a kitten a day

I see that you're packing for a weekend away. Can I come? There's room!

people, you are not guessing about my halloween costume.  this is a guessing game!  get on it.

in other news…

it is almost (well, not really, but let's pretend) the weekend and that means it is almost time for my cousin sara's wedding in DC!  huzzah!  family and visiting monuments and good food and celebration and lots and lots of hugs and brunch with some DC friends before i leave.  i can't wait!  work is going well - i'm not behind on anything at the moment, and the mid semester meetings i'm having with my students about their grades are going well (i love talking to them!) - but nothing beats a weekend away with family/friends.  and there will be four baby girls born this year who will be there who i can't wait to meet!  so let us just say that i am excited.

come on weekend.  get here.

Halloween

Guess what I'm dressing up as for Halloween...hint: I am part of a group with work colleagues. (Yay - my new work colleagues like to dress up for Halloween just like my old work colleagues did!)

I am incredibly proud (perhaps embarrassingly so) of this beard that I made. Ruby is terrified of the beard and ran away from me while I wore it. It was pretty hilarious. Try not to laugh at the terror in her eyes in this photo. 

new city

in the interest of full disclosure, on friday i had my first "i am sad and wish i had close friends who lived in houston" moment.  not loneliness, but a dull ache and a desire to spend the night laughing and talking with people who know me well, who i don't have to explain myself to or be "on" for.  i've been in houston for five months now, and this day was sure to come eventually.  it's not that i don't have people to hang out with - i spent friday night at our high school football game, sitting with a dozen colleagues, and last night at a fundraiser/social at the home of another new friend...i have brunch plans today and plans to watch homeland with friends tonight.  this would be called an active social life by anyone's standards, i'm sure, and i'm so happy to be making connections and building friendships.  but the ease of spending time with close friends is something i'm missing.  so: sigh.  that's the update from the homefront.

in other news, ruby says good morning.  she is quite the snuggly kitty between the hours of 7 and 9am.

Ruby's favorite toy is called Da Bird, and it was sent to her by two cats in Atlanta who want to be her friends. It is a feather contraption that gets attached to a string which is attached to a plastic stick. I wave around the plastic stick and this feather thing goes through the air in a way that is irresistible to Ruby. It's her daily workout. (It can also be used to distract her when I want to eat dinner without her help.)

Buuuuut I have to buy replacement birdies because a certain cute cat plays with them so hard that they fall apart. Birdie lifespan: 3 weeks. I just got some replacements, so I can show you a picture of a birdie before Ruby gets her teeth on it...and then what the aftermath looks like.

A fresh birdie is like ten times as fun as a well-used birdie.  I know you aren't surprised.

If you have a kitty, you need to buy her a birdie to play with!

this is easily the hardest i've laughed at an internet video in a long time, mostly because I AM EXACTLY LIKE THIS IN HAUNTED HOUSES.

ellen makes easily scared staffers visit a haunted house

this is VERY worth your time.

what i'm listening to right now

a children's choir covering "shake it out," by florence and the machine:



i can't remember who showed this to me for the first time, but i love it more every time i listen to it!

a kitten a day

you're putting clean clothes away?  can i help??

WHERE DOES THIS GO?!?

life of a cat lady

i called the boarding place to make a reservation for ruby to stay there next weekend (while i'm in DC for my cousin sara's wedding - yay!), and the lady asked me "does ruby prefer a higher or a lower crate?"  (the crates/cages are stacked two high.)

um, i have no idea?  let me go home and ask my cat which kind of crate she prefers?!?

i can totally picture other cat ladies knowing which their cat desires, but so far ruby hasn't told me.

penne with eggplant puree

last week i made smitten kitchen / giada delaurentis's rigatoni with eggplant puree (but with penne because penne is indisputably the best shape of pasta).  um, it was SO GOOD.  really flavorful, easy to make, and different from my usual "mix pasta with a bunch of steamed vegetables and cheese."  YUM.  do yourself a favor and make it soon.

what i'm listening to right now

sara bareilles covering "goodbye yellow brick road":



i love her voice!

ma'am, your burger has been paid for

i love stuff like this.

a photo from yesterday

my first texas high school football game...friday night under the lights!  it was fun until it started pouring down rain in the middle of the fourth quarter.  then it was decidedly unfun.

but we won - hooray!

a kitten a day

this is ruby, about an hour after i picked her up from the boarding place on tuesday.  i think she was happy to see me.


i texted this video to becky and she replied, "did you drug that cat?  i do not recall her being so docile."

a screenshot a day

finally, the day has arrived!  houston weather is exactly what i want it to be!

gingersnaps

last week i made some chocolate chip cookies (from the toll house recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag) and some gingersnaps from a smitten kitchen recipe.  i brought a dozen of each to school with me, but the real reason i made them was to bring two dozen of each to boston with me to contribute to the food for the weekend.  there were seven of us staying in one house, and it feels good to bring something to add to the snack food pile.  and i love nothing better than a compliment on my baking!  my coworkers and students loved the cookies, as did my boston friends.  success!  the gingersnaps recipe i linked to above is great - the cookies are soft but spicy, and eric pointed out that they would make a great pie crust, too.  so...try them!  i hear it's fall in some parts of the country.

"describe the last time you were moved to tears by something beautiful."

i am reading all creatures great and small, by james herriot, and his descriptions of animals and the love between human and animal has made me cry more than once.  he seems to be surrounded by tough old farmers who love on their animals quietly, and tough people being secretly gentle has always been something that gets me.  herriot is an amazing writer, and he writes these stories simply and tenderly.  my parents have an amazing vet, and i imagine james herriot of the 1930s and 40s as the dr. miller of my childhood.

i am back from a very fun weekend in boston with some good friends and an 11 month old.  guess what?  playing with an 11 month old will make you want your own 11 month old.  little nora took several steps on her own this weekend, including a few in a row towards me as i lured her with a cracker.  11 month olds, it turns out, like food a lot...especially when someone else is holding it.  i wish every weekend could be spent with this great group of people, but we will have to settle for what we can get - one fantastic weekend a year.

i'm back in houston, where the weather is still in the 80s, but promises me some 70s starting tomorrow. miss ruby has been picked up from the catnip inn and is currently snoozing on the table next to me.  an 11 month old is pretty awesome, but a kitten named ruby is much more manageable and pretty awesome herself.

i've been neglecting the blog recently, so i hope to be better about that going forward.  i love blogging, but it's easy to allot that time to other things.  i resolve to keep on trying to document my goings on here!

a photo a day

My littlest friend loves the chocolate chip cookies I made!

a photo a day

Ruby and her new friends :)

road trip!

Yesterday Ruby and I drove to Dallas - I have a college counseling event today and tomorrow and then will spend the weekend hanging out with Becky and Brandon. Hooray!  On our drive to Dallas the following exciting things happened:

1. My car's odometer crossed 100,000 miles! Woo hoo! Good little car.

2. Ruby meowed annoyingly from her carrier - off and on for the first hour until she achieved some success (see #3), and then had to abandon hope of being let out and shut up. 

3. Ruby's carrier has a "petting zipper" so the owner can slide her hand into the carrier to pet a sad kitty without allowing the kitty to escape. Except Ruby is apparently small enough to escape through the petting zipper. which she did while we were going 70 mph on the interstate. Before we had even officially left Houston. Sigh. After getting off at the next exit and putting her back in the carrier, the petting zipper was closed for good. 

Additionally, it is October and it was 91 degrees today. DISLIKE. 

a kitten a day

Daily afternoon play time with Miss Ruby!

september: 28 & 29

this month i read:

the interestings, by meg wolitzer (this was my book club's pick for the month, and i really liked it!  6 friends - 3 men, 3 women - meet at summer camp in the 1970s and the book follows their friendship through to the present day.  well written, interesting plot line - i'd definitely recommend it!)

in the place of justice, by wilbert rideau (i read this opinion piece in the new york times this summer and was intrigued enough to read rideau's book, a memoir of the 44 years he spent in jail in louisiana, mostly in angola prison.  rideau is a great writer, and i learned a lot about race and prison life - some of it pretty stomach-churning.  the book got slow near the end as he describes putting together the one last big appeal that would eventually free him, and i skimmed about 50 pages before reading the last chapter...but you know - with nonfiction books you can do this and not miss much.  in the last chapter, rideau describes living as a free man and then the death of his cat, the first pet he ever had (at 65 years old, after his release from prison) and...all of a sudden i was crying.  kind of a lot.  ruby was at the foot of the bed looking at my disdainfully while this was happening, and then she walked up and laid down next to me and put her paw on my arm.  oh, ruby.  thanks for the love.  but! (back on topic): this book is very well written and rideau's story is compelling. and i'd recommend it if the subject interests you!)

a photo a day

A family I work with brought me flowers and a card saying "we thought you might be missing the fall colors."  What a fantastic way to start my day!