It's a Beautiful Day

So I decided to take the cats outside for a bit. Last time I tried, it was a complete disaster, with Luke and Han panicking before we even got out the door. I had figured that being together would reassure them, but this time, it seemed only to make them feed off each other's fear. They were flailing and thrashing, trying to get free of the harness that was holding them, and when I let them go, they bolted into the bedroom to hide.

This time, I decided to take them one at a time. First, of course, was Leia- because she wants to go out, and we did a lap around the house, slowly, exploring everything. She loves being outside (at least when it's not cold and gusty), and really can't get enough of being outside before I want to go in. But I won't let her off the leash, at least not yet, because she gets so wrapped up in everything that's outside that she doesn't listen to me, and I don't want her to go somewhere she shouldn't where I can't get to her. So, leash it is.

Next up was Luke. I didn't give him the option of going outside or not, I just carried him outside (on the sunny side of the house) and put him down on the thick bed of pine needles. He wanted to cower and hide, but I kept him in the open area. If I squatted down, he would try to hide under me, and otherwise, he wanted to be as close to the side of the house as he could be. I just kept picking him up and putting him in the open. I want him to learn that being outside is not that scary. He did really well- I could tell that he was scared, but he didn't panic, and when I brought him back inside, he was fairly calm while I took off his harness, and then when it was off and I told him he could go, he ran- but didn't bolt- back to the living room.


Then it was Han's turn (although Leia disagreed; she wanted to go out again), and I dealt with him the same way as I did with Luke. He was a little less afraid, and more uncertain- I put him down on the ground, and he didn't want to immediately hide, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He was sniffing the air though, which is good. After we were out for a little while, Elijah put Leia's harness back on and brought her outside again, so she got some more fresh air and sunshine. A little while later, I let Han go back inside (he reacted the same way Luke did, waiting calmly until I got the harness off and let him go), and then soon after, I took Leia back inside, despite her protests.


It was a successful trip outside, judging not in the least by the way the boys aren't cowering and hiding, but lounging in their usual spots.


As for other successful things, here's my breakfast yesterday, a fried egg and cheese sandwich, on rosemary sourdough bread (not homemade this time).
Cooking:

Done:

Plated:

Yum!

Sederriffic!

On Friday, I hosted a Passover Seder, and it went really well. A few of the friends I invited weren't able to come, but Dave and Jen (Jen of the Lion Hat), and Cody were able to make it.

Dave printed out a Haggadah and cooked the lamb shank, Jen made hard-boiled eggs and a pot roast, and I made charoset, noodle kugel, and date nut bars, which everyone agreed were absolutely amazing. I printed out the recipe for Jen right then and there, else I was afraid that ugly things may have happened. We also had the obligatory parsley with salt water, matzah, horseradish (jarred, that everyone said was really good and cleared out Cody's beginning-of-a-cold), and I had an orange on my plate.

I was planning to lead the seder, just because, but Dave has led a few before and ended up taking over, which worked out very well. We did a lot of passing the Haggadah around to take turns reading, and sang a little bit, but not as much as I'm used to (since Dave and I are the only ones who know the songs).

No pictures, unfortunately. I was running late that day (hadn't even put the kugel in the oven by the time Dave and Jen arrived), and was just trying to get everything put together, so I forgot to take out the camera. Instead, I will present you with this picture of a blissed-out Leia:

Epicsicle!

We've gotten a bit more snow- maybe 8 inches to a foot. Melting off the roofs, it's created some cray icicles! Here's one that got twisted as it was forming (that's Elijah holding it):


And we like to call this one the Epicsicle! It's actually forming a stalagmite below it:


To combat the cold, I made my first sourdough loaf in the breadmaker. It looks like what would have happened if my first loaf had stayed as high as it had ever risen, rather than falling again.


My Swallowtail shawl is coming along nicely, I've done 11 of 14 repeats of this part of the pattern, and then I get to move onto the border. I'm actually really enjoying it now that I've gotten the hang of the pattern.


Luke and Han are napping on my lap (piled on top of each other, as they do), and it's nice to have a lapful of warm, loving kittens. I continue to tell them that they will be getting a new baby brother or sister, as the search for the baby tabby boy/girl (I'm becoming a lot more open to the idea of getting a girlcat) goes on. I'm waiting for a call from Second Chance about the baby tabby girl they have, so that I can properly meet her. Otherwise, there is the Phoenix trip on Saturday. My friend (whose birthday it will be) is excited about helping me find a kitten, as she has cats of her own. I'm excited about getting a third kitten!

Poll Results

The poll I put up asking people's opinion on whether or not I should rip back and fix that row that got messed up in my Swallowtail shawl is now closed. The results weren't that clear- 10 votes total, 6 for ignore, 4 for fix. I've decided to leave it as it is, though, since the pattern has straightened out since then (although it does explain why I was having so much trouble back then!). I've decided to go with the majority (and my own feelings) and leave in the mistake, so I can just keep going with it.

Elijah's parents came over for dinner tonight, for the first time since we moved in here back in September. I'd been meaning to have them over for ages, but it somehow never happened. They live just around the corner, maybe a two-minute walk, so although we see them often enough, and they've had us over for dinner several times, this was the first time they'd joined us for dinner. I made beef stew, a variation of my mom's recipe, and everyone loved it. I also made cornbread, which was a boxed mix, an impulse buy in the store (honey cornbread mix, and it was on sale), and for dessert, a peach pie that I bought frozen and just baked. We pulled out our kitchen table into the center of the kitchen so that all four of us could fit around it (it's a small kitchen, so normally, the table sits pushed up against one wall, and we usually eat at our computers anyway, it's just easier at this point), and had a lovely time chatting. Elijah's parents' house is small, as is ours, and they chose to have a computer desk and birdcages (they have five birds) instead of a dining table, and there's no room for a kitchen table, so they always eat on the couch, watching TV. It was nice to just chat without a TV on, since we always spend half the TV-watching time chatting anyway. In short, a good time was had by all.

I gave the cats some catnip before Elijah's parents came over, hoping to get them into a playful mood, but like always, they hid. I did get each of them out of their cube-cave (which was a big struggle with Han he didn't bite or use claws, but definitely threw his weight around to try to get me to leave him alone) and had them sit on my lap for a little bit, and Mom got to pet them. Han finally calmed down (he had been struggling to get down), so once he was calm for a little while, I let him jump off my lap. The boys are nine months old now, and Han is definitely the bigger one. I weighed them last week- Luke weighs 7 lb, 10 oz, and Han weighs 9 lb, 10 oz, so he is a full two pounds heavier than his brother. He also has the unfortunate habit of showing that he wants to get down from my arms by pushing off my chest with all four legs. I trim their claws, because they haven't learned to control them very well. They don't intend to cause harm, they just don't realize that they're going to hurt us. Han will struggle to get down, so we've been restraining him until he calms down, and once he's relaxed, then he is allowed to get down.

Toilet-training has been progressing slowly. Both boys are to the point where they will put both front paws up on their own, and allow me to put their back paws up (I say "paws up!" to try to get them to associate the words with the action, so that I can transition to just saying it and having them do it on their own, and eventually just do it without prompting, but they've been slow learners about that), but won't do it themselves. Luke will hold one back paw kind of halfway when he's pooping, and allows me to nudge it up to the seat, but won't give me any help with the last foot; I have to lift it up. I've been decreasing their litter bit by bit, so that they're now down to just a very light covering of litter on the bottom of the bowl, but if I don't put in enough litter, they complain and won't use the toilet until I put more litter in. They also both climb completely into the bowl before putting paws up, although I've tried to teach them to get into the squat position right after they jump up onto the seat. That tendency, combined with the small amount of litter, means that they're getting urine on their paws when they pee (I clean it after every use, and if I don't, Han complains until I do clean it. I put extra litter in at night so that they'll tolerate it). I had hoped that the lack of litter would make them uncomfortable enough that they would be encouraged to lift their paws on their own, but that's not proving to be the case. Training has been going on for three months now, but I feel like we've been at a standstill for a long time, they're just not learning what I want them to do, or being stubborn about doing it.

And just so that this isn't a completely pictureless post, here's one of Han!

Spread your wings

A bread update- I've continued using my bread maker several times a week, and I've been tweaking the recipe. I've been adding rosemary, yum! I reduced the yeast a little more, and here's my last loaf:

I also made a sourdough starter today; that'll take a few more days before it can be used. I'm not a huge sourdough fan, but the rosemary bread that I've bought at the store is made from a sourdough base, so I figure that I'll give it a try. I love rosemary bread! I used to hate rosemary, but I've discovered that it was the texture of the whole leaves that I don't like, so I buy crushed rosemary and it's delicious.

As promised, here are some pictures of the flying elephants:






I started a new knitting project, a lace shawl. I've attempted lace before, but it proved to be too difficult and I ended up putting it aside. This is a different pattern, the Swallowtail Shawl (Rav link), and so far I'm enjoying it for the most part. The part I don't really like is having to re-knit parts of most of the rows because I screw them up one- or two- or three- or four times. It's a six-row repeat, with only the odd rows being part of the lace pattern, and I've done six out of fourteen repeats. Here it is:


Of course, since it's lace, it looks pretty crumpled right now. That's normal for lace, and it'll straighten out when I finish it and block it. I held it up to admire how much I'd done, and noticed this:


See it there, about midway up on the left side? No? Take a closer look:


That's half a row that I messed up, see how the pattern is shifted? (It's also a little messed up on the right side, but less noticeably.) But it's also three repeats back, which is a lot of rows, and since it's lace, I can't just drop stitches and fix it that way. Now I have to decide if it's a small enough error that I can ignore it and just keep going, or if I want to rip out the last three repeats and fix that row. For perspective, the shawl is something for me, and the part that that row is in is by the middle of the back neck, so not terribly noticeable; as I usually wear my hair down, it would be covered. Still, I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I'm still debating what I want to do.

Please vote in my poll at the top of the page!

Holy Pink Elephants, Batman!

I finished the pink elephant mobile yesterday, but was working today so I wasn't home in the light to take pictures. That will probably have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, as I'm also working tomorrow, and then Elijah and I are going to see Avatar (and then he gets to write a paper on it for a class, yay!).

I made another loaf of bread this morning, with decreased sugar, light crust, and the same amount of salt and yeast as the second loaf. It came out basically the same as the second loaf. I'm thinking that I might try a different recipe next time (the one I've been using is for French Countryside Bread), maybe the Italian Herb Bread.

I'm continuing to toilet train the cats. Today I caught Han on the seat with three paws up, all on his own! And then he let me put his last paw up. Otherwise, both boys continue to consistently put up both front paws on their own, and I can usually get their back paws up as well.

The cats were wrestling today, in between licking each other. Silly boys!

Bread, Loaf Two

Here's the second breadmaker loaf. Although it is still a little sunken, it came out a LOT better than the first loaf.


I used the timer on this loaf- set it up last night, and it was done and ready to eat by the time I got up. I'll still need to tweak it a little to yield a nice loaf, but this one's better than the last. I think that next time, I'll use the "light" crust setting instead of the "medium" that I've been using, as the crust comes out too hard. I'll also use a little less sugar.

There is nothing like a slab of fresh, homemade bread. Delicious!

Yum!

Yesterday, I made a restaurant-perfect omelette, it was in that perfect half-circle shape and everything. I was so proud of it that I just had to take a picture:

Actually, I had been planning to make scrambled eggs, but something told me to make an omelette instead, and this is what came out, so I'm happy with the results. And yes, the smiley face was intentional.

My first loaf of bread in my new breadmaker, on the other hand...

You can't really tell from the picture, but the center of the loaf is sunken in several inches. I'm at a very high altitude here in Flagstaff (7,000 feet), so I knew that I'd have to adapt the recipes for high altitude baking, but as it's mostly trial and error, this is just how the very first loaf came out. I'm making another one for tomorrow, using the timer so it'll be ready for breakfast. I added more salt and less yeast, so we'll see how that does. My cousin sent me a link to this article about high-altitude breadmaker baking, which explains that due to less air pressure than at sea level, the dough can rise too quickly and then collapse (which is what happened to me), leaving you with a sunken-in loaf. More salt and less yeast help correct for that, so hopefully tomorrow's loaf will have some more loft.

In other news, the kittens continue to be cute:

"Hi, Mommy! You are going to leave this comfy suitcase here for us to keep sleeping on, right?" (Han on left, Luke on right)

Luke: snorepurr, snorepurr....

And to compare, a picture of the kittens when we first got them and they were only five months old (they're eight and a half months now):

That's Luke checking out that handsome cat in the mirror, and Han on the right, investigating everything new (that's the top of a thing of Frosted Flakes).

Have a lovely day!