I Went Somewhere!

As dictated by tradition, Memorial Day weekend means mudbugs in Louisiana. Friday, my parents and Dan and I took off for Shreveport, LA to experience some good music and great food at the Mudbug Madness festival.

Naturally, I took pictures.

(By the way, that little girl at the end of the slideshow? I was all sorts of impressed by her. She killed off an entire box of crawfish - peeling them herself and even sucking the heads - and had a grand time doing it. I, on the other hand, have just started eating full boxes of mudbugs in the past few years. And sometimes I still try to get Dan to peel them for me.)

In other news, I've discovered I am oddly attracted to railroad tracks.

Also, I discovered what Vitex (aka Chastetree) looks like.

 

Real Book Count: Ten!

I finished another 'real' book. This time it was Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. And look, I even have a picture this time!

Okay, I only have the picture because it meshed perfectly with today's Daily Shoot assignment of "blue".

Anyway, fantastic book! Really interesting and a bit scary, it talks about the current obesity epidemic and reminded me a lot of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. Where that book was eye-opening in regards to what we currently are eating (and why it's not good for us), Fat Land takes on the more social side of the obesity equation by looking at what in our society has changed (including but not limited to processed foods) to turn fat into the health problem it is currently.

It has actually spurred me on to get back into yoga (something I hadn't started back after my massive sickness that seemed to last from November until February) and even add a bit more exercise into my daily routine. And honestly, anything that can motivate me to do that is thumbs up in my book.

Next up: Honestly, probably something serial killer related. My lack Criminal Minds has spurred on true crime addiction. Last night I watched about three hours of the Investigate on Discover channel. Sigh.

Because It's Pretty

Tonight's sunset:

Squee!

Dan is so cool! Okay, we knew this but I have further evidence to present that shows his awesomeness!

He made me yarn posts!

They are stands to stick my yarn skeins and thread balls on so they don't roll and flop all around while I'm crocheting, getting cat hair on them. (It's a big issue in my needlework.) Anyway, I have seven total - two each of the above sizes, two similar to the larger one pictured but with a taller post and a double posted tall one.

He's so awesome! I can't wait to use them!

(And yes, they are pink! I wanted a weathered wood/white wash style but in pink. I call it pink wash. Yes, I'm a dork. But I don't care! I love them!)

My Cats Smell Like Febreze

A little back story: I am always on the lookout for a better litter. Fresh Step is great - the cats like it - but it has this really perfume-y smell that I detest. It can kill my allergies like nothing else I've smelled and I hate smelling it on the cats (since a little litter dust gets on them when they visit the restroom). So I keep looking for a different litter that doesn't cause me to sneeze and that the cats will like. (How do I know when the cat's don't like a type of litter? They pee on the bathmat. Or in a cardboard box in the kitchen. Or they poop right in front of the litterbox. They might not be able to speak but their messages can come through loud and clear.)

Anyway, Arm & Hammer is horrible (they didn't like it, I didn't like it), the stuff at Costco I like but they weren't thrilled, cheaper stuff doesn't hold up to our massive herd numbers. So we always have to go back to Fresh Step.

Well, now Fresh Step has something new - extreme odor control or something. So we picked some up.

It smells like Febreze.

And where the perfume-smelling version would make the cats smell like perfume right after digging around in the box, this new version makes them smell like Febreze all. the. freaking. time.

I don't want my cats to smell like Febreze, must less to always smell like Febreze.

Boo.

And, in an equally distressing but unrelated note, there is a mosquito (or a flock of them) loose in the house and it is eating me alive. I have three huge and swollen (and really freaking itchy) bites on me. Not fun.

I hate bugs!

Productivity Yay!

Not only did I finally weed my iris bed (so that it no longer looks like a grass bed), but I found nifty HTML code to get the pictures to flip when you mouse over it!

Check it out! Mouse over the picture and see my massive productivity!

And apparently I am boycotting periods! Exclamation! Exclamation all over!

<3

More Mini-Projects

There are so many other, more productive things, I could be doing, yet I keep doing little quck crochet projects. Case in point:

I'm now crocheting scrubbies.

Thr first one ended up pretty small (about 3" across - wrong size hook and my normal tight tension) so I've decided to use it as a face scrubbie. The second one turned out just right (about 5" across - larger hook and more stitches but still normally tight tension)so I'm going to give that a shot as a sponge replacement in the kitchen and see how it goes.

These little things are actually quite fun to make. I'm sure I'll be making a lot more of them. As I put off doing productive work. Sigh.

Stuff In My Yard

Look, my almost-Memorial-Day lilies are blooming!

There are a few buds that still need to open up, but regardless, the bugs are enjoying them already.

See?

Not this one, though. He's just hanging out on the grass.

When he gets larger and starts eating my irises, I will have to kill him.

I won't kill this little guy, though.

I logically know he's not my little friend that kept landing on my last year, but his presence still made me happy.

Something that makes me not as happy, though, is my oleander.

I think it got a bit beaten up by the snow this year. It's trying to fight back - quite a few of the dead-looking bits have green coming out of the same branch - but I still need to get out there and do some trimming. But it's apparently happy enough to bloom.

And, since my pool hasn't yet gotten blown up, that's pretty much everything that's in my back yard.

Oh wait, one more thing.

Yeah, lots of Johnson grass... I really need to weed my flower beds!

Book Nine: Blame Television

Yay! I have finished book nine in my quest to read two "real" (non-fluffy) books a month. My last book put me a little behind schedule but as long as I get one more "real" book in before the end of the month, I'll be on track to get my required 24.

Anyway, book nine was Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and it is entirely the fault of CBS's Criminal Minds that I read it. Dan and I have managed, over the course of just a few weeks, to watch the show's prior five seasons and get caught up with the current season. (It was kind of insane - we'd watch two or three episodes most nights.) But now that we are all caught up, it's just one episode a week and that's kind of rough to take. So I filled my serial killer catching quota with this book.

Honestly? Probably not the best written book ever - at points the flow seemed a little choppy and occasionally the stories the author would share seemed a bit random - but the topic was interesting and at the end the book really pulled together so I enjoyed it.

I'm a little iffy about true crime books being included in "real" books since they aren't exactly high-brow literature and probably have the same reading level as the romantic fluff that I'm also not counting, but considering it took me more than just a few hours to read it, I'll count it on the "real" book side of the equation. (Though perhaps part of the reason it took me over a week to read was because I quickly discovered that reading about serial killers right before bed was maybe not the best plan. Go figure.)

One more book down. Next up? I have no idea! But the quest continues!

Weight Loss Challenge: Day 195

More kitty weight updates! I'm going to attempt a short entry this time since there's sadly nothing all that spectacular going on.

• Ashes - 8.0 lbs (starting weight of 9.4/total loss of 1.4lbs)
  A little gain of .4lbs here, which is good. Our feed-Ashes-kibble-as-much-as-possible plan is working!
  
• Chloe - 11.2 lbs (starting weight of 15.0/total loss of 3.8lbs)
  A delicate .2lbs loss for my good eater. Per the vet, looks like Chloe is eligible for the pantry club. Yay for ideal-weight Chloe!
  
• Happy - 10.0 lbs (starting weight of 11.2/total loss of 1.2lbs)
  Still camped out exactly where she needs to be - perfect!
  
• Gidget - 8.4 lbs (starting weight of 9.4/total loss of 1.0lbs)
  Zero change here again, which is perfect! Yay!
  
• Bitty - 5.8 lbs (starting weight of 6.2/total loss of .4lbs)
  A .4lbs gain here, which is fine. As long as she stays between 5.5 and 6lbs, she's good.
  
• Cocoa - 13.6 lbs (starting weight of 17.0/total loss of 3.4lbs)
  Another small .2lb weight loss but still going in the right direction.
  
• Sam - 20.2 lbs (starting weight of 24.0/total loss of 4.0lbs)
  No change here, which is disappointing but he had such a great month last month, I can't be too upset.

See? Not much going on this month (other than the news of Ashes' weight gain, which is good.) I think I need to be a little less generous with my quarter-cup measurements of food to get Cocoa and Sam back on the right track. (Though talking to the vet, she speculates Cocoa's happy weight is around 14lbs. She still feels a little squishy around the ribs right now but I imagine she's only a month or two away from the pantry club herself.)

More Productivity!

Apparently finishing off the boy coasters has spurred on more crochet productivity! I've recently finished up a mini-trivet...

It's about 5"x5.5" so perfect for things that want to make sweat rings on my tablecloth during dinner

...a pot holder (via the Magic Square method, something I wanted to try out)...

It's double thickness and about 6" square and pretty much a delightful little potholder and quick enough to make that I'm sure I'll make more

...and a pincushion.

Because I liked the motif and was tired of digging through one of four little containers to get the right needle or pin

Alright, so it's nothing especially exciting (including the photos, but at least this post made me take better pictures of the projects than what I had taken previously) but I feel quite productive getting them all done and wanted to share.

Yay for little crochet projects!

Boy Coasters Accomplished!

Yay! After much delay before felting (and even more delay before photographing), I'm totally done with Dan's boy coasters!

They turned out nice and thick and I really like them! Dan even likes them, too, so bonus!

Now we each have a set!

Yay for coasters!

Time for a Slideshow

Happy Mother's Day all!

Today, Dan and I went to my parents' house to celebrate Mother's Day with my mommy. After a fantastic lunch, we took a little trip out to their SPAF where the prickly pear cactus was blooming. Also, there were some wildflowers blooming around the SPAF and on the road between our home and my parents'. Naturally, I took pictures. So time for a short slideshow!

Close Enough (Book Eight)

Finally, I'm calling book number eight in my real book goal officially done. It was A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West and honestly, I skimmed a bit at the end.

The book has some good information - it did quite well in the first part of each chapter, where the author was setting the stage and explaining the events behind the chapter's focus (Nanjing Massacre, anti-Semitism in Japan, smearing of religious leaders) and I found the info on Japanese libel law interesting - but I still managed to fill up an index card (both sides) of rant-able issues I had with the author/book - inaccurate comparisons, contradictory statements, the author's "it's right if I'm the one that's doing it but wrong if anyone else does it" attitude. I could go into the issues further, but honestly, I've spent enough time on this book. Let's just say I didn't like it and leave it at that.

I didn't like it.

Because It Makes Me Laugh

Recently, Dan has decided he likes salami. The other day, he had me bring home an interesting (very dry & coated in something that smelled like raw biscuit dough) salami from the store and that inspired me to take this picture.

Want a closer look at that salami?

Of course, posting that picture pretty much requires me to post this picture from our 2004 trip to Japan.

Aw, he looks so young and fresh-faced! Though some of that could be from the blush he had holding a daikon in a Japanese grocery store.

Yay Timing!

In my last post, I referred to the nice dent/streaks in our porch screen due to "ice-sized" hail. And now I finally get to prove it!

Ta-da!

Again, no holes in the screen, just dents. And since I don't know of a screen iron, I guess they're gonna stay there!

Stuff Has Happened!

It's been a little bit since I've shared my activities with the world. Mind you, most of that is because nothing (other than Smoosh) has really been happening. On top of the general lack of excitement, I haven't been sleeping well so I've been somewhat unproductive since I've been a bit tired and grumpy. But I've recently discovered that earplugs and an eye mask makes sleep ever so much more delightful which means I'm less tired because I'm actually sleeping again! YAY! Which means that I've also been able to be more productive in life. Double Yay!

Of course, the first thing I'm going to mention has nothing to do with me or my sleep levels. It's hail!

We've actually had a fair amount of bad weather lately, most of which has been coming with hail. Fortunately, it's really only been pea-sized hail so no damage has really been done but we've had about four hail storms in the past week and a half. And one of them (which had slightly larger than pea-sized hail - Dan helpfully described it as "ice sized") has actually managed to dent the screen on our back porch. The dents can only be seen first thing in the morning when the sun hits the porch just right. I'll have to get a picture of it some time. But since they are just dents (and the screen remains intact) I'm not really counting it as damage.

In other news, something I have done recently that does related to me being more productive due to sleep is that I've started on Dan's boy coasters. I made my girl coasters a couple of weeks ago but neglected to start Dan's coasters due to sleep. But now that I've had more sleep, I started them!

I have a bit of a ways to go since this is just the test coaster and I haven't felted it yet so I haven't actually done the test part of the test coaster. But it looks awesomely awesome so I'm still sharing the picture.

In other news, I have a new laptop!

This also has nothing to do with me. This one is all Dan. We've had so many issues with my poor little pink laptop and my warranty is about out and Dan got kind of... annoyed with Dell about the whole thing and decided that they need to fix it. It took a couple of weeks to get the situation all settled but the end result is that Dan got Dell to give me a brand new (not even refurbished) laptop as basically an "I'm sorry we sold you an adorable laptop with a crappy motherboard/graphics card, please don't be mad at us". I even got to pick which laptop I got. How cool is that?

Sadly, the laptop isn't pink (it's gray) but I really like it so far. I've only had it for a few days and spent most of that time setting it all up. This laptop is sadly under the warranty to my old pink one (which was three years old and the warranty expires in June) but we can choose to extend the warranty (which I'm kind of thinking we'll do since extending the warranty has got to be cheaper than buying a new laptop... which we don't have to do now). So yeah, I'm thinking this is a win all around. (Well, maybe not Dell 'cause they gave me a new computer for free.)

In other news, Bitty is cute!

I'm sure there's been other share-able stuff that's happened but I can't think of it right now and I don't have pictures so it doesn't matter anyway.