Amber & Farm Share Week 3

Zucchini, kohlrabi with greens, spinach, broccoli, chard, lettuce, strawberries. Eggs and pretty orange flowers (Not Diana?  Help?). Plus Hot Bread Kitchen bread share: tortillas, lavash crackers, plus multigrain and raisin loaves (not pictured due to proximity of bread licking cat which is pictured). A potted lemon grass and thai basil plant.

I also got some delightful extras, including chicken and a chutney, but I forgot to actually get them.  Diana (not Not Diana) got them and is stashing them for me.  (Thanks, Diana.)

Amber & Lost Siblings

So, the wonderful folks from whom I adopted Ginger and Pickles, or, as they were known at the time, Raoul and Julio, just posted a bunch of photos.  They're newly noticed, but careful inspection showed they were posted on August 29, 2008... a couple of months before G&P came to live with me.  And so I feel pretty confident that this curly guy...

...and this less curly guy with the droopy eyes and very pink lips...

...are indeed my guys.  And I learned some things about them from these new postings.  For example...

...shoe laces have never been safe with Pickles anywhere near by.  Or, from the caption on this one...

...Ginger was always "mega-cute" and "very curious/sociable."  But, wait.  What did that say?


"they're not quite as curly as their brother, but still mega-cute, and very curious/sociable. yay kitties!!"

"[T]heir brother?"  That little guy there is a sibling of my G&P?

There she is having her lap time interrupted by an open-mouthed, intruding Gigi, true to his present form, only wanting attention when someone else is getting it.  Who was this strange sister of my babies, the sister I never knew they had?  Do they miss her?

Did Pickles like snuggling her as much as he does his brother now?  Did all three ever snuggle?

Is she still as curly as Pickles?  (La Perm?) Or like Gigi, is her hair long and straight?

If I had met all three on that fateful day, and they had all looked at me with those needy, lovey eyeballs...

Would I now have five cats?  And would I have no friends at all as a result?

Some questions are better left unanswered.

Amber & Like Jimmy, Like Kitty

This may be the most amazing pet/owner photo ever.

Twins.

Amber & How I Became A Pop Star

I bought new headphones.

I had been doing alot of reading lately about how cheapy headphones are bad for you.  Apparently, the in-ear ones are the worst because of their proximity and those cheapy ones that sort of sit in your ears that came with your iDevice are even the worstester because they make you turn up the volume to get good sound quality, and more volume now means less hearing when you are old.

So, I got the on-ear kind because they are supposedly good for proximity and blocking external noise thereby requiring less volume.  Really, I wanted the Beats By Dr. Dre, but they are ridiculously expensive--even though everyone on the subway and in every single music video seems to have them.  (Dre is obviously a PhD in Product Placement.)

Plus, really, all it takes to become a pop star is knowing to touch one of your ears while singing.  I don't know why, but it makes you look like a Serious Musician. Especially when you make concentrating eyebrows while doing it.

And there's our friend, Fork, again.  Versatile as ever.

I got them in gray because it looks good with a can of Name Tag Lager.

Amber & Forks: Versatile Tools

Last week, I got caught in the rain.  The humidity and dampness encouraged my hair to do what it does best: stand up on top of my head.

Since I was going out to dinner, I changed out of my damp rain shirt and searched for a hair-taming device to sooth the savage beast on top of my head.

Although I found forking my head to be a somewhat scratchy experience, I could not argue that it was an effective tool.

Of course, at dinner, I immediately dropped some BBQ sauce on my shirt thereby ruining any illusion of with-it-ness.

Amber & A Mature Birthday

The two cats formerly known as "the kitten boys" will henceforth be known as "the mature adult brothers."

Happy Third Birthday, Ginger Bean and Pickles Pants.

Henceforth, I will no longer talk in a baby voice to you about chasing fleece wand.  We will instead discuss current events and the news of the day.

You used to be little baby guys, as Jimmy documented.

I'm proud of how you've grown up.  Just don't get much bigger, okay?  And don't stop snuggling each other.

Amber & Farewell, Rumpled Friend

There are reports all over the Internets that Peter Falk has died.

Bon voyage, Detective.

I hope there are lots of ice cream sodas awaiting you in heaven.

Amber & Second Week of CSA

This week's share is lovely.

French breakfast radishes (?) with greens, dinosaur kale, arugula, scallions, garlic scapes, leafy lettuce, beet greens, and strawberries.  Plus eggs.  Plus bread share multi-grain loaf, lovely roundish bread of some variety, lavash crackers and fresh tortillas. Plus flowers that smell sort of like nutmeg that I sure hope Not Diana can identify for us.

You may note a small buff-colored object in the bottom left of the frame there.  Closer examinations reveals...

...Woody popping into the frame initially out of interest in the bread.  (Both Woody and Tiggy like to lick the crust on loaves of bread.  I do not care for this since it renders the bread inedible and very, very drooly.)  But, what is distracting Woody below the vegetables?  What could be more interesting than a fresh loaf of bread?

Ginger, patiently waiting out the photo shoot for his green gobble-portunity.  Also, you may note a helpful hand holding up the flowers.

I hope you've enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at weekly farm share photography.

Amber & Sides, Up and Down

The downside to going to the chiropractor before your workday?

I call this look "massage oil head."

The upside is being able to move your right arm again.

Amber & Weather Appropriate

Remember when it was not the first day of summer?

And, I could wear way more than a tank top and not get sweaty?

And if you wore anything less than boots (nevermind sandals!), your paws would get chilly?

And then all the boys you know could come inside and have hot drinks by the fire place (which was not lit) and read their Kindles?

That was a long time ago.  Happy Summer Solstice.

Amber & Kitty Blessings Day

James, inventor of the joyous Kitty Eyebrows Day, now celebrated the world over, has shared with us another fantastic holiday which he is now celebrating for his fourth year.

James explains as follows.

Today is the special Blessing of the Cats Day.
Alicia sneezed, so I said "Bless you." And Scarlett heard me in the closet and came out, so I said "Bless you too, Scarlett."

I hope you'll mark your calendars for celebration next year.  And, I can think of no better way to celebrate today than to watch this video.



Bless you, baby tiger.

P.S. Bless you, more generally, ZooBorns for being my absolute favorite baby animal news source ever. I mean, this gibbon video?  I am speechless.

Amber & Kitty Op Art

We haven't checked in with Jimmy and his new K.F.F., Sabrina, in a while.  How is she?

Artistic and breathtakingly beautiful.

Good art makes you think.  Sabrina makes me think, "How did this kitty girl get so amazing?"

Amber & By Popular Demand

Many readers were troubled by the absence of Ginger from my first CSA share of the season.  Fear not, gentle reader, Ginger's devotion to green leaves has not at all diminished with age.  Bok choy was definitely his favorite.

How did I determine which is his fave when he'll eat any green put in front of him?  He is the blurriest during bok choy from all the munching.  No kitty chomps a choy like Gigi.   Even with no front teeth, no kitty chows a bok like Mr. Gee.

See his tongue in this one?  Squee-licious.

Amber & Some for Me, Some for You

I got a whole bunch of things today, but most of it is not for me.

First, these two pairs of cordaround shorts arrived today.  They are not mine.

It is taking a whole bunch of willpower not to put all of them on right now.  At the same time.  Like on that episode of Friends where Joey does the opposite of hiding underwear.

But then, Jimmy stopped by and also gave me these Momofuku birthday cake truffles.

There is one for me, one for Nick and one for Kevin.  You have no idea how much will power I am channeling to actually resist and save for sharing.

I don't really know what a birthday cake truffle is, except DELICIOUS.  I am sure of it.

Amber & First CSA Share of the Season

And it's verdant and fresh!

Strawberries, lettuce, turnips with greens, kale, swiss chard, scallions, ramps, bok choy, a small basil and thyme potted plant, and eggs.

Amber & The Perfect Blendship

One of the great things about friends is how good conversations can expand your knowledge and really challenge you intellectually.  For example, I was talking to Kevin yesterday, and he mentioned the Barbie Beach Bus.

But, I was confusing it with the Barbie Star Traveler.

But Kevin knew what it was called because the toy was long gone by the time he arrived in the world, but the box lived on in his youth for years and years.  I, on the other hand, had gotten the bus at a flea market so I never had the box.  Kevin, your knowledge of the name of Barbie vehicles completes me.

I had both.  The Star Traveler was key for when Barbie would have to get in the Star Traveler in my bedroom and drive to the living room to put on her Superstar Stage Show.

If you look up in the upper right corner, you can see Donny & Marie also worked with the stage.  I had them, too, but I had never seen their show and so I thought they were married.

Anyhow, then, I shared these childhood memories with Erl and she told me about the box of budding Skippers she had but traded for a Le Trim tape.



And then that lead me to want those bloomers with the lace.  Friends are so enriching.

Amber & The Pursuit of Tappiness

This is a trifecta of loves: tap, humour and Stephen Colbert.



It's nearly five minutes long, but there are jazz hands!

Amber & Afternoon Delight

You know what is cooling?  This video.



Squee.

And you know what all this Summer makes me think of?  How cats are desert creatures.

Amber & I Almost Didn't Bother Today

I mean, really?

100? You had to go there, summer?  Feels Like Intolerable.

Amber & On This Day, In History, and the Future

As the great James once said...

"This is very special day of kitty mystery when every year since 2006 we celebrate kitty eyebrows."

That very special day of kitty mystery is today, dear readers: Kitty Eyebrows Day. Happy day, kitties everywhere and the people who ponder their mystery.

And, in honor of it, Pickles forewent his tradition of not having any eyebrows on one side of his face and instead grew a special corkscrew eyebrow whisker.

It's really short because it takes so much energy to grow something so special and mysterious. And, he is such a little guy to begin with. You know, not around his middle, but in spirit.

Amber & Never Forget

Anybody know what was happening in this photo?

It looks like I was confused even then.

Amber & Mommy's Little Helper

I haven't been sleeping terribly well.  In addition to having allergies (still?  in June?) which make me cough all night long, I boo-booed my rotator cuff lifting something about twenty pounds with my right arm fully extended.  (Chiropractor: "Have you been lifting something heavy with that arm?" Me: "Nope." Chiropractor: "Putting a heavy bag up onto your shoulder with one arm?" Me: "No." Chiropractor: "Something where you are sort of lifting it like this or turning your shoulder like this while you hold it?"  Me: "Oh.")

I got about two hours on Sunday night, and then, with the help of my friend Medicine got about four last night, in one hour intervals (11 to midnight, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and 7 to 8 sitting up on the couch when I was supposed to be dressing).  Needless to say, I am a little sleepy when I first get going.  And by "first" I mean, the first sixteen hours of the day.

So, imagine my sleepy surprise when, midway through my exfoliation, I looked down to discover I had a friend in the shower with me.  It was this guy.

And he sort of did this.



And then he left when I got out the shampoo.  He's clearly not a fan of bamboo and/or lemongrass.

Really, aside from being adorable, the incident was also comforting.  I mean, my shower visitor could have been this guy/lady.

And that would have been bad.