January 2009

Here's what I sent out this morning via twitter:

If a human kid, those actions would mean "I had a bad dream, plz cuddle me." But Tenzing is a 9yr-old CAT. Translations, twitterkin?

The response from John was worth quoting:

Tenz as an NFA:  N>E;N>M;N>S;N>P;M>S;M>E;M>P;E>P;E>S;E>N;E>M;P>M;P>N;
P>S;P>E;S>N;S>P;S>M;S>E;E>Po;Po>N;Po>S;Po>M;N>Po

where N is napping, E is eating, S is scritchies, M is meowing, P is playing with Edmund, and Po is pooping.

Can one be speechless and laughing at the same time?

If you don't get punished, you didn't go anything wrong, right?  That's the message Vice President Dick Cheney gave in an interview with CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday, suggesting that a president's actions are legal if those actions didn't result in his impeachment. [read the rest of the article]

Via @trickjarrett.  Thanks for causing my head to nearly explode through steam, Patrick.

So by that token, I can go all stabby now, and as long as I don't get caught, it's all good, right?

Some of you will remember back in November when I mentioned I was working on a quilt I called 'red shift.'

I am cheating and showing pictures ahead of time, but I am aware that neither of the recipients are reading blogs right now, as the female half of the duo is recovering from serious, albeit planned, surgery. (She's doing well.)

Here's what has had me obsessed since November.  All photos from the set are now public. 

You start small, with piles of fabric cut into neat shapes...

and slowly assemble, bit by bit:

and one by one, they become units:

How I managed to forget to document this recipe last year, I do not know, but I did.

This is the bread dip of great evil I break out only once a year: PHE*.  When you read over the ingredients, you'll understand why; our arteries really can't cope with having this dip with any greater frequency.

Ingredients

• 1 head garlic, roasted. (At least ten cloves. You want more than that. Be bold.)
• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 can (about 6 fillets) anchovies
• salt, if desired
• white pepper, if desired

Directions

Roast the garlic. (We assume you know how to do that.) Mash the peeled garlic cloves together with the anchovies into a smooth paste. Melt the butter into the cream.  Add the anchovy-garlic mixture. Simmer on low until flavors meld.

I hate the concept of 'bucket lists.'  Life is so fragile and short, and I think I'd rather put thought and energy into experiencing life instead of just checking things off a list that ends with "and now that you're done, hurl yourself off of a cliff."

Thus the 'life list' at http://domesticat.net/todo which a few of you have seen so far. Not things to check off, but experiences I want, accomplishments I'm seeking, skills I'm willing to learn.

I saw an email this morning from The Flying Monkey, the local arts center; an artist in residence there (Susan Knecht) is offering glass-blowing classes in the spring.  I thought about it for a little while and then decided to sign up.  2008 was marked by my discovering that quilting Wasn't That Hard™, and I thought, why not?

Here's what my friends do on Sunday mornings when they roost at my house.

I believe at one point during the morning I blurted out, "We bought bigger and better couches, and here we are, piled up in the far smaller room on the far smaller couches.  This makes no sense to me."

Things I love about this photo that aren't immediately obvious: