Super Foods

   さいきょみそ black cod (sablefish) with caramelized balsamic portobello kale. I have to thank my Aunt Marty as well as my Alaskan friends Greg & Peggy for this feast. Greg shipped a huge box of the fish to Marty for Christmas, and she passed half of it on to me. Most black cod goes straight to Japan, as it is too pricey and not as valued by Americans. It swims deep and is harder to catch. It is truly the best cooked fish I've ever had (usually, I vastly prefer my fish raw). The flavor super-rich and buttery, yet mild, perfectly accented by the miso/mirin marinade.
   I am trying to foster a love for kale, as it is supposedly very healthy—a "superfood". I love that it keeps seemingly forever in the fridge—I've at times kept it for more than a week and it was still perfectly crisp and bright. Kelley got me into it when I visited her in LA for Sean's birthday back in October. She throws a handful of kale into smoothies. I've grown to like the flavor, though it does turn smoothies a medium concrete-gray which is a little strange. I've found that it's truly delicious with frozen peaches, blueberries and banana and a splash of milk. 
   I needed a big, healthy dinner tonight, after spending a total of 3.5 hours shoveling 12+" of very heavy snow today. That brings me to 6 hours of shoveling in as many days. And although I LOVE the snow, my lower back is ready for a little break. But I'm very thankful that I am healthy enough and strong enough to do the work—it is fantastic exercise. And the neighborhood looks beautiful enveloped in a heavy blanket of snow.

All clear!

   It took a total of 2.5 hours to clear the 14" of snow off the driveway. My lower back is not totally happy about that. But I keep reminding myself that strong arms and back = a strong rock-climber, so count me in. And I may have finished just in time for the next big snow (fingers crossed). KMBC said six to ten inches. And NPR just said eight to TWELVE inches! Bring it!!!

Lost... and FOUND!!!

   Early this morning, Dianne was walking Zoey, who got spooked by a simple manhole cover, and in a stroke of bad luck, Zoey pulled away & bolted. Zoey is FAST—Dianne wasn't able to see her for long, and she was gone like a flash. I got the call from her while I was out at the sports complex for The Color Run, and headed over to help.

   I stopped home to pick up my dogs, hoping if Zoey saw or heard them, she'd respond. We walked and drove around the neighborhood for 4 hours in 100+ heat, to no avail. I started out with the dogs on foot, then Dianne picked me up and drove us around. We saw a lot of her very pretty neighborhood in Olathe, a green heron at the edge of a lake... and Bev, who graciously came out to help in the search!

   The dogs were troopers, patiently riding from stop to stop in Zoe's cage, and then zonking out when we stopped at Dianne's house to cool down with some water. Taylor loved Zoe's bed, while Aki was happy just to have a nice rug.

   Kathy and her dog Rex went over there tonight to continue the search. (I had planned to, but was so exhausted from the heat that I accidentally crashed on the couch, and was awakened by my mom calling to check on me... thanks, Mom!)
   Kathy and Rex ended up finding Zoey, and she's okay!!! She was hiding just blocks from her new home, in a heavily wooded area, which is what we suspected. Kathy wisely brought a squeaky toy with them, and that brought Zoey out of hiding. What a relief!
   I somehow "knew" that we'd find her; it would be too awful to imagine something terrible happening to this girl, after she'd spent 10 months in a puppy mill, 15 months in rescue with MSIR (at 3 different foster homes), and had 5 surgeries to correct a genetic problem in her back legs. She just had to be okay. Dianne reported that she is safely back at home, drinking tons of water, with a huge smile on her face.
   Here's what I've learned from the lost dog experience—passing along in case it's useful (though I hope you won't ever need it):
- Call friends to help, especially if the dog knows them
- Bring treats, favorite toys (esp. if they make noise!), and a leash
- Canvas the area, and talk to everyone you see—you never know who will find the dog. Bring fliers with the dog's photo, name, physical description, & your cell phone.
- Put a sign in the dog owner's front yard, so that if someone finds the dog, they'll know where it lives
- Leave food at the house: front & back porch; leave back yard gate, garage door open in case they return
- ALWAYS have a collar, harness, and ID tags on your dog whenever it is outside (esp. this time of year when they could be spooked by fireworks)
- Get your dog microchipped in case its ID is lost
- Call nearby animal shelters & animal control to alert them
- TRAIN your dog to come to you; it could save their life
- Stay calm & have faith!
and...
- Have a glass of wine available once the ordeal is over!


Here is an even more comprehensive list I found online. But our instincts led us to all the main ones—at it worked—yeah!!!

Prancer

   A tribute to the lil' dog who prances with her front paws when she wants your attention! Here is Zo-chan on MSIR's page, looking happy as ever!

   She loved hanging out on the deck with my pups. They really helped her adjust to being a normal dog. When she first arrived, I wasn't able to get photos of her, as she was nervous if you focused your attention on her. But look at her now, relaxed and happy!

   And speaking of "relaxed and happy", here she is in her brand-new home! Dianne reported that she was settling in very well in the first 24 hours. Sure looks like it... 9 months in a St. Louis puppy mill, 15 months in foster care, and 5 surgeries later, nothing can stop her. GO ZOEY!!!

Spa Day!

   Today everybody got a bath... first Aki and Taylor, and then Zoey, who emerged with an even more brilliant and fluffy white coat. I put them outside to dry in the warm sun. They, of course, wanted to come right back in. Sorry, gang!

 Then it was Kismet's turn.

   Don't let the forlorn face fool you. Once she got over the initial shock of the sound of the sprayer, she did very, very well. And looked adorable and hilarious. She didn't like the bath, but she liked being toweled off and she forgave me for the whole ordeal about 0.8 seconds after she was done. The damp kitty followed me all over the house afterward, purring and seeking more attention.

   As you can see, she wasn't traumatized. She is extra-soft and fluffy with a brighter, peach coat, and she smells like lavender. I thought Atom was a ham, but she might be the snuggliest kitty I've ever seen.

    Lest you think she's all good, though, she does like to torture Aki. The dogs are not allowed on my bed. Kitty is. Kitty knows this, and is exploiting it to taunt the dogs.

    While Aki stares at her with her, "Are you freaking kidding me?!" expression...

Visitor

   Mitty Moo, the neighbor cat, came around this evening & sat at my front door, crying out for his buddy Gypsy. He apparently doesn't realize she's not here to whisper sweet nothings to him anymore. He has always made me do a double-take because he looks so much like Atom, too... Double sadness for me.
   There are so many things I miss about having a kitty in the house... and the full impact of it has been hitting me the last two weeks. I miss having them run up and greet me at the door when I get home from work. I miss them snuggling up to me on the couch or in bed, purring like a motor. I miss them sitting on the toilet and waiting patiently for me to get out of the shower, so I can pay attention to them again. I miss Gyp yelling at me every time I whistled. She HATED it when I whistled—would come running from anywhere in the house and find me and demand that I stopped. I used to whistle the "I Dream of Jeanie" (or, more accurately, "I Dream of Gyppy") song when I wanted to get her attention. I miss seeing them rolling around on the deck in the sunshine.
   People often don't give cats enough credit for their companionship and unique personalities. Or maybe mine were uncommonly special. Maybe both.  :)

Extra super busy tiring weekend!

   I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and then did about 10x what I had actually planned... on Saturday I ran errands (clothes shopping, kayak-accessory-shopping, grocery shopping, and sushi lunch) and was out for several hours. Then I came home and mowed the lawn (enjoying the gorgeous weather!) while I did a load of laundry, then attached my kayak rack to the Rav4, and loaded the kayak just to make sure it worked. I invited Kelly over for a homemade pizza dinner, baked up a storm, and then we watched Anthony Bourdain's new Kansas City episode that aired earlier this week. (He visited Oklahoma Joe's, Stroud's, The Savoy Grill, Cigar Box, Town Topic, Rosedale BBQ, BB's Lawnside, Woodyard BBQ, Dirt Green Farms, tailgated at the Chiefs Game, and saw the Hair Museum in Independence.)
   Today I started working in the yard at 8 am (before I'd even had my coffee!), made a quick trip to the hardware store, planted coleus, weed-whacked the back yard, ate lunch on the front steps and talked to Loren & Champ, and then kept working right up until 1:15, when I had to quickly change and head to Swanson's for Aki's agility class. We spent a couple hours there running like crazy.

   On the way home, we stopped at the hardware store for another load of dirt, and then I worked in the yard for 3 more hours. The dogs sat out on the deck and observed, while chewing a couple of the big "dinosaur" bones (aka beef femur) I had bought for them. I went inside & out, checking on Gypsy and doing 3 more loads of laundry.
   By the end of the evening, I had watered, fertilized, and applied weed killer to the whole lawn, put down 19 bags of top soil to level out the grade (19 x 40 lbs. = 760 lbs.... a LOT to buy, load, lift, carry to the backyard, and dump. But apropos for Earth Day, I moved a lot of earth!). I cut and laid chicken wire over the new dirt, pounding large staples to hold it down—which I HOPE will finally keep Aki from digging, so that grass can grow again. She has been focused on one 4' x 4' spot for a few years, ever since she dug down and discovered an old credit yard. She seems convinced that there's more to find there...

   I weeded the flower beds. Moved some rock. Bought a bunch of perennials and planted them in my flower beds and containers. Mulched. Watered. Thanks to the head start Mom gave me, my yard might actually shape up okay this season!

Happy to be outside:

   After all that, I picked up, put the tools away, and came inside to give Gyp her treatment, give her another new food, feed the dogs, shower, run to McDonald's to get a Filet-o-Fish sandwich for Gyp (she only took 2 tiny bites, so I ate it), finish laundry, read the paper, have a glass of wine, blog, and crash!

Gray Skies are Gonna Clear Up...

   Put on a happy face! The scattered showers throughout the weekend gave way to bright blue skies. Little to be unhappy about this year, with the mild temperatures, blue skies, and gorgeous blooms. Here are a few photos from my back yard:

If it pleases the queen...

   Allyson just told me that she bought her kitty, Lacey, a new fleece (dog) bed for Christmas, and Lacey has hardly stepped out of it ever since. I was beaming when I read it: so sweet! And it reminded me of something similar that my cats have done:

   In Atom's last few months, he got really bold about stealing the dogs' beds, and I frequently spotted him curled up into a tiny ball in the middle of their big beds, with the dogs nervously shuffling around, afraid to disturb him to reclaim their spot. It made me so happy for him to take charge.

   Similarly, recently Gypsy has said "screw your rules" and is now spending the majority of her time lounging on the dining room table, where the cats had never been allowed before. I willingly gave in, in an attempt to coax her to eat, and now her bowls are right in the middle. Who cares... as long as the queen is pleased!  :)

I Know Some Doggies...

Who are cruisin' for a brusin'!!!

And giving me the evil green glowing eyes won't help!

   Any ideas on how to get them to leave the food bin alone are welcomed. They chewed off the latch while I was in Tahoe and are dragging it out every day now. I do want to keep it in the kitchen... after all, I have a built-in cubby designed specifically for it. (Can't add a door; it will block a wall vent.) WHY oh WHY did I want to adopt a smart breed instead of an easy breed?!

Utility Futility

   So I come home from work today, a bit frazzled by the pre-holiday busy-ness (and from working 10 hours yesterday to try to catch up, post-vacation). And preoccupied because I needed to collect Gypsy and take her back to the vet for more fluids. As I was leaving, I turned on the faucet & learned that I had no water.
   I called the water company and was told that someone requested that my service be shut off. Apparently, I am moving. They said they'd look into it "to see if it was an error" (because apparently *I* don't know whether or not I'm moving) & call me back.
   Meanwhile, I thought, "I'd better call the other utilities just to make sure." Good call: my electricity was about to be shut off, along with the gas and wastewater services! They had my accounts marked for "final bill" and were ready to close them out. I asked why I wasn't called prior to closing out the accounts and was told they weren't required to speak to me.
   "Unfortunately there is no fail-safe to keep this from happening," said the woman at the electric company. I asked each of them to make a note in my account in case the Mystery Person called again. (I am looking for you, dear Mystery Person.)
   The water guys finally called back. They *think* they can get it back on tonight. Great. Now to get Gypsy taken care of. So now I'm sitting at the vet now, listening to my baby howl with displeasure at being at the vet again, & hoping they fix my water quickly.
   I'm pretty irritated with the utility companies for having no way to know if calls are legit. I had to give them my name, address, phone & social security number just to talk to them, and they don't know who cancelled my service? Sigh.

Somebody missed me...

And she doesn't even seem to care that my lap was cheating on her with Kristin's cat.  :)

@#*!!!

   The dog keeps stalking my oven. I'm guessing this means another mouse is taking refuge from the cold. Wild animals sure are stupid, coming into the House of Danger!!!

YOU'RE HOME.

   I think Gypsy missed me, after 48 hours alone in the house--for the first time since I adopted Atom over 12 years and 7 months ago. She greeted me at the door (like she usually does) and has followed me around all day. And I've encouaged it by giving her two helpings of the prescription canned food she loves (she was diagnosed with poor kidney function Thursday night), as well as some shrimp from the Vietnamese spring rolls I just made, and tons of love. She has been spoiled since the day I found her over 14 years ago, as a starving, feral, stray kitty. So now I'm upping the ante and she'll be spoiled on a completely different order of magnitude.
   While I was camping, Carolyn, in reference to my Shibas, quoted her grandmother: "They probably think they fell in the honey pot!" And I think that sums it up nicely. I adore these animals and would do anything for them. I cherish them for their companionship, for making me laugh, and for being an inspiration to my artwork. Just coming home to their eager, fuzzy faces makes me happy almost beyond imagination. :)

Sleepy Saturday Night

   We all relaxed tonight after our busy day. Gypsy seemed to be inspired by my talk of yoga practice; but I'm not sure if she's doing half pigeon, full pigeon, or "I ate the pigeon"!

   Aki rubbed her eyes and said, "But I don't wanna go to bed—I'm not tired, Mom!"

   Mr. Tay is very much enjoying the super-soft and luxurious new bed that his bestest buddy Mary Ann gave him for his birthday. (When Aki isn't hogging it, that is.) He sinks in so much that he looks like a potato, without any legs!   Zzz...

For the Birds

    I just gave the dogs their biweekly baths, brushed their coats to reduce shedding in the house (Futile? Maybe.), and trimmed their nails. The dogs don't mind any of it—at least from the point where I turn off the water in the tub and allow them to shake dry. You can see it on their faces; they gleefully await the moment when I lift them from the tub and they shake so vigorously they often lose their footing, desperate to get the evil water off their backs!
   We're all hanging out on the deck (all three of us need to dry off!), enjoying all the sensations of late summer. The sight of the overgrown clematis, finally in brilliant bloom again, illuminated by the setting sun; the smell of fresh lavender; the sound of crickets softly chirping, outdone by the official soundtrack of summer the noisy cicada.
   A hear another sound that I love: the hummingbirds are back on their migration route through the Midwest and are especially active at dusk, when other birds have quieted. I always hear them before I see them; they're quite chirpy, chatty little birds. They light on the mulberry tree branches or the cable lines to stake out the best perch from which to approach the feeder.

   I stood on the deck less than eight feet from the feeder and watched them zip by, buzzing like a live wire, chasing each other out of their territory. (In the next photo, the blur on the right side is another bird swooping in to dethrone the poor lil' guy trying to take a drink!)

   Suddenly a female swooped down and hung in the air just inches in front of me—close enough to touch—wings beating so fast they were imperceptible; body barely bobbing in the summer breeze. I was wearing a vibrant red shirt, and she seemed to be sizing me up: was I a threat, or a tall drink of nectar? She pondered for several seconds--until a ruddy male swooped down and chased her off from "his" giant flower. They buzzed off into the weeping willow tree and disappeared. 

   I waited quietly and watched for a while, snapping photos, hoping to capture the fleeting creatures. They seemed fairly carefree about the dogs and me being so close. Their tiny heads were too full of thoughts of warmer climates, love, battles with rivals, and... pure sugar. 

Nothing sweeter than enjoying wildlife so close to home!

Japanese lesson: 私達は友達です

   I met Azusa by chance in the parking garage as I was leaving work today. I greeted her with my usual 「あずささん、こんにちは！」 And she was wearing a really cute outfit, so I added, 「あなたのスカートが大好きですよ！」

   She smiled and said, "I love that a few people here speak Japanese. It makes me so happy to have people around who understand me."

   That made my day. Those 5 years of hard work to earn a rudimentary understanding of the language was SO worthwhile for many reasons, but especially for this moment alone. Sure, Japan is a bit farther away than Ohio, but I can relate to being away from your family and have always felt welcomed by the KC community.

   Even when we look quite different or move very far away, wherever we find people who understand us and speak our language (literally or figuratively), we are home.　そして、家には全部の人が友達になりますですね。

Deja Vu

   Aki is working overtime to excel on her midyear performance review.
   On Sunday I came downstairs to find a dead mouse on the living room rug. None of the animals claimed it, and I quickly picked it up and disposed of it.
   Today I came home to find another mouse in precisely the same spot as before. Pretty sure Aki bagged it, as she greeted me at the door and was clearly excited to show it to me. Ugh.
   The heat must be driving them inside. It's not as if I leave food everywhere! And how dumb are these animals, seriously? Can't they smell cats and dogs when they enter? Do I need to put up a "DANGER" sign to warn them?
   I'm glad my animals are on the job. I just wish they didn't need to be. Also, very thankful that they're not eating their quarry. Also, need to throw away that rug. It seems to be the depository of choice for rodent spirits.

Visit from the Fam

   Dad, Diane & Lindsey drove in from Columbus this evening. And they delivered this amazing painting by Tamara Peterson, of which I am now the proud owner. Have to figure out where to hang it. The dining room is probably the place. Which is perfect, because now I can sit down and stare at it all day because I love it so much.

   Tam was one of a small handful of my very very favorite instructors at CCAD, and I owe a lot to her for all she taught me about design, color, craftsmanship, work ethic, and life in general. She was a critical influence during my most formative years as an artist. And now that I'm leading a team I realize how important all the "other stuff" she taught me is, too... and holy cow, that lady can PAINT!

No caption needed. Huge smile says it all!

   My animals especially liked Lindsey. She seems to be a natural with them, and Gypsy even does "招き猫" for her. Though she looks slightly annoyed in this particular photo:

Lindsey tries to capture The Gyp doing Maneki Neko.

   I called my home phone from my cell phone to show off Aki's best trick. She howls every time it rings. No idea why. Taylor doesn't get it either. But I think it's pretty charming!

Aki does her howl-at-the-phone trick, right on cue

   We made it a low-key evening since we all had to get up early in the morning for Dog-n-Jog...