ksmith: (snowflakes)
ksmith ([personal profile] ksmith) wrote2010-01-10 10:36 am

Sunday morning

15F outside, according to the window thermometer. A heatwave when compared to other places. Hints of blue sky, with sunshine even.

Surrounding counties are under Wind Chill Advisory, but not us. Here, it is eerily calm.

Back to work tomorrow, which means the CQ (Cranky Quotient) will ramp upwards as the day progresses. By around 4pm, I'll be swearing as I take out the garbage and muttering as I come back inside that the house still smells like dinner. Which will probably be a pork chop with some type of balsamic glaze, along with mashed sweet potato and corn.

I can haz sweet potato, yes, because I haz thumbs and can open drawers and operate the stove and such.

I think if dogs ever developed thumbs, TV would turn into 24/7 Guy's Big Bite with occasional interruptions for Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. The Best Garbage I Ever Ate.

Except...it bothered me that at feeding time Gaby would stare at King's food and sniff the air, then take her time getting into her own canned duck and rice. I thought the issue might be that King's food crunched and hers didn't, so I bought a small bag of Wellness Simple Solutions Rice & Duck, which was one of the few dry foods I could find that didn't contain oats or barley or any of the other grains that are supposedly less allergenic but were exactly the ones that Gaby apparently reacted to. So. Thanks to k9 Cuisine's rapid ship--I live 3 hours away from the place, so overnight arrival is standard for me, except when I order late in the afternoon, in which case early second day arrival is standard--I placed an order late Thursday afternoon and had a small bag in time for second feeding yesterday afternoon. Mixed a quarter-cup of pebbles with Gaby's food...and watched as she sniffed them, then picked them out and set them on the floor next to her bowl. In the end, about half the pebbles were on the floor. The other half remained in the bowl, licked clean of soft food. I did hear one or two crunches, so Gaby did eat a couple. But they must not have made an impression because when I tried to feed her a few this morning, she sniffed them and left them on the floor for King to scoop up. The few that I added to her food met the same fate as yesterday's little soldiers. I will keep trying, but it appears as though the Gabster is fixed on the current diet and Will Not Deviate...except for tasty treats like the dirt under the bird feeder. I'm really glad the ground is frozen.

Need to box up the old pots and some clothes and shoes for donation. I will make a list and take photos for tax purposes--the clothes and pots likely aren't worth much, but some of the shoes were expensive and scarcely worn. I am considering eBay or Craigslist, but wondering if it's a hassle? Any advice from veteran sellers out there?

Speaking of pots, used the 3-qt casserole and sauce pan last night. I used the casserole atop the stove to saute some garlic and slices of turkey. Very nice, even browning at less than Medium heat. Surprisingly easy clean-up, even though I added cooked pasta and grated cheese to the turkey. Just filled the pan with hot water and let it sit for ten minutes while I did the other dishes. I used the backside of one of those mild scrubber sponges, and things cleaned up very nicely.

As for boiling the pasta--Med-Hi heat, not a rolling boil. Pasta cooked. I would say I saw the biggest difference in the frying. I left the garlic by itself for too long, and it browned but didn't burn.

Oh well, I have laundry to do. I stayed up too late last night watching Terminator for the first time ever. The 80s hair and clothing just kept cracking me up. Nice to see Michael Biehn--I really liked him in Aliens. According to imbd, he's still working steady, which is good to see.

Later...