esprit de l'escalier

Leo update

When I was preparing to adopt my kittens, I was thinking a lot about Mr. Leo (above from his time with me this summer). I had a lot of guilt about taking him in this summer and then giving him away. Our life styles did not mesh well. I could not give him the time and attention he needed and he was so very bored with my apartment. But I wanted to give you all a little update on him, post Operation Leo Drop, and let you know how he's doing. Which is great.

My Flickr friend Nickleen took him in and after an initial period of adjustment, he has blended so well with her family and household. Even her dog Lucy, who was initially skeptical of him, has begun to accept him. (He was always a fan of Lucy and her nemesis dog friend). What I wanted to share with you is all of the tricks Nickleen has taught him, as well as one he taught himself.

Here's Leo giving her a high five:

My favorite, though, is the trick that Leo taught himself. After seeing that Lucy got a treat when she did this trick, he started to do it too. Nickleen pretends to shoot Lucy (or Leo) and then they flop over and pretend they are dead. Below you can see Leo doing it and then Lucy. That cat is too damn smart!

It makes me so happy to see that he found the right home. Thanks for sharing, Nickleen!

Polenta party

Midweek last week, I read this post on The Kitchn about a polenta party and I was completely inspired. I wanted to throw a party, or at the very least attend one. My current apartment is just not condusive to such a gathering, so I threw a gauntlet to my friends Cristina and Guilia (who are sisters and Italian and have a habit of throwing excellent parties at their parents' beautiful mid-century home). Little did I realize that Guilia would run with it and throw a party on Friday. Due to work, I couldn't help out ahead of time, but I feel like this was the dress rehearsal for many future polenta parties. We also didn't have a beautiful wooden polenta board, as they did on The Kitchen, but made due with using wax paper. It sounds like there are schemes of getting something more permanent, though. I look forward to more of these parties!

I don't have any of the recipes, but our toppings were a sliced beef in a tomato sauce, sauteed kale, sauteed mushrooms, and a gorgonzola sauce. We also had appetizers, a delicious cesar salad, and zabaglione for dessert. I  am now completely and totally obsessed with zabaglione. Cristina said that she'd have me over to her parents' sometime and her mom will teach us how to make it. It looks fairly straightforward (based on the recipes I've looked at online), but if this happens, I will document and share.

Here are other photos of our meal. The photo above is of my plate. I'm going to start with dessert below, because it is so damn good. (Also, I had brought my good camera with me to document our meal, only to get there and realize that the batteries were dead. Amateur hour. All photos are courtesy of my phone.)

Three photos

These three photos were in a roll of film I picked up today. It's been in my Pentax since just after Christmas. They do not really relate, except that they make me smile. Here is them in the reverse order in which they were taken.

Instant Saturday

Saturday was such a glorious day. A break in the cold, crappy March weather with sunshine and warm temperatures. My friend Rachel hosted a potluck brunch at the Iuka House. The excellent food was followed by a sing-a-long. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning and early afternoon.

I brought along some cameras, including my trusty Polaroid SX-70. My photo of my beautiful friend Meg and the one she took of me turned out well. Later the kittens seemed to find the best light and posed for me like little pros. Atta girls. (More photos from my K1000, should I ever finish the roll...)

Oh and as a bonus, here is the rad Miss Winnie. I had brunch with her and Rachel the first weekend in February. She is fabulous.

Kitten adventures

If you follow me on instagram (did you know you can see all my instagram shots here?) or twitter, you may know that last Saturday I adopted a pair of kittens. Seen above, Lulu on the left and Minnie on the right. The first couple of days they spent more or less under my bed, which has remained a favorite, secure spot for them. Slowly they have been venturing out. Miss Lulu is the braver of the two and now regularly comes up for pets and playing around. When Minnie does come out, she all she really wants is pets.

I adopted them from my flickr/twitter friend Jess. Her husband found and took in a young mother cat who had kittens and had taken up residence on their woodpile. He started blogging about his foster kittens and I fell in love. (Here is his blog, The Kitty Charmer.) It has been almost a year and a half since Frank died and after I fostered Leo this summer, I have been thinking more and more about being a pet owner again. So I worked out adopting the two sister kittens from Jess and her husband and met them halfway between our homes last weekend. (My friends Esther and Laura came along for the ride.)

Expect more kitten stories and photos as the ladies and I get used to each other. Aren't they sweet?