The day my cat caught on fire.

2 Mar

(he’s fine)

 

It all started with a candle.  I lit a purple, little, free candle that Ryan and I received from the Bridal Expo.  It was a handmade candle and I was curious about its ability to burn and emit smell.  After lighting the candle, I sat it on the corner of my desk and went back to work making Thank You cards.  Within minutes Clyde (the cat) jumped on my desk and right ON TOP OF THE CANDLE.  I looked up in horror as flames caught on the fur of his underbelly then began to wrap around his sides.  I thought “Why isn’t he jumping down?” at the same time that I reached out to push him off the candle.

He ran off toward the other end of the basement as I’m screaming to Ryan: “Oh My God, Clyde caught on fire!”  I anxiously watched Clyde as he scampered around and tried figure out how badly he was injured.  Other than walking a little more arced than normal, he wasn’t whining or licking the area.  So I decided to take him to the bathroom and use water to relieve any pain.  Once I got a good look at the damage, I am super happy to announce that – THE FIRE DID NOT GET HIS SKIN.  It only burned about ½ an inch of his fur.  I wiped off any remaining charred bits then took him downstairs, wrapped in a pink towel, to recuperate.

 

Clyde He's so Strong!

So Clyde is fine.  Now it kind of sounds funny to say that He Caught on Fire since he  did so without injury.  Also, it smells baaaaadddd downstairs.  Like burnt cat fur.  But if you’ve never smelled burnt cat fur than it’s like burnt human hair except thicker smelling.  Also known as – Gross.

 

With one tragedy safely behind us, I walked back to my desk to finish the thank you cards.  However, I didn’t make it….Just steps from my chair, I took a quick side step to blow out that blasted candle and placed my feeble right leg on something dangerous – A rounded extension cord connecter.  I stepped right on the hard part where two extension cords come together, which is round and which caused me to slip and FALL.  I didn’t say Ow.  I didn’t yell.  All I mumbled was, “Are you freaking kidding me.”  I just fell last week and the last thing I need for both of my janked (Word does not recognize this term – it means broken down, beat up, all together not-working-well) up knees is to fall AGAIN.  At least I landed on my bum this time.  However, there is another bruise on my right knee following the incident so I probably did hit it somehow.

 

If these were connected, this is exactly what caused me to fall. Also, a google search for extension cords is fun. Did you know they make pink ones??

So, at this point I’m not feeling so hot.  I feel like I’m damaged.  In the mist of the chaos and internal whining, I clambered upstairs to begin making dinner.  Maybe if I am productive, it will make me feel less crappy.  I prepared our baked potatoes for the oven by surrounding them in butter and salt inside a foil wrapping.  I then took the steaks and asparagus out of the refrigerator to prep them as well.  DING.  At this point I remember that Ryan’s grandpa told me that if we ever make steaks, we can use this broiler pan that he has.

So I went searched for the thing.  It was the last place I looked – the bottom oven.  Ok, that kind of makes sense, I should’ve looked there.  So I pulled out the broiler pan and began to move it to the counter.  FREAKING SPLASH.  A massive amount of water poured out from the bottom and on to the floor, my socks, the drawers, the counter and Clyde.  Poor cat, he really just can’t catch a break.  I immediately start wiping up the mess and try to figure out if this is actually water or if it’s grease.  It came up easily and didn’t not feel smooth like grease does.   Therefore, it was most likely watery grease.

After the weird grease/water mess came to an end, I ran back downstairs to complain to Ryan:

“SoAfterClydeCaughtOnFire,IfellDownAndThenWhenIGoUpstairsToMake DeliciousFood,TheFreakingPanPoursWaterGreaseAllOverTheFloor!!!”

 

Turns out, Thursday was Pretty Funny.

Update: According to eHow, “Consider spraying a thin layer of oil over the ridged top before using it and add about a cup of water to the bottom pan. This allows the fat from the meat to land in water instead of a hot surface where it will burn and cause smoke.” Oops….

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Too Soon To Tell

29 Feb

I want my wedding now. Waiting the next (pause for me to check my countdown..) 577 days for this dreamt up event seems like an eternity.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We have NOTHING planned other than ideas, but it’s so exciting.

Here is a list of things we know:

  • The wedding will be in Colorado.
  • Both the ceremony and reception will occur outdoors.
  • There will be an open bar.
  • It will be a carnival theme complete with games and prizes.
  • Our honeymoon will be in either The Bahamas,  The Dominican Republic or Mexico because we just WON A FREE 3 day, all-inclusive trip!
  • There will be lots of navy blue and yellow.
  • We require cupcakes and a two tier wedding cake that looks like a top hat.

Oh, I’m sorry, did you want to hear more about our free vacation? Pretty sure it’s a time share and we have to attend a cooking demo to redeem it (which is this Saturday so I’ll let you know how it goes…) We get to choose the destination and can even extend the trip at a discounted rate. I’m excited. Therefore, I would like my wedding to be this September instead of next.

Now moving on. My last post established my passion as a DIY bride looking to save big on flowers. Here is what resulted from 4 hours of watching Psych and playing with flowers. In Ryan’s words: “It smells like a florist in here.” Thank you!

20120229-123959.jpg

Bouquets require many more stems than I imagined possible. I think I used about 10-15. I think 30-40 would be more like it. I also hate the flowers I used. As you can tell, I bought the cheapest of cheap ones from King Sooper. Maybe I’ll just get a bunch of hydrangeas like I always dreamed of. Some hydrangeas and some lilies. It’d be perfect. Awww daydream. I did learn a few things from the extremely helpful ladies at King Sooper — Hydrangeas wilt really fast so do all trimming underwater and keep them in water for as long as possible. They also taught me that white washes out any arrangement so stick with color. This might have been the problem with my bouquets. Bouquets are just hard in general. The flowers fall apart, they smash, they stick, they don’t bend the right way and they have to be just right in order to look good.

On the other hand, boutonnieres are amazing. I had so much fun designing the two I made and I feel very confident that I can make boutonnieres for all the men in the ceremony with minimal effort. My favorite part: ribbon wrapping! That’s gonna be so fun!


Corsages. Oops. I forgot to make those…. Next time.

Lastly, you’ll see the fabric flower I made using advice from Nobody Puts Sarah in the Corner.

She is always finding great DIY ideas which I plan to use for my wedding by asking her nicely: Sarah, will you find wedding DIY tips for me? Thanks. Love, Jen. The thing I love about my fabric flower is that it did not fray even though the website called for fraying fabric. I like the smoothness. So I wonder- would felt work? Also, will do that next time. (Also, i just said “I love the smoothness.  That was weird.)

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Random Thoughts from a Random Girl.

24 Feb

What a weird, madhouse life we’ve been living. It feels like I’m busy all the time, but I work only 25 hours a week. I spend 7 hours a day sitting down/laying down. I’ve made too many farms and houses on Minecraft to count. So, what’s with this bogged down feeling? I have a theory actually. When you have SO MUCH free time, you feel overwhelmed by the vastness of it all and without structure easily slip away into laziness. For me, work provides structure and time constraints that help break up my day. This allows me to accomplish things in certain timeframes such as: Before Work, On the Way Home, Before Dinner, After Dinner, Before Bed, etc. However, when you work 2pm-5pm, you spend the whole day waiting to go to work, then the whole day at work waiting to leave, because 3 hours should go quickly and then after work you’re in the post-work mind frame of “I need to relax” even though you’ve really done nothing at all.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what I’m going to do about all this.

And I have no idea. This morning I was productive (hence the blog post), and I think that has something to do with the sunshine. Yes, there is definitely a direct correlation between the amount of pure sunshine and my level of motivation. I guess that’s a clue. Yet, when the sunsets at 5:30 and the house is dark because we “energy-efficient,” I slump into a comfy couch and fall asleep at 9. So it is a clue, but a very fickle one.

On another note. I’ve mentioned that a job would certainly give my life the structure it needs. Good thing those are so easy to come by. Pause. Not. I’m a nanny, 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I play with a two-year-old and occasionally hold a 3-month-old. It’s hard work, but someone’s gotta do it. Since I have a part-time job, I want another part-time job. I’ve applied at Michaels, Whole Foods, JoAnns and maybe no where else. I’ve sent one email and called a bunch of places. Hardly anyone is hiring. Whole Foods said I was not experienced enough…I have 5 years of grocery experience, but ok. Ryan said I should go in and yell at them. I’ll play the lottery instead.

Jobs are not easy and I hate looking for them. All Ryan and I want to do is start our own businesses. I can hardly convince myself to work for someone else. Besides there are so few jobs that I even want to do.

Us + Pikes Peak

Anyway, enough jibber jabber.

Here are some fun things that we have been doing. Wednesday I had the day off and it was 65 degrees, so Ryan and I went to Garden of the Gods for some running around near and/or upon rocks. I like to say we’re going to “pretend we’re on Hey Dude.” There are cacti and tumbleweeds by the way.

Garden of the Gods aka Hey Dude

After all the running around, we went to Manitou Springs for some antique arcade games, margaritas and quirky local shopping. On the short trip back to the car, I was fooling around with Ryan and asked for a piggy back ride. He refused, because it was stupid. I decided to mess with him by jumping onto and then quickly off of a little stone wall. Well I missed with my right leg and NAILED the stone wall with my knee. I mean NAILED it. SO. HARD. I lost my breath from the jolt of pain. I then obviously started hyperventilating. I tried to look at the wound, but stupid skinny leg jeans! Ryan helped me to sit down on the blasted stone wall of all things! I tried to regain control of my nervous system. The pain was so intense. Like 10/10. Like almost the worst ever. ( I have an 11 once ). Ryan asked if it hurt worse than when I broke my finger (Ah, yes the infamous pogo-stick index finger fall out of 2010). And YES it hurt like a million times worse. We finally hobbled to the car. I found out that I don’t know how to lean on someone when they help me walk. Ryan found out that when I get hurt I like to go into shock.

So we’re in the car and my lips are white and I’m so cold, but like I said it’s 65 outside. I frantically take off my pants because that’s the only way to see the damage. And damnit, there’s like no damage. Sure it’s bruised already and there’s a hole in my jeans, but other than that there’s no obvious signs of trauma (well it’s swollen, but duh.) Ryan bought a cold soda can to put on the wound. That didn’t help, but I sure do love me some Cherry Coca Cola.

My view of My Knees. Check out the right one.

As we arrive home, I just plopped down on the couch, tried to relax and properly ice my knee. And I’m proud to say that 2 days later, it’s almost fine. Though the extra strain I put on my already “bad” left knee didn’t help matters.

I am a such a baby. Almost passing out from an injury that my 9-year-old self would’ve laughed at. Really. The whole time I was in the car, whining and breathing uncontrollably, I was remembering the day I feel down my gravel driveway. I got a gash in the same knee that was about 3 inches long. There were rocks and dirt in it. I didn’t even go to the doctor. I probably cried, but I was more proud of the huge wound. What happened, Jen?!

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