Still Life, With Cats

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Jennifer

Nutty

Posted on 1 February, 2023 8:31 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Oh look, it’s February, which means it must be time for Thingadailies, or in this house, time for my annual month of ‘holy crap, how do we use up three full trees of citrus before they all go bad?’

So to kick off the month, I made Citrus Pecan Bread, which is a basic oil-based quick bread recipe, but with orange juice and nuts. For tonight, I used tangelos for the juice and chopped walnuts (because that’s what was in the freezer), but the general concept is the same.

This is not a new-to-me recipe – in face, I think we got this a couple years ago when we were doing a recipe subscription service, but we both liked it so much that it gets put into rotation at least a couple times each year when the citrus is ripe.

A loaf of quick bread

Can you tell where I accidentally jabbed my oven mitt-covered thumb into the loaf when pulling it out to check on it? Sigh.

Anyway, it’s super tasty and it used the juice and zest of 4 tangelos, which was the whole point.

Citrus Pecan Quick Bread

  • Ingredients
  • 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup orange juice (plus the zest from the fruit)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan.

Combine all dry ingredients except pecans. Stir in orange juice, water, and oil until mixed (but do not overmix), then stir in the pecans.

Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Let rest in pan about 10 minutes before removing; cool completely before cutting.

 

Making a thing a day for Thingadailies.



All that glitters

Posted on 20 December, 2022 9:09 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Yesterday we had folks out demolishing concrete and digging big holes in the yard in order to replace our sewer line. This is one of those things that has been on our list to take care for quite a while, so….Merry Christmas to us (we decided it was our joint present, because Adulting), so while listening to the occasional jackhammering, and not being able to flush anything down the drain for a few hours was minorly annoying, it was worth it to finally get it done.

They came back this afternoon to fill in the holes, and at some point later this week they’ll come back again to replace the cement that they had to dig up, but hooray, at least it’s done.

In less expensive news, the Christmas ornaments for this year’s tree theme finally arrived, so this evening we took roughly 90 seconds to decorate.

Doesn’t that look festive and lovely?

I know you’re wondering what they are. Here’s a closer look – can you guess?

So it turns out you can get a bag of 50 sparkle ball cat toys for less than $10 if you poke around long enough on the internet, and the beauty of using sparkle balls is that they require no hooks for hanging – you can just tuck them into the branches, and when they are (cough) ‘liberated’, you can just gather them up and replace them as you walk by.

It took Guffaw a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but once he realized what they were he was extremely excited, and over the course of the evening he plucked three from the tree and then chased them all over the house until he wore themselves out.

I think this year’s decorating scheme can be considered a qualified success.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Filling the space

Posted on 19 December, 2022 10:15 pm by Jennifer Comment

Tonight was the final concert in the back-to-back three-in-a-row performances we’ve been doing for the season. The first was Saturday night, at our ‘home’ space (where we’ve been rehearsing), while yesterday’s was down in Oakland, so most of us headed down early to meet for lunch at rather tasty little Brazilian restaurant near the venue. Tonight was back in Sacramento.

This concert has been one of my favorites we’ve sung since I’ve been in the group (16+ years). The music was absolutely gorgeous; this particular group of singers blends together better than I think we ever have, and then you throw in a gifted organist, a stunning soprano soloist, and an absolutely amazing celloist, and it was just magical.

It’s a little bittersweet to be done, but also a bit of a relief. I feel like this month I have been running at full speed, and now I can see the end in sight – only a few more days of work before I get some much-needed time off, and can actually relax.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Posted on 18 December, 2022 8:23 am by Jennifer 1 Comment

This morning we finally put up the tree. The box itself has been sitting in the living room for the past week but we just haven’t had the time or energy to deal with it, especially since Richard has been sick. But this morning I had to get up early anyway to change the incontinent kitten’s diaper, so I cajoled him to wake up with me, and after the round of our usual chores, we finally set it up.

Guffaw was extremely helpful.

A grey cat with wild eyes sitting on top of the base of a Christmas tree

He had to make sure we’d assembled it correctly by inspecting from the outside…

Two grey cats staring at a Christmas tree

…and from the inside.

A grey cat peering from inside the Christmas tree.

We’ve ordered this year’s ornaments, so there’ll be an update picture early next week. We’re still finding ping pong balls and googly eyes from last year’s decorating scheme, since Guffaw made it is his (successful) mission to remove Every Single Ornament from the tree, and I suspect this year’s theme will have similar results.

Tis the season for Holidailies.



Properly clad

Posted on 13 December, 2022 7:56 pm by Jennifer 2 Comments

Our concert attire for the group in which I sing is all black, including black shoes. I bought my last pair an unknown number of years ago and they’ve been doing fine, although in the past few years, they’ve been starting to look a bit ragged, and they weren’t the most supportive things to be wearing when standing for long periods of time. But as performances are just about the only time I need dress shoes these days, I figured it wasn’t a huge deal to just keep using them, since it’s not like anyone was really ever staring at our feet.

But yesterday, after the performance for the TV snippet, the sole on my right shoe came off completely, and I knew it was time to finally replace them. Problem was, however, that I looked at the calendar and realized that with working full time, there was basically going to be no time at all to try to do any sort of shoe shopping between now and next weekend, which is when our string of back-to-back concerts takes place, and the thought of shopping for *anything* in person at this point in December filled me with dread.

Thankfully, however, there is Amazon. I know, I know, they are extremely problematic as a company, but when you are in a panic and need something right away, they are who you have to turn to, especially when the shoes arrive less than 24 hours after ordering, and even better, returning them is super easy if they didn’t fit.

So now I have a comfortable pair of new black shoes, suitable for concert attire as well as any sort of dressing up that I might have to do in the future, and I did not have to actually enter a store or deal with actual people in order to acquire them, and sometimes, living in the future really has its perks.

Tis the season for Holidailies.



Making early spirits bright

Posted on 12 December, 2022 9:47 pm by Jennifer 2 Comments

So yesterday while I was doing all the other things, I was also monitoring my phone because our director messaged everyone to find out if anyone was available to sing on TV the next morning, and after a flurry of back-and-forth messages that determined we’d have enough folks to cover all the parts, we finalized the plan.

Which means this morning I got up bright and early as usual, but then had to rush through the usual morning chores and fling on my concert attire and dash off to one of our performance venues for an appearance on Good Day Sacramento.

It went really well (click that link to hear our snippet) and it’s awesome to be part of a group that can pull something together in less than 24 hours notice.

Tis the season for Holidailies.



Worth every penny spent

Posted on 11 December, 2022 10:01 pm by Jennifer Comment

This morning we got up bright and early in order to make the house presentable for company, and this meant finally breaking out the nifty new gadget we bought ourselves during the after-Thanksgiving sales – a new vacuum cleaner.

You know you are a proper adult when you get super excited about a vacuum cleaner. But to be fair it is a combination vacuum cleaner that ALSO MOPS, and if you live in a house with all hard floors and an ever changing number of very busy cats and kittens, this is a massive game changer.

So while I tidied and unearthed the kitchen from a mountain of dishes, and baked the cookies for this evening’s exchange, and steamed and scrubbed the bathroom (after first relocating the *extremely* messy quintet of kittens who had been residing there to a new enclosure), Richard cleaned all the rest of the floors in the house with our fancy new device, and we both marveled over how fast it was, and how well it worked, and yes, I know this means we are officially old, but I’m okay with that.

Anyway. Once the house (or at least the upstairs – we shall not speak of the condition of the downstairs) was reasonably tidy, a bunch of friends came over and we all learned a new-to-us game (Mosaic), and gnoshed on all manner of snacks, and played with kittens. And then once that was done I packed up the cookies and headed off to another’s friend’s house, where several of us gnoshed on (yet more!) cookies and had a lovely time.

And now I am going to go keel over because as much fun as it’s been, it’s been a very, very long weekend, and as previously determined, I am officially old.

Tis the season for Holidailies.



Deep breath

Posted on 10 December, 2022 10:24 pm by Jennifer Comment

Today I got up and made cookie dough for tomorrow’s cookie exchange, because last weekend’s baking attempt was not very successful (well, for the cookies meant for the exchange, that is). I also pulled the bag of successful cookies from the freezer (Apple Butter Snickerdoodles, which I made on a whim to use up some leftover apple butter from this year’s batch, but which turned out to be *extremely* tasty, and far better than the usual boring snickerdoodle so if you have apple butter lying around in need of using up, I highly recommend this recipe), and packed them into a cookie tin, and brought them with me to the recording session.

Ever since the pandemic started, we’ve been doing virtual versions of our concerts, even now that we’re back to performing in front of a live audience. It’s really nice, because that means family and friends who aren’t local now actually get to hear us perform, but on the down side, it also means a very long day.

So now it’s late and I’m exhausted from singing for roughly five hours straight, but the recording is done, and the cookies were all consumed, and it was a really good (albeit extremely tiring) day.

Tis the season for Holidailies.



The other side

Posted on 5 December, 2022 9:41 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

This morning when I went to check on the foster kittens currently residing in our bathroom, one of them was dying.

This isn’t the first foster kitten I’ve had die, and I know it won’t be the last – when you take on the fragile ones, you have to go into it knowing that not every little one will make it. But it is hard. Every single time. Because I second guess myself. I question everything I have done. What did I miss? What was the magic bullet that, if I’d only seen it in time, would have saved them?

Sometimes it’s because they’ve been sick (there are horrible things that wee little kittens can get, and there is only so much modern science can do) and sometimes it’s because they were too compromised before they ever came into our hands, and their little bodies just didn’t have the strength, no matter how much care and medicine we provided. And those deaths are hard, even though I knew the reason, because my goal in fostering is to save them, not to lose them.

But this little one – this was one of the ones that are the hardest. Because there weren’t any signs. Just…alive one night and dying the next morning.

There are so many things that can go wrong during development, and I know, logically I know, that especially this time of year, when the momma cats are on their third litters and their bodies just aren’t capable of giving those poor babies everything they need anymore, that sometimes those little bodies just aren’t capable of making it anyway.

But logic doesn’t matter when you’re holding a tiny, frail body in your hands, watching them die, doing everything you can, knowing that it won’t matter, but doing it anyway because maybe, just maybe, this time it might be different. Just this once.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies



Down time

Posted on 4 December, 2022 8:04 pm by Jennifer Comment

We had grand plans for today. It being one of the only days in December where neither of us had anything planned, we were going to check off a whole bunch of things on our list – putting up the tree, figuring out the Christmas Card photo, doing some much needed chores around the house.

But after yesterday’s white-knuckled drive in the pouring rain, we were both exhausted. So instead we didn’t do much. Well, except for transporting foster kittens to the center for vaccines and deworming and lime dips (hooray for mystery skin crusties!), and also I baked some cookies while on video chat with my sisters. Or rather, I made cookie dough while on video chat, but all the doughs needed to chill, so I only ended up baking one type – molasses crinkles – which I overbaked anyway. Sigh.

On a bright note, however, I did get to have a vocal coaching session. Our director got permission for all of us to have a half hour with an absolutely fantastic vocal instructor, and I scheduled mine for this afternoon. And for the first time, I actually now understand some of what various choir directors over the years have said about breathing – because when I mentioned that my music background was instrumental instead of vocal – including the oboe, his eyes brightened and he immediately explained it in those terms, and not only did it make sense, I was then able to immediately put it into practice for him. Who knew my ancient history with a double reed would be the key?

– – – – – – – – – –

Today’s mini puzzle is a small child sleeping on a couch while two dogs play tug of war with some ribbon.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.




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