Things still crazy.

I got married. Now we're going to drive across the US to see family some more.

Meanwhile, here're some pictures of note.

Otherkitty sinks to new lows. Sinks.. sink. Bad puns, we have 'em.




And some local mushrooms. Don't they look interesting.

Pirogi!

Elrin is gone for three days. (One day and two half-days, to be exact… but still!)

The 6 hours’ distance does seem to be an insurmountable distance, and neither of us could sleep last night. It’s odd to suddenly have an empty space behind you in a bed, a space that should’ve been filled in with another person.

Well.


Artsiness

Elrin’s off having fun, and I get to stay in, clean, and make artsiness. (The said artsiness mostly takes form of 1. Learning to use a sewing machine (the long-overdue curtain project is looming just over the horizon) and 2. Staying up until 2am to make my first-ever attempt at pirog (pirog/pirogi/basically a type of pie). (The thing took a total of about 4 hours, what with dough rising.)

There is a Russian saying, “perviy blin - komom”, or “first crape will turn out badly”.



As far as appearances go, these are nothing like my grandmothers’ (the best cook I know (possibly rivaled by my mother), who makes veritable works of art in forms varying from blins, to pirogi, to pel’meni, to any other type of nutritious, delicious stuff that I’ve grown up on). Taste-wise, mine didn’t turn out too badly, though! The one on top has apple-and-pie spice filling, and the one on the bottom’s apple, currant, and mint. It took all my willpower at 1:30 AM to not eat all of the latter’s filling raw. T’was –good-.


Birds

Bird-watching’s fallen by the wayside for now, since the birds in question seem to be too busy making nests and glaring at one another (*cough* insectivorous robins *cough*) to possibly be interested in any meager sunflower seeds we have to offer.

Also, OtherKitty killed two wrens in this past week (one- still a baby), and brought them to our back porch to show off. This was sad on multiple levels, as both El and I love birds (especially the small ones), and the cuteness of the cat makes it very hard to scold him. We ended up getting OtherKitty a collar with a bell on it, and for days afterward, the faint jingling could be heard, as the wild beastie romped across the sloping back yard in search for prey. No wrens since then, so –maybe- it’s working.


Hiking

We haven’t done as much hiking last week, mostly because of me being a big baby about the entire cheek pain. (Which, by the way, isn’t hurting much at all today!) What we –did- do was a 30-minute outing onto the Sugar (Creek? Maple?) Hollow wetlands, without the camera, of course.

There were ducks in the wetlands, which were cute. There were also baby ducks in the wetlands, which were cuter. About five of them, along with their mom, were sleeping within five feet of the boardwalk, on some mossy logs.

There was a fair number of turtles out, as well, including a three-foot snapper, taking up most of a sizeable rock. There was another foot-and-a-half long one that slowly inched its way closer and closer to the boardwalk, as we stood and watched it.. I think it wanted a piece of our toes.

These reptiles put you in the mind for a distant, horrifying age, where humans didn’t quite rule the world, and everything and their brother was out to get them.


Plants

Potted plants continue to thrive! Of a particular note is a partly-seed grown/partly friend-given plain green spider plant, which has been putting offshoots with a huge amount of flowers and almost no suckers to speak of.



The flowers last only a day, but every day, I get anywhere from 3 to 10 new ones. Kind of curious how long the plant can keep going like this.

Roster: Mushka and OtherKitty

The issue of animals within a rented space is a common one; just finding a place that allows pets and that looks/smells decent is a problem in and of itself. Thankfully, this is not a problem that we’ve had to face this time around, as the current townhouse complex does allow animals, while retaining many of the niceties (such as unstained carpets) of a place that only-recently-did-not-allow-pets.

Which brings us down to the question of what animals dwell within a (not so dark) dwelling of the Errant, and, more importantly, what stories might be gleaned from their furry/scaly/feathered hides. (What use is an animal or a plant if it doesn’t carry an anecdote or three along with it?)

The first on the roster are the cat(s), 1.5 of them to be exact. The case here is the classical “Basement cat vs. Ceiling cat” one, ripe with daily conflicts, quips over the foodbowls, and moral lessons for the nonexistent children.

Basement cat

The name of the kitty is Myishka, or Russian for ‘little mouse’, not to be confused with Mishka, or endearment for the name Mihail, or Mushka, which means ‘little fly’. Ironically, since the letter ‘yi’ isn’t really present in the English alphabet, the cat ends up being called Mushka as often as not.

Mushka is a 10-year-old tortoiseshell, meaning that she is the devil on her monthlies, reincarnated into a feline body. For more information on this phenomena, search for ‘tortitude’ in your friendly neighborhood search engine.

(Though, it’s been proposed that her attitude is a partial side-effect of being declawed at a very young age, what with mom having a leather couch and not wanting any of the cats to scratch it up. Inhumane? Yup. Did Mushka still manage to ruin the couch by other means available to her? You bet’cha.)

A survivor of cancer and 4 years in a house with my mother (I’m not sure which of these feats is more impressive), this cat is temperamental, violent, possessive, and needy. We love her to death, despite her frequent habit of screeching howls, followed by violent assault on whatever body parts of the offending humanoid she can reach. To be fair, she does make a good lap-cat, complete with the catfish complex (will expand to fill a space, no matter how large; she’s not fat, though she used to be, and still has the extra skin to prove it), and lack of shame (will insist on staying on her corner of the bed, no matter what’s going on in other parts of the said bed).

Ceiling cat

Let’s be clear. This is not our cat. It never was our cat. If Elrin gets his way, it never will be our cat. (“No more pets! One cat is enough!”) We just happen to feed and cuddle it, making it a ‘cat with benefits’. The cat originally showed up as a loveable stray, shortly after Elrin moves out to this location. It was cuddled by everyone, and, as far as we know, is also getting fed in at least one other townhouse on our block. Maybe, more. Yet another resident took it to the veterinarian to be fixed, a few months ago.

This phenomenal product of nature is a large male cat, a communally owned male cat, larger than Mushka, whom we simply call “OtherKitty”. I wouldn’t mind calling him “Ryisik”, or an endearment of “lynx”, due to the black tufts on its ears, but, as Elrin said—no more pets.

OtherKitty and Mushka have an interesting relationship; she tries to establish dominance by hissing like a teapot and lunging at him in berserker rage every time she sees him at distance of five feet or less. He just tries to make friends. And play with her. It’s a never-ending, vicious cycle that’s incredibly entertaining to watch.

OtherKitty is the polar opposite of our bitchy lady, being hyperactive, friendly, and never resenting anyone picking him up; bird watching, (unsuccessful) bird hunting, eating cat food until bloating, and napping on his back in the ComfyChair(to be covered at a later post) are his primary hobbies. He also attacks feet, hands, jackets, potted plants, and cords, in wild fits of abandon which we can only hope is a show of youthful playfulness. Gods save us, if he grows up to be anything like the other.