I Have No Idea What I am Doing

When people make fun of the internet, they make fun of things like blogging about what you ate, but I’m going ahead with this anyway. And I had a cookie, coffee, and stir fry. So, this morning my friend Jessica (of Heartthrobs and Villains) stopped by on her way to work, and went into my bathroom. When she came out, she commented on how she liked the way the toilet paper rolls matched the birdhouse hole. Y’all have no idea how many years I’ve been thinking that while piling toilet paper around it, and nobody has ever said anything about my little theme. Small joys. Good catch!

Tangent: Does anyone else really dislike The Hold Steady? I like their quirky word choices, but little else. The Current just played their song Your Little Hoodrat Friend, and I could barely stand it beyond liking the word hoodrat. But then they followed up with Luscious Jackson’s ‘Naked Eye’ (you know it: “in my naked eye I saw, the falling rain, coming down on meeeee”, which is much worse. I mean, I know it’s midnight there, but they played David Byrne with the Dirty Projectors before that, so someone has some sense. *Update, they just said with windchill it’s 13* below and the high tomorrow will be around 15*. I’m sorry, Current dj, do what you need to do.

At a naked lady party recently, I found a book on trompe l’oeil while waiting for everyone to arrive. In it, someone had painted a faux leopard skin rug on the floor of a hallway. How hilarious would it be to have that in my bedroom? As a renter, though, I have few options for painting my walls or wood floors in the bedroom. 

So call me a little behind the times, but I’ve been getting into vinyl decals on Etsy. They’re cheap, trendy, removable, and did I say cheap? Here are my top finds so far, which I had to sift through a lot of nonsense–think inspirations quotes in scroll lettering– to find.  And I’ll have to special commission that vinyl decal leopard skin, it seems.

Wallpaper $55

If the leopard skin rug doesn’t work out, I’ll put the above ones on my gray painted wood floor. (more…)

I’ve been reorganizing my kitchen and looking for a set of shelves to house my cookbooks. The problem with the current little cabinet is that stuff on the open bottom shelves gets dirty with flour, cat hair, and other kitchen detritus while the cookbooks on the top shelves flop around among issues of Cooks Illustrated and occasionally get unruly and knock over the ceramic pot holding the spoons.

Above the stove I solved this problem with the Asker rail system from Ikea (thanks Abe, for helping me install it level). It’s super cute, helpful, and yes, I even potted a plant in it. A plant called a Mother In Law’s Tongue, which you just can’t kill (ba da bum!). I remember to water it maybe every other month.

For the cookbooks, though, I want something that doesn’t look too kitcheny. The wall they will be on is the dividing line between my little home office nook and the fridge, so it’s got to be somewhat organized looking. Also, I need something wall mounted so the aforementioned kitchen flotsam can’t collect under it. My solution, I think, is this invisible shelf from the MOMA:

Not a bad deal for $15, especially if the magazines sandwich nicely between the cookbooks. That doesn’t leave any room for display objects though, so I need other suggestions. What are some good floating shelves?

Renting has it’s perks, such as not worrying about replacing the water heater or, gulp, roof. It also has downsides we’re all too familiar with, such as being randomly subjected to your landlord’s decorating tastes and having to put up with other tenants. I live in a duplex that was built in 1905 and has been steadily falling from grace ever since. It’s shabby-chic, centrally located, and I could never afford it. But sometimes I look at the all white walls and beat up molding and start to daydream.

According to this May 2008 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Portlandia ranks 23rd on a list of 100 cities where you’re better off renting than owning. San Fran is 12th, Seattle is 15th, and New York is numero uno, no surprises there. (more…)

I am a cat lady, I admit. My hair sticks out, I arrive at places picking cat hair off my coat, and I talk about my cats. A lot. Mostly one cat, this guy:

Huxley VonCat

Then, my mom moved and she sent me her cat, this guy:

Ole CatFacedMeowmers

As you can see, I have two very large cats. And you can tell from these photos what their personalities are, right? Huxley is a little bit of a snob, an aloof cat that doesn’t usually like your attention. He won’t sit with you, but he’ll sit in the chair next to you. Ole is skittish, but loves to cuddle. Especially in the middle of the night when you’re trying to sleep.

They don’t really like each other, but it was kind of working.

Until Ole started seizing. After a sleepless night of pulling his seizing cat body out from weird hiding places and holding his head, I ended up with about $700 in vet bills (including $140 for Huxley’s annual shots, which he needed and which would prevent him from catching FiV if Ole might have it). Ole would black out, go stiff, shake wildly, come to, yowl, and go eat. This repeated every hour or so.

They found nothing at all. There’s not even evidence that he ate something weird, which would have probably shown up as liver damage. After a full day at the vet, he seized once right before I came to get him. Once I picked him up he turned into demon cat, freaking out so much the vets couldn’t get his collar on. I tried twice and he bit my hand very deeply. I cried, a lot, out of frustration and exhaustion and being ticked off to have this thing on my hands. Also, it was a close friend’s birthday, and I was very late because of the vet and crying incident and then totally not in the mood for porn trivia night. So.

Ole didn’t have any more seizures, or at least it didn’t look like it. He spent a few nights locked in the bathroom, isolated from Huxley and things he could hurt himself on. I spent a few nights at home having pie and getting some rest.