Monthly Archives: November 2011

Sometimes being a pet parent isn’t very glamorous.

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You know how sometimes people say having pets is like having kids? It’s true. Especially when it comes to the gross stuff. Let this serve as a warning right now to those with weak stomachs.

Of all of my cats, Vlad is the fastest eater, and this means many times he winds up barfing up what he just ate. This morning was one of those mornings. It’s funny, when I first brought my little 5 pound boy home, anything like kitty poops or barfing would gross me out. Now my boy weighs 16 pounds and quite frankly at this point, it no longer phases me.

This morning he had finagled his way up on top of the fridge and in between Kiska and her plate of food. When this happens, Kiska jumps down to Vlad now empty plate, and I take her plate, split what’s on it in half, and give Kiska half of what she’s left and give Vlad the rest. It’s not totally fair, but Vlad is bigger than her, not just in weight, and in reality, he does need a little more food than she does. Anyway, everyone went about their business, finishing their food and me washing plates as they were all done. I was at the sink, and I heard the tell-tale sound of Vlad getting ready to spew. When I hear this sound, I immediately go into panic mode!

I say panic because Vlad doesn’t just barf, he turns into Linda Blair kitty and what comes out turns into projectile grossness. AND he was on top of the fridge. Not a good place to barf from. I won’t go into what happened the last time he barfed from on top of the fridge. I looked up and he was getting ready to go and all I had was, well my hand. Yeah, you know what happened. He actually barfed on top of the fridge, but close enough to the edge that it came down like hot lava down a mountain. The paper towels were in front of me, but I wasn’t fast enough in tearing a piece off, so I had to block the flow with my hand. Ack! I wouldn’t have been so panicked about it expect my fridge is like most, sandwiched (sorry for using food reference at this point) between the wall and my counter. The space between the counter and fridge is millimeters and cleaning anything between that space means pulling out the fridge, cleaning the fridge and cabinet side then pushing the fridge back, and I had no time for that.

Well, I stopped the flow with my hand and by that time I had some paper towel in my other hand so I managed to sweep the rest up to the top of the fridge, where Vlad was patiently waiting for me to clean up the mess so he could go on eating what was left of his food. He made sure not to barf on the plate. I washed my hands, and it took me all of 5 seconds to clean up. I’ve become a lean mean barf/poop cleaning up machine.

I remember when my friends were always talking about their kids bodily functions when they were babies. This was all the time! I always had to just sit there and listen, not saying anything because I didn’t want to offend them! Not long ago, I was doing the same and my friend reminded me how I would complain about her talking about her kids stuff. I calmly said, “Yes, I complained about it, only after you had bitched and moaned heartily about how much diarrhea your kid had and the color and bouquet. So I think I’m entitled to the same.”

So there!

Freschetta by the slice – review

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I bought one of these yesterday at the market. I had planned on having it for lunch, until one of my office neighbors offered to share her lunch with me. I’ll take homemade pasta with sauce over microwave pizza any day, so this was left for today.

As frozen microwave pizza’s go, this actually tasted quite good. I had hoped to find the one with veggies, but other than this cheese slice, the only other one in that section of the freezer had chicken on it.

It was cheesy, and spicy and had the right amount of sauce. Of course the crust wasn’t crispy, even with the special tray included, but I didn’t expect it to be. I have yet to taste any microwave pizza that has crispy crust. This is why I always make mine in the toaster oven, but we don’t have one here at work so I had to make do. The price was incredibly reasonable at $1.99. Really, you can’t go wrong with that.

Regardless of the lack of crispy crust, I’d recommend this for an inexpensive lunch that will satisfy the taste buds. It was filling and I will certainly be trying it again. Next time I will hopefully find the veggie one.

I give this a rating of 3 tuna cans. It really was quite good.

Fall back

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We’ve all heard of the phrase, “Spring forward and Fall back.” This is a cute little reminder for us, to know that in the Spring we have to move our clocks forward one hour, and in the Fall they are moved back an hour. The reason we are obligated to do this is because, and studies have been done on this, we save energy. There are tons of sites dedicated to explaining the why’s and what for’s of this perpetually inconvenient action, but frankly I still don’t fucking understand it.

I’m sorry, but all I know is last week I had plenty of light driving home, I was able to keep my lights off longer and when I went to bed, it had only been dark for about an hour. Now when I drive home, the sun is going down, therefore dusk is setting in and my vision is all fucked up. I have to turn my lights on at 4:00pm or else it’s way too dark in my apartment, and I want to go to bed at 6:00pm! Last night it was 7:20, and I had this urge to close up shop, lock my door and go to bed. I kept telling myself, “You’re only 44, you can’t go to bed this early until you are at least 70! I usually go and climb in bed with my furries at around 8:30, watch TV for about an hour or so and then its lights out. Now, according to the clock, which my body hates right now, I have to wait until 8:00pm, which is really 9:00 pm, put Sofie in the hallway with a pee pad so she can go pee, then go up to bed, try to keep my eyes open for another hour, and go to sleep at a time which in actuality is way past my bedtime!

I hate this! I have no problem driving to work while it’s still dark, and the sun is coming up. It gives me a great excuse to buy that Venti Mocha Latte with extra caffeine, because after all, I need something to wake myself up! I have no problem getting ready for bed while there is still light outside. I love that! Give that to me all year round! And if you try to tell me this is for the farmers, I don’t care! Sunlight is sunlight. You can put whatever time you want on it, but it’s always going to come up and go down at the same time, no matter what your clock says. It makes no sense to me to keep moving the damned clock around!

Curse you daylight savings time! Gah1

Zicam – Allergy Relief – Product review

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I have allergies. I have seasonal allergies and I’m also allergic to cats and dogs. For the record, I did not become allergic to my cats or dog after I had them, I was well aware of my allergy to them BEFORE I brought them into my life. But, at the time, I had insurance and was taking allergy medication that I needed anyway, so bringing these fur babies into my home was not a big deal.

Today, I have no insurance, and have to pay for my medication without the luxury of a copayment. Because of this, I try to find over the counter medications to get me by until I can afford to fill my prescription. I can only do this with allergy medication, because my asthma medication has no OTC substitute. Yes, I have asthma and have pets. Surprised? Well, not everyone uses the old “I have allergies” to dump their pets. Some of us actually love them and deal with a little discomfort. But, I digress.

I ran out of my generic nasal spray, and until next pay day I have to resort to the OTC stuff. Right now I’m trying the Zicam Allergy Relief nasal gel. I’m not thrilled. Call me crazy, but is it too much to think this will actually work while I’m at home, WITH my pets? I’m at work now, and even though I’m still sniffling and sneezing, it’s not bad. My nasal passages are somewhat clear. But while I’m home, where the actual allergy is hitting me full throttle, nothing. There are moments when I sneeze for several minutes non-stop. Is it just me? Am I the only one this stuff doesn’t work on? I use so many of these over the counter products and they never seem to work.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t expect this to work as well as my prescription medication, but I would have thought it would have at least given me some relief! At the very least cut down on the stuffy nose!

$12.00 down the drain as far as I’m concerned. They won’t be getting another twelve from me any time soon.

Sorry, Zicam. You get a 2 out of 4 litter box rating from me this time. I didn’t give it a worse rating only because at least at work I’m clear.

Not tested on animals

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This is something very important to me and many people. As we go through our daily routines, we often use products and it never occurs to us that there is suffering connected to that tube of toothpaste, or that lipstick you just applied.   In our technologically advanced society, there is no reason to continue testing products on animals.

Having said that, I wanted to share and will continue to share things I find and use that are cruelty free.  Some things are easier to spot than others.  I’ve found that many companies are now actually letting you know from the get go when you buy something.  Alberto VO5 for instance, not tested on animals.  You can find a statement here:Alberto Culver-Social Responsibility. Another product is St. Ives body wash. Here’s a list you can go through: Do not test on animals list.

I know PETA has a couple of lists of companies that do and do not test on animals. If you follow this link, it will take you directly to the page where you can check: Peta List – Companies that do and do not test on animals

I’m not trying to beat anyone over the head and force them to be socially and environmentally responsible. This is ultimately your choice. But my conscience spoke to me a long time ago. In some small way, I do my part and knowing that makes me feel good.

Sophie’s Kitchen – Vegan Seafood

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Yes, you read that right, vegan seafood! AAAHHHH!!!!

I’ve been a vegetarian for a little over 3 years now. It hasn’t been easy, as I’ve lived my life loving a good rare piece of meat. I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons, after only being able to see 5 seconds of a video about factory farming. The image of a sick cow trying to get up only to be dragged by a forklift will haunt me for the rest of my life. After seeing that, I no longer wanted to be part of that world. And if you eat meat, you are part of that world.

But, I digress. Since that time I haven’t been able to satisfy my love of seafood. There are quite a few companies that make some amazing tasting fake meat products. But seafood isn’t an easy thing to fake. Imagine my surprise when one day I walked into Whole Foods and found http://www.sophieskitchen.com (I tried to add the link another way but it wasn’t working. So far, I’ve had the “fish” filets and Prawns. The prawns were very tasty, but the filets are to die for! Tomorrow I’m trying the shrimp. I’m hoping they are as good as the other two products. They also have calamari, but I’ll skip those since I was never crazy about real calamari. Ick.

Even if you aren’t a vegan or vegetarian, you might want to go and have a try. Replacing even just one or two meals a week with meatless products will make a huge difference to keeping some of these animals from being needlessly killed.

I’m giving this amazing product 4 tuna cans!