Table for one, please

I'm trying to get back into the habit of cooking healthy dinners for myself and eating them at the dinner table, rather than inhaling mac-n-cheese while perched precariously over the coffee table in the living room. Tonight I made some sort of baked tilapia dish with spinach, onions, and tomatoes. It was pretty good and I have more than enough leftovers to tide me through lunch the next couple of days. It's been really difficult for me to muster the willpower to actually cook myself dinners these days; lately it just seems like so much effort and expense for one person, but hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things without too much belly-aching on my part.

In related cooking-type news, I've spotted a glimpse of my dream kitchen thanks to a post today on apartmenttherapy.com (one of my current online obsessions):



Of course, my dream kitchen wouldn't be complete without these retro-inspired appliances from Big Chill:



Now with a set up like that, you'd have to drag me out of that kitchen; my mac-n-cheese nights would definitely be few and far between, I guarantee it!

Offbeatbride redux

I just got word that Captain Husband's and my wedding is being re-posted on the awesome website, offbeatbride.com. You can check it out here!

If I were a rich girl, part 3

I simply can't resist the charming illustrations of artist Jesse Wilcox Smith (1863-1935). Best known for her work in magazines and children's books, Smith was a prolific artist; in addition to creating illustrations for books and magazines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she also provided covers for Good Housekeeping from 1917 through 1933. Smith and her friends and fellow artists Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley were known as the "Red Rose Girls" and lived in a picturesque house on Philadelphia's Main Line where they led rather unconventional lives for their time. Alice A. Carter wrote a fabulous book about these incredible women and I highly recommend it, if only to look at the pictures.

This particular work is entitled "Curly Locks" and is a pastel on paper. Executed in January of 1914, it was used as an illustration for Good Housekeeping Magazine's Mother Goose series. There's just something about the way that Smith manages to capture the sweet (but not saccharine) essence of childhood that tugs at my heartstrings...it's a cute overload!



So who wants to lend me a couple grand?

Mistaken identity crisis

I've had my rather distinctive email address going on six and a half years now; thanks to my tech-geek friend, I was able to score one of the first gmail addresses out there when it became available to non-tech people like myself. Unfortunately, it seems that a number of people have not gotten the hint that my email address belongs to me, and only me, and I have been receiving over the past few months weird emails from different services that I have supposedly signed up for. As of right now, there are at least three individuals out there who are either incredibly stupid, lazy, or are cursed with the inability to spell simple words repeatedly. And its not as though this is just email newsletters or the like clogging up my inbox; I've received email messages from one individual's mother, another containing rather sensitive material such as the person's mailing address, phone number, and bank information from another woman in Georgia who apparently recently purchased a house, and the most recent has come in from chemistry.com. I've had it about up to here dealing with these morons, so I decided to do something rather passive aggressive about it. I logged into the chemistry profile with the information provided to my email account and updated the profile to this:

Is it mean? Maybe. But I'm hoping that it will get the point across to this person once and for all that they keep entering the incorrect email address over and over and over again. Some people's kids. Sheesh.

Good news, bad news

Awhile back I blogged about the barrister bookcase that I scored for a song missing its top and base; well, the new top and base arrived in the mail today (it only took a total of two weeks from start to finish, and a chunk of that was postal time). I excitedly unpacked the giant box to examine my new goodies and realized that one of the legs was damaged and cracked. Now if it had been a bump or a scratch, I wouldn't care at all (I grew up surrounded by a scratch and dent aesthetic), but this is more than just a superficial matter. Crap. So that's the bad news part. (I figure the Antique Repair Guy will fix things, though, so it could be worse). Now on to the good news...

This afternoon I was the successful bidder on this little gem:
I know I'm going to sound like a crazy cat lady, but that's Trish on the left and Josie on the right. Right? Someone please tell me I'm not nuts (ok, you have to imagine the cat on the right with a nubbin' for a tail, but still). The painting, which is an oil on canvas from about the 1850s or 60s, couldn't be more perfect if I had commissioned it myself. What makes it even more fitting is that I found out about the auction the day after deciding that the best thing to do for Josie was to put her to sleep. Seeing this painting lifted my spirits and gave me something to look forward to. And soon it will be gracing my home, so that whenever I look at it I'll think of Josie and Tricia and the short, but sweet, time that we shared together.

Josie

"Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die."
Amelia Burr (1878-1968)

The hardest decision

Tonight I took both of the girls to the vet's for their weekly check-in; Trish needed to have her glucose levels monitored and Josie was due for some more fluids. I wish I could say that Josie has been doing well since her visit last Wednesday, but that would be more than simple optimistic embellishment on my part. The fact of the matter is that over the past 2-3 days her condition has worsened to the point where she can no longer control her bladder (in addition to her bowels) and is having trouble with both of her hind legs now and therefore can't move around very much at all. I told Dr. Neff about these recent developments and so he drew some blood for tests and checked her body for any abnormalities. When he was palpating her abdomen, he grew very concerned and ordered an x-ray immediately. What he saw was not good; Josie has fluid leaking internally which has filled most of her abdomen. He can't tell where the fluid is coming from without an ultrasound, but the fact of the matter is this...one or more of Josie's organs are failing and there's no magic pill that I can give to her that will make it all better. At this point it's about making the hard, but right, decision to do what's best for her. So it is with a very heavy heart that I have decided to put Josie to sleep this Friday afternoon. She's been a sweet, brave girl and has fought very hard, but ultimately her body just can't take any more and to prolong her life like this would be very cruel indeed. Nursing Josie through her sickness these past few months has been very difficult for me and I wanted to let you all know that I've truly appreciated all of your kind words and well wishes.