'Tocktoberfest

Okay, since all of Cadbury's bunny-blog pals are doing it, he's in, too. Here he is showing off his 'tocks as he checks to see if there are any craisins or other good treats under a comforter that ended up on the floor. Silly bunny.

Monday Bunday: Captive!

Alert the authorities! I'm being held against my will!

Saturday Musings and Catch-up

Not much has been happening around here lately, as you probably figured out from the lack of blog postings. A lot of co-workers were at a conference this week, which gave me time to work on some older projects without a lot of new things coming my way. Wednesday was the university’s annual Tech Fair, and although I usually don’t go because there’s nothing I’m in the market for (nor do I want to be marketed to), Dan was working the fair and it was a chance to see a lot of my old IT friends, so I went and hung out for a bit. Sometimes it’s good to go to these things for no other reason than to have a little face time with people you know, keep your name out there and all that.

Now that the weather is cooler, I don’t have to start my Saturday long runs so ridiculously early. So today instead of driving to Memorial Park at 5 am to run where it’s safe to do so in the dark, I started my run around 6 here at home, running around the university until there was enough light to head out to Hermann Park and Rice. Nothing special happened on the run, but it was nice to do a route I hadn’t done in awhile and that didn't require I drive somewhere first. And in case you’re wondering why the university is safe at 6 am but not 5 am, it has to do with the arrival time of work and cleaning crews for both regular operations and the seemingly endless activities and events that go on over the weekend. The police presence seems to step up around that time, too. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to upcoming time change. More morning daylight is a good thing for early-rising runners.

Here are a couple of recipes I’ve tried recently:

Oatmeal and Prune Muffins: In spite of prunes’ reputation, they’re moist and tasty dried plums that aren’t any more likely to send you to the bathroom than any other dried fruit. I made a loaf of quickbread out of this recipe instead of muffins, baking it on 350 for about 45 minutes. The first time I made this recipe the salt-to-sweet ratio seemed off but I followed the instructions exactly. My suspicions were right. The second time I reduced the salt by half and added raisins and chopped pecans just for fun. The result was very tasty. And since it contains molasses and raisins, I can claim it as a source of iron! Okay, maybe that’s pushing it a little. But it’s good and healthy, regardless.

Bulgar Salad with Grapes and Feta: This was a nice dish to prep ahead for weekday lunches. It requires no cooking other than boiling a little water. I’m not crazy about sweets in my main courses, so I skipped the grapes and used grape tomatoes. I added some finely chopped fresh spinach, since I had no fresh herbs handy, but the herbs of your choice and/or some fresh chives would work nicely in this. Top with freshly ground black pepper before eating and enjoy! As noted in the recipe, it only serves two so I recommend doubling or even tripling it.

And that's about it for news in my life. All the excitement is in my current fiction project. Although I've written some amusing scenes in previous fiction, this is my first novel-length work intended solely as a humor piece. It's been a fun ride so far and a welcome distraction from post-hurricane stress and the gyrations of the global economy. I could write a lot about the economy, although I don't know if I will because I try to avoid controversial topics on this blog. I will say, though, that if you aren't going to be retiring for at least another decade or more, this is a time of great opportunity. Play it smart.

Monday Bunday: Banana Chip

In keeping with Sophia's Monday Bunday challenge of finding the perfect banana treat, we see Cadbury enjoying a banana chip!

Six Random Things: Cadbury

We were tagged by our friend Roadbunner for the Six Random Things meme. I interviewed Cadbury as he worked diligently to extract old pieces of hay from the most inaccessible places under his cage, even though he had a box of fresh hay nearby. Here are his answers:

• I honk when I run, and I love to run! Big circles, little circles, figure-eights, you name it!
  
• I love timmy cakes but won’t actually eat timmy hay, since I prefer orchard grass.
  
• I like to chew wood and the occasional mouse cord, but not cloth. The last bunny that lived here chewed perfect circles out of shirts and sheets but it’s not a hobby I’m particularly interested in.
  
• I love nose rubs so much that I put my front paws on the female human’s leg and put my nose up for rubbing. Sometimes I even jump in her lap.
  
• Even with my cage door open and a big bowl of fresh water on the floor, I usually drink out of my water bottle. That’s because it’s a fancy glass one with a little yellow duck that floats to show how much water is left.
  
• I wear a mask to protect my secret identity.
  

We've seen this meme around for awhile, so we won't tag anyone individually. If you haven't played yet, you're it.

Earband

What all the fashionable rabbits are wearing to keep their ears back.

Now available in trendy willow.

Bunny Butt

Cadbury has such a cute, flippy little tail!

Monday Bunday: Ready for His Closeup

Saturday Run

I went to Memorial Park this morning for my first run-in-the-dark since the hurricane. Most of the lights are back on now and the park was full of early-morning runners, so it all had a nice feel of normality to it.

Once the sun was up I continued my run up Memorial Drive into the fancy area just outside the loop. Big mistake! So many of the rich peoples' trees came down that the place still looked like a Pacific Northwest logging area three weeks after the hurricane. Since Memorial Drive is a major thoroughfare and of course they can't stack the debris at the edge of their lawns like us middle-class folk did, the cut logs and tree limbs were piled up on the sidewalks for the better part of a mile, sometimes five and six feet high like a primitive wall or barricade. It was a difficult and dangerous area to run in and I spent a lot of time running in the street or on the esplanade. But luckily I didn't have such hazards on the rest of my run, so it all turned out well. I was left wondering, though, why the well-heeled people of Memorial haven't hired a private contractor to clear everything out, like a lot of us did in our far more humble neighborhood.

I got a nice surprise on my run, though, when I came to the roadside garden and found that the citrus trees were still loaded with fruit. I had thought for sure the winds would've stripped the branches bare of unripe oranges and grapefruit, but there they still were, a very good harvest in the making. Maybe I should plant some citrus trees in my yard. I could have the stump of the old bee tree removed and have oranges instead.

Not much else is going on around here. I'm just glad to have things back to normal. Cadbury is happy, too. Now that I have internet again, I'm at my desk in the study instead of at the office and he can do bunny flops at my feet. Simple pleasures are sometimes best!

Sunny Window

Feline + Sunshine = Bliss

Online!

Yes, friends, we have internet service at home again!

Last night Dan got a call from our next door neighbor that his modem was working. We tried ours, but no luck. Dan called Comcast and was able to get some information on repairs going on in the neighborhood. He got us onto the list and today at noon I noticed that the modem was working. I plugged in the router but was unable to get online due to setup issues. Dan fixed it on his lunch break, though, and everything is working great!

So nearly three weeks after the storm, my life is finally back to normal.

Monday Bunday: Gifts Galore

On Saturday, the UPS man brought Cadbury a package, addressed to him and his family. The box appeared to be full of treats:














First, of course, we had to read the note:














Then came the unpacking:














Orchard Grass! Our favorite!














Craisins!
















A fun new toy:














And sticks for chewing:














Pixel got some tasty gifts, too:














And there were even treats for humans:














Best of all, of course, was the fun of the box itself:














Thanks, Glenna, Pink, and Elvis! You’re great pals!

Saturday Update: Good News, Bad News

We have mixed news on the storm repair front. The good news is that the crews are finally at work restoring power to the rest of my neighborhood. The broken pole has been replaced and although I won't know until dark how many of my neighbors got their power on today, at least work is being done and that's great news. Also, the neighbors at the end of our street have power again and our friend's neon kitty is lighting up her window again. Once everyone has lights and we have a few streetlights, things will start to feel more normal and I won't be so nervous coming home from campus after dark.

Yes, after dark. We still have no internet. I had high hopes when I saw the pole repair crews today, since I think our cable outage is somehow tied into the whole no-power, no-lines thing. But Dan saw a Comcast truck today-- the first one we've seen since the storm. They told Dan they were doing an assessment. WTF? Two weeks and lots of phone calls and they're just now assessing? They told they Dan didn't know yet when we'd have service, but they told our next-door neighbor it would be one to two weeks. WTF again? I really wish these clowns would get their stories straight and give us answers we can plan around.

In the meantime, it's hard to live in my usual way, since I'm used to being online a lot, puttering on office projects, emailing friends, looking for new recipes, doing research for my writing, submitting stories, visiting friends' blogs, and reading news. I can do all of those things at the office, obviously, and I'm very fortunate that it's just a short walk away. But it's also not convenient or even safe sometimes, and after awhile it just gets old.

Today was long run day and I stayed home again because I wasn't sure if Memorial Park had lights yet and I've read that the bayous still stink. Running around campus seemed the better option and I did 17.5 miles. I'm still not at my old distances, but the weather was nice and I felt pretty good, so I'm happy.

And finally, Cadbury got another package in the mail! I forgot my jump drive at home and I'm not going to go back and get it tonight, so everyone will have to wait until tomorrow to see what his friends Glenna, Pink, and Elvis sent him! Thanks, friends!

Tuesday Recipe Share

Last night I tried this recipe for Polenta Spinach Pie. It's basically a cornbread crust pizza and I added fresh garlic, didn't use anything remotely like two cups of sauce, and I used both mozarella and parmesan on top. Dan and I were both very pleased with the results. It's easy, quick, tasty, and would probably be delicious with any toppings, if one weren't crazy about spinach.

We still don't have internet service at home and I'm torn on the subject of whether or not to spring for a land line for backup. We wouldn't use it very often and I would only consider it worth the initial expense if Comcast were going to be out for another week or more. But Comcast can't say how long before we have service again. It could be a day, a week, or a month. No one at the customer service level has any clue. It's frustrating.

I'm beginning to suspect that the problem with our cable is related to the fact that most of our neighborhood remains without power. This morning I saw that the street at the far opposite side of the neighborhood has power but they, like we, have back yards that abut university property. Everyone in the middle is dark and other than the tree-cutters, no crews have come to work at restoring service. And in spite of the Houston Chronicle's assertion that not all power restoration requires actual trucks, you've seen the pictures of the smashed pole, broken box and sagging cables. We do, in fact, need trucks. And workers. And equipment. Lots of it.

If our internet is related somehow to the power problem, we could be waiting awhile, since I don't think our neighbors are scheduled for electric service restoration until the weekend, and that's if workers actually show up and start doing something and no additional problems are found.

I'm going to check if my studio gets any wireless bleedover from the university. I doubt it, because I don't think the university's wireless service extends to the back of the parking lot and therefore to my fence, but one never knows and it's worth checking.

In the meantime, it's getting easier to write and do other projects. It was hard at first because I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. It gets easier, though, and I have to keep reminding myself that we've been much luckier than our neighbors and I need to grateful. Time will pass and someday this will all be an amusing memory.

Monday Bunday: The Art of the Nap

Getting sleepy...


















Naptime!

Saturday Update

Still no internet at home, but I tried to make this as close to an ordinary day as possible. I had to do my long run on campus, which meant starting after the sun was up. This made it hard to go as long as I wanted because I ran out of time before I needed to be home getting ready for us to go have lunch. I ended up only doing fourteen miles, but I'll consider that a success for now. Memorial Park was out of the question since it still doesn't have lights, so running circles there posed no benefit over running circles at home. The bayous all stink, so anything involving bayou trails wasn't a good option, either.

We do what we can.

Our Indian restaurant was open today - yay! I had hoped to get some more destructo-pics on my first outing since the storm, but I didn't see as much damage as I expected. Everyone has been very busy cleaning up and the biggest evidence now of last week's storm is the cut trees and piles of branches in front of nearly every inner loop home, and the open windows marking who still doesn't have power.

I wonder what will happen to all that wood? I hope the cut up trees will be shipped north for people challenged by high fuel oil prices this winter. It would be a nice way to bring something good out of the disaster.

We were very lucky to get power restored when we did. As it turns out, we're on the same grid as part of the university and not where I showed the picture a few days ago of the damaged box and lines. The university was considered a priority and the area behind our back fence didn't have trees to damage the lines, so they brought it on much faster than the rest of our neighborhood, which is still dark. For those of us whose back yards abut the university, though, we're up and running.

Except for internet. I know I shouldn't complain when so many still don't even have lights but if Comcast could just give us a real estimate, that would be a big help. Instead we get canned answers about "crews working in your area." Right. Haven't seen a single one. Given that Comcast's call center is probably in India, I'm sure it's a reasonable answer to them, but Houston metro area is the size of a small country! "In your area" could mean anything.

But I have the university and for that I'm grateful. I have to be careful coming and going after dark, but I carry nothing of value with me and so far the only danger I've encountered is nearly being run down by some dorm rats playing a game that looked like a version of flag football where a stolen pylon was being used in place of a ball. I could've sworn I was safely out of bounds, but I was a dorm rat once myself and I can vouch for the fact that these late-night games have very flexible rules, all of them made up on the fly.

And speaking of being out after dark, it's after 9:00 and I need to think about wrapping things up here and going home. I have some "lessons learned" posts I'm working on and that I will copy and paste over the coming week, so be prepared for some prep lists and recommendations.

Eggs and Internet

It seems amazing that a week has already gone by since I woke up to find Dan parked in front of the TV watching the storm surge crashing over the Galveston seawall. Even though we were without power until Wednesday afternoon, we were incredibly fortunate to have cool weather and the resources of the university at our disposal. Things could have been much worse for us.

Our only two dilemmas now are lack of internet service at home and the state of the city in general. Dan tried to go run errands the other evening and came back saying it was still too crazy out there. From my co-workers I hear of long gas lines, long grocery lines, debris, detours, and traffic lights out everywhere.

This leaves us dependent on our existing food storage at home. It's not a really huge problem for me since I'm content to eat pretty much the same thing day in and day out. But I like to provide Dan with variety and it's starting to become problematic. Or rather, the lack of eggs is becoming problematic. I'm running low on cheese and butter, too, but without eggs I'm having to get creative to avoid serving some variation of rice and beans every day.

I should've stored powdered eggs and that's all there is to it. I used to have some but they tended to clump and were tricky to work with. I feel kind of stupid now for not keeping some on hand anyway. It's an important lesson learned. I also want to find out how to make yogurt without a starter. I think I can do this with acidophillus tablets but I'll have to do a little research first. Yogurt would be great to have as a substitute for sour cream, buttermilk, and cheese. I know how to make yogurt and I have powdered milk. Just nothing to use as a starter. Another lesson learned.

This is not a real crisis, though. We have other food. We have restaurants right here on campus. We can go to the store if we're willing to put in the time and deal with the hassle. But I'm using this experience to understand where my planning gaps are, and eggs and yogurt are big ones.

Last night I made a loaf of honey-wheat bread for sandwiches (we've got plenty of peanut butter) and a focaccia pizza using a focaccia mix I bought several months ago, and Bag Lady's wonderful pizza sauce. I topped it with the last of my mozzarella and some rehydrated onions, tomatoes, zucchini and spinach leaves. It was completely delicious and there's a lot left over. I also found a recipe for empanadas in one of my cookbooks, so I plan to give that a try using minced rehydrated jerky and onions, and with a side of rehydrated refried beans.

So no, we're not starving by any stretch of the imagination. But I never realized until now how much I really needed eggs! Or the internet. I miss being able to read blogs and news at home. I have to rush through things here at the office because I'm supposed to be working.

Like right now.

Damn.

Power Restored!

When I went home for lunch our power was back up. Yay! We still don't have internet because Dan couldn't get the router working before he had to go back to the office but at least the worst is over. I took a late lunch and began doing cleanup and most of my life can resume its normal patterns now. I sure hope Dan can get the router up tonight but if our electricity stays up, I'm happy for now.














What a relief to have air conditioning again!

Signs of Progress

The tree cutters are in our area today, removing the trees from the power lines. Yay! It's a step in the right direction. I just hope once the trees are removed it will be a simple task to get the power restored.

For everyone who keeps asking, we haven't used the soda can stove and now that we have access to our neighbor's house with a gas stove, we won't be doing any more camp cooking. Here is a website that talks about the soda can stove, though: Best Camp Stove Ever

Please be patient with me. I have no electricity or internet at home. It takes a long time to do basic tasks and I'm expected to be at work every day now, too.

Hurricane Pics

The storm hideout in the closet. You can just see Cadbury's ear in the carrier. I had to have a kleenex box in the closet with me because the closet was dusty and I kept sneezing. You can also see I have pillows and a stash of books. When the FM radio stations all went out I read aloud to Dan for awhile until we decided to quit waiting for FM to come back on and found a good AM station instead.











Fearless hurricane bunny!











Dan, checking the doppler on his Blackberry to see if the storm would EVER end. The reason the pic is so bright is because of the camera flash. It was actually very dark in the house and we were doing everything by the light of electric lanterns and glow sticks.












Pixel, high and dry on the fireplace mantel.










The view from our porch the morning after.










The tree that fell in our yard. No little sapling!










The view looking up the street from our house.










Someone who didn't fare as well with their tree.










This one looks bad but it's only cosmetic damage.










This street had three more trees of this size blocking the road, but none fell onto the houses.










Remember my bayou? This is soon after the storm had passed. In the lower left corner you can see the debris where the bayou left its banks, flooding my my neighborhood's streets but thankfully not our houses.










This part of MacGregor Road, about half a mile from my house, was still flooded even after my neighborhood was clear.










By evening the bayou had gone down considerably and the evening light was an odd yellowish color.










Cadbury back in his room, glad to be out of the carrier but puzzled as to why everything is so dark and stuffy.










Pixel, checking out the mosquito netting over the door.










Our neighbor's new trampoline, courtesy of Ike.










Honey, anyone? This explains why our tree fell-- it was a bee tree!










Look closely. The top of the tower is bent over. The satellite is supposed to face the other way.










Farther up my street, toward the bayou.










Someone else who got lucky with the direction their tree fell.










If you look carefully, you can see that some clever person used a fallen branch to prop up a tree that was pulling down a power line. Good thinking, since if the line doesn't break we'll get power back on sooner.










This tree fell in front of my office building.










College of Architecture, with most of the roof of one wing lying on the ground. Same thing happened on the other side of the building. I find it ironic that the College of Architecture was the only one to lose its roof.










Trees and light posts down outside the Computing Center.










Trees uprooted in the picnic area in front of the Computing Center.










Sign on tree says No Parking. Good advice.










Sagging power line at the entrance to my neighborhood.










Why I'm skeptical that we'll have power again anytime real soon.