Busy Day!

Today's the day Brett and Jay head on out to Halifax. Brett had us all up bright and early (aka 430am!), and after some shuffling around, packing things up in the car, etc I dropped them off at the Akron Canton airport.

The Akron Canton airport is down in the same direction as one of my major weaknesses - Chick Fil A. Well it's a good thing Chick Fil A isn't open at 6am!

Came back, fired off some "ha ha, I'm going back to bed and you have to work" emails to friends, and in my email to Sharon (who didn't have to work or go to class today) I mentioned I was tempted by Chick Fil A.

Went to bed, having set the alarm for 8am. Yeah, right. Hit snooze til 930am (it's my mutant power - for a good chunk of that time I'm not even aware I'm hitting snooze!). Stayed in bed a little while longer since the kittens were in bed entertaining me (dozing off, wrestling with each other, giving me love, etc). Got up, checked email, and there's a proposal from Sharon - do I want to join her in her mattress shopping excursion, which would take her down in the direction of Chick Fil A - we could do lunch.

I'm in!

Called her, worked out the plans for later in the day, and got distracted by the kittens. Here's Simon outdoing himself...




Tucker and Moxie were also up to no good - now he's teaching her his bad habits, like getting up on top of the entertainment center. Like she's not good enough at stirring up trouble on her own!?




Notice how her eyes just pretty much disappear in most photos!? She's a master of disguise - she can be in the shadows watching us and we never even realize it sometimes! Plus she's so fast that it's next to impossible to get a good picture of her while she's awake.

After losing some time to that I ate a quick bowl of cereal (Cocoa Krispies!), jumped in the car, drove to the garden, and picked veggies.






Came back from the garden, hopped in the shower, and it wasn't long after that that Sharon showed up. She got to play with the kittens, and then we headed on out for lunch (YAY CHICK FIL A!) and her mattress shopping. Man, that girl was on A LOT of mattresses today! Bouncey bouncey bouncey! Got home around 330 or 4, played with the kittens some more, and then after she left I stalled for awhile before starting on cleaning and organizing - gotta have this place tidied up so we can put it on the market reeeeal soon!!

But how am I supposed to keep working so hard, when there are constant distractions like this?!?!

(Hint: Moxie's cleaning Simon's paw!)

(Awwww...they really like each other! Before now, all they did was pretty much chase each other around and wrestle!)

Zzzzzzzzzzz

This is what I have to tolerate in the chair right next to me while I work on the computer!

Sorry, but something like that just can't be avoided! ;-) 'Sides, I've got through Sunday evening or Monday to do the cleaning/organizing work, plus make pickles (they're sitting in salt now), make plum jelly for the first time ever, get some client work done, etc etc I can pace myself! :)

Almost time for dinner - which means a break from work. I think it's gonna be leftovers from the homemade pizzas we fed Jay last nite, plus brownies and Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge chunk ice cream - yum! (I have yet to get to try the Sticky Toffee ice cream Dave's been raving about!) Maybe I'll get some reading in, or watch a movie. Still need to watch Dad's House of Flying Daggers so I can return it to him next time we visit my folks...

Y'know, I look forward to some "alone time" at home once in awhile, but it's really lonely without Brett here. :( Could be a long 4 days!

And they're off!

Just got back in from dropping Brett and Jay off at the Akron Canton Airport for their Great Canadian Adventure, aka the Great Gay Wedding of Michael and Nick in Halifax... Their flight departs at 7:02am, I've set up all the email notifications for their departures and arrivals for each leg of the flights out and back, and now it's just me and the kitties til Sunday nite.

Man, this is about the time I'd groggily be getting into the car to head to work (ok, let's be honest...I'd be running late and it'd be another fifteen minutes or more!).

Instead...I think I'm going grab a couple kittens and go back to bed! ;-)

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna's one of our vegans in the building here at work, and she looooves to cook/bake as much as I do (or more!). I have to admit, I sometimes feel skeptical about what she wants me to try because, well, it's vegan! But wow, everything's been pretty good - the last cupcake she brought in, some sort of hazelnut cupcake with a mousse on the inside and maybe a frosting on top if I remember correctly? - was GREAT!

Today she's outdone herself. For her birthday she made these vegan "Oreo" cupcakes - I guess the vegan version of Oreos are Numinoes? Talk about rich and delicious! YUM!

So Happy Birthday Anna - and thanks for the lethal breathfast! Wait...lethal? HA! It's vegan - I'm sure I could eat a dozen of these things and only get healthier...

PS Trying out the new cell phone camera here...

Joe's Obscenely Rich Peppermint Brownies

Joe over at Culinary in the Desert Country is always making some of the most amazing dishes - many of which are even healthy!!! This time I don't know that he actually went for the "healthy" option... Check out these amazing looking (and I'm sure amazing TASTING) peppermint brownies with ganache topping! Holy smokes - I'm gonna have to make some of those REAL soon! Since Brett's going to be up in Halifax this Thurs-Sunday, should I just treat myself and eat the entire pan!??!?! >:-) Hm - Sharon's back in town now, and I've bribed her to come over and help me tidy/organize the place since we might be showing it to a potential buyer on Monday (ah! nerves!), so maybe I'll share 'em with her.... Or maybe I should make the coconut variation!? Either way - YUM!

Cat Fight Tonite!

So in the 24 hrs since I picked up Simon, he's been nothing but a lover. Ok, he's done a little play fighting with us, or attacking toys and wrestling with them. But other than that he hasn't had a whole lot of spunk.

Tucker's done surprisingly well with him!

Moxie, on the other hand, is turning into a real vocal little hellion! She's given him nothing but attitude, first seeming scared of him, and then starting to his and growl. Now she's to the point where she sounds like a chain smoker - sounding all gravelly as she gives him attitude.

While we were trying to watch tv and eat dinner tonite Moxie and Simon started putting on a little show. He'd race up to her, she'd his and smack at him, and then they'd go running off into the other room. Cute! Nothing too dangerous.

Not long after dinner Brett said I needed to come out and look - they'd gone full on contact crazy. Check out these two videos as proof (sorry they're so dark):






We finally separated them, mostly because Moxie was getting so worked up she was coughing. (I figure she swallowed a mouth full of Simon fur!) At no point does he seem like he feels threatened or upset by all of this. He just rolls with whatever's going on - from loving to full throttle attacks by Moxie, who we're realizing is becoming the queen of the house. Warrior Princess Xena maybe?!

Hopefully we'll have better videos with our new cell phones soon!

beans.berries.bananas

I was a bit busy with cranking stuff through the kitchen the last couple of days, and have more plans in the near future!

First I made four 1/2 pints of dill beans, adjusting the recipe slightly since I didn't have red peppers but DID have some hot peppers and jalapenos (and another recipe for the same thing I'd been given awhile back called for all jalapenos). I also upped the garlic a bit - so hopefully once these beans are done pickling or whatever it is they do, they'll have some kick!



And last nite I figured I better use up the 4 bananas that were on the verge of getting too ripe. Since the last round of banana bread I made, which I experimented with and added frozen blueberries to, went over so well at work, I figured I'd do the same thing again. Just dumped some frozen blueberries into a mix of flour and granulated sugar, stirred 'em around in the dry mix, then stirred just the dusted berries in the banana bread batter. REALLY GOOD! I figure the flour/sugar mixture is mainly to stop the berries from sinking (the same is done with chocolate chips in batters), but I added the sugar just in case the berries weren't sweet enough.

As you can see from the pics below, I made two loaves with the four bananas. Last time I only took a half loaf in to work and it was wiped out in no time. This time Brett and I each got a full loaf to take in, and both were down to just a slice or two shortly after lunch, so I guess they're a hit! :)

I've got two zucchini on the kitchen counter - I figure it's time to make more zucchini bread next, eh?

No more cats!

Ok, that's it, we've hit our three-kitty maximum again...and now we've got two of them closer in age range this time around. I figured Moxie would get along great with the new kitten, and that Tucker would have major issues. Seems to be the other way around - for such a young thing, she's being quite territorial - or spooked by him - we're not 100% certain which.



Sometimes his adventuring around the house results in surprise confrontations. Tucker's usually alright with it, but Moxie's taking to hissing and growling at him. She had him pinned on the steps for awhile earlier - Brett thought he heard a motorcycle revving outside, but it was just Mox!

Here it looks like they're teaming up on him!


We're not set on a name yet, but I honestly don't think it'll take as long as it did with Moxie, so don't fret! He came to us with the name Simon, which we really kind of like, but we've also considered Hershey, Rocky (thanks to Michele's mom), Kirby (got voted out), and a few others. Brett's dead set on finding some Star Wars name I'll agree to. Sure, Chewie's a cute name, but I'm not sure it fits this guy. Considering how much of a lover and a flirt he is, perhaps Casanova would be more appropriate!?

OMG OMG OMG!!!!

(Squealing like a school girl!)

Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again

I HAVE to have this! It's not out til Oct 24 - and that's WAY too far away!! I don't care that the editoral review even fesses up that "her recipe for Sunday Morning Oatmeal barely elevates the instructions on the Quaker canister" - and that "some of Garten's 'feel-good' foods barely warrant inclusion." I'm ok with all of that, and I... WANT... IT... NOW!!! (Oh, c'mon, don't tell me you've NEVER felt that way about a cookbook or something else coming out "soon")

I have it on my wishlist already. Brett says I should ask for it for Christmas, but that's two months AFTER it comes out! AAAAH! I could never survive that long!

:)

Little Miss Sunshine

After the long as hell, hectic, crazy, busy, exciting, frustrating, nerve wracking, exhilerating, AND MORE day yesterday, a day that didn't end til LATE last nite and covered all the bases (work, freelance work, house hunting, family, etc) I slept in LATE this morning. Didn't really do a whole lot today. Brett worked things out with Dave and Jay to get us all to the last matinee of Little Miss Sunshine, and then afterwards we walked over to Quaker Steak & Lube for dinner.

While I remembered sort of enjoying the trailer we saw ages ago for Little Miss Sunshine, I just wasn't enthusiastic about going to see it after the last couple weeks, and especially yesterday. I did a good job of sitting here in a funk today - no food sounded good, nothing seemed to entertain me, no way in hell I was going to do anything productive, etc. But I figured, heck, Brett wanted to go see the movie and it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and be social.

Good call Brett! The movie was GREAT! Sure, the topic of death came up in it more than once, and that hit the still tender spots with Notch...but overall it was a blast and had me laughing out loud, stomping feet, etc for a good chunk of the movie. I love Toni Collette (aka Muriel/Mariel Heslop, from another MUST SEE movie), and normally enjoy Greg Kinnear. Steve Carell's really overstayed his welcome with me because I dislike The Office so much, and The 40 Year Old Virgin didn't do much for me - but I have to say I REALLY enjoyed him in this movie... It was just a great movie overall - I highly recommend going to see it or, if you prefer, viewing it as soon as it's out on DVD. Definitely a must see movie!

And Dave? That girl we were trying to recognize? Nope - not from The Office after all. Her name's Mary Lynn Rajskub, and while I've seen lots of things she's been in, nothing seem particularly noteable. Hm.

Oh, and the wings at Quaker Steak? YUM!

What dentists should wear

At the recent approval for the "change in direction of this blog"...LOL

This is NOT how my trip to the dentist went last Friday! (Sadly)

** Warning - there are some slightly naughtier pics on the site that link takes you to, so if you're not up for something that may surprise you a little, don't go. Oh heck, just click here if you want to see the picture and not read the related article...don't worry, there's no full frontal nudity or anything like that.

I have to say, if the article is true, I'm a little unnerved that a dentist would get his SON to pose like that. Granted, I have ZERO issues with his son posing like that!!!! :)

I'm attaching the "before" picture to lure you in to the link... ;-) It's scrumdillyumptious!

Oh hey, if you look close, you'll see there DOES appear to be a dentist sitting down at work (look in the mirror on the back wall) LOL

Long day...bummer evening?

Talk about a long day. Work included another one of those mega-long training sessions for a new staff member, followed by a meeting where I was about to doze off - I think mostly because my eyes are really tired and twitchy.

Got off work, stopping to chat with folks on the way out to the car, ran an errand, took a couple phone calls, got home, changed shirts (felt grubby from work), loaded up three bags of tomatoes, grabbed house hunting paperwork, dropped one tomato bag off to the neighbors, rushed back to Kent, picked up Brett, stopped by to see the siamese kitten we've been contemplating at his rescuer's home (yup, he's a keeper!), made arrangements to come back by and pick him up on Monday before taking Moxie to the vet (the kitten needs tested etc), drove around the frat boy houses and neighborhoods of Kent for a short bit to kill time, and drove out to Twin Lakes to meet Leslie at the house we've been all excited about.

:(

NOT good...very scary with all it's major problems. It's got a great ground floor layout, and a kick ass attic-turned-spare-room, but everything else is a mess - sloping floors, looks like the house could slide over, broken windows (probably from the house shifting), major problems in basement, you name it. Bummer. That sort of deflated the good vibe I had going.

Then while talking in the driveway before heading to the next house we all noticed some MAJOR pot smell. I'm sure we looked funny standing out there, sniffing around, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Looked at the next house - Brett really liked it, I hated it. Too much of a 70s feel for me, nasty damp basement, yard's totally tree'd in, and you can easily hear rt 261 from the back porch/yard. The two spare rooms upstairs were massive - about the only good thing going for it.

By this time we were getting in a real house hunting funk...then we saw house #3 - WOW! Funny thing is it's right next door to Brian in my dept at work (and he's looking to sell his place as well!). We love it, but it MIGHT be out of our budget range - so that's going to require major number crunching first.

Then we went to see the fourth and final house for the nite - what a mess. Bank foreclosure. Nuff said.

Got ALMOST to home when we remembered Brett's car was still in Kent, so we had to drive the 20 min back to Kent. Decided to grab dinner at Ray's, where I haven't eaten in years, only to find they took the wet fries off the menu. Wet fries = really good old fashioned fries with beef gravy all over (or, as I prefer, on the side). Heck, Brett ordered us the fries with a bowl of gravy anyhow - that helped make the nite.

So sure, good stuff from tonite, but also a downer on not liking the house we thought we'd love, and wondering if we can afford the house we ended out liking, and none of them being the country home I'd really like, where I'd like to try to have a couple bee hives, chickens, and Brett's myotonic goat (go on, click it, you know you want to!). Hm. Oh well - maybe the country life wasn't meant to be for us!?

There must be wild horses in heaven...

Or at least upstairs!

The snooze button was hit a couple times.

The cats have been fed and watered.

I'm just checking email before going up to get showered and ready for work....and it sounds like there are horses running all over heaven.

...or maybe that's just upstairs.

Oh wait. That's just Moxie (and probably some Tucker too) tearing all over upstairs, thrompa thrompa thrompa, eight feet in rapid fire succession slamming into the floor as they run back and forth between the bedrooms.

So THIS is what it sounds like to have children? (I guess that's be four children running around, or two cats, based on the number of feet on the floor!)

If only I'd stick with working out...

I ran a shirtless picture of myself through this amazing application that tells you what you'd look like if you just worked out a few more weeks than you did BEFORE giving up "for awhile"...due to busy schedules and such. This is me:

Ok, I'm lying. I don't know who this Matt Cooper is, but check out more images of him (including one with a shirt on - just as hot!)

Definitely gonna have to check out the Kenneth in the (212) site more, where I came across this pic, to see if there's similar good stuff there! ;-)

Oh Ricky, You're So...

...airblown?!
WTF!?

Ok people, let's have some fun with this one! Any rips on his songs that can also have fun with that hairdo??!

(Personally I LIKE his music, and I think he's USUALLY totally hot - but I'm not so sure about this look...)

A new "roommate"?

We might be going to meet someone to interview for the new roommate position tomorrow evening, before or after looking at houses with our realtor.

What do you think?

OPA! The follow up...

Dave's posted pics/entry about our Sunday afternoon event... Talk about fun! Talk about FILLING!

18 pounds of...

So, uh, did a little tomato (and more!) picking out in the garden after work. Just a few cherry tomatoes in the mix.

Oy, what am I EVER going to do with all these cherry tomatoes!? LOL

This picture doesn't show the other giant sized persimmon tomato (the yellow one) that got a little crushed on one side - it's sitting in the sink right now. They were free seeds. I haven't eatne one yet. Just something about their color turns me off I think?

Cats!

The cats were caught ready to attack something out back today. Look how Tucker's ears are laid down low! I think it was all the birds that were out there, but he was also out checking out a toad at one point. (Moxie's not allowed out at this point - too young)




Moxie loves the box that had garbage bags in it...


And here you can HOPEFULLY see all the sparkley flecks of silver hair she's grown since we picked her up. Definitely not the "plain black cat" we rescued out on the highway!

PS3 vs Wii - Apple Style

I'm completely ripping this off from Bravehound's entry - it's just that funny! ROFLMAO!

Brett's been both skeptical and then incredibly excited about picking up the Wii sometime after it comes out. Just watching the videos ads of people models using it is highly entertaining, flailing their arms all around the place with the two part controller. I admit I'm skeptical - it's pretty far removed from what people are used to when it comes to playing video/console games. Then again, I remember how freakish the mouse seemed when it was first introduced (dating myself there!). And, yes, I remember when computer files were stored on floppy disks (har har) or, to really put the point home, I remember when files were stored on AUDIO CASSETTES! Talk about noisey when you were reading them back off the cassette...

Heroes

Been seeing more ads for this - really looking promising!! Considering the subject matter, I don't have the highest hopes for the rest of America loving it, but it sure looks like it could be interesting. Sort of a modern day Misfits of Science? (wow, there's one for the way-back machine! Anyone else remember that?!?! Courtney Cox's first "big" starring roll!)









And this season's Smallville is going to be guest-starring none other than the emerald archer himself - Green Arrow! From the picture it doesn't look like they're going for a funky goatee - too bad. I always liked that about Green Arrow as I was growing up. Still, looks like the actor (Justin Hartley) could be a cutie...



Fantastic Four get's their new animated series on Cartoon Network starting Sept 2. They're looking awfully Starblazers-ish in this shot... Wonder if it'll be any good!?












Annnnnd finally, the Teen Titans will be back on with something new - Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo will debut Friday, Sept 15 - also on Cartoon Network! Yay - I miss the Titans!
Man, with all this potentially good stuff on TV, how'm I supposed to get anything else done!?

Opa!

PS - BIG thanks to Dave for taking me to the Greek Food Festival this afternoon/evening. What a great time! Man, I'm STILL stuffed on beef stew, pastitsio, green beans with tomatoes and garlic, rice pudding, gyro and those little honeyed doughnut holes (I can never remember the name!) - and yes, that's the order I ate everything in!

And then there's all the pastries we each brought back home - maybe I'll take a picture of them tomorrow. Haven't touched them - sooooo full!

Hopefully Dave will post and/or share pics/video of the fun stuff we saw and ate real soon!

A little visitor

Got up yesterday morning and noticed a small damp gray fuzzy body on the patio. Went out to find a dead baby mouse that had gotten rained on overnite - we weren't sure if it crawled out of a nest and died, or if something else dropped it off there. It didn't have any visible wounds - my guess was it just died out in the elements....probably a child of "Ferdinand," the mouse our cats loved watching out back in the spring. I buried it in the flower beds...

This morning I got up and, lo and behold, there was a small mouse out in roughly the same spot - not lying on it's side like it's sibling, and looking dry and fuzzy. Brett's first guess - it was also dead.

I went out, poked at it, and noticed breathing. Picked it up and it appeared to wake up - almost seemed like it had gone out to sun itself and fell asleep. The eyes are barely open, and it's not really skittish - makes me wonder if it's dehydrated or male-nourished. When do mice leave their mother and/or nest?

It let me pick it up and cradle it in my hand - even seemed to be suckling on my skin - cute! We don't have any eye droppers for feeding, nor mouse (nor cat) milk replacement formula and, sorry, but I'm not running out to get the stuff to nurse this mouse (don't think I didn't consider it - I did!!!) A little research implies if their eyes are open, they should be able to eat solids - so later I took out finely diced carrot and a cherry tomato chopped up. This was after probably my third visit out to check on it... It had been sitting out there in various places throughout the day, would let me pick it up each time, etc. By the time I took the food out to it, it was gone.

Hopefully it's still out there alive and will find the food. Then again, it's probably been eating bird seed from the feeder (our birds are a real MESS!) 'Sides, Brett said if I have a mouse, I can't get a new kitty. (Speaking of which, not 100% certain we're ready YET...but soon? Another rescue kitty? I'll write about Notch real soon, for those who asked... I just needed to not talk about it anymore for awhile...)

Enjoy the cute pics!

PS - Tucker's never seen a mouse (other than a toy one) and wasn't sure what to think. He didn't really seem like he wanted it - was just curious.

Garden goodies

Late this past week I made a trip out to the garden and picked quite a bit of stuff! Check it out... In the background you'll see the only yellow squash I had this time - they've seriously given up for the year. And in the foreground is the only persimmon tomato I've had yet - it was a freebie pack of seeds and I'm not sure I even want to eat the ugly thing. I'm not fond of most yellow tomatoes - not enough acid. And it just looks so...I don't know - pretty in color but not appealing or appetizing to me!

Steven - remember the "russian fingerlings on the kitchen counter experiment"? While I didn't give them the best growing conditions, we're not doing too bad! Included here are the "runts" from my second harvesting - maybe 1/3 of the russian fingerling patch? We've enjoyed the larger ones roasted with olive oil, garlic and rosemary.

Um, does anyone want a cherry tomato? How about a hundred cherry tomatoes? I'm finding each year there's one type of veggie from the garden where before long you're going from loving it to hating it, hoping some awful blight will take it down, or some new pest will find it's way into the garden and strip it down to the roots. It's the veggie where you start picking it, one or two drop to the ground, and while with the other veggies you'd frantically scamper to pick it up and salvage the veritable fruits of your labor, you instead find yourself muttering "F*ck you...if that's how you want to play it, I'm done with you for today," and then you move on to the next plant.

This year it's the Sungold cherry tomatoes. Man, these things just don't stop. It wouldn't be so bad if their skins weren't so darn tough - and it's not just the conditions, because I've got them potted up and home AND growing in the ground at the garden, plus Mary at work is having the same problem with hers.

Y'know, now that I think about it, I believe each year that "Damn I hate you!" plant has always been some variety of cherry tomatoes!! (Well, I have to include last year's highly prolific tomatillos that I ended out not really liking, and the first year's habaneros just because they were so damn evil!)


Mmmmm - patty pans and okra. While I'm surprised the patty pans aren't putting out much (I blame the squash bugs - had to brush the young insects off these patty pans - they were having a party on it!), the okra are doing great, and I've seriously neglected them!

Even though I picked something like seven or eight supersteak tomatoes in this visit, plus I've got other tomatoes from this picking and the previous one, I found it hard coming up with the 20lbs of tomatoes that my Aunt Nadine's salsa recipe called for. Luckily I still had my last two gallon bags of mixed tomatoes, individually frozen before bagging, from the end of last year's harvest. These things have gotten me through a number of pots of chili since last fall! :) Time for them to make the great sacrifice - and having been individually frozen, all it took to skin them was run each one under warm water for a second and the peels slipped right off - wonderful!

Check it out here - red ones, purple ones, orange and green - what an ugly (yet colorful!) mix of tomatoes. WOW - 20lbs is A LOT of tomatoes! Not to mention 4 green bell peppers, 4 jalapenos, plus the 3 medium hots the dentist gave me as I was leaving Friday! Most of a bunch of cilantro, two whole heads of garlic (ooh - that was fun to break apart and peel...not!). Vinegar, sugar, and some other stuff. I think next time I'll halve the sugar and see what we think. Otherwise, the salsa turned out really good!!


Sure am glad I hadn't yet returned the first of two 21qt enamel pots - the first didn't come with a canning rack (wasn't supposed to), which Steven suggested I'd need. Good call! I'm all set with two big pots now...and they fit perfectly in the dishwasher to boot! (Only one at a time...)


And here's what I ended up with:

• 12 1/2-pints of salsa
• 5 full pints of salsa
• 4 1/2-pints of bread and butter pickles
• 2 full pints of bread and butter pickles

I've already shared one of the 1/2-pints of the salsa with the neighbors, and Brett and I each have a couple coworkers to share some with. One of his coworkers got a bunch of my green tomatoes last week and, assuming she had enough to work with, might be sharing some of her pickled green tomatoes with me - something I've never had but am definitely willing to try! Doesn't sound as odd as pickled watermelon rind - and yet I'd try that too if I had the opportunity.


I hope to can some more stuff before the season's over - I like the idea of having this stuff ready for us at a moment's notice anytime through out the winter. Man, I'd do great if there was threat of nuclear war!