Random Wednesday is Random

Moving on with stealing borrowing themes from other bloggers:

1. Random cat picture.



This is Logan (my bedtime alarm cat), in his favorite daytime sleeping spot once the weather turns cooler. The cats claimed one of the packing boxes when we moved in, so I shoved it in the dining area corner next to the cat scratching platform. You can see one of the multitudes of cat toys next to the box. The base of one of the kitchen cabinets has been designated the Toy Spot; all cat toys get kicked there before cooking begins, for the safety of all inhabitants.

2. I love fall. I love the crisp, sunny days. I love the drizzly, curl-up-on-the-couch days (even when I can't. Curl up on the couch, that is.) As any knitter, I love the re-emergence of wool and the satisfaction of wearing hand-knit socks without my feet spontaneously combusting.  Know what else loves fall? Ragweed and mold. Until today, I had a sinus headache for three weeks straight that was bad enough to wake me in the middle of the night several times. Gah. Now that it's cold enough to keep the windows shut, I'm feeling much better.

3. Cake. To celebrate five years in our current office, our landlord brought by a buttercream cake. Last year it was cookies, the really good gourmet ones with big chunks of chocolate and nuts. I felt a bit wistful looking at this little white cake, until we actually cut into it. None of us are sure what they used in the filling, whether it was caramel or butterscotch or some unknown light brown substance, but after the first bite, no one cared. I had a piece at lunch, and snuck a little sliver while getting a glass of water this afternoon. My boss confessed to doing the same thing. Seriously awesome cake. For the sake of our diets, it's a good thing we don't have an anniversary every week.

4. Detective shows, and the purposeful addicting thereof. I watched NCIS long before M got interested, usually by his wandering in the living room while I was watching an episode on TiVo. I hooked him on The Mentalist midway through the first season. And most recently an episode of Leverage caught his attention on one of his fly-bys. So now he's trying to repay me by force-feeding me Monk. I like Tony Shalhoub, and the show is okay. But mostly I agree to watch it when I'm too tired to watch a show that I'm emotionally invested in, like NCIS or Stargate Atlantis. I'm not sure if this means he's won, or I have.

5. Are you sure you like this stuff? I still haven't watched anything on Atlantis past "Trinity" (due to problems with missing episodes on an unreliable TiVo hard drive, now fixed). Or anything on The Sentinel after "Neighborhood Watch". Or the last season of SG1 past the first three episodes. (Vala makes my hackles go up. Sorry.) Or the fifth season of Buffy, when it moved to a (non-existant in St. Louis at the time) UPN station. Or Angel between Darla giving birth and Joss doing a "Bobby Ewing in the shower" reset for the last season. And yet I really do consider myself a fan of these shows. Read the fanfic, sometimes write the fanfic, and everything. Maybe this winter I'll get caught up...

6. Crockpot cooking is not a science. Take one boneless sirloin roast tied with butcher's string. Nestle it in a bed of chopped onions, cubed potatoes and carrots, then pour a can of stewed tomatoes over the top. Cook until seven PM. Hide half of roast from husband, so he doesn't inhale the other 1.5 pounds of meat destined for sandwiches later in the week. Sop up every bit of excellent meat and veggies. 

Now, do the same thing a month later. What a disappointment. The meat was overcooked and dry, the potatoes and carrots barely done enough to eat, and the flavor decidedly lackluster. The only difference? The roast was still mostly frozen the first time, so I turned the power up on high for the first three hours, then turned it down for the rest of the time. Problems with recreating this circumstance: one, you're not supposed to cook frozen meat in the slow cooker, because of bacteria issues. Two, I'm back to working five days a week, so I'm not home to turn down the crockpot in the early afternoons anymore. We will just have to remember the tender, flavorful roast with sad fondness.