The Family

ok ok…now before some of you get totally offended…

this is about CROCHET.  i’ve actually been waiting for this book to come out for a while. the person that writes it has had a few books on knitting by the first part of the name and has gotten very good reviews. i believe the names comes from knitting/crochet parties where the women aired the dirty laundry while doing thier work (bitching while you stitch).  hehehe makes me smile
i don’t have the book, but i just think it is all too cool…and well the name…it makes all the prim and proper blush

OK…… I want to change the color of the search button on the 8 of us message board. It is driving me crazy. I can find how to do it, but i do what the book or site says and nothing works. It is probably because this message board thing has a style sheet and everything refers to it. Maybe i am writng the right code and not linking to it right.

So if any of you have time on your hands (that’s very likely, i know) and knows how to change the color of a button using a style sheet……..??

And now i am going to try to stop being obsessed. 🙂 I have spent a good 6 hours reading and searching and trying things. Nothing works and the words are beginnig to blur together in my mind when i try to read.

Another note in the ongoing Grailing saga….

The constant moist food routine was begining to wear on Kevin. So I called up the nutritionist to see if there was any dry food option that was permissible … well, actually, I called to see if re-introducing dry food for a meal would do any damage. I had no thought that there would be a permissible option available.

Turns out there is. And, as you would expect, my cats LOVE it. Finally, some real food, they tell me. Enough with this moist whatever-you-call-it. Sure, sure, it’s Turkey and Salmon, or Sardines and Crab, or Chicken and Herring, but whatever. Give us some of those tasty dry kibbles.

Wretched beasts.

So, in case any of you are interested, I thought I’d share that dry food option with you. The thing that makes it special is that it is all meat and fruit/veggie – no grains were used in the making of the food. So it is very low carb. And cats, as carnivores, don’t do so well with the carbohydrates. Not to mention the whole tumors metabolize carbohydrates side of the equation, which hopefully none of us will ever ever ever have to consider ever again.

The main webpage is http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab

Go to Foods > Foods for Cats: Innova EVO Cat & Kitten Dry. Or try going there directly.
The store finder is at the top. There are plenty of stores in Austin and Houston. I don’t know if they all carry EVO; you’d have to call and verify that.

But anyway .. it exists, there it is, and if you try it let me know how your cats react.

Actually, don’t let me know if you try it. Your cats reaction would probably be confusion.

Let me know if you get some and feed it to your cats, and if they like it or not.

Christina’s mother visited us a few days ago (she had a TSR meeting in the area) and she recommended that we try out a place called ‘Flores Mexican Restaurant’. It’s on anderson lane right off of Mopac (ie, north loop 1). Not noticing the place as you drive by is rather hard, just don’t look for the ‘Flores’ part; instead, it’s the big building with a huge, well lit marquee of ‘MEXICAN RESTUARANT’ around the building’s top.

Anyway, they have excellent hot sauce with their chips. Christina’s mom describes this place as ‘the Mexican place with hot sauce like mine’. Their queso is likewise tasty. In fact, I had the queso on my fajitas. MMmmm.. tasty. I’m going to be taking everyone who wants Mexican food to this place at least once. I also had a shot of Patron Anejo tequila with the meal. First time I’ve tried it; will be buying a bottle in the future. In the future I’ll also switch from ‘tea and shot’ to a Dr Pepper with the meal. Less expensive and this place has food that is so good it just has to have a cola with it.

Christina and I have begun spring cleaning. We’re doing it to A) clean house B) toss out things we don’t want to pack C) because we should.

We’ve got the living room/dining room looking good. (Ignore the fireplace area though). Since those rooms are rather un-interesting, I’m not going to show you pictures. If you want to see them in their clean states, you’ll have to visit. Ok, well, the fish tank is interesting and also cleaned up… but I’m sure ya’ll have seen enough fishy pictures.

Still, I am going to give you some pictures. See, while I was cleaning I decided to do some dusting. I saw that the area where I keep all our alcoholic beverages, also known as the NO YUO! area for Christina(1), was getting dusty. So I pulled down all the bottles, dusted them, and put them on the table. Seeing an opportunity, I took a picture.

I didn’t think my collection would take up that much space. Oiy.

Next the (small) collection of wine…

Well, ok, we’re not every interesting when it comes to wines. But they are all tasty wines!

Then I just had to dust all our glasses…

I had no idea the cabinets held that many glasses. I think I could keep a small party going for while with that collection. And that doesn’t even touch the glasses we have for day to day drinks.

Of course, I put it all away after that and it no longer looks as imposing. All stored away: nice, neat, and happily compact.

Now all I need to do is clean the computer area…..

(1) – Christina has been very good about avoiding all things alcohol. She is also looking forward to enjoying a nice, cold Guinness.

Much as I like my front doors, i am tired of seeing them here. Must post.

It is spring. We have the air conditioner on. 🙂 In the mornings it is beautiful outside. I have resolved not to spend any money on plants this year because they will just die when summer comes, but the temptation is strong. It happens in the spring. Perhaps if i liked it outside in the summer i would take better care of my plants then. Perhaps between the concrete driveway and the brick wall radiating heat the heat of the afternoon sun, nothing would make it along the drive-way anyway. Luke had a landscaper over the other day… someone working a couple of houses down… He suggested cactus. We have thought of cactus, but there are some pretty mean spines on most cacti.

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My diet – It was going so well. I don’t know why it is so hard now. It wa so easy before. I will be on for a few days, and then not for a few days, and on for a few days and not for a few. Unfortunately the nots are getting longer than the ons. I will gain 2 pounds and lose 2 pounds and gain 3 pounds and lose 2 pounds…… I know that if i continue like this i will lose ground.

Luke is worried about himself too. He was doing pretty well for a while. He and i were dieting differently… or thinking of dieting differently. I was trying to eat smart and not think of it as depriving myself. Luke was trying to concentrate on eating as little as he could. I think we messed each other up. I kept telling him he did not have to starve himself till he went back to eating all he wants and he kept talking about how little he was eating till i felt like a pig…   unhappy with myself.  That was just a factor in my decline; i was already having trouble. We are talking about needing to get back on track. We both want to… but we need to do it individually, not together.

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I have been buying fiesta again and my cabinet looks so pretty. I bought some cups and saucers and I feel so feminine drinking my coffee now. Something about a pretty shaped cup on a saucer… and the fiesta cups are plain and heavy enough that they don’t make me feel like i am pretending when i use them. (I keep thinking how pretty the juniper one would be with a green tinted tea,) We are expecting mugs for Luke. He likes the fiesta too.

Now if i only had enough cabinet space for my pretties. 🙂 I drew up plans for a piece of cabinet-like furniture to go under the kitchen window. We have given it to a cabinetmaker who lives up the street and he is going to give us a quote. Crossing my fingers that the price is good. Should have asked him about the same unit minus the 3 drawers. I want the drawers. I am shorter on drawers than i am on shelves, but i am sure drawers cost more. Oh well. We will see. One thing this new unit will have is vertical space for cookie sheets and cooling racks. That will be cool.

And the rest around here is pretty much the same as always…… 🙂

We have new front doors!!! They look so much better than the old ones. We do need to paint them and are debating the color. We also need to paint the house and have been debating the color for that for a while. As soon as it it sunny I intend to take a picture of the house and see if i can play with the trim color, but for now we need to get some paint on the doors. If we don’t like what we come up with, we will eventually be repainting anyway. So, what do you think? Match the house or white?

Well, I don’t know how I’m going to manage it, or when. But it looks like I’ll be visiting Toronto sometime in the not-to-distant future: http://www.lotr.com/intro.html