Observations by Jezebel the Wise

Napping is a feline duty, not solely a delight. I take it very seriously. Two others I’ll call out by name, Terra and Polly, are mere posers.

This is how you do it...

Just today I lay on the couch trying to catch some beauty sleep when a terrible raucous arose from the basement. My mom hollered and laughed, laundry room doors opening and closing until Dad finally dragged himself away from his computer. A few words were exchanged before he snagged the treat container. Yawning and stretching, I followed along.

Another classic pose I've perfected...

Luna, Tilly, and I were never locked out of any room because we had enough sense to stay out of trouble. Wisely, the folks don’t trust these hooligans around various household chemicals stored down there. But Terra snuck inside when Mom tried to haul out her laundry basket, Polly followed, and hilarity ensued.

~rolls eyes~

You see, our cellar is about two-thirds carpeted. The rest serves as Dad’s hobby room, the aforementioned laundry space, and general storage. For whatever reason, walled partitions were never installed despite the area having a whopping three complete doorways. It seems the disastrous duo sent Mom trotting from one entrance to another while they led her on the proverbial wild goose chase.

Can you explain why anyone would chase a nasty old goose, tame or otherwise? Don’t you think all birds are best out of a can?

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Polly’s Follies – 6

My husband has a humorous remark toward our cats anytime we catch one causing damage. “You’re the reason we can’t have nice things.” Doll faced Polly has probably made her mark the most and continues chewing on oddball items.

Funny enough, her damaging my aquarium cabinet is why I propped a storage bin cover over it. The attractive wicker veneer is no match for cat claws.

Brat though she can be, she still gets treats from my husband every afternoon alongside Jezebel and Terra. The tossed tidbits occasionally land on them. Some disappear within Polly’s floof.

Poor thing has no clue know where
her latest treat landed...

Thank goodness she tolerates regular grooming sessions. Some come from me and others are courtesy of her sister, who is luckier in that department.

A gal needs help neatening all that fur...

Should I let her discover a hidden treat on her own now and then? Or do you think Terra would find them first anyway?

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Tenacious Terra – 5

The bathroom attached to our bedroom is so tiny that we had a pocket door installed. Terra sometimes jams her cat toys in the hollowed wall space, which cracks me up. I fashioned a hook from a wire coat hanger in the event her recovery efforts fail.

Privacy from closing that door is an illusion. Of course I could shoo all the cats out and close the bedroom door behind them, but that’s no fun.

Whatcha doin’ in there?

Can you believe our bathroom door doesn’t have a lock? And since there is no window, what am I to do in case my husband goes Jack Torrance style crazy?

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Strange Days

I’ve meant many times to blog about some (often silly) things. Somehow I always got sidetracked. Then I fell mildly ill.

We bought a Covid-19 test kit, which proved negative, and I’m thankful not to have suffered a terrible sore throat or other miseries. I’ve simply felt rundown. And a constant drippy nose for several days left me unwilling to spend time on my laptop.

So I apologize for missing blog posts you lovely folks have been putting out. I’ll do my best to catch up. Meanwhile, I will share my latest silly endeavor. Back in the nineties (?) my husband and I sometimes bought a peach flavored cake mix and frosting. Yum. Perhaps because rich desserts are bad for my health I crave the forbidden fruit. Whatever the case, the item hasn’t appeared on store shelves so I decided to attempt it myself.

Add to the fact I’ve not attempted cake baking for at least a decade, I felt the desire to cut shortcuts besides the mix such as turning granular sugar into powdered sugar and all purpose flour into cake flour. Oh, and it’s supposed to be a three layer cake but I have only one pan and so cooked it in only two halves. ~shakes head~ The first half didn’t turn out too bad. The second wasn’t finished baking like I thought and fell apart. At least it tastes good and peachy. And that’s without the fruity flavored cream cheese frosting I blended.

The Better Half

Salvageable...

Have you ever eaten a peach flavored cake? And does anyone want to come help me clean up the mess I made of the kitchen?

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Sneezes and Substitutions (and lots of food related links!)

Are you familiar with the trope of a person sneezing over a dose of black pepper? Well, that’s been me my entire life. And now, much as I enjoy spicy food, the first bite can also trigger sneezing. It seems my sinuses get more sensitive day by day.

Today I seared a tuna steak and my sauce caused this phenomena. Just a few minutes ago it was my twice spicy Samyang noodles. My husband won’t even eat them anymore as he considers the heat too painful. Ah, well, more leftover for me.

On a less sweat-worthy note I looked up a recipe for peach cake. It’s something we enjoyed in the 90’s from a boxed mix and can’t find anymore. Doubtless neither of us should eat it. Perhaps this fact gave me the craving after all these years.

Anyhow, I found an old fashioned recipe. Ripe peaches aren’t available but I think it can be converted to accommodate canned. Other folks shared some neat tricks for such things as substituting cake flour and powdered sugar with more common staples. And almond extract, as it turns out, can be omitted in favor of vanilla extract. This cake calls for both, so I won’t spend money on any of these rarely used items.

When I decided to make a chicken pot pie yesterday (a cold weather comfort dish) I found my shortcut ingredient missing. But someone else came to the rescue with this easy way to make your own cream of chicken soup.

Do you like ramen noodles? What is your favorite comfort food?

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Observations of Polly courtesy of Jezebel the Wise

For some reason my mom added something to the end of my post title. It began with the letter A and ended with two dollar signs in brackets. I don’t know what that means and walked over the backspace button to be on the safe side.

At least she’s letting me share this despite wanting to put it under one of Polly’s Follies. I probably could have done better photography work. However, my speaking voice isn’t as clear to human hearing. So she filmed that goofy yet amicable ball of fluff. Mom and Dad both think Polly embodies the spirit of Tilly. They didn’t nickname my former roommate ‘Silly Tilly Willy’ for nothing.

But I digress… For your viewing pleasure, I present Polly’s latest and greatest endeavor.

I crack myself up. Here is another clip illustrating her rather adorable (I must say) excitement.

Contrary to my tone, Polly and Terra are okay in my book as long as I get quality nap time. But Terra needs to help her sister understand what’s worth stalking.

The mystifying target of her fascination.

Do you understand the significance of Wise[a$$]? Should I be flattered?

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Adventures in the Kitchen

Like never before, I enjoy trying new recipes with my husband. Some, as in the case of the Thai inspired pork tenderloin I cooked this morning, are simply oven baked. And boy, is it delicious.

I'm no good at photographing food. Heh...

The meat was on sale, buy one package and get one free (!), so my husband discovered a list of twelve recipes. I chose this one because I had fresh cilantro leftover from cooking Thai chicken soup. Since these are such distinct dishes we shouldn’t get tired of either.

For example while both include ginger the soup recipe requires mushrooms, which we like so much we double the amount from half a pound. And I got those for less as they were marked down for quick sale. Using them the day after purchase, I found them perfectly tasty.

The package contained several conjoined
fungi plus lots of tiny ones.

An experimental, easy candy proved no more photogenic yet simply delicious. I melted boring old milk chocolate bars with coconut oil, pouring the blend over crumbled Triscuit brand crackers and peanuts.

I prefer sweets with savory components.

Do you ever cook using either fresh ginger or ginger paste? Can you believe the latter product we purchased came from Australia?

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Polly’s Follies – 5

It’s no secret that Polly has a penchant for chewing things. And just as her rescuers named her ‘Beauty’, the name fits.

I feel bad for trying to doll her up with a string of pearls. This girl is no dummy and wanted nothing to do with it.

You want to drape this around my neck?

Intelligent Polly Esther discovered some things we did not know, such as the fact our overhead fan light has a dimmer switch. She also managed to turn off the SoundFreaq speaker from my little video and knocked my cell phone off the nightstand when it rang.

“I am not chewing this laptop cord.
I’m keeping it from escaping.”

Another day my alarm clock sounded (no doubt thanks to Terra walking on it) and she again swept my cell phone onto the floor. I cannot fault her for misunderstanding the source of that obnoxious sound.

“Drop your eyeglasses and they
are mine to nibble.”

Isn’t it too bad she doesn’t have opposable thumbs to attend a trade school? Don’t you think she would be an excellent electrical technician?

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Tenacious Terra – 4

For a decade or more, my husband and I have enjoyed a ‘cat of the day’ calendar. Many kitties shared physical attributes with one of ours.Terra’ short black coat is not rare. Her huge personality sets her apart from any cat we have ever known.

Here she contemplates climbing my
skinny Christmas tree...

Aside from her notched ear, all gray Jezebel has lots of doppelgangers and so did gray/white tuxedo cat Luna to a degree. Tilly, with her wooly torti coat, not so much. Today, both looks and description matched Terra Dactyl to a tee. It’s eerily uncanny.

The caption reads:
Ready for Dinner
Finn thinks this cornucopia is okay – but he knows who the star of this Thanksgiving table centerpiece is.

To paraphrase the rest:
He joined his family at the age of 12 weeks old as a rescue cat.

Check.

He is very athletic.

Check.

His favorite hobby is playing fetch with his toy mouse.

Double check.

And while he knows he is not supposed to be on the dinner table, he knows he is too cute to get into too much trouble.

Yup.

Is this not amazing? And can you believe she both turned on my radio and set its alarm to get me out of bed?

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Funny First World Issues

I term this a hamster wheel of domestic bliss. My husband laughed, knowing I appreciate our comfortable household environment.

The cycle started when I wanted eggs on toast for breakfast. Our reliable (only) bread toasting option, an air fryer, needed cleaning. Within a minute I found myself needing more paper towels to best finish the job.

We store paper products downstairs by the laundry room. So, having begun washing and drying a few loads the evening before, I grabbed my clean clothes basket.

About forty-five minutes later I finally ate. What a blessing my schedule is only ruled by cat demands. And I wouldn’t have that any other way. Sweet old Jezebel sat tucked by my side as I typed.

Do you own a washer and dryer? If you’ve used a public laundry, has anyone ever stolen items?

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A Sweet, Silly Treat

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is buttered popcorn flavored Jelly Belly candies. I still have some from a previous visit to Jungle Jim’s array of self serve jelly bean dispensers.

I really like the Belly Flop label...

But last week a bin of irregular jelly beans drew my attention. How fun, I thought, to change things up with a mysterious collection of flavors.

And it was! Between the two of us, my husband and I polished them off. Heh… I still want to share a particularly fun malformation.

These shapes look intentional...
The cinnamon is hot.

Do you prefer sweet or savory? Can you recommend a unique candy flavor?

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Me, Too!

A post by Pam reminded me that I don’t like having my picture taken. I promised to share a photo after reading what Liz commented in agreement.

I intended to post about a recent zoo trip with a friend. However it’s already past noon and I’m hungry, so I decided to see what image(s) might already be on my computer. Heh...

This one is a few years old and I’ve since lost some weight, I’m happy to say. I didn’t even have my iPod touch yet (hence the camera) and took this photo because I’d just gotten my hair cut and colored. Sorry it’s not the best quality.

October 2017

Do you mind having your picture taken? As for my trip, have you seen how much animal living conditions have improved over the last few decades?

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Observations of Jezebel the Wise

Spoiler alert, cats and kittens: the Dimbulb Duo will never achieve my level of feline fineness.

Sometimes I just cover my eyes and
pretend I’m an only cat again.

The fat one… Oh, excuse me, Polly is just ‘big furred’. Anyway, she is so dumb she chews furniture and appliances! I guess anyone reading this probably knows that.

Pretty, but not exactly the face of an
intellectual cat about town, is it?

Excuse me a moment. You say I’m supposed to feel sorry for her being taking from her mommy too soon? Whatever, human. Her sibling is no better.

Terra thinks she is both cute and clever.
My opinion? She is neither.

For example, explain this next stupidity away. Terra the terror twin destroys her own toys. I didn’t need my biological mom to teach me not to tear things up.

She (a cat!) plays fetch like some dog &
sometimes the toy tail stays behind.

Then again, maybe that old holiday movie line is not fictional. How does it go?

Oh, yeah. When one mousie rattles another loses its tale. Or something like that. I do like Jimmy Stewart. He was one cool cat. But check this nonsense out…

 

Back in my day we had to play using our imaginations, too. This pair of rotten teenagers get all the latest and greatest gadgets. Even worse, they needed their floppy fish wrapped in tissue paper. Come on…

Can these juvenile kitties be any lamer? On a cooler note, did you know actor Jimmy Stewart served 27 years in the United States Military, retiring with the rank of Brigadier General?

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