Shave and a Haircut…

For a little after dinner entertainment, Jason and I decided to shave Olive. Her winter coat is starting to fall out and her beard has grown back in.

Jason was a dear and held her while I used the clippers on her coat. The trim didn’t take too long; We didn’t trim her too short. She looks more like a Jack Russel now.

After her haircut, I gave her a bath. After her bath she ran into the office and promptly peed on Jason’s shoes. She only looks like a new dog.

Sorry Jason! Olive still loves you!

French Food Without the Fries.

I had some mixed feelings on tonight’s meal.

Lissa decided on veal for the meat eaters of the group. We usually have a meat-based entré and lots of veggie-friendly stuff. She created a masterpiece of ham and cheese-stuffed veal. Jason loved it! I’m not a fan of the idea of veal, so I think that may have colored my opinion of the main course. :)

We started with a nice baked brie with raspberries, followed by a simple side salad. I made asparagus with ginger and cashews. We finished up with a sugar-free, chocolate raspberry puff pastry. It was SO good, I felt like I was cheating on my Lenten resolution.

While shopping for our dinner, Lou and I found a great Chilean wine: Gatonegro. It set us back about $3.00 and Lou got a bit of a buzz! Good wine. 4 stars.

Calypso

It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I am posting today. Yesterday, our youngest cat Calypso, known to most as Calli, passed away in the afternoon. She was just a little over one year old.

Calli was rescued from an abandoned litter of kittens in September of 2005. The six kittens were found by our friends Jason and Drew in an abandoned house, and they had been deprived of food and water. The kittens seemed to have gotten into some bug spray while in the house. Most of them had already passed on when they were found. I believe one survived for a few months but Calli was considered the only “real” survivor.

When we met Calli, we offered to take her in and give her a good home and the love that she deserved. After becoming acquainted with the rest of our pets, she became good friends and playmates (with most of them :) She enjoyed a good young kitten life and was quite crazy for the first several months :).

When she was 7 or 8 months old, she began having some problems with her eyes. When we took her to the vet, he said it looked she had gotten a scratch on her eye from playing with the other cats. He gave us some drops to put in her eyes and sent us on our way. We gave her the drops three times a day, as recommended by the vet, and the irritation and goopiness seemed to go away. Over the next several weeks, however, the eye problems starting coming and going again. We started using the drops again, and they seemed to do the trick.

Over the last couple of months, she started becoming very lethargic and just hanging out in the basement. Her eyes seemed alright, but she was becoming lazier.

Over the last couple of days, we noticed that she didn’t seem to be eating much or drinking. Thursday night we tried to manually feed her, but she showed no interest. On Friday afternoon Rusty arranged an appointment with the vet. When she got home from work, she went into the room to check on her, and she had already passed.

Calli was very close to us, and we had so much fun with her in her short time. We’ve been feeling kind of guilty about her passing, but we realized that she was just sick and was born under terrible circumstances. She just wasn’t meant to live a long life. Although her passing was extremely sad and hard to deal with, we feel better knowing that she’s no longer in pain.

We love you Calli, and we’ll miss you dearly.

Diet :(

I don’t like the word “DIET”. It makes me think of starvation and hunger pains. My doctor has told me that I don’t need to “diet.” My best friends and best family have told me I don’t need to “diet.” I don’t like starvation and hunger pains.

However, my fabulous mother-in-law has introduced me to the wonderful Bob Greene. He is Oprah’s diet guru, and his new book just makes sense. My challenge is not to cut out food, but to ADD it. Phase one of the plan is to eat 4 to 5 times a day! That’s been rough. I have had to plan meals and snacks, eat in the car, and eat when Ben isn’t. (I know, that sounds odd, but sometimes he isn’t hungry..!)

Ben and I have also added consistent vitamins and Omega -3 oil into the plan. I have bumped up my physical activity and increased my whole-grain intake. Overall I feel better physically but the best news is that my mood has been better. I believe that all of the above mentioned factors have added to my lack of melancholy, including my Lenten restriction of no sweets. Wow! PMS was easy this month!

Oh, one more note: if you have a Trader Joe’s grocery near you, GO! Kind of like a small Whole Foods, but not as pricey. Love it Love it Love it….

I wish I could do this

Man, if I had the time to play around with Photoshop as much I want to, I might be able to do something like this. But this guy did this “painting” in 4 hours, and of course the video’s time-lapsed.

I was a bit of an artist growing up, but that kind of fell by the wayside with all the drumming and college. Since becoming a web designer I’ve picked up the art stuff a little bit, but I would really like to have the time to do something like this.

Enjoy…(by the way, the guy he’s drawing is Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead).

Casual Dinner Party..?

Last night’s theme was Gourmet Grilled Cheese. What’s better than bread and cheese, really?

We had 3 choices of bread, 3 choices of cheese, turkey, sautéed mushrooms and onions. Lissa grilled them up while I made a yummy fruit salad. I whipped up some sweet potato chips and sweet potato fries. Chips take FOREVER, fyi. The bad news is we didn’t take pictures. The good news is there are fruit salad leftovers. Yay breakfast!

We played a rockin game of Life. James won. Go figure. He was a rock star that got his big break. Ben ended up with a car full of kids. Ha!

I think we have to take a break next week. I have a crazy work schedule and Jason and James will be out of town. :( Poor Ben. Pasta Roni for him.

Molly thinks she’s a dog…

and she is in love with our Olive. This picture makes it look the other way around, but we know the truth. Molly is secretly loving their cuddle session.

Dinner Party

Ben picked the menu for this weeks dinner party. Salmon with leeks, tomatoes and white wine, wasabi deviled eggs and a nice tossed salad. We served the fish over brown rice. Overall, it was delightful, but when we make it again, I will bump up the thyme topping the fish.

The Boys

Yummy… and the salmon was good too.

:)

Dinner Parties…

Elissa-lou and I decided that we needed to expand our cooking horizons and that we should subject our closest friends and loved ones to our experiments. Maybe this has something to do with being married or domestic or something, but the Peanut Gallery offered up no objections. (eating something besides Pasta Roni? How will Ben handle it?!)

Now every week we gather up recipes from across the World Wide Web, and various other resources, and cook up some magic in the kitchen. Sometimes we have a theme; sometimes we don’t. We usually have wine, except on Breakfast Night. (don’t ask about the biscuits.) Once in a while the boys even offer to cook!

Jason, our dearest friend and usher at our wedding, took charge during Pizza Night. Lissa helped with the crust. Boy, does she know how to use a bread machine!

This past Saturday night was Ben’s turn to cook. (EEK!) He picked some delicious dishes out of my new Moosewood cookbook (highly recommended for both vegetarians and non-veggies alike); He compiled a shopping list and went to the store. He came home and then I cooked dinner! To be fair, I shooed him out of the kitchen about 15 minutes into the grand adventure. The recipes were easy to follow, and most of the time the shopping is the hardest part anyway. Good Job Baby!

At any rate, I bet you are just dying to see pictures of the delish fish, but I can’t figure out how to post them. HA! At least we remembered to take pictures this time. Maybe my cooking-shy husband will post them at a later date. Just another reason to check back.

love,

rusty