2/4/08

Nance has moved! She’s now located at Knucklehead Convention. Update your bookmarks!

 

Okay, here we go. The main cat page has been updated, each cat’s personal page has a link to their Catster profile, and if you look there to the left sidebar and down a bit, each cat has a small picture, underneath which are the names I usually call them, and if you click on their names, you’ll go to their personal page (on my site, not on Catster).

There’s no page for Skittles and Elle because I just plumb ran out of time. I’ll get to it sometime this week, perhaps.

 

After a couple of days of leaving him in the foster kitten room, we started opening the door and letting Joe Bob explore when he wanted to. A few times over the weekend, Fred went up and got him out of the room (even with the door open, he didn’t show all that much inclination to explore very far) and brought him downstairs. By Sunday afternoon, he’d discovered that he could sit at the side door and watch the birds, and he proceeded to do so for several hours.

There was lots of hissing, and we discovered that Joe Bob has quite the yowl on him (and here we thought it was only his sister!), but things went pretty well. We’re still putting him up in the foster room at bedtime for a few more nights, but maybe tomorrow night we’ll try leaving it open all night and see how that goes.

He’s definitely discovered the kitchen and what it’s for, because Fred brought him down for Snackin’ Time and gave him his own little plate, so now when Joe Bob is around and he sees me go in there, he runs in all excited, like “Hey there! Got food?! Is it Snackin’ Time?!”

I think he’ll fit right in.

 

I had a dream the other night that Fred and impulsively sold Crooked Acres and bought a house on a tiny plot of land in Madison. We were settling into our new house, when we determined that we’d made a big mistake, and we were panicking and trying to decide what to do.

I woke up, heart racing, and had to think about it for a few long moments before I realized it was a dream.

I hate dreams like that.

 

So, this weekend I got the latest issue of People Magazine, and I looked down at the cover, and I saw Michelle Williams’ face, and I got pissed off, and I decided fuck this shit, and I canceled my subscription to People, and then for good measure I canceled my subscription to US Magazine, because it’s gotten to the point where I just can’t stomach supporting magazines that purport to have “the real story” about “the big breakup!” and “inside sources” who know “what really went on”, because if nothing else, Michelle Williams has always struck me as someone who very much values her privacy and to have these goddamn magazines blaring that they know the truth (hint: No one knows the whole truth except for the two who were in the relationship) can be nothing but hurtful to her.

(Though I’ll admit that I was also a little surprised that she thought that releasing a statement to the press asking to be allowed to grieve in peace would work – we are, after all, talking about the slavering pack of hyenas who responded to Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt by respectfully keeping a distance. Ha! Ha! I mean, by following his every step and printing picture after picture of him and howling “WHERE’S THE SCAR?! HERE ARE HIS WRISTS, WHERE’S THE SCAAAAAAAAAAR?!”)

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m no SAINT. I’ll still read celebrity news online, but at least I’m not sending money to the online sites, so I don’t feel like I’m really “supporting” them – though of course my click to their site probably brings them money in some way, shape, or form.

Anyway. No more People or US for me! I’m probably saving like six trees a year by canceling my subscriptions.

 

Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours walking around the yard picking up branches that had fallen from the trees. We’ve had a couple of very windy days lately, so I ended up filling up the yellow wagon four times with branches and twigs, which I dumped on the burn pile. Fred started work on the fence around the new chicken coop, got pissed off about the mud, stayed inside for a couple of hours, and then decided to give it the old college try. In the time he’d been inside, the mud dried a lot, so he got a good part of the fencing put up.

He was going to mostly finish it yesterday, but around midmorning it started raining – despite the fact that weather.com had told us nothing about no damn rain on the way – and it rained all day long. He came in when the rain got to be too much, and spent the afternoon reading and bonding with Joe Bob. I did laundry all day, worked on the cat pages, and then made lasagna for dinner. It was a lasagna I’d put together a few weeks ago and then froze for future consumption, so all I had to do was thaw it out (which I did Saturday) and then cook it. I love having the freezer space to be able to make meals ahead, then when I’m feeling uninspired or not in the mood for cooking, I can find something in the freezer. We could probably get by for a couple of weeks just on what’s in the freezer.

Saturday, I made steak, and we had steak salads. When I was in Maine, I read my mother’s Weight Watchers magazine, and found a recipe in there for “Choco java-rubbed sirloin”, and wanted to try it. I tried it when I got home, and I didn’t care for the choco-java part of the recipe, but the way I cooked the steak, it was very tender, and REALLY good, so I’ve made it that way ever since. Basically, I buy a good cut of meat (usually a sirloin), cut off any fat that’s around the edges, season it with butt rub (I’ve tried seasoning it different ways, but the butt rub is the tastiest to us), sear it in a pan over medium-high heat, two minutes on each side, then pop it into the oven on 400ºFarenheit, cook it six minutes, flip it, and cook it another six, put it on a wooden cutting board, cover loosely with foil for 10 minutes, and then eat. (Edited to add: I didn’t bring it to room temperature first – it came directly out of the refrigerator, got rubbed with seasoning, and went into the pan.)

I put some bagged salad in a bowl, toss in some cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber, and put sliced steak on top. It is FABULOUS.

The best part is that there’s always enough steak left over to have for lunch the next day, and it’s just as good heated up again. My only issue is that Fred and I both like our steak medium-rare, and this gets it done too well for us. I started out with cooking it in the oven for 10 minutes on one side, then flipped it over for another 8, but I’m slowly reducing the amount of time it spends in the oven. Saturday I tried it for 6 minutes each side, and there was just a hint of pink in the middle. Next time, I’ll try 5 minutes each side and see how that is.

 

Eye update; skip to the next section, ya big babies, if you don’t want to see the crazy zombie eye!

This was what it looked like last Saturday:

(pic)

This is what it looks like now:

(pic)

HUGE improvement, just in the last few days. It may very well be mostly gone by this weekend. I hope so!

 

Dog update

The vet tech emailed Fred over the weekend to report that Romeo (what she’s named the dog) was discovered to have a raging case of tapeworms. They treated him and, well, I won’t say what she said it looked like… BUT I HOPE YOU’RE NOT EATING ITALIAN RIGHT NOW.

She said that after treatment,

he has been gaining like mad. His appetite is wonderful — he’s eagerly
eating about six meals a day. He has been more active and coughing
less since his first heartworm treatment. He’ll get his next
intestinal worm treatment tomorrow, we’re rechecking his kidney
disease in two more weeks, and his next heartworm treatment will be in
three weeks. I’m hoping he’ll be healthy enough to neuter and get his
teeth cleaned in six weeks. So far, things are looking real good for
him.

I took his picture today, showing his current body condition.
Compared with your picture, his ribs are definitely not as easy to
count anymore. He was 22 pounds when I weighed him Monday. I’ll be
eager to see what it’s up to when I weigh him again tomorrow.

And here’s the picture:

He looks AMAZING compared to how he looked when he wandered into our yard. That is one lucky dog!

 

 

Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: How does one become a house appraiser?
2004: I told Fred about how little things remind me anew of our loss strike me when I’m least expecting it, and I cried again.
2003: And, oh and does fred annoy you? Not any more than I annoy him, probably. 🙂
2002: See something on the floor? Sit on it.
2001: No entry.
2000: Here’s a cute story to satiate your bitchypoo jones until then