Caturday!

You Can Take The Boy Out Of The Marine Corps, But....

It's fairly early but the winter evening has already settled in.  The spousal unit comes back in the house after a prolonged period out of doors.

He:  Finished raking the side yard.

Me:  Um...it's pitch-black outside.

He:  (charging up the stairs) 50 percent of your training is supposed to be in the dark!

That Heavy, Overstuffed Feeling

To all of my fellow Yanks, a Happy Thanksgiving.  To everyone else, happy Detroit-beat-the-Packers Day.  Will miracles never cease.

I Am Woman, Hear Me Scream

I was sent home early by the Red Cross due to what may...note I say may...turn out to be a torn medial meniscus.  I'm back at the office, sitting with my foot propped up, when our singularly clueless senior staff member wanders in.

She:  So, how bad is it?  Can I see?

Me:  (Obligingly pulling up my pants leg over my swollen and squishy knee) It feels kind of like a water balloon.

She:  That looks awful.  (Jabbing it with her finger.  Twice)  Does it hurt?

I'm Sensing a Trend, Here

I will be spending the next week or so deployed with the Red Cross.  Hmmm...where was I last November?

Code Red

1.  We're sitting out a tornado watch/high wind warning.

2.  Annabelle just bit Her Majesty's tail.

(Upgraded to a tornado warning.  Don't worry -- we're in the basement).

13:07 EST. Updated to add:  We're ok, it went west and north of us.  But I'm glad we bought that generator this summer.  The rest of town is without power.  I can't believe we still have Internet access, that's usually the first thing to go.

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane. ~ Rudyard Kipling

And Now For Something Completely The Same

Doc, Wyatt and Annabelle in the process of climbing the spousal unit like a tree.  That monkey has taken a lot of abuse this week.

Doc has the biggest paws of the bunch.

Kate getting career advice.  She is a little pistol -- she attacked Funnyface when they were introduced, and when Her Majesty hisses at her, Kate puts on her Apache face, puffs out her tail, and hisses back.

Wyatt is a little love.  When you pick him up, he immediately assumes the dead bug position and waits for you to start rubbing his tummy.

And he likes to keep an eye on me when I'm on the computer.

All of them wrestle and chase each other constantly.  It's the Charge of the Kitteh Brigade around here, night and day.

Reserve Cat has grave reservations about the whole affair. 

 Her Majesty comes down, hisses at them all, collectively and individually, and then goes behind the stove when she sees me pick up the camera.  Needless to say, she is Not Amused.

The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day

In A Rare Moment of Sanity

I decided NOT to work on that beading project this weekend.

UPDATE:  Sweeping the basement wasn't a really great idea, either.  Kate kept banzai'ing the dust-bunnies.

Happy Birthday, Marines

Caturday!

They've been racing around the basement since 0630, and have finally fallen asleep.  Storing up energy for the next five-hour stint, one assumes.

It is still almost impossible to get a decent photo of Doc.  He's wall-eyed, which may account for his reluctance to pose.

The one I really want to photograph is Her Majesty, as the expression on her face is priceless.

Grrrsday

Embroidery - Making Run Net Curtains

Embroidery on net for curtains (and probably many other applications as well).  From Ladies Home Journal, September, 1922.  Enjoy the gentleman in the natty nightshirt!

Right-click to enlarge.

Vintage Advertising - Cream of Wheat

You don't suppose he's looking for some honey to put on that Cream of Wheat?

Tripe and Onions (or, How To Clear Out Your Kitchen - Quickly)

"The Spanish onion, which is now in season, seems to be the established favorite for both cooking and for salads, although the young Bermuda is also delicious in flavor and specially adapted for the salad. The Spanish onion scalloped is excellent when cooked after this recipe: Peel two pounds of Spanish onions; put them over the fire in sufficient boiling water to cover them, with a teaspoonful of salt and boil them until tender. Meantime, grate an equal quantity of bread crumbs and just moisten them with cold milk. When the onions are tender, pull them apart with two forks and put them into a buttered earthen baking dish in layers with the moistened bread crumbs; season each layer lightly with salt and pepper; let the top layer be of bread crumbs. Put a tablespoonful of butter over it in small pieces and place the dish in a hot oven until well browned over, then serve at once.

Baked and stuffed, the Spanish onion is also a most agreeable dish. For this, take six medium-sized onions; take out the centers with a scoop; parboil them for three minutes and put them upside down on a cloth to drain. When drained, fill the inside with forcemeat of bacon, or sausage mixed with the heart of the onion minced very fine; also bread crumbs, pepper, salt, mace and a spoonful of cream. Stuff the onions with this and simmer in the oven for an hour, basting often with melted butter. When done take the onions up carefully without breaking, place them, open ends uppermost, in a vegetable dish. Add to the gravy in the baking pan the juice of half a lemon, four tablespoonfuls of cream and a little browned flour. Boil up and pour over the onions.

Closely allied with the onion in the black list of foods is one frequently served with it, namely tripe. It is capable of wonderful effects in its preparation and strangely enough with epicures is a distinct favorite. The famous amateur cooks who prepare terrapin and oysters for their bachelor parties also cook tripe in various forms, especially in the chafing dish. Tripe with oysters is a delightful dish cooked in Creole style, broiled lyonnaise or curried. With oysters it may be cooked after the following method and will be found excellent: Thoroughly wash a pound of double tripe in cold, well salted water, drain and scald it. When cold cut it into narrow two-inch strips and let it simmer an hour in a quart of clear soup stock, with a stalk of celery. Roll four ounces of butter into little balls; roll them in flour, add one at a time to the tripe, stir continually and as soon as one is melted add another. When all are used let it simmer half an hour longer. Put the tripe into an earthenware dish and when cold place in the icebox until next morning. When wanted, warm the tripe (at table is best), add about thirty medium oysters, let it simmer three minutes, season with salt and white pepper and serve on thin toast.

 Tripe, New Orleans-style. The New Orleans fashion of preparing tripe is very much in favor. Cut one and a half pounds of tripe into small pieces and fry them in a pan with two ounces of butter, one chopped onion and half of a green pepper, also chopped. Brown them slightly for six minutes; then transfer them to a saucepan with one chopped tomato and one-half pint Spanish sauce and season with a pinch of salt, a half-pinch of pepper and a crushed clove of garlic and a bay leaf. Cook for ten minutes and serve with a spoonful of chopped parsley on top. Spanish sauce is a mixture of butter, flour and good broth, stirred till smooth, simmered for about an hour and put through a sieve, when butter is added." ~ Thomas Murrey

From Click Americana, a site well worth exploring for US trivia addicts.

The Clanton Gang Had Better Watch Out

Annabelle

Big Nose Kate

Wyatt

(Doc wouldn't hold still long enough to get his photograph taken). It is probably not necessary to point out that Her Majesty is seriously ticked off with me.

Kittens 1, Productivity 0

I have two new needlework books and four new foster kittens.  Good luck to anyone who want to get anything out of me this weekend.

Quote of the Day

Of all the toys available, none is better designed than the owner himself.  A large multipurpose plaything, its parts can be made to move in almost any direction.  It comes completely assembled, and it makes a sound when you jump on it.  ~ Stephen Baker