Saturday, July 26, 2014

Keep the cat food bag, who knew?

Entry #9

Well, let's start off by saying that I won a buck in the Pick 5 last night so my troubles are much smaller than yesterday's! Mom, you still shouldn't buy a ticket until after the showing on Sunday, just saying!

Seems that the kids have decided not to eat any food for the last few days. Now, they aren't the type to scarf until they explode, normally Joe puts out their food as part of his morning ritual, they munch some then and save the rest for later in the morning and a few nibbles here and there in the afternoon. They try to mess up the area with bits and pieces deemed not worthy of eating as well as some accumulated hair and a few pieces of gravel. This gives Joe a reason to have a return from work, before he takes a shower ritual about what slobs they are. Works for the three of them...

An old pic before he destroyed the bowl while we were out of town, pay back's a bitch! His sister may have had a hand in pushing the bowl off the counter but he has a known penchant for knocking things off of counters so chances are pretty good that he's the guilty one!
As you can see, bowl is empty and he is licking his lips! 

Last night, their bowl was still full and there was no mess to clean up and someone was guilty of making a mess close to but not in the box. Very unusual behavior (the not eating part, not the making a mess part) and a definite distraction to the after work ritual. Figured maybe the heat or humidity was bugging them, house was a bit uncomfy and I realized that I had a tough time myself the last few days. Gave them some treats as part of our it's time for you to open the drawer and give us our treats because we want them and will pester you until you give us some routine. Treats devoured, we head to living room and Big Brother and a normal evening.

New bowls, Isobel likes the blue polka dots and Samson the pink. Please note the absence of any mess, either cat and the fact that both bowls have food in them. This is the same food from last night. Before I went to bed I threw out the food washed the bowls, scrubbed the counter and then refilled the bowls with fresh morsels. And yes, they are plastic, we have plans and they don't involve buying cat bowls again!

Two unusual things took place this morning, both of the kids were not on the bed when I woke up and the bowl was still full. Our usual routine is we all wake up, head to the kitchen together, they each eat a few bites of food and I make coffee and then we all watch at least part of the Today show.



Being a concerned parent I called Pet Smart figuring that if they are both not eating chances are it is the food. Surprisingly the store takes this call very seriously and check to see if they have received any other calls involving this variety of food. Authority Senior is our food of choice and they have been eating it since they turned seven just over a year ago. Finding no other calls they asked for the codes from the bag.

Hmmmm, maybe the bag is still in the garage? 

Uh, ma'am why isn't the food in the bag? 

We keep it in a container, duh, we live in the South and I don't do bugs! (Up North I used the container because I also don't do mice)! 

Well, turns out they have no way of reporting officially the concern that the food may be tainted without knowing which batch of food it is! However, they ask me to give their in-store veterinarian a call with the run down of what the twins are doing and have the vet determine if she wants to see them. Upshot, give it a day, if they still won't eat, toss the food and buy some more. They can't tell me what kind to buy but I should take into consideration that food is delivered regularly and they can't guarantee if that batch is still being sold or not. It was also recommended that I either move the food from the old cat litter container as that plastic may be unsafe or leave it in the bag and place the bag in the container. 

Tuna treat, drain water from can and add a few bits of tuna, should hold them over!

Joe has in fact already taken the all important bag to the transfer station and placed it in the appropriate recycling bin. Guess I'll be buying but not returning food tomorrow and hopefully that'll do the trick. New policy, if we aren't going to keep food in the bag, I'm going to cut off the code and stick it in an envelope that I'll put on the outside of the container. Trick will be to establish a new routine whereby I remember that you have to cut off the new code, throw out the old code, and something, something, something.

I just know there's a song in there somewhere...





Friday, July 25, 2014

Thunder goes boom!

Entry #8

Spent today doing my favorite thing, babysitting B! We had a great morning. After he made sure all of his toys were in place, the magnets were lined up on the fridge, the cats had been patted and hugged, and he had taken all of the books off the shelf, we had some breakfast. Our normal day is that after breakfast we play for a bit, have a diaper change and he is ready for a nap when he crawls down the hall and into his room. (I didn't teach him that, when this boy is ready for bed, he is ready for bed)! Today was no exception and we turned on the notebook, found his white noise app, popped him into bed and did our blanket ritual. I gave him his pacifier and off to sleep he went. 















 


Once he falls asleep, I do a few chores, start to make a chicken lasagna and check my email, I had enough time to find out I won a whopping twenty bucks in the Powerball!! My highest win to date so as you can imagine I am feeling pretty darn good. When will I learn that being lucky never pays off!

There are now four simultaneous events:

  1. The phone makes that irritating you have a text message noise, not once but twice. 
  2. The doorbell rings, Backyard Produce is here.
  3. The timer for the lasagna noodles goes off.
  4. The rain storm that had passed through decided to say goodbye with several very large and loud claps of thunder.
For those who don't know, B does not like thunder! As I answer the door, the timer goes off again and the baby monitor starts broadcasting loud wailing! Whenever the monitor emits anything remotely resembling a cry the kids feel the need to chime in and meow until the baby is removed from his crib. The poor Backyard Produce driver hands me my box and instead of our usual chat he is off and running! 


I rescue the boy, turn off the white noise, turn off the timer, turn off the stove, change a diaper and settle in for the thunder to pass. This involves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (a rare treat, we usually do Pandora, Grandma is still not a big fan of too much tv for kids). However, I do keep four MMC episodes on the DVR for emergencies situations - after all, I am the grandma!

Needless to say, the lasagna didn't get made until after lunch which we had once the storm passed. A scientific fact that I discovered is that thunder turns B into a magnet and it turns my leg, arm, lap, side (you get the idea) into the metal surface that the magnet sticks to. I am sure you can all imagine what a hardship having his cute little self cuddled up to me is!

Luckily the lasagna was completed in time for half of it to get sent home with B and the other half to be devoured by a very wet, hungry and tired Joe! I even saved a bit of the chicken to make him some salad for tomorrow's lunch!  



Wednesday, July 23, 2014

My first Smiley360 Twitter party!

Twitter is a foreign concept to me that I am just having the hardest time figuring out! My first mistake was when I set up the account I blocked it so no one could follow me because I thought that was a bad thing. Guess what, I was wrong! You want people to follow you that way someone is paying attention when you post a Tweet! I have now updated all of those blocks and hopefully will soon have followers!

Pound signs are now called hashtags and you have to use them along with the @ symbol. If you forget them, the Tweet doesn't work. For those in the dark, the Tweet is the couple of sentences (you have a limit of 140 characters) that you type to share with your followers. The hashtag is for the topic and the @ is for the name of the person you are directing the comment too. In this case it was @Smiley360  +Smiley360 Community and #CrestProHealth.

So when Smiley360 invited me to the Crest Pro Health Twitter Party with several chances to win Crest items (which Joe uses every day) how could I say no? The first message I get is a "Save the date" you've been invited to an event note. I RSVP and it now pops up on my Facebook page as a reminder. This is a good thing as it increased the odds that I would remember to join in at 2pm today.

http://t.co/RAsRkCrfCD    (Use this link to join Smiley360 or tell me so I can email you and get credit for referring you)

I receive many reminders via email and this morning I get one that says to join TweetChat and it will be easier to participate in the Twitter Party. Only took me 20 minutes to figure out how to sign up for Tweetchat... It is now noon and I take a much needed break from Twitter by checking all the online yard sale sites, paying some bills, sweeping the floors, calling my mom and starting laundry. 

http://t.co/OUw6uyspNZ    (Use this link to join TweetChat)

Just a few minutes before 2, I go to the TweetChat, figure out how to sign back in and find the #CrestProHealth room! After a only a few minutes I am in (along with hundreds of others). They are already asking questions and you have to answer in order to win a prize package. This goes much faster than I anticipated. By the time I find the question, type in the answer, hit enter and then realize I have to hit Tweet to send it, they are giving away the first prize! They did 7 questions and by the end, I was getting the answers in and a few times I even managed to respond to other Tweets. The 8th was the big prize and I know my Tweet made it into that round!

(link for Crest)

Downside, the page froze a few times and I had to reload, not sure if this was overload for the room, my computer, or an error I was making. Missed a few things I'm sure and I didn't win any of the prize packages. I know this because after the Twitter party was over I went to the Smiley360 page and found the list of winners! 

Upside, I gained one new follower and got some great tips on dental hygiene. I can now say I have attended a Twitter Party! With practice I have a feeling I will get much better at this and hopefully win some prizes next time! 

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Memories, Facebook and acorn squash

Entry #7

Kind of an interesting day today as I had one of those proverbial light bulb over the head moments while reading Facebook postings from friends and family. Depending upon whose post I was reading, I was a different age! Certain phases of my life are reflected by very different groups of people and the funny thing is that if I met most of them on the street, I probably wouldn't recognize them. There are a few exceptions but most I haven't seen since we were kids! 


When I think of friends, I think of them at the age I met them and we first connected. With family I find that I tend to remember them with the time frame of when I last saw them. The only exception to this is my kids! I now constantly remember them as babies due to the fact that each one of them now have a mini-me! 


My problem is that when I read what is being posted I want to comment back with some insight into whatever they are talking about. Unfortunately, since I haven't seen these people for years my input is usually not needed or even relevant to their current situations. Newsflash, they have changed, grown up, gotten married and/or divorced, some have kids, some don't, some are still single, they have lost weight, gained weight, gone to college, started jobs, lost jobs, started businesses, moved, traveled, found new interests and hobbies, I think you see my point.



I do have one BFF that I can pretty much say whatever I want to, she gets me! Other than that, I am pretty much a smart ass with a very off sense of humor that tends to offend most and convince them that I am totally going to hell. Most of these folks have no idea what I have been doing for the last 30 years and vice versa. To be honest, it is great to be in touch with old friends and see that they are alive and doing well and I love that rush of memories that seeing their name brings.

And of course everyone wants to know about tonight's two hour cooking marathon! Sadly, I forgot to take a picture prior to eating the stuffed squash but I did take one of a ramekin with just the "stuffing". The missing picture is acorn squash cut in half, cooked with olive oil and seasonings for an hour then stuffed with homemade tomato sauce, Italian sausage, rigatoni, feta and Parmesan cheese. (Would of been some mozzarella but that's another story)! I then divided up what was left into the Rachael Ray purple ramekins and baked them along with the squash halves for another half hour.


For the record the tomato sauce included fresh onion, garlic, parsley and basil sauteed in olive oil to which I added crushed tomatoes and a splash of veggie stock. Sadly, I had to use a container of stock as I was out of my own. The most exciting is that this was the first time I was able to actually cook in the ramekins and wasn't just using them for dipping sauces or condiments!


Monday, July 21, 2014

Check out my new page!

Made a new page and hopefully I set it up right and everyone will be able to click the button to see the post there. I can already tell that the cabinet spirit is going to torture me as it entertains itself! That being said, figure there should be a page dedicated to those stories.

For those not interested in the cabinet spirit, I will be delighted to share with you my latest culinary creation. I call this: 
"What's left in the veggie drawer"


This would be organic baby carrots, red onions, garlic, fresh green beans, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, zucchini, red cabbage, portabello mushroom, kale, fresh lemon juice, sesame seeds, cardamon, lemon pepper, kosher salt with a pan of cooked and drained beef kielbasa added after the kale was wilted in. Thinking I may need to submit this one to the Backyard Produce recipe page!