furbabies || new house, new kitty!

Josh and I have different opinions about the acceptable number of cats per square feet. He says two cats are more than enough in 1050sqft, I disagree and try to convince him to adopt an entire litter of kittens. As such, I expected to have to be the one to bring up adopting another cat once we moved into the house, but he surprised me! One Sunday he turned to me and said, "We need another kitty," and by the next day, we had another kitty! Meet Zachary Meowigan-Cats! We've been naming our kitties on a Gremlins theme, somewhat. Phoebe Cates (Phoebe Cats's namesake) and Zach Galligan are the starring couple in Gremlins 1 and 2, and Kate Beringer (Katie Purringer-Cats's namesake) is Phoebe Cates's character's name. Josh and I share a ridiculous amount of interests, but most of the movies and shows that we both like were not shared childhood interests. One or both of us acquired said interests as adults. As such, the nostalgia/mush factor is pretty low. Gremlins 1/2 are one of the few things that Josh and I both enjoyed as children. I was reading up on Halley's Comet while we were thinking of a new name for Phoebe (whose name was Hallee at the time) and ended up wiki-clicking through to Saturn's moon, Phoebe, at which point Josh suggested Phoebe Cats. And a theme was born! Zach was born sometime in early April (we're saying April 6th), so he's still pretty young, but he's the same size as (full-grown) Katie, and his paws are even bigger than Phoebe's! We suspect (and hope, hahah) that he will grow up to be gigantic. He's seriously the sweetest kitty. He sat in my lap the entire 45-minute car ride home! He got a little restless now and then, but was easily convinced to sit back down. He did start meowing about half an hour in, poor kitty. Phoebe's glare at Zach's oblivious back sums up their current relationship
Phoebe hates him, of course, but she's reacting way better than she did when we first brought Katie home. Katie watching the proceedings from a safe distance
Speaking of Katie, we brought Zach home on Monday, and by Friday they were already playing! Just chasing each other around at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them wrestling sometime soon, and then hopefully wrestling will lead to cuddling and if I see them cuddling I will seriously die. Speaking of cuddling, Zach is such a cuddlebug! He'll give you the raspiest meows and then reach up at you, and if you crouch down to his level, he will rub his face against yours as hard as he possibly can, hahah. He just loves being petted, and maybe I'm just interpreting to suit my own interests, but occasionally he even asks to be picked up. Anyone else adopt any new furbabies lately? Maybe some featherbabies or scalebabies? (these are probably not words anyone uses but oh well!)
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life n'stuff || haüs

On August 1st, the day after my 26th birthday, we closed on our house, and said goodbye to our apartment! Haven't put up lights at the house yet, but I loved this set-up in the apartment bedroom! Be warned: the house looks like a tornado came through in these photos. Don't say I didn't warn you! The living room, as seen from the top of the stairs. Sweet-ass fireplace! SO looking forward to winter, hahah Open kitchen! Beautiful counters, although it could definitely use a few more of them! Smaller upstairs bedroom Larger upstairs bedroom Larger upstairs bedroom (look at those shelves/ledges! These will be catified eventually) Master bedroom, and another ledge to be catified!
The cats were a little upset at first. Katie was (cautiously) exploring within an hour, but Phoebe hid behind the washing machine and yowled like she was being murdered off and on for a few days. Fortunately, she warmed up to the place a bit more once she discovered this ledge overlooking the living room! I keep catching this cat carving out of the corner of my eye and thinking for a split second it's our new furbaby (who will get his own post soon!). I think I need to find somewhere else to put it, hahah. We keep discovering little things wrong, like ceiling fans and outlets not working, but hey, that's life! Homeowners, did you discover any "surprises" when you first moved in? Also, can you spot the new kitty? He's in two of the photos, but I'm not telling which ones (;
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life n'stuff || houses, lay-offs, and rollercoaster rides

A lot has happened recently. For one, Josh and I are now homeowners! We are absolutely in love with our new home, as are the kitties. I will definitely be posting more photos soon! Not today, though. This post is about life changes, yo. Before we had even made our first mortgage payment, I was part of a series of lay-offs. The first day was pretty rough, emotionally, but I am lucky to have incredibly supportive friends; I had people reaching out to me about openings at their company almost immediately. I was officially unemployed for a grand total of nine days. Nine days! In this economy, that is nothing short of a miracle, and I am beyond grateful.

My last two jobs, spanning about four years, were in software quality assurance. I enjoyed my time in QA, but honestly, I'd been dreaming of a change. In my first few days of unemployment, I told Josh that I wanted to be able to look back and say that getting laid off was a positive thing- and now I can! I got a job as a marketing assistant with the first company I did QA work for. The duties are demanding in a way that's new to me, but I'm loving every second of it! The great part is, I already know half the people at the company! The first week or so, I was constantly running into someone who recognized me and was confused about why I was there, hahah.

At my previous job, I had a company-owned laptop that I basically used as my personal computer, since my desktop died a year ago or so. I did all my (admittedly rare) blogging from that laptop, yet another reason for the lack of updates. I'd love to fix up my desktop (and I know I can, it's just one of those things that I'll get around to "eventually"), and I think I'm going to have to, since a laptop is just not in the budget. Until then, I'll likely be blogging from Josh's computer.

I don't know what happened to my background image. IIRC, it used to be large enough that it didn't need to tile, but now it's tiling... and awfully, at that. I'll work on getting that fixed.

That's about it! New house, got laid off, got a new job... hold on. I knew I forgot something. After "new house" but before "laid off", we may have acquired a new kitty. Maybe. Perhaps he will show up on the blog soon. Who knows? (:

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framily || Father's Day 2014

This house business has been kicking my butt! I had a few posts sitting as drafts for a while; sorry this is so late, hahah. I know it was a few months ago now, but Father's Day was pretty rad this year. My parents had their laundry room remodeled. I don't have any "before" pics, but I still love these "after" pics! The view from the kitchen. The laundry folding/hanging station is my favourite! This was before they painted the cabinets. Sink big enough to give Jake a bath, and built-in shoe cubbies.
I used to try to buy my parents gifts for Father's/Mother's Day, but they have way more money and free time than I do, so it was always like, "What do you get the person that has everything?" and then I'd buy my mum some more candles or something weak like that. These days, I spend a Sunday morning cooking for them instead (: My dad's a big fan of breakfast, so that's what I made him for Father's Day.

We started with bacon, of course. I've heard a lot about baking bacon in the oven, but I'm not actually a fan of bacon, myself, so I didn't really care enough to experiment. Maybe next time! Jake's always underfoot in the kitchen, wanting someone to throw a tennis ball for him. My mum found this recipe for pancakes that called for lemon zest and ricotta (I forget the source; she clipped it out of a magazine, I believe), and they turned out absolutely delicious! Zesting is pretty simple when you have a little zesting tool! Ricotta and sugar. I was a little dubious as I don't really like sweet cheeses, but I carried on... for my dad's sake (lol). Starting to look pretty good. The rest of the ricotta went into the pancake batter. Snack-sized pancakes! Turning golden... First batch, ready to eat! The batter contained ricotta and zest, with extra ricotta/zest for topping. ❤︎❤︎❤︎Heart-shaped everything!❤︎❤︎❤︎ I'm the best at staging photos, u guise Who needs utensils?
I don't normally like pancakes, but these were seriously delicious. They were sweet and just a little tangy! I'm a little disappointed in how dark some of these photos turned out- I need to play around with the settings on my camera a bit more!

But what's a fancy breakfast without strawberries? That little green thing is a tool specifically for coring strawberries. See what I mean about "what do you buy the person who has everything"? ;) Heart-shaped ❤︎❤︎❤︎everything❤︎❤︎❤︎
Another fancy breakfast must: mimosas! I don't much care for orange juice by itself, but it sure tastes great mixed with champagne, hahah. While I was making breakfast, Mum was prepping dinner for the crockpot (pork chops with craisins and apples). My parents, in all their glory. My dad loves balancing things on Jake's head.
Almost every time I visit my parents, I paint my mum's toenails. I've offered to do her fingernails, but she can't stand how much faster manicures chip than pedicures, and turns me down every time. I offered to do my dad's toenails, too, but he declined and went outside to enjoy the weather instead ;) Nothing too fancy, just red and orange with a flower decal. Excuse the indentations on her toes, my toe separators are way too firm! By the time I'd finished, my dad had fallen asleep. I can't blame him, it was perfect napping weather! Don't tell him I took this pic! ;)
Every time I take my camera over to my parents', I take more pictures of their backyard. It's such a gorgeous yard; I'm so jealous! I hope one day my yard will look half as amazing (minus the pool, of course, hahah). Waiting impatiently for me to throw some tennis balls for him. "Hurry up!" This is not a bush, but a few panels of fence covered in ivy. I fucking love ivy! Bird feeders, most of which need refilling, hah. Not a tennis ball, but Jake will still chase it ;) Jazzed-up drainage ditch. Found this little guy wandering around on the patio table! I think it's a hister beetle of some sort, but don't take my word for it.
By the way, the pork chops turned out great! ;) Hope your Father's Day was as great as mine! House post coming soon :)

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