Banana Bread, Take 2

I tried to make banana bread a few weeks ago and it was a complete disaster for probably a number of reasons. Because I don't like to give up when it comes to cooking and baking, I decided to give it another shot. This time I used a different recipe from the Joy of Baking. One of the great things about this site is that several of the recipes include videos so that you can actually see how the recipes are made. Because I'm still learning how to bake, it really helps me to see what things are supposed to look like at each stage of the recipe. It also helps that the recipe was explained and demonstrated in a simple and straightforward way. The banana bread that I made turned out really good.

As it was making it, I could tell that the batter felt much different from what I made with the first recipe. Granted the first recipe used whole wheat flour in addition to all purpose flour, so that might have contributed to the dryness of the batter. And the second recipe I used had melted butter instead of softened butter, so that probably helped too. As the bread was baking, I could immediately tell that it would be better. When I pulled it out of the oven, it was golden brown and the crust was like a normal crust. In other words, it wasn't dry and hard. When I cut into it, the inside was nice and moist. And most important, it tasted great.

The only thing that seemed a bit off was that the bread didn't rise as much as I thought it would. I didn't make any adjustments for the altitude, so that might have changed things. I just need to experiment a little more to figure out what works. Either way, it was still yummy.

Homemade Croutons

After several failures in the kitchen a few weeks ago, I was determined to get my groove back. I was also determined to eat a little better after several meals of takeout or frozen foods. Last night I made pork chops marinated in soy sauce, kecap manis (a sweet Indonesian soy sauce), and garlic. For my side, I had sweet potatoes that I roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper. And because I've been needing more vegetables, I made a simple salad.

I've had croutons on my shopping list for a long time. Well, it's been on the shopping list in my head for several weeks, but I just kept forgetting to write it down. So after another shopping trip and after forgetting to buy them once again, I decided to try to make my own. I've seen people do it on cooking shows on TV and it looks so simple so I thought why not. Most of the "recipes" I've seen call for day-old french bread, which I didn't have. Instead, all I had was regular white bread. The bread is called "Premium Italian" from Oroweat and I'm not sure what makes it Italian. The only major differences is that the slices are a bit thicker than regular sandwich bread. Either way all you need is some kind of thick-sliced white bread.

Ingredients:
White bread, diced in cubes
Butter
Seasonings of your choice

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a pan on low or medium-low heat.
2. When the butter is melted, add the bread and toss until the bread is coated with butter.
3. Sprinkle seasonings over the butter and toss to coat.
4. Cook, tossing occasionally, until bread is toasted on the outside

For my croutons, I simply used garlic powder and parsley, but you can add any seasonings you want. You could probably add a little bit of salt, pepper, oregano, and/or thyme. You can even add some grated Parmesan cheese. These croutons turned out great. They were flavorful and had the perfect texture. Sometimes the problem with boxed croutons from the store is that they are so hard, I'm often afraid that I might break a tooth while eating them. These homemade croutons were perfectly crunchy. Now that I know how simple it is to make my own, I doubt I'll ever buy a box again!

Kiss

Cooking Adventures - More Failures and a Moderate Redemption

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this past week has been full of various cooking failures. It all started last weekend with a Lomo Saltado failure. Then there was a Banana Bread failure. Then there were a few other failures during the week. One night I wanted to make Tofu and Black Bean Chili for dinner, but the tofu I had was frozen. It wasn't in the freezer, mind you, it was just in the very back of the refrigerator and somehow it froze. So, hoping it would thaw by the next morning, I put the tofu on the top shelf and toward the front of the fridge, and decided to just have a frozen burrito for dinner that night. The next night I was ready to make the chili, but only part of the tofu had defrosted. When I cut into it, there were still ice crystals in the middle of the tofu. It wasn't completely thawed and it also looked like a sponge with all its nooks and crannies. So I put the tofu in Tupperware container and had another frozen burrito for dinner. The next night, after a busy day at work, I was feeling too tired to cook something, so I just made a roast beef sandwich and some french fries. (There wasn't much of a failure that night!) The following night I was tired after yet another busy day at work, so I decided to go to Noodles and Company to get some takeout. The restaurant is always wonderful and the people who work there are always wonderful, but the nice young man who took my order asked me so many questions that I forgot to order something important. I usually get some Parmesan Chicken to go with my pasta, but I forgot to ask them to add it. I only remembered it after I stepped out of line and sat down to wait for my food. The Parmesean chicken is what really makes the meal, and without it, I pretty much have a pasta that I could make on my own. The next night I was still full from our Food Club treats at work and I was, again, too tired to cook, so I made some nachos for dinner. Unfortunately I've had quite an unhealthy week this week.

Today I happened to run into my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew while I was shopping and we went to lunch and I had a decent meal for the first time in several days. And, fortunately, I also had enough leftovers for dinner tonight. While I was shopping today, I was browsing for a mixer that would (hopefully) improve some of my baking skills. I was torn between getting a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Stand mixers can be incredibly expensive. Some of the best models are typically $200 or $300. Because I'm trying to be careful with my money, I wasn't quite ready to spend that much money on a mixer. Plus, I'm still a very amateur baker and didn't want to spend a lot of money until I know what I'm doing. I also bake occasionally and really just need something that would do the job maybe once or twice a month. I settled on a Sunbeam stand mixer that was really inexpensive when compared to other stand mixers. Sunbeam has always had a good reputation in the past, so I'm hoping I can get some good use out of it for the next few years, and tonight I decided to give it a try.

My first experiment with the new mixer was Oatmeal Cookies. Just plain oatmeal cookies. No raisins, no nuts, just plain oatmeal. I found a recipe in Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything, that seemed simple enough to follow. The cookies turned out OK, and I was pretty pleased. A few things seemed a bit off—the bottoms were a little too brown (and burned on a few), the cookies were a bit thick (not flat), and a few had a bit of a cakelike texture on the inside. But they tasted pretty good for a first try. I think there are probably just a few adjustments I need to make before I perfect them. I didn't really change anything to compensate for the Colorado altitude, but I'm sure I could improve things by lowering the temperature a bit or moving the oven racks to a higher position. And then I just need to keep an eye on them and take them out when they look ready.

So I'm feeling somewhat redeemed. The mixer seemed to work just fine and I can't wait to keep trying a few more things with it.

Current mood: getting sleepy
Current drink: Jameson whiskey (the cause of any spelling or grammatical errors in this post)

Kitty in Launry Basket

Today Kitty came over for a visit and he found a new place to hang out...my laundry basket.

Baking Adventures - Failure

Apparently this was my weekend to be a failure in the kitchen. After my dinner failure on Saturday, I was feeling a little defeated. So on Sunday I got ambitious and decided to make banana bread. I have never made banana bread or any type of bread for that matter. I have made banana–chocolate chip muffins before, so I thought that it wouldn't be all that different to make banana bread. But I was still a little nervous. I found a recipe that looked easy and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I thought, what the heck, let's do it.

I often freeze bananas when they start to get overripe, so that I can use them in banana muffins. I pulled some out of the freezer and left them on the counter to thaw. And, knowing that I needed "softened" butter, I pulled that out of the fridge, too. Once I thought the bananas were thawed enough and the butter was soft enough, I decided to get started. Step one, preheat oven. Check. Step two, grease a loaf pan with butter. Check. Then things went downhill from there. Sad, I know. The next step was to cream the butter and the directions said to do it with a hand mixer (which I don't have), a food processor (which I also don't have), or a whisk. Great, I thought, I'll use my whisk. I even watched a video online to see how to properly cream the butter; all you have to do is whisk and whip it. That should be easy. Basically most of the butter got crammed up into a ball on the inside of my whisk. So I had to keep pushing it back out with a knife. Then I'd try to whisk it again, and it would clump up again. I kept this up for a while, but then started to get a little impatient and just told myself that what I had done so far was good enough.

The next step was to add two eggs and the mashed bananas. The next thing I realized was that the bowl I was using was too small. But, did I put it into a bigger bowl? No, of course not. So I tried to mix everything together. The next problem I ran into was that the bananas, although thawed, were still too cold. Once they hit my "creamed" butter, the butter cooled and solidified again. So I had a mix of eggs, bananas, and clumps of butter. It was at that moment when I knew that things were slowly turning into a disaster. But because I didn't want to just give up and throw away all of the ingredients that I had already measured out, I kept on going. I added the banana, egg, butter mix to all of the dry ingredients, and I gently folded everything in. The recipe said that "the batter would be a bit lumpy." Well, what I had was one giant, dry lump that was coated with various flours, powders, and sugar. The recipe then said to "pour the batter into the loaf pan." Pouring was not possible with the "batter" I had. Instead, I had to scoop the batter into the pan with a wooden spoon. And then I put it in the oven.

As it was baking it smelled nice. It smelled like banana bread, at least. When it was done, I pulled it out of the oven, and knew that it wasn't going to be great. For one thing, it did not look pretty and it was really dry on the outside. The top of the banana bread was so lumpy that it looked like I had topped it with a streusel topping. After I let it cool, I cut into it. As expected, it was dry. When I tasted it, it tasted OK, but it was just really dry and dense. It's probably the quality that I can eat myself, but it's not the type of thing that I would share with my family or friends.

There are probably a number of things that I did wrong. I probably didn't let the bananas completely thaw and let come to room temperature. I probably didn't let the butter soften enough before trying to "cream" it with a whisk. I probably made a mistake using the whisk, when just a wooden spoon would have been enough. Or maybe I need to buy an electric mixer. And, who knows, given my measuring skills, I could very well have screwed up the dry ingredients.

Anyway, I gave it a shot, and maybe things will be better when I try to make it again. Baking is entirely new to me, and I'm just not used to cooking or baking with precision. It's not like cooking a regular meal where I can just throw ingredients together. There is more of a science involved in baking, and I'm still trying to figure that out. Oh well. It took a few attempts to "perfect" my banana–chocolate chip muffins and my baklava bars. And it took three or four attempts to perfect crepes (or pannekoeken as my family calls it). So maybe I just need a few more tries to figure out banana bread. We'll see...

This and That - Weekend Edition

Work: All work-related things have still be busy…incredibly busy. Things have been busy for my "regular" job. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've had a horrible string of bad projects that were either really complicated or really messy. Unfortunately projects like this meant that I have been working a lot of overtime and weekend hours. In addition to the work for my regular job, I was also finishing up a freelance project. All of this is to say that I have been overworked and exhausted for the past few weeks. Actually, I've been feeling overworked and exhausted all summer. I hope that things will slow down a little bit, just slow enough so that I can catch my breath and rest for a change.

Weather: This weekend we have had our first taste of fall. Some places in the area have even had their first taste of winter. The weather has been mild for most of the week. Some days were even fairly warm. But yesterday things suddenly turned downright cold. When I woke up, temperatures were in the 30s or low 40s and it was drizzling. The drizzle eventually turned into a harder rain. I was fortunate to just get rain, I suppose, because other people were getting snow. Today the weather has been a bit better. It's still cold, but at least skies have been blue and it hasn't rained. The weather for the rest of the week is supposed to be warm—in the 70s—and sunny. I'm grateful for that. I'm happy to have fall and slightly cooler temperatures, but I'm definitely not ready for winter.

Cooking Adventures - Failure

I had to write this post to prove that I'm not always a genius in the kitchen. This weekend I wanted to make Lomo Saltado, because for some reason I have been craving it all week. Lomo Saltado is a Peruvian dish that is essentially a stir fry with steak, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and french fries. Yes, french fries! I used to eat it the Inka Grill, a restaurant in California that I went to quite a few times. I thought, how hard could it be to make it myself, after all, it's just a bunch of ingredients thrown together.

I looked online for some recipes and got the general idea of what was in it and how to cook it. So I went to the store, bought all the ingredients, and started cooking. I first marinaded the meat in some soy sauce, garlic, cumin, pepper, and a bit of salt. Then I started cook and it immediately started to go wrong. I probably put to much oil in the pan in the first place, but then the fat in the steak started to release all of their juices. So, instead of searing and sauteing the steak, it stared to stew because there was too much oil and fat in the pan. It probably would have been great if I were making stew or chili, but I wasn't. I poured out some of the fat, but I think it was too late, so I just had to keep cooking. I added the onions and peppers, then the tomatoes, and some cilantro. I added some more salt, pepper, and a bit too much cumin.

When I finished cooking, I tossed it with some french fries, and ate it with some cilantro-lime rice. The dish looked great and the flavor was pretty good, but something didn't quite set right with me. I think it was too much cumin. Also, the meat was as tough as leather. Part of the problem might have been how I cooked it, but maybe I also bought the wrong type of steak. I bought skirt steak because one of the recipes I read suggested that. Even as I was cutting it up before marinading it, I could tell that it felt tough. Something just didn't feel right. Also, it's been such a long time since I've cooked any kind of steak for myself that I'm a little out of practice. With the exception of beef stroganoff, which I cook with ground beef, I haven't cooked much beef/steak for the past eight years or so. In an effort to be a bit healthier, I have been cooking mostly chicken, turkey, pork, and tofu. So I think that if I'm going to make this dish again, I need to pick a better cut of steak or maybe try it with chicken.

A New Visitor

Apparently animals love me. A few days ago a squirrel crawled on my patio fence and was making a lot of noise and looking at me when I was standing by the sliding door. Being weak as usual, I put some peanuts on the fence and he came over and ate them. Then he decided to crawl down into my patio to ask for more treats. I threw a few peanuts on the patio and he didn't run away after grabbing them but instead just sat there and ate them. He kept standing on his back legs asking for more. It got to the point where he was getting a little too bold, and I was afraid that he would scurry into my apartment, so I had to close the door. He sat there for a few minutes, then left.

I don't know what it is about me, but apparently animals love me. Or maybe they just trust me and have some kind of intuition that I won't hurt them. In my other apartment, I had a family of woodpeckers living in my wall. I put up with them for a really long time—even when they were keeping me awake at 3:00 in the morning—and waited for the longest time before I told the apartment complex. I was too afraid that the birds would be destroyed if they knew about them. Fortunately the birds are a protected species and even more fortunately I moved to a first floor apartment and didn't have to worry about them anymore. And then, about a year after getting rid of my bird problem, a kitty showed up on my patio and wanted to be my friend. And now a squirrel wants to be my friend. Fortunately the squirrel hasn't come back.

Now I'm just waiting for a raccoon, skunk, mountain lion, coyote,or bear to show up on my patio...

This and That

I really don't have that much to report right now, but I feel like I need to write something anyway.

Work: In keeping with the tradition of posting how busy I am at work, I'm going to say that I'm still busy at work. This has just been an exceptionally busy summer for some reason. In addition to just having a lot of projects to work on, for some reason I'm working on a lot of big, complicated, and messy projects. So at times one book project feels like three. On the bright side, I should have most of these messy projects finished over the next few weeks. That's not to say that any of the busyness will end, but at least I will be dealing with less problematic projects.

Joey the Cat: In happier news, the neighborhood kitty continues to visit me on a regular basis. He still likes to come by every evening and every morning. I usually just give him a few treats—not a full meal—and I cuddle with him and play with him. Even though I spent a some money on some cute cat toys, he seems to enjoy playing in boxes more than playing with the actual toys. I should have known better, because the cat we had used to be the same way. She didn't care for cat toys, but was happy playing with the rings that go around the spout of a milk bottle.

Even though I enjoy having Joey visit me, I'm trying to build up my willpower and trying to not let him in every time he comes over. I don't want him to get too used to coming and going whenever he wants, because when I go away on vacation he will surely be disappointed when I'm not home. So tonight I tested myself for the first time. He came by tonight around dinner time, and jumped into my patio and meowed at the screen door. I left him outside, and he continued to meow at me while I was eating. It was absolute torture and I was in agony, but eventually he gave up on trying to get inside. He didn't go away completely, though. Instead he decided to sleep on my patio chair and he has been there for the past 30 minutes. Knowing me, I will probably let him in later tonight and cuddle with him for a little while, but hopefully he learns that sometimes he has to stay out...

...and just as I'm typing this he is back at my door meowing sadly, and I'm getting weak...

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

This past Friday was my day to bring in treats for our office food club. My partner for the day wanted to bring in nachos, so I decided to bring in some guacamole and salsas. I brought in some premade salsas, but I also decided to try out a new recipe and make some homemade Corn and Black Bean Salsa. It was the first time I made it, but it turned out to be a success.

Ingredients:
1 can of whole kernel corn, drained
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small red onion, finely diced
3 green onions, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, finely chopped (seeds removed if you want to tone down the heat)
3 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
juice from half a lime
salt, pepper, cumin or any other spices to taste

Directions: 1. Toss everything together in a bowl and mix well.

Notes: It's pretty hard to screw up this recipe. Simply taste the salsa and adjust the ingredients or seasonings however you wish. I seeded the jalapenos to tone down the heat because not everyone in the food club likes really spicy food. I think if I were to make this again for myself, I would keep some of the seeds or I would try a different pepper like a Serrano which has a bit more heat to it.

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

Cat Tales

My cat adventures continue. Joey the Cat continues to stop by my apartment for visits. When this whole little affair started out, he would only come by in the evenings. I usually wouldn't see him until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. Eventually he would start to come by in the mornings when I'm having breakfast and getting ready for work. Now, especially on the weekends, he visits during the day.

Because I'm weak, I let him inside for a little while. He usually comes in and meows loudly and asks for food. He is not a starving cat by any means, but I give him a few treats anyway. Sometimes he is really active and just wants to play. In spite of having an assortment of cat toys for him, he seems to like playing in boxes.

Other times, he just wants to hang out and sleep on the couch while I watch TV. I suppose he really just wants some company and wants some attention. Whenever I put him back outside at night, he meows loudly and sadly and scratched at the sliding screen door. It's agonizing and gut wrenching to listen to it, but unfortunately I can't keep him inside my apartment during the night. After all he does have his own home to go to, but I have a feeling he would rather stay with me.

Cat Adventures (continued...still...)

So as to be expected the neighbor cat, Joey, continued to visit me this past week. As has been his pattern, he would stop by in the evening and meow at my patio door. Because I'm weak and a total pushover, I would always let him in for a few hours so that he could have a snack and so that we could cuddle and play for a little while. I would always let him back outside when it was my bedtime, and he would usually jump over the fence and go about his way. For the past few days, though, he has been sticking around again. When I let him back out at night, he would sleep on one of my patio chairs. He did this a few times before, but then he would leave during the night and I wouldn't see him until the next day. Lately he has spent the whole night on my patio. When I woke up, he would still be outside, on the chair, and when he woke up and saw me, he would meow and ask for breakfast. Naturally (because I'm weak) I would give him a few treats, cuddle with him, then send him back outside.

Taking a nap.

Yesterday, I admit, I kept him inside longer than usual. We sat on the couch together and watched a long documentary about ancient Greek history. But eventually I put him back outside, he wandered away for a few hours, but then came back and slept on my patio for the evening. This afternoon, though, I got a call from his parents and they said that they haven't seen him for a few days and they wondered if I saw him. I told them that he was sleeping on my patio, and that I'd meet them outside the building so that the could get the cat. As it turns out we live in the same building, on the same floor, and pretty much right across the hall from each other. I told them that he usually comes by my apartment every night and every morning, and I said that I was fine with him sleeping there at night because I've been worried about him getting snatched up by a coyote or some other animal. In my subtle way I was trying to give them a hint that maybe they should consider keeping him in at night, but they didn't seem phased by it. Oh well. So I just told them that I didn't mind that he visited and that if they ever couldn't find him, they could probably look over my fence and see if he was hanging around. After we chatted, we all went back to our apartments. They didn't take the cat with them, but let him play in the grass outside. Two minutes later, he was back in my patio asking to come in. I really think he wants to move in with me. He has certainly made himself at home...

Really, kitty?

Cat Adventures (continued)

So, my cat adventures got more exciting after the first few days. In the beginning, the cat would come by at night every few nights, but it got to the point when he would come by every night at around 9:00 or 10:00. I would give him some food and water and pet him and play with him for a while. But eventually he would sit in front of the screen door and look out like he wanted to go back outside, so I would let him out before going to bed. I thought he would go back to his own home, but he would come back my apartment throughout the night. He'd wake me up at 2:00 in the morning by meowing in my patio or meowing at and scratching my bedroom windows. I got out of bed to check up on him and I put some food and water on the patio but I left him outside. I was hoping that would be enough to make him happy, but he kept coming back later in the night at 4:00 and 6:00 in the morning. It almost felt like I was taking care of an infant that wanted to eat every few hours!

Sitting on the back of the futon.

It got to the point where the cat was starting to come by more frequently and more consistently, so I was starting to worry that he really was a stray. I finally took him in the house and kept him in the house because I was starting to worry about him being out all night. I was afraid that he might be snatched up by another wild animal, like a coyote, or that he might get into a fight with a raccoon or something. At this point I didn't have a litter box, but the cat would often go to the bathroom in the wood chips that are in my patio, so I filled up a Xerox box lid with some of these wood chips and I put it in the bathroom for him. The next morning I had to go to work to attend a few meetings, so I locked the cat in my bathroom with his litter box and some food and water. I went to my meetings then took the rest of the day off to take care of the cat. I immediately went to the store and bought a real litter box and some kitty litter and rushed home to make sure the cat was OK. The cat was fine and it even looked like he used the makeshift litter box, but I set up the real litter box for him to use.

I kept the cat inside with me for the next few days. Although he would often look out the windows or door like he wanted to go out, he seemed pretty happy to be with me. He would play with me, sit on the couch with me while I was watching TV, or sleep on my bed. Whenever I came home from work, he would come out of my bedroom and meow at me.

Getting comfy on my bed.

I knew I had to take the cat to a vet to be scanned for a microchip, so I made an appointment and took him in for a checkup and to be scanned. It turns out that he did have a microchip and the vet was able to find his owners. His owners actually live in my apartment complex, but they were out of town on business or a vacation and had a pet sitter taking care of the cat. Apparently the sitter didn't realize that the cat had not come home for several days. The cat's owners called me and said that he is an indoor-outdoor cat and he really likes to be outside. Obviously they don't care where their cat is late at night or they just assume that he will be OK. They even said that other people have taken the cat in before, thinking he was a stray, but he doesn't like collars "so what can they do."

I left the cat at the vet's office so that they could board him in their kennels until the owners got back from their trip. The vet was nice enough to not charge me for the visit, because he appreciated the fact that I was a good Samaritan and brought the cat in to be checked out. The owners got back from their trip on Monday, and, not surprisingly, the cat was back on my patio on Wednesday night and he has stopped by to visit just about every night since. Obviously he knows where he can get some extra food and more love.

Getting sleepy...

So, apparently I now have joint custody of this cat. Although the owners probably don't know it (or might not even care about it), the cat obviously wants to adopt me as a second mother. Whenever he comes by, I give him some water and a few treats and I play with him and cuddle him, until he wants to go outside again. Usually when I put him out, he sleeps on one of my patio chairs for a few hours, then disappears until the next night when he comes back again. We'll see how long this keeps up...

Cat Adventures

Over the past few weeks I've had a cat visit me at my apartment. Last Thursday night, I was watching TV and then I started to hear some noises in my patio. I went to the sliding screen door and tried to see what was out there, then I suddenly heard some meowing at the foot of the door. A gray cat with dark stripes was looking up at me and then started to meow loudly. I was shocked and started to panic as if someone has left a basket with a baby outside my door. I immediately texted a friend and asked what I should do. She jokingly said that I should let it in and keep it.

Thinking that it might be a stray, I thought it might be hungry or thirsty. So I put out a little bowl of water and the cat drank a little bit. Then I searched my apartment for some kind of food that I could put out. Unfortunately I didn't have an tuna, but I decided to put out some cheese and a few torn up pieces of turkey deli meat. The cat sniffed the food but didn't eat it. Obviously this cat isn't like the cat I used to have who would steal a piece of fried chicken, pizza, or bacon and eggs right out of your hands. Eventually the cat ate a few pieces of turkey, but he really wanted to come inside my apartment. (I call the cat a he, but I don't really know if it's a boy or a girl.) I stuck my arm out to pet him, and he seemed healthy. He wasn't skinny and it seemed like his coat was in good shape. Unfortunately he didn't have a collar, though. He would sometimes just sit in front of my screen door, sometimes he would just make himself at home and sit in the middle of my patio, and other times he would sit on my patio fence. Eventually I had to go to bed, but I left out the food and water in case he got thirsty or hungry.

The next morning, I looked out on my patio and he wasn't there. But later that afternoon I went to the store and bought a few cans of wet cat food and a small bag of dry kitty treats so that I would be prepared if he came back that night. But he didn't come back. In fact I didn't see him or hear him at all for the past week. But then he came back again last night.

Again, I was watching TV and he showed up at about the same time last week. I was watching the local evening news and then I heard meowing at my screen door again. This time I was prepared. I put some of the wet cat food on a plate and put it on the patio for him. But he wasn't interested in it. He just wanted to come in. So I texted my friend again and asked her what I should do. She suggested that maybe I should just pet him because maybe he just wanted some attention. So I sat down in front of the open screen door and petted him. He seemed happy, and at a point when I was distracted, he jumped inside my apartment. "Oh no, come back" were my exact words to him. He walked in my apartment, looked around at my couch and coffee table, then he trotted through my living room and made his way toward my bathroom and bedroom. He looked toward the bathroom, but then turned into my bedroom and went straight for the bed. He crawled right under my bed. He was close to the edge of the bed, so I was able to drag him out. I picked him up and he was kind of big and fat, so I have a feeling that he's not a stray and not totally neglected.

I put him out on the patio, but I got the dry kitty treats to feed to him, and he really liked those. And, once again, when I was distracted, he jumped in my apartment and went right back to my bedroom. So I had to grab him and carry him back outside.

So, I'm not so sure what to do. It's likely that he belongs to someone in the apartment complex, and maybe he just gets lost on his way home. Or maybe he just wants to visit me. Apparently he likes to visit on Thursday nights. Like I said, he seems to be in good shape and must be taken care of. We'll see if he comes back.

He's super cute, too. I'm trying not to fall in love with him. I managed to take a picture of him when he was in my home. It's a fuzzy picture because he wouldn't sit still, but you can see how cute he is...

Crawling Out of the Quicksand

It has once again been nearly a month since I have last written here. Should I play the broken record again? Work has been especially overwhelming this month because I had about eight books going to press throughout the month. For those of you who are not in publishing and might not know, eight books going to press in one month is a lot. And to make matters worse, it seemed like every project was a mess or more complicated than it should have been. Because each project was mess or really complicated, every step of the process took twice as long as it should have, and unfortunately I had to put in a lot of overtime during the past few weeks. And, no, I don't get paid extra for overtime! Last week was my crunch week, my hell week, when the last of the projects had to be wrapped up and sent off. After several long nights and long weekends and a few tears, I was able to send the last of my books to press. I say "last of my books" but that only refers to the ones going to press. I still have seven other books that I need to work on. Sigh...

Oh well. At least I have a brief moment where I can "slow down" a little bit and catch my breath. Yes, I'm still somewhat busy, but at least I'm not frantic like I have been. I'm even hoping that I can take a few days off this month, just to give myself more time to relax.

Current mood: tired
Current music: iTunes on shuffle. Beth Waters "White Dogs in the Moonlight"
Current drink: Old Chub (beer)

This and That-Extended Weekend Edition

I'm writing today, but I really don't have that much to report. I am currently in the middle of a long weekend, and I'm loving it. Because I have a lot of personal and vacation time that I need to start using up, I decided to take the day off on Friday. And naturally we have Monday off for the Fourth of July. Actually, you could say that I'm getting a five-day weekend out of this, because I also worked from home on Thursday. Even though I worked the whole day and was really productive, it's almost like a vacation day when you work from home. And I'm proud of myself for not checking my work e-mail all weekend!

For the most part, I've been relaxing all weekend. And with all the free time, I've been able to get in a lot of nice, long walks. I suppose you could say that I'm a little crazy, though, because I'm probably one of the few people who spends a day off walking for an hour then lifting weights for another hour. Oh well, I'll admit to being a little crazy. I'm just happy that I'm getting my little fitness routine back on track and I'm happy that I'm getting my muscles back!

Current mood: relaxed
Current music: streaming radio, Y102 FM from Victorville, CA
Current drink: coffee

This and That

Work: I'm sadly starting to sound like a broken record, but it has once again been a long time since I've last written here. As to be expected, I've been busy with work. I've been working on a lot of projects and the majority of them have been messy projects that sap most of my energy. Lately when I've come home, all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. I had my annual review a few weeks ago and all of the comments were positive. My cost of living raise was 2 percent. I'm grateful just to have a job and grateful for any kind of raise, but, still, a small part of me wonders how that 2 percent relates to the actual cost of living these days. It just seems like everything is getting more and more expensive and every dollar is definitely stretched. Two percent, nice as it is, doesn't seem to match the reality of the actual cost of living. Oh well. I just need to look on the bright side and keep reminding myself that I'm lucky just to have a job.

Apartment Hunting: When I found out that my rent is going up, I decided to look around for another possible place to live. I mostly just wanted to keep my options open and see what else might be out there. Unfortunately things didn't turn out so well. I looked at a few apartment complexes, and I just didn't get any of those "warm and happy" feelings when I looked at them. I didn't immediately think "I could see this as my home." My worst experience was at a place I looked at last week. I tried calling the management company, and the lady I spoke to was a little rude and not very helpful. That should have been my first sign, but I decided to make an appointment to see the place anyway. On my way there, I was first stopped by a train at one of the railroad crossings. That should have been my second sign. As I continued on, I was then stopped by major construction on another road. That should have been a third sign. When I finally got to the place, I wasn't impressed with the buildings. They seemed really old and worn down and not very well kept. When I walked into the apartment unit, I was immediately hit with the smell of stale cigarette smoke. The previous tenant must have been a chain smoker because the smell was so awful. It actually started to give me a bit of a headache after a while. The apartment didn't get much direct sunlight, so it was a bit dark. To make matters worse, none of the lights in the apartment were working, so I was pretty much looking at it in the dark. I can't even describe what the bathroom looked like, because it was so pitch black, I didn't see anything. The tub could have been pink for all I know. When I looked out the bedroom window, it pretty much had a view of the parking lot and a garbage dumpster. I pretty much decided that it wasn't an apartment that I would want to live in. So I thanked the guy for his time and got the heck out of there. It was so depressing and demoralizing.

I read in the local newspaper a few weeks ago that this is one of the worst housing/renting markets ever. Because Boulder is such a nice place to live, the rental rates are extremely high. Some people spend over $1,000 to live in a 400-square foot studio apartment. And a lot of one bedroom apartments are well over $1000. At that rate I might as well move back to Southern California! And places that are "cheap," are extremely small and overrun with students or they are total dumps like the place I looked at. Another problem that I've been facing is that there aren't many vacancies. I went to one place that I thought would be both nice and affordable, but the woman I spoke to said that her waiting list was 65 people long. So because it is becoming such a hassle to look for a new place to live, I've decided to stay in my current place for another year. With the help of my family and hopefully with the help of some more freelance jobs, I should be able to make it work for at least a year.

Maybe now that I know how bad things are out there, I can plan a little better if I have to go through this again next year. Or I can just hope that I get a huge 10 percent raise or win the lottery and not have to worry about it. Yeah, I doubt either of those two things will ever happen...

Current mood: a bit deflated, but getting better
Current music: iTunes on shuffle, Beth Waters "Feel the Rain"
Current drink: Fat Tire

Old Faithful

This past week has been a crazy one for me. Now, I'm sure you're all expecting me to talk about how busy things have been at work, and while things have been busy at work, things have been crazy in other ways. Earlier this week while I was watching TV, I heard water dripping in my kitchen. I thought I might have not closed the faucet all the way, but when I checked, it wasn't coming from my faucet. I opened the cabinet under the sink, and the cabinet was flooded with water. Everything under the cabinet was wet, so I had to pull all of that stuff out and had to mop up the water with a towel. I thought that maybe one of the drain pipes was leaking, so I put a bucket and a pot under the pipes. Thinking that was all I needed to do and thinking that it was a minor problem, I continued to watch TV.

Suddenly I heard the sound of rushing water. So I ran into my kitchen, looked under the sink, and saw that water was shooting out of the overflow pipe from the dishwasher. I hardly even use my dishwasher! And the water wasn't just spilling over or gurgling out; it was shooting out of the pipe like a geyser. Being in a bit of a panic and completely unprepared to deal with something like this, I grabbed an empty yogurt cup from the top of the counter and tried to catch the water. That idea was a total failure because the yogurt cup is small and the water was coming fast. So I threw the yogurt cup across the kitchen and dove into another cabinet to grab the largest saucepan I have to catch the water. But the water was still coming too fast, and a 4 quart saucepan was filled in a matter of seconds. So I grabbed another sauce pan, unfortunately a smaller one, and it was also filled within seconds. I was at a bit of a loss at that point, but fortunately the water stopped.

I had to get more towels to mop up the water that once again filled the cabinet. Now that I knew where the water was coming from and now that I was prepared, I got a bucket and put it under the pipes just in case it happened again. Well, it did happen again, and it was almost another disaster. Water started shooting out of the pipe again, and as I was watching it, I noticed that the bucket was filling up fast. I grabbed a measuring cup and started to scoop water from the bucket and pour it into another big cooking pot. My 4 gallon bucket was filled within 30 seconds, and because I wasn't quick enough to catch all of the water, some water still spilled over into the cabinet. And I, once again, had to use more towels to mop up the mess.

I called the maintenance people in my apartment complex, and they came over to look at it. When I explained what was going on, they realized that it was a problem with the main plumbing line and not my apartment. Apparently whenever someone else in the building ran their dishwasher the water backed up and overflowed into my kitchen. The maintenance people called a plumber and he was able to clear out the main line. I'm glad he fixed it, too, because I was getting tired of running to my kitchen whenever I heard the sound of rushing water. Late one evening when I was already in bed, the sprinklers outside turned on, and I sprinted to my kitchen because I thought the pipes were overflowing again.

Everything is fixed, thankfully, and needless to say, it's been an eventful week.

Curve Balls

Once again it has been a long time since I've last written. It will probably come as no surprise that I've been busy with work. And it just feels like I've been busier than usual over the past few weeks. And if I wasn't busy enough with my "real" job, I have also taken on a few additional freelance jobs. The extra money will be good, and the projects are fairly easy, so it was hard to turn down.

In unrelated news, I came home yesterday and found a note on my door from the apartment complex. Unfortunately they are raising my rent next year. A few weeks ago, I overheard someone walking through my building saying "I can't believe how much they are raising the rent." That's never something that you want to hear and initially I was really worried and panicked about it. But I convinced myself to calm down and to just wait to see what they were going to do with me. And apparently they are raising my rent, too. So now I'm worried and panicked again.

If they were raising my rent by $20 or $50, I wouldn't be bothered. But they are raising my rent by $100. Right now my rate is $850, but they always add extra for certain utilities (water, sewer, and trash) and it usually ends up being about $880. Now that the rent is going up to $950, it will probably be about $980 with utilities. I just can't afford to pay nearly $1000 on rent with my salary. If you do the math, my rent is going up by about 10 or 12 percent. Unfortunately my annual cost of living raise at work is only 2 percent. As it is, I highly doubt that 2 percent is even enough to compensate for the cost of gas and groceries these days.

So, over the next few weeks I have to start looking around for a new place to live. My lease is technically up at the end of June, but I have to give my complex 30 day's notice if I'm going to leave. So I have to at least find something by the end of this month. Then I just have to deal with the costs of application fees, deposits, moving expenses, and who knows whatever other expenses I could encounter. I think I'm mostly just really sad to leave this place. It's a nice, roomy apartment, the area is nice, management has been nice. Unfortunately, I suppose, they just need to raise the rent to keep up with the market and their own costs.