The bathroom.

Living Room

Looking out the living room onto the deck

Bedroom

Kitchen

Another view of the living room

More kitchen

More pictures in my photostream here

SPIDER KITTENS. Slight moment of terror hoping the screen doesn’t fall out, but also kinda awesome.

Elwood would win ribbons for being a kitten if he was entered into a state fair.

Charles, at home in the “house” part of their cat tree.

Elwood, captured in mid pounce, about to bring some ruckus to Darwin.

Beatrice aka “Sweet B” is not sure at all about her new nickname.

Elwood and Charles trying to play with Mom (Abby) and not really getting any love.

The kittens took a nap with me. Elwood showing that he’s made to be my cat, woke up first.

Totally sacked out kittens after a long hot day of being adorable and playing with visitors.

Ole’ Sweet B is going to be super jealous when she sees this and realizes how many pictures I took of her brother.

They’re not looking at anything, that’s just how they’re sleeping.

The view from below.

Beatrice woke up.

Darwin did not.

Pitchers batting is outlawed.

If you hit like a pitcher, you are also outlawed.

One team is moved from the NL Central to the AL West because a 6 team division and a 4 team division is retarded. That team will be the Cubs because **** them and **** their fans.

Mother****ing Robots. The robots will not only take over for the umps, they will do it in a violent and bloody revolution. Joe West’s head will be stuck on a pole behind home plate. If you foul off a ball and it hits Joe West’s head, you get a base.

Oakland has to get rid of some of their stupid foul ground. A moat will be installed. Players will drown, if your player drowns, you can take one from the Cubs.

Minute Maid park will be exploded. As a favor to Houston fans 8 Astros will be inside.

Balls off the foul pole will be in play, and catchable as outs. You can also catch balls off the screen behind home plate for outs.

Any fan booing a pick off throw, intentional walk, or calling for a balk will be thrown out of the stadium. If you freak out because somebody hit a short fly to center and you through it was a home run, you will be put on notice. If it happens again, you will be shot.

If you ever fall for the fake to 3rd, throw a 1st move, you are suspended for the season.

If you are a catcher, and your job is to catch the ball, you have to like… do it. Every time you don’t, your pitcher gets to kick you in the dick. This rule is known as “Rob Johnson’s **** looks like a shriveled, bruised mass of flesh”.

If you’re fat enough to be a softball player, teams get to use a 4th outfielder when you’re up.

If I decide your pitching motion is too retarded, you’ll have to take coolness lessons from Ichiro until you improve. This is called the Dan Haren rule.

Everybody must wear high socks.

Joe Morgan and Tim MCarver will be put to more appropriate use as buoys in McCovey cove.

John Miller will be forced to say Rolando Arrojo and other Mexican names like a ****ing white person.

Beatrice (yeah, that’s going to be her name) says hello and welcome to this kitten photo blog post.

An unplanned trip back home gave me the opportunity to visit my future kittens and their brothers and sisters. Lots of photos contained here in.

These are the kittens that will be joining me in August. The black one is Beatrice (Bea for short- pronounced “Bee”) and Elwood is the tabby.

Their brothers and sisters. Charles in white, Alexa is the fuzzy grey one in the middle, and Darwin is the grey tabby.

Their mother, Abagail- Abby for short. She’s either a runway or was abandoned- but she showed up at my folk’s back door because they have food for the other feral cat they feed (more on him in a bit). Dad picked up Abby one day and realized she wasn’t fat, she was pregnant. A few weeks later- KITTENS.

This is Herb- the other outside/feral/Ornamental Lawn Kitty. Herb will not be touched by humans, and thus cannot get the bath he very badly needs. He is growing dreds and it’s pretty hilarious.

All on their own, the kittens took over this doll bed that just happened to be in their room. Usually at least 3 or 4 will sleep in it at night, sometimes all 5.

Last Christmas my sister and I got this cat tree for my parents other cats Sadie and Ringo (I have no pictures of them). It’s probably the best thing we’ve ever done, as the kittens LOVE it. Here is 5 minutes of video of kittens frolicking on and around the tree.

Kitten play can get pretty violent. Elwood and Darwin engaging in Tabby on Tabby hate crimes.

But when they’re not fighting, they tend to sleep in one big pile. Here, everybody but Charles is sacked out.

Charles, probably missing my sister, who he bonded with (but sadly can’t adopt because she already has a cat that does not like other cats whatsoever) and is sleeping on her sleeping bag.

We suspect that Abby’s former owners vanished, and left her with a house full of nothing but shoes. She loves shoes.

Abby loves shoes so much she nurses them.

More standard kitten nursing.

Elwood and his Mom getting a drink. It’s really hard to capture the scale of the kittens, so this is mostly there just to show you how small they are. Also, if you look at Abby’s coat, you can see how all of the colors of the kittens are reflected in her.

We suspect Alexa might be part bear.

Bear like ferocity about to pounce on a tail.

My greatest utility was as a climbing tree. Elwood taking a walk up Dids street.

Charles is probably the most friendly and cuddly of the bunch. He looks like a lightly toasted marshmallow.

One of Alexa or Darwin still needs a home. (somebody is giving one of them to their child for their birthday, the kid will pick which one closer to that July date- but if somebody else has interest- that can be accelerated) Aren’t they adorable?

CUDDLES.

It’s been a long few days for the kittens. They were responsible for providing therapy for all our visitors and what not while my family dealt with some crap. They’re pretty wiped out.

The full set of photos, not in any particular order, is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdids/sets/72157624188166092/

White Bean, Bacon and Roasted Garlic Dip

Ingredients:
Half a head of garlic
1 package of bacon
2 cans white beans
1 package cream cheese
1 lemon

Take the garlic and roast it with some olive oil and salt. 40 minutes at 400 degrees. (make sure to roast the garlic in its husk, otherwise it will burn)

Take a whole package of bacon, cut it up and render it down over medium heat. Once that’s done let it rest on a paper towel for a bit to soak up some of the fat.

Then combine everything but the lemon (drain the liquid from the beans) in a food processor and mix it up.

Let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Take it out and about an hour before you serve it so it can get to room temp. (it will be too thick otherwise). Then add the zest and juice from the lemon and stir it up. Season to taste.

Roasted Tomatillo, Tomato, Jalapeño and Black Bean Dip

Ingredients:

5 Medium Sized Tomatillos
3 Roma Tomatoes
2 Jalapeños
2 cans black beans
1/2 yellow onion
5-6 cloves of garlic
1 bunch Cilantro
1 Lime

Roast the tomatillos, tomatoes and jalapeños with olive oil and salt for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

After they’ve roasted, remove the stem and seeds from the jalapeños unless you want super hot fire death.

Then blend the roasted veggies (with the olive oil in which they were roasted) in a food processor with the beans (drained) and the onion, garlic and maybe a 1/4th cup of cilantro.

Let sit in the fridge overnight.

About an hour before serving, add the zest and juice of the lime, and salt to taste. I also typically add some cilantro as a garnish after everything is mixed, since the dip can look a little brown without the colo

While sometimes it may not seem like it- I attempt to employ a degree of craft and effort into everything I post on the internet (the degree to which these attempts are successful may hinge on other factors, sobriety being a key one but I’m not sure in which direction). I try and take a little pride in what I post.

I think in some way- anybody who is something of a veteran of the internet gets this at least a little bit.

It just drives me nuts when I see people on facebook making these totally obvious, disposable, unfunny jokes in response to what their friends post. Like… doesn’t it bother you that the dick/gay/lol women/whatever joke you just made was the most obvious, hackish response possible? Don’t you want people to find you funny because your humor is creative and original?

Everything we do, say, post reflects back on us- and the thing about your internet persona is that for the most part you have total control of how you allow people to perceive you. It doesn’t bother me that people might think I’m crazy or angry or dumb or whatever- to some extent I am all of those things and many more awesome ones. What I really never want anybody to think about me is that I’m bland and uncreative- and I really wish that was a driving force for more people in terms of how they participate in social media.

Made the glaze with a lot of honey, a bit of water, some balsamic vinegar and pepper. Quickly boiled and reduced down. The ham was grilled in a grill pan, and very lightly glazed to get some carmelization.

The carrots were sauteed in butter and a touch of balsamic.

I finished the dish by pouring some of the remaining glaze over the carrots and ham.

The glaze could be a bit more sophisticated, but it does add some life to what could be pretty boring turkey ham. Pretty nice, summery dish.

Browned chorizo, and cooked some frozen corn. Tossed that in a buttered dish with cheese with 6 (medium and frankly- smallish) eggs and about 2 cups of milk. Cooked at 350 for about 45 minutes. Just delicious. The chorizo flavor is everywhere- the corn adds a nice texture and sweetness. Very happy with this one.

Steak was cooked in the skillet with salt and garlic salt. The spinach was sauteed in the leftover oil/fat. Served with a bit of fantastic homemade horseradish from a friend.

Doesn’t require a lot of explanation. Baked sausage, cooked down the cabbage. Easy, good, blah blah blah.