Bruno has been letting us sleep all night since he came home from the veterinarian. It has been lovely! But for some reason, both hubby and I are really tired tonight. It’s not even 6:30 but we’re going to bed. We’re going to read for a bit and then sleep. Hurray!
I was going to post about a new knitting technique I learned today, but oh well. There’s always tomorrow!
Today has been a fairly productive day. I ran out of yarn on my kitty blanket so I’m again without a knitting project! If hubby is able to get off work at five, we’ll be visiting Joann’s to buy more yarn and some knitting needles for a baby hat.
Kitty blanket – in progress
This morning, I went grocery shopping at Safeway and picked up most of our groceries for the week. We literally eat week to week at our house, running out of groceries at the end of each week. It’s crazy!
I’ve been collecting receipts for the past six weeks and today I started my spreadsheet. We shop at Whole Foods, Safeway, the Asian market, the farmer’s market, and occasionally, at Target and Trader Joe’s. I’m compiling a list of all the staples – things like refried beans, pasta, jarred tomatoes for our pizza sauce, coconut milk, etc. Most of these stores carry the same products, so I’m recording which store has the lowest regular price for each item.
My plan is to take this list with me each week. When I see that something is on sale, I’m going to stock up. It’s frustrating writing down the same basic shopping list. Since most of our meals are the same from week to week, I’d like to have two months of pantry ingredients on hand. And I’d much rather pay sale prices!
I didn’t post yesterday because it was my husband’s birthday and our seventh wedding anniversary. Yes, on the same day. It was not intentional! We eloped and happened to have that day off work. But my husband likes to tease me and say that it’s “all Cassandra, all the time.” He says our anniversasry overrode his birthday. Plus, my birthday is only six days after his. We have all of our fun at the same time!
The vet called today with the results of Bruno’s urinalysis. Everything was normal! So far, Bruno has been an angel, no marking. I know it’s still too early to tell if it will be permanent, but I am cleaning like crazy to avoid him marking places he used to mark. Hopefully that will help. Our house is slowly starting to look less scary under the blacklight.
Not much else is going on. Since Bruno doesn’t have to go back to the vet anytime soon, maybe we’ll be able to afford an ironing board out of our next paycheck. Then I can start quilting again! Oh how I miss it.
Hub’s is working so I’m going to reply to a few emails. Ta-ta!
Today was a lovely day. It rained, sprinkled, misted, and rained some more. I’m not sure I’ll still be saying this after several months in Washington, but I love this weather!
We stayed home today and relaxed, watching over Bruno to make sure he’s ok after his surgery yesterday. One of the beautiful side effects of his pain medication is sleepiness. His sleepiness allowed us to sleep more than normal, since he wasn’t trying to get us up at 4AM. I think I slept almost 11 hours straight last night and needed every minute of it.
I continued on the Bible in 90 Days reading plan. Today I read a large chunk of Ezekiel. I have some thoughts on this session but I’m not sure I’m ready to write a post about it. It’s a lot of reading every day and I am looking forward to finishing. Then I can spend more time studying something in the Bible rather than racing through it.
And, this may be crazy, but I am contemplating participating in National Novel Writing Month. I haven’t decided yet. It’s next month and I won’t be done with the Bible in 90 Days reading until right before Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if I should add writing a novel in 30 days to my plate but I am tempted. Still pondering that one…
Well, I’m off to give Bruno his pain meds and then to read for a bit before bed. I hope you all have a great weekend!
Image Source: Cheezburger
Bruno is back from the vet, a bit altered. My poor baby! He’s shaved on both his front legs and at the surgery location. He’s still groggy but the procedure defintely did not affect his appetite. How are we supposed to keep him from eating everything in the house?
Hopefully this helps his behavior. The vet said it could take a couple weeks before he stops marking. I guess we will deal with that if/when it becomes an issue.
In the meantime, I am waiting for a phone call from the vet on Monday. He said there were some concerning abnormalities in Bruno’s urinalysis and he’ll let me know what’s going on once the full results are available. I will be praying all weekend for my beloved kitty.
Today I called the veterinarian and asked when we could schedule Bruno for being neutered. They said tomorrow morning! We are supposed to drop him off at 8AM, no food or water after 10 tonight. I’m sure that will be fun, as Bruno is used to having his food dish available. We measure his food but he rarely polishes off the bowl before the next meal.
This afternoon, I drove over to PetsMart and picked up a black light. Boy oh boy. I have a lot of cleaning to do. If you want to believe your house is truly clean, don’t buy a black light. Gross.
I really hope neutering him either eliminates or lowers his need to demonstrate inappropriate elimination. Another gross. We’ll see how things go tomorrow.
Why don’t they stay this cute?
Even though it’s technically Thursday… since I haven’t gone to bed yet, this counts as Wednesday’s post, right?
I’m wondering if anyone who reads my blog has experience with cats spraying. Our cat is getting neutered next week but we’re struggling in the meantime. He sprays when he gets stressed or feels ignored. He gets plenty of one on one interaction with both of us but he’s extremely clingy since he was hand raised.
I know we’ve got some training to do after he gets neutered. Right now, my issue is what to do when I can see that he’s getting ready to mark something. Spray him with water? Distract him with a game? Ignore him? It seems anything I’ve tried results in a very temporary distraction and he’s back to the initial marking attempt within 10 minutes.
He’s not letting us sleep at night because he constantly wants attention. My husband is working on an intense project right now and has been up until three or four in the morning lately. So the cat is already really confused about when it’s nighttime and when it’s daytime. If I go to bed while Jeff is working, Bruno comes downstairs and makes noise or sprays until I get up. But if Jeff goes to bed and I get up to keep Bruno from making noise, he lets Jeff sleep. So frustrating!
I love this cat, won’t get rid of him, but need to figure out a solution to the spraying. I have a feeling we’ll be hiring a feline behaviorist for a consultation if neutering doesn’t fix the issue entirely.
In Arizona, fall means pumpkin lattes at Starbucks and pie pumpkins at the grocery store. That’s about it! The temperatures don’t start dropping until well into the season and the palm trees don’t change color.
In Washington however, I’m starting to learn what fall really means.
Changing colors…
Lower temperatures…
And learning best how to stay warm…
I love fall!!
I am one step closer to quilting! My wonderful husband bought me an iron. Woohoo!
And of course, since it has to do with quilting, one of my cats had to come check it out.
Now I just need a new rotary cutting mat and an ironing board. I cannot wait to get back to my quilt!
Recently, my husband assisted a coworker with a very challenging issue. As appreciation, the coworker sent us a gift card and told us to use it at our favorite restaurant. Well, we’re still fairly new to Seattle so we’ve only tried a few places. We decided to make a second visit to the Teapot Vegetarian House. Last time we visited, I tried a Mandarin style tofu on rice that was fantastic and couldn’t wait to taste other entrees.
Potstickers
“Traditional Northern Chinese dim-sum made of fresh diced vegetables and spices hand wrapped in an envelope of flour.” – Yum, yum, yum!
My dinner – Stroganoff
“Our interpretation with nuggets of compressed mushroom blends to perfection with a savory creamy sauce of mushrooms and onions.” – It was pretty good! I enjoyed their “beef” stroganoff over jasmine rice. I probably wouldn’t order it again simply because there are so many other options to try!
Hubby’s dinner – “Duck” Chow Mein
“Udon wheat noodles stir fried with “beef”, “chicken” or “duck” mixed with seasonal vegetables in a savory brown sauce.” – I did not like the “duck” as it was very thin and crunchy. But the chow mein and vegetables were good!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before we dove into the best part of dinner: dessert. We had their vegan cheesecake. “Our cheesecake, made from tofu and fresh fruits, is said to be the best our clients have ever tasted, even better than the real thing.” Oh boy. My husband said it was the best cheesecake he’s ever tasted, vegan or not. I thought it was incredible and very high on my list of favorite cheesecake. Tonight’s cheesecake included mango and another berry I couldn’t identify. I don’t even like mangoes but I thought the whole thing was absolutely delish. It’s worth going back just for dessert!