Wintry Sunday Boredom

This Sunday finds me rather bored. I wanted to do garden-y things, but with this cold wind, I don't even want to pot basil and peppers for the back porch. Neither do I want to knit, practice the fiddle, or read.

Part of this discontentment is, I believe, due to the nearness, but not-yetness of Thursday. On Thursday, I go to Albuquerque, and then on Friday Porkchop and I caravan to St. Louis with Patrick and his girlfriend Chelsey. Since Pat didn't make the second year, he's moving back to Milwaukee, and then he and Chelsey will volunteer for a year in Chile.

Thursday is so close, but I still have 3 days of work and 3 days of anticipation.

So, even though I haven't been knitting (um, at all for the past couple of weeks), I have been cooking! This morning, I made French toast, which is something I never really eat. But it made sense since I still had bread left over from my share, eggs, and bit of cow milk. Behold:


The stuff on top is that wonderful apple butter. Also, this is actually a French toast sandwich! I cooked it with peanut butter (also from my share) and more apple butter in the middle. YUM! I really should make French toast more often since it's super easy.

Before making the French toast, I put together a chili for the crockpot. I soaked black beans last night and sauted ground beef this morning with onion, garlic, and spices. I can't wait to eat it...the crockpot is just taunting me. I have 49 minutes before I test the beans for doneness. Also, for the chili, I chopped up part of the smoked chipotle peppers that I received in my share. The peppers smell wonderful - I was tempted to take a bite out of one, but I knew that would be foolish.

Also on the food front...remember my tomato plant as pictured last week? If not, here it is:

And here it is this past Friday (a mere week after the previous photo):

It has grown A LOT.

Here it is today - it's at least a couple of inches taller than on Friday:


It has been trying to put out flowers, but I'm pinching them off because the plant needs to grow a bit more before producing tomatoes.

Sometimes I just stand on the backporch and look at my plants.

Keetah would rather I pet her if I'm going to just stand around. Here she is today, not staying still long enough for me to focus on her face:


Sometimes, she is so very cute.

This afternoon, I had to leave the house for cat food and litter. Whenever I'm at Petsmart, I always check out the cats - we won't get another one as long as Keetah is around, but I still like to look. Today was kind of heartbreaking because there was a mini Keetah!! And the sign said something to the effect of: "I was at the city humane society for a long time, but no one ever picked me." Murrr!

If you want a little Keetah, go to the Petsmart at Chippewa and Kingshighway and look for Siren (and maybe change her name).