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I have lots of words. Mark says I'm 'wordy', but in a good way. I think. Heh.

Other days, I have very few words. This is one of them.

Thank a Vet today.

Whether you agree with the current war or not, thank the servicemen and service women who are currently serving, who have served, or who will serve.

Count your blessings and thank those who have gone before, who are there now, and who are still to come.

We are the reason you are free. We are the reason you have the rights and liberties you currently enjoy. Without us, you may not have your freedom.

You don't have to agree with the war, past, present, any possible future, but please, support your service people. They need you as much as you need them.

For my part, thank you to those who've served before me, those who've served with me, those who serve now, and those who are yet to serve. Semper Fi.

For the rest, you're welcome.

Would have been Dante's 16th birth day. It's rained much of the day.



Today is also the Marine Corps Birth Day.


Happy Birth Day, Dante.

Happy Birth Day to my fellow Marines. Semper Fi.

Caena loves playing in the leaves. This time of year, it's hard getting her to come back inside.



An almost the picture of health Max kitty. He's probably about 98% back to normal. Well, what passes for normal for him, anyway.

1- If you set up a barter/trade with me- fulfill your end of the damn barter/trade. Don't keep giving me excuse after excuse. It should not take SEVEN MONTHS and me asking several times about your end of this, to get any sort of info. And it STILL has not been completed.

To that regard- I can't even go and get my own copy of what was supposed to be sent in exchange, as it's now out of print. Yeah. Royally pissed off about that one.

To that end- unless you are family, or someone I've bartered with before and KNOW you will fulfill your end of the deal, or a friend I've known for YEARS or can completely trust- forget it. No. More. Barters/trades. I'm done. I'm fed up with getting burned.

2- If you receive a package from me- kindly let me fucking know that YES, you got the damned thing. I should not have to ask, repeatedly, if it arrived and have to have Fed Ex look it up for me just to find out that, YES, it was delivered. On Oct 28th, no less. If you have the spare moments to get online and post fucking photos, or update your fucking journal/facebook/whatever, then take a spare 30 secs and send me a message saying you got the damned thing.

3- If you don't like something I create, then TELL ME. I won't bite your head off, for gods' sakes. Don't ignore me when I ask. It pisses me off.

4- Don't offer to sell a few of my scarves then bitch about the price I set on them. If you don't think you can sell the damn things, at a REDUCED PRICE NO LESS, then say so and don't make me waste not only my time getting them packaged up and ready to go, but the money to ship them to you.

You aren't doing me any favors. YOU are getting a cut of any that sell, so stop bitching about the price. I don't need your help selling them, I can do that on my own. I thought it would be nice to give you the chance to earn a little bit more cash when you do sell one.

It's ridiculous and it disparages my work. If I feel it'll sell at that price, then you have no business saying it won't. You don't want to sell them, say so.


I. Am. Done.

No more Barters. No more Trades. No more 'gifts'. No more sending my stuff to someone who says they can sell them. It's not worth it. I'm finishing what i have promised people, then that's it. Done.

Took Max to the vet this morning. It was originally just a check up to see how he was doing.

Well, Tuesday I noticed that he appeared to have an abcessed wound on his neck, right at the edge of the bandage wrap. So I started cleaning it as best I could with peroxide. That night the feeding tube clogged again. Spent all of Weds trying to get it unclogged.

Well, because he was fully eating on his own, with me only supplementing with the feeding tube, I was too concerned about the clog. The wound on the other hand, bugged me. Especially when I pulled GRASS out from under the wrap!

Took him in, got him weighed. He's at 11.3lbs. Last week was 11.7lbs, so he's maintaining his weight, more or less. This is what we want! This is good!

Addressed the wound, Dr Nelson asked if he was eating, etc.

Because he IS eating and eating well, because his color is very good for a cat his age, she went ahead and removed the feeding tube today. Yay!

Cleaned his neck up really well. He was arching his head back, thoroughly enjoying the scrubbing.}:) Looks nasty, but she says it'll close over in a day or so, though it will bleed if he scratches it- which he does, and it has, so I have to keep cleaning his neck.}:/

So now, we don't need to take him back for at least a month. As long as he continues to eat, then we're good to go.

Yay, Max kitty!

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This is not my real post. This is merely a placeholder post, a teaser of what's to come. Real post will replace this as soon as I get a chance...



Evidence that YES, I did indeed do this Challenge! }:P Matcha (Green Tea) Macarons with Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Ganache. Mark hated them, I rather liked them.

( THE RECIPE )

It's 1am here, so it's Tuesday!

We probably all know someone who's been in this position before, but here goes...

I have a really good, long time friend who needs your help. All she's asking for is a dollar from at least 4700 people.

See, Nicole is disabled, she has Spina Bifida, with a host of medical issues related to that, and is wheelchair/scooter bound. Add to this panic attacks, for which she has Diamond, her service animal.

Because of her disability, she is pretty much unemployable, and believe you me, she's tried.

Nicole is facing eviction due to bureaucratic fuckups that cut off her housing fundages, without any warning or notice until it was too late. This means that her rent went skyrocketing up to more than her SSI/Medicare/etc combined can cover.
She won't be able to get this straightened out for some time still, as, if I understand it correctly, there's a waiting listing a mile long.}:/

You can see the eviction notice, see Nicole and diamond, and see that this is real, here.

She's managed to raise nearly $600 on her own, but she's rapidly running out of time.

Can you help? All she's asking for is a dollar. ONE dollar. Of course, more is definitely appreciated, but by all means, don't break the bank. If you can't donate, would you be willing to pass this on, and spread the word?

Facebook page

PayPal link on her Blog


Thanks fer listening.}:P

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but the new scarf is a disappointment thus far.

It took 3 tries to get something other than burnt orange, and it's still not a deep red like I wanted, but is more of a scarlet red with darker areas and lighter areas.

I've just started pulling the strings out, only one Kumo design is showing up so far, clearly, the other few are so faint as to be almost nonexistant.

Not happy with it.

Maybe it'll get better when I get it all pulled out and wash it again. Maybe the design will show up better. Who knows.

But right now, I'm not happy with it.

And it was supposed to be a wedding gift. Now, I don't have the time to do another.}:(

I ... just dunno.

Yeah, so I'm late. Between stressing over Max and accidentally leaving a few ingrediants off my grocery list, as well as running out of time, well, I didn't get it made by the Reveal date.

I did, however, make it yesterday. And man is it good. Besides, it gave me a chance to look over my bowls and realise that I needed to work on my bowl collection now, since I have well over 2 dozen various plates, after all. Heh. I added 6 bowls to my plating collection, with at least 4 more that I want to get. *headdesk*

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.



( Onward!  )

This is not the entry I wanted to do today.

Today is the reveal day for the Daring Cooks Oct Challenge. Well, mine's going to be 2 days late, so you get this instead.

Be amused with me.

I was checking my emails and received my first scam convo via Etsy today. WooHoo! 3.5 yrs+ on Etsy and only now getting targeted by a scammer! Whee!

Ahem..
( Ready to be amused? )

It takes a lot to get me to admit defeat and here I am. Admitting defeat.

Tomorrow, at Max's vet appointment, I'm going to ask for a feeding tube to be put in. It's a last resort, of sorts, honestly. But he's NOT improving with me just force feeding him every 5 hours. He fights me so much, that now, the tip of the syringe cuts his mouth because he's chewed it into roughness.

He threw up MORE with the meds, mainly Flagyl, than he ever did before this started. That means he's not keeping enough down to really do much good. He hates me, he thinks everytime I pick him up, I'm going to force nasty stuff down his throat, so he starts drooling and gets himself so worked up, that he pukes anyway. Then he pukes up the food as well, 3-4 hours later. It's a no win cycle.

He peed on himself again yesterday. I feel like my cat is wasting away in front of me and there's little I can do to stop it. Believe me, I've tried.

So, yeah. Feeding tube and asking about what else we can do to stop the vomiting. I just don't know what else to do anymore.

Max hates me. He cowers and hides lately. Especially when he knows it's time for meds. I'll be really glad when the Flagyl is gone. He gets so worked up over the mere thought of the meds, that he starts gagging and retching.}:(

Took him down for a weigh in yesterday. I find it extremely difficult to believe he lost two pounds in one week. That's ridiculous and impossible, as he still eats well and in fact, is getting MORE food when I med him. So yeah. Not buying it. Mark doesn't either. Max has another vet appointment this coming Thursday, so we'll see.

Sat is Dogtober Fest. Hopefully the weather holds good for at least that day. Will definitely have photos.

The Parents In Law are on their way down. Coming down to celebrate the SiL's birthday. Not looking forward to this weekend visit, mentally trying to prepare for the third degree and stink eye about us not attending the BiL and SiL's wedding renewal in Dec. But dammit, we can't afford it and with Max still sick, don't feel right leaving him with strangers to care for him. It's not fair to him.

Redyed hair today. Went dark, really dark. Photos eventually. It's 'batching' now.

Need to list that brooch I finished. I have a name for it now, so stay tuned. It won't be very much either, very affordable.

Nearly finished beading the pendent for the next 'Mirror' necklace. Once that's done, I'll have sneak peek photos up.

And that's all the news that I have for now.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I've never even considered making my own puff pastry. I'm one of those people who buys the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets and calls it good. In fact, I have a package of THAT in my freezer now, right next to the homemade.

Then of course, time got away from me, Max had a vet appointment where we found that his liver is STILL out of whack, so back onto 3 more weeks of antibiotics via force feeding he went. Yeah, that's fun.

I was, however, determined not to miss out on this Challenge, even if it meant my puff pastry didn't puff and I failed miserably.

( Read On! )

So Max had a vet appointment this morning. Checkup, few shots, that sort of thing.

Except, Dr Fleming says he's still a touch jaundiced. I KNEW I'd seen a shade of yellow a few times, I always shoved food in his face at those times, and he ate willingly, soo...

Because we still don't know what caused him to stop eating, etc, she wanted to run blood tests again and see if we could detect anything now.

So no vaccinations today. Possibly, depending on the results from the bloodwork, no more other than rabies, ever. He IS 12 yrs old after all, and extremely low risk for Feline Aids, etc- goes outside maybe once a week tops and NEVER unsupervised, nor for any longer than 10-15 minutes.

His weight is down again. In August when this all started, he was 15.5lbs. A few years before that, he'd been nearly 20lbs. So yeah, he was a big cat.

Today, he's at 13.5lbs. Which Dr Fleming says is a good weight and what we want to maintain, to keep the Fatty Liver Syndrome from coming back again. He just looks... odd to me, as I'm used to seeing a roly poly Max instead of this slimmer version.

He's still eating on his own, just no where near as mush as he used too- he doesn't gorge himself anymore, Aries does though, need to watch that.

So, we're in a holding pattern right now, waiting for blood results and where we go from there.

From this, the one on the right is the finished scarf. The one on the left is being worked on now...



To this... Scarf was 14"x72" by the way...



To THIS... hard to believe that large of a scarf tied down into something less than a foot long and 3 inches wide...

To soaked in soda ash solution, then dunked in blue Procion MX dyes, allowed to dry, then rinsed and allowed to dry again...



To pulling out the strings, two days later...



To washing again and ironing it flat (this was wet)...



To the finished product. This is Kumo Shibori. This is awesomeness.}:P And makes 5 types of Shibori I have attempted and succeeded in varying degrees.

As yet unnamed, so as yet unlisted.

'The Sun's Mirror', 2nd in my new 'Mirror' Series, Ndebele(Herringbone) Choker
Available on 1000Markets or Artfire.




As yet unnamed (and unlisted) brooch, featuring a raku fired button by LisaPetersArt

This month's Challenge was chosen by Debyi, of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen.

I've made Dosas before. But the ones I've made used regular wheat based flour.And they most certainly weren't vegetarian/vegan.}:P In fact, this was honestly the first time I've actively tried to cook a vegetarian/vegan meal.

I will freely admit that I did not make the filling in this recipe. However, I DID stay true to the vegetarian requirements. To appease the hubby, I also baked a few herbed chicken breasts and served them along side- otherwise, he'd never even of tried them.}:P

It's a quick post, not near as long as my usual ones, nor does it really have as much acerbic humor as usual. It's been a rough 1.5 months. Next Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks post will be back to normal. I promise.


( Continue! )

Puck
Netherlands Dwarf Harlequin Rabbit
1996?- Sept 8, 2009

Rest easy, little guy. Tell Dante and Nyx hello for me. I'll miss you.

Yes, Puck was 13-14 years old. Seriously.