Sometimes I’ll walk into the bedroom and out of the blue find Lucy curled up in Linus’ kennel.  What gives, Cat?

I thought he was your Sworn Enemy…?

I don’t get it.

Maybe she’s cold?  Maybe she is jealous of his big soft, fluffy yet supportive (and $150!!) bed.  Maybe she’s getting soft in her old age.  Maybe all the bitching and mrrowing when he’s in her turf around us is just for show, behind closed doors she is really over the moon about the stub-tailed woofer.

Who knows.  But I think it’s safe to say, we have reached a dog-cat inter-species relationship anomaly.

huh? thought cha hated him....

One of the benefits of my silly work schedule (24 hours on/12 off/36 on) is that I have a couple free days during the week.  So, I get to do fun things like take mega-naps and cook big schmancy dinners for no reason at all without caring that cooking eats up 5 hours of the day!

So today I made tapioca pudding from scratch and also a summer vegetable risotto.  And they came out pretty darn good.  Since my regular camera is extremely back logged, you’re getting bleh cell-phone quality pics, but still… I think the yummi-ness manages to jump out atcha despite poor pixel quality.

Our Night, in photos:

(starting the risotto)

Begin with a base of onions, shallots, a leek, garlic and a hot pepper sauteed in butter/olive oil.  Then add a couple cups arborio rice.

Risotto part 1

Add a cup of white wine, salt, pepper, parsley, whatever spices suit your fancy and mix er up nice and good.

Risotto Part 2

Start adding water and veggie stock, a half-cup at a time.  Wait for the rice to absorb the water and stock before you add the next cup.  When you get about 3 cups in, add ze squash.  I threw in some mushrooms here as well.  We had a mix of starburst (pattypan) squash and summer squash.  I HATE pattypan squash.  I think it’s pointless, gross and stupid.  It barely even has any nutritional value.  Yet Earl keeps bringing it home from the farmer’s market.  (@#!~!!)  So I basically made this recipe around the fact that I wanted to “use up” the stupid pattypan squash.  Heh   Next time if I ever cooked this again, I would chop the pattypan squash up even smaller, so you could barely tell it was there.

Risotto Part 3: add the squash

Keep adding water and veggie stock, a cup at a time until the rice is a bit soft/chewy and you’ve got a nice creamy consistancy.

To finish it off, I added a hearty amount of grated parm cheese, a chopped up bunch of basil, zest of an entire lemon, and garnished with saffron.  Man, this came out so good.  We have a TON of leftovers, too, which should last a while and also I can freeze to stuff in peppers and tomatoes and whatnot.

Risotto end product!

We had a bageutte with dinner as well, but the risotto was so rich, creamy, filling and good we didn’t even eat it!  Linus got served the “butt” of the baguette (like he always does, if he is good), however we did make him work for it.  Here he is doing his “Manners” trick:

Do you have good manners?

He’s looking a tad aggravated, wouldn’t you say?

freaking lady better stop taking my picture and let me eat this freaking baguette or she is gonna get it.

Post dinner, I did laundry while Earl and Luces napped on the sheetless bed.  Notice how messy his side endtable is, compared to how organized mine is?! Ha.

Lucy's new box!

Lucy is enjoying her new box, which my $200 EMT combat boots came in.

EMT boots make good boxes for kitteh

I skooched Lucy aside (she’s not very snuggly when she’s in her box anyways, who want’s to cuddle with cardboard corners) and Linus and I stole her spot in Earl’s arms. This was a tough shot to get because every time I leaned my arm out to snap the photo, Linus was disturbed and acted all disgruntled that I was moving. How rude of me!

hard angle to get a shot

I realize now that I’m posting this that I forgot to snap a picture of the tapioca pudding, but rest assured it was scrumptious, and Earl has a whole bunch left over to take to work tomorrow and give his coworkers (since we don’t want it around the house tempting us all weekend!).  Also, on the topic of things I forgot to do- I had some spicy Italian sausage that I was planning to add to the risotto, and I TOTALLY FORGOT.  Derr.  I didn’t even remember until now.  Shesh.  ::shakes head::  Oh well, it was pretty good any way.  But, man.  What a bummer, I bet that would have made it GREAT.  Drats.

Yesterday when I was decompressing from a 24-hour shift at work, minding my own business and watching Law and Order online (my favorite way to decompress, chung chung!), my computer started freezing suddenly and then turning off.

It’s maintained that finicky temperament all day today as well, so looks like an HP-service ticket request is in my future.  Luckily, I’m still under warranty (machine is still less than a year old, but has been serviced once already!), so hopefully this will be resolved painlessly and cheaply.

So pardon an interruption in posts while I hijack Earl’s Mac to post updates.  Rats, I had been planning on a mega-photo catch up in the near future, too!  I have about 10,000 photos on my cam to upload.

On the topic of POSITIVE computer-related news, a complete Dances With Corgis redesign is currently in the works, which I can’t wait to get up and running for the big reveal.  Here is a preview of what we put together, although this has since been revamped a few times.  But to give you an idea of the direction we are heading (how exciting!):

Dances with Corgis design

Yes, yes, in about 20 minutes we are off to the county fair!

The same fair where, we hear, where they are serving deep fried reeses peanut butter cups! Of course we will be sampling them. Earl absolutely hates fried food, which I find amusing. He actually doesn’t like the taste of the “fried” part. I’m going to lobby him to at the very least have a bite of my corn dog, although he tends to turn his nose up at them! Perhaps he will be tempted by candy apples or something along those lines, apples being his favorite food and all.  Although I’d venture that exchange will go something like this:

Me: “Hey look, Earl- candy apples!  Want me to get you one?”

Earl: “Now why would they go and ruin a perfectly good apple?”

Besides stuffing ourselves silly, we’re off to watch the horse races with my aunt at noon, and after that I am majorly excited to see all the barn animals. I love looking at the chickens and roosters and cows and seeing how they’ve placed in the judging. Maybe even a tractor pull and going on some rides await! Oh, the fair!

Templeton shares my enthusiasm for county fairs:

A Veritable Smorgasbord

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord
After the crowds have ceased
Each night when the lights go out
It can be found on the ground all around
Oh, what a ratly feast!

Goose: “Why, a fair has enough disgusting leftover food to satisfy a whole army of rats!”

Templeton: “Is this true? Is this appetizing yarn of yours true?? Will I find…”

Melon rinds and bits of hotdogs
Cookie crumbs and rotten cotton candy
Melted ice cream, mustard dripplings
Moldy goodies everywhere!

Goose: “Yes, yes!”

Lots of popcorn, apple cores
Bananna peels and soggy sandwiches
And gobs of gorgeous gook to gobble at the fair!

Goose: “Yes, yes, yes!”

Templeton: “I like high living… what you say tempts me!”

Goose: “It’s true. Go to the fair, Templeton. You will find that it will surpass your wildest dreams!”

Templeton: “You mean tin cans with particles of tunafish stickin’ to ‘em? Greasy paper bags stuffed with rotten eggs?”

Goose: “Yep, yep, yep. True, true, true!”

Templeton: “That’s enough, don’t tell me anymore! I’m going!”

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord
After the gates are shut
Each night when the lights go out
It can be found on the ground all around
That’s where a rat can glut, glut, glut, glut!

This afternoon we attended an Americana block party at my Aunt and Uncle’s cul-de-sac and ate waaaay too much chow.  You should have seen the spread- these people know how to do it up!  Now Earl is power-napping and I am checking the internets, and then we are off to a little dive bar in Sunol which I discovered on my 30-mile bike ride.

Tomorrow, the county fair awaits!  (yay)

Totally fun 4th of July weekend.  I have more pics to post eventually, but here is a quick one I snapped of Linus at the Block Party, wearing his USA finest

Linus in his 4th of July "outfit"

Linus Stars and Stripes

This morning after I got back from my no-sleep, ran calls all night 24-hour shift, I took a quick nap at my Aunt and Uncle’s (their guest bed is super comfy, that thing sucks you in, I swear), then packed up and headed into the city.  Earl and I had a coffee date, so I brought Linus by his office to pick him up.  I think it was a combination of me being exhausted and also excited to see Earl, who I hadn’t seen in a few days, but I wasn’t very careful about where I parked.  Normally I am hyper-aware of tow zones and things of that nature.  After all, I managed to live in Manhattan for the past six years and only get a car towed once (My Tacoma truck towed from W58th St on the very weekend I moved in).

But, I think the deadly combo of being exhausted and distracted at the enticing prospect of soon receiving a bear-hug from Earl made me let my guard down.  Apparently I parked in a “temporary tow” zone which basically turns into a no-parking zone during commuting times.  Gah.

Not knowing, I even paid the meter and felt like a responsible citizen as Earl and I headed out for coffee.  After our date (and Linus’ debut at his office, where he was a Superstar and lapped up attention from dozens of people- they have been discussing making him the “mascot” dog and even putting him on their website- lol!) I walked and walked.  I couldn’t find the car.  I walked and walked some more and realized- dang it, probably towed.  At least I had the freaking dog WITH me and he wasn’t IN the car when it had gotten towed.  Could you imagine??  I would have been hyperventilating with worry for Buddy.  Call 311 and get the towing info- yep, they have it, and I am dinged with at cool $250 towing fee for being dumb.

The interesting part of all this- when I go and pick up the Jeep at the impound, it turns out I was spared an additional $100 “emergency brake” flat-bed truck fee.  I guess if you have the e-brake on, they normally have to flat-bed tow your car instead of regular tow it, for which they charge you an extra $100.  In my case, I *did* have the e-brake on (parked on a hill, so I did the turn the tire to the curb and e-brake), however apparently the ticketing policeman decided to slim jim into my car for me and turn it off, and spare me the fee.  The impound attendant let me know this because I asked how the e-brake had been turned off (since the car was still locked when I picked it up and obviously I had the keys on me).  The attendant said to me, “I bet he saw your EMT uniform and decided to cut you a break.”

Huh.  I had washed my uniform this morning at my aunts and had laid it out on across the seats of the Jeep to dry (don’t dry that stuff, it’s tight and uncomfortable enough to begin with), and have to admit, it WAS prominently displayed where any ticketing/towing officer would see it.  And I had a lot of other junk in the Jeep (laptop, Linus’ kennel in the back, tons of clothes and books from the weekend), even a bunch of spare cash in the dash, but nothing else was touched.  So they were obviously doing me a favor to go through that extra effort.  Interesting.  I have heard of a lot of EMS people getting out of tickets and things when police see the EMS certificate in your wallet.  But if that really was the case here, I wonder why they just didn’t tow me at all.  Or, who knows- maybe they were just too lazy to get the flatbed truck.