bitterkat

I bled. I fostered. I partied. I parented.

2010-03-05T03:26:45Z

My last entry was all negative Nelly and woe is me. I gotta post something positive to push that old entry down.

Things that are happy:

1) I solved my pain problems temporarily* by (you guessed it) bleeding. I never thought I'd choose having a horrible period over anything but a few days of misery was well worth it. I can't tell you how much better I feel. Unfortunately (uh, oh, more woe is me) I got a nasty cold on the same day as the bleeding which was not fun but getting both things out of the way at the same time was the way to go I suppose because when I finally recovered from both things I felt super high and happy. I've kind of gone overboard on the smiling and exercising and being pleasant!

*I need to talk to my GYN a bit more but I see a Mirena IUD in my future...

2) I had a horny kitty. Have I mentioned our latest foster, Vespa? She was in heat for about 5 days. Wow. I felt so bad for her. If you've never seen a cat in heat you are a lucky person. I took her in to be spayed yesterday and now she's keeping her nether regions in their proper location instead of pointed in the direction of any breathing thing. She's cute, don't you think?

3) A friend and I hosted a baby shower last weekend and it was really enjoyable and turned out very well, I think! Maybe I can actually do these girly things after all. I'm not claiming to be a Martha Stewart type or anything (because she'd certainly not drink wine and more wine and more wine while hosting) but I think I could do this again without breaking a sweat. (Now I just need to get over my fear of hosting dinner parties.)

4) Zoe is exercising! She needs 225 hours of "P.E." before graduation and because her high school doesn't offer it she has to do it on her own. We've been pushing it all year and finally she's found something that she enjoys. Yoga.** Her goal is to be more flexible (she's not bendy like her mom) so this is a good one. She's going to add a few other things to her list soon (I hope) like rock climbing and weight training (after all she wants to fit into adult jeans so gaining a little muscle in the behind can't hurt).

I'm really happy with Zoe's attitude lately. I think a lot of it is due to Robert interacting more with her; helping her organize her school schedule and chatting with her every day while they go over things. He tends to be more pleasant than me and often, in the past, the majority of interacting he had with teen Zoe was after I'd had a fight with her and he'd come to intervene. Those interactions were rarely pleasant.

**Strictly at home yoga but I'd love for us to eventually take a class together.

5) Sid has been invited to compete in review writing contests at the Journalism Education Association's state and national conventions. The only problem is getting him to actually go the competitions. He has many excuses including:

a) "My time is precious!"
b) "The rules state that my review has to be 350 words or less but all my reviews up to this point have been 900 words!"
c) "I don't know AP style rules!"
d) "I'm not taking journalism next year so who cares?"

He has time. He can condense. He knows AP style. College admissions (and I) care.

There are other reasons he doesn't want to go but hasn't mentioned them. I'm sure one reason is he's not super social and hanging out with 5 other teenagers for 3 days, attending dances, meet and greets and dinners ranks at the bottom of his "fun things to do" list.

The state competition (which is just over a week away) is a day long and near us so I can't think of a reason why he shouldn't give it a shot and it doesn't entail anything major on the social scale. The national competition is also conveniently located in Portland and with some fund raising and grouping of 3 boys to a room with a single queen bed (heh, heheheh) it'll only cost him $200 to go and it's not until mid-April. He will miss 2 days of school but I think participating in the seminars, the social events and just being away from us will be really good for him. As I always say (and god, I never thought I'd say these things) he'll thank me one day.

6) I hate to be bragging on Sid but I'm very impressed with all the mail he's been getting from very selective universities and colleges. I wish I had half his brains. He's picked his top 5 (all located in urban areas, mainly NYC) so now the fun part is to figure out how to get a scholarship. I'm sure I've mentioned that there is no college fund, right. Heheheheh. Heh. Hm.

We're looking at the various college admission requirements and he's on track academically. He's going to be busy his junior year:
AP language arts, AP US history, AP Spanish, pre-calculus honors, chemistry, swimming and photography. No room for journalism but he can get back into that senior year if he wants.

Now he just needs to keep up the good grades, test well, and work on his wow factor.

p.s. Just before publishing I found out that Sid talked with his journalism teacher about the conventions and will be attending both...and the bad attitude is gone. I think he figured that if his peers nominated him to go and very few of the newspaper staff were nominated then maybe it's worth going and trying to win something. Wow factor.

O-Lan's fire

2010-02-18T04:53:41Z

WARNING!!!!! TMI LEVEL RED

O-Lan, the sad wife in Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth occasionally let her husband know that something was not right with her, physically. Her complaint: "There's a fire in my vitals."

Poor O-Lan. I felt so bad for her.

And, well, lately I've been feeling bad for myself because I, too, have a fire in my vitals. No, it won't kill me and it's pretty mild as far as things that can go wrong with your body go but still, finding out recently that I have a golf ball size fibroid tumor wasn't a happy fun time for me (and usually I try to make happy fun times about everything).

Really, there are many good things about making this discovery (discovered by way of a super fun (no, really!) trans-vaginal ultrasound).

1) I know why I have horrible, REALLY HORRIBLE, periods.

2) I know I'm not infected by a giant parasite with large teeth. That's a relief. Turns out I just have a rebellious uterus (see bad thing #2 below).

3) I know that I don't have anything wrong with the other inside tubes and nothing horrible (besides the cute little fibroid) is growing abnormally in there.

4) I'm fortunate that I've had my children and I'm in my 40s (some women get fibroids at a much younger age which can cause infertility and years of pain and problems).

5) Here's a cool thing: now I know the size of my ovaries and my uterus!

But there are bad things:

1) Fibroids don't go away but they can get BIGGER. And MORE can grow.

2) I can no longer stack the pill (skip the sugars) and just skip my period. With the fibroid, skipping my period just causes my uterus to rebel, have a tantrum and spew pain in all directions (I even think it regularly forms a huddle with surrounding body parts to get them to join in the tantrum, thus I walk around with menstrual cramps (sans the menstrual), nausea, diarrhea, constipation, ligament pain, back pain, and GASSSS ALL AT THE SAME TIME...I AM NOT EXAGGERATING...NOPE).

3) Symptoms of doing nothing: Try not to become anemic, hide at home for several days a month, take lots of pain meds. Hope things don't get worse. Get angsty, whiny, and annoy everyone around me all the time.

Hey, at least I found more good than bad!

Treatment options include hormones (which cause menopause symptoms? no thanks), myomectomy (removal of the fibroid, eek, surgery), and hysterectomy (eek, MAJOR SURGERY).

I'm still doing some research and thinking about what I want to do next. It's too bad O-Lan didn't have those luxuries.

Stay tuned!

16th birthday festivities

2010-02-15T05:40:16Z

I celebrated my birthday yesterday by getting my first facial! My awesome girlfriends treated me which was so sweet of them and well, now I'm hooked. My face feels amazing! I like to think that I can fit one into my budget now and then but probably not for a while. That's fine. If I can go 41 years without one I can manage. But enough about me.

I missed telling you about Sid's birthday. Did you notice?

Sid turned 16 while he was in New York City with his dad which was a perfect way for him to celebrate. He and Robert flew out there on Christmas night and spent 3 1/2 days walking around and riding subways through 4 of the 5 boroughs (they skipped Staten Island). Robert was a sport for walking so much. He did something to his knee, perhaps on the flight out, and was in a lot of pain the entire time but enjoyed himself and he and Sid really bonded (in their silent, Moulton-style of bonding). You can tell from the look on Sid's face in the single photo* of him taken on the trip, that he was immensely happy.

*Sid and Robert managed to only take 4 photos for the entire trip. Sid was adamant about not doing touristy things (which meant no taking photos!). It was the first visit to the city for both of them but other than seeing an Off-Broadway show (The Toxic Avenger) they managed to avoid most of the tourist-y stuff. They didn't go up the Empire State Building or visit The Statue of Liberty. They did, however, get to walk around (like awkward outsiders) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with Hasidic Jews and they walked through neighborhoods in the Bronx and checking out Flushing, Queens. All this, in either extremely wet or windy/cold weather. When they came home, they rented The Warriors, which Sid had never seen, and it seems like they took almost the same journey (without all the crazy stuff with gangs and shit happening...).

Because Sid was gone on his birthday he didn't get a birthday cake. After things settled down post-holidays (about 3 weeks later) I finally made him a cake, his favorite, German chocolate. Always yum.

So how's Sid? Sid's doing well. He finished his driving course and just needs to log the hours so he can taking the driving test. (He loathes driving, btw.) He's still writing fun (albeit cynical) articles for the school newspaper. He has is own section now called "Story Time with Sid". One of these days he'll actually review a book he likes, I hope. All the work he put into AP Euro paid off. He got an A, which is quite an achievement. He had a few issues in other classes (not turning in homework because he was working so hard for his AP class and the school paper) but he learned some great lessons about time management and has already started off much better, with more balance, this semester.

He also did extremely well for a Sophomore on this year's PSAT, getting a 205 (77 critical ~~writing~~ reading, 63 math, 65 writing skills). It'll be interesting to see how these scores compare to his SAT next year. He's getting flooded with recruiting mail again and this time he's actually looking through it all and thinking a lot more about where he wants to apply for college in 2 years.

Sid's favorite thing he did recently? Donated blood. He was very proud of himself and said he'll do it again. And again. And again.

Happy Birthday little dude. Keep on keepin' on. Love you.

You probably thought I'd forgotten about you

2010-02-10T03:52:48Z

Dear blog,

Sorry that I've been ignoring you. I had a few things involving cats to do in January. I promise that cats won't be the subject of every blog post; just let me get this out of my system, 'kay?

Foster cat adoptions

Odin's original adoption fell through due to a flaky potential adopter (she kind of assumed we'd hang on to him indefinitely until she could get her act together to pick him up; after many unanswered voicemails, I bumped her). He was super popular and we had oodles of people calling to see him. In the end, we picked a wonderful couple who already have another poof ball named Bella (who was just getting out of a cast when they got Odin and I'm betting Odin didn't give her much of a break, poor girl). We received photos; they're cute and he's very loved.

[Odin is pictured here with his new mom Jennie]

Tonks, coincidentally, was adopted within minutes of Odin. Her adopter, Cynthia, drove all the way up from Sumner, WA and even though Tonks would have nothing to do with her, Cynthia fell in love with her. We boxed up a very unhappy kitty and said our good byes. *sob* Tonks was hard to let go because we'd had her for two months and I knew she'd be very unhappy leaving. She'd only just started to feel comfortable with us all and then what do we do? We shove her in a box and send her away. (Ah, the downside to fostering.) The last update received (one week in) was that Tonks does not like Cynthia's two other cats (not surprising) but Cynthia adores her nonetheless.

A very sad day

During December, our old cat Frasier's mental and physical health really went downhill. He quit using the litter box completely just before we were having family over for the holidays. Fortunately, our visitors (my mom and her husband) are the owners of 8 cats and some of those are rescue cats and a few of those are bad litterbox users as well so they were very sympathetic to our issue. It also helps that my mom's husband Randy is a ~~cat whore~~ lover of cats. We somehow made it through the holidays and Sid's birthday but the work to take care of an elderly cat who needs cleaning up after, shots, pills and baths was taking its toll and clearly, Frasier was ready to go. He no longer jumped on our laps. He no longer made eye contact. Just moving was a huge effort for him. We decided to have a mobile vet come to our house and euthanize him because we wanted him to be with all of us in a warm, familiar place with Gumby nearby. It was a very difficult thing to do but when he died, a huge, heavy chunk of my heart broke off...but in a good way (? I can't really explain it). I felt so at peace.

In the end, Sid and Zoe were too upset to be in the room but Gumby sniffed around at the vet's supply box and Frasier's blanket and in the end, settled into a little cat bed to rest just below where I was holding Frasier. After he was gone, Sid visited with him for a while and then placed him in a box along with a few cartoon drawings of him that Sid and Zoe had drawn over the years. We then buried him in our backyard on a late, rainy, and very sad afternoon.

I took this photo of my boys a few days before Frasier died:

And let's not forget the young, wild boy:

And the kitten friend who kept me company as I read Henry Miller back in the day:

Sadness be gone! Bring on the Gus

We only had Odin for a month but in that month he stole our hearts. He was a pretty awesome cat; friendly, puppy-like, goofy, smart. I knew that he was at least part Ragdoll and after reading up on Ragdolls I decided I might like to have one...eventually. I didn't want to bring a new cat into our house until after Frasier was gone and I wasn't sure how long I'd need but figured I'd wait at least a month or two. However, just after Odin was adopted, I searched Craigslist and it just so happened that a Ragdoll teen kitten was looking for a home. Oh man. So adorable and just 9 months old. His mom was incredibly allergic to him but was clearly torn about having to give him up. I restrained myself. I didn't email her. I figured he'd get adopted over the weekend anyway, and I couldn't take a new kitty for at least a month or two.

Then I peeked back at Craigslist on Monday morning and he was still up there. Perhaps it was a sign? I figured I'd give it a poke. I emailed his owner and told her about our foster cat Odin and my recent interest in Ragdolls. I didn't hear back. I checked the listing several times that week and he was still up there. Robert suggested that his owner might just have forgotten to take the post down. I agreed. Time to move on.

On the following Monday, a little more than 12 hours after Frasier died, I got an email from Erin, Ragdoll kitteh's mom. She wanted to hear more about me, my fostering, etc. I ignored the email at first. I was a little shocked to hear from her a week after I'd sent her my initial email and really, I was mourning and not ready. It was a holiday and I was super depressed (understandably) so I decided to treat Zoe and myself to a movie. I let Zoe pick. She picked The Lovely Bones. What a terrible movie to watch when you've just lost a loved one! Seriously, every time that girl wandered around in the fields I saw Frasier prancing around with her. It was insane.

We returned from our movie in the afternoon and I decided to email Erin after all. I figured if he was still available I should at least get more info. I wrote more about our fostering (kittens then cats), our old cat Gumby, and my kids. She emailed me back right away and wanted me to call her. We talked about Gus a little. She told me that she'd received over 50 responses but that none of the responders seemed quite right for him and over the past week she'd been going back and forth about whether to give him up or not and then she asked me if she could visit once I adopted him. Whoa, um, that was unexpected. I think she'd already made up her mind. I wasn't quite ready to bring a kitty into our house but I definitely wanted to meet Gus. Fortunately, Erin lives nearby (which I believe is the main reason she picked us along with the fact that we foster -- she liked that for some reason and is looking forward to seeing Gus with kitten friends) so Zoe and I drove over and hung out and played with Gus for a while. Before we knew it, Erin had pulled out his carrier and between sobs, told us she'd already said her goodbyes and handed him over to us.

We brought him home, introduced him to Gumby and that was that. (Gumby likes him, if only in small chunks. They do a lot of running around which is good for the old boy's heart, I think.)

Meet Gus
(aka Mr. Von Peabody or Gusafuss or Snuffleupagus or GUS!staffson or Gussers)

I kind of want to eat him

I'm sure you'll hear more about him (like the fun thing he did last week that cost me $360).

Sincerely, Crazy Cat Lady

p.s. Gumby deserves a photo in this entry, don't you think?

2009 in review

2009-12-31T20:16:39Z

Sure, we can't all be Dooce but we all can make cheesy videos. This is my year in review. Lots of good times.

"Wild World" sung by Mike Bailey who plays Sid on Skins (our new favorite show)

Countdown to Christmas 2009

2009-12-24T16:30:26Z

So here we are, it's Christmas eve. It arrived too quickly. This year we have guests in town. My mom and her husband Randy drove in on Tuesday (just as I had the unfortunate timing to have both the most horrible period of my life* and a migraine headache). Luckily they cheered me up. I made them an Irish beef stew for dinner (ala crock pot) and we watched Julie and Julia.

On Wednesday we went out for breakfast at Voula's and Voula told Randy he was handsome. He liked that. After getting thoroughly stuffed I returned home to make desserts. Nothing fancy, just sugar cookies and Rice Krispie treats. I was going to make a pecan pie as well but somehow ran out of time. We had a quick dinner at Ballard Brothers Seafood (I enjoyed a basket of fried oysters** and chips) and then Zoe, mom, Randy, and I went to see Sister's Christmas Catechism downtown. Sister is funny and she only picked on my mom once for talking out of turn. Fortunately, the rest of us escaped without incident.

This morning I'm up early to prepare for a long day downtown. Normally our family does something called "The Friday Before Christmas". We go downtown, see a movie, eat lunch and do a little shopping and Christmas light looking. This year, because Friday was still a school day and we wanted to include my mom and Randy we're doing it on Christmas Eve. I have no idea whether it'll be crazy downtown or not. I'm hoping not. We plan to see the early showing of Avatar in 3D and then lunch at one of the many restaurants in Pacific Place. Tonight is our usual viewing of A Christmas Story projected on the wall with many snacks including spiral sliced ham, artichoke dip and crackers, raw veggies, chips, and cookies. Somehow, I need to find time to buy a pork shoulder today before the stores close since all I could find yesterday at my local market was a bone-in picnic cut.

Tomorrow's plan is to have a sausage, bacon and egg breakfast after gift unwrapping and then a late dinner with the roast I'll hopefully purchase today along with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach (planned when I was originally going to brave cooking prime rib, then chickened out), and a feta and cranberry green salad. Sid, I believe, is cooking a tofurkey roast for him and Zoe. An unexpected event for Christmas evening is to drive the boys to the airport so they can fly off to New York City. They were supposed to leave Sunday morning but their flight was canceled due to the east coast snow storm.

So yeah, that's it, in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to the next 2 days! Have a Merry Christmas!

Wow, I'm going to need to diet after all this.

p.s. My friend Allyson and Paul are getting a brand new baby early next week and that really makes this the most wonderful Christmas ever!

*tmi alert: the WORST period ever. Horrifying. I'm calling the doctor next week. I can't live with this anymore. Birth control pills aren't helping. What's next?

**more tmi alert: oysters help w/ anemia and well, I can't imagine how I couldn't be anemic after having the WORST period ever.

Fraiser, Gumby, Tonks & Odin

2009-12-22T05:45:36Z

Hello. I'm a crazy cat lady. I especially feel like a CCL when I'm standing in my kitchen and I look around and I see one old cat on the counter eating his fish only diet and another old cat on the other counter eating his no-grain turkey diet and one floppy foster cat sprawled out in the middle of the floor looking at both their tails waiting for seconds and another foster cat sulking off in the corner waiting for ham handouts or an opportunity to swat any male cats that dare come near her.

Yes, that's what my mornings are like.

Oh, and then there are the cat food costs. The old, OLD cat cannot eat beef, chicken, rice or corn so I'm left with a brand of canned food that costs nearly $2/can and he eats AT LEAST a can a day. Cat food with names like "Polynesian BBQ" and "Meow Luau". The other old cat also has a special canned food diet and it cannot be sniffed, licked or near the other old cat. Then there are the fosters. The old shelter provided cat food but the new shelter doesn't. Fine. I'm okay with that. The problem is that I feel guilty giving my cats top of the line foods and giving the fosters cheap cat food so they too are getting fancy organic kibble. I feed them in the master bath and that was working out okay until old cat Gumby found out about it and started sneaking in to eat it at night and then apparently told Frasier about it and Frasier decided not only to sneak in at night but to poop on the tile floor when he found out I'd put the food up beyond his reach. Also, I was reminded that young cats are in fact able to bite through food bags and make a huge mess. How had I forgotten that they can do that?

Inspite of it all. I love them. They are fluffy and soft and they purr and they do silly things and they cuddle with me and my kids and they mostly take care of themselves. Yes, there are many days when I'm about to take Frasier in to euthanize him but there are just as many days when I see a nice old cat that isn't doing much harm.

I haven't been so good at promoting my foster cats which is a shame since I did so well with the kittens and they really don't need any promoting; their cuteness sells itself. Currently I have 2 adult fosters. Tonks has been with us since November 10th and Odin has been with us since December 9th. The shelter provides monthly opportunities to showcase the cats at adoption events but unfortunately I missed them because a) Tonks is not keen on cages and strangers; in fact she would hiss and possibly disembowel all living things around her in that situation and b) Odin was still getting over Calici virus when the last one came around.

So the challenge is, how get them adopted?

Well, I wrote earlier that I thought Tonks had found a potential adopter. That unfortunately fell through because the adopter had very little experience with cats and expected Tonks to immediately fall in love with her male cat. When that didn't happen immediately she felt sad and Tonks came back to us. Really, I'm glad she is back with us. She deserves a more cat experienced human as she is a complicated gal. I need to have someone help me re-write Tonk's Petfinder description. The one I wrote for her doesn't really tell her story or give a potential adopter much of an idea of what she's really like, unlike the wonderful Petfinder description for our other foster, Odin, which was written by his previous foster mom.

Odin really is a marketable guy; I don't think I have to do much more for him. In fact, someone is coming over to meet him tonight and once he flops on her lap its a done deal*. I feel a bit bad for Tonks because she made friends with our foster kitten and we adopted her off and now, just as she's starting to trust and play with Odin, he'll be leaving her as well. If Odin does get adopted I'm going to try to find a foster at the shelter that is a good enough match with Tonks that I can possibly get the 2 adopted off together. That would make Tonks the happiest girl in the world. Either that, or I think Tonks would prefer that I never bring another new feline into the house and while I'm at it get rid of my old cats. She'd really like to control the humans and the house single-pawedly if she had a choice.

*I wrote this earlier. Odin is getting adopted! I'm so happy for him but a little sad because he is currently playing fetch like a dog with Zoe and she (and he) are really having a great time.

Frasier

Gumby

Tonks

Odin

She said, "Thank you."

2009-12-08T17:10:17Z

Three months ago Zoe asked to move her bedroom downstairs. We complied. She moved whatever still mattered to her and left everything else behind, stowed away in her old closet and on the floor of her old bedroom. She said, "Get rid of everything." I said, "Um, no, YOU get rid of everything." Nothing happened.

3 weeks after her move, kittens moved in and stayed in her old room. Whatever was still on the floor got shoved in the closet on top of whatever else had already been shoved in the closet.

6 weeks after her move, the kittens moved on and the old cat moved in. Robert opened the closet and started sorting and tossing.

10 weeks after her move to the basement, she decided she'd like to move back to her old room. The closet was emptied, the room was swept, the curtains taken down and laundered, and the room was painted.

12 weeks after her move to the basement, she moved back into her old room with a fresh start. A new chandelier. A "new" bed. Fresh walls (ready for artwork and sparkly lights and posters of werewolves).

And a clean closet.

All of this happened with very little effort from the 14 year old girl. She drew plans for her room. She flipped through Ikea catalogs and bookmarked almost every item in Wake Up Frankie. She painted a wall (sort of) and did a little taping. She vacuumed the rug. She put the light bulb in her lamp.

We, the parents, were tired of being the laborers to her contractor. We'd done a lot. Moving. Cleaning. Sorting. Painting. Sawing. Patching. The last effort was to bring up all her clothes and return them to her dresser, sorted. We weren't going to do that for her.

Zoe begrudgingly agreed to carry up her clothes. They sat on the clean rug. 2 feet deep. Encompassing the majority of the room. Clothes everywhere. Zoe tossed the last handful down and ran.

I called after her. "Come back!"

She complained. "I have things to do! I need to go draw!" I stood firm. But then backed down. I knew it wouldn't happen without my help. "Okay, you will sit here, help me, tell me what you like and what you can get rid of, what you can put away until summer." She tried to scoot out the door. I mentioned the show "Hoarders" more than once. Eventually, after about 30 minutes she was happily sorting, chatting and comfortable (no more edging out the doorway). We finished in very little time and everything was in just the right place -- summer clothes stowed on shelves in the closet, winter clothes in the drawer, jackets and sweaters and coats hung on hangers. It wasn't that big of a deal. I heard myself repeating my mantra, "Just keep at it, learn to fold well and quickly, have a place for something and return it there. Is this really that hard? Just don't let it get too intimidating! Isn't this fun?! Doesn't this make you feel happy?" Maybe this is how hoarders are made. Mothers with mantras. Mothers that help too much.

(We've had this conversation so many times before. She's got the mantra memorized.)

That night, when she was tucked in bed and I went in to say good night, she said, "Thank you. Thank you for helping me with my room."

Slim Tim's self-made comicbook

2009-12-01T03:34:11Z

Zoe drew a lot over the Thanksgiving break. You may remember that she loves to draw comics and her inspiration comes from the Perry Bible Fellowship (not kid friendly but it wouldn't be Zoe if she liked something kid friendly).

]]> Her latest character is Slim Tim, a slice of bread, and his comic book is called "Slim Tim's self-made comicbook". Let's follow Tim on some of his adventures, shall we? [click to embiggen]

Tim visits Candyland and gets in trouble...

Tim celebrates his birthday...

Tim gets inspiration from playing his Nintendo DS...

Tim visits Texas...

Tim goes shopping for bread...

Tim makes waffles...

Tim buys ice cream...

Tim is on tv...

Tim models...

Now, if I could just get her to help me paint and decorate her room. I asked her to stencil a bird cage on her wall and she told me she couldn't. Argh!

And with that, this concludes NaBloWriMo. Woo-hoo!

The boys are headed to NYC

2009-11-30T06:47:29Z

Robert is taking Sid to New York City for his 16th birthday. I'm very excited for them (I'm so jealous that they'll be there when all the Christmas decorations will be out!); neither of them have been before. I booked them a room in the Pod "Hotel" and they're taking it from there. I know Robert would like to see at least a few touristy sites (Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, Central Park, a museum or two, Times Square) while Sid wants to wander around Queens and Brooklyn and avoid all touristy locations (with the exception of maybe Greenwich Village).

(Personally, I'd do Katz's Deli, Ellis Island, The New York Public Library, The Tenement Museum, and definitely a Broadway show at a minimum.)

We have an old friend who is an artist and lives in Brooklyn. If they can visit him that'll be a huge bonus! (Note to Robert, email him to see if he'll be in town.)

Neither Sid nor Robert like musicals so many of the Broadway shows are out but there are a few options: God of Carnage (too bad James Gandolfini isn't still in it) and Superior Donuts with Michael McKean. There may be other shows out there; I'm trying to nudge them into looking into them. I worry that they'll get there and just walk around for 2 days.

Anyway, I am excited for them. Sid has dreams of going to Columbia University so he should definitely go up and see the campus.

If you have any ideas for where they should go send them my way!

Weekend cleanup

2009-11-29T07:24:32Z

We're (still) cleaning out the garage and closets and going through various boxes we've shoved with stuff over the last year or so (mainly stuff pulled from Zoe's room). I don't understand how we continuously get rid of stuff yet there is still more.

Today Robert went through all of Zoe's old dolls and doll clothes. At one point I saw him dressing a doll. I helped in remembering which clothes went with which doll; it was surprisingly easy for me to remember that a particular shoe went with such and such doll since I possibly played with those dolls as much as Zoe did. The idea is to donate each doll w/ its clothes and accessories in a big Ziploc bag so that some other little kid can enjoy them just as much. We are SO ANAL.

The goal is to finish up within the week, donate most to Goodwill, keep some and send others off to relatives. I love getting rid of my stuff but I hate getting rid of other people's stuff.

Sadly, I think we've only come up with one decent white elephant gift so far.

BTW, we still have 1 MILLION pens.

Post Thanksgiving notes

2009-11-28T06:41:27Z

Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious success and now my two fridges are full of stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce. My freezer has a turkey carcass and a really messed up* (but delicious) pie in it, too!

Sid, Zoe, and I made 2 pies, vegetarian stuffing, sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce Wednesday evening. During all of this my microwave caught on fire and one of the walls melted! I was pretty exhausted after all that and a bit concerned about what I still had to do. I nearly forgot to put the turkey in the brine! I finally got around to it at about midnight with Robert's help (my brining bag broke and I nearly poured salty, bloody, poultry water all over myself and the countertops). I took notes on the turkey this year. If it ended up turning out yummy I'd just replicate it year after year, if it turned out bad (like 2 years ago) then I'd have to fix something. Here are my turkey notes:

Turkey type: Diestel free range, fresh

Weight: 10 pounds

Brine: 4 quarts water, 1 cup coarse salt (I used mostly Hawaiian salt), 1/2 cup honey, one bunch of thyme, 10 peppercorns

Brining time: 12 hours

Prep: Rinsed, dried and set out to rest for about 40 minutes, then rubbed down with butter and sprinkled with cracked pepper, wings wrapped in foil

Stuffing: stuffed about 4 cups of sausage stuffing into body cavity and neck area

Oven temp: 500 degrees, turkey placed on rack (2 cups chicken broth poured into the pan) and set on the lowest rack for 15 minutes.

Lower heat to 350 degrees and start timing and basting: 1:20pm start, baste: 1:45pm, 2:10pm (tent bird with foil), 2:30pm, 2:45pm (check temp - 150 degrees in thigh), 3:00pm (150 degrees, raise rack up one rung), 3:15pm (158 degrees), 3:25pm (removed from oven).

Unstuffed the bird, wrapped it in foil and carved and served at 4:10pm.

There were a few problems. I used this Ikea meat thermometer and it seems to be broken (I recall having similar issues with it this summer). It didn't register a temp at all until nearly at the end of the cook time and then when it did it registered 10 degrees lower than my better meat thermometer that I inserted right next to it (the temps I show in my notes are from my functional thermometer that I inserted when I took the bird out to baste). I can't complain, the Ikea thermometer is cheap and it worked for a while. I'll probably pick up another one.

Another problem was the basting. I don't usually baste much (or at all) but the initial high heat caused the liquid that was in the pan to crisp up and burn so I added more to prevent further burning. I saw little, if any, juices running from the bird and since I wanted to use drippings for my gravy I panicked and added broth to the pan. Since I was adding broth and removing if from the oven regularly to check the temp I decided to go ahead and baste. I don't know that the basting made any difference in the final product. The drippings were good and helped make a delicious gravy.

Verdict? Delicious! Maybe the best one yet. The skin came out perfectly! The meat was tender. There was a tiny bit of pink in the thigh area but other than that, cooked perfectly. The stuffing that I removed from the bird was put into a casserole dish and cooked more just for safety.

***

Other highlights of the day:

Sid making the butternut squash and cheddar bread pudding. It was delicious! And really a meal in itself. I highly recommend it.

Foster kittehs** playing in the temporarily abandoned eating nook (we moved our table out into the living room and added the leaf).

Zoe set a beautiful table!

Everyone was happy and hungry! I finished up my food and was kind of surprised to see Robert going for seconds!

In the end my favorites were the cheddar bread pudding, the mashed potatoes (because it's the only time of year I make them with cream and lots of butter, plus I used my ricer so they were very smooth), the gravy (I ended up making the giblet gravy but left out the giblets in the final product), and most of all, I loved the turkey.

I was completely exhausted at the end of it all. I even begged Robert to steam the green beans (and he did A GREAT JOB)! I heard myself mumbling a few times that I was never going to do this again. But in the end, it was very satisfying. Since we'd moved the table out into the living room, after I'd finished my plate I laid down on the sofa (with my wine) and watched the family eat while two kitties snuggled with me. Was nice. The kids did the dishes and Robert finished up carving the bird and doing cleanup. He doesn't cook much but there was no sitting around for him that day either. He built a storm window for our basement office while I was cooking.

We paused between dinner and dessert to watched Smoke Signals. I like this movie a lot. Perhaps a new tradition will be to watch a movie about Native Americans on Thanksgiving.

We visited friends later to share pies. All four were delicious (yes, I sampled them all)! I woke up at 3am and realized I was still completely stuffed. It was a great day and I really do have so much to be thankful for.

*On our way home from pie eating I had our 2 leftover pies stacked on my lap. As Robert made a right turn, the top pie flew off and wrapped itself around the gear shift. The creamy mousse was fortunately contained (or so I thought) in its plastic wrap but its graham cracker crust escaped and it was everywhere. I only discovered this morning (after going out to the store to buy a new microwave) that I had chocolatey peanut butter mousse all over my purse and coat. Oops. The pie is back in the freezer and it's ugly but still very, very edible.

**Good news! Adult foster kitteh Tonks (was Peep) may be adopted tomorrow! She's going to be the "girlfriend" to an adorable flame point Siamese named Marco. I really feel like I saved a kitteh's life and because I have the opportunity to do this, I'm truly thankful.

On the road: Day 10, 11, & 12

2009-11-26T17:00:01Z

I warned you this was coming...

]]> Day 10

Aw, day 10 is the day Sid fell in love with San Francisco. I did, too. I'd only been there a few times and only remember Fisherman's Wharf so we played nerdy-tourists-in-a-car on day 10. First we drove down the hairpin section of Lombard Street along with a bunch of other nerdy tourists, then we headed towards Chinatown and on towards Market Street. Sadly, we didn't get into the Mission District at all. We headed into the Castro (is it The Castro?) and over to Haight-Asbury (a place my mother visited when she was pregnant with me which is the reason why I am her "wild child", right?). We then passed the Painted Ladies and drove towards and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Bye-bye San Francisco. Next time we'll stay much, much longer. (As Sid was saying how much he liked the city, Zoe was reminding us all that So. Cal is the only cool place and we are all weirdos if we don't agree.)

We had a long drive ahead and that pretty much sums up the rest of Day 10. After a stop at the busiest In-N-Out Burger ever (in Mill Valley), we drove and drove. Sadly, we had to zoom past Bodega Bay and wine country. We just missed The Trees of Mystery in Klamath but it was still light enough out to get a few photos with Babe and his anatomically correct Blue Ox. We pulled into Crescent City just as the sun was setting and settled into our cozy, retro motel, The Curly Redwood Lodge. Zoe loved this place. The floorplan was weird, the 3 beds were at angles and the seating area faced away from the tv. But there was something fun and quirky about it. And, hey, the entire motel was made out of one single tree. (Aw, poor tree.)

Day 10 photos (mouseover for titles, click to embiggen)

Day 11

We headed out early and made very few stops. The drive was gorgeous! Huge redwood trees everywhere, bridges and rivers, oh my! We ate lunch at Cornucopia in Eugene, OR. I'd only been in Eugene once before and that time it was just off of I-5. This time we headed into the city center. Very cute! The food at Cornucopia was yummy (excellent vegetarian options, too) and their beer list and prices were great (because halfway through a day's drive one must drink beer, right?) After hitting a bit of a snag in traffic we arrived in Portland. I'd booked 2 rooms in the Ace Hotel. It was a little pricey but SO worth it. I love this place. Cool decor. Old building. A great lobby and coffee shop attached. A turntable in our room. And one block from Powell's!

Robert had been eagerly awaiting our arrival in Portland so he could sip some delicious Copacetic IPA at Amnesia Brewing Company (it's possibly the only reason he'd agreed to take this long road trip, me saying "beer at the end! beer at the end!") so we ditched the kids (who sat in their cool room, eating Whole Foods pizza and then wandered over to Powell's) and drove out to North Portland. We were hungry. And thirsty. And very excited (because food! beer! Portland!). The last time we went to Amnesia we sat at the bar, shared a pitcher of beer and ate spicy sausage links. When we arrived this time around we went straight to the bar, smiles on our faces and asked for the Copacetic. They were out of Copacetic! We ordered pints of one of their lesser beers and sat outside in the jammed eating area, pouting.

So then our night went from happy to crappy just like that. We decided not to eat because the bartender said we might be able to get Copacetic elsewhere in town. Our new plan was to drive back to the hotel and walk to food and drink. Did I mention that I was hungry? I get grumpy when I'm hungry. We drove back into town and discovered that the hotel's lot was full. For the next 20 minutes we fought like an old married couple (what?!). Where to park? Street or lot? I begged for street parking. We hadn't even found a place to eat yet! No, Robert says, if we street park he has to get up in the morning and move the car. Fine, another lot. Only, another lot's credit card reader wouldn't work. We drove around and around and finally settled on street parking.

We walked around the Pearl District and settled on Henry's. How bad could it be with that many beers on tap? As soon as we walked in I was turned off by the place. 20-something hipsters everywhere. I felt like I was in King's Hardware on a Friday night. Oh well, I was too hungry to try another place. We sat down, waited forever to be helped and when I finally had a chance to order, I ordered the biggest Bombay Sapphire martini they would make me. Perhaps I was just drunk from the martini, but the place turned out to not be so bad after all. They had awesome happy hour food. I ordered a mac and cheese for $3 and it was huge. HUGE. A martini and mac and cheese? Are you kidding me? I was giggling with happiness. I'm sure Robert was relieved with my change in mood. He never did get his Copacetic.

We returned to our room and watched a crazy B movie about a man and a dozen hot women, stuck in the jungle. Man gets bit by spider. Man turns into a big ugly spider. Man kills hot women.

Day 11 photos (mouseover for titles, click to embiggen)

Day 12

We loaded up the car and headed to Powell's where we purchased many books. We then said good bye to our road trip and headed home to Seattle.

Day 12 photos (mouseover for titles, click to embiggen)

***

Thoughts: I like road trips but this one had too many destinations in too few days. We missed a lot of things along the way because we didn't have time to stop.

Also, I had this idea that I'd regularly post photo updates on Facebook so I used my phone to take photos quite a bit. That was a dumb decision. I have more crappy cell phone photos than decent ones (taken with my regular camera).

Thanksgivings past

2009-11-25T21:24:58Z

You can tell that I love Thanksgiving, right? I like to cook. I like to eat. What's not to love? I haven't always loved it, cooked for it, or even celebrated it. Here are a few Thanksgiving memories from my past:

The first year we moved to Seattle we ate Thanksgiving at The Keg restaurant (where Robert worked at the time). I remember the bill being something like $45 and I couldn't believe I spent that much on food.

My sister used to live in Tacoma and once or twice she invited us to Thanksgiving. I wasn't much of a cook at the time so I'm sure I offered to bring a can of cranberries and help out by mashing the potatoes. I remember watching Total Recall after one meal at her place.

When Sid was a baby I decided it was time to start having our own Thanksgivings at home so I bought a frozen turkey loaf and heated it up and had the table all set for when Robert got off work (United Airlines reservation agents don't get Thanksgiving off I guess).

I made my first real turkey when Zoe was 2 months old. Again, Robert was at work and I was really nervous about it. I got one of those turkeys with the pop up timer and as far as I remember it was edible.

One year we loaded the kids in the car and drove to Utah. We were making good time but were low on gas in a deserted part of Idaho so we had to stop at a place called Glenn's Ferry and drive into "town" only to find a gas station with ancient pumps. I think it took us 20 minutes to fill the tank and when we were heading back towards the highway Robert got pulled over for going 30 in a 25 zone. The police officer asked for proof of insurance and we realized we didn't have it in the car. He then threatened to take Robert in and lock him up for the day because of it. It was Thanksgiving! Our 2 adorable children were sleeping in their p.j.s in the back seat! Are you serious? He ended up letting Robert off with a stern warning. To this day, when we drive through Glenn's Ferry, Robert growls.

One year we took the train to Canada and ate sushi!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! I'm about to go home and make cranberry sauce, a few pies and brine my turkey! A real turkey! Without a pop-up timer!

Tuesday scarfing project update

2009-11-25T05:26:51Z

Still plugging away. The color is kind of boring but it feels warm and cozy and I can't wait to wear it! I just hope I finish before spring!

piggy toes added for scale