built in snow shoes. I do not and the frozen slush is not easy to walk on with street shoes. We couldn't take our normal walk to downtown because while the streets are clear and passable, the side walks are not, for old times sake,  we took Daisy's' old route though my neighborhood.

No sidewalks to navigate but the snow is deep and I wasn't wearing my boots. We managed. I took Rocket to the baseball field as it is full of lovely snow and Rocket as we have learned, loves the snow. He ran around for a bit and then we were visited by two little boys.

They needed a little direction on how safely share space in a field with a large, unleashed, snow-drunk Rocket - but they caught on. One of the kids tapped out early and watched from the other side of the fence, while the other kid found  throwing sticks buried in the snow and threw them over and over for Rocket with his surprisingly strong arm . Rocket was beside himself with dog joy but was shockingly well behaved and well mannered throughout .I was very proud, yet wondered where my dog was. If I had been the one throwing the sticks I would have nipped fingers and torn sleeves. The child, Thank You Jesus! was entirely unscathed and  thanked me for letting him play with my dog.

I said you're welcome, but I thought to myself but this was not my dog, my actual dog is somewhere else being naughty. This dog was far, far too well behaved and practicing a degree of self discipline and self control that my dog has never displayed for me. This was a dog from a You Tube video.

This is Fluffy! Watch him play with a little kid he doesn't even know! Watch the little kid stay on his feet! Watch Fluffy keep a respectful distance! Watch Fluffy control his energy and excitement and keep his teeth to himself! Watch the kid follow instructions from some random woman on how to play safely with the dog! Watch the kid and the dog have a great time!

All this and I didn't have to get my feet wet. I stayed high and dry in a patch of grass.

Friday Cat Blogging

Change is good

Rocket playing in the snow

DIx Campus and Lake Johnson

It changed.

If you don't like it, wait till it changes.

So, today the high was sixty. It was lovely! I wore a mere jacketto work in the morning and left with out a scarf or gloves. I began to think about irrigation.

I came home, took the naked dog for a walk . He looks great

Tuesday he high is going to be 30.And its going snow.They don't really know how much but we're going to get more over night. Wednesday, we're look at a low in the single digits, However, by the weekend we'll be back up to the sixties again and it will be time to plant my potatoes.

I'm hoping that Wednesday isn't too ugly because that is our, or really my first agility class!  I still haven't given up finding a trick for Rocket to perform at the bar, but its not easy to find one that doesn't require I teach him skill sets  that I'm not sure I want him to know.

But. Instead I want to think about all the things he's going to learn that I do want him to know! Rocket already enjoys playing on agility toys, but there is a lot that he hasn't grasped yet and I have yet to see him do any of he tasks without me directing him and making sure he doesn't go run around instead. I am hoping that Introduction to Agility will help him to learn some focus. And to jump through hoops. He likes to jump on, he will jump over if really motivated, but he's not that into jumping through as yet. There is work to do.

Garden 2014 1

Since the temperatures here now range between 19 and 61, I decided to take advantage of it being one of the 61 degree days ( actually, mid 50s) and get some outdoor chores taken care of. I tilled up all the garden spaces and applied more of my alfalfa pellets.  Note to self: Get More. The stuff works like a charm and is cheap. My garden was so much happier last season than it was in prior years, I harvested a lot more last year than I did the year before.

I did all of this because I went shopping and picked up my 2014 spuds! So many more for so much less! I love my seed catalogs but their products, while really high quality, are so expensive. I'm going to order some tomato plants and corn seeds and possibly some leaks, but I'm going to make it a Buy Local garden more than in prior years.

I'm only planting the two varieties this year because I really likes these two and there isn't any reason to plant multiple varieties to just to plant more. I am going to plant more of them in the ground this year because my experiment last year was so successful. I'm still going to plant in the containers, but there will be a much larger spud population in the ground than last year.

I spread most of my alfalfa in the area that my corn is going to be planted, corn is a "heavy" feeder and I want my crop to be as fat and happy as possibly. I'm probably going to put most of my compost there as well. I also amended the main garden, but its going to need more dirt this year so the new dirt will be stronger and need less help.

While I was out in the yard I pulled up the flowering shrubs I planted last spring, they  came with a warning that they don't like the cold and no surprise, they did not make it through the winter. This year I am going to put in Knock Out roses and those will hopefully, be there for along time. They are very tough plants.

Friday Cat Blogging

TGIF

We didn't win anything in the Paws for Claws raffle this month, but we did win Cutest Dog Without a Tear Jerking Back Story. So we are happy. The actual winner was a positive pitbull named Jolene who was the most adorable dog ever and she very much deserved to win. We are also happy because Jolene is a sizable dog and not some little rat dog. Not that we're bitter. Or hate losing. Or hate rat dogs. Or hate losing to rat dogs. We are happy to show off our wonderful disposition and happy outlook. And pretty eyes and velvet ears.

We won the judges so yay us!

Fun in the kitchen

I had to make more peanut butter cookies - Just to get the peanut butter out of my house! SInce I've had peanut butter in my house I have had peanut butter cookies in my house and this is not helping my goal of not having things like peanut butter cookies in my house.

For my finaldry ingredients
as well as eggs and butter and sugar.  I had been focusing on easy, three ingredient or less recipes because well, three ingredients or less is easy and fast and I am all about immediate gratification.
This time I went with : Classic Peanut Butter Cookie recipe. It includes butter and baking soda and baking powder and flour, additionally, salt, brown sugar,peanut butter and vanilla.

Not quite as immediate with the gratification, but still pretty damn gratifying They have more body than the others and they didn't spread out like the other batches and while they are really good, there is a light flour-y after  taste to them that the other batches made without flour did not have. They may be a little less pure but they bake at a higher temperature so they warmed up the kitchen a lot more. Score!

I'm not just sitting around  glomming down cookies, I am also spending quality time with apples too. I started to think that I would apples more frequently if they were less messy and if I didn't have to then deal with the core. Shiver.

Enter the apple slicer

not totally even, these apples are larger than the last variety I bought, the slicer works better with smaller apples.

 There is still a  core, but its much smaller

Nummy.

Boom.

I was at work when I over heard one of my co-workers talking about how it was going to get cold and then snow. I told th co-worker to think happy thoughts and stop being all doom and gloom and scaring the chilrin.

That person was talking crazy because you could see it was bright outside and not cold enough and it was balmy over the weekend and they were being crazy.

That was then.It was 49 degrees when I left work and when I came home from walking the dog just after 5pm it was all ready falling. I understood it was going to get worse - my workmates might be giant panic merchants but my phone does not lie. I decided that post walk I would run to Sams and pay my bill,  pick up the dogs meds and then bring a nice frozen lasagna home and stick it in the oven and spend  the next few days rolling around in it.

Lasagna is freaking expensive. I could get two family sized lasagnas for  the same price as bag of boneless skinless. I had to weigh this : Eat a few lasagna meals or eat like many, many chicken meals for a lot longer. Gone are the days where I would say "Hey,I think I'll just get them both!"  and then have to eat the lasagna immediately because I had no room to store it.The sad thing is, I have the room now! I didn't used to have the room for frozen foods! Now I do and I can't afford to! Its so "Gift of the Magi".

I also bought some Galla apples because they are very good and they don't sell them at my Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, the assistant manager of my Walmart, Marie, called me today to formally apologize for the store stealing my food. She promised that the staff will be in-serviced and  retrained to put the bags into the carts and that the front of store managers will be watching much closer to make sure that they are in fact doing this,so doesn't happen as often as it happens now.She also promised that the next time I'm in the store I get free donuts.

I'm not done with them yet. I'm still going to call the area manager to talk to him because it is a problem greater then my store and it is the culture of the stores to do this. Someone has to inculturate the staff and that person has to be trained to teach them the corporate culture when they get hired, and it goes further than the little assistant manager at my store. If Food Lion can manage to not let people leave behind their purchases, Walmart can get with he program too.

Friday Cat Blogging

And the nominations went to...

2014 Oscar (tm) nominations

In which I lose interest quickly.

Best motion picture of the year - Saw not a single one of these.

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Performance by an actor in a leading role - I think DiCaprio is a douche bag. Its nice they nominated Ojiofor, but he has much a chance winning this category as I do. I vote for McConaughy. 

• Christian Bale, American Hustle
• Bruce Dern, Nebraska
• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Matthew McConaughy, Dallas Buyers Club
• Chiwetel Ojiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Performance by an actress in a leading role. Any of these ladies would be fine, but I like Judi Dench.

• Amy Adams, American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Judi Dench, Philomena
• Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Performance by an actor in a supporting role. They'll give it to Cooper because they didn't for his last one.

• Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
• Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Performance by an actress in a supporting role -  Either Nyong'o or Squibb, this catagory likes to award  back story or cuteness or a cute back story or hot and bangable.

• Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
• Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
• June Squibb, Nebraska

Achievement in directing -  It will depend on how the other catagories pan out. I see sweepiness.

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• Alexander Payne, Nebraska
• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best animated feature film of the year.  So freaking tired of Dinsey and their princess.I don't care if they do kickass. I want a disney cartoon about a boy.

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Ernest & Celestine
• Frozen
• The Wind Rises

Achievement in cinematography

• The Grandmaster Philippe Le Sourd
• Gravity Emmanuel Lubezki
• Inside Llewyn Davis Bruno Delbonnel
• Nebraska Phedon Papamichael
• Prisoners Roger A. Deakins

Achievement in costume design -  The Great Gatsby.

• American Hustle Michael Wilkinson
• The Grandmaster William Chang Suk Ping
• The Great Gatsby Catherine Martin
• The Invisible Woman Michael O'Connor
• 12 Years a Slave Patricia Norris

Best documentary feature -Which on is about WW2?

• The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
• Cutie and the Boxer Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
• Dirty Wars Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
• The Square Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
• 20 Feet from Stardom Nominees to be determined

Best documentary short subject

• CaveDigger Jeffrey Karoff
• Facing Fear Jason Cohen
• Karama Has No Walls Sara Ishaq
• The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
• Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall Edgar Barens

Achievement in film editing

• American Hustle Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
• Captain Phillips Christopher Rouse
• Dallas Buyers Club John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
• Gravity Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
• 12 Years a Slave Joe Walker

Best foreign language film of the year

• The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium
• The Great Beauty, Italy
• The Hunt, Denmark
• The Missing Picture, Cambodia
• Omar, Palestine

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

• Dallas Buyers Club Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Stephen Prouty
• The Lone Ranger Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• The Book Thief John Williams
• Gravity Steven Price
• Her William Butler and Owen Pallett
• Philomena Alexandre Desplat
• Saving Mr. Banks Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• "Alone Yet Not Alone" from Alone Yet Not Alone, Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
• "Happy" from Despicable Me 2, Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
• "Let It Go" from Frozen, Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
• "The Moon Song" from Her, Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
• "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

Achievement in production design

• American Hustle Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
• Gravity Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
• The Great Gatsby Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
• Her Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
• 12 Years a Slave Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

Best animated short film

• Feral Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
• Get a Horse! Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
• Mr. Hublot Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
• Possessions Shuhei Morita
• Room on the Broom Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Best live action short film

• Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me) Esteban Crespo
• Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything) Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
• Helium Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
• Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
• The Voorman Problem Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Achievement in sound editing

• All Is Lost Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
• Captain Phillips Oliver Tarney
• Gravity Glenn Freemantle
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Brent Burge
• Lone Survivor Wylie Stateman

Achievement in sound mixing

• Captain Phillips Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
• Gravity Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
• Inside Llewyn Davis Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
• Lone Survivor Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Achievement in visual effects

• Gravity Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
• Iron Man 3 Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
• The Lone Ranger Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
• Star Trek Into Darkness Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Adapted screenplay

• Before Midnight Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
• Captain Phillips Screenplay by Billy Ray
• Philomena Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
• 12 Years a Slave Screenplay by John Ridley
• The Wolf of Wall Street Screenplay by Terence Winter

Original screenplay

• American Hustle Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
• Blue Jasmine Written by Woody Allen
• Dallas Buyers Club Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
• Her Written by Spike Jonze
• Nebraska Written by Bob Nelson