Not too bad, Lindsay...

A little healthy eating never killed anyone...except that one person.  Yes, that person was me.

I've been trying to lose some winter weight lately.  I've got a Caribbean vacation coming up (sadly, not the super cool kind with Raz) and spring clothing is just around the corner.  That, and someone's asshole Wii fit told me I need to lose 10 pounds.   The three C's are strictly off limits:  Candy, cakes and cookies (you know, unless my boss brings in chocolate from her trip to Paris).  Just trying to cut out too many extra carbs and added sugar is really restrictive.  I'm really in need of some method to make eating just vegetables for two meals a day tasty and possible.

Enter this fabulous recipe for Japanese Restaurant-style ginger-carrot dressing.  Not exactly like old Taipei-Tokyo's back in Monroeville, but a great substitute.  Can't be that bad for you, either.

Ugh my camera has the resolution and focus of a potato.

Speaking of slimming down, look at my li'l lady who has been just a tad slimmer since she's been hanging around outside a bit:

Balloon: I'm super sexy!

Update on Furball!

Last week Furball had been at the Vet's because he was peeing all over the place!  He's always been a crazy litterbox-digger ever since I can remember and we thought he was just neurotic, as I had mentioned it before at both of his vets and neither one seemed concerned.  This time, he was noticeably not well. The vet did about a grand of work on my free kitty, and it turns out that he has bladder stones, which is common in male cats his age.  We were glad it wasn't worse, because cats his age can often become diabetic.  Perhaps not this time, Furball is a very active cat.

Sent home with a course of antibiotics (the stones can sometimes cause infections as well) and a new urinary-tract health diet (which isn't as expensive as insulin, at least) there is approximately a million percent improvement in my little kitty.  He goes to the litterbox a normal amount of times(!) and is very energetic and friendly. As he is quite well, it does not appear at this time that we will have to get him surgery or further treatment. It was, as I must admit, very very worth the price because my home is no longer COVERED in the evidence of his many litterbox trips.  I only need to vacuum weekly, my floors are furniture are clear of litter.  ...And we may get to keep our little buddy around for another 8 years.

Photoshoot!

Furball was sick this week!  He has bladder stones and had to stay at the kitty-cat hospital for two days.  Miss Balloon was the queen of her castle with her brother away.  I took some pictures of her today because she was being so lovely and friendly!

Here's some pictures (I'm not dead, just getting old)

Balloon once had a feather growing out of her tail....I have no idea how it got there. 

Our new wheelbarrow before it got filled with dirt.  It's still in the front yard because it's too heavy to move now.

Zach put in a new walkway....he got halfway through before injuring his wrist and having to stop for a while.

I've been making flags out of fabric + double fold bias.  Easy peasy.

Last knitting project...A headband to keep my ears warm.

Dinner....Black Beans and Quinoa

Bose speakers for X-mas.  I didn't know music had all these sounds and stuff in it.

Chloe

This is another neighbor's cat, Chloe, who is a cross-eyed Burmese.  Being cross-eyed doesn't stop her from chasing Priscilla around and up into trees.  Gorgeous fur!

Halloween. Things on fire.

Last day of October today.  What does that mean?  A lot of things.  Its my Dad's birthday, for one.  It's also a holiday.  You may have heard of it...Halloween.

In the United States at least, Halloween means Jack-O-Lantern carving.  Cookies, roasted pumpkin seeds (from that Jack-O-Lantern), candy and costumes, Trick-or-treaters.

November is also the start of the cold part of the year, to me anyway.  November and December are really dark months, especially considering here in the Northwest it's cloudy most of the fall and winter months (though, oddly enough I am looking out my skylight at blue skies with puffs of clouds right now.  Don't be jealous, it won't last).  This stove came with the house.  What is it?

It's a wood pellet stove.  Not a wood-burning stove that uses logs, because I would have enjoyed that.  No, this stove gets filled with what is essentially feline pine.  It makes an annoying noise.  But it is warm and the cats LOVE it.  I'm not sure if it's because cats like the destructive power of fire.  Or warmth.  Or maybe the stove, which has four legs and makes a similar sound to a purring cat, seems like one of them.  They love to sit in front of it and watch the flames dance.  One night, we left it on very late, with the door to our room open. That night, Furball slept on top of me all night, purring loudly, just to tell me how happy he was that the stove was on.  Supposedly, however, it is very efficient, the pellets take up no space, and the stove is smokeless, which is good for your lungs.  I'll get used to the thing, I'm sure.

On another note, I've had a visitor lately:

Rrreeerrrrnnnt. 

This is my dear, sweet Priscilla.  Well not mine.  She belongs, according to her tag, to the Sailer residence at 8515 8th.  Her meow is really strange; she sounds like a creaky door.  At least once a day, usually in the morning or just after dark, she shows up to get treats and curl up on my porch furniture.  Yesterday she got a third of a can of cat tuna.  I'm sure this means she'll never leave.  Sometimes she finds her way inside, but Balloon and Furball chase her off.  I wonder what her family will think when she gets really fat from all the treats she's been eating here.

Next time:  The virtues of No-knead bread.  I'll leave you with this year's Jack-o-lantern.  I'm sure you recognize the fluffy shape.

Hanging Around...

So since we're getting moved in, I started a bunch of new houseplants which will probably, inevitably, die.  I always start new plants when I move, then forget about them.  But we're not thinking of that.  These are the plants that will last!  Yes!

I have plenty of pots, but what I need are hanging pots. Why? Because cats love to munch on some houseplants. In fact, that's what did in my last house plant.  Furball chomped it down to stems.  Bad kitty!

The key to having both pets and plants is first to find plants that your cats won't die from eating.  Common spider plants are an easy place to start.  Second, you must find a spot to put your plants where your cats can't get to them.  Because spider plants are tasty.  Very, very tasty.  Ask Furball.

Plastic hanging planters are tacky.  Metal ones and nice ones are too expensive.  In fact, the plastic ones are too expensive, too, while still being tacky.  What to do?  Make your own, dummy.  There are a bunch of tutorials online.  Here and here.  I'm fairly excited about that "double" hanging planter, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 All are fairly easy, and don't limit yourself to a particular kind of string(for indoor planters, anyway).  Anything strong enough to hold your plants which can also hold a knot is going to work.  These can also be customized for any size pot or basket.  I prefer not to make my look all funky with lots of knots, but that is a fairly easy option to add if you've ever made jewelry with hemp or leather cord.

I bought some colorful plastic pots from the store and used ordinary twine for mine.  These are going up into the attic room with all the nice skylights when they have rooted.  Thanks to Sue at work for the spider plant babies!

ASPCA list of plants that are Toxic and Non-toxic to pets.  It's not comprehensive, but it should give you a good idea.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie. I'm not out of season, YOU'RE out of season.

Usually, strawberry-rhubarb pie would be something to eat early in the summer.  If you grow rhubarb, you know it's best to pick it before the end of July.  However, I inherited a MASSIVE rhubarb plant from the last inhabitant of this place and it needed trimmed back.  Badly.  So while we were pulling the large green stalks off of the plant, I saved a few of the smaller, pinker ones in the center to make a pie with.

Now, I think rhubarb pie is gross.  And I think strawberry pie is gross.  Somehow, when you mix the two together, they become some sort of delicious magical treat.  The tartness of the rhubarb mixes with the sweetness of the strawberries and they balance one another out.  Next time I will probably go ahead and add the tapioca like most recipes suggest.  Corn starch and flour don't work like they do for apple pie, because the berries and rhubarb become extremely liquid.  Fortunately for me, most of the liquid spilled out into the pie pan where slices had been removed and left the actual pie, keeping it from turning into a soggy mess.

Pies- now with better lighting!

I used all the rhubarb and strawberries I had (a whole pound of strawberries!) and I think it still could have used more filling, but it was pretty tasty.

 *****

In other news our move to Sellwood has gone mostly very well.  A friend helped us with big furniture, but we have done most of it ourselves without any help.  Both of us have lost enough weight carrying things up the steps here to afford eating pie for breakfast.  We are not quite done yet but we will be probably by the end of the week.

A strange phenomenon has occurred, though.  Balloon and Furball no longer fight.  They are more like partners in crime, now.  They are both allowed to go outside (collars on, during daylight) and they seem a thousand times happier for it, though they act like snotty teenagers and pretend not to know us when they are outside.  All calls and temptations with food or treats fall on deaf ears until they are good and ready.

There are lots of other neighborhood cats, too.  Word traveled fast in the cat community, and once I gave treats to one, more came to say hi!  The neighbors have a tiny grey cat named Priscilla.  She might weigh 5 pounds and I think she's an adult.  Another cat without a name tag (Just a Multco registration tag) came to say hi.  I couldn't believe it; he was a beautiful cross-eyed Balinese!  Furball doesn't like the Balinese...colorpoint envy?  Zach said other cats had come during the day while I was at work, so I think there will be more.

For now here's a picture of our dining room, still not totally unpacked.  (Enlarge the picture, we totally have a framed photo of Ms T and her husband from our wedding.)

I finally found a video (of another cat) doing something similar to what Balloon does.  We call it her "scoot" but for the most part, it seems to be called "sideways cat" or "sideways crawl".  I've never seen another cat do this, but Furball actually did it one time himself, so it must be catchy.

 Balloon's is more hilarious and less locomotive than this cat's movement.  She only uses her front paws to dig into the carpet and move, about an inch at a time.  At this point she stops, and rolls around for a second, then continues scooting.  I can't get a good video though, because she's pretty self-conscious and if we move or she thinks we're looking at her, she promptly stops and runs away.  I've heard cats do this when they become overly excited or playful.

p.s.: Holy pregnant dog...



does YOUR cat scoot?

Look at me now, I'm gettin' cat furrr.

Me channeling Troy Polamalu's hair, with my best friend.

I've been thinking a lot about yesterday's post...I love Balloon, but I've never really written or posted anything about Furball here anywhere I'm pretty sure.  His Twitter is silent, but that's not really his style.  He's been the star of the show for as long as we've known him.  Furball's time with us began back in 2007.  Zach and I were just looking at cats on Craigslist...we weren't really considering actually getting a cat until we saw the listing.  Irwin, PA.  I knew that cat!  Furball used to belong to my stepsister, who decided to give up her cats whenever she had a baby.  I emailed right away. One of life's greatest treasures didn't cost me a cent (up front, anyway).

Furball is Balloon's exact opposite.  He's beautiful, but kinda dumb.  He's great at jumping.  He loves catnip.  He can run really fast.  He'll eat just about anything, including things that he shouldn't (like the time I'm pretty sure he got a hold of a bay leaf and threw up 14 times in a row). If curiosity killed any cat, it would be him.  He's so noisy; if he doesn't like something, he'll tell you right away. Furball is incredibly snuggly, friendly and (with people) social. He's everyone's favorite, and I've heard it more than once "He's really more like a dog than a cat".

We love him so much we spent a lot of money bringing him on our 2700-mile move. Best of all, I've had him so long, I didn't have to take any pictures for this post.  I have plenty I've been taking them for years, doing nothing with about 1000+ pictures of Furball just looking amazing.  Here are some of my favorites.

Kiss!

Nappy.

Gettin' tore up on some catnip I grew last summer.

Exacting swift punishment on a catnip-filled pillow.

He didn't really "get" the leash.

Not Furball.  Hey, Baby J what are you doin' on here?

Furball's always been there when I need him...and sometimes I'll find a long, white whisker just when I need some extra encouragement.

Happy Easter

Just so you know, this is going to be one of those boring posts about my cats.  I've been working a lot and cooking not so much. I've been seeing the doctor a lot because I have been having some health problems (which are simply annoying, time consuming, and not life-threatening so don't bother worrying).  I'll soon also have a preview of a pretty afghan I'm making for my cousin's new baby due in September...but that is not done or sent yet, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

That being said, cats are furry little angels that help you get through any and all hard times (even if they do barf and poop more than I do.)

Balloon is a comedian.  She's also a genius.  She does amazing things like open doors (both push an pull, Furball can only figure out push, but don't tell him I said that). She's really funny. I watched her pull herself across the floor on her back 6 inches at a time the other day.  She hates any treats except for cheese and gobs of plain yogurt (and butter if she can get it), and she mostly doesn't understand cuddling or toys.  But there is one thing she can't resist - Ponytail holders.  The thicker the better, she always attacks them, carries them around in her mouth, and throws them down the hall, only to go bounding after them (awkwardly, as she is not the athlete Furball is).  So as an Easter present, I give you Balloon in all her velvety soft glory.

Moving in for the kill...

BITE!  An action shot...

Balloon and her "Easter" bunny.  

Balloon:  Hey!! He didn't bring me any treats!

Please don't hesitate to notice her marbled toes.  <3   Happy Easter, all!

Balloon wants you to follow her on Twitter!  @Balloon_the_cat doesn't tweet much when I'm working, though.

oh the cats!

Hey that's not one of our cats!  This is my favorite wine, Zeller Schwarze Katz that came in a special collectors bottle.   Obviously I have collected it, and it now resides on a shelf next to my teacups.

Balloon is so delicate and ladylike she always crosses her paws when laying down.

Ms. Balloon in a lovely little scarf.  She took it off herself after 1 solid minute because "it made her face look fat".  Whatever.

I caught them in the act of spooning!  (Shortly after this they started fighting and Balloon got ousted.)

Furball and I snuggled on my birthday!  He makes a great pillow!  

That's all for now!

New hat...and a new cat!

My latest knitting project is Super Cupcake.  Its one of the first non-free patterns I have actually finished.  The price tag for this pattern and two neckwarmer-type scarves is $5 $4.  Honestly, I think that's a little pricey for the simplicity of this pattern, which only consists of 1x1 rib and "shaker rib" which has a bunch of other names, but is also a very simple stitch to do. That being said, I do recommend putting a safety line every inch or so while knitting, because if a stitch is dropped in this pattern, it is nearly impossible to fix. I am pleased with the hat, but if I were doing it over, I would just have tried to find a similar free pattern.

At least I finished it just in time to lose my other hat...

We'd also like to welcome a gorgeous  new member to our family!  Balloon is 2 1/2 year old tortoiseshell domestic shorthair.  She's so much different from our first cat.  All cuddle and no play!  She's from Washington State, so we can forgive her for being a little weird.

No, she's not stuck in a Tron-style video game environment... she's hiding under the bed from Furball!

Balloon is a little bit of a pushover, so she's afraid of Furball, who is still hissing at her every time he passes by.  Luckily for us, she's too laid back and aloof to escalate the drama between the two in any way, so we've had no fighting or caterwauling.  She's been hiding though, which means that if we want to see her, we have to lock Furball up for a few hours so she'll come out from underneath the furniture.  Its going to take some adjustment, but we hope the two will be friends someday.

She may look chunky, but her jowls are pure fur!  

We know she's found the furrlosipher's stone...she's turning half of herself into gold!

Cats love balconies

Furball journeyed across the country with us.  And he got what he was promised:  A balcony.

Lounging; tummy's gettin' leafy.

Hmm, what is this forcefield?

Now, how do I escape?!