vegan chai

the can of soda trick

tonight we had a little cake & presents event for my grandpa's birthday, and he actually requested pies (lemon meringue and apple) instead of birthday cake. there are a bunch of people in my family who favor cake to pie, and they especially favor chocolate to non-chocolate, so we were scurrying behind the scenes to add a third option to the menu for that crowd. heh. my mom asked if i'd be interested in making cupcakes, and i was more than willing, but then while we talked she decided she wanted to try that soda + cake mix trick, so we decided to go that route instead. for some reason she had never heard of it before (i think it's an old weight watchers trick; basically you take a prepared cake mix, add a can of soda, and bake), and she was excited because she had found a cake mix that didn't already have milk or eggs in it. yay! she used a can of diet pepsi, and that was that. four adults and one kiddo chose the chocolate cake over the pies, and it was a big hit! 

a word to the wise

in case you were wondering, the best way to decide you probably shouldn't adopt a cat after all is NOT to spend two solid hours alone with him in a room. because he'll probably just purr the whole time, spend 98% of the visit on your lap and the other 2% looking adoringly up at you, wondering when you're going to sit back down again. and he'll probably show none of the weird or troubling characteristics you might be hoping for, like misplaced aggression or total aloofness or bizarre hyperactivity. nope, he'll just be mellow and easygoing and ridiculously affectionate, and he'll also love being brushed. A LOT. 

yes, for those of you keeping score at home, today was the eighth monday with my sweet little boy, and he's doing a lot better this week. his eyes are totally clear, he has only very minor congestion, and he's put on enough weight that he's normal-cat-sized. he's getting his re-check tomorrow, so there's a possibility i'll be seeing him on the adoption page pretty darn soon. *sniff*

iPhone outreach

i went to my dad & stepmom's house today to help them get their iPhones all set up. they bought them a few weeks ago, but still hadn't gotten around to installing iTunes on their computer, so they hadn't synced anything or set most of the stuff up. craziness! oh well, they've been busy. anyhow, i decided an intervention was in order so i told them to pick a day and i'd come over and help them get it all sorted out. this is their first venture into the world of apple, so it's all new to them, and i figured it would be helpful if i could be there to point and suggest and all that good stuff.

anyhow, i installed iTunes and registered both of their phones, and then we started playing with stuff like importing CDs and downloading apps and creating playlists and so on and so forth. after doing a bunch of different sync demonstrations, my stepmom started looking in the app store from her phone, and downloaded a couple of cooking apps. i said, "oh! you need to download the vegan yumyum app!" and within 30 seconds, she had. yay! 

sigg vs. klean kanteen

my dad & stepmom gave everyone a klean kanteen bottle for christmas, which i thought was a really great and fun idea. we each got our own colors--i got blue, my husband got green, my sister got pink, and so on. they even found a little kid-sized one for my 4-year-old niece. cute! anyhow, the whole concept was somewhat new to most of the recipients, but my husband and i have been carting around sigg bottles for awhile now. i'm kind of interested to see how they'll compare, now that we have both types in the house. i think the basic difference is that siggs are aluminum and klean kanteens are stainless steel, but there's also the fact that klean kanteens have a much wider neck. have any of you tried both and found a definite preference? 

fair-trade after-dinner mints

woo hoo! after lamenting the seeming loss of after eight chocolate mints, i have found an even better replacement! (i think.) i was in whole foods tonight picking up a few things, when i saw a display of boxes that totally reminded me of the after eight thin mints, which i can never find anymore so i've completely given up even looking. anyhow, upon closer inspection they were indeed mint-filled chocolate squares, and praise be! they're from the divine chocolate company, so they're made with fair trade chocolate. how exciting! i grabbed a box right away, even though my house is bursting at the seams with dessert, just because i didn't want to forget about them and/or miss my chance. they appear to be a seasonal offering, so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested.

when i checked out, the girl who bagged my stuff got really excited and asked me if i'd tried them yet. i said no, but that i was really excited too, and we bonded over how we can never find the after eights in the stores anymore, and then she jokingly told me to come back and tell her if they're any good. i said i would, and then she went to open another register. i decided i may as well just open the box and give her one, so i did. i wasn't able to stick around for her reaction (because she was ringing up another customer) but hopefully she'll like them. heck, hopefully i'll like them! i haven't actually tried them yet, but i have high hopes.

unexpected benefits of family feuds

so today we were supposed to have three "extra" family members join in the festivities, due to a series of extenuating circumstances that would have left them otherwise unoccupied on christmas day. we were going to do our normal christmas stuff for brunch and during the afternoon, and then they were going to show up around dinnertime. they were also planning to bring some food with them (one of them was bringing a vegan spinach artichoke dip, yippee!).

well, in the middle of the afternoon we got a call from one of them, saying that she had decided to go on a first date instead(!) and she wouldn't be joining us. about 20 minutes later, we got a call from her parents, saying that they weren't going to come either (mostly to prove a point and i think have something to lord over their daughter in future tense discussions). we thought this was silly, especially given the fact that they were planning to join us so they wouldn't be alone, and now they were practically wishing it upon themselves... but whatever, you can't make people do what they don't want to do, so we let them decide. they didn't show up.

but the best part? even though it meant i had to go without spinach artichoke dip, it also meant that there was no ham for dinner. score! the vast majority of us ended up eating peanut butter sandwiches, and some awesome lentil dish that had been meant mostly for me. i was all too happy to share.

drowning in books

i love to read, and i used to read SO MUCH when i was a kid. my mom, my sister, and i would go to the library every single week and come home with a stack of books each. we'd take them back the next week and repeat the cycle, all summer long. i started reading (or at least recognizing letters and words) at a super-young age, and my mom loves to tell the story about how i would read people magazine to my sister in her playpen (i was 3 years old). reading, it is in my DNA.

but wow, i started grad school and all of my leisure reading ground to a halt. i started to feel like if i had time to read, i'd better be reading my books and articles for school, and that feeling never ever went away. boo. the unfortunate thing is that i still want books. i see books all the time that i want, and i put them on my amazon wishlist, and my family buys them for me at christmas or my birthday, and so i have an entire bookshelf of books i haven't read yet. it's lame and kind of depressing.

similarly, i get really really behind on my magazines, so much so that i've cut down all the way to one: VegNews. it is only published every other month, and guess how many issues i have waiting on the coffee table? five. i tend to only "let" myself read them when i'm on a plane, and i haven't travelled much lately at all. 

i've tried to be a little better about it; i mean now i'm a bona fide grownup and i even have tenure (AND i'm on sabbatical!), so it seems like i could cut myself a little slack and read, right? i have a massive stack of AR-related reading, and also some popular press relationships stuff (because i'm both curious and i like to integrate it when i teach), and i'm making pitiful progress overall. the most i've done is read all of the harry potter books and all of the twilight books, and i think i only plowed through those because: (a) they're such easy and fun reads, and (b) i have the weird pressure of being "caught up" with everyone else. every other book i crack open typically takes me months to finish. i'm so embarrassed. 

the reason i bring all of this up is because my sweet sister gave me two more books for christmas this evening, and i wondered silently what year i'd actually end up reading them. i have the best of intentions, really! one of them i want to read quickly and then pass to a friend (because i think she'd probably get even more out of it than i would, actually), and the other one i'm dying to read because it covers a debate that i'm not sure where exactly i sit yet... but i can't decide if these books should go to the back of the line and wait for the other books who have more seniority. heh.

mystery cookies

ever since a delicious-looking snickerdoodle recipe got posted on vegan yumyum, i've been a little preoccupied with them. i don't have cream of tartar around, though, so i got to googling for other vegan snickerdoodles (because i'm lazy and didn't feel like going to the store). i found another one that i'd bookmarked previously from vegan*core, and then realized that honest to god, i do NOT need more dessert in this house right now. for shiz.

but! all of that cinnamon/sugar cookie googling also reminded me that my mom used to make these cookies around christmas every year that she called "saint hearts." i think they're similar to snickerdoodles, in that they're a cinnamon and sugar kind of cookie, but i'm not sure really. i remember that they involved rolling out, cutting into shapes, and then basting with milk and sprinkling cinnamon and sugar before popping in the oven. 

i went on a googling tear and tried all kinds of variations on "saint heart" and "st heart" and "saint heart cookies" and i found absolutely nada, until i went for it and added an s on the end of heart and voila! recipes! has anyone else ever had these before? what are your bets on how easily they'd veganize? i mean it looks as simple as EB shortening and egg replacer (and soymilk of course), but can anyone think of ways that it might get screwed up? i just follow directions, i don't usually mess with 'em. 

cats & lip balm: the briefest of updates

yep, today marked the seventh monday that ol' cutie-face greeted me in kennel 83L. sigh. 

and, my big order from crazy rumors arrived today, complete with a bonus freebie (thank you crazy rumors!) and i'm happy to admit that i immediately opened each and every tube, just to smell them. hee. creamsicle won the honor of being the first new flavor to actually be applied, and it was scrumptious. 

what will they think of next?

okay, i'm going to be honest: the first time i heard about burger king's new "cologne" that smells like whoppers, i thought it was all an elaborate hoax. but now i'm seeing it reported absolutely everywhere, so i guess it's legit. are there seriously people who want to smell like a hamburger? 

it's me or the dog

upon the recommendation of my friend chris, the husband and i have started watching episodes of it's me or the dog on animal planet. it used to be a 30-minute show based in the UK, but this season it's a 60-minute show based in the US, although with the same trainer, victoria stilwell. we've seen the weimaraner episode, the pug episode, and the gordon setter episode so far. i like it, because victoria is awesome about positive reinforcement and she takes owners to task over things like prong collars and bullying. we've seen a few of the old 30-minute episodes, too... the greyhounds, the bull terrier, the doberman, the chihuahua, and so on. i prefer these new longer episodes because they seem a bit more realistic as far as how much training needs to be done--there is less glossing over due to time constraints, in other words.

but i have to be honest, i've found myself almost equally distracted and/or amused by her penchant for driving a snazzy sports car, complete with driving gloves, to each appointment. plus, although her jeans are fantastic and she has at least one jacket/blouse that i want to steal from her: girlfriend only wears black, and the riding pants make me laugh. i'm also preoccupied with the fact that she has gorgeous long hair, but seems to only wear it in a ponytail or bun, that's all, ever. i'm one million percent sure that if i had a teevy show everyone would have their choice of my ridiculous quirks to pick on, so i'm not making fun of her, i promise... it's just something that gives me a giggle.

snowbanks

we had a snow day today. well, the city did, but i guess it doesn't really count for us since we're off anyway. heh. we slept in, lounged around eating a late breakfast, and then eventually went out to deal with the snow. we got at least a foot, but there was a lot of blowing and drifting due to high winds in the morning. what fun! not really.

the funny part was letting maia out to go potty, and watching her bound through the backyard to get to her potty spot. the snow was up to her chest and she had to really kick it into four-wheel drive in order to power through. she didn't seem too bothered by it, truth be told; she even stood around in it for awhile, just for fun. what a goofball. she's also gotten really good at "paw?" (x4) when she comes back in the house; she always needs to be toweled off these days!

the slumber balls have landed

our three-day saga has come to a close, as the slumber balls were finally delivered this afternoon. whew! we put them both in our bedroom (although the kitty version is intended to be portable if need be), and we got maia to give it a whirl pretty much immediately. i believe she approves.

no slumber balls after all

boo to FedEx, because even though it says (still!) that the delivery date was the 17th, we have no slumber balls. poor us. we had to cart the thing up and down the stairs again today. i'm sure your hearts are just bleeding for us, right? hee. here's hoping for better luck tomorrow! 

slumber balls for everyone!

so maia has this gigantic beanbag-type bed called a slumber ball. we ordered one before she came to live with us, because 'the greyhound people' recommended them highly. these beds are seriously cushy, which greyhounds definitely appreciate. they are also big, because greyhounds are long dogs with long legs, and even though they can sleep curled up, that doesn't mean they always want to. maia does her fair share of sprawling, so much so that she often spills right off the bed. 

anyhow, in the summer months we had her slumber ball in our family room downstairs (i.e., "the downstairs bed") and a different bed in our office upstairs (i.e., "the upstairs bed"). we would bring the upstairs bed into our bedroom at night, and that was that. well, as the nights became colder, she became more uncomfortable, and i eventually decided that maybe the slumber ball would trap heat better, and brought it upstairs for an overnight. problem solved! of course, now that it's cold all the time, it's her bed of choice at least 75% of the time, so we've been dragging it upstairs and downstairs each day, depending on where we are. that thing is big and clumsy, and hoo boy am i ever sick of carting it up and down the stairs.

of course, we also have the problem of the boys sleeping all over her stuff. on two occasions avery has actually crawled into maia's bed with her, but usually it ends up looking more like this. so, to solve all of these problems i finally caved and just decided to buy more slumber balls. we got a navy blue one to live upstairs permanently, so the sage green one can stay downstairs again... and we got a slightly smaller one (also in sage) for the kitties to share. this way, there are three cushy beds no matter how you slice it, so no one has to go without. our house it going to be like a smooshy-bed-minefield, starting tomorrow when the new beds are delivered. fun!

six mondays

 today marks the sixth monday that this cutie's little face has greeted me when i walked into our guest lodging area at the humane society. i mean, come on, he's adorable, right? love him. he is so mellow and sweet, always with a quiet chirp and a purr. i guess i just have to imagine that he is terrified of dogs and/or hates other cats or something in order to get through this.

in related news, i found out where the seal-point siamese went, and it's awesome! he got adopted by one of my very favorite worker bees, and and AND she also adopted a kitten that i'd been loving (off-blog) for the past four weeks. he's a tiny flame-point siamese boy, who would cry and cry and stick his arms out through the bars as far as he could, and pretty much he just wanted to live around your neck in a sling. he is aDORable, and apparently this worker bee and i have very similar taste in cats (heh), because she too was unable to resist their charms. so in the past two weeks, she's adopted two of the four kitties i'd been yammering about at home. awesome! she said they get along extremely well, and they cuddle and sleep and play together. she even showed me pictures! i love her, and i'm so happy she has them (and vice versa). 

another december, another cookie day

i think this is the third year that i've blogged about cookie day. basically it's a day that a bunch of us go to my dad & stepmom's house to make the cut-outs for christmas, and sometimes another kind or two if we are super-efficient. this is our fourth year making a vegan batch alongside the old standard cut-outs my stepmom has made forever, and it's probably the third year i've wondered why we still have to make two kinds.[/selfish & lazy]

as i've said in previous years, we've been using the sugar cookie recipe in garden of vegan, and they turn out very well. they're a bit crisper and sweeter than my stepmom's standard cut-outs, but i think i actually prefer them, so hooray. the only sticking point is the icing. when we use the recipe in GoV that is supposed to "match" the cookies, we always have a really hard time with it; we have to add a LOT more liquid than it calls for, and we're constantly in an "is it too thick? is it too runny?" dilemma as we tinker about. today was no exception. also, we always run out. at some point i made a note that said we need to make 1.5 batches of frosting to cover 1 batch of cookies, so that's what we did today, but we ran out anyway, so then we mixed up a totally random amount of the ingredients and the icing was great. heh. hopefully i'll remember next year that it's more like a 2:1 ratio.

we always ice the vegan cookies the same way (like, i get to pick a color that the other cookies won't have) so that they're easy to spot and i won't accidentally eat the wrong cookies. this year i went with lavender (so christmasy!), and then the second mini-batch of icing came out this awesome shade of magenta (we spilled the red) that i'd love to recreate around valentine's day. anyhow, hooray for cookies! 

new lip balm flavors

yum! crazy rumors just came out with twelve new flavors, in three new lines. how awesome is that? in addition to their old favorites, the "brew" and "perk" lines (inspired by tea and coffee flavors, respectively), they now have a full line of ice cream flavors and bubblegum flavors, as well as three new holiday peppermint-based options.

i have a few family members who love these balms, so when i put in my order to fill some christmas stockings, i also ordered a bunch of new flavors for myself. i couldn't help it. i hooked myself up with a tube each of orange creamsicle, raspberry sherbet, bubblegum, grape bubble, and peppermint twist. i am a bit of a lip balm addict so i think i was contractually obligated to try at least five of the twelve flavors, right?

lipstick = beeswax = annoying

today i went to origins to return a makeup brush and pick up some perfume (ginger essence is love!), and while i was there i decided to branch out and try a new lip color. i usually stick to the brown family, but i was toying with the idea of something more rosy perhaps, and i "remembered" that the matte sticks at origins are vegan. i used to wear malt aaaall the time, back in the day (read: pregan), and in fact it's what i wore on my wedding day! anyscoot, i thought i'd pick the brains of the girlies at the store to see if they could rustle me up a flattering new shade.

alas, when i got there and read the box, it turned out i'd remembered incorrectly, and matte sticks have beeswax, as do every single other lip product at origins. boo! 

don't get me wrong, i still like my hoarded supply of hemp organics (from before the de-veganizing), and i still like my tinted balm, but i was in the mood to experiment with color and i was thwarted! no fair!

i've played a little bit with the zuzu luxe lipsticks and i've unfortunately disliked the vast majority of them. and lipstick is expensive to experiment with... does anyone have tried-and-true favorites that they'd like to explain in detail to me? hee.

whoops!

wow, i almost went to bed without posting. not that i have anything earth-shattering to say, mind you... but i would have been very sad if i'd accidentally broken my streak. hee!

okay, but now i really do need to scoot off to bed, because i'm meeting a friend for yummy vegan brunch tomorrow and i want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. good night!

giving sponsorships as gifts

it's a bit late in the season right now (for me, anyway), but i thought i'd throw this out there as a discussion point. i was toying with the idea of asking everyone to donate money to a farm sanctuary in lieu of giving me gifts this year (alas, a combination of greed, laziness, and forgetfulness got in the way of this plan), and i was also kicking around the idea of giving people animal sponsorships as gifts. that can be an expensive proposition in some cases (for instance, some sanctuaries like peaceful prairie or farm sanctuary only have what amount to relatively hefty yearly fees), but in other cases it can be done in a fairly affordable fashion. animal place, for example, has a holiday gift sponsorship that only costs $25, and animals asia (dedicated to rescuing moon bears from bile farms) allows you to befriend a bear for $80. 

i've actually already made quite a dent in my holiday shopping already (thank you, sabbatical!), but i have a few people i still need to shop for (or "finish off") and it got me thinking about this idea again. have you ever given someone a sponsorship who didn't ask for it? how was it received? i wonder if it would be seen as the ultimate non-gift... it seems the kind of thing where you'd have to pick your recipient wisely. 

sponsorships might make a neat gift idea for people who you almost never see, but always send gifts to... my husband's family, for example, lives all the way across the country and we never see them. we aren't even in contact with them very often, and christmas gift decisions are super-stressful because we feel completely clueless about what to send. my mother-in-law has always adored chickens, and used to raise a few, and so i was thinking a few minutes ago that an animal place sponsorship of one of the chickens might be a really nice idea for a gift... but that was immediately followed by the thought that my father-in-law would probably make fun of me. such is life, i suppose.

winter boots

so, let's just say for the sake of argument that i am not so much a fan of ugg-style boots. and let's also say that i live in a climate (as you know from my many, many, MANY posts about fashionable-yet-warm vegan coats) that necessitates winter boots, at least sometimes. today we had our first big wallop of snow, and the combination of that plus an email from one of my best friends has got me thinking about winter boots. it seems to me that the most popular styles right now are ugg-y in nature, which aren't really my thing. they aren't my friend jen's thing, either, so i started googling around for ideas. 

when i checked alternative outfitters and mooshoes i didn't find much at all, so i headed over to zappos next. i basically just searched for winter boots and then started reading the description for each one, looking for possible vegan candidates. i found tons made of leather and suede, but i also found these, from sorel. they're kind of cute i suppose, they come in a few colors, and they seem like they'd get the job done as far as keeping our tootsies warm and dry. does anyone have thoughts on sorel boots? or does anyone have a lead on alternative options for cute warm dry vegan boots?

pregan surprises

so, awhile back i went through all of my clothes (i do this at least twice per year) and pulled out stuff i wanted to donate, stuff that needed to be dry cleaned, stuff that needed alterations, and so on. i only had one pair of pants that needed dry cleaning, so basically i got lazy and just let them sit there on the shelf for a couple of months. the other day, however, i started going a little crazy what with all of the items on my running mental to-do list, so i wrote them all down and got to work crossing things off. one item was "take pants to dry cleaner," and another was "take [different] pants to tailor," but as it turns out, my dry cleaner does tailoring so it was a one-stop shopping kind of deal. i was having a crazy day, so i asked my husband to drop the pants off on his way to campus, and he obliged. 

for absolutely no reason whatsoever, i grabbed the dry-cleaning pair of pants, and read the tag before handing them over to my husband. i don't know what possessed me to do this. in any case, i was completely flabbergasted when i saw that they have wool in them. i honestly thought i had gotten rid of absolutely all wool in my wardrobe. really and truly! these are new-ish pants, but i don't actually remember when i bought them, so i found myself wracking my brain trying to figure out whether: (a) i had just forgotten that these had wool in them, and they were my last remaining pregan pair of pants, or (b) i had never realized they had wool and i bought them by accident. knowing my penchant for label-reading, i sincerely doubt that it's (b), but even (a) befuddles me, i have to tell you. the pants are less than half-wool by percentage, so maybe the fact that they don't feel like wool helped me forget that they contain it, but i actually felt a little bad when i read that tag. i know that's silly, but i can't help it.

i do have a few pregan things kicking around the house, and i've talked about that before... a pair of sandals that i've had re-soled once, that i've owned for 12 years... a down comforter (that i'm dying to get rid of) that we got around the time we were married, 10 years ago... a sweater that has some silk in it, from at least 6 years ago... a bench that is covered in wool, which we bought over 5 years ago when we bought our house... you know, random things here and there. i know that i don't have to have a "pure" house to be truly vegan or anything, i understand that, but still, it felt weird to realize i still have wool pants. and i really like those pants. hmph.

belated thanksgiving

better late than never, right? now that over a week has gone by and my husband is over the flu, he decided to let me tOtally sleep in and then surprise me with a gigantic thanksgiving lunch. yum! we had stuffing, mashed potaoes, celebration roast, gravy, and brussels sprouts with cheezy sauce. everything was delicious! he also found an adorable lemon poppyseed cake for two, with pretty pink frosting. we were completely stuffed when all was said and done, but it was sooo worth it.

pfefferminz = love

how excited was i to see my pal christine today? VERY excited, because she had a bag full of peppermint ritter sports, all for me. *love* she went to germany for vacation, and i was a total greedy slob and begged her to stock up on my favorite of all favorites, the minty ritter sport that is nearly impossible to find stateside. she is a very nice person, so she agreed. yay! the best part? they were only $1.20 apiece, which is a steal as far as i'm concerned, and frankly i'd pay a lot more for them. anyhoozle, now i have a big stack of pfefferminz on top of the crazy dessert spree from yesterday. i should be set for awhile.

dessert spree

i went a little nuts at vegan essentials today. i was only planning to get dog food, and instead i ended up with dog food plus: peanut butter dog treats, some vegeyeast for the cats (as an experiment), two bottles of vegan glucosamine for the husband, a box of chana masala, and a whoooole bunch of desserty treats. it felt a little like i was compiling noah's ark of chocolate at first, because i couldn't stop myself from choosing two of nearly everything: two ricemilk choco bars, two sweet & sara peanut butter s'mores, two bags of uncle eddie's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. and then there was the giant handful of sjaak's peanut butter cups, the smaller handful of caramel cups, and the box of cinnamon spiced hipo hyfryd truffles. i think that's everything. urp.

well now i've seen everything

omg you guys, PeTA coffins. for real.

i'm not really sure what else to say.

being nice to my back

any of you use a sling bag? i'm considering trying something as an alternative to my omnipresent messenger bags (i have three; two that i use pretty much constantly)... my neck/back/shoulder area has a tendency to act up at times, especially if i carry something relatively heavy for any distance. this isn't a problem if i'm just going from the car to my office, but if i cart my bag around for awhile and it has my laptop, plus a couple of books, and a full sigg bottle... well, you get the point. my husband suggested a backpack but i'm super-meh about that, because they don't seem very "me" anymore. don't get me wrong, i absolutely love it when people think i'm an undergrad instead of a professor, but that doesn't mean i want a backpack to actively blend in. hee.

anyhow, my pal chris (*waves*) got a bag from tom bihn, and she loves it, so i've been poking around on their site a whole lot lately. this sling bag will fit my 15" macbook pro, and it seems like it might be a happy medium as far as weight distribution goes. can any of you support or refute this idea? 

whale wars

i'm probably the last vegan around who hasn't seen an episode of whale wars yet. i started recording them as soon as they started broadcasting them, but i'm a little behind on some of my shows, so they've been stacking up. we (finally) started watching the beginning of episode one today, and it looks pretty good! i get a kick out of paul watson; i imagine he'll make an entertaining reality television character. 

for those of you who have been watching all along, what do you think? good stuff? annoying stuff? i'm looking forward to sitting down and really getting into the series, hopefully soon. 

nablopomo success, plus kitties

i did it! i survived nablopomo (the official november edition) and posted every day. by my count, that means i've gone 13 months now, posting every night before bed. craziness! in other craziness, i can't believe it's already december. my sabbatical is going by too quickly. *sniff*

i went back to the humane society today, and was a combination of disappointed and nervous about who i'd find in guest lodging. my cute orange boy went up for adoption around thanksgiving, and he got adopted on saturday, so i was already bummed in advance, but i wasn't sure about the other two sweeties. well, as it turns out, it appears that only one of them is still around. there was no sign of the seal-point siamese anywhere, so unless he's somewhere in the medical ward, i'm guessing he got adopted already.

but, the pretty balinese boy is still there, four weeks strong now. today i finally broke down and asked someone to look up his file for me, because i need to know his backstory. as it turns out, he was left behind when someone moved(!!); they took their dog along, but left this gorgeous sweet boy behind. i simply don't understand people sometimes. but as luck would have it, the various neighbors were all looking out for him, and one of them even works for the humane society, so they all figured out a way to get him into our safe haven, and that's where he's been ever since. he is very thin so they have been working on putting weight on him, and in the meantime he also got a case of goopy eyes (that's the scientific term) and an upper respiratory infection. poor kiddo! he seems a lot better today, though, aside from the skinny thing. he is such a sweetheart, and so, so, purty. sigh. perhaps i'll be seeing him for the fifth week in a row next monday?