6/17/05 – Bitchypoo

banana bread, and then because that only requires 3 bananas and I had 4, I used the last one to make banana nut breakfast cookies. While those were cooking, I made a batch of blueberry bran muffins, which I’ve been meaning to make and freeze so I’d have something good on hand for breakfast. Then when I was typing up the recipes, I realized that I’d used 3/4 cup of bran flakes in the muffin part of the recipe, when the recipe actually calls for 1 3/4 cup. I made this same recipe a few weeks ago and used 3/4 cup of bran flakes then, and the muffins came out okay, but I decided that I’d use up the last of the buttermilk and make a second batch following the exact recipe, and see if there was any big difference. When the first batch of muffins were cooking, I cleaned up the kitchen and took a break for lunch. Once lunch was finished, I made pecan squares, because Fred’s office manager made them around Christmas time two or three years ago, and he’s been kind of craving them ever since. Since I was using a smaller pan than the 15×10 the recipe called for, I had to keep an eye on the pecan squares while they were cooking. While the pecan squares were cooking, I made the second batch of blueberry bran muffins, then finished cleaning up the kitchen and started the dishwasher. The pecan squares finally finished, so I set that pan on a wire rack to cool, put the muffins in to cook, and collapsed on the couch to watch an episode of Oprah. This might be a new diet for me, because after spending all day cooking that shit, I had no desire to eat any of it. I did try the pecan squares, though, and they were pretty damn good. Fred also tried the pecan squares, and then said “This might be a weird thing to say, but they’re really sweet, aren’t they?” And I gave him a look and said “They’re composed of corn syrup, sugar, margarine, and pecans. You expected them to be salty?”

* * * Currently reading: One Shot, by Lee Child. LOVE that Jack Reacher. Finished the night before last: Magical Thinking, by Augusten Burroughs. I have to say, I enjoyed this book far more than I enjoyed Running With Scissors. It made me guffaw like a goon more than a few times. * * * I went to Hallmark the other day, because Father’s Day is this weekend, and I needed to get Father’s Day cards for my father, Fred’s father, and his stepfather. I had picked out cards and was standing in line to check out, when the woman standing behind the counter (who sounded EXACTLY like Shonna from Family Plots) said “Did you see that our ladder frames are on sale for $7.99?” And I so desperately wanted to say “Did I see? Yes. Do I care? No.”, but instead I just smiled and said “Yes I did.” I love the Hallmark store, because they have the BEST cards, but I hate going in there, because they invariably are all “Oh, did you see! The candles are on sale! This ugly jewelry is on sale! These overpriced purses are on sale!”, and I feel harassed, because I DO NOT go into Hallmark for anything other than cards, and I have to smile and wait for them to go away. I got a card for my dad that made me laugh, though.

The front.

The inside. Like I wrote when I signed it, “I should be talking, huh?” * * * The spud is leaving California for Rhode Island in a few hours. Her plane leaves at 11:00 California time and arrives in Rhode Island eight hours later. It appears, from the itinerary, to be a nonstop flight, which surprises me. I never would have guessed that there’s a direct flight from the OC to Providence, RI. She’ll be spending a few weeks with her father and his wife, and then she’ll be going up to Maine for a few more weeks. Ah, the life of the world traveller. Did I mention that we had to put the smack down on the spud? In the five days after she arrived in California, she sent and received almost 800 text messages. Not only that, but when I signed her up for the 1000 text messages per month, it apparently didn’t “take”, and when Fred called T-Mobile to see what was going on, they said they could sign her up beginning that day, but couldn’t make it retroactive to cover the 800 messages she’d already sent and received. “Let me get this straight,” Fred said at one point. “If she sends a text message, she gets charged for it, and the person she sends it to gets charged for it as well?” Long pause. “Well, that’s quite the money-maker for you, isn’t it?” Despite the fact that Verizon was running an unlimited text messaging special at the time, the T-Mobile customer service rep couldn’t be convinced to sign us up for unlimited text messaging, since they apparently don’t offer that. (Verizon’s not offering it at the moment, either. I guess it was just a limited promotion. Hopefully they’ll be offering it again in December when we’re ready to dump T-Mobile.) Anyway, Fred called the spud’s cell phone, and she didn’t answer. He tried calling another zillion times, and kept getting her voicemail. I suggested that he leave her a message asking her to call him when she was in a quiet place, and ten minutes later I got a text message: Am I in trouble? Heh. So she called Fred, and he told her she needed to calm down with the text messaging, and then I told her that she could actually talk to her friends on the phone, and if she talks to them at night or on the weekends, the minutes are completely free. Lordy. Cell phones come in handy, but they sure can be a pain in the ass, eh? * * * The section about the kittens. Well, we weighed the kittens last night and Oy – the lightest – is just under 2 pounds. The rest are over two pounds with Snoopy, aka Porky, at almost 2 1/2 pounds. I called the vet this morning to make the appointment for spaying and neutering. I was not terribly dismayed to find that they couldn’t get them in right away, to tell the truth. They’re set for the week after next. Tuesday they’re going to do three of the boys, and Thursday they’re going to do Mia, Flossie, and the other boy. I thought they’d keep them overnight, but the woman I spoke to said that they’d be able to come back home that same night. ::sob:: Mah babies are growin’ up! Oy has developed the MOST IRRITATING HABIT EVER. He’s started climbing up my back to my shoulder so he can bat at and try to eat my hair, then he jumps down and runs off and comes back a while later to do it all again. It’s mostly okay, because he’s the lightest kitten, but Snoopy saw him do it and gave it a try, and I almost passed out from the pain of him sinking his claws into my back and trying to pull his porky ass up my back. I think I’m going to have to start sitting with my back against the wall.