happy saturday. love, henry

Can we ever get a quiet, sleepy Saturday around here?

Last night, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the grocery store.  We left Henry out, since we were only going to be gone an hour.  Henry had been snacking on Stella's food, which annoyed me more than anything.  Although Bridget and Henry occasionally nibble on the other's food, I had heard that large amounts of cat food could make a dog sick.  So when we left, I picked up the food and put it up on the washer, pushed far enough away that he shouldn't have been able to get to it.

We got home, and sure enough, Henry had gorged himself on cat food.  Surprisingly enough, he wasn't sick, and he acted fine all night.

We've been letting Henry sleep under our bed lately.  He seems to prefer it under there much better than the crate, and since he's perfected playing dead lately (only while underneath the bed), it's just easier to let him sleep there instead of fighting with him to go in the crate.  Last night, he was apparently up numerous times.  I don't know - I slept through it all.  At one point, he was sleeping on top of our (dirty) clothes.  Another time, CJ said he and Bridget started playing.  I woke up at the point when CJ said, "That's it!  You're going back to your crate."   Henry fought a little when CJ put him in his crate, but he didn't think anything of it.

I woke CJ up this morning to let Henry out, and then wondered why I didn't hear the back door opening or why CJ didn't come back to bed.  I got up to find CJ cleaning up puke in front of Henry's crate.  Awesome.  Henry had it all over him, so he had to give him a bath (his favorite thing), and then clean up the office.  My entire house still smells like dog puke.  Lovely, since we're having company over today.

Meanwhile, the office had become Stella's new hideout.  Well, welcome to life with Henry, Stella.  I found her curled up in a ball in one of the cubbie holes in our closet.  I decided that it was now time to let Stella out into the rest of the house.  I don't think she's that afraid anymore, but I just think she's inclined to hide and be quiet.  I put a collar and bell around her, so I can occasionally hear her, but I have a feeling we won't be seeing much of her.  In this case, Bridget still wins.

I guess I should just be thankful that this puking incident doesn't come close to topping what happened back at Christmas when we fed Henry ham...

Happy Saturday everyone.  Let's hope ours gets a little less smelly.

chocolate berry tarts

We love these chocolate berry tarts, and I consider them to be a true treat around here because:

1.  They call for blackberries and raspberries, both of which are super expensive off-season and even still a little pricey in season.

2.  Although no baking is required and prep time is really only about 15 minutes tops, you still have to plan ahead about two hours, taking freezer and fridge time into consideration.

3.  They're super rich, and although I like to think the raspberries and blackberries make them a bit healthier, who are we kidding?  These are mostly chocolate.


Chocolate Berry Tarts
Cooking for Two (a now defunct magazine)
Serves 2 (obviously)

5 Tbsp. butter, melted, divided
1 C. chocolate graham cracker crumbs (about 4-5 full-size crackers)
2 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Blackberries (not many)
Raspberries (not many)
Powdered sugar (not much)

In a small bowl, melt 4 Tbsp. butter; stir in cracker crumbs and sugar.  Press onto bottom and sides of 2 4.5" mini tart pans with removable bottoms.  Freeze for 1 hour.

In a small saucepan, combine cream, cinnamon, and remaining butter.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted.  Pour into crusts and refrigerate for 1 hour.

After the 1 hr. in the fridge, top with berries and sugar and enjoy!

and she shall be called...

Welcome ... Stella!

After a five-day ordeal, we I finally named her Stella.  That was what we were calling her yesterday, and then I decided that she didn't look like a Stella after all, but maybe a Phoebe.  But by morning, I was back to Ruby.  When I came home from work and involuntarily called her Stella, I knew that was her name.

Stella is adjusting quite nicely, I'd say.  I don't think she's CJ's biggest fan, because she won't come to him and if he picks her up, she'll sit on his lap for about thirty seconds before she hops down.  But, she is much more friendly, especially now that she's accustomed to her own space.

Bridget is adjusting okay.  There have been no spitting or clawing incidents (yet).  I took Stella out and sat with her in the living room last night.  Bridget came over, looking curious, and then hissed three times, walked to the other side of the room, and stared us down.  She went back to her hiding spot for about an hour, came back out, determined the cat was nowhere to be found, and was back to her loving self.  I rubbed a towel over Stella for Bridget to smell.  She smelled it like crazy, hissed at the towel, and then went into the bedroom.  From what I've read, this is a normal reaction, and is why you should keep your cats separated for at least a week.  After about a half hour, she's back here wanting to be petted.

I should stop here and say that CJ thinks I'm being a bit crazy for doing all this.  He insists that Bridget got along really well with Amanda's cat after just a few days of hissing, so this should be no different.  I obviously disagree.  : )

Henry is a mixed bag.  Up until today, he hasn't even noticed that there's another cat in the house.  (I took him to doggie daycare on Monday and he had shots at the vet yesterday, so he's been tired, in all fairness.)  I opened the door to the office since Stella seemed interested in going outside.  Henry sat down (I was still holding him of course) and then about the time he started to think about going in the office, Stella balked a little (no hissing!), so I shut the door.  It's been driving him crazy ever since.

It's not like I really should have the time to do all this -- deal with a house-full of pets and then blog about it.  But on the other hand, I was starting to feel really frazzled from school, so maybe this is a nice break after all.

goodbye, topsy turvy.

The Topsy Turvy is done.  It hit the compost bin on Saturday.  The Topsy Turvy's tomatoes ripened first, but the very first one rotted the very next day after it ripened.  The ones that followed were disgusting.  They were the size of cherry tomatoes, but tasted like regular tomatoes (like they were supposed to be).  The end result was just gross.  We're giving the Topsy Turvy shell to my dad to use next year, because he thinks he can do better.  Good luck, Dad.

After I complained for weeks of our large green bean plants that were blooming, but not sprouting anything, we discovered that it had, in fact, sprouted several green beans.  You'd hardly see them amidst this hot mess:

Yeah, that's what our green beans looked like.  It was a total mistake buying string green beans.  I wish we'd realized it sooner so we could have uprooted them and planted real green beans.  I picked some this week, but they too were absolutely disgusting.  I cooked them and then took one bite and spit them back out.  The vines started to wind themselves around our tomato and pepper plants.  And it just looks ugly.  So I'm starting to rip those out and put them in the compost bin with the Topsy Turvy.

In other news, our compost bin is actually working!  I said this with surprise to CJ, at which he responded, "What did you think was going to happen?"  I think I thought it would just take longer to see results, but the more we've added, the better it's done.  At least one thing went right in the garden this year!

(Disclaimer:   No one paid us to talk about the Topsy Turvy.) 

meet lola or ruby??

Meet our new nameless cat.  She desperately needs a name, and CJ and I can't agree.  She doesn't seem to look like any of the names we'd picked out (Ella, Lucy, Penelope, Sadie, Sophie).  Last night, we came down to Lola or Ruby.  Based on the picture, does anyone think she fits either?  Or do you have other suggestions?

Anyway, here's the background on the cat:

We were running errands on Saturday and had stopped to eat at a restaurant a few doors down from PetSmart.  We went in, and it turned out to be one of their adoption days.  Whoops.  They had some really cute kittens and even dogs, but I happened to find this one cat hovering in the back of a crate.  I've always wanted a Persian cat, so I was a goner as soon as they took her out for me.

Her story is that she supposedly just showed up at this guy's house, pregnant.  She had her kittens, but the kittens died, and so the guy just dumped her at a kill shelter.  Her hair was so matted in places that she couldn't walk properly, and the matting had even torn her skin in one spot.  They eventually just had to shave her, which is why she still looks a little ragged.

Ever since Bridget had such a successful stay at Amanda's while we were on vacation, we'd been thinking about getting another cat, so here we are.

Unlike when we brought Henry home last year, we've handled introductions much, much differently.  Knowing how different Bridget acted when we brought her home (she hid behind the toilet for a few days), I didn't want to dump this cat into a new home with a cat and a very curious, big dog.  At the recommendation of the shelter, our new cat is in the office for the week, first so she can explore her settings and become comfortable in the house, but also so the other pets can get used to her smell first.  Henry went to doggie daycare yesterday, so he was so exhausted he didn't even notice we brought someone new into the house.  He sniffed at the door this morning, but didn't try to break in, which is a good sign.  (Actually, it probably just means that he's still tired.)  Bridget has sniffed at the door, hissed at it, and then just kept watch outside of it all night, but otherwise, she's still been her normal self.  (I breathed a big sigh of relief there, since it took her six months to get back to normal after we brought Henry home.  I missed my cat!)  There was no barf on the floor this morning (what happens when she gets upset or feels neglected) and she was otherwise still cuddly last night, so I'm taking that to be a really good sign.  The new cat will spend almost a week in the office until we let her out, so I'm hoping by then, everyone's comfortable with the idea.  Fingers crossed.

So anyway.  We need a name.  Who likes Ruby?  Lola?  Or do you have another suggestion?

bridget's bad habit

I suppose like humans, pets have their own idiosyncrasies and bad habits.  Bridget's is drinking water out of a glass.  Unless she's in a bind, she will only drink water out of a glass.  All of our guests are warned not to leave their cups on the floor, because she will drink out of them.  I think it was one of those battles I thought was pointless.  She had to drink water, and if she refused conventional methods, I might as well just give in, right?  At least since she has her own glass now she typically stays out of our water.

Should I not have admitted this on our blog?  What weird habits do everyone else's pets have?

update.

So here's an update on what we've actually been doing:

Me
I'm struggling my way through Corporate Finance.  I've never hated a class as much as I hate this one.  Actually, I think if I combined all the classes I've ever taken that I hated, it wouldn't even match how much I hate this one.  Aside from taking Friday night and usually Saturday off, I'm typically studying during my lunch hour and then coming home and putting in another hour.  I should expect this of a master's level course.  But I should also expect the information to click at some point, shouldn't I?  I've come home in tears two of the past three class nights.  We had a midterm last Thursday night.  I did my best, but I'm pretty sure my best didn't come close to cutting it.

Either way, we have four nights of this class left.  And once this class is over, I'll have one year left.  I just keep telling myself that I've invested way too much money, time, and effort in it to quit now.

CJ
CJ finished up summer softball this past week.  As much as he likes playing, with two jobs and starting a new degree program this fall, he'll play softball on a sub-only basis (which is free!).

Student Loans
We've been having trouble with our financial aid, thankyouverymuch federal government.

For me, my financial aid came through, but several thousand dollars was disbursed to my account under my maiden name and with my parents' phone number as the contact.  Why didn't the system throw up some sort of red flag that the last names didn't match?  So now, I have to compile all sorts of information -- our marriage license, my social security card, etc. -- and send it into the federal government so they can fix the error.

And as for CJ, his financial aid was denied because the federal government has determined he's been in school for too long.  Nevermind the fact that he has both an associate and bachelors degree, and that he's going back to school to further his education.  So now he has to go through the appeals process, which requires him to fill out all sorts of paperwork and then can take at least 20-30 business days for approval after that.  The best part is?  He filled out all the paperwork, but the government never bothered to tell him that his request had been denied.  Awesome.

Projects
Yesterday was just not a good day for projects.  I tried painting outside against my best judgement.  It was hot, and the paint just wasn't wanting to work with me.  CJ built two floating shelves for our bathroom and installed those yesterday, but due to the location of the studs and where the shelves needed to be, the shelves didn't have enough support, and now we have several screw holes in our wall and places where we're definitely going to have to patch up drywall.  Awesome.  I started CJ on a project that required glue ... I ended up having to make an emergency run to Menards to buy special soap, but it only helped a little.  And now I also have about three or four nativity sets scattered all over our living room floor needing to be sanded -- by hand.

Pets
Bridget is still here.  There's never anything new with her.

We've started sending Henry to doggie daycare again.  It's been so hot that he only wants to stay outside for very, very short periods.  And since the only way to wear him out is to rollerblade with him, who wants to do that when it's 95 degrees outside with 95% humidity?  So this week, I ended up with this, which makes me very, very happy:

follow friday

You guessed it ... I'm going to throw out another site devoted to etsy!  (I do actually do more than just sit on etsy all day, believe it or not!)

This site is a little ... different.  I haven't found anything highlighted on the site that I absolutely wanted to buy, but it highlights an eclectic, interesting mix of artisan goods. and I think it's just fun to look through to see what's out there, even if it would never, ever work in my house.

Visit:  Etsy Tumblr

fire pit fix-up

Our fire pit barely survived last year.  We forgot to cover it inclement weather, and left it outside far too long into fall.  I was ready to buy another one, but then I discovered that Rustoleum makes a spray paint specifically for high heat items like grills and fire pits.  So for less than $5, I repainted it, and hopefully once it cools down a bit, we'll be able to enjoy it again.  Thank goodness for a weekend project that only took a whole thirty minutes!

furminator to the rescue!

Since warm weather hit, Henry has been shedding like crazy -- worse than Bridget, actually.  Someone recommended the Furminator to me, and while it was pricey, it's totally worth it.  Henry won't sit still long enough for us to get all the excess undercoat out, but Bridget is more than happy to oblige.

Disgusting, isn't it?  I'm still totally in love with this brush.  It's become our new party trick.  Go out and get one if you have pets.

(We weren't given the Furminator for free and I wasn't compensated for my opinion on it either.  It'd be nice ... just didn't happen.)

follow friday

In an effort to better track our spending, we're on an home improvement and Etsy freeze this month.  Once August hits, we'll revisit the budget and possibly discuss allowances for ourselves so that if CJ wants to go to Menards and buy whatever he buys there, he can, and if I want to buy a new picture or piece of jewelry from Etsy, I can.  And, since it'll be budgeted in, it won't blow the budget.

Unfortunately in the midst of all of this, I ran across Nina's Day.  She's an etsy seller herself, but frequently highlights other etsy shops or treasuries from the site.  So of course I'm hooked.  It's worth a look, especially if you're as into etsy as I am.

more outdoor space

There are three things we definitely don't like about our house.  The fact that it's on a slab is something that we just can't change. The second, the lack of storage space, is something we're continually working to fix.  And the third is our lack of outdoor space.  We have a very small backyard that has a decent slope to it, so it was a stretch putting two adirondack chairs and a fire pit out there on the tiny little slab.

Earlier this spring, we started to discussing what, if anything, we wanted to do to the backyard.  Our initial idea was to make the concrete slab larger.  But, CJ hasn't exactly poured concrete before, and we feared that it'd initially look nice, but then it'd crack or just wouldn't look right.  And while you each house has its own problems, you can usually hide the smaller ones.  A crack in the concrete pad out back?  Big red flag for future buyers.

When CJ's dad won the bid for the giant lumber pile, we thought we could do it for free. Then CJ decided it wouldn't work, so he priced out decks, and came up with one that was $1,500. And I said that wasn't going to happen. So we went back to the free lumber pile, and came up with this:

It's not quite done, but it's close enough to show off!  There are still some spots where we missed staining, and although the satin is supposed to have waterproofing in it as well, we want to put water sealer on top as well.  And there's a section of what used to be our garden that doesn't have any grass on it that's just odd looking, so we have to decide what to do there too.  We're now able to put our grill on the concrete slab, and we're able to move around and enjoy the backyard (well, we will once it cools off).

Want to know the best part?  We ended up doing it for less than $100 of our own cash!  We used the free lumber, plus we cashed in our points from using our debit card and got $200 in Home Depot gift cards in return.  We had to buy a few pieces of lumber ourselves, two gallons of solid stain and the pads to go along with it, and of course the screws, bolts, washers, and cement.  Not a bad deal at all!

twenties girl

First, for any of you southsiders, CJ and I finally checked out Books and More in Southern Plaza (you know, where El Azabache and the former Kerasotes 16 theater are located).  I figured it'd be kind of janky, but it was actually like Half Price Books.  It didn't have nearly the selection, but the books were definitely cheaper -- everything was priced at $4.98 or below.  I digress.

I ended up buying Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, which was a bestseller -- or at least, Kinsella is a best-selling author.  I had the book on my to-read list for ages, so I was excited to find it and for so cheap.  CJ didn't believe that I'd actually read it (I wonder why he thinks that?), but once I started it, I devoured it in a few days.

It's basically the story of Lara and her great-aunt Sadie who comes back as a ghost until Lara can find her missing necklace.  Follow with me here, because I was pretty skeptical for the first quarter of the book.  But, the story takes you on this adventure to find the necklace and quite honestly, it didn't end up where I thought it would (at least until the near end when it was blatantly obvious).  I was actually kind of sad for the journey to end, as ridiculous as that may sound.  (It has a ghost in it, for heaven's sake.)

The book may not be for everyone (i.e. my mom), but if you're looking for a quick, fun read this summer, I highly recommend it.

give us a break

Sometimes you just need to take a break.  And for us, that means we must get out of the house, because if we don't, we're likely to find some project to do.

Last night, we met one of my co-workers and her husband for dinner at Stir Crazy.  We hit up Barnes & Noble and then Kroger afterwards.  I never knew that growing up meant making grocery trips on Friday night date nights, but sometimes that's just when you have to squeeze it in.

We made our quarterly trip to the north side on Saturday morning.  We had lunch with Christy, Jeff, their daughter, Amelia, and their triplet boys (thanks!) and then went to Trader Joe's.  (Not that I'd be a frequent shopper, but why don't we have a Trader Joe's on the south side?)  Then we went to Mallow Run Winery to pick up some of their delicious rhubarb wine (if you love sweet wines like I do, head down there!).  And as if that wasn't enough, we went to BGI Fitness, Lowe's, and then finished off with dinner at Olive Garden.

It's been a long two days, but it's been so good to not work on -- or think about -- projects or my corporate finance homework for two days.  In about a month when CJ starts school up again, will someone please remind us to do this more often?

follow friday

I found a new blog earlier this week, reminiscent to the New Dress a Day website (linked just to your left).  At Sewing in No Man's Land, the blogger, married to a US diplomat serving overseas, has challenged herself to use 15 yards of fabric to see how long it will last.  It's a fairly new blog, and she's just posted tutorials of children's clothing, so I'm hoping she'll make some other types of clothing soon.  It's a pretty interesting idea, so go check it out!

cooling off ... not so much

A few weeks ago when it got really hot, we bought Henry a cheap-o pool thinking he'd love to lounge in it.  Given his hatred for baths, we should have known better.  He just doesn't seem to get the concept of a pool:

one year ago...

One year ago yesterday, we brought Henry home from the shelter.

It's been quite the ride.  Henry has made marriage that much more interesting and challenging.  He can frustrate us to no end, but he can also make us laugh.  And although I'm still not much of a dog person, I can't imagine him not being around.

Here's a year in pictures:

Henry still loves Bridget's toys, and actually is more careful with hers than his own.


Our tradition every Colts Snday -- bringing out Henry's bandanna.


Henry Potter!  He wasn't nearly as excited about it as I was.


This corner was his corner and when we replaced the chair with the Christmas tree and he got in trouble, he didn't know where else to run but back to his corner.


First taste of snow

CJ's second favorite activity with Henry, right behind wrestling.

guernsey

I'm on a roll with reading this summer!  I'm actually finishing books!  It's about the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes.

Anyway.

While we were on vacation in May, I finished off The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  It's set in post-WWII England and on the island of Guernsey.  The main character, Juliet, is a journalist who randomly gets in touch with a Guernsey resident and instantly becomes intrigued with his story about this society and its members while the island was occupied by Nazi Germany.

I liked being transported to Guernsey.  I liked the characters.  I really enjoyed reading this ... but I left wanting more.

Has anyone else read it and had a differing opinion?

busy saturday

After we'd caught up on sleep and had a chance to enjoy a cup of coffee, we got busy knocking out projects -- or at least making some progress.  I painted, pruned flowers, worked on a clogged sink, re-upholstered a chair (well, the chair pad), worked on the garden, and painted four nativity sets for my mom.  CJ stripped paint and also put together our new compost bin!

Back in May, I bought a countertop compost bin.  Last year, when we collected eggshells and coffee grounds, I just stored it and then applied directly on top of our garden.  With this new bin, I started throwing everything and anything I thought would compost inside.  And needless to say, it started to get really, really gross and full.

I shopped around for a compost bin and found one for $100 that I liked, but it got very mixed reviews.  Although I wanted to compost, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $200+ on a super nice compost bin.  Then I found this composter at Sam's Club for less than $35, and it had received excellent reviews, so I went ahead and bought it this week.

I realize I'm not going to get compost out of it until the beginning of fall at best, but I'm still pretty excited.  I just have to make sure that Henry doesn't see it as a new toy and I need to keep it heaped up with soil and straw to make sure it doesn't attract anything undesirable.

The rest of our garden is looking pretty good.  I need to make another cut on the rhubarb this week.  On one hand, it's slowing down, but it's finally producing bigger stalks.  Our green beans haven't sprouted yet, but are still growing.  Two of our pepper plants never took off and then Henry uprooted one this week, leaving us with just one pepper plant.  He also took off our first green pepper, but luckily, it's sprouted some more.

We ate our first tomatoes this week.  (And by we, I really mean that I ate them before CJ could get to them.)  It figures that our first tomato to ripen was on the topsy turvy.  It was very small.  I noticed it was ripe one day and went out the next, and the bottom had rotted out already.  I'm going to write the topsy turvy off as a fail.  We already have plenty of grape tomatoes -- that's what I've been eating -- and our first yellow tomato finally ripened, so we'll eat on that tomorrow probably.

I did a crummy job of watering the plants this week since it wasn't as hot, but I do have to say that putting down straw was a genius move (thanks, Jill!) and so I haven't felt like I've been fighting a losing battle with the garden either.

With that, I need to go clean up so we can enjoy the rest of our night.  Happy July 4th!

(P.S.  I wasn't paid for my views on the topsy turvy.)