I changed the way, once again, that I’m organizing my links list. I’m using Google Reader to do so, which is easier for me. So I wouldn’t have just a long list of nothin’ but links, I organized them into categories, and you can see the list here. You can also find that link in the left sidebar with the picture of Miz Poo on the bookcase confusingly entitled “Blogs I Read.” You can ALSO find the link in the right sidebar with “Links” in the header of the block and “Blogs I Read” as the actual link.
Or you could just frantically enter “links,” “blogs you read,” “llinks,” “linx,” and “list of links” or any other descriptive phrase in the search box. I don’t know if that’ll get you where you want to go, but it’s worth a try, I s’pose. Whatever works for you works for me.
That list doesn’t include blogs that don’t have an RSS feed. Which isn’t to say that I don’t read blogs that don’t have RSS feeds, I just need to make a list of them to add to the bottom of that page. I’m perpetually behind in my blog reading (right now, Google Reader informs me that I have 1000+ unread items. I think it’s unfair that they stop counting at 1000. I NEED an exact number!) and I’m especially far behind when it comes to blogs that have no RSS feed.
I’m always behind on everything always, is what I’m saying to you.
I tried a couple of new recipes last week, and both of them were really good.
The first was Dried Cherry and Ricotta Muffins. They were really good, and I bet you could add just about any kind of dried fruit to the recipe that you like. They’re a lightly sweet, moist muffin, and I give ’em two thumbs up. Fred didn’t care for them, though, not that I was making them for him, anyway, SO THERE.
The other was Poppy Seed Chicken, which could not possibly have been easier or tastier. The fact that I always have canned chicken on hand made it even easier. I was a little worried that it would be bland, but it wasn’t at all. It’s comfort food, really, is what it is. And a good way to use up some of that canned chicken you have laying around!
Yesterday I worked out in the garden for a couple of hours, weeding the part of the row of tomatoes where I haven’t put down newspapers to block the weeds. I also went through and did some pruning. Honest to god, I’d like to tell you that I have some idea of what the hell I’m doing when I prune tomato plants, but I so don’t. I kind of hack willy-nilly, and as long as there aren’t blossoms on the parts I cut off, I’m happy.
Unfortunately, I found blossom-end rot and had to pull and toss about 15 small tomatoes. We still haven’t gotten a single damn ripe tomato from the garden, but last night we had oven-fried green tomatoes, and while they were really good, they made me want some ripe tomatoes that much more. I’m starting to think that tomatoes just don’t like our garden, and maybe next year all the tomato plants should be in raised beds behind the back yard. The six tomato plants I have back there right now look mighty happy. Actually, the tomato plants in the garden look pretty happy, too, since this year I’m keeping on top of the weeding and pruning.
The green beans we grew this year – Contender Bush Beans – are really good, but the last time Fred brought in a big bucket from the garden, more than half of them had holes in them from some damn bug or another. I’ve only got 26 pounds of green beans put up thus far (I was aiming for 40), and I’m not sure whether he’s planning a second planting or not. He decided to do bush beans this year and after the first time he picked beans, he announced that he remembered why he hadn’t planted bush beans last year – apparently they’re a pain in the ass to pick and pole beans are easier. Last year I canned all our green beans. This year, I’m freezing them. The canned green beans are easier to deal with at meal time, but I have decided that I like the consistency of the frozen-then-cooked beans more. Next year I’ll have forgotten that fact and will go back to canning, I’m sure.
The squash is coming in like crazy, especially the scalloped squash. We’ve had stuffed scalloped squash, oven-fried scalloped squash, and mashed scalloped squash (cut up squash, boil ’til tender, drain, add salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of cheese of your choice). I tried canning scalloped and yellow crookneck squash, but I think I’m going to boil it, mash it, and freeze it instead. Canned is a nice idea, but since squash cooks down to almost nothing, we’ll just about be drinking the canned stuff through a straw.
Fred planted a lot of spaghetti squash this year. I think we’re going to have more of that than anything – good thing I love the consistency of spaghetti squash, because we’ll probably be eating it at every meal over the winter.
Have you ever had purslane? Fred thought he’d found some growing in the ditch and I was all for cutting some and eating it, but he talked me down from it since (1) the runoff from the road flows directly through that ditch and (2) he wasn’t completely sure it was purslane. But ever since he brought it up and I read about it online, I’m dying to try it. Have you had it? Is it good? Do I want to grow some next year?
I could look for it in the wild, but to be honest, I really thought the stuff in the ditch was purslane – Fred’s stepmother told us it isn’t, it’s some poisonous something-or-other (THEY ALWAYS RUIN MY FUN) – and I’m not sure I could successfully identify it.
Someone asked yesterday if the Bookworms are ready for adoption yet. The answer is that while they’re certainly big enough to be neutered (Corbett, the smallest of the litter, is over 4 pounds), they still have to be retested before that can happen. (Those of you who are new to the site, the Bookworms came up FIV positive two months ago.) I’m going on vacation in a couple of weeks, and once I get back I’ll be taking them for that. I have no doubt at all that all four of them will test negative and can then be neutered, id-chipped, and go off to the adoption center to be adopted.
(Unless one – or some – of you nice people are interested in adopting them and want to save them from the sad fate of sitting in a cage for 10 seconds before someone comes along and falls immediately in love with them, that is.)
So that’s why they’re still around even though they’ve moved from their tiny cute kitten stage to their long and lanky teenage stage. If it wasn’t for the positive FIV result, they would have gone off to be adopted two months ago.
“C’mere, Elweird, you have shmutz on your head.”
The Bookworms in the sun.
Happy Corbett.
“I can’t help it. I don’t like those little bitty kittens. I’m the baby around here!”
Rhyme and Corbett.
Garrity jumps! He misses! But he certainly looks amused by the fact that he missed, doesn’t he?
Sheila does love the feather teaser…
Pondering.
Considering.
Thinking.
Planning.
Later.
She smacks! She misses! (Note Gavin and Garrity over there in that basket egging her on.)
Got it!
I hear tell there’s a magical place where the cats do NOT take over all the furniture in the house. Is this a real place, or just something they made up to make me jealous?
Previously
2009: The airport for the night, then.
2008: No entry.
2007: No Mister Boogers.
2006: No entry.
2005: Oh, the hilarity that ensues when your car and foster kitten have the same name! I could almost hear the laugh track in the background.
2004: PMS, anyone?
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001:No entry.
2000: Charmed life, have I mentioned?