New Car

So, our lease was coming due on our Volvo, so last weekend we went car shopping (again…we’ve been doing this for about a month just to see what was out there). Well we ended up with a BMW 135i (3 year lease). This is Steve’s car, so it has to be fast and fun for him to drive…this wasn’t so easy to find in a reasonable price range. We started the process of returning the Volvo, but it will probably be another week or so before we actually return it. This is our first car with navigation, so that is something we’re really looking forward to having.

So here’s to saying goodbye to the Volvo…

 

And hello to the BMW…

On another note, we had been debating on whether or not to give Coco Bean the meds…well early Saturday morning (5:30 am) she had another small seizure, so we made the decision to go ahead and start the meds. We found Greenie’s Pill Pockets at Petsmart yesterday afternoon so we gave her the first dose last night. If you have to give your cat (or dog for that matter) pills, Pill Pockets are the way to go. She loves them (and she’s picky). It makes giving her pills super easy!!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Coco Bean

Well today was the visit to the neurologist…which also included an MRI, a spinal tap, two sedations, and a bottle of pills.

It was a long day!! We started in Dublin this morning at 8:30am, then it was off to Redwood City for the MRI appt at 1:30pm, and then back to Dublin for MRI results and a spinal tap. They found a couple of spots on the MRI that may be something, but they are very symmetrical and on either side of the pituitary, so they aren’t sure. We’ll get the final read tomorrow. We’ll also get the results of the spinal tap tomorrow as well. BUT the vet thinks it is probably epilepsy (no other underlying cause) which means she also gave us a bottle of Phenobarbital which could be a long term thing. Giving a cat pills is NOT an easy task…especially this one…and they want us to give her 2 a day. This ought to be fun.

She’s running around the house like a crazy cat…she’s still coming off the anesthesia and whatever it was they gave her to calm her down. She’s pretty pathetic looking. They had to shave her in multiple spots for all the work they did, so I think she has 4 shaved patches.

 

Here we go again!

It’s been a long time…a really long time. Things were a little crazy there for a while and I guess blogging just wasn’t at the top of my priority list.

I’ll catch up a little then get to the reason for the title of this post.

So a couple of months ago I started getting organic produce from Farm Fresh To You. They deliver a box of groceries to me at work once a week. I get a mix of veggies and fruit. It’s actually been a lot of fun. Each Friday they post what you’ll be getting in your box the following week. You can create a “I don’t ever want to see this in my box” list, but I get a lot of things I wouldn’t normally buy, or things you don’t always find in the grocery store. So I’ve had a lot of fun cooking with new ingredients and “in season” ingredients. I’ve made pear and apple crisps, pumpkin ice cream, kabocha squash, lots of chard many different ways, arugula salads, chai spiced butternut squash soup, acorn squash stuffed with cranberry apple quinoa, and leek and potato soup (aka vichyssoise) just to name a few. And on a side note, Raley’s Fresh Market just opened in Tracy yesterday…it is SUCH a nice store and quite a few organic and natural food selections. Better than other grocery stores in Tracy, but not as good as Whole Foods.

Steve’s been working late for the last couple of weeks. The project he has been designing for the past 3+ years is finally in fabrication, so now they are doing all the bring up and debugging so they can make revisions for the final version. He’s headed to Shanghai at the end of the month since that’s where the manufacturing is being done. He’ll probably be there for 1.5 to 2 weeks. He wasn’t very into it when he first got told he needed to go, but I think he’s warming up to the idea after having talked to some people at work that have been there before.

It was Steve’s birthday on Tues (he’s 39…one year shy of the big 40 :) ), but I barely saw him. We went out to dinner with his family for his birthday a couple of weeks ago since he knew he was going to be busy. It was a really great dinner at a place called El Rancho in Stockton. Their steaks are DELICIOUS, but EXPENSIVE, so we don’t go there often. His favorite pie is pumpkin, so I’m in the process of making one right now to surprise him tonight…I know a little late, but it’s the thought that counts right??

So to the reason for the title of this post…Steve ended up staying in San Jose last night, so at 1am I heard a weird scratching…kind of sounded like Coco Bean burning out on the hardwood floors, but it didn’t stop, so I got up and found Coco Bean having a seizure next to Steve’s side of the bed…here toenails were hitting the side of the bed. I temporarily freaked out and almost took her to emergency, but after about 5 minutes she was completely back to normal. So I made an appt for her this morning and took her in. In July she was having some weird episodes where she would start foaming at the mouth and running around like a crazy cat and them would scarf food for 5 minutes. We took her into the vet back in July and they didn’t find anything abnormal in her physical exam. They did blood work and everything came back normal, so we decided just to wait and see what happened. We didn’t see any episodes after that appt. After talking to the vet today, the previous episodes were probably “petit” seizures as opposed to the “grand mal” seizure I witnessed last night. It’s possible it’s epilepsy, but it’s really rare, usually there is some other underlying condition causing the seizures. But any seizures in cats are rare, so Monday we have an appointment with a neurologist in Dublin to see if they can figure out what the underlying cause is. KA CHING! I’m dreading another vet bill!! I’ll keep you posted.

New “Do”

I got my hair cut tonight and decided to go a little shorter. So here’s the final product (not the best pictures by the way)…what do you think?

Victoria & Other Stuff

So I’ll start off by warning you this is going to be a LONG post. I’ll work my way back to our trip to Victoria BC.

So this past weekend, I made another batch of bread…actually a double batch. The good news was that the bread turned out lighter and more moist than the last batch I made…the BAD news is that I burned up the motor in my KitchenAid mixer :( I’m trying to find out if I can get it fixed or if I’m going to have to shell out some major $$ for a new one.

I was having a bit of a “bad luck” yesterday, so on top of the mixer, I also broke a wine glass, burned myself, and spilled a huge container of pistachios all over the floor. After all of that I decided I should get out of the kitchen before doing some serious damage!!

I have also taken up attempting homemade yogurt. I’ve tried two different recipes. I think the first was better than the second a little better texture. So anyway, now I’ve made it my mission to perfect a yogurt recipe.

Okay…now on to our trip. We had such a great time! The house we stayed in was great. Eagles landed in the tree near the back porch, we had a pool table, spa, and air hockey table to entertain us and most importantly we had gorgeous weather!! See the slide show below for some pictures taken at the house.

The day we went to Butchart Gardens is the day we saw the most rain…which equated to a couple of 5 minute showers conveniently timed when we were under cover :) Here are some pics from the gardens…which are absolutely beautiful!! We also went back to the gardens at night when it was all lit up. It looked so different! I’m glad we got to see it all lit up.

We also went whale watching and I don’t think we could have asked for a better experience!! We saw 2 Orca. The boats are only allowed to get within 100 meters of the whales because they are a protected species, but the whale started swimming toward the boat and I think at one point they surfaced maybe 100 feet from the boat. We followed the same 2 whales the whole time we were out and finally got the shots below. It was really amazing! There are also a couple of pics of the lighthouse that was under construction.

We also went to Wild Play Parks in Nanaimo. It is a ropes course with wooden bridges, zip lines, cargo nets, tarzan swings etc. It was a lot of fun!! They had 4 different levels, each got progressively higher and more difficult. Steve and I both made it through all four levels and had a great time doing it but were feeling the effects the next day!! We did it in shifts so we could watch Adam, so the girls went first and they guys went after lunch. Everyone got through at least part of the course.

We did a lot of walking around downtown Victoria. They had some great (but expensive shopping). And we had some excellent meals. If you ever go up there lookup these two places: Seagrille at Brentwood Bay Lodge & Cafe Brio …they were both awesome!! We didn’t have any bad food while we were there. Steve and I did a little shopping the day we were in Victoria by ourselves, but we tried to restrain ourselves…we could have done some serious damage!! Below are some random pictures from our time in Victoria.

We did buy the duvet cover & sheet set below since we finally found one that both Steve & I liked.

So, I probably forgot something, but I’m getting tired and it’s time to think about bed. Hope you enjoy!

Bread and Stuff

So, this weekend I decided to try to make some bread…it was a good attempt, but it could definitely use some improvement. It makes good toast, but needs to be a little less “doughy” to use as a sandwich bread. I think the cure may be a combination of letting it bake an extra few minutes, decreasing the water by a couple of tablespoons (because it seemed a little sticky) and letting it raise a little longer the second time to get a little less dense bread. Maybe I’ll make attempt number 2 next weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of the first attempt.

So I’ve also been trying to learn a little more about my camera before we go on vacation in a couple of weeks. I don’t know how much I’m really learning, but I’ve taken A LOT of pictures. The flowers in the back yard and the bread pictured above have been my most recent test subjects. Here are some of the flowers.

Let’s see I also hit the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning for my usual fresh fruit run…I love all the berries and cherries that are there this time of year. We also have a guy out of Concord that comes to our market with Afghan foods. I stopped and tried some of the stuff for the first time on Saturday and it was DELICIOUS!! I bought a spinach bolini, whole wheat pita bread, sweet jalapeno jelly, and garlic mint cheese….mmmm makes me hungry just thinking about it!

I also washed my car this morning which was VERY necessary. Especially since someone else is riding in my car with me down to SLO tomorrow morning. At the very least I needed to empty the case of empty water bottles out of the floor of my back seat (there may have been 2 cases :P). And we emptied out the spa and refilled it this morning too. I think it’s almost back up to temperature.

And finally we spent a couple of hours at our neighbor’s graduation party this afternoon. He just graduated from high school yesterday.

So, now that it’s almost 6pm I’m thinking about what I might make for dinner tonight….maybe filet with a tomato, basil, eggplant, mozzarella caprese style salad and I’m not sure what else yet, but at least it’s a start.

Catching Up With Friends

We went to a Pat & Katie’s house for dinner last night and Katie made the best pizza dough!! Not to mention she had ALL the fixin’s. It had been a really long time since we had seen them, so it was great to catch up. We got to meet their little boy who is now 9 months old. And their daughter gave us a little piano recital. We had a lot of fun. Katie gave me the pizza dough recipe she used, so if you are ever inclined to make home made pizza, try this recipe…you won’t be disappointed…

This morning we went out to breakfast with our neighbors. We had a really nice weekend. And on top of it, the weather was perfect this weekend!!