Sad Sunday - 26 Mar

Kitty Cole died yesterday. I can't seem to stop weeping

Rest in peace best kitty friend ever and fare thee well

Sunday 12 Mar @ 1846

Well, it's been a busy week.

Monday I was taken to lunch @ Lola (http://tomdouglas.com/lola/lunch.html), always a treat. We ate so much I was not hungry the remainder of the day. Henry still wants to take me out for a Bday meal but it's not too high on my priority list but we'll get to it.
Wednesday we tried a sushi place called Sushiland near the Seattle Center. It was my first time to a kaiten sushi place where the dishes are sent past the diners on a conveyor and you pick out what looks good. Each dish is a different color representing the cost of that dish. Once it's over, they total you dishes and you pay. Easy as California Roll. All I know is the fish was fresh and tasty, they made decent stuff and a big sushi lunch was only a bit more than $20.00.
Henry wanted to stay an extra night with me so he stayed Friday and then I dropped him @ bowling with his Mom. He bowled a 96 and a 101 raw score, his best scratch series so far in league play. He was really excited with his progress. I'm really proud of his sticking to this and getting better and better all the time. His skills are definitely developing rapidly and he is already talking about participating in Summer league as well.
I had my last appointment with Katherine on Saturday. She is retiring and I am now starting the search for a new therapist. She has been such a great addition to my life these last 8 or so years and I will miss her. She is sending a list of referrals for me and I'll be working w/ my GP as well in my search.
Yesterday afternoon, Kristin called to let me know that one of our cats from when we were married had a small stroke. He is diabetic and has been on insulin injections for almost a month now but took a turn for the worse and she rushed him to the vet where they also discovered a large tumor in or near his intestine. He is too old and his diabetes makes him not a good candidate for surgery but he is happy and purring and still wants attention. I was pretty sad so I stopped by this afternoon and spent some time with him and let him know I love him and that he can go when he's ready. He used to be so big and he has lost almost 50% of his body weight so he is really bony and doesn't move much but he still gave me kisses and head butts and obviously recognized me. I remember when I really did not want to get cats but this big boy really turned into my cat; always choosing my lap or sleeping between my legs in bed. I'm tearing up as I write this because I'm so sad but he's been a good cat and I've missed him these last 3 years or so. I'm planning on stopping by to see him a couple times a week until he goes. The vet gave him about 2 months but after seeing him today and listening to Kristin talking about how he earlier lost some of the movement in his back legs in the back yard, neither of us thinks he'll last 2 months. If he needs to go to kitty island, Kristin told me I can be there with them when he goes but as bad as it sounds, we are hoping he just goes to sleep soon and has an easy time of it. He deserves it.
Last night I returned to Sushiland as it is only 3 blocks from the opera house where I attended the Seattle Opera's closing night performance of Cosi Fan Tutte. This was my late Bday gift to myself, an evening of musical theatre and it was brilliant. I'm glad I got out to do it.
Not much more for now, please send good kitty thoughts for Cole.

Wednesday 1 Mar @ 1730

Here it is, the first day of that most hallowed of months. Yes it's true ladies and gentlemen, the ,moth that you were all given the gift of me is on us once again and I will be 46 years of age. When my boss found out that my B-day is Monday, he asked where I wanted to go for lunch and I replied, "Paris, I've always loved Paris in the Spring...". He suggested that we hit the crepe stand in Pioneer Square. Well, it was worth a try.

Onward...

I've been experimenting with Thai food @ home. I made a green curry last night and the first pass turned out too salty as I used far too much of the curry paste. Not to bright of me to try going by color huh? I cut it with more coconut milk and it is fine now, in fact it made a fine lunch today. I will endeavor to perfect this going forward. Soon I will be on to mussaman curry, another Thai stew. This is a red curry with cinnamon and I had a lamb version while in the UK and it was terrific. I like the fact that lamb was on so many menus there even though chicken seemed to be an afterthought on many of those same menus. I've seen other references to lamb mussaman curry so it must be somewhat authentic. I'll try it here as I have a reference for that and then probably switch to chicken. I found both of those curry pastes relatively easily but another I'm searching for I have found only online, kaeng par or jungle curry. This is a coconut milk free curry as it is considered a peasant dish so the lack of the coconut milk makes the stew less expensive. It is very spicy and is basically a curry broth with lots of vegetables, very yummy as well.

Now that Spring is almost sprung, I'm starting to get the cooking bug and even the grocery produce is starting to look far better for the most part. This happens to me a lot this time of year, I think it's the beginning of availability of affordable crisp fresh asparagus. I can use it in curry! and so many other ways as well.

I've also been experimenting with expanding my knowledge of tea. I find that it makes a nice afternoon pick me up w/o the coffee buzz that so often accompanies coffee or a shot of espresso. I was able to lay hands on a couple of single estate Assam teas while in London ( the cute girl behind the tea counter @ Harrods didn't tell me the jumbari estate was $27.00 for the 100 grams I ordered!) and they make a nice afternoon cuppa. In fact I substituted tea for coffee last Saturday morning (not sure I'll intentionally do that again but it was worth a try). I also picked up a tin of Assam TGFOP from Fortnum & Mason as well as a couple of their coffees to taste out with the kids in my department. The coffee so far has been retched (that's as nice a thing as I can come up with to say) but the tea has been lovely. I have also asked that I be a guinea pig for the new yea master program that will be unveiled @ work next month. Much to learn...

Back to my birthday, I think I'll get a ticket to the closing night of Cosi Fan Tutti w/ the Seattle Opera. It is a new production and sounds tremendous according to the reviews. I haven't been to the opera for a while and would like to attend again. I've found that attending the theater alone is a very enjoyable experience. It allows for much pondering and always the ability to sit in the shadows and watch all the funny people.

I have Henry for the weekend and we're going to try and hook up with a couple of his friends so he can see some he hasn't for a while. We're back on the regular treadmill now until we have a 3 day weekend together for St. Patricks Day. We're thinking of Oregon if we can get it put together. If not, maybe Vancouver or something else. That weekend will be followed on Monday the 20th by the 2nd Annual Great Protest of the Great Meat-out. The Great Meat-out is the day those Vegan types would like to see us all give up eating meat, however a group @ work has decided to make a tradition of last year's observance and eat nothing but meat. At this time we are still accepting ideas for the largest plate of meat we can find in the Seattle area for lunch. At this time the leader seems to be the sampler platter @ Mac's Smokehouse. Apparently we can measure the amont of meat on the plate not by mere ounces but by pounds. This could be this year's winner.

Well, back to the grind. Have a lovely March