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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for September 19th - 29th
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09/29/05 I talk about my cat a lot. Because I love him.
Oh, today I had a terrible migrainey headache that I thought might kill me. Andrew left town to go to Toronto for his conference, and he came home to quickly pack after going to a few meetings and stuff. I was in bed feeling like a bag of ugh when he did, but since he'd already had a stress-filled day and had to bomb back out the door immediately I didn't tell him what was wrong with me, just letting him think I'd been napping. I called Dan and May's place tonight to see if he'd gotten there safely and told him that I'd had a migraine but was feeling better. His response? "Yeah, I thought you looked pretty rough."
If he didn't always tell me I'm beautiful I might have chosen to take offence. I pretended to, of course, but I have to admit that when I got up and looked in the mirror I wasn't exactly a vision of loveliness. I took revenge on him by making a snide remark about his hair that might have included the word 'bushy'. Oh, me so evil.
Mong goes to stay at the animal hospital tomorrow until Monday and I'm feeling a little guilty about it. I mean, I'm perfectly happy with the idea of him staying there. I trust that place totally and I know that they make as much of a fuss over him as they did over Halo. And since Mong is not shy about demanding attention I'm sure he gets lots of it there. And maybe sedatives. I just feel guilty because it's so jarring to pets to be taken out of their environment and put somewhere strange for days at a time. I console myself with the fact that he'll have the near-constant human contact that he craves and it's much better for him than spending the majority of the weekend at home by himself. Sigh. If I can remember to I'll take the digital camera with me tomorrow and take a shot of him looking pathetic in his cage.
Cold-weather Mong is much more snuggly than hot-weather Mong. Now that we're having more cool weather he's not sprawling out shamelessly all over the floors like he thinks he's going to die of the heat. He's lately taken to climbing on us when we're on the sofa and snuggling down for a while. Tonight I watched Survivor and The Apprentice with a snoozing cat on my legs. That's two hours of Mong snuggling! I never thought I'd see the day. He hasn't been the most cuddly kitty since we got him, and it was something that I really missed. I have to remind myself that it wasn't until Halo was about four years old that he got really affectionate, though, so Mong has a few years yet to develop his snuggling potential.
I am so excited to be going to Toronto for the weekend. It's been far too long since we've been there. We've made plans to see Marcus too, since he has a rare gig-free weekend and we'll probably get to see his lovely new apartment. I've only met Soc, his cat, once so I'm looking forward to petting him again. I'll also get to spend some lovely quality time with May on Saturday which just doesn't happen often enough. Dan has a big Aikido event this weekend but I'll also get to see him more than I have in the last few months, which is not enough. Hooray for fun weekends with friends!
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09/25/05 Respect mah authoritay!
Tonight I was watching some television while Andrew did some work in the dining room. We still have our mysterious range of channels that appeared after we installed the VCR, so I'm able to watch TLC again. I like that channel and missed having it. Anyhow, tonight there were two shows on back to back. The first one was called '627 Pound Woman: Jackie's Story'. The second one was called 'Half Ton Man'. Obviously both were mini-docs about two individuals, both of whom were morbidly obese. Both shows were similar in that the subjects underwent gastric bypass surgery to overcome their life-threatening weight problems.
The difference, however, was in attitude. The woman was a very friendly, caring, warm individual. She lived alone and had a caretaker who did all of the household chores and shopping and helped the woman care for her personal needs. The caretaker obviously loved this woman and talked often about how wonderful and generous she was. Jackie felt that the surgery was her last hope to regain her health and communicated openly and honestly with every medical professional she talked to. She even told the ambulance attendants how much she appreciated their kindness and willingness to help people like her. I was rooting for her to do well in her struggle to regain mobility and keep her weight down.
The man was, quite honestly, kind of an asshole. He weighed 1070 pounds when they took him to the hospital and as his weight decreased his nasty attitude increased. At one point an interviewer asked his wife why she didn't simply refuse him all the foods he requested that had caused him to gain so much weight, and he looked at the interviewer out of the corner of his eye and said, "Nobody tells me what to do. Anyone tries that and I'll rip them apart." His wife seemed to love him, but even when he'd regained the ability to walk around and do things for himself he'd spread himself out on his mattress and call to her, "Diet Dr. Pepper!" She'd obediently bring it. He hollered from the background at the same interviewer he'd already scared the hell out of, "I don't eat any more than anybody else! It's all genetic! People don't understand that this is entirely genetic!"
I didn't find myself rooting for him quite so much.
I am looking forward to next weekend very much. Andrew has a conference in Toronto, so we'll be spending the weekend there at May and Dan's. Jen and Colin are also going to Toronto so I'll be hitching a ride with them on Friday and we'll all come back on Monday. I'd been stressing about what to do with Mong while we were gone since being alone in the apartment for days freaks him out. Jen is my cat-sitter of choice and since I'm freakishly picky about my cats and their well-being there isn't really anyone else in Ottawa that I trust with my cat and home (Colin is obviously included in this bond of trust as well). Obviously she won't be here so I can't impose on her this time. I have some birthday money left so we're going to board old Mongo at the vet's office, which I'm very happy about. I love that animal hospital and trust them 100%. Mong won't be thrilled, but he also won't be lonely and sad since he gets a lot of attention there. Getting to go to Toronto is a wonderful use of my birthday money, I think.
Speaking of Mong; I didn't mention last night that when he's being particularly bad there is something that intimidates him a bit. Andrew has a big cardboard tube that had held some building plans or some such thing. He discovered that waving it at Mong when he's being bad actually stops him (briefly) from doing whatever bad thing he's doing. It works so well that I decided I needed a cardboard tube as well, so put one by my desk for my own use. Tonight Mong was once again attacking the bookshelves so I waved my cardboard tube at him. He stopped what he was doing, but hopped up on a dining room chair and did this:
He does not respect my authority.
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09/24/05 If he can't be good at least he's adorable.
It's been fairly quiet around here. Quiet doesn't mean stressless, though. Andrew is currently working on his thesis proposal and so is Jen, so they've both been fairly consumed by them. Mong has also been consumed by a recent project of his, since he likes to keep busy even when there's not much going on. We've had a cardboard drink tray hanging around for a while, and one of us finally put it with the rest of our recycling. Mong will usually play with boxes if they're there (I keep meaning to get a picture of him trying to dive into a Raisin Bran box) but he really took an interest in this drink tray. He's been demolishing it over time and using the pieces he tears off of it as toys. You might think that sounds destructive and naughty, but it's honestly so much better than when he tries to climb the bookshelves or pull things out of the organizer caddy beside my desk. It's the least of a thousand evils.
The round bits where the drinks sit make the best toys. He tears them off and then races madly around the apartment with them. The most fun thing (apparently) is to charge into the living room, do a flying leap onto the sofa, toss the piece of cardboard into the air when coming to land on the cushion and then pounce violently on it wherever it lands. Pick it up and repeat.
He was doing this the other day and keeping me very amused, even though I was sitting on the sofa at the time and was a bit worried that the game would change from cardboard fun to ankle biting. It didn't, though, and he kept doing his flying leap/toss routine until the bit he was playing with went behind one of the cushions. He couldn't get to it so I kindly dug it out for him. At which point I discovered that he was actually playing with a dirty bandaid he'd dug out of the bathroom garbage, not a piece of his drink tray. Ugh. I threw away the bandaid again and I think he was a bit sad about it. Or not. He doesn't really carry his disappointments far.
It's very true that disapproval and anger roll off of him much like water off a duck's back. He just doesn't care. What does upset him is being locked out of the bedroom, which we've started to do more and more often when we're in there actually trying to sleep. He insists on chewing on Andrew's school/work papers and messing around on my dresser. The other day he knocked the phone on my dresser off the hook and it was that way much of the day, apparently. He gets the blame for that since I'm pretty sure I didn't do it myself after taking a call around noon and I did kick him off of there three or four times. So, we'll throw him out of the room and shut the door. He'll be quiet for a while, but sooner or later there'll be a few solid minutes of mournful Siamese howling and vain attempts to open the door without opposable thumbs. He'll eventually stop, but it's a contest of wills a lot of the time and sometimes we just open the damn door.
We were at Colin and Jen's last night for bison burgers and Colin asked me how my egg art was coming along. I had to admit that my egg plans had to change, since what I'd wanted to do hadn't worked out exactly as I'd hoped. So, I (in trying to figure out a way to overcome the problems) have actually come up with something else egg-related I want to do. No promises on when I'll have anything ready to show off, but hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later.
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09/19/05 It would have made his character even more impressive, if you think about it.
I was talking to my sisters on the phone tonight. Mimi was over at Alannah's place with her kids and it was nice to be able to talk to them both in one call. I mentioned to Mimi that I'd better get off the phone soon since I had to get ready to go out to the Talk Like a Pirate get-together at the Royal Oak. Mimi asked what that was all about so I described it as best I could, mentioning that we'd watched Pirates of the Caribbean as a warm-up.
That drifted off into a conversation about Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. I said that the only role that I thought Orlando Bloom was hot in was in The Lord Of The Rings but Mimi didn't seem to recall his character.
"You know, he played the elf with the long blonde hair. He was Legolas"
Mimi sounded confused. "Which one was that?"
"He had long blonde hair. He was the main elf character"
She was still stumped. "I don't remember him at all. Why don't I remember him? Which movie was he in?"
I said, "All of them. He ran around shooting arrows a lot and did all the really cool things."
With great exasperation she said, "What are you talking about? He had legs!"
Alannah and I had great amounts of laughter at her expense at that point, and I managed to convey that this was certainly going in my weblog ASAP. Mimi tried to explain her mistake by claiming that I had poor enunciation, but I don't really think that was the issue at hand. Tee hee. Legless.
I also got to share that story at the Talk Like a Pirate get-together, and Colin and Jen found it funny too. The gathering of hearty mates was a successful one! We drank grog and feasted. Jen wore much booty on her wrists and even though there were none of the highly anticipated (by me) eyepatches we still felt the pirate spirit. Our waitress told a story about a friend of hers who got too much into the spirit of ITLAPD last year and was highly annoying, but she said since she didn't know us personally we wouldn't annoy her. We all tried to stick with rum-based drinks or beer. I had a Long Island Iced Tea to begin with since they're my favourite drink, but had a Malibu and orange juice after that after tasting Andrew's and finding it delicious. I don't usually like things that taste coconutty, but this was tasty.
Anyhow, I once again find myself exhausted now before midnight rolls around, so I'd best go off to bed and dream of pirates and legless elves.
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09/18/05 In which I talk about all the food I eat. And other things. But mostly food.
We've had an all right weekend. On Friday night Colin and Jen called to invite us to go out for pho with them again, and since we're very unlikely to turn down a pho outing we totally went. It was weird this time, though. Jen and I both ordered pho while Colin and Andrew went with other menu items. The non-pho items came to the table first, as did the appetizers, and Jen and I waited patiently for our pho. Since I'd gotten cold rolls I ate one of those while waiting. And waiting. And waiting. It was like being back at Pho Hung again, with the waiting. Jen looked like she was ready to eat her own foot, she was so starving, so I split my second cold roll with her to keep her from fainting. Finally Colin flagged down the waiter to ask about our soup, and he went off to see about it. When our soups finally arrived one of them actually had really rare beef on it, which is what pho tai (which I always order) is supposed to have but usually comes to the table at New Mee Fung pretty much cooked all the way through. So Jen let me have the rarest one, in her generous way.
After the eating of the Vietnamese food we all went back to Jen and Colin's place to watch a movie. We ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean since tomorrow (Monday the 19th) is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. It got us all in a good pirate mood, although I did have to admit that I've never really understood the appeal of pirates and pirate-speak. It seems to give so many people so much joy. I want to learn why that is. Luckily Jen has organized an ITLAPD gathering at the Royal Oak tomorrow night so perhaps I will be initiated into the fold. Or the crew, I guess. I'll be a scurvy mate or something. I look forward to wearing an eyepatch, anyhow, which Jen has told me she will be handing out to those who attend.
Jenny was in town this weekend and last night Andrew's parents took us all out to dinner at The Manx. The last time I visited The Manx there were paintings of internal organs on the wall. They always display art by local artists, so this time the spleens and lungs were long gone and replaced with pastel drawings that I was intrigued by. I asked Andrew later what art style he'd thought they were. He said abstract, and many of them seemed to be, but many also seemed to have recognizable forms. One was a curious mish-mash of stylized human limbs and the form of a duck, and one had a guitar-like shape and all were drawn using disconnected lines of varying thickness and length. I don't really know what art style to label it. I definitely didn't like some of them, but the ones that I liked I liked a lot. I wish I'd gotten the name of the artist from somone there, as I'd like to see more of their work.
Jen and I got together at Bridgehead for organic treats and pleasant chatting today. I was excited because I was going to get one of the delicious lemon squares that they sell there, but the lemon square I ate today was definitely not from a good batch. It was barely lemony and was quite dry and tasteless. Lucky for me my Red Berry Crush beverage was delicious, as usual. It seems that all the coffee places now offer delicious frozen tea beverages which makes me very happy, even though I'm ostensibly off the caffeine and not drinking it any more. In the end I think I'd have rather had a bubble tea at New Mee Fung than a Red Berry Crush today, but apparently my defenses against this sort of thing were stronger on Friday. Ah, well. So far the world has not ended.
I decided to make pancakes again today and they turned out so deliciously well yet again that I'm going to share my made-up recipe with you lucky folk. Yes, you can now make egg-free pancakes in your own kitchen! These pancakes reheat very nicely in the microwave if you can't eat them all, since it makes about fourteen good-sized pancakes and the batter is best when cooked fresh rather than after being kept in the fridge. I find it works better to mash the melted butter with the bananas before mixing them into the rest of the batter so that the cold milk doesn't harden the butter immediately. It makes a medium-thick batter, so if you like a thicker or thinner batter just add or subtract a cup of milk in either direction, I guess.
Keltie's Eggless Banana Pancakes3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
large pinch of sugar
4 cups milk
2 mashed overripe bananas
1 tbsp melted butterMix dry ingredients well. Add liquid and bananas. Stir well, preferably using a hand mixer to make sure the banana is broken up well as it is taking the place of eggs. Pour 3/4 cup of batter into frying pan on medium heat. Flip pancakes when bubbles rise to the top and the edges are firm.
And since you've all missed seeing pictures of fatty-fatty-fat-fat Mong, I will end this entry with a recent one. He was sitting grooming himself in his leather chair and I was trying to get a good shot of him. He looked at me with this sort of 'don't you dare move me from this chair' look, and I noticed when I uploaded the picture that he had his tongue sticking out a bit. Awww.
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