A loss in the family

Yesterday Ken and I were very sad to learn from Cousin Shane that one of his sweet kitties, Peanut, had passed away in the morning. She's been pretty sick for a while; she used to be this compact chunk o' cat, but was diagnosed with diabetes and dropped a whole bunch of weight. She was a tiny little thing, just as sweet as could be, and although she was always shy with me at first, she'd always let me pet her and brush her when I took care of the cats when Shane was out of town. She really was a sweetheart of a cat, and I hope you'll all send positive thoughts Shane's way as he deals with this. I think almost all of us know how tough it is to say goodbye to a pet--they really do become part of the family. As you can imagine, Sheeba got plenty of hugs and squeezes yesterday.

Rest in peace, Peanut, and I wish you a safe journey.

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After I took out the recycling today, I thought I'd toddle on out to the garden and see if there wasn't a stray tomato or two still hanging on. Great googly-moogly! I couldn't believe how much stuff was still out there. Even the beans are still producing. There were plenty of tomatoes (although some of them are green and had dropped off the plants...I hope they'll mature inside) and peppers, and one whopper of a zucchini. I don't even remember seeing one last time I was out there, and here was this monster! I even measured it...it's 16 x4 inches (about 40 x 10 centimeters). It probably is too big to stir fry it, but it will be great for stuffed zucchini, and that's what I'm making tonight. (You scoop out the innards and parboil the shell, then stuff it with a mixture of hamburger, cheese, onion, and a couple of other things, then bake it. Pretty tasty.) I was honestly surprised to see so many things out there still. It gives me great hope for next summer's garden, although I'm going to have to plant my tomatoes in containers on the deck. There is a fungus in our soil that causes Verticillium Wilt, and you just can't get rid of it. Even varieties bred for resistance to it eventually succumb, and the plants start to wither and die from the ground up. I'm glad I was able to get as many tomatoes as I did this year.

That's okay--planting my tomatoes in containers on the deck will leave more room in the garden for experimental things like Brussels sprouts and...EGGPLANT! I swear to God, man, I'm planting a couple of eggplants next year. I've always wanted to try them, and maybe I can even find a way to fix them that Ken will like. What do you think, Kenny-Pig? :)

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I was amazed today to see a hummingbird at the feeder. Time to get a move on, little girl...it's getting chilly out there! It's a myth that you should take down your feeder when fall comes, or else the hummies will stick around. They're on their own timetable, and they leave when they're ready. Leaving your feeder up can help migrating hummies coming from farther north. They can make a pit stop at your place and refuel before they hit the air again. I just could not believe one is still hanging around here. She was a chubby little thing, too!

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Looks like I'm not the only one disgusted by the gloating behavior we've witnessed in the past few days concerning Chicago's Olympics bid. Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote a fantastic op-ed piece about the irrationality of such behavior. My favorite line was "For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old." Couldn't have said it any better, Mr. Krugman. My hope is that people will take a good, hard look at what we're seeing here and come to understand the lunacy of these people who claim to love their country (and, in the Imbecile Beck's case, show it by weeping like a little girl) but in the next breath express great satisfaction and glee over its loss of the international games. This is Bizarro World behavior, in which love is expressed by scorn, devotion by disdain, and loyalty by abandonment. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to return to our regularly scheduled world, one that doesn't make me feel like Alice down the rabbit hole.