Warm Welcome?

Beans' M&D arrive for their annual summer stay. We all went out for dinner and when Beans and I got home, we were greeted by chatty cats and Miss Orange sitting proudly on her carpet, presenting her gift:



Our little hunter upheld tradition. Just as she seems to do whenever M&D come to town, she celebrates their arrival by killing something. Sweet, no?


For the next week, she didn't come up to bed with us, spending her nights stalking near the new plumbing in the mid-reno kitchen. Did I mention that once she kills, she gets a serious case of bloodlust and stays in hunt mode for days, and days, and days until she kills again?

Last night, Beans let the cats out before he left the house to pick me up from a girls' night out. The pick up took a bit longer than expected as he and the other hubby on chauffeur duty were coaxed into joining us for desserts and drinks. By the time we got home after 11pm, the kittens had been out in yard, in the dark and unsupervised for a good hour plus. I came up the walk and noted odd behaviour in our Orange one. She was bouncing around the grass, a tell tale sign that something was in her clutches.

Yup, exactly one week after her first kill of the 2010 summer season, she'd nailed another mouse in the yard. Poor thing wasn't quite dead when we got home. She was letting it go and then pouncing on it when it was foolish enough to try to escape. She'd smack a paw down on it and it would squeak like a cat toy. Gruesome, I know.

On the upside, we don't have mice in the house. Sure, she catches one (in her grandparents' honour - we're convinced of this) every now and again. But I guarantee they've just crossed the threshold and haven't had time to settle in before she's on the case. And if the unfortunates happen to come with a family, she'll take them all down, one per day, until they're all gone.

I guess the one she caught last week was a bachelor, hence the week-long interlude between kills.

Maraming salamat hipon!

Today's slice of humour is brought to you by cousin

"Kumain ka na ba?"

You'll notice over there ---> that there is a link to a site called http://engrishfunny.com/, which explores mostly rude and usually hilarious mistaken english translations.

The vast majority of the posts are sent in by english-speaking folks living or travelling around Asia and Eastern Europe. Imagine my delight when I found a perfect example of engrish at my favourite Gas, Bombs and Booze shop on the outskirts of Perth.

I Found this doozy on the back of a 16-shot firework at the Ultramar on highway #7 between Perth and Carleton Place.

"Vomit peony and flash!"

Bewitching? More like shades of Bank & Somerset, but I digress...

Gomi Day

The following is the slighty garbled liner notes that accompany the Shonen Knife song "Gomi Day": With no space in Japanese condominiums, living perpetually amidst garbage is the irony of separating one's waste and holding the sorted rubbish until collection day.

Here in Ottawa, Monday is "regular garbage day", while every other Monday is "cans and bottles" day, with the alternate monday being "newspaper day" and in the summer/fall "yard waste day."

Simple enough, unless you get confused.

Since I have no desire to scoop up garbage after it has been assaulted by the local raccoons and ground hogs (aka Whistle Pigs), over the course of the summer months, I take the garbage out in the morning.

One absence, one holiday monday, and one screw-up (blue or black box?), and all of a sudden the garage has about 2 months worth of "cans and bottles". Did I mention we are super diligent recyclers.

At any rate, at pretty much this exact time yesterday I was browsing through the news on the computer, serenely enjoying the cool morning air. As pleasant at it was, I vowed that I would stop at 7:30 and get my day started by the typical monday morning chores. At precisely 7:29, I hear the characteristic groan of a poorly maintained diesel engine, followed by the clatter of a blue box being up-ended. DAMMIT!

OH MY GOD! It truly is GOMI DAY!

Gomi Day sample: http://www.last.fm/music/%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%83%8A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%95/_/Gomi+Day

Monday's regular garbage day
But I forgot again
There are two big plastic bags
They're lying on the floor
Gomi day monday and thursday
Let's take it out in the morning
Gomi day seems like every day
I hear the truck
I hear the warning

Wednesday's cans and bottles day
But I forgot again
There are four big plastic bags
They're lying on the floor
Gomi day monday and thursday
Let's take it out in the morning
Gomi day seems like every day
I hear the truck
I hear the warning

Now our place is full of bags
It's crowded through and through
I can't even find the door
I don't know what to do
Gomi day monday and thursday
Let's take it out in the morning
Gomi day seems like every day
I hear the truck
I hear the warning

El Sabor Del Paraíso

Thought I'd share some photos from our last visit to CR. Yes, I know I'm months overdue. First up: food and drink.

Ceviche at the lovely Hotel Terraza del Pacifica. Almost as good as our friend O's version. Presentation points go to the Terraza, however, as O has never fanned avocado slices for me. ;p

A guaparinha (CR's take on the Brazilian caipirinha) and the best chicken nachos on the planet. The secret is they make the chips themselves.

Another guaparinha and a bottle of limited edition Imperial beer. The "Silver" was a new product for the summer. I'm not an Imperial fan, but the Silver seemed popular. Maybe they'll make it available year round?

I made a wonderful discovery during this last trip. I discovered I really like tequila. It all started with this salty margarita. It ended with tequila shots for the table.

Now, after all that rich eating and drinking, a sensible breakfast is the right thing to do. Fresh fruit. Fresh juice. Tico coffee. To start. I failed to get a photo of the gallo pinto, eggs, fried cheese, bacon, sausage, toast and whatever else came with brekkie. There was a huge plate, but it went down fast. So fast, I didn't get my picture!

A tequila sunrise to help me ease into the day....

Dinner was tilapia with capers and butter sauce for me.

Beans had the steak with mushroom sauce.

I'll post some other vacation pictures soon. Check back for proof that I did more on vacation than just sit around eating and drinking (and drinking, and drinking....). Hasta luego!

Susan Lucci No More

Family Resemblance?

Orange:


Black:


Beans:


Coincidence? I don't think so.

Rice: (added May fifteen, as promised)

New Baking

I have a new toy. There was an incredible sale on bread makers so though we were shopping for lawn resurrection supplies, we finally gave in to the impulse shopping urge. We'd been thinking of getting one for ages, but the timing was never quite right, or so I claimed. Wrong model. Wrong colour. Not a compelling sale price. But the biggest deterrent: we have zero counter space in the kitchen. I'd resisted my own carb-lust and dissuaded Beans' from indulging me...at least, for the time being. Faced with a 46% off sale, what's a bread-fiend to do?

I tore into the box like a kid at Christmas as soon as we got home, leaving ever-patient Beans to finish unloading the rest of the shopping/groceries from the car. Visions of crusty golden loaves, the scent of warm yeast and fresh baking had overtaken me. As he put away groceries, I pored over the manual. "We're having bread for dinner!" I declared at 6pm.

Uh-huh.

Right.

It'd been ages since I'd baked bread from scratch. Staring at the shiny new machine in my kitchen, I lost all sense of reality. I now have a bread machine, so (clap, clap), "let there be bread", right?

Kids, it takes HOURS to make bread. I'd forgotten that part, but I was bound and determined to bake bread, dang it. 2 hours+ to run the (empty) machine through a full cycle before first use, as instructed in the manual. I spent that time trying to comprehend the annoyingly structured instructions. (Note to technical writers: Page numbers. Table of contents. Put information in logical order. Use these tools when writing a users' manual. They are helpful.) Thanks to the back-assed sequencing of information, I failed to correctly set the "automatic extras dispenser" so my Hearty Nut Bread, while hearty, is relatively nut free.

Four and a half hours later (total machine magic and cooling time):


I woke Beans at 10:30 pm to show him my fresh-out-of-the-oven triumph. He tried to be enthusiastic, but it was a pretty sleepy review. He didn't even want to smell it!

Incidentally, we had rice for dinner.

The hearty nut(less) loaf made for a great breakfast instead!