I took this the other day while waiting the ten minutes I had before my appointment at the dentist last week. Thought it would give you an idea of the smallness and quaintness of the dentist office I am going to. It’s in an old house, and it’s really sort of cozy and comfy. Doesn’t feel all hospital-like, and everyone is always in a great mood, smiling, and happy. Even the patients. I love it.

Over 10,000 square feet of “arts and crafts supplies” and this is the best Hobby Lobby can do for a seam ripper? Seriously, it was the only one they carry, and had I not had two spare dollar bills floating around in my jacket pocket, I’d have not bothered. Anyone who does anything more than the most casual sewing is going to look at this thing and have the same reaction I did: an eye roll and a sneer.

I am going to have to go through my sewing notions and make a list of all the things I could or should replace or get more of (like metal bobbins for my machine) and order enough stuff online to make the shipping worth it. I don’t want dinky little seam rippers or crappy little plastic bobbins with rough edges or any of the other cheapo Made in China crap the craft stores (with no stock selection at all) carry these days.

Here’s hoping this poor little thing lasts me longer than the cup of coffee I could have bought with those two dollars.

Myu won’t take no for an answer when begging to be in my lap, even when I don’t have a lap available. I was squatted down in the kitchen a few minutes ago cleaning up a spill, and she hops right up on my non-existent lap and settled in for a nap, which didn’t work out so well for her, seeing as I wasn’t planning on squatting in the kitchen for longer than two minutes.

Truly, she is being a huge pest today.

I’m trying to get some writing done today. You know, on that book I am working on and not here on the blog or in some forum flame war. Gloomy, cold days are great for getting some writing done, because there really isn’t much else to do. But … Myu has decided to be a HUGE pest. She won’t leave me alone, no matter how much corporal cuddling I use! She seems to enjoy it too much!

Two nights ago I was happily slipping into blissful sleep on the couch when I was rudely awakened by the cats informing me all was not well in their precious little world. Something was out on the porch! Yes, and that something was, of course, the resident possum.

As resigned as I am to the reality there will always be at least one possum sharing my immediate existence with me, I don’t necessarily want to be feeding the thing. Therefore, new outdoor cat feeding rules have been instituted. The outdoor strays get fed at sunrise, and any cat that wants a bite of food better get around to grabbing some before sunset when I pick up the bowl and empty it back into the bag. Sasha and Grumpy are not pleased with this change, and I can only imagine the possum isn’t thrilled about there not being a bowl of cat food on my porch every night as well. Too bad. The cats will just have to adapt, and the possum can please continue to usefully eat the snails, slugs, and giant roaches living in my yard.

Peaceful coexistence shall be maintained!

I toddled out to the garden to get some sunshine on my skin, and what did I find today? The broccoli is actually making broccoli! It’s possible there is some hope for actual edibles from the winter garden after all!

Yippee!

Since the weather is so warm and sunny today, I decided to go have a look at my pathetic garden. I feel compelled to at least take a peek at the plants every so often, even though the trips out to the garden have been more depressing than fun this winter. The plants are still growing, and what’s survived the freezes seem to be doing OK, but as I went from section to section noticing that everything still looks stunted and not producing anything at all edible, I saw something white peeking out from under the leaves of one of the fava bean plants.

Lo and behold, my fava bean plants are blooming! Yes, they continue to be too short and since the last big freeze are half dead, but they are blooming. A lot of blooms too! After all the depressing plant losses this season, to see something blooming in the garden is a real mood boost.

Also, a few more baby lettuce plants have popped up! I suspect as the weather continues to get warmer and warmer I may find myself overrun with self-planted lettuce. I’m certainly not going to complain about that, and you can be sure I will be saving the seeds from the ones that came up earliest and survived the freezing weather. Those are going to be the seeds I definitely want for early planting next year.

So all is not completely depressing in the garden anymore. I still don’t know that I will bother with a winter garden again, because it’s just not much fun being out in the cold gardening, and I hate seeing hard work go to waste when a hard freeze comes through and kills things even when measures have been taken to save them. But it’s been an interesting experiment, and if nothing else, I’ll have some great lettuce seeds and maybe a pot or two of fava beans out of it.

And one of my tomatoes looks like it might be turning red! Sure hope so. I want those seeds too! That’s been one hardy tomato plant.

This morning I woke up late and got on with my day as quickly as I could. Hit the snooze button one too many times. Oops. What can I say? The bed was warm and comfy!

Having to get out of the comfy bed left me a little grumpy, and then the whole “running late” thing didn’t help. I hate feeling like I am already running late two seconds after I open my eyes.^†

But once Lin was off to work, the cats were fed, the local news was watched, and the first cup of coffee was had, I set about making myself look human. I pulled off the socks I had slept in last night and was reminded I had painted my toenails after my shower yesterday. I haven’t painted my toenails in ages. My bright and shiny silver toenails made me smile and giggle and got my day back onto a happy track.

Ronin doesn’t look too happy to be used as a prop to show off my silly silver toes does he? Well, he doesn’t like having his photo taken anyway, especially during the cats’ post-breakfast morning nap period.

I think once I get my hands into something resembling a healthy state –they are shredded right now from working outside in the cold recently– I will paint my fingernails silver too. Me painting my fingernails is even more rare of an event, but I love this new nail polish!

1. † I also hate being responsible for making sure the other adult human in the household wakes up and gets moving when he should, but that’s a rant for another day … or maybe not at all. [↩]

She’s so precious when she’s sleeping …
and not knocking things off closet shelves or digging in my potted plants.

If you ever happen to be in my house or somewhere else where I am in charge of doing the cooking, and you hear me say I am going to “Iron Chef it!” … be prepared for something completely different created without following or even looking at a recipe. This usually happens when I notice a lot of odds and ends, bits and pieces of things, stacking up in the fridge and freezer. The end result is always interesting and edible, and sometimes it’s worth doing again.

Last night was just one of those occasions.

I knew I wanted to make something with the crab, and I knew I wanted to make something different, so quiche it was. There isn’t a recipe at all, but I can tell you what’s in it. I started by thawing some tater tots and crumbling them to make the bottom crust and top sprinkles. Then I tossed chopped broccoli, cauliflower and crab into a large bowl, to which I then added the last remains of every kind of grated cheese I had in the fridge (mostly mozzarella, Swiss, and Parmesan). In another bowl, beat the last two remaining eggs, added some milk, sour cream, and cream cheese … as well as garlic sea salt and pepper. The tater tot crust got baked until it was starting to turn crispy, the veggies were put on the crust, the egg mixture was poured on top, and the last of the tater tot bits sprinkled on top of all that. I baked it at 350ºF … until it was done. No idea how long that took. Maybe 30 minutes or so.

Totally yummy, and I am thrilled there are leftovers for dinner tonight!

I love just getting into the kitchen and throwing things together. I love it even more when the end results turns out to be something so tasty it begs to be made into an actual recipe other people can follow. I’ll have to make this again in a few weeks and pay attention to how much of what I am using, because seriously, this is worth making and not expensive. Quite filling too.

And now to get to the grocery store so I don’t have to Iron Chef it again tonight. I may love doing it, but I also like having an advance plan for what we are having for dinner.

Tora has been a very bad kitty this afternoon! She knocked a bunch of stuff off the top shelf of the bedroom closet … again. It’s beginning to feel like a losing battle, and at some point I fear I may just have to arrange that shelf for the usage of Tora and Myu who won’t leave it alone.

Taken through the truck window with my new cell phone while cruising along at 75 or so miles per hour. The camera on the new phone seems to be somewhat better than the one on the old phone!

Texas Highway 290, in case anyone is interested.