Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, cat snacks, cats, croutons, Greenies, photos on August 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Yang remains unmoved by your argument.
“I believe I heard the sound of a bag of Greenies being opened. No? You say it’s a bag of croutons? Well, I happen to know that the croutons are stored next to the Greenies, so let’s just break those out while you’re standing there.”
I eat a lot of salad, so we play this game several nights a week. I pretend to be fooled by his charade, and he enjoys outsmarting me. Everybody wins.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, birthday, cat birthday, cat death, cat food, cats, old cats, pet death, pet grief, pets, Yang, Yin on June 18, 2013| 2 Comments »
Yang turned 17 earlier this month. Not bad for a kitty who received the then-apt nickname of “vomicat” many years ago. A diet of homemade cat food has kept the old-cat ranginess at bay, and he may just be primed to register to vote next summer.
I know we’re lucky to have had such a great cat in the family for so long. (Not that Yin was any slouch in the long-term pet department: 14 years is not the shortest of cat lives, either.)
Animal lovers automatically surround themselves with other animal lovers, and are thus always experiencing the happiness and the tragedies of animal companionship. Just a couple of weeks ago, a friend’s 8-year-old cat died suddenly, and this week another friend is facing an undetermined, yet probably terminal, diagnosis for his family’s cat. He has the additional burden of helping his young sons deal with their grief, too.
If we had any common sense when it came to protecting our emotions, we’d stop turning animals into family members. The joy we would lose if we chose a lesser relationship with our pets, however, is simply unfathomable.
Thus, we choose, again and again, to love these furry little beasts, knowing that they’re going to leave us much too soon.
Totally worth it.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Family, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, brother, childhood, Easter, Easter clothes, family, Photographs on March 27, 2013| 1 Comment »
Easter 1977: The year before we blended flowers and plaid.
The year that at least one of us didn’t want his photo taken in suspender shorts.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Family, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, Atlanta, childhood, coins, grandparents, mississippi, Photographs, piggy bank, Smithdale, toys on February 25, 2013| 1 Comment »
If I had a nickel for every time I deftly shook all the coins out of this little piggy bank when I was a little girl, I would need a WAY bigger bank for all my nickels.
Like the old glass measuring cup and my grandfather’s blue denim jacket, it’s one of the few items that I simply HAD to have from my grandparents’ house. I seriously played with it for hours at a time when I was younger, shaking out coins, counting them, stacking them and carefully putting them back in again.
It’s made it all the way from Smithdale, Mississippi, to Huntsville, Alabama, and then Atlanta.
It’s still doing its job beautifully, holding the coins fished out of pockets and the bottom of my purse. The only difference is that I don’t really have the urge to shake them out and sort them anymore.
Not much of an urge, that is.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Christmas, Family, tagged As Pictured Below, childhood, Christmas, Christmas tree, jumpsuits, matching outfits on December 19, 2012| 1 Comment »
Matching jumpsuits for Christmas: My family was multiple shades of awesome in 1976.
Actually, we’re still pretty awesome, even with fewer matching jumpsuits.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, baby pictures, childhood, photo albums, Photographs on September 13, 2012| 2 Comments »
I love this well-aged photo of myself, circa 1973. No photo filter apps involved – just an old photo biding its time in an album for a few decades.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged As Pictured Below, cats, photograph, summer, sunlight, winter, Yang on August 30, 2012| 3 Comments »
Yang soaks up the afternoon sun in anticipation of cooler fall weather.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, CSA, Eats, Photographs, tagged cat photobomb, cats, CSA, food, vegetables, Yang, Yin on June 22, 2012| 4 Comments »
Yang, simply exhausted from all the sniffing.
My first CSA delivery of the summer yielded quite a spread, including cucumbers, jalapenos, onions, leeks, basil, squash, greens, strawberries, English peas and Roma beans.
As I unloaded the goods, I recalled how Yin used to closely inspect every CSA haul — it was nearly impossible to set up a picture of vegetables without a cat in the frame.
Yin, very serious about his vegetable inspection duties.
Not 30 seconds later, Yang strolled over and resumed Yin’s inspection and photobombing duties. He spent nearly five minutes sniffing every square inch of plant material, nipped at the Chinese cabbage and finally plopped down right on top of the Yukina savoy.
He was in every photograph, just like his brother.
Cats. They know comedy.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Eats, Photographs, Travel, tagged 40th birthday, As Pictured Below, birthday breakfast, Creme Brulee doughnut, donuts, Doughnut Plant, doughnuts, Manhattan, Manhattan doughnuts, New York City, New York doughnuts, tres leches doughnut, turning 40, Valrhona chocolate, Valrhona doughnut on June 21, 2012| 4 Comments »
Clockwise, from top left: Valrhona Chocolate, Strawberry, Tres Leches and Carrot Cake.
Where does one kick off an Entirely Adequate 40th birthday?
The Doughnut Plant on the Lower East Side, of course.
The Valrhona Chocolate doughnut is part of my standard Doughnut Plant order now, and the carrot cake doughnut merits repeat business, even though it’s almost too rich for breakfast (alas, I persevere). The husband and I split the strawberry and chocolate treats (it’s always a good idea to order the store’s seasonal doughnut variety), and I left the Tres Leches, also a richer-than-rich indulgence, all for him.
Bonus: Doughnut Plant founder Mark Isreal sang “Happy Birthday” to me and delivered a Creme Brulee doughnut fresh from the kitchen after my husband spotted him and revealed my secret. This doughnut was better than the best creme brulee I’ve ever eaten; it was light, filled with the perfect amount of filling and mercifully small.
Forget breakfast in bed. I’d like all my future birthdays to feature a walk through Chinatown and a couple of choice Doughnut Plant treats. Owner singing optional.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Eats, Photographs, Travel, tagged As Pictured Below, banana ice cream sandwich, Broadway, Elvis ice cream sandwich, Hester Street Fair, husband, ice cream sandwiches, Manhattan, Melt Bakery, Mighty Balls, New York City, New York foods, New Yorker, Serious Eats New York, Time Out New York, travel on June 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »
When I tell people that I’m traveling to New York City, they inevitably ask if I’m going to see a show. Apparently I’m supposed to hit up Broadway every time.
Instead of a list of must-see shows, however, I have a list of must-eat foods. Thanks to a reading habit that includes a lot of New York-centric publications (Serious Eats New York, the New Yorker, Time Out New York and the New York Times, among other random finds), I never get to check everything off the ever-expanding list. Also, there’s only so much food that the husband and I can eat in three to four days no matter how many subway stairs we climb.
On our latest trip, my great find was Melt Bakery, which makes some fabulous ice cream sandwiches. I stumbled on the Melt stand at the Hester Street Fair, an event that I suggested we attend because it was just a few blocks from our hotel and I knew that it featured at least one culinary treasure that I simply had to try. I just couldn’t remember which one.
After we each enjoyed a meatball slider from Mighty Balls, we split an Elvis from Melt — banana ice cream on peanut butter cookies. It was the freezer attendant’s favorite flavor, and the husband has a thing for peanut butter, so it was the obvious choice.
Delicious. The folks at Melt have somehow produced a cookie that doesn’t harden into a rocky, crumbly mess in the freezer, and their homemade ice cream isn’t the frozen-solid puck that it resembles.
Each bite — firm but not tough, creamy but not prone to quick melting — was a delicate combination of peanut butter and banana. Neither flavor overwhelmed the other, and it was just big enough for two people post-lunch. I think Elvis would approve of this treat, despite its blatant lack of bacon.
So, don’t weep for my lack of Broadway attendance. Instead, celebrate one more delicious delicacy checked off my list.
Entirely Adequate 