I don't bake. But I'm making an exception.

But only until February 20th or so.

Thanks to the handful of you that knew and didn't spill the beans. :) I'll pay you back by letting you babysit someday. Mwah!

An equation.

If: The number of felines in your home is ≤ the number of humans,
Then: Worry not, you just appreciate pets.

If: The number of felines in your home is > the number of humans,
Then: You are a crazy cat person.

It's simple math, y'all.

And thhaaaat said...


Meet Ramona.
We do know about Ramona, do we not? (She's a pest). And she likes laundry.


And sleeping.


And posing.

So, yes. We are now a multiple cat home. But we saved her from certain cat death-my baby sis called last week needing a permanent home for a cat she had to foster last minute...long story short, Greta (KittyH) is not super happy with us.

It's like playing I-Spy.

And Ramona loves her. And wants to play.all.the.time. So far, we've graduated to mild toleration. With some guttural tiger noises from KH anytime KH2 gets a bit too close. Or tackles her...or attempts to pounce...or something equally obnoxious. But Geezus. Her cry is like none other. We put her in the room whenever she starts stalking KH:

And 2 minutes later, we start hearing the wail of death. It's the strangest, longest cry I've ever heard...it's been fun.

Sigh. This post has reached ridiculous levels. My apologies. I'll post dinner next, I promise.

Meet...um...hmmmm.

We can't pick a name. But she's a rambunctious little thing, let me tell you...


Taking all ideas.

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Crazy cat lady, party of one.

This collection has two names
(hubby and I each had good arguments, so it's a draw):
look how cute my cat is and look how lame my wife is. Whatever. I was bored.











She really doesn't do much other than this save for about a half hour of playing a day. Well, and she eats. Which means she gets along just fine around here.

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Meet Greta.

Greta, or KittyH, as she will now be known in the blogosphere, has decided that she lives with us. Ok, that's of course not entirely true. I have decided that she lives with us. She, a neighborhood stray, simply decided we would feed her. And so, for now, she lives part time inside and part time on our porch.

Unfortunately/purposefully, she and I both made our decisions without a whole lot of input from the hubby. It's not that he dislike cats. He just dislikes their hair. And their noises. And their poo. I mean...is this a man who hates cats?
That's our first cat, Nesta. Nesta now lives with Grandma; Grandma won't give her back. Mean Grandma...(Um, thanks for paying her vet bills, ma.)

But he has to keep his stoic man-front and give me a hard time. I am completely incapable of not being a cat-mom and he knows it, but one of us has to be practical about these things. And we know full-well it ain't me. So he bitches half-heartedly, I bat my eyes and cook him dinner and sweetly promise things we both know I can't control (No, honey, she won't shed inside. You'll never have to feed her. She won't cost us a dime.)

What can I do...I love animals. And he loves me. Thank you for being such a good sport, babe. And now I'll go make you dinner. Can you watch the cat?

He's good.

Me: Does sitting on an exercise ball count If I'm drinking champagne and eating candy?

Hubby (without a pause, non condescendingly): No. They cancel each other out.

I agree. I found a watermelon blow pop and it was fantastic. The champagne is prosecco, which was pretty necessary. I was celebrating the cable company's complete and utter ineptitude, which, yes, I documented. It was a slightly trying afternoon.

1:45: leave work to meet cable guy.
2:20: Brighthouse dude=my hero. We have metaphorical liftoff.
2:25-4:30: Work
4:35: Pick up "hippies use side door, no exeptions" sign from antique dealer. Been wanting forever, she special ordered for me. Highlight of day.
4:45: Camera shop. Find out a new camera battery costs $75. Not happening. Two days before New York, no camera=lowpoint of day.
7:05: On the phone with brighthouse again about my no longer functioning Internet.
7:35: Rep's boss is alerted that I called 8 times in the past 72 hours. Once past the initial omg-I'm-a-stalker-moment, I accept his offer to have his boss call me directly once they look over the issue.

Bossman Harold and I talked so many times I began altering my 'hello' for boredom's sake. Because instead of the usual hold music, he just called me back. Over. and. over. Which, while annoying, was helpful for cooking purposes:





Mmm. Meatballs and hubby pasta sauce, asparagus and garlic. Mmmmm.

Anyway, Harold, my bff.
8:00: PC is getting internet...mac is not. Airport either. Not ok. He will have a rep call to book a tech appt.
Not helpful, seeing that we're about to go on vacation and I'm not about to ask my father in law to meet a cable guy for us mid week.
9:30: We realize TiVo isn't working. Can't escape settings menu. Panic ensues. No internet I can handle-I can always cheat and use my phone. But TiVo? Oh, helllllll no.
10:05: Hubby may be a genius and fixed everything at once.
10:40 Ok, Maybe not genius, but we have TiVo again. (Still hero-status, go babe!)

Anything mac-related is still unable to receive a signal. Sigh. Guess I'll be chatting with Harold next week...good, cause I already miss him.

I promise this will be my last post about the internet fiasco, by the way. Cause it's going to be magically fixed by the time we get home from NY. And if it's not, well, I'm making hubby call. I quit.

-posted out of fat kidness from my iPhone.

Holiday, my ass.

Not to sound bitter, but I hope those of you doing something awesome this weekend have a great time. Try not to be overly jealous of the hubby's and my exciting plans to clean the house, pack the apartment, move the apartment, clean the apartment...and then maybe, if we're still standing, unpack.*

I mean, it's awesome that we have a three day weekend to get this stuff done. We would both be pulling our hair out otherwise, but since almost everything is totally done at the house (a couple doors left to hang, drawer pulls to install, floors to mop), we're pretty much in the home stretch.

It definitely helps that we've had a ton of help. His family has been amazing; even Pia (my dog-in-law) got in on the action. I think she had more paint on her than I did...oohhh, Pia, I want one of you. (Soon!)

But the house is coming together with the little touches we've added and is looking so good. Check out my ridiculous new bathroom vanity light. I'm going to feel like I'm aboard the Enterprise as I apply mascara in the morning, I love it. Now if only I had one of those breakfast/beverage transporter cubbyholes...Someone really needs to get to work on the whole transporter business, by the way. It's freakin' 2010, come on.

Mostly, though, I'm just excited to not live like this anymore:

So go on, enjoy your Memorial Day weekends...and I'll have photos of the finished product next week.

*I assume you know me well enough to know we will be drinking beer as we clean/pack/clean/unpack. As though I need an excuse...it's a holiday, damnit.

House, MD

So, it turns out it takes a long time to upgrade a house. We're 2 weeks in, and here's the update.

The floors (sans bathroom) are done. The tile in the bathroom is taking longer than normal for various reasons, but it should be installed tomorrow. Which means the toilet will be back in, which is a good thing. TMI ALERT I have a tiny bladder. So working for more than a couple hours at a time in a bathroom-less house is a bit of a problem. I'm not really a go-outside kinda girl.

Anyway, the goal is June 1, which works out well, having a three day weekend precede it.

I unfortunately don't have any before-before photos, but I have floors-ripped-up-during/beginning photos. Here's the progress:

Bathroom:

Kitchen:

Living/main room:

Backyard (both views):

I'm exhausted.

We have been machines this weekend. The in-laws have a rental house here in town, which has recently been vacated by what appear to be a family of cracked out warthogs...I don't know how people live like that. Seriously. It was disgusting.

Was being the key word here.

As they have graciously offered to rent the house to us (once it's back in livable condition), we are taking full advantage of the fact that the house needs major renovations. Which sounds insane to probably everyone but the parallel, I know, but it's so awesome to get to pick paint samples and flooring, fixtures and handles. And help make them into something awesome. (I'm a control freak and a designer, I can't help it.)

So. After 17 hours of painting over the past two days, my hands are blistered and swollen, my back aches, my legs hurt from climbing up and down ladders, and my brain is trying to process doing it all over again after work tomorrow. And every weekend in the foreseeable future.

The house will be move-in-ready (new paint, appliances, new flooring and windows throughout) in a couple weeks, but once we're in we'll be working on details and the backyard (and awesome patio!) for who knows how long...exciting and frightening and so many other things...

Get ready for photos. It's not food, but it's something we're making from scratch (sorta), and it's gonna be awesome.


-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.