Note from the cats

I came home from work one day last week and saw this...



A closer view...



It reads:

Dear smaller human,

*roommate's name* put wet food in our bowls this morning, he's pretty cool for a human.

Also, our butts smell bad and you should punish us arbitrarily. In addition, we make ridiculous noises and smell each others' butts.

*paw prints*

Don't you love their correct use of apostrophes? Turns out that since I had run out of dry food I ran off without filling the autofeeder that I often use. Woops. I'm sure they were very vocal about needing fed when roommate was there though. This is only the 3rd time in the year that I've had the autofeeder that my cats have almost missed a meal...2 of those my roommate fed them.

Here are the purrfaces. They don't look like they are starving! This isn't a great picture of Snickers, but there is something about it that I like.

Of course, an open backpack is a prime cat bed! Usually he is in Batman's bags, I tend to leave mine zipped close so he can't shed in them!

reading update

I haven't done an update in a long time! Here is the last one. This one is kinda long. It is possible I forgot a book here and there since I do read a lot and it has been months!

Monster Planet by David Wellington.

The third in the series. Very good, but I couldn't remember who everyone was from the 1st two. Once I started figuring it out, there were some interesting twists in the story.

The Dubliners by James Joyce
A collection of Short Stories that I read on the flight home from Dublin. How appropriate. It was a quick and nice read. Kinda cool to read it right after seeing the place. I'm interested in reading some of his other stuff now!



What is the What by Dave Eggers.

About one of the Lost Boys from Sudan. His story of walking and walking across countries, living in refugee camps, and growing up without family and then in an adopted family. This is all intermixed with bits of his life since he came to America.


Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen.

I learned more about corn than I ever thought I would need to know. Parts of it were slow, parts I already knew, but there were lots of things that I learned about modern food and how it comes to be. Overall an interesting book.


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

A very quick and fun read. It is narrated by Death, which I liked. A fairly typical nazi germany story...young girl, hidden Jew, secrets, but with the added bonus of stolen books.


Short Stories by Roald Dahl

I don't remember the exact title, but it was a collection of short stories. It was very interesting. I read a lot of Dahl as a child, but it was in the form of The BFG, Matilda, and The Phantom Tollbooth and maybe some others. The short stories are definitely done for adults and were quite fun to read!


The Keep by Jennifer Egan
A story set in a castle! It starts out kinda slow, picks up in the middle and has a great ending. A guy that isn't really doing anything with his life goes to some castle in Europe to help his cousin turn it into a resort.


Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Set way back in the 1100s. A man (detective) and a woman (doctor) are sent to a town to find a killer. One of my favorite books I've read in a while. It combines many things that I like in a book and I could hardly put this one down until I finished it.


The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

I didn't like this book. I found it boring and sappy. It wasn't bad enough for me to not finish it (very few books are), but I would not recommend anyone else read it. It fits in some category with Little Children, I'm sure there are people who enjoy those books, I'm not one of them.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

This was a great book! A bit slow to start, but once I got into it I was reading anytime I got a chance. I actually finished it during lunch at work and I rarely read at work. It is about 2 boys (cousins) who become comic book authors/illustrators and their lives. One is from Europe and he gets sent to live with the one in NYC about the time WWII starts. It was very well written and a great read!

Dublin Ireland

A couple months late! I'm home today so I finally took the time to go through the rest of my photos.

Batman and I went to Ireland in January.  It was great.  My first time using my passport (I got it a year ago), and his first time to Ireland (he's travelled a lot more than me!).  We stayed in Dublin and were only there for 4 days.  We didn't have time to do everything that I wanted, mostly because nothing opened until 9 and then was closed again by 5!  We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral as well as some other old churches, Dublin Castle, some old bits of walls/arches/doorways from the 1200s, we actually saw most of Dublin I think!  It isn't very large and we did a lot of walking.  We took one day and went to Howth on the DART.  We hiked in the hills by the ocean and got a bit of the feel of being in the Irish countryside.

I was able to take knitting on the flight there but not on the flight coming home.  I didn't knit at all though, I read and slept a lot!  I kept a journal while we were there which is what kept me busy in the hotel when we were taking a break from everything.  It was actually very easy to eat vegan in Dublin.  I found places with soy milk and the skittles there are vegan!  I did have some Guinness...it isn't vegan and I don't drink it at home.  I loooove it so much though and it does taste better in Ireland.  I had to sample all the other beers and the cider.  It is great that you can order a pint or a glass of beer, so often I don't want a whole pint and the option for less isn't available in the US.

Here are a sampling of the pictures that I took.  You can see many more on my flickr!

                       

St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Of course Batman and I had to have a Guinness!

                      

The coach house at Dublin Castle.  I think this building was part of the Guinness Brewery

                     

View over the ocean from the hills by Howth.  The clouds above the ocean on the flight home.

Photo Organizing

I was going to post yesterday, but I wanted to see what pictures I have in Flickr. I have a lot. 884 to be exact. And at least 200 more that I haven't uploaded yet. Needless to say, I got distracted.

I'm organizing my photos now. Making sure that each and every one has the correct tags and is in the correct sets and has something that resembles a title or description if needed. This way when I want a picture I can find it. The problem is that it takes a looong time. I'm over halfway done I think. So as soon as the photos are organized, I'll be back with some more interesting posts.

On a different topic, carrots are so satisfying to eat for the crunch part, but not for the full belly part. I have 2 bags of them so I'll be doing lots of crunching to be followed with a higher fat snack to keep me full. Or I'll get some hummus for dipping. I also have 2 bags of celery, but I looove that with peanut butter or marmite so that makes it more filling. Obviously I didn't check my fridge before I went grocery shopping last nite.

1 Year (plus 2 days) Ago

So one year ago, Feb 2nd/3rd to be exact, was a bit of a turning point in my life. You get two stories in one here!

Pre-stuff: I'd become single a few months before that and had made a very rushed move into a different apartment with my two kitties and most of my stuff (the rest of it I never did get). There are all sorts of great stories about all of that, maybe some other time for those though.

So a few months after taking control of my life and getting out of a bad situation, I decided to do something that I'd been thinking about for years. Get a tattoo. I knew that I wanted a Pi. I wanted it small, discreetish, but where I could still see it. I was sitting at work, drawing on myself when I figured it out. I drew a wee little Pi on the inside of my wrist. Perfect. This was drawn on at about noon Feb 2nd. I drew it on darker and was ever so careful to not let it wash off. The next day, Feb 3rd, was a Saturday. That morning I was knitting with some friends and looking up tattoo parlors online. I picked 2 based off of Yelp.com reviews and chose the one that I knew how to get to (plus there was a sushi restaurant near it). I packed up my bag and headed that way.

This was pretty big for me. Not so much getting the tat, but the fact that I went to get it within 24 hours of deciding what I wanted. It was finally doing something solely for me. Not to get away from anything, not to prove anything, not because it was expected or I had to, not for anyone else in the slightest. I usually have more of a reason for why I do things, because I want to isn't always enough for myself. But that is why I went to get a tat. Because I wanted to.

So I brave the icy sidewalks to get to the tattoo place. I tell the man what I want and sit down to wait while they get ready. There was a guy there looking at designs, and we started talking while I waited. He plays in a band near where I live, so he gave me his email address and said I should come check them out. We looked at designs in the books and talked while I waited.

Once everything was ready for me, it took no time at all to actually do the tattoo, and was definitely cool to watch. On my way out, the guy said something funny and I told him I'd check out his band sometime. He was wearing a hat and looking cute. I'm a sucker for cute guys!

This is it...the nite that I got it. I should go home and take an updated picture.





So there is the story of how I got my tattoo. And since I said there were two stories here...that guy I was talking to while I waited is my boyfriend. We went on our first date 2 weeks later and have been together since!

I know that all of you who know me IRL have heard all this, but I felt like telling the story again :)

Cupcakes!

Browsing through my flickr, it seems that I have a decent number of pictures of cupcakes.

All these are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Cookies 'n Cream (candy cane Joe-Joe variety)
cooling:

frosted:


Margarita Cupcakes:


Margarita and Basic Chocolate Cupcakes:


Hey look, another batch of Margarita Cupcakes!


Last weekend we made another batch of Margarita cupcakes as well as a batch of Chocolate Stout and Rum Raisin. I'm sooooo loving the Rum Raisin ones. I was hungover when I had a chocolate stout, but my roommate assures me that they were good. And obviously I like the Margarita cupcakes!

Here is the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from VCTOTW. I've made this a ton. It is super quick, easy, and always yummy. Plus it is great with peanut butter frosting! Yum!

Long time away!

It's been a long time since I've posted! I finally finished up, at 1am last nite, a long ongoing thing for work and now I have a bit of breathing room in my day again.

So what to say now? An update of sorts? This blog has turned into a free for all, so here goes...this is more of a brainstorm to get me back in the groove of blogging.

reading - I've atually kept up on updating the books here. I've got another update about ready to post. I mostly only read on the subway, but can still finish a book a week or so somehow!

baking - cupcakes! J and I made 3 batches last Saturday. I made cinnamon rolls 2 weeks ago. Baking has been happening. I might have pictures?

cooking - slowly working it's way back into my life. I've been doing simple, healthy meals lately, but have actually made some "real" dinners as well. Batman and I are trying to eat healthier, eat the right amount, and balance it all better. So we've been taking our lunches more too. I have all sorts of things that I want to make, both lunch and dinner foods so I'll share that as I get around to it.

drinking - I still tend to pull out the camera to take pictures of our drinks at bars. Like this one.



travel - Batman and I went to Dublin earlier this month. I'll definitely do a post on that with lots of pictures! Making sure to show you more than just the Guinness (not vegan, I know, but I was in Ireland and I looooove Guinness)!

sewing - I have plans. Nothing has happened yet but plans are a good start. Oh, and I got a nifty tool...I'll share that later!

embroiderying - I'm almost finished with my first sampler! It has been in an almost finished state for 5 months now, but it's close and I know I could finish it quickly if I chose to.



knitting - still happening. not much though. I'm 1/3ish of the way through a sweater and am fully convinced that I don't like the top down in the round method. My other sweater is looking weird. I've knit a couple of dishrags. I'll get some pictures later.


cats - still as cute and as much a pain in the ass as ever. Snickers is slowly starting to turn into a lap cat and Winston still sits above my head and purrs.


Okay. So I didn't have much to say today. I've got some ideas now, whereas I didn't have any before, so that is good. So forgive my rather disjointed, listy post and I'll come back with something more substantial sooner rather than later!