Cinders

I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but she looks pissed.

It's starting to look like I have a LIFE

This past weekend I went back to visit my parents and brought my grandma along for the ride. Unknown to both of us my uncle and his girlfriend did lots of work in her backyard. She now has quite a few steps so she can walk around and not get bitten by those invisible - grass - feet - biter - bugs.

They also added quite a bit of concrete that they meant to add before my grandpa died. Because of all the rain and 'flooding' there is a part of her yard that tends to over flow into the garage, hopefully the concrete that was added will either stop or significantly reduce the water that sneaks into her garage. They have drains back there already, but there is only so much the drain can take away....

Back to my weekend, I ended up doing quite a bit of shopping. I'd put a little aside and have been trying to hit up the outlet stores when I have time to replace all the stuff I left behind. Unfortunately it seems that people here have no respect for anything and sometimes you find sheets with bubble gum stuck to them, rugs that have other funny things that have things hidden in them so outlet shopping here is not only time consuming but sometimes a bit of a let down.

Where my parents live, they actually take care of the stores and people seem to be 'too-good' to want to pay discounted rates for high quality stuff.

That's cool! More for me!

I found a duvet cover and sheet set with pillowcases. My next purchases, more pillows and a replacement feather-like comforter. I'd like some real rugs too, but my little cheapies will do for now.

For my kitchen I found a set of 3 colanders, a set of 3 mixing bowls, 4 oven safe soup bowls, a HUGE butcher board, sandstone coasters, a real to-go tea mug, 3 wine corkers ( a fancy one and a basic one) two bread knives ( fancy and plain) an oven mitt, 4 wine glasses, 4 martini glasses.

Next on my list: a garlic roaster, a chili roaster, wine rack, silverware tray, utinsil display and maybe some more baking sheets.

Cinders of course got some treats too. I got her a new bed that matches my new bed set and for the kitchen she got a new water bowl, placemat and several food dishes.

For what started off as a bad start ended up pretty good. Everything is starting to look better.

Lemon Lime Slushies

I haven't made one of these silly collages in a while. This one is ultimately cheesey but I don't care.

I was driving home today and all I could think of was getting home and making my slush. Todays temperature seemed to be hotter than usual (it said 89 but it felt hotter). The sun was also out which intensified the heat.

Cinders greets me as usual. I change from my office clothes to my hang out cottons. I'm almost outta ice so I turn the ice maker back on. Hopefully I won't have to throw the first few batches away like last time.

Pop the ice in shaver and walk away. Take the frozen glasses outta the freezer, the syrup outta the fridge. Pack it all in the glass. Have a seat on the floor in front of the fan. Instant cool down. Oh yea, life is sweet.

shrimpies & kitties

So last night I gather up my ingredients to make my yummy scampi. I use this recipe and have added a few of my own embellishments to make it my own (red peppers, grape tomato halves and fresh parmesan cheese). Trust me this recipe is one of the best ones out there, at least in my opinion. I hope if you try it out, you will enjoy it as much as I (and anyone else I've cooked it for) have.

I also made an awesome dessert of fresh strawberries and raspberries in balsamic vinegar with a touch of sugar. This photo is an archive from my flickr stuff, so there are no raspberries in it. Looking at this photo though really makes me miss my old camera. Ah well, I'll get another one eventually.

I don't have much to entertain you with today because yesterday when I was cooking my kitty Cinders decided to go on an adventure when I wasn't looking. I had the front door open when I was cooking and while she is really good at staying close when she goes out side, there is also another neighbor here that has a dog bigger than Zoey. So Cinders couldn't make it back to the safety of the house and found a really good hiding spot. I doubt the other dog or it's owner even had a clue that Cinders was out wandering about.

Well while I was cooking I heard the other dog outside, and had that little panic. I casually called out for Cinders . . . Nothing. I set my cooking tools down, and look in her usual hiding spots . . . Nothing. I ask Zoey if she knows where Cinders is, and she just gives me a cute look. I poke my head outside and call for Cinders, the dog and owner pay me no attention . . . No response from Cinders. Mannie finishes his morning routine, I ask if he can go Cinder hunting while I finish my cooking. He takes a walk around with Zoey trying to help (but we really wanted her to stay inside at this point). He looks for about 10-15 minuets with no luck.

I don't want to start to panic because that will do me no good, but she IS a black cat and for some reason people like to start shit with black cats because they're stupid and have little brain squigglies and think black cats are bad luck or something.

Right before the cooking is all done Cinders decides to come out of hiding (she was camping out in the laundry room). Mannie yells at her and she scampers the few feet back to the apartment and the door was closed so she couldn't run right back in. Ah well, at least she was safe ~ and that other dog had no clue she was ever outside.

While we were eating, we had the door open and she kept trying to sneak back out, but this time we had the compressed air can to keep her away!

Here are your pictures. There are no finished product pix but I'm sure you can understand why :) Don't forget to check out the recipe on food network.

Start out with shrimp, I prefer frozen and already mostly deveined. Take the time to remove their shells and get rid of the 'other' vein otherwise you sometimes have a sorta sandy texture with each bite ~ and yea, that's just not sexy. Add some salt, pepper and red chili flakes as well as some lemon juice to the resting shrimp. In your pan warm up some olive oil and butter, add the garlic and scallions until the scallions are translucent. Add in the shrimp and cook until they're pink. Remove and set aside to make the scampi sauce.

Here is my italian flag, chopped parsley. If you can find it, use italian parsley since it's not as heavy as regular parsley, but today I used regular parsley. Those are also chopped scallions and garlic, and in the last pic are my grape tomatos and red peppers. Yummy!

Ok, for the sauce, add some more butter and olive oil, some wine, water from the boiling pasta, and lemon juice. Bring this to a boil until it starts to thicken, then add in the rest of the linguine. At this point you can also add in the red ingredients and return the cooked shrimp to the pan. Mix it up and let this cook up until it looks like the consistency you want to eat it, for me this is about 5-7 minutes.

Add it to a bowl, sprinkle some parsley and parmesian and enjoy! Hmm, I keep forgetting to make some garlic bread. Oh well, I'll remember one day :)

Weather in the west and more little earthquakes

It's the foggy season again, my favorite time of year here in SoCal. Yesterday when I woke up and looked out the window I couldn't see past my balcony, much less the rails ON the balcony itself. Today I didn't get the same view and the fog was much lighter.

Last night I was looking all over my place for my camera, lenses, tripods and the little shutter cable. I prob spent a good 45 mins getting everything all set up so that all I would have to do in the morning is press a button. The last thing I want to worry about in the morning is that stupid morning-drunkness/blindness and fumble around trying to haggle with my stupid tripod and getting everything level!!!!

I took a few shots but you can see the houses down below so I don't want to even bother with uploading them atm. Though its two hours after I've woken up and the light fog is still there. I wonder how long the fog will linger today.

Anyway, a little while after I took some shots, I got back into bed not to sleep but to watch some news, catch up on some online reading, look for a job.... and as I was sitting in bed with my cindercat I feel this little shake. Another earthquake, a 4.5. hehe

About 1/2 and hour later the news makes mention of it. No structural damage or disruption of any kind which is a good thing. A higher magnetitude earthquake at 8am would be bad. But that's not something I really want to think about.

and then there were two....

On October 12 something bad happened. Well actually before then lots of bad things happened, but on that day I had enough and had to do something about it.

My orange cat ( that I loved very much ) decided to test my patience for the last time. For about 2 months prior to this he decided to stop using his litterbox and use the 3rd floor of the house plus the guest bedroom as his personal grounds for making mre-mre. ( When ever I look at a litter box I always think of Tailchaser )

I took him ( and yes, turns out that Auggie WAS a he and not a she ) to the vet and it was not a bladder or any other health problem but was behavorial. You see Auggie has done this in the past but usually it was because of some change in the home of some sort. Well earlier this year we introduced a new cat: I can't decide on his name, it changes from Breeny to Fatty to Cloude. Anyway I'm pretty sure this had to do with having two males in the house and Fatty ambushing Auggie while going poo that made him start using the rest of the house for his terd droppings.

Anyway long story short. The day Auggie broke the last straw was when he decided (after being locked in his own personal room) for two days with everything he would need including petting. He refused to use his own personal box, and went straight upstairs and pissed in the corner >

D2EU1960

So when I got Breeny (my new white kitty), I went thru this temporary identy crisis with Auggie. It turns out that he "might" not be the boy I thought he was all these years, but is in reality a girl.

So for a few days, I went thru trying to call him a "she" and change her name to Audry. Well it didn't last long and in the end I really don't care if Auggie IS in fact a girl. I've known that he was a boy for so long that he will always be a boy in my eyes.

And he still loves his 7-11 Slurpee straws!!!

wholeLottaBreeny

Ah Breeny Breeny Breeny.

I just love him and his uniqueness. I love his white fur, his unique green and blue eyes and especially his loveable personality.

I love how when he's in the sterile white rooms in my house (which is all of them) you can't really see him.

He makes a great compliment to his buddies Cinders and Auggie.

Sex Change

So I got this new kitty last week. His name was Prince, but now his name is Breeny. Because he really is a HE, it turns out that my orange cat Auggie is not a HE but is a SHE. So now we have to try to call her Audry and it's not easy. It's also not easy to stop calling HIM a HE and switch to calling HER a SHE.

Now somebody might ask why did you you think that Ms. Audry is a she and not a he? Well there are a few reasons, one is the urban myth that ALL orange kitties are MALE, but see a few years back I had this cat named Cutie that was orange and WAS a female ~ so I should have not assumed that. The other reason Audry was assumed to be male is because of her size. She's 12lbs, plus she has this thing for humping the places before she lays down. (Audry is my first cat out of six that did that)(Breeny does this too now)(he also likes to do this with dirty clothes).

Sam, my boyfriend would say over and over that Auggie was not a boy, but a girl. This is also the other reason that I assumed Auggie was a boy and not a girl, was because the VET told me he was a BOY. I guess that because I never (until Breeny) had a boy cat that I never knew what a boy cat looked like (under the tail) But see, I never really bothered to "look" at Auggies area, because when he would go to the box, he was sooooo messy compared to Cinders.

The last reason, NOBODY that ever came over and saw my friendly cats EVER said, or corrected me that Audry was a girl and not a boy. Now unless the California vets here do something barbaric and make the boys looks like girls (poor kitties) I'm going to have to think that Audry is a girl from now on, my only problem is getting used to him being a girl now and not a boy. lol.

Here's my kitties, you can see more of them on flickr

There's no place like home. . . .

and being in your own house, bathing in your own shower, sleeping in your own bed, cooking in your own kitchen and just "being" I'm going thru the whole nesting phase right now, even though it's clean, I'm still cleaning up, but it's gonna take a while. Damn these big houses.

My kitties are adjusting to the newest addition. We finally named him. His original name was Prince Charming, but well, no. That name just won't fly. My neice said that after she saw Shrek 2 she didn't care for the name either, so his new name is Breeny. Named for his one blue and one green eye ~ and just subderfudged Breeny was what came from that. So when anybody asks, his long name is Prince Breeny Charming. lol. Breeny for short. i'll post pix of him and the other two soon.

You know how sometimes, you make yourself so nervous because you dread something, then when it happens you realize it was not worth stressing over. Well that happened to me and it wasn't worth stressing over.

I bought some new herbs for my backyard. They're make great fresh tea too. For some reason there are this very large colony of snails camped out in my small patch of green grass, so the gardners came out today and replaced all the dead eaten grass with new grass. It looks funny to see these patches of new grass mixed in with the old, with these dirt moats around the new areas. I saw some flowers that I wanted that are supposed to attract humingbirds and butterflys, but since I couldnt find a HB feeder, the seeds stayed at the store.

My brothers new wife called me to tell me they got married yesterday. If you want to buy him a present, you can go here:
Daniel & Gracies Target Gifts
I'm sure they will both appreciate it.

06-06-06_1313

Look how scrawny he was when I got him!!! Poor kitty. Now he eats like every meal is his last. He's gained about 2lbs and acts like a little punk with my other two kitties.

I miss my kitties

I keep seeing kitties. My boyfriend brings them up when we chat. I see old photos of them. I go places, my Ranch Aunt has two barn mousers: MyFriend and Smoky. They totally remind me of my Cutie and Smoky except the barn kitties are way smarter!

Cutie and Smoky both passed on in early 1997. Cinders came into my life shortly afterwards when I heard about the San Diego rescue mission, she was the only kitty in the rescue owners home (there seemed to be at least 100 kittys living there and surprisingly the house DID NOT smell of kitty litter box) that came up to me and started talking. The rescuer warned me that she was a scrapper. I assured her there was no kitties for her to "scrap" with. That seemed to ease her a bit plus she was concerned that I was there specifically for a black kitty, just my luck that she was especially friendly to me. I paid her the fifty bucks for the kitty, which included her neutering, shots and other general healthcare items. Good deal if you ask me.

Auggie joined her October 2000. I finally had my own apartment!! (I previously I had a roomie who also had a kitty.) Now Cinders seemed to be talking lots more than usual, and acting out at me (you know, puffing up her tail, making funny noises, doing the two legged dance) so I took it that she was missing her buddy to romp around with. I went back to the rescue house and found Auggie and brought him home.

In 2004, my boyfriend and I moved into our home. Things happened and I made a temporary move to Dallas, and the kitties stayed with him. So when we speak on the phone, I can hear them in the background. Sometimes I see them on the webcam. When he sends me photos they make an appearance in them.

When I see more rescue kitties in weekend pet shops, I miss mine!

For some reason cats seem to know I speak kitty. My sister in law has a perfect white kitty named Prince ~ his last name is Charming; every time I visit, he comes out from his hiding spot to spend time with me. Then there is, of course MyFriend and Smoky the two barn mousers. When you go walk around the farm they follow you; if they happen to see a nice piece of bark laying around they go and scratch it. Sometimes a bug will rustle in the grass and they will chase it down until they find another interesting object to pursue. When you give the horses attention they seem to want to go up and rub the horsie legs too, but instead they rub yours. Maybe the horsies don't like kitty love. My cousin's girlfriend has a kitty too, but I cannot remember her name (the kitty, not the girlfriend) and she is the furriest softest cutie in College Station!

Anyway point is, I miss my chatty kittys!

My flickr Kittys