Day 288

I taught Seth how to do dishes tonight.  He had done a few in the past, but this time he had more to do and I gave him more instructions.  I looked over to check on him and saw Felix at his feet (at one point the cat was under the stepstool but of course he moved by the time I got my camera out).  Such a cute sight, especially when someone else is helping with chores!  The only downside was that the floor was covered in water by the time he got done.  I’d say he definitely needs a little more practice at this task and I need to get a rug on the floor.

Day 278

Our cat Felix continues to make us laugh.  I was doing laundry in the basement today when I turned around and spotted him in a peculiar place.  Crockett has a few mounted deer heads hanging on the wall on the unfinished (storage) side of the basement and Felix decided to get a closer look.  Excuse the bad lighting…it is pretty pourly lit down there.

Day 275

As a child growing up, we would make campground donuts.  It was an occasional treat that my brother and I really loved but my mom usually only fixed them when we would go camping.  It’s been years (since the late 1990’s) since I last had one and so I decided to make some this morning.  Though not a healthy breakfast, it’s easy peasy.  Simply take a can of refrigerator biscuits.  Use a shot glass or donut-hole maker to cut a donut hole in the center of each biscuit.  Place the donuts & donut holes in a single layer in a pan containing a layer of heated oil and fry each side slowly until golden brown.  Remove the donuts from the pan and bread them with cinnamon/sugar.  Eat and enjoy! 

Though tasty, I have to admit that these aren’t nearly as delicious as I remember.  Probably because I’m not as much of a fan of grease as an adult.  Not only are the donuts fried in oil, but the biscuits themselves are fatty (with shortening).  If you make these, avoid using the grand or extra large refrigerator biscuits as they tend to get too well done (nearly burnt) before the donuts are fully cooked in the center.  We only had the extra large kind today and that’s how I know!  You can see how thick the donuts are since the hole isn’t very big.

And here’s the finished product…

And of course I have to include a photo of our cat being cute.

We had a large conifer behind our shed that developed some type of wilt and was dying.  It was quite the eyesore, but we had to wait for Ameren to come cut it down because it was intermixed in the power lines and was located within a few feet of the main transformer.  Though it took them many months to get out to our house, they finished it in one day.  Unfortunately they only cut it down just below the lines so the tree trunk was still taller than our shed.  Crockett got to work cutting it down this morning.  He had to go section by section until it was more manageable.  Even then, I had to help guide it’s fall with a rope as a backup.  No sense damaging our shed.  Ignore the mess behind the shed (please and thank you).   

 

And then for the best part of the day….a date with my wonderful hubby.  We went out a day early to celebrate our 13th anniversary over dinner while the neighbors watched the kids (my mom is going to watch the kids for us overnight at a later date, so we’re just doing dinner tonight).  We dined at a local restaurant called Indigo.  The food is a bit pricey, especially for the portion sizes, but I had purchased a $50-off coupon a few months ago for just $2 at Restaurant.com. Here’s what we dined on and a little review of each dish…and pictures too, though keep in mind they were taken with my iPhone in a candlelit restaurant.

Appetizers:

• Scallops - Pan seared jumbo divers with roasted roma tomatoes and honey balsamic reduction $15 (delicious but there were only 3 scallops)
• Crab Cakes - Panko encrusted jumbo lump crab over tahitian vanilla bean, lemon grass beurre blanc $12 (2 large meat-ball sized cakes, lots of crab meat, tasty but doesn’t compare to crabcakes we had in Maine)

Salad:

• Small plate of mixed greens with craisins and roasted almonds.  Served with a small platter of pita triangles accompanied by roasted garlic pods, hummus, and olives.  (Salad was good, though Brian thought it was a little boring.  Hummus and garlic pods were yummy.  I’m not an olive fan so no comment on that)  Forgot to get a picture.

Entrees:

• Sea Bass – Fresh Chilean Sea Bass pan seared and served over basmati rice cakes with a carmelized shallot and lemon emulsion $32 (this was my entrée and it was FANTABULOUS….perfectly cooked fish and the carmelized shallots were the perfect touch.  Rice cakes were good but I would have prefereed a little more flavor.  We both agreed that this was the BEST DISH of the night!)
• Yellowfin Tuna - #1 Sashimi grade tuna steak seared RARE in black and white sesame crust over ginger wok fry, mandarin ponzu and wasabi aioli $19 (this was Crockett’s entrée and it was really delicious as well.  I’m not a fan of sushi so I wasn’t sure if I would like it.  I’m glad I decided to taste it because it was really good.)

Desserts:  Crockett and I shared our desserts

• Crème Brulee (very delicious but I prefer a little more carmelization on the top and I thought the custard was just a touch runny)
• Lemon Shortcake with berry topping (superb taste.  I was worried the cake would be dry but it was super moist & it was a great dish to end the meal)

In order to get the $50 off, we had to spend $100.  Not too much of a problem at this restaurant, though we did have to order more food than normal.  Despite the list of foods we ordered (and finished), we were not overly stuffed.  As I said, portion sizes here are smaller than most restaurants, but I actually liked that. With all this food and 1 glass of Merlot, our total came to $100.50.  By the time they added on tax and gratuity, we still ended up paying $80.  But it was an awesome meal.  There was a beautiful sunset when we walked out of the restaurant.  It was the perfect end to a perfect date night.  I have a 2nd coupon for this restaurant and I can’t wait to come again!    

I’ll leave you with a photo of us.  I had my neighbor take it before we left on our date.

Day 274

During the first Saturday of most every month, Crockett’s gun club hosts a youth shoot where the kids come out and shoot various types of guns.  The club provides the guns, ammunition, and lunch afterwards for free….even to non-members.  Crockett usually goes out to help because he enjoys teaching kids about guns and he would rather put in his mandatory work hours doing something fun like this rather than mowing.  Anyway the kids are usually an older crowd….typically teenagers; but since today was the first morning of deer season, most of them were gone and it was a younger crowd.  So Crockett had me bring our kids out to shoot.  Rather than lug around my big camera, I brought along our new point-and-shoot camera to test it out.  I think it did pretty well considering it was mid-day in bright sun.

After lunch, we went down to the lower gun range at the club and watched some IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) pistol shooters getting ready for their match tomorrow.  These shooters shoot at multiple targets (including moving targets, targets that react when hit, penalty targets, and partially covered targets, etc.).  You might think of it as action shooting and it’s similar to how you would imagine policemen to train.  It’s actually quite fun to watch.  There were a lot of people standing around so it was hard to get some great shots. 

  

Later this afternoon, I was prepping some stuff to list on eBay and Felix had to be close by.  My activities were not very exciting so he quickly fell sound asleep.  My gosh, can this cat get any cuter?!!

Day 271

Tonight I’m going to share some recent photos of Felix.  These photos were taken a few days ago.  He does such cute stuff that we marvel over him constantly.

Silly cat is wearing his new collar of shame.  I call it that because he has been collar-free for several weeks after we realized that he wasn’t trying to sneak out the door.  Well fast forward to Sunday and he snuck out into our attached garage several times in one night.  Luckily the overhead garage door was shut so he was still contained.  We cornered him each time and threw him back in the house, but then he just sat there and meowed incessantly (he is part Siamese after all, and they are very vocal).  Crockett decided to try to scare him from wanting to go outside.  He went out into the garage armed with a squirt bottle and then left the door cracked behind him.  Soon after, Felix wandered over and pawed the door open, so Crockett squirted him.  After the 2nd time doing this, he quit whining to go outside.  However, we are not convinced that he is over this temptation yet, so he has to wear a collar again so that he has an ID tag if he manages to sneak outside and get lost.  Thus, I call it the collar of shame.  I have threatened him with the cone of shame if he sneaks out again but since he’s a cat, I’m sure he doesn’t understand!

Over the weekend, I brought up a tub of clean towels and set them on the island in the kitchen for a bit.  Well Felix found that tub before I could take it down the hallway and he decided that it would make a pretty comfy bed.  I came into the room and he was all curled up and cozy.  I didn’t have the heart to move him (plus it was a good excuse not to have to put away the towels!).  Note that these were taken pre-collar!

Day 260

Crockett got a new camouflage backpack and Felix couldn’t resist.  He curled up on it while it was on the floor.  I think it’s so cute that one of his arms is through the shoulder strap. 

Later that night, we ventured out to Sam’s Club to pick up some groceries (and a cheap dinner from the café).  Crockett got a little zany at one point.  Note: this was a brand, new trash can that was for sale, not a used can!

Day 258

GothGirl’s school hosted their Open House tonight, so we went to meet her teachers and stuff.  After arriving, she took us to her locker first.  This is the same locker that she gets complimented on by other students and teachers due to the coordinating locker accessories and neatness.  Sadly I forgot my camera at home in our haste to get out the door, so these photos were taken with my iPhone.

Next we visited her classrooms.  Here she is showing off one of her projects….

And here’s one of the class art projects for which she did most of the designing and drawing.  Each class had to make a giant “poster” like this using the Book Fair’s “We Read, We Rock!” theme. 

It was a fun night and we enjoyed seeing many of the other kids and parents with whom we were acquainted, though there were so many more families that we had never seen before since this is GothGirl’s first year at the Middle School.

Later that night after the kids were in bed, Crockett and I were watching a movie when Felix decided to check out the screen.  He proceeded to sit down in front of it and bat at the moving figures.  Crazy cat!  We had to move him down several times so that we could see the screen.

Day 253

My mom came into town this weekend to see LilCrockett play baseball (sadly, the game was cancelled due to a wet field) and visit.  We always enjoy it when she comes and are sad when she leaves.  We had a fun time eating dinner with the neighbors (Crockett smoked a pork shoulder, which tasted out-of-this-world) and having a few drinks. 

It’s been awhile since mom’s last visit, so this was the first time she has met our cat Felix.  She was pretty taken with him too.  GothGirl decided to knit him a little hat, so I snapped a picture of him modeling it.  He was not too happy about it as you can see.  I told her she needs to find a way to make ear holes for him.  Cute, huh?!!

Day 249

LilCrockett’s class was assigned a family project and it was due today.  Each kid received an enlarged paper doll with a picture of their face.  The doll was to be decorated to resemble their desired career choice.  LilCrockett wants to be a policeman, so we got to work with all my papercrafting supplies.  Here’s the finished product…too bad you can’t see some of the detail (a 3-D bill on the hat, embossed silver badges, etc.).

Our last cat, Kenai, had a habit of sleeping up on the cable box near the TV.  Today we caught our new cat, Felix, lounging on the TV stand.  It’s the first time he’s ever gotten up there.  I think he likely would have found the warm cable box too, but there was something sitting on top of the box preventing that.

Day 248

Hostas in bloom around my yard…

My cat has this cute sitting posture and I finally captured it in a photo.  Excuse all the craft supplies nearby as GothGirl was in the middle of an art project.

LilCrockett engrossed in a movie with the afternoon sun streaming in…

My handsome hubby…

Day 245

Felix’s favorite toy is a stuffed fish on a string that’s tied to a pole.  He is on his third one of these and he never gets tired of it.  When you wave it around, you can get him to jump to crazy heights in an effort to “catch” it.  He’s fairly maniacal about it.  I figured it was time to get a picture of him with his fish.  He was playing with it by himself in this photo so I need to try to get one of him when he’s jumping for it.