Weekend off?

I don't know how it happened, but I have a whole weekend with no plans. No work, no rehearsals, no guests, no field trips; just church tomorrow. I even got the grocery shopping done early! I do have writing to catch up on, and I have studying to do now that the first of my books is here. The first class is Basics of Naturopathy, which is the only non-herbal class in my course. Of course, this time of year, there is always something to do outside--checking the garden, chasing sprinklers, battling weeds.

I think I might putter in the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. I want to make a pasta salad now that I finally have some ripe tomatoes, and I found a risotto recipe I want to try. I have two huge zucchinis so I may do some zucchini bread and freeze some of it.

It sure is nice to have a little down time.

Pineapple

A friend sent me an article a while back about growing pineapples. Apparently you cut off the top and stick it in dirt. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but since pineapples aren't expensive I decided to give it a shot. Eric put it on the floor for the cats to investigate while were were putting away groceries:


All three were surrounding it when I grabbed the camera. Ryan was sitting next to the rug and apparently sniffed too hard because I almost fell over on Tess. She was less than impressed and chased him off, which is why I only have Tess and Chloe in the picture. Not surprisingly, Tess stayed with the pineapple for several minutes after Chloe wandered off. Tess loves anything plant-related. If there are fresh flowers in the house, they're probably on the floor. She will climb as high as necessary to get to them, so we just put the vase where she can get to it for a day or two. I even caught her on the mantle once with her face buried in a vase full of fake flowers!

Sometimes they're worse than kids, I swear.

Cat zukes!

My garden is doing well, and the zucchini seem to be very happy if the size of the squash I've been getting is any indication. I've been experimented with breading and baking it rather than frying. Today for lunch I used Bisquik instead of bread crumbs, just for the heck of it. The result was all right but not stellar and I was about to toss it when Ryan came for a scritchy. He sniffed at my plate, which is normal. When it became something more than a perfunctory smell I put it on the floor for him.

He took a few tentative licks and looked up and me, and I told him to go ahead. He was only licking the breading off, but it was still funny to watch, especially when he picked up the edge of one piece and shook it. Of course, Chloe saw him eating and came to investigate. When he licked his chops and walked away, she came to have to turn. Tess, of course, turned her nose up. By that time it had tabby cooties.

Who knew tabbies like zucchini?