AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Embarking on the long weekend

We are moving from the temporary housing where we've been staying since August 3rd (or so). It has been quite the month with a bit of a closing snafu and the standard, look, I'm pregnant and hitting full term.

Saru-chan has taken to being extra cute over here, leaning against the baby gates that keep Victor from bothering her all the time. Heck, even watching her leap the baby gates is adorable. Her butt looks like it floats or hovers for a moment before she lands.

Today we are moving into temporary non-temporary housing (which makes nearly no sense). It is the house we want, but it is rented at least until the closing happens. Painting has happened, but more cleaning needs to happen.

Really needs to happen. Like I won't shower until I've washed the stall.

In other news, I've been knitting. This isn't exactly a surprise. I've been knitting Mama Vertebrae for Camp Loopy project 3. I should have enough yarn left over at the end to make the newborn version as well. Matching little sweaters to wear after the hospital time provided our baby isn't too big. I'm not exactly sure I'm going to get to it though. I'm currently slogging through the twisted rib for the body, which is awesome that I'm nearly done but the rows are huge. Even knowing that the newborn size is maybe a tenth the size of mine only helps the smallest bit.

Instead I'm daydreaming of other patterns. Maybe even patterns that use something other than fingering weight yarn. Crazy patterns with worsted weight yarn. Or two yarns held together or maybe even bulky weight. These are almost all crazy ideas, because I know I gravitate to sock and lace weight yarns. The likelihood that my next project is going to use a large needle and chunky slubby yarn is tiny.

When I am not daydreaming about my next project, I am considering finding one of the local SnB. It's been too long since I've been to Gather Here, and so I need to find something for my sanity!

Everybody poops!

Sometimes.... And yes, that is a picture of our cat on a toilet. The things my husband goes through for blog fodder.

We got a groupon a few months ago for one of those cat toilet training kits, so we bought one bag of flushable litter and gave it a go. The instructions imply that this could be a single month process, but not for our obstinate kitty. The process despite our length of time is pretty easy. You set up one of the toilet inserts, fill it with litter and introduce your kitty to a smaller shallow litter amount. Every week or so (at least a week of no accidents), you remove one of the circles. You have a second insert in case you need to backtrack. I'm just glad it worked!

However, after nearly 3 months, she gives you a look when you come out of the bathroom and goes in for her turn on the toilet! She has graduated from kitty poo school, and now all I have to do is give the toilet and the surrounding areas a good scrub and everyone (well, except for Victor) can use the toilet again!

While the toilet training felt like it was taking forever, it really hasn't been that bad at all. We only went through one largish bag of flushable litter, and now we can be litter free! No more scooping feels awesome (and probably more awesome for my husband who does the actual scooping more than 90% of the time).

Now if I could just equip Victor with a poo bag sort of like what they use for horses in the city and then train him to put in the trash... nah, too much work. I'll just walk him and pick it up.

Oh, and this photo was brought to you by 9 treats training Saru-chan's eyes to be up and focused. What? You don't bribe your animals for fun and vigorous jazz hands and profit?

The title of this post is brought to you by Taro Gomi's book, Everyone Poops, and Everybody Hurts by REM.

 
Never say I never earwormed you...

 

Happy birthday, Saru-chan!

Tuesday was Saru-chan's birthday. She turned a whopping 7 years old. She has grown more affectionate and less scared of Victor over the past year (I think it has something to do with the idea that she doesn't have us to herself, but anywho). She is gorgeous, sleek, large and very soft. Like many cats she likes to be pet, especially if she can scootch her butt really close to your face in the process. Hey! It's a gift.

Saru-chan catches the bugs I don't want to catch and release outside. She will play with them until they are dead and if we are very lucky then eat them. It's a protein source she needs to work for (and is smaller than the mole that Victor caught last week), so I don't mind. Heck, I even encourage it. We shoo Victor out into the back yard and will place her near her new treat. Yup, so mean we are.

I made ice cream for Victor earlier this year, so it was time to make ice cream for Saru-chan. However, she cannot have actual milk. Usually we get her a container of CatSip or some other kitty milk and she will drink it over a week, so that is what I used.

Ingredients:

2 cups of CatSip cat milk
4 TBSP catnip, divided
4 egg yolks

I heat the milk till steaming, turned off the heat and added half of the catnip, which I steeped for an hour.

In a separate bowl, I whisked the 4 egg yolks. After the hour was up, I reheated the milk mixture and then tempered the eggs. I then added the tempered eggs to the milk mixture.

Unlike normal ice creams this never thickened to what I call a normal custard consistency. There just isn't enough fat in it among other things. Also, the mixture looked curdled. But hey, it was for Saru-chan who doesn't care about such things.

I let it cool in the fridge overnight and then churned it the following morning, adding a single can of cat food (we used a fishy cat food from a pouch) and 2 more tablespoons of cat nip.

Like the dog ice cream, because there is no added fat, sugar or thickeners (like xanthan gum), the ice cream froze really hard. There was more loss than normal along the side of the ice cream container where it was too hard to add to the tupperware.

It does make for a hard to scoop ice cream. In the future, I would scoop (with a small cookie scoop) from the ice cream maker when it is still relatively soft onto a parchment covered plate or cookie sheet. Then they would at least freeze into mostly into single serving amounts.

Saru-chan got to try her ice cream Tuesday night for her birthday. For the occasion she got to eat it from one of the blue dessert glasses we have. It was kind of hilarious, because the entire house had ice cream Tuesday night. Hibiscus sorbet for the humans, cat ice cream and dog ice cream.

She likes it!

Things to note. Saru-chan did not seem to like her cat ice cream quite as much as Victor liked his. There are a lot of possible reasons for that including that Saru-chan mostly seems to like her catnip au natural, that the cold item is harder for Saru-chan to eat than it is for Victor and that the flavor was just off. There is, of course, tons left, so she will get to have some more and if she decides to permanently turn up her nose at it that is OK. She is a relatively picky eater, so I'm ready for that eventuality.

Happy birthday, Saru-chan!