6/12/07

go check her out!

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Things that have recently made me laugh: 1. Fred emailing me this picture, saying “This is how I feel today.” 2. This picture, because “nom nom” is HILARIOUS. 3. An email from reader Jennifer, who said When I saw the picture of your new foster kitty, I thought she reminded me of someone. I was on perezhilton.com and figured out who it was. I don’t know if it’s the pouty smirk or what- but they look alike to me. (That’s Ashley Olson) Clearly Maryanne is the missing Olson – they were triplets, not twins!!! 4. When my parents were visiting, my mother, the spud and I went shopping one day. I ended up in Steve & Barry, looking at the t-shirts. I saw one that was just perfect for Fred, but I didn’t buy it, because I knew he’d never wear it, but he talks about his so often that I took a picture and sent it to him instead. 5. I realized this morning, as I was responding to an email, that when I type a smiley in an email, I actually smile in real life. I think this makes me a dork of the highest order.
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Cool ways to spend your money: 1. Buy a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Promise ring. 2. In Darfur, Sudan, many women living in refugee camps have no choice but to put themselves in the path of government-supported militiamen, Janjaweed, as they rape and slaughter their way across the region. “To fuel their traditional cooking fires, women spend as much as seven hours a day foraging for scarce wood, and while they’re out searching, they’re vulnerable to rape. The men can’t go instead because the Janjaweed kill them outright. And the women have become so desperate, they’re selling their food rations to buy wood.” Energy analyst at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Christina Galinsky, worked with her colleague, Ashok Gadgil, to develop a simple stove that reduces the amount of fuel consumed in cooking by up to 75%. There are 2.2 million refugees in Darfur who need about 300,000 stoves. (O Magazine, June ’07). It costs $30 to donate a stove to a woman and help keep her safe.
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Recent questions and comments: Can we have a beagle update pleeeeeease? I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the beagle, which I guess means she hasn’t escaped. The woman was so happy to see her when Fred and I brought her over there, that I assume the beagle’s living a very cushy life and probably has the run of the house.
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Why aren’t you using a hoe to chop the weeds out by the roots? Because I’m weeding between the plants, not between the rows, and there isn’t enough room between the plants for a hoe. Even weeding by hand (and using a hand cultivator), I’ve managed to accidentally pull up several plants; I can only imagine how much damage I’d do with a hoe.
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ACK! Still not separating your hanging-out clothes??!!?? It’s all about the aesthetics, girl! A well-hung line 😀 is a thing of beauty and as good as a hen house any day! Give it a try and stand back and admire your creation! And … you’ll have the admiration of all your neighbors as they drive by! Fred will beam with pride! Nope, still not separating my clothes, still not planning to do so. I mean this with love and all, but you laundry nazis kinda need to get a life. How can whether I separate my clothes or not have y’all in such a tizzy? Fred couldn’t care less whether I separate the clothes (and if he did care, I’d invite him to separate them to his heart’s content), and if he started beaming with pride over laundry, well, he’d need to get himself a life. If he has clean laundry in his dresser, he’s happy.
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Is that a red toaster?? Where, oh where, did you get it? I’m a complete sucker for red appliances. I got it on Amazon, of course. When I moved into this house, I didn’t want to bring the old toaster with me, because it was (1) A piece of crap and (2) white. Since my kitchen colors are red and yellow, I’m slowly moving all the appliances over to be red or yellow (when Fred’s black coffee maker starts to go bad, I’ll likely get a red one to replace it), and it’s a lot easier to find red appliances than yellow (my yellow KitchenAid mixer being the exception, of course).
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Damn that cookie looks good, was it? It was very good – I used this recipe – but the frosting left a little to be desired. I was making basic buttercream frosting, when Fred mentioned at the last moment that he wanted chocolate frosting, so I just dumped a bunch of cocoa powder in the frosting. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I used Ghiardelli milk chocolate chips in the cookie, which only made the cookie better.
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Someone recently asked about the Litter Robot and how it’s working for us. It’s working out okay, I guess. I did what the literature (and some of y’all) suggested and let the regular litterbox get all kinds of nasty so the cats would be kind of forced to use the Litter Robot. The reaction there is that someone – I suspect either Spanky or Spot – registered their displeasure by peeing on the rug in the dining room. Since I don’t want the house to smell like cat pee, I started cleaning out the regular litter box again, because I learn quickly. At this point, the three youngest cats – Sugarbutt, Tommy, Mister Boogers – will use the Litter Robot, but the three older aren’t interested. I clean out the regular litter box every morning, and empty out the Litter Robot “drawer” at the same time, and since I’m only having to do it once a day rather than twice, I’m happy. In a perfect world they’d all use the Litter Robot, but they won’t, and I’m just happy that we have enough room in the laundry room for the Litter Robot and the regular litter box.
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No foster kitten pics, sorry – I didn’t really have a chance to get pictures today, I’m sure there’ll be plenty tomorrow. The kittens are doing okay, except that they’ve all got upper respiratory infections, which means we have to treat them with doxycycline, which tastes NASTY* and thank god I’ve got Fred to help me, because there’s no way on earth I’d be able to medicate those kittens on my own. As it stands, Fred has to grab them by the nape of the neck, we wrap a small towel around them to stop the claws from gouging us, and I squirt the medicine in their mouths and they turn into wildcats, Fred puts them down, and they run away hissing. Only five more days of this! Urgh. *Good christ. They can do FACE TRANSPLANTS, but they can’t make doxycycline palatable to kittens? That’s fucked up.
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Previously 2006: He’s such a nosy little fucker. 2005: No entry. 2004: No entry. 2003: Wouldn’t it be funny if as soon as we put all the flyers out in the neighborhood, he came swishing home? 2002: “NO,” he said with great certainty. “That was YOU!” 2001: But look at that little face. How can you not see it and just grin like a fool? 2000: Which is better than it could have been – we were afraid his foot was slowly rotting off.]]>