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Taco Cat

18 Apr

Ok, so, last week I wrote about the whole getting beer on the cat incident, for which the cat made me pay dearly. This week I can top that, much to the cat’s dismay.

It all started when I decided to get tacos for dinner. There was quite a bit of sauce on the tacos, making them messy to eat. So I’m sitting at home eating my messy taco, sauce on my hands, when the cat starts making the noise he makes when he is about to be sick. He was in the carpeted living room so I sprang into action, I wanted to nab him and move him to the kitchen floor to be sick on the lino, a much easier clean up job for me.

Seeing me coming for him he runs to the bedroom, also a carpeted room, undeterred I follow and scoop him up by grabbing him around his middle and unceremoniously hauling ass to the kitchen.

To make sure he didn’t go for the carpet again I kept my hands around his sides until he was done. Once I knew he wasn’t going to be sick I removed my hands only to discover that there was no longer any taco sauce on them…it was all on the cat’s fur.

Yup, two hand prints of sauce on each side of his body, wrapping around his middle.

I feel I made the choice anyone would in that moment, I washed my hands and went back to my taco, no one likes a cold taco!

The cat, being severely unimpressed sat across from me, with his back to me, sitting straighter than I have ever seen him sit. For the rest of the evening whatever I did he sat in my line of site, back to me, completely upright. Like he was making a point of ignoring me and he wanted to make sure I was aware of it.

It’s possible he picked up on being so dramatic from me…maybe…

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Beer Volcano

13 Apr

Picture this, I’m sitting on my comfy living room chair, my knees are bent and the cat is sleeping under my legs on the ottoman, you can’t see him though because there is a blanket draped over my legs creating a tent. On the table next to me is a can of beer, sitting for at least fifteen minutes to ensure it won’t go all foamy when I open it.

I lean over, grab the beer, crack it open, and a beer volcano ensues!

Beer flowing over the edge of the can soaking my sweater and blanket. It is so obviously a lost cause I stay still, letting my Eeyore sweater take the hit, foolishly thinking that will be the worst to happen. But no no, because the beer also flows onto the blanket, only the blanket for some strange reason doesn’t absorb the beer, instead the beer pools on the blanket. The valley of the blanket reaches max capacity and overflow occurs! Now beer is flowing quickly down the side of my body, soaking into my pants but also landing on my leather chair, beer is going everywhere…much like lava from a volcano, only ya know, not as hot. 😉

Realizing the worst is much much worse than I anticipated I try to get up quickly but if you think getting a cat out of a cat tent when he is sleeping is a quick thing, well, trust me when I say it is not.

I start moving the blanket off my lap, using it to cup the beer since the beer still isn’t soaking through. My movements are sending beer flying all over the place while I’m nudging the cat awake. One quick confused glare from the cat and he is jumping off the ottoman and going to the bedroom to pout about his silly human and her weird ways.

After cleaning up the beer from the chair and the floor I go to the bedroom to get undressed because I now smell like someone who spent the night in a bar and am soaked; the cat is sitting on the bed looking disgruntled. Because I am well trained I apologize to him for rousting him so unceremoniously and lean over to give him a quick “I’m sorry” cuddle only to notice that his forehead is wet. No, not just wet, soaked, with beer.

Seems his anger wasn’t just at being woken but also at having beer poured on him! Oops?

I could not stop laughing, he was so funny. He had a little mohawk going on and just looked so hard done by. I just kept laughing and apologizing, which I think he thinks means I’m not sincere, but I promise I was! Then the thought, do I have to wash his fur to get the beer out, or can I just dry his forehead, because washing his fur will be an experience neither of us will enjoy.

Grabbing some tissues I start drying his head, while still laughing and apologizing, and all I can say is thank goodness I have a cat who trusts me and lets me randomly dry beer off his forehead without putting up a struggle.

After he was at more of a damp level I scooped him up for a proper apology cuddle, thinking we were out of the woods, but instead I uttered this question to him:

“Why is your paw wet?”

Yup, that’s right, little patches of beer soaked fur on various parts of him. More tissue, more drying of fur, more laughing by me, more disgruntled looks by him, and eventually he was at a consistent damp fur level in all affected areas, and I was regretting not stopping to take a picture before I dried away his mohawk.

Deciding neither of us needed the trauma of me trying to bathe him I had a shower while he pouted on the bed and later we both cuddled again while I drank the remainder of the beer, from a glass!

FYI, it was a really nice beer, I recommend it…the cat does not…

A Snippet of Adulting

15 Jun

This morning while waiting for the kettle to boil so I could make tea I had nothing to do. Instead of just standing there I prepped my breakfast for the next two days.

Now, before you start to be mildly impressed at this random burst of responsibility let me point out my meal prep consisted of measuring oats into Tupperware bowls, tossing in measured toppings, and popping the lids on the bowls.

Not exactly rocket science, or even cooking.

Despite how ridiculously easy that was I have decided that was some weird combo of adulting and self care, and if that’s the level I managed of those two things today, well, that’s the level.

Not everyday can involve meal prepping entire dishes for the week ahead. Not every act of self care can be something Instagram worthy.

Some days tiny, almost insignificant actions, can be what result in an easier time later in the week; which to me equates to self care, and in this case meal prep, in the most loosely used definition of the term.

So try to give yourself a bit of credit for the small things you do for yourself. They count. You know why they count? Because I said so! And if that isn’t a classic adult answer I don’t know what is lol

Simple Things

20 Apr

I don’t know about you but I’m noticing simpler things more than I used to, and finding pleasure in them. Maybe it’s not pleasure but enjoyment? Whatever it is, little things I took for granted I appreciate more.

So I guess I’ve settled on it being appreciation? Lol So many word options!

Here are some silly, not actually important things, that I appreciated this week.

My complete inability to flip an egg on Thursday. I failed spectacularly but who cares? It still tasted good!

British junk food, the best kind! Completely over priced and worth every penny, or I guess nickel since we don’t have pennies anymore. 😜

A delicious bowl of fresh raspberries, my after work snack this evening. Yum!

This little guy still has his hat, too cute!

Striker being a goofball and hiding in the closet. 💜

Nothing riveting or unique, (except Striker, he’s one of a kind!), and mostly food related. Just some little things that had me smiling, or even outright laughing, this week.

Uhhh, to clarify, the laughing was at my egg flipping “skills” and Striker being silly. I haven’t crossed over into crazy enough that I’m laughing at fruit or junk food for no reason lol

I know everyone is going through a tough time, I hope, even when so much around us is hard and scary you’re able to find something that gets you smiling, or maybe even laughing!

The Evolution of Shopping

12 Apr

I wrote a little while ago about how my shopping experience went when I had to go to Bosley’s to buy cat food. It was odd, but not in an unmanageable way.

This past Thursday I went to Safeway and experienced the next step in the evolution of grocery shopping. The week prior I was all icked out when I went to that Safeway because people weren’t social distancing within the store, it seemed crowded, and I was uncomfortable enough that I left before getting everything I needed.

This past Thursday I went back and oh how things have changed!

First there was the line up to get in…

April 11 2020

I don’t know why I was surprised by the line-up, I’d be hearing all week about stores having lines, I guess I just didn’t think this Safeway would since it didn’t have one a week prior. It was a nice spring evening and the line moved fairly quickly. There isn’t a sign saying how many people are allowed in the store, just that a “limited number” of customers are allowed in, which makes me wonder how the guard at the door knows when to let people in and when to make them wait.

You might be thinking he lets people inside when people inside the shop come out but no, that wasn’t always the case. I’ve decided to not think about it too much, like any of us need another thing to stress about?

Once inside I eventually noticed the aisles are all one way, like in Ikea. Arrows on the ground showing which way to walk as well as hanging on the signs at the start of each aisle. I didn’t notice at first, so I may have gone the wrong direction in an aisle or two, in my defence, I am not the only one who did that!

The shelves were looking a little sad. The combination of a sale and it being later in the day meant a lot of stuff was gone. I found it interesting that when I noticed there was only a small amount of a product left I would think about buying it, even if it was something I don’t normally buy. Like the baked beans. I haven’t bought those in years but seeing the shelves so low in stock made me wonder if I should. Does everybody else know a secret I don’t about what food I should be buying right now?

Luckily I came to my senses and stuck with buying my normal food items. No point in stocking up on things I don’t eat.

April 11 2020 a

I should have taken a picture of the produce, so many things were moldy, or wrinkled and almost no good anymore. Isn’t it better to have no produce for sale than produce gone bad? The quality of the produce has me buying more and more frozen fruit and veg…which was another area that was scarily low on stock.

The internet is exploding with people baking bread, which ok, I guess if you’re in self-isolation and have time to kill why not? One of the aisles had yeast for sale and it was packaged like this…

April 11 2020 b

I don’t know if that is a normal price for yeast but I’m fairly certain that is not the normal packaging for the yeast. I admit, I bought some, not because I have some overwhelming desire to bake bread but because the bread section was scarily low in stock, I bought one of the last loaves. Maybe my baking bread will have to become a thing, I hope not, but better to be prepared, right?

Eggs were still out of stock, sigh, but I was able to find vanilla for a friend who couldn’t find any when she was shopping. That turned out well because when she was shopping today she found eggs for me, yay!

This might be the new way of shopping, see what you can find not only for you but your friends, and they will do the same, and everyone will swap items. I figure if we combine what the grocery store near me has, and what the grocery store near my friend has, we can almost always find the items we want. It is an odd system but it seems to be working for us so far.

Something I noticed in the store are people being much better at social distancing while inside. Whether it is because the aisles are one way only, or because there are only so many of us inside at a time, or we are all scared of being near someone and getting sick, there was a decent amount of space between people. If I needed something and a person was in the same area I’d stand back and wait until they moved on before I reached for what I wanted, and others did the same. It made me feel a bit rushed in having to pick items from the shelves but I’d rather be a bit rushed because I know someone is waiting their turn than have that person come up beside me.

We are all going to become this cat…

april 11 2020 c

Three Days After Self-Isolation Ended

31 Mar

I have been back in the world for 3 days now and my biggest wish is to go back in self-isolation.

Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

The world is different, which sounds dramatic, but it is. There are way less vehicles on the road, and more joggers on the sidewalk. I think gyms might want to be careful, this experience might convince people they really don’t need a gym to stay in shape! lol

My first day out of self-isolation I headed to work. On the few times I had been out during my self-isolation I had never gone faster than a quick walk; I like walking but I really missed driving. On my route to work I passed by a Covid-19 Emergency Response area that was being put up and guarded by RCMP. Not gonna lie, it made me super anxious. I was alright until then, so ya know, a whole 10 minutes in to my drive.  Seeing those tents, which look so innocuous on the video I took the next day, made me freak a little.

I’ve watched outbreak movies, I know what those white tents mean!

I know that just because my self-isolation was ending things were not better, heck, we haven’t reached the peak of horrible yet, but it felt that my being allowed out again meant things must be ok. I know that’s stupid, it’s just how it felt. Seeing what they were prepping for really brought it home to me that things are not ok. Which intellectually I had known but now felt deep down.

Which has done nothing for my anxiety levels the last three days. I’m not normally a super anxious human, and am fairly decent in the emergency situations I have been a responder to, but this, nuh-uh, I’m not enjoying how this is making me feel.

My first shift back was an evening shift which means I got fed dinner. Now remember, I get spoiled at work by the food, and that first dinner back was no exception!

March 31b

Crab cake with asparagus, yam fries, side salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Can’t go wrong with that!

In amongst the anxious moments normal things are happening also.

Like the plants I re-potted. I took them to work that first day back and they now live on my window sill. They join the African violet that was re-potted prior to my self-isolation and that a friend at work took care of for me while I couldn’t. The middle plant doesn’t look like it is doing well in this picture but it has opened it’s leaves a lot since settling in and seems ok. I don’t know how to tell if they are happy so I’m going by the premise that they aren’t dead so they can’t be that miserable.

March 31c

There was a surprise on my window sill when I got back, someone is trying to grow an avocado…

March 31d

She came and got it fresh water and I have added it to my list of things that need tended to when I’m at work. We don’t know if it will grow but it doesn’t hurt to have a random project on the go.

There is also the new dog that moved in while I was away that is scared of everyone and everything.

March 31a

Poor little guy. I hope he settles in soon…mostly because I want to pick him up and cuddle him! lol

A friend at work had his birthday yesterday and was kinda bummed because he originally had a trip planned for it, which obviously hasn’t happened. So we got him a cute cupcake and a couple other treats to try to cheer him up.

march 31

For the most part that’s been it. There is no such thing as a social life right now, so I go to work and come home. I had a Netflix Party with a friend yesterday, we watched a movie together. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be thanks to the chat feature on the side of the screen. Will definitely be doing that again!

I’ve had one trip in to a grocery store (for the above cupcake) and don’t want to go back. People weren’t spacing themselves very well, I was definitely closer to people than I was supposed to be, or was comfortable being, and all I could think when I got out was I want a shower. Which is exactly what I did, as soon as I got home I jumped in the shower and realized it did not take long for me to become a germaphobe.

The only fun thing I have to look forward to for the remainder of the week is that tomorrow is April Fool’s Day and a friend and I planned a bit of a trick on a third friend at work, I can’t wait to see the result!

Be safe out there everyone, wash your hands, and stay at least the length of a hockey stick away from people, or if you want to be extra careful, the length of a moose, cause that’s how we measure things in Canada! 😉

 

Self Isolation Day 13: Almost Done

27 Mar

Today is my last Friday in self-isolation, who knew 14 days could go by so slowly! Fridays are one of my regular days off so I spent today doing things I would normally do on a Friday.

Laundry, general tidying up, cuddling the cat, chillin, running a quick errand…

Yup, you read that right, I went out in to the world! Freeeeeeedom!…sorta…

I had an errand that had to be done before the weekend that I classified as essential, which means I got to go outside! I chose to walk to the shop and even though it was rainy, and a tad chilly, it was lovely. There was hardly anyone around, which I guess proves in my neighbourhood social distancing and self-isolation is being done, or everyone had left the neighbourhood so it just appeared that way lol I think that a lot of people were around, tucked safely inside their houses, as on my walk there and back I saw a decent number of people popping out on to their front steps for a quick breath of fresh air, and who can blame them?

day 13

I hadn’t realized until I got outside that the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so pretty.

It was eerie walking to the shop and passing all those closed businesses. I understand and support them being closed, and even judged this one shop that was open that I don’t think could classify itself as essential, but the more closed signs I saw the more I wondered where all those workers are and what they are doing and how they are coping with their work being closed. I hope their employers are treating them well during all this.

The shop I went to had tape on the floor in each aisle, showing you how far apart you need to stand to be at a safe distance, like there is really a safe distance?

day 13a

They even had these barriers put up so you and the person working at the counter can’t breathe on each other, or really see each other. There is a little cut out for items to be passed through, and bags on your side so you can bag your own items. I wish I’d gotten a picture of that but in the moment it seemed rude to take one.

After I got home normal Friday things commenced. I started laundry, put the items I bought away, called my mother for cooking advice. What strayed from the norm is instead of deciding the cooking was too hard and ordering in I actually followed through and cooked. Again. This is almost becoming a habit!

I made Tuna Broccoli Pie, almost. That is what it was supposed to be, and I did follow the spirit of the recipe but (1) I cut it in half because it makes two pies and there is only one of me and (2) I didn’t have enough broccoli so I used different veggies.

Oh, and (3) I only had white cheese so instead of a lovely orange cheese layer on top mine looks sickly and gross because I used too much white cheese, but hey, use what ya got!

I got the recipe from my mom, I asked her for a recipe that uses a frozen pie crust as I have a bunch of them in my freezer and I don’t have the ingredients needed to make a dessert pie. Growing up we used to eat this, I want to say frequently but I really don’t know how often she made it. It is one of those dishes that you can eat hot but it is just as good cold so it is great for left overs. I mostly remember eating it cold in the summer  with a side salad. I intended to replicate that, only eat it hot, but then I realized I don’t have the fixings for a salad and can’t pop out to buy them so in the end all I ate was two slices of the pie.

The ingredients are: egg, milk, miracle whip, mustard, flaked tuna, vegetables (I used broccoli, snap peas, and beans, all chopped up), the pie crust, and of course the cheese for the top. You can skip the cheese if you don’t want it.

Ok, now I want you to brace yourself because it does not look good at all, but it really does end up being tasty, I promise!

day 13b

All you can really see is that I put too much cheese on top and the vegetables are sticking out. The crust browned beautifully!

I was so sure it was going to taste gross because (1) tuna, and (2) my mom cooks way better than I, recipes she makes that taste great I try and they flop, so my hopes were not high.

Which means I was even more pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite and liked it enough to not need any condiments for it, and even went back for a second slice! It’s always nice when dinner turns out to be edible, especially when you use a hot commodity ingredient like an egg!

Self Isolation Day 12: A Day of Leisure

26 Mar

I slept so much of today away I would consider it a waste of a day, except I had nothing to do today soooo not like I missed out on something by sleeping.

I initially woke up at 7am, which is disturbing, so like any sane person I rolled over and went back to sleep. With Striker’s approval of course! I figured I’d wake up in another couple hours but not quite, I ended up waking up around 2pm!

Now, I could try to justify this by saying I haven’t been feeling 100% and my body obviously needed to rest. Or that because I did so much physical stuff yesterday, when not well, I paid the price today. Or it could just be because I am lazy. I’ll let you pick!

I wasn’t able to work today thanks to system glitches so I basically did nothing. Well, if you consider cuddling a cat for the majority of your day nothing, which I assure you neither Striker or myself do.

Taking a break from my lap to sleep on the ottoman.

I did try a new to me beer with dinner but didn’t like it so poured it out. A waste of beer I know, an act that should be illegal, but no way was I ingesting all those calories if I didn’t love the taste!

Just not for me.

It is with a heavy heart I report I am now out of beer. Guess I’ll be moving onto wine!

Random Updates:

I’m now on Season 4 of Criminal Minds and still loving it. I decided I have to stop being online as much because I keep thinking it’s a good idea to buy stuff. Oh, and my Golden Oreos are almost gone, which means I soon will have absolutely no reason to get up and may wither away in bed perpetually.

How is your self-isolation going? Broken into the junk food yet?

Self Isolation Day 4: Cooking Happened

18 Mar

Well, it’s always good to know for sure the smoke detector works, right? Mine, in case you were wondering, works perfectly, maybe even a little too perfectly.

I realized today, on day 4 of avoiding humanity, that I don’t need to have a quick bowl of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast but that I could take my time and make something. I intended to make egg on toast but somehow that changed to pancakes.

When I organized the pantry yesterday I pulled out an open box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix. I left it out because there was not much left in the box, so today when I saw the box on the counter it felt like pancakes were meant to be. The universe told me so!

However, according to the box you need 1 1/4 Cups of the mix and I only had 1/4 Cup. A tad short. Instead of doing math to figure out how much I had to cut the milk and egg down to I topped up the mix with Kodiak Cake Mix.

In total I used one cup of combined pancake and kodiak mix, one egg (because why not?) and almost one cup of water. In retrospect I should have either used less water or more kodiak mix, or even just cut the egg I suppose. But I didn’t, and the end result was the runniest pancake mix I’ve ever seen.

I am a fluffy thick pancake type of person and what I got was these…

Possibly the thinnest, most pathetic pancakes every created.

They were however edible and not being a person who likes to waste food, they were my breakfast.

I worked for a while, then went for what may become my routine mid day walk, only this time I went on a trail instead of to the library and grocery store. There’s this outdoor pool I pass that had some very happy birds in it.

The ocean is a very short distance away but some prefer the pool I guess.

After I got home and worked some more I had to start thinking about dinner. I’m used to being fed at work and this whole making all my own meals thing is not something I’m enjoying. I figured on making some mac ‘n cheese but logic dictates I hold out on that. If I cook that today, on day four, then what happens on day 12 when I’m out of all the quick stuff and am forced to ya know, cook for real? I won’t have a choice! And who knows, maybe by then places won’t be delivering, then I’ll really be screwed.

So, I dug in the freezer and came up with something to cook, like a grown-up!

I made a jalapeño cheddar burger, with all the toppings, and fries, because every good burger needs fries.

I thought the burger would be spicier than it turned out to be but that’s ok because it tasted good and I’d rather the spicy food be tasty than be so spicy there is no flavour, ya know?

I don’t take good food pics, deal with it.

So yeah, four days in and I realized the folly of ordering in take out daily or cooking all the super easy food first. I also learned that super thin pancakes set off the smoke detector if you’re not careful. 😂

It’s A Hard Day For A Cat

7 Mar

Today has been such a hard day for Striker.

He stole my chair, pillow, blanket, and heating pad.

First I was here, on a day I’m usually at work, ruining whatever plans he may have had.

Then I kept getting up and down from the living room chair, ruining his afternoon nap, because of having to do things like switch loads of laundry, go to the bathroom, make something to eat. Ya know, normal things for me but useless activities from his point of view.

To make everything even worse I had the nerve to leave the apartment, without his permission, to buy groceries. I took longer than normal because I chose to walk to the store instead of drive, something I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want to face his wrath.

Now I’m back and instead of immediately settling down so he could cuddle on my lap I made dinner, and insisted on eating it! So rude I know. This of course delayed his evening nap.

Seriously harsh day for him.

For me though it wasn’t so bad, I did get to end it with a slice of homemade carrot cake which was delish.

Mmm, can’t go wrong with cake!

I will of course pay the price for eating the cake instead of providing cuddles, most likely punishment will come in the form of being jumped on in the night but hey, we lose an hour of sleep tonight so one less hour for Striker to get his revenge!

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