Posts

Showing posts from July, 2007

YAWN!

Baby cat woke us up at 5am, meowing piteously. When I finally got my eyes focused I could see what she was up to on the end of the bed. Flying out of bed, I scooped up kitten and rushed her to the litter box where she proceeded to be a very relieved and happy kitty. I think she may have woken up and realized she had to go, but still doesn't know where we have the litter boxes. She has had a couple little accidents on the bed, but they are easily cleaned up. She has no problems getting on and off the bed, so once she finally remembers where things are and that she can go there by herself, we should have fewer problems. She is definitely a seriously bold kitten. She was stalking Scrapper's tail last night and kept doing so even when he started giving her warning growls. He finally stomped off in disgust. So far he's been pretty good around her, all the other kitties are still hissing and growling as soon as they see her, tho KiKi is doing her level best to ignore her most of

Black Jellybeans

I was popping around to various blogs I like to read and came across and entry on She Dances on the Sand about how black kitties are discriminated against and have low adoptions rates from shelters. That reminded me of a story I'd read about someone who worked at a shelter and started naming all the black kitties Jellybean and they started getting adopted out. Luckily it was a story that came via email and I was smart and saved it: Black Jellybeans By Margie Seyfer I've never read an official study on the matter, but I've noticed that in animal shelters, black cats are the most overlooked. Black seems to be the least preferred of cat colors, ranking below all combinations of white, orange, gray, spotted and striped. Black cats are still stereotyped as Halloween cats, creatures of bad luck, more appropriate on a witch's broomstick than curled up on your pillow. To make matters worse, in cages, black cats become close to invisible, fading into the dark shadows in the bac

Here she is

Image
A couple quick snaps: No name as yet, she's still so new (6 weeks old) she's not sure what it is. We've had a few pop up, but they are not right for her. Momma is a long haired kitty, we suspect the baby will be one too. Needless to say we are going to introduce her to the brush asap. As is she got a few claws trimmed last night. I would have got them all, but she was a bit wiggly at the time. So we'll work on it in short sessions. Introductions to the rest of the family were interesting. KiKi hissed, growled and swatted and has pretty much ignored her since. Nicky has his nose out of point and Rum Tum was really bent out of shape. He kept hissing and growling. I figured he would have been mellow about it since he loves everyone. Scrapper was the surprising one tho. He came in this morning and I introduced the two and he leaned over and sniffed. Looked puzzled, sniffed again and sort of growled. Sniffed again, sort of growl and then wandered off. I do have vid of the ot

We're completely nuts

We increased our family by one. We're insane. Pics and vid coming later.

hot HOT HOT!!!!

But is isn't in the triple digits, so that is good. We're going to hit the 4:20 matinée at the Eastside Cinema to see The Simpsons Movie. It's been a while since the hubby and I went out to the movies. I think the last time was Serenity. Just been puttering about today. Getting caught up in the kitchen a load of laundry done and a good chunk of the living room decluttered. One the LMCs bellied up yesterday. Looked like someone nibbled off his tail while they were at it. The rest seem to be doing fine tho. I've a bucket of water sitting out so I can top off the tank as it is getting low. Did chinese buffet last night and came home and hid out in the bedroom. Was way too hot to even think of turning on the microwave. Heard some thunder, but then nothing happened. Bummer. Finally got the one digital tape downliaded to the computer of the road trip from last weekend. Did up a quick vid of the "Bumper crop" and that is currently uploading to YouTube. I'll piec

Some recommended fat reading

Kolata, Gina. Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting Bennett, William, M.D. and Joel Gurin. The dieter's dilemma: eating less and weighing more. Campos, Paul F. The obesity myth: why America's obsession with weight is hazardous to your health. Ernsberger, Paul and Paul Haskew. Rethinking Obesity: An Alternative View of Its Health Implications Gaesser, Glen. Big fat lies: the truth about your health and your weight.

Fat Is Not Contagious!

For Immediate Release July 25, 2007 Oakland, CA – The report released today by the New England Journal of Medicine is flawed. These so-called researchers took collected data from an existing study whose focus was not on weight and size, the same study just used to report that diet soda is just as bad for you as regular soda, did some data mining and presented selected results tailored to support their own prejudices. None of their statistics are standard. Shame on the New England Journal of Medicine for publishing this insidious report. This is one more attempt to create hysteria, hatred, fear and prejudice toward fat people. As an example of the misinformation, this report stated, "The fact that the increase in obesity during this period cannot be explained by genetics…." More and more legitimate research is finding the genetic link to size. Let's look at an example. Studies by Dr. Albert Stunkard of the University of Pennsylvania showed that: • 70 percent

Triple SIGH!!!!!

Here is another study of the week: Study: Obesity is Socially Contagious People who notice their friend packing on pounds might want to steer clear if they value their sleek physiques. A new study finds that when the scale reads "obese" for one individual, the odds that their friends will become obese increase by more than 50 percent. The study, published in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that obesity is "socially contagious," as it can spread among individuals in close social circles. The likely explanation: A person's idea of what is an appropriate body size is affected by the size of his or her friends. -snip- I am on a list where they are actually talking about this study and someone pointed out this sentence in the actual study: "Mean effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by simulating the first difference in the contemporaneous obesity of the alter (changing from 0 to 1) with the use of 1000 ran

Ugh!

The library system is down, at least until tomorrow afternoon while they do a system wide upgrade to new software for the whole consortium. So I have to keep my self amused at work. Spent this morning upgrading to Office 2007 and the new Microslave email. I will continue using a web-based interface, no way in hell will I even allow Outlook access to my computer, even if it is the university's. Last thing I need to is to turn my 'puter into a virus delivery system thanks to Outlook. Now I need to clean up all the folders and make sure I get everything in the right on. GAH! I wish everyone would set the system up that when you are in a folder and are going thru messages and you delete one, it goes to the NEXT message instead of going back to the message list. It is a royal pain in the butt to try and clean out messages you don't need in the big folders. There are LOTS of messages in my Accuchef folder that aren't recipes I need to get rid of. SIGH!!!!!! Finally got my fir

Okay, they were worth it

Image
Even the hubby liked them and he doesn't like fish. I did end up dredging and pan frying, if only because it was late and I didn't feel like waiting for beer batter to rest before cooking. I did half the fillets and oh YUM!!! The first batchlet I didn't leave in the oil long enough, tho they were quite tasty, then 2nd I left in a little long, but still tasty. I probably won't deliberately fish for blue gill, but if I catch enough, will have a yummy little fish fry again. Did a vid of the process, still need to download that to my 'puter and run it thru my video editor. The tomato paste I am drying is coming along nicely. I flipped it over on the sheet part way thru so it wouldn't stick to it and allow the bottom to dry too. With luck it will be done tonight and I can run it thru the blender or food processor to make powder. The dollops I popped into the freeze are now repackaged into zip lock baggies. Warm week again. Managed to freecycle a wicker kitty bed, the

They had better be worth it

You know how long it takes to fillet 30+ bluegills? A LONG time! I've got about a lb of fillets in the fridge and will be doing something with them. All the recipes I see say to salt and pepper them and dredge in flour and pan fry. These are too small to do that so I am thinking of making a beer batter and dumping them in and dropping chucks into the Fry Daddy. I'll try and remember to get pics and or vid to post on my food blog. So we've been doing a bit of fishing. Friday we went out and I swear I limited out within an hour (probably took a bit longer then that, but it seemed like an hour). I finally started catching bluegill and the very nice retired gentleman who joined us on the dock caught a lot of them and let me have them so I could finally try them. It was a very nice evening. He and his friend are retired and they are attempting to fish every water int he state of Idaho and eventually in Washington. Saturday we got up early as we wanted to go to Dworshak. We went

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, RAIN!!!!!

YAY!!!!! We've been needing it. Hubby says it was coming down last night and he got up to check the car windows (we did leave them up) and there was thunder. I slept thru the whole thing as I'd crawled into bed about 9:30 pm and took an Ambien and didn't wake up until the alarms had gone off. The 2nd time. I'm still a bit braindead from the Ambien, but the coffee is helping a bit. Hit Papa Murphy's last night and grabbed a Big Murphy stuffed pizza for dinner and OOOOOOOOO did that hit the spot. Lunch today is going to be yummy. I got to thinking that once I get the gas grill up and running, I can do some baking on it, like pizza. Just toss in the pizza stone and turn the grill on and away I go. Did get out and re-seed my lettuce. Finally figured out what that pepper plant was. What had been confusing me was the label said Pepper Pimienta in bold letters. I finally figured out pimienta was Spanish for pepper. The label did say Mucho Nacho in smaller letters and when

If only I had the money

Kamiah man selling home that's built to withstand just about anything By DEAN A. FERGUSON LEWISTON TRIBUNE KAMIAH, Idaho -- Do you envision a dream home that shields you from nuclear holocaust? Marauding outlaws? Agents of Satan? You're in luck. A $230,000, two-story, three-bedroom beauty nestled amid rolling pastures eight miles north of here is on the market. The "Survivalist Home," as advertised in north central Idaho newspapers, was built in 1998 on 2 1/2 acres and designed as a haven from nuclear fallout and roving bands of outlaws, said owner Mike (Big Mike) Molesworth, 62. -snip- Sounds just like the place I could live in LOL. Tho the commute to work would be killer. I would like more acreage tho, 2 1/2 acres is a bit small. I sent hubby a copy of the article and he suggested it would be great for a Wiccan resort hehehehehehehe.

Tip toeing to the weekend

Scored a Sunbeam gas grill on freecycle yesterday. I was the first responder, apparently hubby was the 2nd LOL. He thought it was a camping type stove, good thing I knew what it was. Just need to clean it up a bit, maybe new paint and then buy a tank and we are all set. It has a side burner to, so summer cooking just got a whole lot easier. With this, my little table top gas grill and the charcoal grill, I am all set for my grilling and BBQ needs. Weather is SOOOOOOOO much cooler. A little bit of rain yesterday, not enough to properly water my garden, but every little drop is good. Still pretty cool today, only supposed to get up around 88F, which is a very good temp. Slight chance of thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. It is supposed to warm back up to the 90s again by Sunday :( Actually cooked dinner last night, just some hamburger helper stuff made with ground turkey. Was pretty yummy. I made garlic toast using the last of the hamburger buns I had in the toaster oven. Afters were so

Some recent photos

Image
Found this interesting piece of art up in the old arboretum: A very pretty thistle in the arboretum: Some cut up watermelon (YUM!!!): And the grilled chicken sammich I had Sunday:

Survived the weekend

Between the heat and attempting to burn down the house, it wasn't a bad weekend. I still wish we'd gone camping. I managed to get caught up on the laundry, so that is out of the way. Just need to fold and put away the last load now that I can get to the dresser. Saturday we decided to go down to Lewiston. UGH! One place was reading 106F on their temp reader board. Needless to say, we wilted. Hubby almost didn't survive. But we did get our Costco membership renewed and the kitties are happy they finally got their Kirkland crunchy food again. Didn't buy much, just some butter, the kitty food and a flat of Talking Rain sparkling water. Oh, and a bag of Walla Walla Sweets. Sunday I sliced the sweets and used the newest dehydrator I scored off of Freecycle to dry half of them. The rest got baggied and are in the freezer. I ran the dehydrator outside on the porch so I wouldn't heat up the house anymore then needed and not gas us out. Even tho they are sweets, they get pre

No Dworshak this weekend

hubby decided it would be too hot for him, so we were going to for shopping in Lewiston instead (his rationale was that we'd be in air conditioned stores). But he got a new client this morning, so he's been out making money and new contacts, so I guess it is okay to not be neck deep in the reservoir today. :P So I am home puttering about. Currently uploading a kitty cat video to YouTube and debating editing the vid from July 4Th or waiting until the living room gets cooler, I should let the computer have a chance to cool down at some point. Started in on a pile of stuff in the bedroom, now I know where half my clothes have disappeared to. Gotta keep things put away better hehehehehe It is supposed to be cooler next week, hopefully we can go up to Dworshak then. I'm hoping the kokanee will still be biting and accessible from the shore. We don't have a boat. Got some tea brewing out on the deck. Lunch today was some leftover pasta and cheese I made last night. Not sure wh

Recomended reading for med students

Image
and doctors who think that the current war on fat people is a good thing. Here is a guest essay on Kate Harding's Shapely Prose by a woman who recently lost her mother because she had been told she was too fat and to not go back to the doctor for her problem until she'd lost 50 pounds. 20 years ago. Fat Hatred Kills, Part One THIS is why so many women won't go to the doctor. We're always told that if we'd simply lose weight, we wouldn't be having problems. Go in for an earache, get a prescription for a diet. Twisted your knee while hiking, well if you weren't so fat that wouldn't have happened. I was told by a doctor when I was in junior high that the reason I blacked out while running was I was fat and lazy. HUH?!?!?! 'Scuse me, but I biked EVERYWHERE in Concord CA daily, played softball and swam as often as possible in our pool and I was LAZY?!?!?! The idiot completely blew off my skinny father when he tried to tell him that was what used to happen

A very warm Hump Day

in the 90s again today for the highs. Supposed to be hitting and breaking 100F by Friday. Saw on the news another dumb twit left her baby in the car. This was down in Lewiston. Luckily the little one was rescued in time, he was only left for 30 minutes while she shopped. Reports are the temp IN the car was between 120F and 140F. About a week ago in Orofino some twit left her step-grand baby in the car for 5 hours while she visited a friend. Unfortunately he died. What I want to know, is HOW THE FUCK CAN ANYONE FORGET THEY HAVE A BABY IN THE CAR?!?!?!?!?!?!?! That is usually the excuse used. I would dearly love to belt these twits into a locked car and leave them. Summer after summer we hear news reports of kids dying in cars after their parents have left them there while they run errands and say they simply forgot they had their kids with them. You'd think people would have learned by now. SIGH! Hoping to beat the heat by heading up to Dworshak Reservoir up near Orofino on Friday.

Rum Tum's makeover

Image
Here is some pics of Rummers with his new hair style: He's very miffed at me today, I went in with the hairshears and clipped the mats out of his pantaloons. He's now got a couple of bald spots there. I am hoping to get the last ones on his tummy, but that is going to take a bit of doing.

RIP Curly

Alas, Curly the neon tetra has gone to that great pond in the sky. I found him adhered to the filter in the tank and when I pulled him off, he proceeded to sink to the bottom of the tank as stiff as a board. I scooped him up in the net in hopes that he may have just been sleeping and tucked him to one side. I broke the news to hubby and when I looked again, saw that Curly definitely wasn't pining for the fjords and before I came to work this morning, gave him a Viking funeral in the alter to the Porcelain Goddess. Bye bye Curly, we're going to miss you.

Sunny Monday

Had a pretty good weekend, albeit a hot one. Thank goodness for AC, even if they are window units in a couple of rooms. It cooled off a bit, if you call 80s and 90s cool, but compared to 100+ temps, they are. Supposed to heat up again by Friday, so will be looking for ways to stay cool again. Garden is coming along fine. Scored some gutters and downspouts this weekend on freecycle. I'll be putting them up on the porch so I can get my rain barrel set up (and then hope for rain hehehehehehe). I have just enough to do the porch, just need to buy some coupling pieces, end caps, a couple other odds and soda and maybe a little more gutter. I do want to put one on the shed and have a 2nd rain barrel set up. Run Tum got himself partially shaved this weekend. We ended up picking up a new clipper at Ross. This one is chorded, so should last longer. I have a couple pics, have to get them processed so I can post them hehehehehe. Still have to get some of the mats out of his pantaloons and off

Back to work, for now

Going to be a scorcher today, so I guess not having taken today off is probably a good idea. Otherwise I'd be spending the entire day in the bedroom with the AC on. Supposed to cool down for a bit tomorrow, 80s instead of triple digits, but then it gets back to the 90s by Monday. Had a nice day yesterday. Our friend J brought over Runebound (I think I'd been calling it RuneQuest for some reason). If we'd thought of it, we'd have gone over to his place, he's got AC in the living room. Oh well, we survived okay. We'd picked up munchies and such for gaming Tuesday night. Once I realized what we got, I got slightly depressed. In the past gaming noshies involved pizza, chips, dips, popcorn, cookies, candy, etc. We'd gotten watermelon, cantalop, grapes and a fairly healthy sub sandwich. Sucks getting old. LOL Oh well, as warm as it was, the chilled grapes were great and I grilled corn on the cob and burgers on the little gas grill (video of the flames as soon as I

Hehehehe

Image
Mingle 2 - Online Dating

Meet Larry, Moe and Curly

Very short week

Image
Work today and tomorrow, off Wednesday, back to work on Thursday and then off again on Friday. Should be a fun week. Got the fish tank all set up. Set it up on Friday and got the water in and the pumps going and all. Added in the furniture and plastic plants yesterday. We took in a sample of water to Pets are People too and they tested the water for us. While there we grabbed a pH testing kit and some stuff to help lower the pH with a buffer. Since the water wasn't too bad, we picked up 3 neon tetras (who were named as we were leaving the store. Larry, Moe and Curly hehehehehehe). Can't see them in this pic, we'd snapped it to get Scrapper on top, but he zipped off just as hubby was pushing the button: I do have some video of them, have to download it to the computer and see if it turned out. If they survive the week, we'll start adding more fish. Hubby is talking platys (? pladies, not sure how it is spelled). It will be nice, the tank is so big the tetras can be hard