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So the last time I let Pilsbury out, on Wednesday, he came back inside dripping wet, sans collar (the third one in as many weeks) with a torn up ear and blood on his chest (not his). I pieced the evidence together and surmise that he was fighting with the newest cat to enter his territory a bit too close to the creek that runs at the back of our property and fell in.

That was pretty much the last straw for me. He's beginning to look like an old tom cat and he no longer has his toms. So I decided to keep him inside.

Now, the reason we've never tried to keep him solely indoors before is that he's a bit brain damaged and will drive you ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NUTS until you let him out. He follows you around and yowls at the top of his lungs. For hours. Plus he will dive for any open door with the singular madness of a Mom who just spotted the last tickle me elmo doll. Often resulting in us shutting the door on his neck.

But so far we've done okay. He's done the yowling thing, but not nearly as bad as I feared and he's only gone for the door once. Probably because I've been careful to keep the garage door closed and have let him out there several times.

So that's all good. But it makes me feel like my precious lover is getting old.

Last night Pilsbury curled up on my lap as usual and I spent a pleasant evening watching TV and telling him what an awesome cat he is, despite the brain damage. He's always available for lap warming, wants only love, lets Erik yank fistfuls of fur out without complaint and is really only a bother when he's not allowed outside.

Which means that for the next day or so I'm going to have a yowling, loud as hell meowing, litter flinging fur ball underfoot at all times. Because Pilsbury is on restriction.

I came home from errands today to find three quarters of a young rabbit at my garage door steps. I tell myself that although he's a good hunter, Pilsbury is a lazy one so this must have been a weak, or sickly rabbit but still. It's a bunny. And that is just not cool.

Especially when I have to explain the carcass to my 3 year old. Who asks me questions I do not know the answers to like "why did he eat just the head?"

See that space between Jake and Erik and above Pilsbury? That's where I slept for about half of last night. This amount of space it typical for me whether we're in Jake's bed or mine and Jason's. Only when we're in our bed, Lokai joins in as well. *sigh*

We went to the zoo today and had a good time. Sort of. It was stupid crowded with school groups making it really not fun for me. But Jake had a blast. Especially with the petting zoo and the playground. I'm not sure he was super keen on seeing the animals. He was excited to see the tiger before we got there, but of course the tiger was barely visible through the bamboo forest. I was trying to decide between a Botanical Gardens and a Zoo pass, but I think I'll go with the Botanical Gardens. And maybe the aquarium. Everyone I know with an annual pass to the aquarium has loved it and I really like that place myself.

I'm just not good with crowds. Jake is pretty good about staying close by, but it still makes me nervous as hell when he wants to get out of the stroller and walk when there's a ton of people. Not to mention it was hard just to get up to see the animals, and we missed seeing the cloud leopard altogether. I might give it another shot sometime over the summer. If for no other reason than to get more/better photographs. The lion and the sun bear were both asleep, so that was kind of a bummer.

Anyway, here are a few shots from today (with a few more on flickr):

Jake fell in love with this goat, and had quite the conversation with it. I wish I could've heard what he was saying, but I missed it. He's giving it a hug here.

Jake and Evan checking out the flamingos.

I like rhinos.

But the otters are my favorite.

This was one of those duck on a spring things, and Jake had a blast on it.

Driving the school bus.

I got Lori to take a picture of all three of us. :D

People often ask me why I say Pilsbury is brain damaged.

Thank you Pilsbury for bringing me half a chipmunk and leaving it at the back door. *gag*

Finally got around to getting them off the camera.

I promise I'll take pictures of something else soon. :)

It really didn't take but a couple of hours after

mellusions posted the link to a recipe for homemade Samoas before I had totally justified making a batch. Well, I did need a xmas gift for my stepmother after all! And I could totally send the rest to work with Jason.

Which is good. Because the last thing I need are 4+ dozen Samoas in the house. My apologies to girl scouts everywhere, but I will never again pay $3 a dozen for these. They were pretty easy (the bitch is the assembly, but it's just time consuming) and they taste amazingly good.

A few tips, in case anyone else decides to make these. The dough does not come together in the mixing bowl. You have to knead it some first. Then it's really easy to work with. I'd never made shortbread before, so I didn't know the dough would be crumbly before you smooshed it together.

Skip putting the holes in the center. Unless you're seriously anal you're going to cover them up with coconut anyway. If I had realized that getting the cookies done would have gone a lot faster.

Don't even attempt to spread the caramel/coconut concoction on the cookies with a knife or offset spatula. Biggest pain in the ass ever. Spray your fingers with Pam and do it with your hands. Just rinse your hands every 5th cookie or so in warm water and respray and things will move along nicely.

Use a thick (freezer type) ziploc bag if you don't have a piping bag. Thankfully my cheap ass glad sandwich bag held for the first 3 dozen cookies before the seam exploded and sent chocolate everywhere. Jason's coworkers will get the ones with big globs instead of the nice drizzles.

And just for fun as I was working on the friends' holiday gifts I have yet to finish I snapped a picture of my cutting table/prep area/work space. What we used to call our dining room table. The cats often keep me company. Pilsbury is always polite and tries to find an open spot. Lokai goes straight for the fabric stack. *snort*