Stress. It’s been a busy week at work; the TC Sale is supposed to launch tomorrow; and on top of everything… it looks like Dr. Amy Jones is SICK! She was really weird last night, roaming the house and never really settling down. And then today we suddenly noticed that she’s going to the litterbox really frequently. (This morning it was like 3-4 times in half an hour.) I think the poor thing has a UTI. I’ve just called the vet and we’re going to take her in tonight. I feel awful for not noticing sooner. I know how painful that is for a human, so I hate to think she’s been trying to tell us that she’s hurting.

Update: And we’re back. The vet explained that cystitis in cats can be caused by a number of factors: stress, infection, crystals in urine, or even cancer. Her age makes cancer unlikely, and he didn’t feel any stones during the examination. So we’re going to treat her for an infection and hope that clears it up. He gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory something-or-other and a prescription of tablets. We just shoved the first one down her throat and – thank goodness – she seems to have eaten it without too much drama.

All up it cost us about ninety bucks. Do any of you have pet insurance? I was asking the lady at the vet about when it becomes a good idea. She seemed to think that a younger, strictly indoor female cat was probably a low risk, and it wasn’t really necessary. Given that we’ve had her for 4.5 years and this is the first treatment she’s ever had (beyond yearly checkups), I think we’re ahead of the curve. I’m just wondering when to start thinking about it…

What we’ve done with our veggie box so far:

• Potato Gratin with Caramelized Fennel and Leek. We had this last night (along with some salmon fillets) and it used up all of our potatoes, the leek, and the fennel. The flavour was great, but I’ve never had much luck with gratins. They always turn too soupy. What am I doing wrong?
• Cranberry-walnut chicken salad. I made this tonight and used up a bit of the celery and the cos lettuce. (I served the salad on the lettuce.) I already had some dried cranberries to use up in the pantry, so that worked out nice. All I ended up buying was some tarragon and shallots. It looked just like the picture! So vibrant and fresh. I actually really liked the celery in this.
• Mom’s Apple Cake. The Snook made this tonight and used up all but one of the apples and three of the oranges. It’s cooling on a rack as we speak. It smells fantastic.

So we’re down to one apple, half a celery, half a lettuce, and three oranges. This is kind of a fun puzzle! I hope we get different things in each box. It’s a good impetus to try out recipes, at any rate.

Cat-leidoscope. Other than a few missing orange splotches, that could be our cat!

Heroes fans! Claire Bennet says to vote for McCain. Of course, she also swears a couple of times, so you know she’s being sarcastic.

Giant bowl of bibimbap. Droooool…. ahhh…

The official race results are now available. My net time was 2:47:59, so I finished exactly 11 minutes slower than last time.

Food for the Future Veggie Box
Since we missed the Food for the Future Fair in Chippo this past weekend, I had a look at Eva’s photos to see how it went. I got really excited by this one which shows a leaflet about “veggie boxes.” The idea is that for $25-30, you get a box delivered every week full of in-season fruit and veggies from local farms in the Hawkesbury. The Snook and I immediately agreed that it’s a good idea. We always struggle with eating enough veggies, so this will force us to use them up (and learn new ways to cook them). I immediately filled out the order form and got an email back from the organizer right away. They were selling boxes at the Fair, and he still had one remaining box left if we wanted it. I walked over last night and picked it up!

So for our $30, we got a dozen organic free-range eggs, a few onions and potatoes, two different varieties of apples, oranges, a leek, a bulb of fennel, a head of cos lettuce, a bunch of celery, a tub of Blue Mountains honey, and five bottles of organic ginger beer. Nice! Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I think the eggs, leek, and potatoes are crying out to be used in a quiche or frittata. The fennel will be good braised or used in a stew. But what to do with a whole head of celery? Neither of us particularly likes eating it raw…

Portraits Of People In Clothes Made From Their Pets’ Fur. I find it’s much easier to just give your cat a cuddle before going out the door in the morning. You get covered with just as much fur, but you don’t have to bother knitting it!

I was surprised to see a story about Elkhart, Indiana (the area where I’m from) on Consumerist this morning. It was something about a new law that you’re only allowed to have one garage sale a month. I thought it was funny until I read the associated NYT article. Elkhart is hurting, bad. “The jobless rate in Elkhart has increased more than in any metropolitan area in the country.” Unemployment is over 9%. So many people were involved in the RV industry, and it’s just fallen apart because of the high gas prices. Unemployment, debt, and garage sales seem to be all that’s left. It’s pretty sad. Of course, the author has to tie it into politics at the end. The guy who says that he doesn’t think people there are “ready to vote for a colored President” just made me shudder.

If you’re like me, every time you hear The Hollowmen credits start, you think, “What IS that song?!” Tonight the Snook tracked it down for me. It’s an 80’s band from New Zealand called The Bats and the song is “North by North.” There you go!