C4

C is for Crap. Or Car Park.

C4

C is for Crap. Or Car Park. I actually went out tonight as a friend had an extra ticket to see a National Geographic Photographer speaking at Benroya. We even met up for a drink and dinner at a pretty good restaurant, Boka, downtown. I finally had a chance to wear my dressy winter coat and boots.

Tired

But the current streak must stay alive. I think I have a good reason for it, anyways. So it's a clock shot because I spent a large chunk of the evening curled up on the couch crying and sniffling into a handkerchief while watching the movie "Parenthood". It's a great movie and I wish I could say it was the sole reason for my emotionalness.

Fergus

He is seriously the most ridiculous cat ever. He loves to have his belly rubbed. Like a LOT. He will roll over and stretch out to maximize the belly rub. He's warm and soft and great.

Spring?

Half Winter, half Summer...does that equal Spring? I dunno but I am ready.

Ice

The end of February weather has been worse than usual. At least this morning there were stripes of ice on the skylight and lovely blue sky beyond.

Snow

Today's forecasted "Snowpacalypse" didn't amount to much. This February hasn't been nearly as Spring-like as last year. It's been wet and cold with lots of hail.

Phone call

I made a very important (or what I hope will turn out to be an excellent and very important) phone call today. It's something I've been needing to do for a long time and have been afraid to. The feeling now that it's made is a little bit buttererflies and a really deep overwhelming sick nervous feeling if I think about it too much. Trying to let the butterflies win.

Fergus Watches the Snow

We have had hardly any snow (stick around) since the one big storm we had before Thanksgiving. This has been the winter of hail.

Hydrangea

It's been cold and wintry here. We went on a cold walk.

Noble Fir

J and I, attempting to make the most of our Sunday afternoon (the first running of the Daytona 500 that I haven't watched in 13 years), walked to old town and stopped to have a drink at another new-to-us place. It had a nice vibe and interesting beers and I would definitely go there again.

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Wally and SJ

I went over to T&M's place to gab to Michelle while she rode her bike on the trainer for an hour. Sometimes you have to get your girl talk time in where you can. Later we went to a new-to-us Thai restaurant and found it to be good and cheap - huzzah! They make their dogs wait patiently and/or perform tricks (with varying degrees of success and hilarity) in order to get their dinner. It is most definitely my favorite free show in the city.

Fergus

Another one of those post-ten-pm wanders around the house looking for absolutely anything to photograph. I took three pictures. This, the bathroom window, the owl thermometer on the fridge door.

Chicken Dumping Soup

Me: Do you know or have handy the recipe for your chicken dumping soup? (Due to a long-ago unfortunate typo, this recipe has always been called that by Michelle, who am I to argue?)

Michelle: It's something like this: Bring a pot of salted water and a pot of chicken stock to a boil (The salted water one can be smaller, but the chicken stock one is going to hold all of your soup and should be bigger) -- I usually put these on the stove first and then make the dumpling dough. We also usually add a can of cream of chicken to the stock to boost the flavor of it, but it's not necessary. I've also added sliced carrots to the stock.
Dumplings: Whisk 6 eggs, a tsp of salt and a cup of milk together, add flour until the dough is sticky (It should be thick but some should still drip off if you were to hold a spoonful upside-down.) Once both liquids come to a boil, reduce the stock to a simmer and drop spoonfuls of dumpling dough into the boiling salted water. (I use two spoons for this, one to scoop dough and one to scrape it off into the water) Once the dumplings float (make sure they aren't stuck to the bottom of the pot, which sometimes happens) scoop them out of the water with a slotted spoon and drop them into the chicken stock. Repeat until all of the dumpling dough is used up.

This recipe makes a lot of soup, so if it's just Jason eating it, you might want to cut it in half. Feel free to call with questions...

Me: So the only things that end up in the soup are the chicken stock and the dumplings? And you've occasionally added veggies? Is that right?  (for the record, I added carrots and celery)

Michelle: Yes

Me: Any idea how much chicken stock you boil?

Michelle: Hmmm, not really. Any guess as to how much one of the boxes you get in the store holds? It's around two of those, so maybe 6 cups? You could always add it (The boiling water cooks the dumplings, so if the broth dips below a simmer when you add new broth, it won't really matter.)

Me (Later on): The dumplings are supposed to look like hideous malformed blobs, right?

Michelle: Yep!

Me: Ok, just checking.

Michelle: It's pretty hard to mess this recipe up. The only way that I've heard is when my mom first made it, she didn't know about the water step, so she just threw the dough into chicken broth and they didn't really cook. I've made it a million times, and while some batches are better than others, they've all been edible.

Me (worried about getting sick after taking care of J): I did it! And it's pretty damn good too. I am kinda impressed with myself. Thanks for the recipe! I will let you know if I need you and Todd to make it for me on Friday. :)

Michelle: You got it!

Random Blue Sky

This shot has nothing to do with how we were feeling today (grumpy, still sick) or what we did (nothing) except that I shot it from the parking lot of the grocery store when I went to buy the sick necessities like white bread and gatorade.

The Flu

J has the flu, poor thing. He doesn't get sick very often but when he does he gets sick hard. I will be taking care of him all week. I hate seeing him so miserable and I wish I could do more. At least he still lets me photograph him for my journal.

Fergus in a Laundry Basket

I snapped this pic and emailed it to J at work saying, "In case you are wondering how your clean clothes are already covered in cat hair."

River

A Pretty F'ing Good Portrait

If I do say so myself. "That's awesome! Did you take that in your fancy studio M?" "No, I did not. That is knowledge, skill, and window light in an otherwise dark room people." Proud of myself. Proud of him. Love his face.

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Mushroom Being Grumpy

A rare shot of Mushroom actually being held and snuggled. You can see how much he likes it! Photos by J. Tattoo in black and white after phase two. (I loved it in black and white).

Fergus Being Adorable

For special occasions, and when we go away, we get out "the kitty tent". It came from Ikea, cost $2, and it's a tent for kitties, in the shape of a kitty with ears and a tail. Can't get much better than that. They love it and are in it within 2 seconds of it hitting the floor.

Grrr

Went to get my haircut today and she kept me waiting in the sitting area for 20 minutes. That really irks me. At least there was some nice sunshine pouring through the windows.

Fergus

We are having some really buys days, nights, weeks...so I am just going to declare that February is National Cat Photo Month and stop feeling guilty about it.

Who is that masked cat?

Powell's

Look what I brought home from the book store (not really!). It's a bad kitty!

I Know

Sunset

I swam with a sunrise and ran with the sunset. p.s. Not bad for a phone, eh?

New Couch!

Here is a picture of the new couch. It's comfy! I still feel sad about my old couch though and can't yet bring myself to get rid of it. It's hard. It was my first ever big furniture purchase and I loved it so much. We will see if this little monster claws this one up as well.