October 16, 2008

So, now that BigSis’ kitties have been introduced, it’s time for TomTom and SarahGirl to make their first appearance on BigSisLilSis. I decided to start with a sweet photo of TomTom because they may be few and far between.

He's sweet when he's half asleep!

I remember the day we got TomTom. He was introduced to us as a sweet little female kitten named “Pearl’. My neighbors’ daughter had walked across the street to show “her” to everyone at my house and to try to find “her” a home. I was having a Spring Craft Fair at my house with my friends, L & N, so we had a lot of friends and customers at the house.

Everyone fell in love with “Pearl”, including me! (And secretly, I think SirHoney did too.) I wouldn’t have even asked if we could keep “her”. We had never had a cat in the ten years we had been married. SirHoney was not a “cat person”. He had never had cats growing up, like BigSis and I did. Our parents raised Siamese cats and even has some winning “show cats” and some “studs”. (I think that’s what you call them?) I’m sure BigSis will talk about Wolfie in the future. He was one of D and SisMama’s studs that went to live with BigSis when she moved out on her own.

So, back to TomTom. Everyone wanted to take “her” home with them. But I guess since it was my house, I got first dibs on the little kitten. TomTom knew what he was doing. Somehow, he managed to get SirHoney to say yes to letting him become a member of our household. SirHoney just said to me; “We can keep “her” if you want.”

We very soon after discovered that “Pearl” was infested with fleas. I immediately panicked and searched up all about fleas! I typed into google ‘does dawn dish soap kill fleas‘ because I knew I had heard somewhere that this really helped! There were some super helpful sites giving some emergency information, but in the end, SirHoney helped me give “her” a flea treatment just until we could get “her” to the vet. The next day, I took “Pearl” to the vet to discover that not only did “she” have fleas, but “she” also had worms, and “she” was really a “he”. So, the vet suggested that we might want to change his name. TomTom’s name has evolved over the years. He started out as “TommyBoy” because we all love that movie. Then, he became “TomTom”; and when he’s in trouble, his name is “Thomas”. As for the fleas, they’re long gone, but I have been thinking about getting the cats a smart-looking flea collar from DewelPro.com, just to be on the safe side.

He looks sweet and innocent, right?

Stay tuned for more “short stories” involving the “not so innocent” TomTom. That ended up being a little bit “longer” of an introduction than I expected. Since SarahGirl deserves a little “spotlight” of her own, I’ll introduce her seperately.

~LilSis

October 15, 2008

We’ve been posting for a couple of weeks now, and it’s high time that the furkids made their first appearance on BigSisLilSis.  I’ll be using some restraint in choosing the photos to put up first of the guys, since they are some of my favorite models and I do have a slight “Crazy Cat Lady” tendency.  I’ll start with one group photo and just one of each boy.

3 Furboys

This is one of the very few times that all three boys were in the frame at once, and they weren’t scuffling!  Or worse!

Gabriel

This is Gabriel, named for the Angel Gabriel in the Bible.  He can be a little angel but he’s usually rascally.  He’s 5 years old, and wandered up to my condo when he was only 8-10 weeks old.  HayHay was the first to spot him; a scrawny black kitten with big eyes and ears who was having so much fun playing with grass and wind and bugs and leaves that he didn’t realize the gravity of his predicament.  We never knew if he’d been orphaned or just got separated from his mom and sibs.  What we did know is that we fell in love with him in about 5 minutes and he had found his furever home.

AshyPoo

Ashton was named by the Siamese Rescue group here in Dallas, but he’s always AshyPoo to me.  He was also a street urchin like Gaby but his story took some hard twists.  He was picked up by the pound in Austin when he was a little over a year old.  He’d already lost the sight in one eye, and had a bum knee, allergies, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, and feline bartonella as we would learn later.  Siamese Rescue saved him from the pound and brought him up to Dallas, where he spent 6 months waiting for someone to overlook his problems.  Guess who was on the scene again?  HayHay, of course.  I only had one cat at the time and wanted another Siamese.  I saw Ashton on the web site, and took HayHay with me to go meet him.  I was leaning toward a Snowshoe Siamese named Peter, but HayHay took to Ashton immediately and away he went with us to his furever home.  He’s probably around 10 years old now, and is having more trouble with his asthma and arthritis in that knee now, but he’s still as thankful for his home now as he was then.  He’s the most compliant, eager-to-please cat that I’ve ever known.  Check out his pretty blue nails, as evidence of how agreeable he is!

Warren Bitey

My big Warren Bitey isn’t with us any more, but I can’t talk about the kitties without mentioning him.  He’s only been gone about 5 months, and was only a week shy of his 17th birthday when it was clearly time to let him go.  His kidneys had been failing for a while, and he was just having a horrible time with everything.  Warrie and I had a lot of good years together though – almost a third of my entire life was with him.  A friend of a friend told me about this last little kitten from an unwanted litter, who wasn’t very friendly so his person was taking him to the pound the next day if I didn’t want him.  No pressure there!  Of course I took him.  He was shy, and he went through an extended period of fearful aggression, but he came through it as a sweet cat although still aloof to some people.  He managed to get through 3 attacks of pancreatitis, and still kept his fighting weight of 18 to 19 pounds.  He was a good friend, and I hope I get to see him again some day.

So those are the furkids.  Stay tuned for “Cats in Hats” photos on Halloween!  There is nothing on this planet that is funnier to me than a cat in a cute hat!

~BigSis

October 14, 2008

Welcome back to civilization, BigSis! I know last week was really rough on you!  Even though you are supposed to take it easy for a couple of weeks, I am glad to have you back posting on the blog! Your Sunday Supper looked yummy! HA! Sorry, I know that bland diet is going to get old. Especially since you can’t use any of your spices!

You are just full of trivia! I didn’t know that about Christopher Columbus! I guess I wasn’t paying attention in class that day. You always were a better student!

I can honestly tell a difference in the Penzey spices.  I made a big pot of chili last Halloween and used the Chili Con Carne spice for the first time. I invited a bunch of neighbors over (since I CANNOT make a small pot of anything) and I received so many compliments from everyone.  The Chili Con Carne spice contains all these ingredients: ancho chili pepper, tomato powder, ground cumin, Mexican oregano, garlic, coriander, onions, red and green bell peppers, Tellicherry black pepper, allspice, cilantro, and cloves. It is so far on the top of my list. You really don’t need to add much of anything else to your chili other than this one spice. I do add just a little Cayenne pepper, but that’s it.

Here’s a list of my other favorites:

• Original Taco Seasoning

• Southwest Seasoning

• Lemon Pepper

• Shallot Pepper

• 4S

• BBQ3000

• Sandwich Sprinkle

Next time that I’m in town visiting, we’ll have to go to Penzeys! Since we usually only have one night before I go to SisMama’s house, we may have to forego a trip to the MAC counter and visit Penzeys instead. On second thought?

~LilSis

October 13, 2008

Although October 12th is the “real” date that Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering America, we’re celebrating it today and we have more than the obvious reason to celebrate it. Did you know the whole mission of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria was to try to find a shorter route to the spices and silks in the Orient? True, Columbus and his crew stumbled upon a spot in the Bahamas and claimed it for Spain, but just as exciting (arguably) is that Columbus introduced the capsicum to Europe and that’s spelled “pepper” to you and me.

What would cooking be like without peppers? Without spices? I say it would be boring. Since my favorite cuisines are Mexican and Italian, I can’t imagine a New World without spice. And I can’t imagine a spicy world without Penzeys.

I talked about my love for Penzeys a little bit last week in my Sunday Supper post.  Oh how I love me some Penzeys!  Even when I’m on a bland diet and can’t be a very spicy girl, I just like to think about Penzeys and imagine the reunion we’ll have soon.  They have a retail store here in Dallas where you can wander around and smell every item they carry.  If you aren’t close to one of their stores around the country, don’t despair!  You can order online or download a catalog if you prefer to browse their products offline.  My experience is that the Penzeys products are all fresh, all high quality, and all powerful so you need to use less of them. I love that you can buy the cute little baby jars of items that you never use up, so you aren’t invested in a ginormous bottle of cloves or allspice that will get old before you need it all.

Plus, they have a huge assortment of proprietary spice blends that you can’t find anywhere else.  And they do really cute gift boxes.  What’s not to love about this spice haven!  Oh, and as a bonus they have great recipes on their web site.  I’m eying this one for Banana Bread.  It has buttermilk instead of higher-fat sour cream, plus it uses their Baking Spice which I’ve almost picked up a couple of times.  It’s one of their special blends with cinnamon, mace, anise and cardamom.  Sounds like a great fall addition to my spice cabinet.

What are my favorites?  Let me see if I can whittle the list down a little bit.

• Mexican Vanilla

• Cinnamon

• Southwest Seasoning

• Lemon Pepper

• Shallot Pepper

• Freeze Dried Shallots

• Ground Chipotle

• Toasted Granulated Onion

• Salt-Free Mural of Flavor

• Sandwich Sprinkle

That’s my Spice Hall of Fame for today, but tomorrow it may change. Hey LilSis, I know you have a different list of Penzeys loves since I turned you on to them.  What are your favorites?

~BigSis

October 12, 2008

After 4 days in the hospital, I’ve been sprung!  Woo hoo!  I’m going to post later on what I learned from this out-of-the-blue experience, but for now I have to say I’m very very happy to be home.  This episode appears to have been the result of a random virus that hopped on me when I hopped on a plane from California to Texas a couple of weeks ago. All I can say is that it was N-A-S-T-Y and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even the people who annoy me most in this world.

So.  This Sunday’s supper isn’t about what’s on the menu, because the menu for the next couple of weeks is supposed to be bland and easy-to-digest.  This supper is about being thankful for being home, and having my little bowl of potato soup at my little table instead of in a hospital room, and enjoying the beautiful flowers I received this last week.  Thank you to everyone who sent flowers and their well wishes and prayers.  I appreciate you!

BigSis Sunday Supper October 12

Still beautiful after almost a week

Orchid with curious Gaby in corner

~BigSis

October 11, 2008

I am happy to say that we earned almost $400.00 today from our Rummage Sale/Bake Sale to benefit Komen San Diego Race for the Cure. My team members showed up with an amazing assortment of baked goods and loads and loads of items for the rummage sale.  I had tremendous help! Most of the team members arrived at the “crack of dawn” to help me set up and stayed for the duration all the way to the point of loading up what was left to haul off to their charity of choice.

My rice krispie treats turned out fine, even though at one point, I was unsure about how the German Chocolate Treats were going to turn out. They looked like a bit of a mess when I was trying to mix.

Sticky Mess!

I made three different kinds, the rice krispie recipe with mini chocolate chips on top, plain rice krispie treats with pink sprinkles on top, and the German Chocolate treats made with the Cocoa Pebbles, coconut, and pecan. Here’s what they looked like before cut up.

Three batches before cut up.

Here they are wrapped and ready to go!

We had such a great assortment of goodies.  We had marvelous homemade carmel apples, really nicely decorated pretzel rods, lovely brownies, donuts, cookies, and more.

Beautifully Wrapped Carmel Apples

Krispie Treats & Pink Ribbon Cookies

I loved the Pretzel Rods made by J.

Starbucks donated a large container of coffee, cups and stirrers.

Coffee Table

We’re excited about our upcoming Race on November 2, 2008.  If you are interested in participating in a Race for the Cure in your area, it’s not too late. Just visit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website to find the location and date in your area.

~LilSis

October 10, 2008

Here is a short list of Favorites that lets you know just a little more about each of us.  We won’t get into our favorite products here because we’ll be talking about those a lot in later posts.  Get us talking about MAC eyeshadows, nail polish, and the latest eye cream and we could go on forever.  Seriously.

Favorite time of day?

LilSis: Mornings

BigSis: Mornings

Favorite pastime?

LilSis: Working in my ceramic studio, working on my yoga practice, reading, riding my bike.  It’s too hard to choose just one.

BigSis: Baking, walking, crafting, yoga-ing, visiting estate sales.

Favorite place to relax?

LilSis: The beach, the yoga studio, or in the backyard by the pool.

BigSis: The beach, but since I’m a jillion miles away from one, the pool has to do.

Favorite vacation?

LilSis: Maui

BigSis: Maui Maui Maui!  And in my dreams – Italy and Greece!

Favorite flower?

LilSis: Special japanese white lily, stargazer lilies, yellow roses, bird of paradise, hybiscus, hydrangas.  I can’t choose just one.

BigSis: Hydrangea, roses and kaleidoscope orchids…they’re about the only ones I’m not allergic to.  Good thing I love them.

Favorite game?

LilSis: Bowling on Wii (I hold the household record of 289!). Second place goes to RockBand on Wii. I used to love playing Sims on the PC, but there’s no time for that these days. I could play that for hours!

BigSis: The Wii is pretty darn fun, but I don’t have one.  I have to admit that my secret guilty pleasure for the last 8 years or so is playing Diablo on the PC, and even though I don’t have time to do it much any more, it’s still my favorite.

Favorite magazine?

LilSis: At present, it’s a tie between Body+Soul and Fit Yoga.

BigSis: Although I subscribe to “Bon Appetit” and “Domino”, rIght now, I’m liking “More”.  The content just seems more relevant and accessible, rather than presenting airbrushed and photoshopped model twigs that don’t even look like that themselves.

Favorite Dessert?

LilSis: I don’t eat dessert.

BigSis: I’m not a big sweet eater, but when confronted by a brownie or cheesecake, I WILL have to have a bite!

Favorite fast food place?

LilSis: Taco Bell or Wendy’s

BigSis: Schlotsky’s!

Favorite restaurant?

LilSis: Locally, it’s Vigilluccis on Coast Highway in Carlsbad. In Texas, it would have to be Anamia’s in Southlake or Abuelo’s in North Richland Hills.

BigSis: Mia’s on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas for Mexican, Patrizio’s or Taverna for Italian.

Favorite drink (non-alcoholic)?

LilSis: Diet Rock Star first thing in the morning.  Then I switch to “Smart Water” for the rest of the day.

BigSis: Water

Favorite drink (alcoholic)?

LilSis: Kettle One & Fresca

BigSis: Heineken Light

Favorite television show?

LilSis: If I have the television on while I’m home alone, it’s always on Food Network. I did get hooked on “Hells Kitchen” when it was on.

BigSis: Lost!  And Project Runway and Top Chef!

Favorite movie?

LilSis: I’m a sap for anything that has a happy ending.

BigSis: Lord of the Rings (first one) or Forrest Gump?  Big, Steel Magnolias, Dirty Dancing, Rocky #1?  It’s hard to say!

October 9, 2008

Since I’m Captain of our team for the Komen San Diego Race for the Cure, I’ve volunteered to have a Rummage Sale/Bake Sale at my house on Saturday morning.  Garage Sales, I can do.  But Bake Sales?  I’m out of my league!! This is just another time when I wish I lived closer to SisMama and BigSis!

Last year, BigSis held a Bake Sale at her office to benefit Share our Strength, an organization working to end childhood hunger all over the country. The Great American Bake Sale was also supported by Food Network. BigSis raised approximately $1200 with the baked goods made by her, SisMama, and her co-worker, K. I know BigSis and SisMama worked for weeks baking and freezing goodies to prepare for their sale. It was a huge success!!

I sure could use their help now.  I’m not a baker and everyone knows that I’m not a baker, so I’ll probably end up making rice krispie treats!  Luckily, I have alot of team members contributing baked goods for the Sale.  All proceeds will go to our team goal for the Komen San Diego Race for the Cure.

~LilSis

October 9, 2008

For any of you that have already started reading our blog on a regular basis, you may have noticed that we haven’t had a post or comment from BigSis in several days.  She became ill last Thursday and was admitted in the hospital on Monday.  It’s not life threatening, but she was really, really sick.

BigSis, just want you to know that we are all thinking of you and praying for a speedy recovery! Love ya!

~LilSis

October 8, 2008

Today, I was going to write about getting started on decorating the house for Halloween.  I got inspired after my visit to the Pumpkin Farm in Chicago. But, that will have to wait for another day. It feels like summer here and I just can’t make myself go pumpkin shopping! Now that I think about it, I haven’t even seen pumpkins for sale here yet.  We are having unseasonably hot weather here in Southern California today. It was 91 at the coast! We usually don’t even get temps like these in the summer.

Great Waves at the Harbor Today!

HayHay has joined the surf team at his high school and they are supposed to practice at least three times a week. Now he has a perfect excuse to “have to go to the beach.” Somedays, I’m able to stay down there with them, but today, I had too much work to do. So, his friend’s mom dropped them off and I picked them up. I always have to take a couple of photos of HayHay, my “surfer dude.”

Time to go!

HayHay loves his new board!

There are, however, pros and cons of living in Southern California.  Right as I was leaving our house to go pick them up, I noticed a fire that had started pretty close to where I was located.

On my way to the beach

On my way home from the beach

Plane helping put out the fire!

When we got home, we heard on the news that it had burned 150 acres and then within a few hours, it had burned over 1000 acres. Luckily, there were no structures in immediate danger. There were actually planes and helicopters flying right over our neighborhood.

Photo taken from our house when we arrived home!

Last year, we were surrounded by the California fires.  HayHay missed a week of school due to the poor air quality. We were supposed to stay inside because it was raining “ash.”  Wildfires and earthquakes are definitely the drawbacks to living here in California. I always said that I would never live in California.

But, I also lived in Texas when tornadoes ripped through downtown Ft. Worth and were heading right in our direction. We actually had to take cover that time. We also lived in Upstate New York where it would snow for eight months out of the year. Our first year in New York, the first snow was on Halloween night and the last snow was on Mothers Day.  (And, I had already planted my herb garden.) We did love it there in the summer, though.

I guess no matter where you live, there will always be pros and cons.  We still love it here!

~LilSis