9/14/06

* * * My husband is a budding handyman. It’s nice to be able to pee downstairs now, I’ll tell you that!

* * * Crockpot Swiss Chicken has quickly become one of our favorite recipes around here. I think I’ve made it once a week almost every week since we tried it the first time. You just can’t beat swiss cheese and chicken. What’s funny is that I don’t usually care for swiss cheese at all, but in this recipe I just can’t get enough of it. We also had crustless quiche the other night, and as we were talking about the things we could add to it (peppers, mushrooms, ham), I said “Next year we could have a vegetable quiche, and everything in it would come directly from our chickens and our gardens!” * * * Book meme, stolen from Elizalou. 1. A book that changed your life. I really have to say that the first time I read Carrie – which was my very first adult novel – I realized that there was a whole different world of books out there than the Little House books (which, by the way, I still adore). I don’t think I actually “discovered” young adult fiction until after I’d read Carrie (my brother was a senior in high school, which would have made me… 11 or 12), and if I’d read something like The Pigman, I think my approach to adult novels might have happened in a completely different way. 2. A book you’ve read more than once. The Stand. I just love the hell out of that book. Also, Swan Song. The first time I tried reading it, I gave up after 50 pages. The second time I tried reading it, I couldn’t put it down. 3. A book you’d want on a desert island. Oddly enough, the Bible. I’ve never read the whole thing, and I hear tell there’s lots of sex, murder and intrigue in the book. 4. A book that made you giddy. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I swear to god, when I read the sentence “I can’t do chatting.”, chills went up my spine. It’s an utterly charming book that I suddenly feel the need to read again. 5. A book you wish had been written. I wish Andrew Vachss and Lee Childs would team up. Burke and Reacher together would kick ASS. 6. A book that wracked you with sobs. God-Shaped Hole. I wrote this about it back in 2003: All this to tell you that yesterday I was reading God-Shaped Hole, a book that I foolishly thought was going to be of the light-hearted Zany Chick variety. What happens at the end is made clear from the beginning, and it happens even though you don’t want it to, and even though you hope against hope that it won’t. I was a few pages from the end (and hoping against hope for a resurrection) when I read the line But Joanna wouldn’t understand the incredulity of my grief. And I burst into tears. Even just thinking about it makes me tear up, and I have no idea why. I have no clue why that one line affected me so strongly, maybe because it sounds like the truest thing I’ve ever read. the incredulity of my grief And it still makes me tear up. 7. A book you wish had never been written. We Were the Mulvaneys. I hate that fucking book. Maneater was pretty useless, too – I had to give up after about 50 pages because it was so flat-out uninteresting. 8. A book you are currently reading. A Spot of Bother, by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident. The moment I read the part on the flyleaf that said The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie’s observation that Ray has “strangler’s hands.” and snickered out loud, I knew I was going to like it. And so far, so good! 9. A book you’ve been meaning to read. I literally cannot lay on my bed, on my right side, and look at the bookcase in my bedroom, stuffed with books. There are SO MANY books and SO LITTLE time, that it just stresses me out, because I lay there and realize I have this book or that book or the other, and haven’t read it, and WANT to read it. I need to become a bed person so I can do nothing but read all day, every day. 10. Tag 10. Consider yourself tagged – and if you do this meme, leave a link to it in my comments. * * * On the Maddy front (yeah, I guess that’s going to be her name. I think it suits her.), things are going well. Yesterday evening I was worried enough to call the shelter and talk to the manager, because the first three feedings I gave Maddy, she ate about 2 tablespoons of kitten formula. The next two feedings, she ate about 1 tablespoon at each feeding, then just wouldn’t take the bottle, but she’d lay there and howl. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on, but was assured by the shelter manager that they’ll eat more sometimes than they do others. Since she was pretty active, pretty vocal, and was peeing well (and had a bowel movement! Yay!), then I should just keep an eye on her weight and make sure she wasn’t losing. I had heard her sneeze several times, though, and the shelter manager – okay, it’s time to give the shelter manager a name since typing “shelter manager” is annoying me. Let’s call her Susan, shall we? – told me that if she kept sneezing to call back, and she’d have someone run some amoxicillin down to the pet store for me to pick up. When Maddy had a sneezing fit around 8, I called Susan back and told her I thought we’d need some amoxicillin. At her 9:00 feeding, Maddy only ate a tablespoon of formula, but she was peeing well and she seemed interested in crawling around, so I made a little playpen of my legs and let her explore. This morning when I opened the carrier to feed Maddy, she heard my voice and came out of the carrier directly to me, as fast as she could. I got her to eat one and a half tablespoons, then burped her and let her explore, and then went to get a washcloth to clean the formula off her face. She squawked while I did that, then started climbing on me, making sucking noises. I gave her the bottle, and she sucked down the other half a tablespoon of formula and seemed content. So she’s had a bowel movement – that makes me feel SO much better, you have no idea. I bet it makes HER feel better, too. Ha! – and she’s also purred several times. I feel like I read somewhere that orphans start purring earlier than kittens who are kept with their mothers, but I also seem to recall that the first batch of fosters we had, the kittens were purring when we got them, and they weren’t much older than Maddy is. Anyway. I know y’all just come here for the pictures, so let’s get to it! Maddy sadly contemplates the vast expanse of my thigh. How will she ever cross it and reach freedom?! She always looks amazed by just about everything. Maddy frantically eats, while sinking her needle-sharp claws into my hand. Those things HURT. Mister Boogers growls from the doorway. I can guarantee you that if Maddy took one step in his direction, he’d run away like the great big wimp he is. I actually made a short movie of Mister Boogers making a jerk out of himself, growling at the tiny baby kitten. You’ll have to turn the sound up – you’ll hear Maddy meowing, and then the unearthly growl that is Mister Boogers. YouTube link. * * * What a cute baby. I’m not a cat person myself and I feel us dog lovers are being discriminated against! 😉 Can we send some dog yawning pictures in? But of course! Hell, I’ll open it up to any yawning animal at all. Cats, dogs, ferrets, mice, birds, whatever – send ’em in! This is Shelly’s cat Piglet. Shelly says, Her hair is so short b/c it’s her summer haircut (which she LOVES) b/c not only is she a piggy eater, she is Pigpen dirty too. And she CLAIMS it’s a yawn, but I don’t know. That kind of looks like a “Come closer and I’ll CHEW YOUR FACE OFF!” look to me. Okay, so possibly Sunny isn’t yawning – but obviously he’s thinking about it. Sunny’s momma, Sandy, says His name is Sunny, a/k/a Mommy’s little fat boy, and the toy on his back we call Pookie. We have two other cats, Ollie (who is a total camera whore) and Rascal (pretty old and doesn’t want to be bothered). Oh, how I love the orange kitties! This is Jill’s Toonces. Jill says, Toonces is such a “Diva Cat”. I have a group of three pictures which include this one I’m sending you in a picture frame on the wall in my office. People always comment on her pictures and the cat lovers who see these really enjoy them and it sparks a lot of conversations about their cats, too. Needless to say, her pics are quite the conversation starters! I love this picture – not only does it look like it was professionally done in a studio and everything, but also Toonces apparently yawned so hard her pupils popped right out and rolled across the floor. (Jill, I LOVE that you named your cat Toonces!) Thanks for sharing, Shelly, Sandy, and Jill! The rest of you – keep ’em coming! * * * Mister Boogers hates you. * * * Previously 2005: For the record, there’s a big fucking difference between pranking someone and just being an asshole. 2004: Like, so world-weary, like “I can’t be bothered to sign ‘love’, because it sounds so warm, I need something COLDER, so I’ll just scrawl ‘as ever’”. 2003: No entry. 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: No entry.]]>