Laura

So we lost our Apple cat earlier this year, to cancer. (She was 16 or 17.) I miss her so much, and I wish I'd had a crystal ball to do a little better by her. But we did our best.

We have two six-month-old kittens now, Kala and Maria, adopted from Cat Adoption Team. They and Ray are still at a bit of a standoff - he is very hissy at them when he sees them, so they are mostly living in the upstairs bonus room (and playing chase/raceway above our heads every morning, quite happily), which is also where Scott works from home, so they get lots and lots of people time if they want it. Fortunately only some of their people time interrupts his workday, or we'd have to rethink that arrangement.

With Twitter in a mess, I'm going to try to be more here, as well as on Mastodon and Instagram and Facebook. But let's be honest, I wasn't on Twitter a *ton*, so this is not going to free up a whole lot of my attention, and it's the holidays.

I did, though, want to share kitten picture: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl7GVpmPYtQ/

There are a few others over there if you want, but that one is so far the very most adorable of the bunch.

Mmmmmmmm. Clam Chowder (Jake's, from a can...so sue me) was always among my favorite things growing up. YUM. And...then I had to go lactose-free. Clam Chowder generally doesn't work with that. And then I went low-FODMAP...onions, celery...oops.

So. Today I have GLORIOUS clam chowder, richer than what I was used to, but in a very good way.
I started with https://fructosefreeme.com/tag/clam-chowder/ and made the following changes:

• Substitute Earth's Balance one-to-one for butter
• Substitute lactose-free whole milk one-to-one for cream
• Completely omit celery
• Use only 1.5 turnips (because shredding turnips is a pain...)
• Substitute 1/2 tsp dried thyme (because I had it)
• Substitute 3 ounces of chopped cooked bacon intended for topping salads (because I'm lazy)

And thus, add the bacon/Earth's balance/turnip all at once initially and cook for 8-10 minutes, then move on with the recipe.

Oh MAN is it good. Ian liked it so much he asked for seconds. Scott and Andrew had taquitos, but I expected that.

It thinks heat is optional. (Everything else works; I did all the troubleshooting I'm really capable of. Running it ten minutes produces cold damp clothes, not warm damp clothes. Venting is fine. Barrel is spinning. Just no heat.) So, they'll be out Wednesday to look at it. It is, of course, just outside of warranty. Urgh. So we'll see if I need a new one or if it's cheaper to fix. (The folks coming to service it don't sell them, so if they say I'm better replacing it, I'm gonna believe them.)

Discovered broken mid-last-week, we thus had a lot of laundry. I was working with wash-and-drip-dry, but this weekend had to admit we needed to involve a laundromat.

I have a ballpark figure in my head of what laundromats cost, and it's reasonably current given that I wash our king-sized comforter at one when it needs it.

So I grabbed three rolls of quarters, and indeed, a week of laundry for a family of four (actually, a bit less because I let some of the bedding I'd normally wash weekly wait another week) ran $28 in the end. It would have been $26 if I hadn't forgotten to bring my soap, though.

And this is where I point out that there's a meme going around Facebook about an awesome program allowing kids living in poverty to bring laundry to school, and how that causes them to _spend more time in school_, in part because they have clean clothes to wear and aren't embarrassed. I mention it because every time it appears, it seems like I see judgy comments about how their parents should try to do better. Because if you're living in poverty you almost certainly do not have a washer/dryer set in your residence.

So...if you're living in poverty and having trouble making ends meet / covering rent and food / etc., you can afford an extra $20 or so every week, right? Wait a minute...no. And that's ignoring whether or not you have access to a functioning laundry that's nearby. If you don't, you also have to haul the darned stuff to wherever you can wash it. Which is fairly easy for suburban ol' me with my reliable car and money for gas, but not for people living in poverty.

So, unless they're hand-washing in their sink and drip-drying, exactly how do the people saying these things expect people living with these limitations to solve this dilemma, and why do they think not solving it indicates they don't take good enough care of their children? (And sink-washing is a quick answer to toss off, but is a lot of hard work - at the end of a long day, is it work the parent is up to? Does it mean they get less sleep than they need, or trade off helping the kids with homework? And is there enough space to drip-dry everything that was used and cleaned?)

I am, personally, so glad that program exists. If you haven't seen the articles before, one is: http://www.businessinsider.com/washing-machines-solve-schools-big-problem-2016-8

...and here's hoping I don't need a laundromat solution again next weekend, but I'm still glad I _can_ do it, if I need to.

I'm lazy, so I Googled this and found: http://www.paleorunningmomma.com/pre-race-food-easy-paleo-and-low-fodmap-meatloaf/

And then, because I'm lazy, I further adapted it. What I did:

2 pounds ground turkey
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp salt*
2-3 tsp Italian seasoning**
1 tsp dried chives

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix ingredients thoroughly. Spray a 9x5 baking pan and press mixture into it, pressing down a bit more in the center. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes / until no longer pink in the center. (I think I overcooked this slightly. I don't think it actually mattered. It was wonderful.)

* I was quite happy with this amount but you should be aware that I often find tasty what others call bland, and adjust your recipe accordingly. The original called for 3/4 tsp.

** I didn't have poultry seasoning handy and I couldn't find any at the store that was looked low FODMAP. As it happens, I'm glad I couldn't find it. Best substitution is best. I don't WANT poultry seasoning. I used McCormick's Italian mix. Since this already had oregano and basil, I added more than 2 but less than 3 teaspoons and called it good. It was.

The wildfire situation in Oregon and Washington is terrible. I've known this, I've watched it, I've been horrified by it.

But I'm also fairly insulated, in the very damp Willamette Valley, where we rarely get lightning strikes, in a suburban area, and basically, no fires here. Mine is a sadness and horror for the people in the middle of it, but largely unaffected.

Until today. Now we have a freaking east wind and, while I'd rather have the smoke than the fire, we have it. The entire atmosphere outside is semi-permanently set to "downwind of the campfire" - the air quality index cleared 200 sometime around 1 pm (clearing 200 puts it in the "very unhealthy" range, exceeded only by "hazardous" if it clears 300 - at 200+ it's not safe for kids or a number of other categories, at 300+ it's not safe for ANYONE) - and as of 8 pm hasn't been under 200 that I've seen yet. It _did_ recently shift downward from a high of 213 (that I saw), to its current 205.

Or in other words, hi, I'm having a mini-pity-party because this bites. The boys, instead of being run around a local park as they needed, got extra screen time from me - I got Despicable Me from the library and gave them some popcorn and let them watch, and they've been playing video games. (They were out at a water park for a birthday party from 10:30-12:30, before the air got quite so bad...the index was only at 95 or so around 11 am.)

http://www.katu.com/news/local/why-is-it-smoky-in-portland-oregon-beaverton-hillsboro-vancouver.html has the smoke news and a little map showing the fires. In theory, we get to live with this through tomorrow and then the wind may shift and come from the west Monday, if we're lucky.

Bleh. Still, so grateful that we DO in fact have smoke without fire, here. I wish the fires were not destroying so much elsewhere, but I'm grateful that only their annoying byproducts are in our lives.

I'm also grateful for a tightly-closed house with good filters and HVAC. Because it's nasty out there.

These are of a gorgeous sunrise last month.

Over here on Flickr

No preview - but go have a look, if you like. I'm quite pleased with them. It was a very obligingly lovely sunrise.

We live on a dead-end road in a tiny neighborhood. We have two routes out to the main street - and no other routes out at all. Our best route is to follow our road to the street. Our second best meanders through the rest of the neighborhood.

Hang on, ( visual behind the cut )

So. We live where it says "Us" and you can see it's a fairly dense neighborhood (I didn't label the apartments and condominiums not off our street, but you can find them if you look).

The blue line? They are extending another street to meet ours. (Actually, it will *become* the street there and ours will T into it, but close enough.) Which means that for 6-8 weeks, the red section will be closed.

Fun times! Now we have only one route out - meandering through the neighborhood.

But, yesterday and today, there is additional construction work at the orange corner (between us and the rest of the neighborhood), so we have to wait for a flagger to get through.

And even better, also yesterday/today, the senior center closest to the red line is having their PARKING LOT resurfaced...so all the cars are street parked.

I don't see how the garbage truck could make it in or out today, it literally could not fit. (Maybe by Monday it'll be better? I hope? That's when they actually come for the houses, though the senior centers and apartments have their own pickup schedule....) It's amazingly ridiculous.

I can live (not without some whining, I suspect) with the 6-8 weeks of meandering. But the "I have a channel home that is at times barely as wide as my car" part is getting pretty stressful. :P

http://www.livejournal.com/support/faq/350.html

But they're not becoming Facebook. No really.

Luckily, I don't think most people care about that 'feature', and I pay no attention to what's there anyway, but ... wow.

http://www.kgw.com/news/Boy-with-brain-tumor-just-wants-box-of-cards-for-birthday--267802461.html

This is current, and currently on multiple news sites. I find no debunking of it in a quick search. Meaning that this one is probably real and currently topical, so if you are inclined to send birthday cards to a boy (whose tumor is inoperable, and of a type that tends not to respond well to chemo, so...yeah) - the article has the PO box.

First, key note: if you want to gift, this info is here. PLEASE don't feel obligated. The boys do not need anything, though there's plenty they want, and more they'd like, I'm sure.

That said, they have wish lists, and then I have some additional notes on things they like and don't like along with those.

( Ian's list and notes )

( Drew's list and notes )