You can't go hungry with a bowl of dough in the fridge.

A couple of times now Rob and I have got home for lunch to realize that all we've got to eat is some boxed soup and then I remember the dough in the fridge and make pitas. They are delicious and soft and only take about 10 minutes to make from start to table (and if you're feeling decadent they are wonderful brushed with melted butter).

Thursday we didn't even have any soup; we just had dough. Rob suggested I start some pitas anyway because then at least we'd have pitas. As I was getting the dough out and turning on the oven we both realized that instead of pitas with jam or peanut butter or whatever we could put stuff on them before they went into the oven and have pizzas instead.

I rolled the dough out while Rob chopped up some olives and a bit of leftover onion. When I tidied up my piles of flour he covered the rounds with a little sauce, a few onion and olive pieces and a sprinkling of mixed shredded cheese. I slide them into the oven and set the time for a minute longer than pita (so six minutes) to account for the cheese.

Seven minutes later we were sitting down to eat. The pizzas were delicious and simple. We'll have to do it again.

I've been debating about posting this for a week now but as Zeke seems to be doing okay I've decided I'll share. That might seem an odd time to do it but I tend to mull things over a lot before I can write them down and I can't mull something that agitates me. I think about it but it doesn't translate to prose very well. I feel calmer now so it works.

Zeke had ear surgery last Wednesday. He'd developed a swelling in his left ear the previous Thursday and when we took him in to the vet they drained it and told us that it was a hematoma (a fancy kind of bruise) and that it would probably come back and require surgery.

We were pretty nervous about surgery. Zeke is an elderly cat - we don't know for certain how old he is but it's somewhere around 14 - and we were very concerned that the stress of going under would cause him more problems later, or worse, he wouldn't wake up.

We both thought about it a lot and talked to people on- and off-line. The general consensus is that for this type of cat injury (and it turns out to be pretty common - they can get these from just shaking their heads too hard and breaking blood vessels in their ears) the surgery is the best way to go since this will let the ear heal with the least trouble and distortion (have you ever hear of a cauliflower ear? That's one of these that's healed up by itself). We decided to go for the surgery (the ear had refilled and was starting to look uncomfortably heavey and balloon like by Monday evening). Because of Zeke's age the vet recommended doing some geriatric (that word makes me laugh) blood work before they put Zeke under to give them a heads up on any complications that might occur. We were also happy to learn that we would be able to pick Zeke up the same day instead of him staying at the vet's overnight.

We dropped Zeke off in the morning after a noisy night of no food or water and waited tensely all day at work to hear back. Rob got a call a little past five that Zeke was waking up and we could take him home. He was pretty zonked when we got him back and nearly fell over a couple of times when he shook his head too hard but he was happy to see us and we heard some purring. His ear looked really gross on the inside. They had opened up the swelling and folded back the edges to prevent any more fluid from getting caught. Now that it's scabbed over it doesn't look so bad but it was a bit of a shock to see the inside of the inside of my cat's ear (very white). The sutures kind of quilt his ear together to help it heal back to a nice flat shape. It looked especially quilty the day after the surgery when it was kind of puffy. It's calmed down a bit since then.

Zeke has been really good about his recovery. His ear doesn't seem to bother him very much though I expect it to become extremely itchy at some point and we have an e-collar waiting for that. His antibiotics are pork liver flavoured and he starts purring as soon as we get the package out. I had been dreading giving Zeke pills so I'm glad he likes these. We always chase it with one of his regular treats to make sure it goes down. The most difficult part of recovery is separating Zeke and Abby.

We've been trying to cultivate a good relationship between our pets but so far Abby mostly wants a playmate out of Zeke and particularly likes to chew on him (we do have good moments but you have to sharp eyes and quick reflexes). Zeke sends a lot of time stuck in the bedroom by himself or with one of us (his food is in there and his litter is in our bathroom so he's got everything he needs). I like to encourage him to walk around the house when Abby is out for a walk or asleep in her crate. Right now he is exploring my desk and trying to play with my curser; there was also a good bit of standing on my keyboard demanding pets. I think he is reading my text file right now. The moving text must be interesting.

I have another reason for posting this now. I learned today that a good friend and her dog were in an accident a little while ago and while my friend is doing well her dog is not. K'nobi is going to need some surgery and a pretty intensive recovery so I want to ask anyone who can to send some good thoughts over to Samera and K'nobi. Let's help get this little pom back to himself.

I got two new craft books this week. The first one was an early birthday present (thanks Joyce) that I discovered on my chair when I got in to work yesterday. The second is a book of knitting patterns I ordered a little while ago as a treat.

My birthday craft book is Sock and Glove by Miyako Kanamori and it is so cute. It's all about how to make cute stuffed animals from socks and gloves.


See the tails!


The first part of the book (where you see all the samples) is a little story and guessing game ("What do you get from a pink sock?"). Even the instructions are cute in this book (and the diagrams are fantastic).

I'm trying to decide which animal to make first.

The knitting book is Whimsical Little Knits by Ysolda Teague and is also very cute. There are ten patterns ranging from a hap blanket to a toy mouse with a lace shawl and a few hat in between.


There is a bookplate for writing my name in ...


... and she signed it! Imagine how her hand must have ached after signing all those books.


I have yarn on order to make the Icing Swirl Hat for my birthday. Hopefully I'll have the right needles.