Growing wheat grass for your cat: an illustrated tutorial

My cat Lilo has a bad habit of eating fabric. One of the things I’ve done to help dissuade her from this habit – besides making sure that every bit of fabric not upholstered to something or currently being worn by a human is out of her reach – is to grow wheat grass for her. She enjoys eating it … Read more

Better photos with free photo apps

If I were a truly awesome blogger, I would take all my photos with an actual camera in natural filtered sunlight. But given that it’s the middle of winter, sunlight isn’t always easy to find when it’s time to take a photo. And it’s easier to upload photos to the web using my phone than with my actual camera, so I use my … Read more

Illustrated tutorial: Making basic, no-frills wrist warmers and hand warmers (fingerless gloves)

Earlier this week I was in my office typing, and as often happens when I do this in the winter, my hands felt stiff and cold. I often wear regular hand braces when typing, which doesn’t have much effect on my hands’ warmth, but I remembered seeing fancier wrist supports on Amazon that offer compression, so I looked them up. The … Read more

Cat behavior: Keeping cats off the counters (and making an almost-free cat perch—with bonus sweet potatoes)

Remember the adorable kitty who usually sits patiently on her perch when it’s dinnertime? While I was away for Christmas, Lilo decided that was silly. The first night I was back, she jumped onto the counter as soon as I started to put her dinner together, nudging my hand and trying to stick her face in the can. Well, that’s … Read more

Guardian of the Homemade Vinegars

I was too sick to write up a wine recipe today, but Lilo wanted me to make a Fermentation Friday post anyway. She jumped on top of the kitchen cabinets and started posing with the backstock of homemade vinegars & brews I keep up there. So today is a photo post. Next week I should be feeling well enough to … Read more

Consider this our audition for My Cat From Hell

This is Lilo. I found her in the parking lot when she was a scrawny kitten of about three months old. She was darting back and forth under the cars, chasing a ground squirrel. The annual leases in the neighboring apartment complex had just let up, so my best guess was that someone dumped her when they moved. I put up signs … Read more