Cat saga continues

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?

Cat Troubles

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.

Experiencing Fall

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!!

One Step Closer

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!

Teapot Vegetarian House

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!

Pizza night!

Saturday night is traditionally pizza and a movie night. We’ve been trying various pizza sauce recipes that people were kind enough to leave on my fabric giveaway post. We found the perfect sauce!

Pizza before baking

1 T. olive oil
3/4 cup onion
4-5 garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups tomatoes (from a jar, NOT a can)
3/4 t. oregano
1/8 t. salt

1. Heat up the olive oil in a skillet.
2. Add onion. Cook until almost translucent.
3. Add garlic. Cook until lightly browned.
4. Add tomatoes, oregano, and salt.
5. Simmer until the sauce has thickened.

Baked pizza

Tonight’s pizza has mushrooms, fresh basil, and Daiya “cheese” on top. It was really, really good.

The movie? Not as good. We watched The Day After Tomorrow as my husband hadn’t seen it. In his opinion, and mine, 2012 was much better.

Barely Sick Day #4

Today I feel almost normal! My biggest problem is exhaustion. I am so tired and have no staying power. But at least my headache is almost gone and my sinuses are clearing up! Hurray!

I had a few books due soon at the library so we made a quick jaunt last night. I was able to pick up two of my Fall Into Reading books but couldn’t locate the third. The catalog said it was available but it wasn’t on the shelf.

In addition to the challenge books, I picked up several other Christian novels that are on my to-read list. Every month, when the Nightstand link up is posted, my to-read list grows. I am determined that it will shrink this month!

I also dug around in my craft bins and found some leftover pink yarn. I started the kitty blanket! After all, every cat needs a hot pink blanket, right?

Of course, the real reason we left the house last night is that we ran out of cat food. Our cats are demanding eaters and I know they would be crying if they didn’t get dinner. So we picked out a new cat food per vet’s orders. Do you know how hard it is to find a cat food with no fish? We exhausted almost their entire shelf before finding a natural food with no grains and no fish. What a difficult combination!

We couldn’t help but bring home a new cat toy. Is this creepy or just realistic?

If I catch a glimpse of this toy out of the corner of my eye, I wonder what the cat dragged in and left in the middle of the living room floor. It’s a catnip toy and our older cat seems to love it. Our cats are so spoiled!

Hubby got paid today so we’re off to the yarn store to pick up some supplies for a couple Christmas presents. I sure hope my family likes handmade gifts!

Sick Day #3

I really don’t have the energy to post something intelligent. So I won’t! 🙂

Today was more of the same except less of a headache. Maybe tomorrow will be the day I feel normal! My house is getting messy and I’m itching to clean.

The only news from today is that I started a new knitting project. With my limited supplies, I frequently run into one of two problems.

1 – Yarn with the wrong sized needles.
2 – Needles with no appropriate yarn.

Luckily, I discovered most of a skein left from the yarn for my very first project, a practice scarf. It’s acrylic Walmart yarn that will work great for a small cat blanket. It’ll probably look hideous but at least the cats will have something else to lie on! Pictures to come once I have something more to show.

Sick Day #2

Today was another sick day. The headache is ongoing but now it’s moved forward and is definitely in my sinuses. Fun! At least those I know better how to deal with. I’ve been taking hot showers, sleeping when I can, standing over a pot of boiling water on the stove, and will be eating a spicy curry dinner. Hopefully something will loosen things up so that I can start to recover!

I spent a lot of time today catching up on my RSS feed. I’ve been ruthlessly cutting the number of blogs I follow because I know that I spend way too much time reading about other people’s lives and not living my own.

I also spent some time looking through quilt books to pick out a pattern for my nephew’s quilt. I have it narrowed down to three options and need to decide soon. He’s due to be born in only two months!

And of course, we’ve watched a couple episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. That show points out the ridiculous things we do to our spouse like not being completely honest or putting work ahead of the spouse or putting parents ahead of the spouse. Eek!

I’m still reading this book:

I have a feeling I shouldn’t have waited to really get into it until two weeks before having to return it to the library. It’s not one to be read quickly, but instead to ponder and take action on some of the principles that shold be applied in my marriage. At least I’ll know if it’s worth purchasing my own copy.

Thus ends a random post for a very random day.

Sick Day

Wouldn’t it figure that today, a day in which I am motivated to tackle the world, happened to be a sick day? I woke up with a massive headache and it still hasn’t gone away. I’m trying so hard to take it easy but I am a terrible patient.

Thankfully, I was able to complete all of my Bible in 90 Days reading this morning. I don’t want to fall behind! This week marks the half way point of the program.

I read this entire book today, spent some time giggling over quilting humor.

I also introduced my husband to one of my favorite television shows, Everybody Loves Raymond. Did you know that Netflix has all nine seasons available to watch online? I don’t think we’ll be watching the entire show anytime soon but it’s a good sick day television show.

Once hubby gets off his conference call, he’s heading to Subway to pick up dinner. I’m so blessed! He’s going out to get sandwiches so that I don’t have to cook or wash dishes.

As much as I enjoy the royal treatment, I sure hope that I wake up tomorrow feeling normal!