Meet Miss Jinx.

It's about time that our new kitty, Miss Jinx, was formally introduced. In September, Mr. Pancakes ailment finally caught up with him, and he quietly passed away. That left a vacancy at the Ross Family Inn, and all it took was one visit to the Animal Rescue League before we were filled up again. Now now each dog has a matching cat. 

Unfortunately when we brought her home, we quickly identified that Jinx had an upper respiratory infection that's common to shelter cats. So she had to stay quarantined in our spare bedroom for two weeks. She was so sweet and mild mannered while she was sick, we weren't sure what her true personality was going to be. 

Turns out that she is still sweet and mild mannered, with lots of kitten-y spunk. 

She quickly made herself right at home.

She loves to look out the window, and seems to be friendly with other people, unlike our introverted Kitty Coconut.

Speaking of Kitty Coconut, of course were concerned about how she would receive a younger cat. But after one or two hisses, they moved on and became friends. They eat out of the same bowl, use the same litter box and they WRESTLE. Okay, maybe Coconut doesn't initiate the wrestling, but she does participate, sometimes willingly, sometimes not.

Coconut is such a good big sister, that she's even shown Jinx the joys of drinking out of the sink faucet.

Happy 4th birthday, Cookie!

In honor of her fourth birthday, I have something very special to share today - a rare, never before seen photo of Cookie the day after she came home to live with us. It was taken on December 9th, so she was almost 3 months old to the day. I love how she still has her puppy wrinkles! I never posted it because it wasn't up to my aesthetic standards. I've gotten a lot better at photo processing in the last four years, so now it's passable. Seriously, the difference between this version and the original is like night and day.



For the most part, Cookie spent her birthday like any other day - zooming around the house, napping in her favorite spot on top of the couch pillow and eating the cat's food when no one is watching. But she did get to go to Petco and pick out a new toy. She chose a jack o'lantern!

Happy National Dog Day!

Since we celebrated International Cat Day, it's only fair that we take part in National Dog Day!

Am I going to get a treat for doing this?

I *am* going to get a treat for this!

Fuzzy fur feet!

Since Cookie was less than enthused about partaking in National Dog Day, I was only able to get one good photo of her. She acts more like a cat, so maybe I caught her on the wrong day.

Fun with blueberries.

Had we not chosen to celebrate International Cat Day, this would have been yesterday's post. I've been meaning to try this recipe for  Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream, and I finally gathered all the ingredients to make it this past weekend. In my opinion, any time you make a cake from scratch and don't screw it up is a cause for celebration. Actually, not only did I not screw it up, it turned out pretty good. I don't know if I'd call it "amazing," but I do find it amazing how the zucchini virtually leaves no trace in the cake. I mean, I didn't even peel the zucchini, so where did all that green stuff go? And the seeds too? I tried to search for the science behind this, but I came up empty. Chalk it up to another of the universe's mysteries.

Also, don't let the fact that this cake contains both fruit and vegetables deceive you. This is one hell of an unhealthy cake. The cake contains full cup of oil, 3 eggs, and over 2 cups of sugar, while the icing contains 2 sticks of butter and 4 more cups of sugar. I feel so guilty when I think about, but then I just keep eating it anyway.

Since I had blueberries on my mind, I was inspired to make a little blueberry sketch in my journal. I needed a quote to go with it, but I didn't want to go with the obvious Fats Domino reference. Quotes about blueberries are few and far between, and I was about to give up until I found this perfect bit from Willy Wonka. Aside from the girl turning into a giant blueberry, that scene will always be the most memorable to me because I've always wondered what it would be like to chew gum flavored like a roast beef and baked potato dinner!

Happy International Cat Day from Kitty Coconut!

This isn't what I had planned to write about, but when I found out at around 7:00 P.M. that today is International Cat Day, I had to take some photos of Kitty Coconut. This was going to be a challenge because it was already too dark inside the house, and Kitty Coco is an indoor cat.

Kitty Coco will do anything for treats, so I thought I could lure her into looking out an open window. She was very actively trying to get the treat on the windowsill, so this is the closest I could get to the shot I wanted. The focus is a little softer than I like, but oh well.



Most of my shots were like this one. That look of intensity is priceless! Of course, this shot is in sharp focus. That's the way it usually goes.

By the way, *National* Cat Day is sometime in October (I looked it up.).

In completely unrelated news, I had to retire my beloved eggplant shaped cutting board because there seemed to be something mysterious growing on it that wouldn't come off, and I didn't want to take any chances. It was several years old and had seen lots of use. I was sad as I tossed it in the trash because I had used it to prepare so many everyday and holiday meals! I'm going to replace it with a new one, and maybe get a tomato or a chili pepper so it has a friend.

A visit with Mr. Pancakes.

Considering he's hasn't made an appearance here in awhile, I thought it was about time that we checked in with Mr. Pancakes. It's hard to get good photos of Mr. P. because a.) He's nocturnal and wakes up around the time that we're going to bed and b.) He's super quick.



Recently, Mr. P. faced a bit of a strange health challenge. Almost overnight, a rather ugly, large growth formed, to put it delicately, on the underside of his hind end. I thought for sure that he was a goner, but he kept eating and going about his business normally. Then about a week ago, the growth just disappeared. Well, I guess it must have fell off because there was just a small sore left in place. So we just keep monitoring his condition and hope that he'll make a full recovery.



I forgot to add that another reason why he's difficult to photo. Actually, there are three more reasons named Marcus, Cookie and Kitty Coconut. They were all very interested in getting to know Mr. Pancakes as I was trying to take his photo (I think those white blurs in the background are Coco and Cookie). No wonder he's hiding - he being mobbed by his fans!

I help with editing.

I can't believe today is the last day of July. In less than a month, Lauren will already be back to school, and my nice commute to work free of school related traffic will be over.

After I got up to take a break from editing photos, Mark caught Cookie  standing up on my desk chair. The funny thing is that once she gets up on a chair like this she can't figure out how to get down. She'll just stand there and whimper and whine until someone comes to get her.



And just for the record, here is the photo that Cookie and I were working on. Trying to get those back to school themes up for sale before it's too late!

Sometimes it's good to try new things.

For the last few weeks, it's been very hot and humid, which poses a challenge when trying to come up with a dinner menu that :

a.) Doesn't involve using the oven.
b.) Consists of something that all three of us will eat.
c.) Consists of something that all three of us will eat, and none of us ate that something for lunch that day.
d.) Consists of something that all three of us will eat that's not the same something that we had for dinner within the past three days.

Needless to say, the options are limited. Since we usually have an over abundance of eggs, quiche is a good way to use them up, but I haven't been able to make one because of the heat. So it occurred to me that there must be a way to make it on the stovetop.

And sure enough, skillet quiche is a thing!

In order to make this quiche, I had to overcome my fear of using our Lodge cast iron skillet. Many years ago, probably before we were even married, Mark's late Uncle John bestowed upon us a brand new Lodge cast iron skillet that he got for free by turning in UPC codes from his cigarette packs. At the time, I was committed to the non-stick wonder known as T-Fal, so the whole cast iron concept was foreign to me. Not to mention it was so heavy that I could barely hold the pan without getting an arm cramp. Somehow, the cast iron skillet survived a couple of moves as well as a few garage sales, and remained unused in our basement. It wasn't until last year when we were planning our Girl Scout troop camping trip that I decided to remove the Lodge label and cure it. It had accumulated a little bit of rust from sitting in a damp basement for years, but it wasn't anything that a Brillo pad couldn't handle. However as fate would have it, it rained the weekend that we went camping, so I didn't get to use it after all. Since then, it's been sitting in our basement packed away with our camping equipment.

So today I gave it a try-out, and I can say, hide no more Lodge cast iron skillet, for you have now earned a spot in among my other pots and pans!

Now I realize that my my quiche doesn't look anything like the one in the recipe. I used too much spinach (a whole package of frozen) and no bacon. I also should have used more eggs than the recipe specified. Our chickens' eggs are closer to medium sized, while I think most recipes expect you to use large or even extra large. I also felt that the hash browns could have used more seasoning, and they were a little soggy because I obsessively keeping the heat low so that the crust wouldn't burn.



I also decided that it was time to break out my new mini waffle iron that I got on clearance at Crate and Barrel a few months ago. It makes four inch waffles - so cute, and just as tasty as the ones that are as big as your plate.



Another lesson that I learned today is that I am not cut out to be a food blogger. I was literally sweating just trying to make sure that I didn't burn the waffles and the quiche, well enough trying stage these photos properly with fancy accessories!

A tale of two fish.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

This week, we said goodbye to Lauren's goldfish, Julie. Lauren has had Julie since we moved her into her "big girl" room, so it's been about three years. I thought she was just the prettiest fish. I would often go into Lauren's room just to watch her swim in her bowl. She actually had gotten some fungus earlier this year but Mark, the fish expert that he is, gave her some medicine that made her good as new. However it wasn't meant to last because she suddenly fell ill again this week, but only this time, it was like she had a stroke or an aneurysm (if that's even possible). She was just floating suspended in the middle of bowl, staring wide eyed into space and wouldn't respond to any stimulus. She was gone the next day.



Here's the memorial that Lauren made for Julie.

At the same, another fish was in the need of help. Our pond has been completely ravaged this winter. Last weekend, Mark tried to break up some of the ice and add water to the pond in hopes that there would be some sign of life. Shortly after, he found our biggest fish, Mommy Fish (Lauren thinks she's the one who has all the babies.) floating on her side. I thought she was already dead, but Mark saw that her gills were still moving. So he put her into a bucket and brought her into the house. Then he began the process of nursing her back to health by setting up a small air pump and coaxing her to eat peas (Apparently this is a well known fish treatment).

At first, her condition didn't seem to improve, but by mid-week she wasn't lying on her side anymore and started swimming more and more. She's now residing inside a large plastic storage container in our dining room until the pond thaws once and for all.



Of course, the dogs can't help themselves and insist on visiting the patient.



Why so grumpy? You are one lucky fish!

I wished that my prince charming would come.

Last week, Lauren had to write a report about grasshoppers. Her teacher told the class that if they would bring in the insect that they were writing about, they could get extra credit. So after she finished dinner, she went outside to find a grasshopper.



Instead, she found this little guy sitting in our window well.



Mark rescued him. I would have done it myself (I have no problem touching cold, warty animals), but once I got into our deep window well, I didn't think I could get back out!

 

Lauren quickly got a box and built him a temporary hotel for his stay, complete with a luxurious, memory grass bed and an honor bar of dandelions.



Lauren just adored him. I don't blame her. When I was her age, my dad brought home some toads for me to temporarily keep. When I was handling him, I felt like a kid again.



So of course she was devastated when we told her that she would have to let him go. But given the season, we would hate for a Mr. or Mrs. Toad to miss their mate!

Like mother, like daughter.

 

I like to tease Mark that our Lauren came to be when he cloned himself in his lab. Her personality is so much like his, but when it comes to her interests, she's all mine. Yesterday, she asked me if she could take photos and learn how to "erase stuff" on the computer. So I outfitted her with my old D50 and a 50mm lens and let her have at it. She spent the whole day shooting whatever interested her (Mainly Cookie, Coconut and Marcus). Then, we sat down together at the computer while she culled her shots. Then I taught her how to post process in Aperture and use the clone tool in Photoshop.

I thought that would be good enough, but she wanted to post her photos online so people could give her comments. So I set up another Flickr account where we could showcase her work. Since she's still a little too young to participate in the social networking aspect of the site, Mark and I have to sit in the next room and write comments on her photos.

You can see Lauren's growing portfolio here.

Stray cat strut.

Checking in to share a somewhat happy story. It's only somewhat happy because it has to do with stray cats. This is Henry. Henry is one of the stray cats that hang around our neighborhood. The neighborhood children named him. Personally, I call him Baby Spud because he is the spittin' image of my dearly departed Spud. Possibly, he's even Spun reincarnated. Or maybe even risen from the dead. He is buried in the backyard afterall. Anyway, Henry's appearance today totally made my day. When he wandered in our yard back in May, as he was often prone to do, I had a photo shoot with Henry. When we were finished, I went into the house while Lauren continued to follow him about the yard. Something must have spooked him, and he ran out into traffic. As Lauren came and told me, "Henry ran at the wrong time." I didn't really get the gravity of the situation, until Mark told me what he witnessed. While Henry made it across the street, Mark explained that it appeared that he got hit by a car. Sure enough, several months passed without a Henry sighting, so we assumed the worst. I felt partly responsible for his demise, and never published the photos.




So when I saw him in our yard today, no worse for wear, I was stunned and ecstatic. Perhaps cats truly do have nine lives!




Oh, and apparently while Baby Spud, I mean Henry, was away he went and got a himself a girlfriend. Meet Jessica (Again, as named by Lauren and her friends).




Unlike Henry, Jessica is a little shy. She had some scratches on her nose, and appeared to be missing the tip of one of her ears.

[Insert PSA about spaying and neutering your cat, or at least keeping them indoors]

I'm thinking about doing a 13 days of Halloween project, similar to the 25 days of Christmas one that I did last year. If I'm up to it, it will start on Friday.

Pumpkin fever.

I think that I've finally resigned myself to the fact that summer is over.



It was difficult coming to terms with the decreasing daylight, the cold, damp mornings, and the evenings filled with homework and activities instead of carefree fun.



But then this weekend, I remembered that with all those things also comes something else.



And then I was happy.

Wonders never cease.

It's good to be home after spending the majority of last week visiting Boston. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share this time. We did spend some time in Seaport, an area of the city that's being revitalized with trendy new hotels and restaurants. I would have easily have found something to photograph, but the winds coming off the ocean were extremely high the day we were there, making it an effort to stand let alone take a picture.

Speaking of the sea, I should probably explain the photo at the top. I took this photo at the end of May, but I never uploaded it. You see, Lauren's first grade glass raised guppies as a science project. Near the end of the school year, they were allowed to take one home to keep as their own, with parental permission of course. Even though Lauren already has a goldfish that she pretty much ignores, we caved in and gave the okay. Lauren was very excited and insisted that her fish was a pregnant female.

When I took this photo, I had thought delivery was imminent. The black spot on her side is called a gravis spot, and is supposed to be an indicator that the guppy is pregnant. Since their gestation period is only 28 days, I thought that she was going to drop her load any day. However, days went by with no fry, and then weeks. Soon, we just forgot about it, figuring that Lauren must have been mistaken about the fish's condition.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was putting some clothes away when Mark came into Lauren's room. He had just cleaned out the fish's bowl earlier that day and started to complain about how much longer the fish would be around. It was then that I went over to check on her and said, "Uh oh." Then he said, "What? Is she dead?" I laughed and said, "No, worse. She had babies!" Sure enough, there were seven or eight teeny tiny fish swimming in the bowl. There would have been more, but Mark may have flushed a few when he cleaned the bowl earlier. Oops.

Apparently, female guppies are able to store sperm for at least three months. So I guess the offer noted on my sign still stands after all!

Still online.

Just a quick note to show that the blog is still active. To be honest, I got in serious procrastination mode back in July, and then when the photos started piling up, I kind of got overwhelmed by the thought of blogging them all. Now I'm determined to work my way through the backlog, a little bit at a time. My goal is to be caught up by the end of August, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. This is going to be a bit of a challenge because while Lauren doesn't start school until next week, soccer practice begins tomorrow plus we're gearing up for the new Girl Scout year this week. Nevertheless, I'm determined. To show that I am committed to blogging, I also updated the blog banner and since they were fairly out-of-date, I edited the links in the sidebar to the right. I felt it necessary that everyone be aware of Lauren's obsession with Minecraft and something called creepers.

 

In the meantime, here's a little Kitty Coconut to tide you over.

New kid in town.

 

After non-stop action over the last several weeks, we've just been lying low and taking it easy. I finally finished editing the photos from camp, so I just have to write the story that goes with them. I was going to post about it this weekend, but I ended spending a good bit a time yesterday working on another project (which I'll hopefully get to share here, if it pays off) that drank up much of my creative juices.

Now to the frog. His appearance was definitely the highlight of the weekend.



About a month ago, at Lauren's request, Mark purchased two tadpoles for our pond. We hadn't seen hide nor hair of them until today, when the most adorable little frog (about the size of a silver dollar) decided to make himself known. Hopefully his/her brother/sister overcomes its shyness too.

I think I'm going to need a bigger zoom lens.

Easy reading.

Just had to share the love of my new Kindle. I adopted e-reading when Mark gave me the 1st generation iPad a couple of years ago for my birthday. At first, I didn't convert wholeheartedly. I'm a firm believer in buying used books. I love going to book sales and finding recent releases for a buck, but I hate paying cover prices for books. E-books are much cheaper than their hard copy counterparts, but still aren't really cost effective, especially when you factor in how easy it is to impulse buy with just a click of a button. On the other hand, I have to consider the fact that I no longer have to struggle with where to store all my books, so that just might be worth the extra expense.

Anyway, I really enjoy reading outside during the warm months, but it's difficult on the iPad because of the glare. The recent unseasonably warm weather turned my thoughts to reading in the en plein air, so I decided to get a Kindle. Lauren is now reading chapter books, so I also justified the purchase with the thought that she could use it too. In fact, a couple of months ago, I promised that I would buy her one of her own if she read 100 books (She's made it to 50 so far), but for now, she's content to use this one. Luckily, I found a barely used one on eBay last week for a steal. I still love my iPad, but the weight and the size of the Kindle makes it perfect for reading.



And here's a bonus photo of Kitty Coconut, just because.