cindy's world

This morning, I made turkey curry, wrapped spoonfuls in croissant rolls, and baked curry croissants while Mr. W played a game on his computer.
(rest mouse pointers over photos for captions)
First, chopped onions are sauteed with ground turkey. Then curry is dissolved in hot water and stirred into the mixture, and simmered.

Then spoonfuls of the turkey curry are rolled into the croissant dough.

Then the croissants are ready for the oven, which has been pre-heated at 375 degrees F.

15-20 minutes later.

Really. Who needs an actual camera anymore when the cameraphone is easier to grab, click, and load? I just take my 2gig card out of my camera, stick it in the computer, and here are the photos.

After I was done baking 4 pans of the stuff, he was still playing his game, so I got bored and fell asleep in the La-Z-Boy next to him. Then I woke up, he was still playing his game, I complained once again about being bored, and as nothing came of it, I fell asleep yet again. The next time I woke up I was totally stir-crazy so I went upstairs and got dressed to go to the gym. When Mr. W saw me about to leave, he suddenly decided he wanted to go work out, too. But in the garage he somehow convinced me to take a bike ride first.

Turns out, we’re a 2.5 mile scenic bike ride from Cook’s Corner! I was too exhausted by the time we got there (hills, man) to enjoy it, and I also didn’t want all the bikers to snivel at our idea of “biking”, so I declined Mr. W’s offer to drop in for a drink. Instead, I chugged from the water bottle I had on the bike and we went back home.

We’re going to the gym next, because this morning Mr. W realized we don’t have hot water. As in, when you turn the hot water portion of the faucet, nothing comes out. Cold water runs fine, tho. Weird. The plumber for our home warranty isn’t available till Monday, tho, so that means showers will be taken at the gym. Yay. This reminds me of when Diana and I didn’t have hot water at our senior year apartment one day because the building was working on the boiler, so to get ready for our morning class, we brought our toiletries and went to a restroom in a building on campus. While brushing our teeth, she paused and looked at me through the mirror and said, “I feel like we’re homeless.”

Yesterday while I was lounging on my living room couch, eating and playing on my laptop (and trying to recover from the shock of my doctor’s visit), I heard a faint rattling sound to my left. I looked over, looked out the window behind me, but didn’t see anything amiss. I listened again, and it was still there, a faint on-and-off rattle, lasting about a second and a half, with an equal pause, and then another rattle for a second and a half. I finally crawled over the couch and peered over the left arm, down at the triangle of space formed by the side of the couch, the side of the La-Z-Boy recliner, and the side of the end table. There was a black and white and pink ball on the ground in the triangle, and it was snoring.

Looks like my fuzzy wuzzy Dodo boy has found a new spot to hang that’s totally invisible except from the top and the back view.

Is there anything more comforting than hanging in your home on a day off and listening to the snoring of a snoozing cat? Awwww… Little joys of life.

Dodo was audacious last nite. Twice, he tried to go onto my super duper expensive chenille La-Z-Boy, causing me to yell, which in turn caused him to dart off with a guilty “rawr!” and settle down on the carpet. Twice, I walked into my bedroom to find him lounging in the middle of my bed. The boy knows he’s not supposed to be on furniture! As it is I let him hang out on the backs and arms and the middle section of the tri-sectional couch (which I will be soon rid of as I take over my parents’ cream leather couch). So in the middle of the night, feeling bad for the forlorn looking kitty gazing at me with wide round eyes, I got my sacrificial chenille sweater, folded it up, and put it on the floor next to my bed. He happily took that over, kneaded it while purring loudly, and slept on it like it were a pillow. So I got my little taste of heaven around 4am. The cat’s purrs dissolved into the increasing volume of a rainfall. Thus were the sounds around me as I was lulled into a deep comfortable sleep, curled up between flannel sheets underneath a heavy cotton Chinese comforter. As I drifted, I pictured all my neglected plants and flowers happily drinking up rainwater. I’m sure I smiled in my sleep.

That is, until the stupid nightmare where I dreamt I was on a large ship to go to China, and somehow my family was also on the cruise, and during the family banquet, Mr. W was missing and I was thinking he didn’t want to do the formal banquet so he must be enjoying the gambling floor or something in his sloppy clothes. I called Jordan to tell her to put on her formal dress and to invite her to the banquet, and when she picked up, she said hello and presumed I’d called looking for Mr. W, and I heard a shuffle as she handed him the phone! I demanded why the hell he wasn’t at the banquet, that’s the whole reason we’re on this freaking cruise, and he said because he’d wanted to see San Pedro and apparently, Jordan was on her way out to explore San Pedro and so he just went along with her. I was livid. (I also didn’t even know we were docked at San Pedro.) I yelled at him so loud that I had to leave the banquet hall to avoid the curious looks from other guests, and I walked out into the hallway and yelled so loud THERE that I got more looks.

This morning, I’m mad at Mr. W and at Jordan. Hmmph! Of course, Jordan can redeem herself by posting on her blog so that we can have something new to read. 🙂

I was waiting for the laundry to churn, and of course I was watching TV as this is happening, and TV rarely fails to lull me to sleep. My last load was removed from the dryer at 11:30 p.m., but I couldn’t bring myself to lug the hamper upstairs to fold and put away clothes; I only got as far as the chenille La-Z-Boy recliner in the living room. I woke up sideways on the recliner at 3am and dragged myself with now-cold clothes into my bedroom to the soundtrack of some infomercial about land auctions. I almost called the auction info line, but stopped myself by reminding myself that there’s a reason these things play on TV at 3am — the head is heavy, the will is low and the common sense is null. I’ve bought many a useless item and joined some shameful programs while being awake in the wee hours of the morning. I almost even joined the Navy once. (Why does the Navy advertise at this time? Are they that short on low-judgment insomniacs? Or maybe being awake at this hour somehow makes you an ideal armed forces candidate, i.e. it shows you have high stamina and unusual strength and wisdom. Yeah.)

So of course I’d fallen asleep with my contacts and makeup on, and now that I’ve made it upstairs, I brushed my teeth, took out my eyeballs and washed off my face, then put away laundry, putting aside clothes I would bring with me to Vegas. And now I’m wide awake.

“How’d you sleep?”
“Like a donut.”
“How does a donut sleep?”
“With a hole in the middle.”

Now that I’m in bed, I’m gonna try to go back to sleep. Experience tells me that because it’s past 4am, I’m gonna be in the middle of some REM cycle and will not hear my alarm at 7a. Someone call my house and wake me up if you read this in the morning!! (You like how this post has a hole in the middle?)

I like being at home and hanging with the Dodo. This morning, I was singing to myself and suddenly, he was before me, meowing looking up at me. I bent down and petted him, still singing, and he wauled along. Just now, I was IMing with my childhood friend Sandy, talking about our cats the way other adults talk about their children.

Sandy: he’s [Dodo] the only cat i know that talks..
Sandy: and a lot…
Me: all cats talk.
Sandy: meowmeowmeowmeowmeow…
Sandy: very very cute…
Sandy: no Marsh is a mime
Me: I’ve heard him talk.
Sandy: barely.
Me: my cat likes to talk to me.
Me: and he sings with me, too.
Sandy: lol
Sandy: mine just looks at me like I’m stupid
Me: mine found a new corner to tuck himself away in.
Me: now he’s hanging out between the la-z-boy and the couch.
Sandy: he’s sleepy.. cat nap time
Me: wonder when he started doing htat.
Sandy: well.. he knows where it’s comfortalbe
Me: it is a cozy little corner.

I turned and watched my little furry boy affectionately.

Me: he’s dreaming.
Me: his paw’s twitching.
Sandy: lol.. how cute
Me: he looks like he’s doing calculations on an abacus.
Sandy: LOL…
Sandy: only you will say he’s doing colculations on an abacus
Sandy: i’d say.. he’s chasing a mouse?
Me: oh, haha.
Me: that’s true.

Yesterday I was engaged in a long conversation with an old friend (who JUST emailed me right now, how weird!) on the drive home from work, and the conversation continued as I plopped sideways onto my chenille La-Z-Boy recliner, which ended all hopes of making it to jujitsu last nite for me. I decided to at least go for a run and try to prepare somewhat for the Disneyland half-marathon coming up in a couple of months, and I changed into my running clothes. Before I even got off the phone with the first friend, Dwaine called me. Turned out he had a hard month at work and was looking for a drinking buddy. So off came the workout clothes, on came the casual going-out clothes, Dwaine stopped by to pick me up in his new ’68 restored Camaro, and we were off.

Actually, it didn’t work like that. After first showing off his car, Dwaine came inside where I showed off my chair. He’d heard about it, but never seen it. True to its reputation, the La-Z-Boy sucked in the bachelor and it took some time and convincing to get Dwaine out of that chair so we could go out. He really enjoyed the motors.

Anyway, Dwaine felt like Italian food so we attempted to go to Market City Caffe in Brea, but it was just closing at 9pm. So we skidaddled over to the Cheesecake Factory near the Brea Mall. The food was wonderful, Dwaine introduced me to a refreshing drink made with Absolut Citron, tonic water, and a slice of lemon, but I ordered a yummy mojito. When the bread came, we found that the foil-wrapped pats of butter were cold, which made them unspreadable. We lamented on this simultaneously and each warmed a pat of butter in our hands. Here’s where Dwaine gets mega brownie points… We were just sitting there, laughing and munching, and I reached for another piece of bread. I scooped up the sliver of butter I had left on my foil and spread it on the bread, which wasn’t nearly enough, but before I could reach for another packet of butter, Dwaine tossed a pre-warmed pat in front of me on the table. He had stopped eating bread long ago. I looked up at him in surprise. “I saw that you were running out of butter and I thought, ‘She’s gonna need more butter!’, so I already warmed this up for you.” How considerate, observant, and gentlemanly! We joked about how a slick a guy would be if he carried around foil packs of butter in his wallet, how one day when it’d come in handy, it’d be more effective than condoms stored in a wallet on winning a girl’s affection, and if you get stuck in a doorway, you can grease yourself out of the situation. I dunno, it made sense when we were drinking. BTW, Dwaine titled this blog post.

He also took the following shot with my camera WHILE driving, with his arm out the window pointing the camera at us. “One of the few benefits to having long arms,” he demonstrated. I was just relieved he didn’t drop my camera on the street, or have a passing car take his arm out.

Guys! I just bought, as a total impulse purchase, a La-Z-Boy Airspa (R) massage recliner with heat and 10 motors! It has self-inflating and -deflating lumbar pillows, different modes of massage; it reclines and rocks; it fits me vertically and horizontally; and the fabric is oh-so-soft cream chenille! I had been playing with the idea of getting a recliner for my living room (it needs more seating) and when Vanessa moves out and takes a dining room set with her as she promised to do, I’ll have a nice space for a recliner or a loveseat that faces the living room and bigscreen TV as well as the dining area and kitchen. I meant to just look in the La-Z-Boy store to get some ideas when Mr. W and I walked by it on our way back to the car after breakfast, but then, there that chair was. Softer than anything (except Dodo, and parts of my lower abdomen), it rocks (in the colloquial and literal definitions), and it massages! I’ve always loved overstuffed furniture I could curl up in. And here’s the kicker. It was 50% off because that cream chenille fabric is being discontinued (the other models in different fabrics are still original priced at $1600), and this weekend’s sale is THE STORE PAYS SALES TAX! Woohoo! Mr. W has a truck, so I don’t even pay delivery. I was nervous about my cat perhaps taking a liking to the chair, but the salesperson said just to turn it on when the cat’s around and once Dodo sees that it vibrates, makes noise, and rocks, he won’t come near it. That’s true. Dodo hates the vacuum for the same reason. YAY!!