I have a question for your extravaganza. Could you take pictures of how much food you eat in a typical meal? I just got approved for RnY and I’m curious.
(Sorry about the crappy pictures) Lunch: 3 oz (before cooking) patty made of lean ground beef with 2% cheddar slice on top, some bread and butter pickles (that I made myself in July), and a salad with strawberry vinaigrette dressing. (pic)
Dinner: Jambalaya (I didn’t measure it, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was 3/4 – 1 cup) (jambalaya was made with half the rice the recipe calls for, by the way) and a serving of collard/ mustard/ turnip greens from the garden. (I ate about half the greens. I need to de-stem them in the future, I think.)
I didn’t take a picture of my breakfast, but imagine a picture here of a whole wheat english muffin with a poached egg and slice of cheese atop it.
You can freeze eggs? How … in vitro of you!! You absolutely can! If you can freeze human eggs, you can surely freeze chickens eggs, I say. (Also, I read online or in a magazine that you can do that.) I tried breaking each egg into a cup of a muffin pan, freezing them like that, and then popping them out and bagging them individually, but the eggs were sticking (even though it’s a nonstick pan), so I ended up buying silicone muffin liners, and the eggs pop right out, I bag them seperately, and then freeze them – but next time I do it, since the eggs are frozen, there’s no reason I shouldn’t just pop them all in a bag once they’re frozen, and just take out what I need.
Another question for you…Do any of your cats play fetch? I got Raven to keep Jet company, or rather so he could rough house with someone other than us. I had no clue she thought she was a dog however. She brings me her toy fleece mouse, drops it in front of me and expects me to toss it for her so she can go chase it and brings it back to me. You gotta be quick to get it or she will try to snag it back. (thinking of getting the bird gloves, lol) She will do this for hours. She doesn’t get tricked into you threw it when you didn’t. The only way you can stop playing is to hide the mouse where she can’t find it. Normally she will bring you another one though. lol It is kinda fun but after a few hours, the arm gets sore. None of our cats currently play fetch, but when we first got Mister Boogers, he would fetch as long as you kept throwing toys for him. He got old and grumpy, though, and won’t do it anymore. That is, he’ll chase toys you throw for him, but he won’t bring them back. Occasionally we’ll have a foster kitten who’ll fetch, Brolo being our most recent fetching foster.
If you put lights in the chicken coop would that make them think that the day is longer and produce more eggs or is it just the cooler weather? Yeah, lights in the chicken coop will encourage more laying. We had talked about doing that, but apparently (according to Farmer Fred, who researches everything to death) chickens will only lay so many in a lifetime, and once chickens stop laying, they’ll become dinner, so lights in the coop will result in a shorter life for them, as he sees it. And let me just say here that I have NO idea which chickens are laying and which aren’t. The only eggs I can match up to the chicken who lays them are the blue ones Frick and Flappy lay. Frick’s are a purer blue, and Flappy’s are bluish green. Other than that, it could be one chicken laying all of them, or we could actually have some that don’t ever lay, and I wouldn’t have a clue. I don’t know how it is that Fred thinks we’d ever identify the non-layers. Which is another way of saying that I have a strong feeling that our egg chickens will die of old age rather than at the hands of my husband.
Is he stubby tailed? Looks like it in the second picture. I like O’Grady. Sounds like you are over the whole “they aren’t our cats” thing. Since, y’know, you are naming them at first sight now. Yeah, he’s a stumpy-tailed guy, like Mister Boogers. I’ve decided to just give up and call any animal who wanders across our property ours. When I end up on the news as one of those cases where the local animal cops show up and take three hundred cats out of a shit-filled house, you’ll all be able to say “She never wrote about all the shit in her journal!” (Except you know I totally will. I’ll be like “Okay, so we have 84 cats. I can handle 84 cats. Except for the piles of shit everywhere. At least it’s not 100, ha ha!”)
“We should do Stinky,” Fred said. I totally came back and had to quote this because it has been in my head ALL DAY. I read this comment to Fred, and we both snickered for the longest time. I never would have noticed it if you hadn’t said anything!
With the Soft Paws, don’t you have to worry about their claws getting too long? 4 of mine have claws, and my couch and loveseat are getting shredded. No new furniture until I get something to fix that. No, you put the caps on their claws, and when they shed each claw, the cap comes off with it and you have to re-cap that claw. At first it seems like you’re recapping all the time, but as time goes by, the caps seem to stay on longer. That, or you get the hang of it more, I’m not sure which. We don’t cap their back feet, so we still get plenty of scratches on the floor and the tables and furniture, but I’ve heard of people who cap the back claws, too. Our main concern was making it so that Sugarbutt wouldn’t poke holes in me when he came for middle-of-the-night lovin’, and that they wouldn’t shred the backs of our computer chairs any worse than they have already.
Robyn–How did you know what size Soft Paws to order? I’d like to try them, my cats are 17 and 14 lbs. and not sure which size(s) to get. Any advice? I went by the sizing chart, and got medium. I think it’s better to go smaller rather than bigger if there’s a question on what size they’ll wear. I’d suggest you try the medium, and if the caps don’t completely cover the claws, you can go bigger next time you need them, but still use up the mediums. If you go too large, I’m afraid the caps won’t stick as well. Anyone out there have any additional advice on SoftPaws sizing?
Another reason Robyn is better than me. Holding down cats and putting things on their claws would not be something I would do. I don’t believe in de-clawing so I applaud your efforts. If I didn’t have Fred to help me with the capping, I don’t know how on earth I’d get it done. Seriously, I’d probably be writing entries about how much I hate my goddamn cats because they won’t just lay there and let me glue colored caps to their claws.
If you really want to know how long your walk was, you can use a site like MapMyRun. It lets you zero in on either a map or a satellite image, trace the route you went, and it tells you info about it (elevation changes, distance, etc.). I’ve used it a lot and love it! That is EXACTLY the site I’ve been looking for! I read about it somewhere (maybe SELF Magazine?), and then lost the link, and my Google searches on Sunday weren’t bringing me anything helpful at all. I don’t need it this time, since I discovered the marker that tells me the track is 1.5 miles, but I’m bookmarking it for future use!
I found a great website …linked from another website that I dont remember. Being a foster mom to the kitties and all I thought you might enjoy it. A woman lives in the mountains of Wyoming in a one room cabin and is raising a baby coyote. Its parents were killed for killing sheep. She chronicles the daily life of Charlie the coyote with fabulous pictures …and there is a fabulous orange cat named Eli involved. They sleep together! That alone is worth the trip over to see. I don’t believe there’s anything cuter on earth than a baby animal. LOOK AT THAT LITTLE FACE!
Now, I do have one other question about this remarkable grooming tool … when do you stop? Seriously, there just seems to be more and more and more fluff coming off their backs, a seemingly endless supply, and I am worried I am denuding them to the point that they will freeze when they go outside. I usually stop when Spot looks at me like “Lady, if you don’t stop the brushin’, I’m going to bite your face off.” I’m pretty sure the Furminator will only remove the loose stuff, so as long as it’s coming up and the cats are letting you do it and you’re not bored, keep on keepin’ on.
Robyn, not to be a contrarian – there are lots of Mennonites up around Ethridge & Lawrenceburg, TN to be sure. BUT – there is also a small Old Order Amish community, and that’s what draws me up there again and again. I find the commitment to that kind of lifestyle fascinating! Old Order Amish presence is why you see the buggies & other things particular to the Old Order Amish lifestyle (Mennonites can drive cars, use electricity, etc.). There’s some info about the history of the Lawrenceburg Old Order Amish community here. I honestly did not know that! Fred uses “Amish” and “Mennonites” interchangeably, so I thought… I don’t know what I thought. That they were the same thing, I guess. (Also, I lost the link you left, so put up a Wikipedia link in its place!)
My cat is an asshole who bites. Though he bites when he’s hungry, which is most of the time, since he is a fatty on a restricted diet (he’s gone from over 14 to 11.5 pounds, though!). Playing with him more has helped quite a bit- gives him an outlet for his aggression. Maybe you can get your folks a laser pointer, feather-thingey-on-a-stick, or my kitty’s favorite, a hard candy tied to a really long piece of dental floss. I can toss the candy as far as the floss will allow it to go, and then reel it back in, over and over. He loves it. I am giggling my ass off at the idea of TEASING the poor fat kitty with a piece of candy tied to the end of a length of dental floss. I should totally try that with Tommy.
As I was silently swearing at having to lug the cat litter to my 3rd floor apt, I thought, at least I don’t have to buy as much litter as Robyn does. How much kitty litter do you go thru in a week/month? I don’t actually keep track of it, but I would guess that I probably go through 3 – 4 25 pounds boxes of litter every two weeks. I empty, scrub, and refill all the litter boxes every other week, and then add litter as the box gets low during the intervening two weeks. Good christ. That’s approximately 100 pounds of litter every two weeks.
About the Real Housewives – How about Jeana and the interior decorator (I forget his name). I forget who was talking but they said Jeana and this guy are together constantly. He was at the lake with her and that is the first time I’ve seen them together! How about Vicki changing her mind on the smaller house. And, $250,000 for a swimming pool?!?! I cannot stop watching this show! Those ladies are so over the top with everything they do. The total opposite of me. I cannot wait for Lauri’s wedding!!! See the next section regarding the interior decorator. I was so horrified at the idea of spending $250,000 on a POOL (though I think the majority of the cost must have been all the extras Vicki wanted along WITH the pool) that I had to call Fred and bitch about it. That’s some bullshit, right there. Lauri’s wedding is going to be horrifically over the top, I can feel it. And speaking of Lauri, how about her saying last week that her 9 year-old daughter is the only one of her children who hadn’t disappointed her? I wanted to call her up and say “GIVE IT TIME, MOMMY DEAREST!” God.
In regards to the RHofOC…I can’t stop watching that show and I hate Vicki so much. She is such a control freak and admits to paying for stuff for her kids just so she can yank it from them if they aren’t complying. Also, did you hear Laurie say that her son moved in with her new fiance’s ex wife? WOW! I think they also said that Jeana’s male decorator friend is gay so there’s no hanky panky going on there. Does anyone know what happened to Jo? There’s more on the whole Lauri – Josh thing here. One thing you’ve got to say about that kid, he sure knows how to hit her where it hurts! Jo is in LA pursuing her career, I believe. She’s got a MySpace you can check out, and apparently her album is set to drop sometime in 2008. I saw or read somewhere that Slade’s claiming that he and Jo are being pursued for a reality show of their own – who knows? Speaking of the show – it looks like Tammy and her family are pulling out of the series. At the end of the last show, it certainly sounded like Tammy was giving her reason for leaving the show, and next week they’re introducing a new Housewife. Should be interesting.
Hi Robyn I just finished reading “Kite Runner” yesterday and I thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. I noticed you only gave it 3 happy faces. I would have given it 5 happy faces!! I was just wondering what about it you didn’t like? I… don’t know? This is why I don’t do book reviews! All I can tell you is that when I was done reading it, I said to myself “Did I like this book?”, and the answer was “Yes.” And then I asked myself “Would I say that someone should drop everything and run right out and buy it (five smileys)? Or would I recommend that someone go out and buy it, it’s so good (four smileys)? Or would I recommend that it’s certainly worth reading, but they should borrow it from a friend or a library (three smileys)?” And the answer was “It’s worth a read, but I’d recommend they borrow it to read it, and not spend their money.” I’m far more careful with everyone else’s (theoretical) money than I am my own, so… there you go. How’s that for a non-answer!
I’ve probably commented on it before, but I have a bitchy, twitchy, unfriendly orange tabby cat. He only likes to be scratched on the head, but don’t dare touch him anywhere else. If you don’t get bit or scratched, he runs off, meowing bitchily. His tail is constantly twitching. He will sit in my lap once in a blue moon, and it usually makes me suspicious. He’s very entertaining, though, in a crazy way. I think he’s broken. I’m pretty sure you’ve mentioned his cranky orange ass before, Christy, and I think I decided that he must be the exception that proves the rule! 🙂 (I’m imagining him deciding he wants to spend some quality lap time, and you sitting there, afraid to move lest he attack. Heh!)
I was going to sign up for a card from you this year (still have the one from last year) but felt so sorry for you writing, writing, writing and wanted to ask in the Q&A extravaganza whether you get writer’s cramp. After reading these comments I think I want a 2007 And3rson Card. Maybe you could do ecards as well? Like you have nothing else to do with your days!!! Nope, I’ve never had a problem with writer’s cramp. I use a good pen, and take plenty of writing breaks, but in the end, I don’t do that much writing, either – just a quick note in the card and our names. (I also don’t sign it from the cats, because that WOULD give me writer’s cramp!) I don’t do ecards, though – if you want a holiday card from Crooked Acres, you’ve gotta sign up for a real one! 🙂
I was looking back through old anniversary issues looking for a wedding pic. While I did not find a wedding pic *hint hint* I did notice that the Boogs had his infamous Stare at a young age. The pics of him in the 2003 anniversary entry are classic. It is even funnier seeing that Stare on the wee kitteh. You should know that the only reason it’s taken me so long to get these pictures posted is because I was too damn lazy to get the pictures out and scan them, and it wasn’t until yesterday that it occurred to me to check and see if, at some point in the past, I’d scanned them. The answer is yes, I certainly did. DUH.
Note: Although it looks like it, Fred does NOT have a mullet in this picture. The lady who married us is standing on the other side of us, and her hair is kind of blending into Fred’s in the picture. (pic)
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For comparison, then and now:
My nose got bigger and my face got wrinklier, but at least Fred shed the biggest goddamn glasses in existence.
Previously 2006: “I LOOK LIKE SID VICIOUS!” I said. 2005: I love my husband, but “Mrs. Fred And3rson” IS NOT MY FUCKING NAME. 2004: (I never claimed not to be a dumbass) 2003: I would be ever so grateful if you would restrain yourself. 2002: No entry. 2001: I knew y’all were a hip and happenin’ bunch of readers! 2000: Stuff I’ve bought. 1999: And it tasted excellent, of course, which made the eggfart stenchiness more than worth it.]]>