Cheers to a New Year!

Mimosas for the win!

Cheers to you on this new year! May all your hopes, dreams, changes, and wishes come true.  (If you're taking note of mine, yesterday was clearly a better day to do so but I didn't mention a wish I have that clearly is not a resolution-- I wish the Colts a playoff victory this weekend. So, there's that to toast to).

One of the things I didn't make an official resolution, but I'm determined to do is the daily picture thing. I found there were long stretches of time that I didn't bother to take a picture and I know things happened. Even if I'm only walking around my house, neighborhood or workplace, I'm hoping that by taking pictures will

My actual first picture of the New Year:
Cute Khubla

help me see beauty in the everyday and get me to appreciate my surroundings a little more. I mean, I live in one of the most diverse, beautiful cities in the world, might as well take advantage of it.

So cheers to you and a year of documenting the every day!

Kittenz II Cats

Nothing says Christmas like dressing your cats up like tiny little members of the world's furriest boy band. I only have a few items left on my Holiday Spirit Quest and last night I took care of #7- Have the cats sporting their holiday ties at least once this holiday season. That means that I only have to watch a cheesy holiday movie (one of which is sitting on my bedroom DVR) and stuff a stocking (or two) which I (or Santa) will do tonight. I have to say that I still love doing these spirit items. Mostly because if I didn't, I wouldn't try at all to get into the holiday mood, and what fun is that?

So, today we also went to use the last of our flexible healthcare spending for the year and got glasses and contacts, as well as eye exams. This has become somewhat of a Christmas Eve tradition. We get exams, Chef gets glasses, we wait for the glasses by walking across the street to the mall. We did all that today PLUS had a delicious lunch at PF Chang's. It's not quite opening presents with the family, but it's not bad at all.

In the mean time, here are pictures of the furry family of boy band members (and Mila) in their holiday attire. Enjoy!

Attila looking dapper in his plaid tie.

Genghis and Khubla wondering how they could've worn the same outfit.

The closest I could get to having all three in the picture at once.

Genghis kinda likes his tie.

Genghis and his half-brother Attila looking very much like they are ready for their holiday choir concert.

Genghis and Khubla waiting for their cue to sing.

The best one of Khubla by himself

.

Mila did not like her holiday fur collar AT ALL.

This was the most she would do with it. I can't blame her. It had bells so she couldn't hide at all from the other cats. 

I'm Still Alive....Just Busy

I'm still alive and kicking, but the last few weeks have been slammed with work. Las Vegas for a convention, three tweet-up events, and a charity walk simultaneously in four locations--that's just the last 10 days. I promise to get back at it, but in the mean time, enjoy this video Chef took of Khubla making a weird shriek when he was cornered.

What defines "Ethical"?

Who couldn't adopt that face?

I'm a big fan of charities (clearly) and a big fan of animals, so it's easy to surmise that I'm a big fan of animal charities. There's one that usually gets me more angry than rallied and that's PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Maybe it's my Midwest sensibilities that say that prevent me from thinking it's more effective to create a big stink than effective, methodical work towards a goal by negotiating (when possible). But if you like PETA, you love PETA and I'm totally fine with that. I just don't like or love them. Frankly, I could just be ignorant. Other than advocating against cruelty, I am not aware of any major claims of success. When I think of the organisation I worked for, I could name bills locally and nationally, research that lead to great discoveries, etc. that lead to success. Again I could just not be aware enough and I accept that.

Our adopted buddy: Khubla

What does seem shocking to me, though, are current claims that 95 percent of the animals surrendered to the PETA headquarters were euthanized last year. I can accept that most animals that are turned into shelters are not in the best of shape to begin with. I was initially shocked at this number (as I think the article wanted me to be), and then Chef said "yeah, but how many pets are euthanized at all shelters each year?". Good question, and the answer is not easy to find, but rough estimates by the American Human Society are 64 percent. That's quite a difference. 

So, why is there a big difference? I have no idea. If you do know, let me know. I'd be curious to hear it. Until then, I'll continue supporting the ASPCA, despite the horrible Sarah McLachlan commercials.

Most Adorable Post of the Week

Aren't they adorable? That's Genghis and Khubla curled up together. Chef sent me those with the words to the "My Buddy" doll theme song. Super cute.

And because our cats can't just eat their carb-loaded kibble, we took a trip to Lowe's down the street and pretended we were all domestic. Or at least I pretended. Chef is decidedly more domestic than I am. We got some cat grass, catnip, sage and parsley (all cat appropriate) and put them in a planter. The planter sits on the floor and now they have a little cat salad in between feedings. Mila promptly ate some grass and barfed it back up. Awesome. She's since learned to keep it down. Khubla is a big fan.

Enjoy these cute cat pics!

Genghis on the left, Khubla on the right

                                   

                                          From left to right: Parsley, Sage, Cat grass and catnip

Back in the Saddle Again (and by Saddle I mean my own home)

The Visitor's Center in Charleston
across from my Hotel.

I had a few short hours in Charleston yesterday morning before I was hopping back on planes (yes, multiple) to get back home. Even with the gain of three hours on the trip back, I still didn't get home until about 7 p.m. And I was happy to be back.

Cute shopping on King Street.

Hung out with Chef and watched the end of the Alabama-LSU game. Sad to see Alabama crumble in overtime after a pretty damn strong game. But then I'm used to watching my teams much earlier than overtime this year. Ended up going to bed at about 10 p.m. but I had already turned my clocks back so it looked like I was going to bed at 9. Which made me feel old.

The back and forth between Eastern and Pacific time zones finally took its toll on my sleep. I work up at 4 a.m. and had trouble getting back to sleep, so I threw on Twilight from the DVR (yes, it's my go to movie for sleep). I ended up watching the whole thing and an episode of Law & Order before I drifted back to sleep.

Khubla doesn't think this game is
very interesting. But I do.

Got up this morning and was a little pissed. It was raining and chilly in LA. HELLO?!?! I just left cold and dreary and was very much looking forward to returning back to my 72 degrees and sunny. Chef reminded me this morning that it's the LA winter. Patchy rain for weeks. Oh well. I guess it's time to bust out my cute "winter" clothes.

And now I'm blogging while listening to the Colts game. As you can see from the picture, Khubla has lost interest in the game and cheering on the Colts. He's a typical bandwagon hopper, and he's hopping off. But not me. I'm in it through the joys and pain. And this season is my penance for years of success.
At least there's chili simmering on the stove to console me.

Happy Sunday!

What's Bigger than a Quarter and Reminds me of Wolverine?

Khubla's paw. Look at that thing. And while it seems all cute and furry now, in the wrong circumstances, it's quite scary.

For instance, let's say that you're furry little wolverine likes to have his cuddle time at 6 a.m. and ONLY while you're sitting on the toilet. And perhaps he makes his intentions for cuddling known by smashing his head against whatever you might be reading until you're forced to pet him. But then petting him isn't enough, so as soon as you stop, he decides it would be charming to put that monster claw on your cheek in the way a small child would.

Adorable, right? Of course. Until he then gets startled by another cat and that innocuous little fur pad goes from cute to cutting before you even know what to do.

Or perhaps on the rare occasion when you are cuddling said cat outside the confines of a bathroom your husband likes to startle you both so that cute cuddly cats instantly goes into attack mode and sinks all of his little claws into your shoulder.

Now who did you learn most about in that post? Me, Chef or Khubla?

Kitty Prozac

It sucks being the only girl some time. I know because for a good while I was the only girl amongst a plethora of boy cousins. And while it had it's advantages (I got Air Jordans and camo one Christmas like the boys and LOVED IT), it also had some disadvantages.

It is in this spirit that I know that Mila has to be needing some feminine feline time. Not that we're getting another kitty any time soon, but she has been and continues to be skiddish. So much so that she's started thinking outside of the box. And by thinking, I mean pooping. There's no better start than waking up to the smell of god awful and having to pick it up by the handful (albeit a fully covered hand). And by better, I mean worse.

After a month of pretty consistent litter box aversion, we took Mila to an LA vet. The month was my fault. Chef asked me on several occasions to find a vet and make an appointment. This has always been one area that I've handled. What's tricky is finding a vet that has good word of mouth AND is in the vicinity AND is open on weekends (I work so far away that it doesn't work to trek Mila or any of our furry friends out this far). However, thank God for yelp, because it helped me find all three PLUS they even make house calls. How sweet is that??

We went on Saturday to see if there was anything physically wrong with Mila. Not only was the vet super nice and took his time explaining what could be the causes (and even ignored a pushy patient in the waiting room to do so), but he was also hot. Not that Chef really cares about that, but it was definitely a perk. And by hot, I mean several days worth of stubble on the face kind of hot. That impractical hot because you KNOW that stubble hurts like heck to get kissed from but it sure is nice to look at. (He was also married).

But I digress. From hotness to her highness, as apparently there's nothing physically wrong with Mila (which we breathed a sigh of relief about). She's just a nervous cat who gets harassed by the guys. We're trying homeopathic remedies and changing her diet before we go the medication route...which is PROZAC. They don't make a special kitty prozac so she would literally be getting the same thing as a human. Just less of it. That weirds me out a little.

After this news, we made a trip to the pet store and spent some hard earned cash on the kitties. It was time they all got an upgrade. A soothing diffuser to Mila, a water fountain for Khubla, a tunnel and new litter box for them all. They got hooked up.

Not only that, but Chef has even allowed two of them re-entry into our bedroom at night: Mila (because she's skiddish and gets picked on A LOT at night) and Attila (because Mila cries very loudly if he's not in there with her). So far, so good. A few nights in and she's already using the litter box again. We'll see how long this lasts. . .

Vacation Day Six: A Little Stir Crazy

The furthest I went outside my apartment today was three feet out the door to admire the rain. And now that it's 8 p.m. and there's nothing on TV until Tosh.0 returns at 9:30 tonight (yay!!), I'm a little stir crazy.

Today in the house Chef and I bathed all the cats. We do that about once every six months just to keep them from smelling too much like cat. Or in Genghis's case, like trail mix for some reason. They all took it better than normal except for Khubla who went nuts. That was dangerous because he still has all his claws plus some extras. Once he got burritoed in a towel, he was fine.

After cat bathing time, I made black bean burgers. It was my first attempt and not too bad. I tried to model them off of the black bean veggie sliders at Ruby Tuesday, except normal sized and without barbecue sauce. I used black beans, brown rice, egg beater, salsa, cumin, garlic, onion powder and bread crumbs (when the rice was not dry enough to make the mixture stick). Pattied those bad boys out and then after cooking in the Foreman grill for 5 minutes, melted a piece of provolone on it, added the Healthy Life low cal white bread bun and some ketchup and was good to go. The nice thing about black bean burgers is that the main ingredients cost about $2 for 4 patties. Not too shabby. Although next time I will probably add more spices and maybe try the barbecue sauce.

The rest of the day was spent in leisure with some occasional email checking when I got bored or felt the compulsion (which truly is a sickness that I need to work on). Chef made pot roast and chipolte mashed sweet potatoes with broccoli for dinner. As usual, it was delicious.

Tomorrow is Chef's actual birthday. I'm planning on going to boot camp, and then coming home to get dolled up and head to the Patterson House for some drinks with my newly 29 year old (as of tomorrow) honey. While it's not another delicious filet, it is some delicious handmade cocktails. I haven't been to the Patterson House since the winter and am hoping the new spring/summer menu is out. Mmmmm.

Until tomorrow. . .