1/2/09

New month, new logo! Thank you to Aly, who whipped up a banner for me in no time flat!

Thanks, Aly. You rock!

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We left out of here mid-morning yesterday because Fred had no pressing projects to do, so we decided to head up to Amish country (Lawrenceburg, TN) for a few hours.

To our surprise, none of our usual stops were open. New Year’s Day is a holiday and lots of places close on that day! Huh. Who the hell knew?

Since the little general store in Bodenham wasn’t open (we’d been hoping to buy a breakfast sandwich there, since we were both starving), we ended up stopping at a gas station to pee, and then bought a “Hunk A Pizza” to split.

We’ve been mocking the Hunt Brothers and their “Hunk A Pizza” for years now, but as it turns out, it’s pretty damn good pizza. Especially when you’re very hungry!

We drove around the Amish houses in Ethridge, but we didn’t dare to approach any houses, because we didn’t know whether they were sleeping off their wild New Years celebrations, so after an hour or so of driving around, we headed for home.

There were a LOT of hawks out and about. Well – I don’t know that they were hawks, they apparently could have been turkey buzzards according to Fred. Whatever they were, there were a lot of them!

I’d much rather see them in Tennessee than hovering over our chickens, that’s for sure.

We stopped and ate lunch at Chaparral’s Steak House (steak salads for both of us), then headed home.

It was a pretty pointless trip, but it was a lovely day and we got out of the house for a few hours, so I’m calling it good enough!

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Speaking of dreams, I had a horrible dream last night that I came home from work to find a bunch of stray cats on my porch. We already have 5 cats (all were strays we SWORE we were not going to keep, ahem) and I was crying trying to figure out how I was going to find homes for them all. Then I realized one of them was Delmar and I was so upset thinking that you must be going nuts looking for him and wondering how I was going to get him back to you!

Hmm… or more likely I knew there’s a sucker at your house who provides homes for stray cats, and I left him there! 🙂

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I have an old floor-to-ceiling cat tree that is structurally sound, but desperately needs to be recarpeted — at least the shredded legs if I’m willing to live with the faded blue of the horizontal pieces (which, being very lazy, I probably am). Have you or any of your readers ever carpeted a cat tree? Do you glue the carpet down, and if so, what kind of glue? Or do you use those huge staples that shoot out of a gun? Any recommendations on what kind of carpet is best (other than cheap remnants)?

I’ve never recarpeted a cat tree, but if anyone out there has experience, I’d love to hear about it!

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I googled build cat tree and found a lot of sites that will sell you a plan, but also this site, which has a section entitled “Do you feel up to building a cat tree?” I thought that was a great question.

One of the links is to Ron Hazelton’s Housecalls, and he has a video about how to build a cat tree. I don’t have time to watch the video right now, but I’ve bookmarked his site. I can drool over ALL the do-it-yourself projects I’m too lazy to ever actually do. Although I might actually carpet an existing cat tree because I think I’m more cheap than I am lazy.

Very interesting – thanks for the links!

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How did Mr. Boogers lose his tail?

We don’t know for sure, but we suspect he was born with just a stump of a tail. He was that way when we adopted him at about 6 months of age, so either he was born that way, or something happened shortly after birth. Either way, I cannot even begin to imagine him with a full-length tail, he wouldn’t look right!

For the record, my sister says that Mister Boogers’ tail looks longer in pictures. It’s about four inches long, if you’re curious.

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I have a feeling that when it’s time for the fosters to go to the store for adoption, they’re all going to rebel and refuse to go. Sounds like they’ve gotten a little too comfy at Crooked Acres!

Think so? I don’t know, they look pretty miserable to me…!

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This made me think of your posts talking about Tim Tams! I am going to have to watch for them!

Mmmm… Tim Tams!

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Oh Robyn, didn’t you know YouTube was around all the way back in 1985?

Thanks for sharing the old video. I love Tubby, he always reminds me of Cartman when I see him. And my own slightly tubby cat, of course!

Oddly enough, I said that exact thing to Fred after I watched the video. He’s especially Cartman-like when he’s rolling around on his back looking bitchy.

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We just adopted a 3 year old cat out of foster care and we’ve found that he only drinks water out of the running faucet! He’s a sweet boy but he will howl and howl until we turn on the water. I cannot afford to have my water running all the time. Do you have any tips to break him from this habit and to just drink from his water bowl?

You absolutely need a Drinkwell fountain (look on eBay, you can probably find it much cheaper). The water imitates the water from a faucet, it runs all the time, it keeps the water clean, it’s pretty easy to clean (I clean mine about every ten days), and most of our cats love it to death. We also have a Petmate fountain upstairs, and the cats like that one, too. The Drinkwell most closely imitates the action of a faucet, in my opinion, so I’d suggest you start there.

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NINETY?! I told someone the other day that you had 45 chickens. Are you sure they’re not rabbits that just LOOK like chickens?

We haven’t actually let the chickens hatch that many of them. For a while there, it seemed like every time we went somewhere, we were picking up eggs to hatch in the incubator. Even now, when it’s really too cold to hatch eggs, Fred is agitating to hatch some featherhead eggs, ’cause he wants to know what a white-crested black polish crossed with one of McLovin’s sons would turn out to look like.

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I still haven’t tried or seen Tim Tams. I looked them up on google and it said that they include malted biscuits. Does that mean malted like “Whoppers” candies are malted? Just curious!

and then someone else said:

Hi Elissa,
Not sure about the malted biscuit part but if you like a crunchy chocolate cookie, chocolate soft frosting and chocolate coating on your tongue, then these cookies or biscuits (if you are British or Australian) are worth a try. Of course, I would check on the availability of rehab before you try them. There is no going back.

I’ll agree with that!

I don’t find any part of the Tim Tams comparable to Whoppers, really, but perhaps I need to buy a package later today (since I’m going to be RIGHT there by Target!) and double-check!

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I live about 20 minutes from Dulles! Not that you care or anything.

If I’d known that Christmas Eve, I might have called you up and asked you to run over to the Hyatt with some food for my sister and nephew! 🙂

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What can I do to keep my 8 mo old kitten, “Snickers” (He sent you his Christmas photo) from chewing up paper. He is also into destroying book corners. Last week it was the spine of a library book. We had to shut him away from the Christmas tree as he was ripping off the wrappings on the gifts. Help! I need advice.

and someone said:

Catsy,
My cats are 12 and still like chewing up paper, destroying books, and unwrapping presents. The best advice is to keep the stuff you want to keep away from the cat. I don’t think you can “train” them not to do it.

For the most part, you can train your cats not to chew paper or whatever while you’re around with the help of a can of compressed air or a spray bottle of water, but once you leave the room, all bets are off. You really do have to train yourself not to leave anything you don’t want destroyed or chewed upon out for the cat to get hold of. Maybe when he gets older he’ll calm down a little, but you can’t count on it.

(Loved the picture of Snickers, by the way! What a cutie.)

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I was reading your egg salad recipe, and I noticed that the yolk part of your eggs is very yellow. I seem to remember you guys (maybe Fred?) commenting that the yolks of your fresh eggs were a much darker color? The reason I’m asking is because we get fresh eggs here in England from the dairy down the road, and the yolks are SO dark they’re more of a burnt orange color than yellow. Even when boiled. I’ll have to take a pic for you.

and someone else said:

Egg yolks will be more or less yellow depending on what the hen ate. Lots of corn (high in carotenoids) in chicken feed will result in yellower egg yolks. If memory serves, flaxseed also has a lot of carotenoids and will darken egg yolks.

Where I live in Canada, the preference is strongly towards really pale yolks. The regional preference for egg yolk colour fascinates me. Visitors to my part of the world are often disturbed by how light our eggs are. (As I would be by a burnt orange coloured yolk).

Our yolks do tend to be a much darker orange than the eggs we (used to) get at the store. Our chickens eat layer rations from the co-op, the occasional handful of cracked corn, and lots and lots of bugs and grass and weeds. I also think our eggs taste a lot better than the ones from the store, but I might be the teeniest bit prejudiced.

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Wow, Brian turned into a handsome young man, didn’t he! Is he tall too?

He’s just a smidge under six feet tall. He’s awfully skinny, too, which makes him look even taller than he is. He’s a string bean!

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By the way- you guys look like Robodorks hugging on that chicken.

Well, that’s because we ARE robodorks, and proud of it!

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I LOVE the chicken. I need to know where he is so we can go visit him someday.

He’s at Exit 6 off highway 65 in Elkton, TN. Go visit him, he needs the company!

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It looks like the chicken just birthed you in the first pic.

Good, ’cause that’s what I was going for! Heh.

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It’s Robyn! In jeans! Which brand did you finally decide on?

I ended up finding the Fashion Bug LA Blues Wilshires the most comfortable. They suggested the size 11 petites for me, so I ordered them, got them, and found them too big. I ordered 9 petites instead, and they fit just right. I need to order a few more pair, though – I currently only have two pair, and need a couple more to get me through the week between laundry days!

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A tip if you ever do go back to Red Robin, any of the burgers with beef patties you can ask to have petite size and it’s a smaller patty & bun, and it’s a buck less.

I’ll definitely do that next time!

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No trip to Trader Joe’s when you went to Nashville?! I was sure you’d hit it up.

No trip to Trader Joe’s this time, because we weren’t going home ’til late at night, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll want to buy stuff that needs to be refrigerated. A trip to Trader Joe’s is definitely in my future, though!

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I miss Opryland, the amusement park they tore down to build Opry Mills. But their IMAX theater is very cool. Red Robin is wonderful! Did anyone get the burger with the egg on it? I tried one of those the first time I went and it was so GOOD.

Fred always talks glowingly about Opryland and wishes it was still around, too!

None of us tried the burger with the egg on it, but I have my eye on it for the next time I visit!

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I just noticed your new(ish?) profile pic in the upper right hand corner of the page. When did Bitchypoo bring the sex-ay? It must have been before the SCOOP HANDS! Or do SCOOP HANDS! make you sexy? Seriously, you look mysterious, and can I say, beautiful in that pic. I highly approve!

::Blush:: Awww, go on, you! To be fair I had the camera set on some super-flattering setting, apparently, one I haven’t been able to duplicate since. Also, I was laying down, which helped reduce my wattle, and I was apparently having a good hair day.

(Also, SCOOP HANDS can never hurt!)

I think this is a fairer representation of what I look like on a day-to-day basis:

(In the gas station bathroom at Lawrenceburg, TN where we bought our “Hunk A Pizza.” I am clearly exhausted from the 9 hours of sleep I had the night before.)

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I’m still snorting about you all deciding to go out instead of just ‘sitting around’ and then going to Madison to check your PO Box! Whoop-ta-ha!

Didn’t I mention that we live large ’round these parts? We totally do!

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Tell me, how do you pronounce pecan? Is it pee-can or p-caun with the emphasis on the caun?

I usually pronounce it pee-can, though I occasionally go the p-caun route for no particular reason. Fred always pronounces it p-caun and mocks me for using pee-can.

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You MUST make sugared pecans! Must, must, must.

Anything that starts with ‘sugared’ HAS to be good!

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How did you like Cherryholmes? I love them!

I LOVED them! I love their sound, and they did a song that resulted in a standing ovation. And for that matter, thanks for the reminder – I wanted to download some of their songs on iTunes!

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So…Furminator. I’m about to buy one. A link you have shows a large one. Is this the size you have? Are the brushes the same for cats and dogs, except different widths?

The brush we have is this one, not the large one. I think when I bought the Furminator we have, they either didn’t have the ones specifically for cats, or I just didn’t realize they existed. I expect they’re probably the same – I use the one meant for dogs on the cats, and it works really, really well. I highly recommend the Furminator!

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Doesn’t Miz Poo just look terribly miserable? Poor neglected baby!

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Previously
2007: I LURVE THE LOBSTER.
2007: I’m surprised the damn government didn’t declare a “National Day of Celebration” for Wednesday to commemorate Saddam Hussein’s death, just so they could stop the mail delivery for a third day in a row.
2006: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Note to self
2002: (“Damn, Robyn sure is impressed with herself, isn’t she?”)
2001: Robyn’s Resolutions for 2001.
2000: Exciting, no?