Okay so I need to work on my decorating skills. In other words, I need to invest in some sort of decorating tools to apply icings and glazes. These were really yummy though.
Yes it's another recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra-Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This recipe is called "Carrot Raisin Spice Chewies," and they taste like carrot cake in cookie form. I used currents instead of raisins because that's what I had on hand, and they have bits of coconut and walnut in them, and are spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; the grated carrot in the recipe brings it all together. 

Because I'm eager to move on to the next recipe, I don't know when I'll come back to this one. When I do,  I hope I have some decorating skills to speak of.

I also thought I'd end with a picture of Gigi because I haven't posted enough cat pictures lately. She's returned to this basket that she hasn't slept in since we moved into our new place, which is almost a year ago now. Who knows why she decided to sleep in it again? She has a few choice spots around the apartment. The basket she doesn't use as much, but whenever I can't find her I know she must be there. When she was a kitten, she was able to stretch out fully and still be contained in the basket. Aw my little kitten has grown up.

She's grown a bit hasn't she?

Fiston

I'm sad to say that my mom's kitty Fiston made his last trip to the vet yesterday. Today mom sent an email out with this beautiful picture of Fiston.

Mom thinks he may have been 16, but she's not really sure since he was a neighbourhood feral that she took in. I think his name is the french (Quebec) word for son (mom or db will have to correct me on that).

Fiston was always people shy, but not with mom. He seemed to always know that he was safe with her, and that he could feel safe in his home.

I'm always grateful to those who take in the "unwanted" street cats or ferals because sometimes they need extra love and care. Fiston was one of those cats. Thanks mom for giving him such a loving home.

Happy Anniversary

It's our 7th anniversary with Primavera. 7 years ago we drove to Richmond Hill to pick her up from her foster home. It's been an active 7 years! Prima is so loving, and sweet. She's got her crazy side. I always thought she'd settle down a little as she aged, but she hasn't really slowed down much.

It was pure coincidence that we picked her up on the first day of spring, and her name was Primavera. It suits her, but she also has picked up a few other names such as, Chicken (the most common one now) or Chik, Babs, Ba, Farfallina, and Suprima. She is, though, first and foremost our Primavera, and I'm so glad that we found her.

Gigi and Prima. They're such darlings when they're relaxing. Although I do think Prima has a glint of mischief in her eye.

Christmas (cat themed) photos

Some people say that Christmas is for the kids, but here in whoville it is for the cats.

We had a little snow Christmas day. db and I went for a walk around dusk and headed further up the hill so we'd have a little more snow. The higher elevation makes just a little difference and up higher the snow was less slushy. We have several cat decorations on the tree. I like this one in particular because Gigi has a very similar basket that she sleeps in.

Svetlana marked the top of the tree. We've done this in the past, but this year it seemed all the more appropriate that she should be with us at Christmas in this way.
Prima amongst the snowflake garland.
Gigi attacks the snowflake garland. She's been doing this since I pulled it out of the box. I picked her up and she brought the garland with her, continuing her attack.

I taped the Newcastle/Derby game. Gigi watched some of it with me.
Then she got involved in the game.

do what you can

When you try to cram everything into your one day off at some point you have to realize that it just can't be done. You have to slow your pace down and finish what you can.

I've also been applying this to work. We are so incredibly busy at work that at some point yesterday I said to myself that I have to just get done what I can. There are so many orders coming in from so many directions (web, phone, delivery) that it is impossible to keep on top of it. I kept thinking at some point I'll catch up and get this done, but I never did. Near the end of my shift I was mentally spent. I couldn't focus on one thing for too long because I was just too exhausted to get anything else done.

Last night I fell asleep in the beginning of the second period of the Blues game (we had it on tape and were watching it after dinner). db tried to wake me when they scored but I found it impossible to keep my eyes open. I went to bed. I watched the rest of the game today. For some reason I thought db had told me that the Blues won 4-3, but when I watched the game today they did anything but. They lost to Edmonton in a shoot-out. I was completely suprised by this. At least I gained some points in the hockey pool and moved out of last place.

With all that rest last night, I had a little extra energy today and went to the gym for a fast paced run on the treadmill. I felt I could break the 8 minute mile today, but I didn't push it that far. I did a short fast run and had a good weight session in a relatively empty gym. I love having the weight room to myself.

I'm considering running in mid-February in the "Fort Langley Historic Half Marathon." It might be a bit of a motivator and a good way to warm up for the 2008 running season. I've had enough down time. I'd better decide since I need to start training asap.

***

Baking is something I haven't done much of lately. Today's vegan choc. chip cookies (db's favorite) were a bit of a warm-up to my Christmas baking. It was too overwhelming to dive right into Christmas baking in my one day off so I thought I'd wait for the weekend and just do a warm up and get those choc. chip cookies done. They turned out great so I guess I'm ready for a sugar cookie now.

***
Finally, I'm posting this photo because my mom asked me to. I just found this picture while going through my photos and labelling them in preparation for storing them on discs.
That's our dear sweet Svetlana in the middle who is no longer with us. She passed on in June. Gigi is on the right snoozing away and is as aloof as ever. Last but not least is Prima on the left with her smirk on. This is a rare photo because these three were hardly ever seen to share the same space, which is probably why we reached for the camera. Svetlana and Prima did sleep next to each other only because Prima is so territorial that she would find Svetlana wherever she was and park herself next to her (that is if she didn't swat her away first). Anywho, I thought I'd share the photo. I've put it on my desktop for now.

more pictures

Bert Flinn park.
Gigi lounges.
Prima taking one of her daily 30 baths.
more Gigi.
I've been trying to get a good picture of Gigi but she is so aloof and I think she's clued in to what I'm trying to do because every time I get the camera out she decides to get up and run off. I'm trying not to take it personally.

The first photo of Bert Flinn park is so close to home and I can't believe we haven't been through there up until this past week. It's lovely and we had a beautiful day to walk through. It's a very easy going park since it's mostly flat and the trail is well trodden and wide. It does descend in one section and from what I can tell from the very sketchy map of it is that it does connect to another trail that I frequent. So I'm hoping we can find that route on our next visit.

whoville cats

I thought a few cat photos were overdue. Gigi and Prima are the stars of whoville.