Online shopping du jour; two pounds of coffee. The folks at Innkeepers' don't seem to able to make up their minds as to whether to ship it book rate or priority mail; my feeling is that if you're so inattentive to your stock that you empty the last bag, drinking Folger's for a couple of days will remind you buy early.

Assuming that I'm up to it, next weekend's dinner will be a pan-seared sirloin marinated in bourbon and cinnamon (and other things). I'm not sure what vegetable I'll want with that: maybe good ol' roasted asparagus?

I started pulling dishes out of the dishwasher. Then I stopped, held a couple of glasses up to the light, and muttered, "I can't drink out of these; they're filthy ( Read more... )

If I've seemed scarce the past few days, it's not because I've again been seduced away by some new social medium; it's because of various health issues that have ended in my wearing an orthosis to try to reduce my carpal tunnel problems to a manageable level.

2 Tbsp. butter
4 pork chops
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ cup heavy cream
4 oz. blue cheeseMelt butter in a large skillet, over medium heat. Season the pork chops with black pepper and garlic powder. Fry the chops in butter until no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 20 to 25 minutes. Turn occasionally to ( Read more... )

I have the shade drawn over my kitchen window so as to prevent glare on my monitor. The bit of sunlight leaking around it casting the perfect image of a recurve bow on the wall next to the pantry door.

The fresh new bag of food was greatly appreciated. I gave Katie a third-cup yesterday evening (about 18:00) and the dish was empty when I got up this morning. I then gave her another sixth-cup, which has mostly been eaten already; I may have to give her yet another just before I leave for work, so that she has something to eat during the day.

I took the morning off yesterday, in part to finish picking up before the housekeepers came in (not that the place was that badly trashed, just that I'm getting lazier). This led to big-time trauma for Katie; she was hiding under the bedclothes when I stripped the bed, leading to her being exposed to the sight of strange women1. She slunk off ( Read more... )

I spent an hour lying on the bed with Katie yesterday, doing something suspiciously like cuddling her. Either she's growing mellower and more trusting, or she's decided that that's an acceptable price to pay for lying next to the warmth-generating owner.

Well, I just got done using my Little Green cleaner for the first time. It's not the miracle cleaning appliance of the 21st century, but it seems serviceable. Katie, of course, thought it a horror -- it sounds like a vacuum cleaner and sprays water :-D -- but given that 80% of its use will be to clean up cat puke, I'm not shedding a lot of tears ( Read more... )