The Kitchen

One of the books I'm currently reading is The Poem I Turn To which is a collection of poetry loved by actors, directors and such. It's actually a quick read but I like to read poetry aloud to really get a cadence for it so it is probably taking me a bit longer than it would the next person.

Today I came across a poem adored by Kyra Sedgwick that was written by her "dear friend" Jocelyn Wright. It is short and sweet -- how I like my poetry -- but has a strong message that totally relates to a perspective I'm confronted with every day. I think it is a poem that almost every woman can relate to.

The Kitchen -- Jocelyn Wright

The pressure...
The pressure is on to be
tall
thin
and blonde
To be worked out enough to be firm
But not muscle-y enough to be masculinely strong
To be demure and deferential when you tell a man he is wrong
To be coiffed and well groomed at all hours of the day
Women are still cooking in the pressure pot
Cause little girls are being raised to be hot hot hot

There are many fine poems in this book, some of which I have marked to read again in the near future. But today this is my favorite poem. I hope you enjoy it as much I do.

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Topic Links
* Get your own copy of The Poem I Turn To

Why I'm Cranky This Morning

I keep debating whether I should preface with the fact that I am PMS-ing a bit (ok, maybe a lot). If you are familiar with PMS then you'll get why it may or may not be a factor in this story and if you are not well, you'll probably just roll your eyes.

I stayed up to 4 am last night working on the computer. This is not unusual. I often stay up late. I usually recover by sleeping in. If I get a good six hours I'm good for the day.

Here are how things went:

I get all prepared for bed -- wash face, brush teeth, change. Check on cats, dog etc... and everyone is calm and in their place. I crawl into a warm bed and get settled. For some reason all hell breaks loose in the living room and I have to get up and mediate. That out of the way I crawl back into bed and listen to clip clop of dog pacing on the hard wood floors. Senior kitty comes in and settles herself on my upper thighs in a position that enables her to bolt should itty bitty decide to come up on the bed. I put up with it because she isn't eating well (stress of having itty bitty around) and can use the extra attention. As I begin to dose off itty bitty comes on the bed and lies down between Jeff and I. Senior kitty doesn't bolt and I am encouraged that she is getting over it. I can feel itty bitty wiggling himself over to give senior kitty a whack. I put my hand up to block. Senior kitty has a hissy fit anyway and bolts, itty bitty pursues her. Jeff wakes up, barks lightly at the cats and goes back to sleep. I begin to doze off and Jeff's alarm goes off. After he gets up itty bitty plays with underside of bedroom door. I yell at him but eventually have to get up and shoo him away. Jeff comes in and says goodbye before leaving. A few minutes after he's gone I have to get up to settle yet another cat dispute. This time I put senior kitty in spare room with some kitty litter, food and water. I settle back in to bed but have to discipline itty bitty for chewing on cord of plugged in fan in bedroom. Doesn't work. I consider letting itty bitty continue to chew on cord and suffer consequences but decide I would feel guilty about consequences and tell him to stop. He stops, changes position and continues to chew on cord. I literally let out a thundering scream which echos through bedroom and probably out into the streets -- itty bitty stops chewing on cord and runs out of room. I settle. Dog barks at mail man. Yell at dog. I get settled and am finally dozing off... "beep!" I open eyes, "beep!". You've got to be fucking kidding me. "Beep!" The battery needs to be changed in smoke detector. It's after ten and I still haven't had any real sleep. At this point there's no bloody way I'm getting out of the bed for at least another two hours. I bury my head in sheets and pillows and continue to wake up to a "beep!" every fifteen minutes or so.

That is why I am cranky this morning. But it probably has more to do with the PMS than anything. Guess who are all sleeping at the moment. And guess what isn't beeping!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing You a Merry Christmas! on 12seconds.tv

New Ocean Spray Smoothies

I'm quickly becoming a smoothie expert, having at least two a week (more when it is hot). I try to keep them towards the healthy end but have been known to make the occasional coffee and chocolate one (obviously, my favorite).

This week I found a new flavor of Ocean Spray bottled juice at the grocery store. They are on the expensive side at almost $4 a bottle but since it was on sale I picked up a bottle of the Cranberry and Pomegranate blend.

Here's my smoothie recipe for today:

• 1 banana
• 2 halves of can pears
• 1 fruit bottom yogurt cup without the fruit (I use BioBest)
  
• 1/2 cup of green leaf vegetables (I used a combo of kale and baby spinach)
• 3 teaspoons of rough bran
• 1 teaspoon of skim milk powder
• 2 teaspoons of sugar substitute
• 3/4 cup of Ocean Spray 100% Juice Blend -Cranberry and Pomegranate
  
• 8 ice cubes

Blend and enjoy. One large serving or two small servings. The greens will make it look a bit odd but it is seriously tasty.

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Topic Links
* How to make smoothies and other recipes

Growing Up

JD, who we now know is a boy is growing like a weed. Not only has he developed boy parts, he's grown big paws, getting tall and is totally full of kitty pee and vinegar. Here are a few more 12s videos of this cute dude.


Moving (ex) Feral cat into House on 12seconds.tv


JD posing for Cam on 12seconds.tv

He's gained almost 3 lbs, had his feline leukemia shot as well as his rabies and other necessary vaccinations. Pretty soon he will be going in for surgery to remove the boy parts (we haven't told him yet, shh).

JD is Moving About

The little kitten formerly known as Jane Doe is now being called JD for short. Here are a few 12 second videos of her:


Encouraging Feral Kitty on 12seconds.tv


Rehabilitating Wild Kitten on 12seconds.tv


Feeding Feral Kitten on 12seconds.tv

New Addition (Maybe)

About a month or so ago we heard a cat crying incessantly throughout the day. It seemed distant but close you know. I seemed to hear it more than Jeff at first and then he finally heard it. We went out to look in the yard and ended up scaring it out of the back garden. It was quick and stealthy. After along search we didn't find it.

A few days later we heard it again and went into the back yard to see if we'd have better luck. After much looking and waiting (for the meowing to start back up) we found it behind the shed under one of the dog's old pools. We tried to get it out and being the wiry bugger that it was it scooted up and over Jeff and out of our yard. Much too quick for us. There were a couple other false tries after this.

We didn't see the little bugger for over a month. Both of us thought that it had either found a home or a worse fate. Until today, when I dropped the dog off at the spa. On the way back a little gray fluff ball cut across the road. I slammed on the breaks, partially pulled over, slammed it into park, and jumped out to try to grab what appeared to be the same kitten.

It hadn't grown much if at all in the month since we saw it last. It was moving much slower. Not slow enough for me to catch it on the first try but definitely slower. After playing dodge the human across two yards I was finally able to reach over a bush and catch her. Did I mention wiry? I had to stuff her into my coat to hold on to her. She was trying to get away and purring at the same time which was confusing.

I was able to get her into an old cat kennel and process what I had just done. I had brought home a feral cat. Probably three months old but looking more like two. She is literally fur, skin and bones but you wouldn't know it from looking at her. It's when you touch her that you feel her ribs and hip bones. It makes me sad.

Luckily I was able to get her in to see a vet at the end of today. They gave her the once over, cleaned out her ears, gave her some flea goo, gave her some worm goo, loaded her belly with 1/2 can of high performance kitten food and sent her home with us with directions to keep her isolated from the other cats (vet is worried about spreading feline leukemia) and to feed her every two hours.

Jeff of course is going away tomorrow until Sunday camping with the Duke kids so it will be the dog, the cat, and the new kitten. Joy of joys. It will be an interesting weekend.

Here is the first picture of the little bugger. Currently she is going by the name of Jane Doe because we haven't developed the kind of relationship yet that she will share a name.

She can really pack the food away. Fluffy huh? We are working on a name. Some choices we came up with but are not sold on are: Bumper (because we spent a lot of time chasing her under them), Scarce, Mystique, Molly. I'm sure I'll come up with more before the weekend is over.

She's still a bit jumpy when we enter the garage or go near her too fast but once we give her some food she purrs and we're able to touch her a bit. We picked up some new towels from the bargain store on the way home (I washed and fluffed them up in the dryer) and we've made a snugly den for her. I actually have to go give her her last feeding for tonight in a few minutes.

I hope to have better pictures tomorrow!

Going Organic

In the spring Jeff was talking to a fellow teacher and the topic of organic veggies came up. He came home with the name and number of a local farm that grows organic veggies and delivers them to your home every two weeks.

There are two things I like about this concept. The most obvious I presume is the food is organic. No pesticides, yada yada. The second is that it helps support local farmers.

I called him up and left a message. Nothing. I didn't bother calling him back going on the assumption he didn't have room for any more clients. Well last week he called. I know, right. I laughed too. I was surprised he still had our number. But I was still interested so we talked a bit about likes and dislikes etc and arranged a date for our first delivery which was Tuesday this week.

The cost works out to $20 a week for fourteen items. They arrived in one of those lidded blue bins you use for storing clothes or whatever (I have a closet full). Anyway, here's a picture of the loot he dropped off:

We were quite happy with what he brought. The watermelon was awesome and we are huge friends of spaghetti squash. I keep smelling the herb mixture because it smells awesome (chocolate mint, dill, rosemary). I think we will be able to eat everything up within the two weeks.

Check out your local farmer's market to see if anyone does it in your area.

Office Reno Pictures

Jeff's office is back in order -- something we both thought would never come. It looks great especially with the furniture moved around. There is so much more room. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the process.

This is a before picture. It's hard to tell but that is a bright yellow shag carpet that came with the house. We've already started taking stuff out. There were two other book shelves, a table under the window and a desk on the right. No idea what he is doing.

Batgirl broke in while we were out and tried to lend a hand. When we took out the carpet which had more than started to disintegrate we found tiles that we could literally pluck off.

Dog wondering what the heck is going on. She becomes a nervous Nellie whenever we do stuff like this. For some reason she thinks we are leaving and not taking her.

Laying carpet (we literally picked it out in fifteen minutes). It's called pecan. Walls are freshly painted. The color is less yellow but basically the same color but better. We debated about painting the baseboard trim white but decided against it. Translation, neither one of us likes to sand and paint baseboards.

You can't even tell that the outcrop in the wall created by the cold return that Jeff put in wasn't there to begin. He did such a good job. (before)

The cat has her own priorities.

Things are pretty much finished in this picture. We didn't have a light fixture replacement when this photo was taken but it's up now. Jeff is just working at re-organizing his shit... I mean important stuff. The shelf above his computer holds a picture of moi that he took when we were dating -- I was crouched down feeding geese. It's one of my favorites. The fish tank you see in one of the above photos is out of site on the white shelf sticking out on the left. It's the same shelf, Jeff just painted it white. It's amazing what a coat of paint will do. The other two bookshelves are on the right.

Tout fini!

Summer Arrived Late & Other Woes

Where did the summer go? Well, first it was late getting here which Jeff and I really didn't mind. But then about two weeks ago, SLAM, hot and humid out of no where. Here it is the last week in August and I'm predicting a late fall. Jeff will be standing in a classroom this time next week "sweating his bag off". I know, hard to believe my angel would use those terms. The things you don't know.

In the spring our plumbing from the bathroom leaked into the ceiling below and Jeff had to cut the roof... sorry, ceiling out of his office to find it, clean it up and dry it. He didn't have time then to fix the ceiling so we had a gaping hole for a few months. According to Jeff this shouldn't bug me because it was in his office and I hardly go in there. I on the other have a problem with gaping holes in the house regardless of how often I enter the room. It's a bug/spider thing. Ok, maybe even a boogie man thing.

Near the end of July I suggested, yes, I suggested, that since he would have to move all the furniture and computer stuff out to sand the drywall he had to add to the ceiling that we may as well rip out the green shag carpet that came with the house and update the paint on the walls. Shockingly to me he went for it.

It has been quite a kerfuffle to get the drywall in the ceiling done. Once we removed everything (some went in living room, some in basement, some in garage--ack!) Jeff thought it would be a good time to rearrange some duct work to put a cold return upstairs. I have not been friendly to this idea since he first mentioned it ten years ago. Again the hole thing. For some reason I caved in.

He's always been handy to have around and I'm actually quite proud of him for being a do it yourself kind a guy. He likes to try things, if they don't work, he'll curse a little or a lot depending on what is required but in the end he cleans up the mess and tries again.

So here we are today. The duct work has been rearranged, there's a cold air return upstairs, there is a wall finished behind the deep freezer in the basement, there is a trap door in the office ceiling just in case the piping there caffs again, there's a few painted shelves and tomorrow he's going to paint the walls. In a few days the carpeting will go down (yes we went carpet shopping together - I wanted to buy the first one we saw but we actually did the whole shopping for a car routine instead). Then we'll finish with trying to get all the furnishings (and crap) back into the small space. It's been fun to watch!

Here's Jeff drywalling over the extra duct work that went up to the cold duct in the floor upstairs (in front of the linen closet and bathroom). The pink stuff is ready made drywall that is pink to start with but turns white when it's dry. He says it's crap. He went out and bought some other stuff for the next coating. Above his head is the hole he cut out to repair the above pipe.


Here is from the other angle. See the little vent he put in? He moved it over from beside the plug when he did the duct work.

Here's the ceiling panel he put in "just in case". Half of it has been drywalled already and the brown part will be primed and painted. It will be visible but uber visible (I'm hoping).

I have some cute pictures of Shelby and I helping out that I'll post tomorrow.

My "Birth Day" Cake

I did something crazy. I baked a cake. Not only did I bake it. I decorated it. If you knew my baking style then you would know that cake decorating has never been a priority of mine. Actually, my idea of decorating the top of the cake is to add some sprinkles (as in a crumb cake).

Why, oh why did I stray from my usual path, you ask? Because Threadless is having their second cake off over at Threadcakes. The just of the event is to bake a cake and decorate it in the likeness of your favortie t-shirt from Threadless -- a community driven t-shirt company.

My favorite t-shirt: A Birth Day. In a nutshell, it took me two days to make the incredibly cute cake you see here (it's cuter in person, trust me). You can read the details and see pictures of me working through the process at my Threadcakes entry as well as see over two hundred other entries.

I honestly have no aspiration of winning any of the prizes because so many of the other entries are udderly [sic] fabulous but it was sort of fun, after the fact. And we get to eat lots of sweet cake for the next week. You still have a few weeks to try one and enter yourself!

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Topic Links
* Threadless T-Shirts
* Threadcakes "A Birth Day" Entry

Conserving Water

For the last two years I have wanted to get a rain barrel for the back yard to collect rain water (duh?) to use on the growing garden scape instead of overusing tap water. The barrels are incredibly expensive in my opinion, $100 and up. And I wanted something designed specifically for collecting rainwater not just a container that would become a nesting site for mosquitoes.

In early spring Jeff found an ad in the local paper about a Waste Reduction Day where they would be offering the city rain barrels for the bargain price of $45 including tax. I thought for the price even if it was small it was a good deal so we headed out the next morning to pick one up. Let me tell you, it is fricking huge. Bigger than the ones being offered for the $100 plus I mentioned. And it was a nice beige that blends in with the scenery. It will hold about 55 gallons of rain water.

Yesterday Jeff was able to take some time to set it up (hello exam time). Hence this post and the photos. Jeff said I had to include his best side. You can figure out what side that is. One of the things I admire about Jeff is that he is not one to do things half way. I would have put down a couple bricks and plopped the barrel in place. Jeff? Well, he built a cedar table for it to sit on, dug a whole to stick the legs of the table in to bury them so the table can't tip over an then engineered the eaves to drain into the barrel.

Now, not only do we recycle and compost, we conserve water too.

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Topic Links
* Systern Rain Barrel

Cider House Rules

No, I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about a new beverage I had last weekend at a family wedding (Jeff's cousin). We had to travel four hours to the Thornbury area on Georgian Bay. Beautiful area if you are looking for a holiday destination.

One of the best things about the reception was that I was able to try something new. Thanks to the photographer who sat at our table (sorry I forgot her name). She's from the area and told us about the local cider house and she recommended we try an iced Cider peeler before we go.

I immediately ordered one from the waiter. Basically it comes in a large beer glass that has been totally iced (seriously this was the best part for me because I like my drinks iced). It doesn't foam up like a beer but it fizzles like a seltzer. It tastes like a wine but like a beer but like apples. In that order. It is 4% alcohol.

The company offered take home bottles as wedding gifts to the guests hence the picture of me holding a bottle. I can't for the life of me figure out why I didn't take a picture of the beverage at the wedding. Maybe the glass of red wine I had before that made me forget.

So if you are ever in a Thornbury restaurant or bar ask for a Iced Cider Peeler. And be sure to drive by the cider house that produces them.

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Topic Links
* Peeler Cider

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs a World Away

My friend Lisa has been singing the praises of Kiva for well over a year. And while I thought the concept sounded wonderful I never really did anything to contribute until March of this year.

If you are not familiar with Kiva they are kind of like a business bank for men and women in underdeveloped countries but unlike banks their loan recipients don't have to worry about interest and foreclosures.

In a nutshell, Kiva takes money ($25 increments) from people like me (and maybe you) and puts it into the hands of men and women trying to start up a business (or grow their business) so they can be self sufficient and take care of their families. They then work at paying the loan back. It's very low risk for both sides. Once they start paying the loan back, there is the option of removing the funds or resubmitting it for another business loan for someone else in need.

Part of the process is deciding who you want to loan your money too. They have a listing of entrepreneurs who share their business needs, family situation, a photo and loan repayment plans. The people donating have the option of choosing who is most affected by the $25.

Today I received an email from Kiva letting me know that the two women who I made loans to have started to pay it back. I know from personal experience, having paid back a heafty student loan, what a great feeling this is to be close to the end of a loan repayment. I am so happy and proud of these women -- Ana from Lima, Peru and Bola from Lagos State, Nigeria.

It will be a while still before the complete amount is paid back, but I plan to reinvest the money in someone else (or again with these ladies if they take out another loan).

I highly recommend you check out Kiva and join in the process of helping an entrepreneur a world away.

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Topic Links
* My Kiva Lender Page