• These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things This Year

    December 7, 2014 / No Comments

    The holidays are here again, and everyone is crazy busy. My shopping is done for the year — as usual I finished early — but if you’re still looking for that perfect gift, let me offer a few suggestions, à la Oprah. Dear readers, these are a few of my favorite things:

    tea kettle

    FOR THE TEA DRINKER: Melitta 40994 1.7-Liter Kettle

    Our last electric tea kettle, a perfectly serviceable Proctor Silex started to die in January. M picked up this new kettle after reading some excellent reviews and I certainly put it through the paces. Unlike our last kettle, the Melitta can fill two large mugs of tea and still have hot water to spare.

    rose ring

    FOR THE PERSON WHO LOVES AFFORDABLE, YET BEAUTIFUL JEWELRY: The Rose and Petal 925 Sterling Silver Ring

    I decided to upgrade my look this year, and since we were saving for a house, I focused on accessories. This ring was my favorite item.

    garlic peeler

    FOR THE GADGET GURU: Zak Designs E-Z-Rol Garlic Peeler

    This gadget is so easy to use! Just pop in a garlic clove, roll and voila! All of the sticky paper is removed. For just $5, you’ll never have to deal with the odor of garlic on your hands again. Best of all, it’s dishwasher-safe. Also comes in festive red and green.

    paprika

    FOR THE COOK: Paprika Recipe Manager

    For years I have searched for ways to collect all of my online recipes in one place. After trying archived emails, PDFs and numerous apps, I finally discovered Paprika. With this app, you can “organize your recipes, make meal plans and create grocery lists.” It’s a very handy tool and one that you can use on a Mac or PC, iPhone or Android, iPad, Kindle Fire or Nook.

    K&H Thermo-Pet Mat

    FOR THE PET LOVER: K&H Thermo-Pet Mat

    I bought two of these mats last spring for my eldest cats because their old bones just couldn’t take the cold anymore. The mats were so popular that I decided to pick up two more in the fall. I’m now the most popular kitty mom around. One small note: If you do end up buying one, cover the mat with an old pillowcase. This will make cleanup super easy.

    Signare Tapestry Handbag

    FOR THE FASHIONISTA: Signare Tapestry Handbag

    Big enough to carry everything you need, compact enough to not look like you’re Mary Poppins. More importantly, this purse is sturdy, which as most women can attest, is not always the case with bags in this price range.

    As you wish

    FOR THE LONGTIME FAN OF “THE PRINCESS BRIDE”: “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride” by Cary Elwes

    Elwes, who played Westley in the film, has penned a wonderful behind-the-scenes book about this cult classic. While I have no doubt the print/ebook versions are great, I highly recommend the audiobook to hear Elwes, Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, William Goldman, Norman Lear, Carol Kane, Andy Scheinman and Rob Reiner share their favorite stories about the making of the movie. M and I listened to “As You Wish” in the car over several weeks and had a blast.

    i dare me

    FOR THE ADVENTUROUS, OR AIM-TO-BE-MORE ADVENTUROUS: “I Dare Me: How I Rebooted And Recharged My Life By Doing Something New Every Day” by Lu Ann Cahn

    This is a compilation of Cahn’s many fun and daring “firsts” — activities she’d never tried or hadn’t tried in about a decade. I decided to give it a whirl and this year I enjoyed quite a few interesting experiences. I avoided saying anything negative for a whole day, bought a rubber stamp that symbolizes me, figured out a way to eat, and like, brussels sprouts, got chased by zombies, had a letter-boxing adventure, became a vegetarian for a day, studied French, took piano lessons, took sign language lessons, shared a migraine photo, revealed my Oscar predictions, sounded a barbaric yawp in public, spent a whole day without looking in a mirror, stood up for a cause I believed in, took classes in astrobiology, the nature of terrorism, social media and archaeology, took care of someone after surgery, tried a fondue dinner and used a Youtube video to learn a new skill.

    fitdesk

    FOR THE PERSON RESOLVING TO BE HEALTHIER IN 2015: FitDesk v. 2.0

    I picked up a FitDesk as a Valentine’s Day gift for my husband and ended up using it more than he did. Not only is the bike easy to ride, the desk part allows me to work while I do it (or more to the point distracts me while I do it).

    Zombies Run

    FOR THE PERSON WHO WANTS TO STAY HEALTHY BUT HATES TO WORK OUT: Zombies, Run!

    As mentioned in a previous blog post, I love this app. The game’s tagline says it all: Get fit. Escape zombies. Become a hero. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot. It’s great fun.

  • Brat Child

    La Reine Est Morte. Vive La Reine!

    December 2, 2014 / 1 Comment

    In the midst of grief, I’m unable to properly sum up the life of Brat Child.

    Let’s just say she always made an impression.

    Born Noel Ellena in 1997, Brat Child Walker Weir was adopted by my best friend Amy on Christmas. When Ames died two years later, I took in Brat Child and her sister Buddha (née Lily) and silently promised to make them feel safe and loved for the rest of their lives. Although I have cared for them longer than Ames did, in my mind, they were always her cats as well as my own.

    Brat Child came by her name honestly (via former stepfather John Rodgers), which is to say she was a bit of a terror. Whether she was beating up our dog Duncan like a clawless prizefighter or fending off sneak attacks by everyone else, Brat Child always managed to cause havoc. She liked to lie in my lap, for as long as it suited her, and would crawl into it even if there was another cat already present. If Brat Child was there first, however, beware!

    Brat Child loved eating tuna (but only from her own plate and not with those heathens we insisted on adopting), drinking from water fountains, hanging out on my shoulder while I worked, blithely stretching on the dining room table even though she knew full well she wasn’t supposed to, sleeping bonelessly (and sometimes falling off her bed/perch), stepping onto M’s laptop keyboard while trying to jockey for a better position in his lap, luxuriating in warm patches of sunlight or near heated radiators, kneading people’s jugular veins and resting on top of my desk chair. But her favorite activity was wraithing (see video below), a unique fighting game that involved rough-housing and making growling car engine noises.

    What I’ll remember most about Brat Child was not her bratty demeanor or insistence on being the matriarch of our home. It was how how sweetly she loved and how loudly she’d purr when comfortable or triumphant. She was a champion cuddler, particularly during winter months, and while her “requests” for lovin’ were more like demands, I enjoyed every encounter.

    At 17 years old, Brat Child was Ouiser Boudreaux from “Steel Magnolias,” Yzma from “The Emperor’s New Groove” and the Brain of “Pinky and the Brain.” Her Napoleonic dictates were the stuff of legend in our household, and her firm belief that she was born to rule the world seemed to appeal to all seven of her Twitter followers.

    When, like her first mother, Brat Child’s kidneys started to fail, she took the decline in stride. So much so that M and I foolishly convinced ourselves that she would live forever. Alas, it was not meant to be. Brat Child died this morning with her loving parents by her side. Thanks to a kindly veterinarian, she died bravely.

    Brat Child

  • The dream sneeze

    March 24, 2013 / No Comments

    SeraI love the look my cat Sera gets when she’s about to sneeze.

    One minute she’ll by curled up in my lap or lying peacefully on my chest and the next, she’ll lift her head and stare into space. Her eyes seem to gaze into the past, perhaps into her kittenhood, which was terrible because before we adopted her, she was raised in a hoarder’s house with 60 other felines. Or maybe she’s staring into Morpheus’ realm, a place where all cats serve the goddess Bastet and protect sleepers against contagious diseases and evil spirits.

    Unfortunately, it’s incredibly easy to be taken by her when she looks this way — staring into the distance of memory or dream — so you’re completely unprepared when her tiny, fuzzy face explodes in a violent squeaky sneeze, spraying everything and everyone nearby with sticky, wet nose ick. How, I ask myself, could something so adorable produce something so foul?

    Time to clean my computer screen.