An April Fool’s sucker, incredibly shrinking kids, sleepovers and anxious animals

It might be a good idea for me to get off the internet for the day, as I’ve already found myself momentarily sucked into an early morning April Fool’s joke. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do anything like that to you: I’m too boring to come up with April first fun.

Today was a fairly lazy Saturday. I slept in late, made a tofu scramble, and dropped the twins off at the pool for a few hours. Then I took my incredibly shrinking step-son to get some smaller pants. Vegan diet + growth spurt = 11-year-old butt crack and pants that were quite literally falling off. Not a pretty site. After that, I met with a couple of VegNet buddies to do some event planning. And then, we had the 3rd new kid this week spend the night. Sleepovers are fun and great for the kids and all, but I’m really looking forward to things getting back to normal next week. Some of the animals feel the same way, I’m sure. Poor little Isis has been a nervous wreck. Gordy is also not feeling well, and I’m wondering if part of it has to do with him being sensitive to all of the new people coming in and out (he’s always been a skittish cat). Maybe it explains why the greyhound is farting up a storm as well, which is very unusual for her. But seriously, she likes kids, so I doubt that’s it. I wonder if the kids accidentally fed her cat food for dinner or something. Or maybe somebody didn’t want the rest of their bean soup…

Vegan school lunch tomorrow: Egg-less egg salad

Today, I slept way in with hubby, Ruby the greyhound who likes to snuggle (but also push on everybody with her legs), and three rotating cats. Love it.

Spent the afternoon doing the weekly home blessing and a little extra deep cleaning to really get a good start on the week. The twins helped me finish it up when they came home. They also helped me cut up brown and red potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, carrot, and celery for our typical winter dutch oven dish. It’s still in the oven, but nearly done. The only thing it’s lacking is Field Roast sausage (because we’re out) but it’s still going to be yummy.

I also made up some egg-less egg salad based on the Better-Than-Egg-Salad recipe from The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, so the kids can take it for lunch tomorrow. (Check out compassionatecook.com for info on all of Colleen’s books, her great podcast, sample recipes, etc.) It’s only the twins’ 3rd week of school here, and we’re going to be experimenting for a while with different things to keep school lunches interesting. Right now, they don’t have any way of heating up their lunch at school (no microwave access) so we’re not able to send hot things. But, I will be on the lookout for a good deal on some lunch thermos-y things, which I know are out there.

Our modified recipe includes:

• extra-firm tofu {Trader Joe’s}
• egg-less mayonnaise {we are using up a jar of Earth Balance MindfulMayo, but I personally prefer the taste of Vegenaise}
• onion
• carrots
• celery
• dried parsley
• pickle relish or chopped pickles {we chopped up some baby dills}
• mustard
• turmeric
• salt and black pepper
• smoked paprika
• a few pinches of Kala Namak
• pinch of dulse flakes

It turned out pretty good—the Kala Namak really helps here. And I think the flavors will meld together overnight and be even better in the morning. Next time, I’d also like to try the curried version (add apple, raisins, nuts, curry powder, etc.), or the Best-Ever Tofu “Egg” Salad recipe from Big Vegan, which uses baked tofu crumbles and a silken tofu “mayonnaise.”

Now, to watch some Season 2 Downton Abbey!

Remembering and missing my friend Deimos

One year ago today I lost my friend Deimos. I’m reminded almost daily of his goofy, confident, noisy Presence.

I miss a herd of hounds rushing down the stairs to meet me at the door, Old Greybeard in the lead. I miss that he was so excited for walks or going anywhere in the car, that he wouldn’t stand still to hook up the lead. I miss having a buddy to say with strategic snout placement and that weird low greyhound woof, “Hey, you’ve worked enough, get off the computer!” I miss a not-so-secret 75 lbs of sneaking up onto the bed on chilly nights. Most of all I miss the individual soul that left such a gaping hole behind.

The story of Deimos:

• Old Greybeard
• An Empty Bowl
• Waiting. Loving. Remembering.

Persnickety audio files and greyhound ghosts

It’s Saturday and I shouldn’t be so exhausted. But I spent hours last night and a giant chunk of my Saturday wrestling with a persnickety audio file and finishing up the rest of next week’s show. These things happen. The great thing about working on a radio show by yourself is that you get to make all the decisions. The bad thing about working on a radio show by yourself is that you have to make all of the decisions. Good thing that my co-host and I don’t go out of town too often.

I came home and totally tuned out by cooking some simple pasta and watching several hours of Hulu. Haven’t done that for a long time: I’ve hardly watched any TV this summer.

And tonight, I have nothing else left for the blog. I’m going to go read, and sleep, perhaps dreaming of greyhounds. Deimos has been visiting me lately.

Sunday, my favorite day lately

It was much darker and prettier than this photo suggests

Nice day, overall. Met a new friend and her kids at the park, where we chatted and let the kids play a bit. We took Ruby—she’s been kind of stressed out lately—she didn’t want to get in the car, although she clearly wanted to go with us. Once we got her in and down to the park, she wouldn’t relax and lay down, but seemed hyper alert to all that was going on. It’s a large park, and there were a lot of people and other dogs constantly going by.

Afterwards, we walked down to the river access and she waded in and drank some water and my younger step-kids waded a bit. Unfortunately, a kid accidentally let go of an inner tube and it came rushing down the bank and smacked right into Ruby. She freaked out, jumping into me and my older step-daughter, and pulling at her leash to get away. The poor kid was really sorry, but I was so concerned for Ruby that I’m sure I gave him the evil eye, immediately comforting Ruby and then taking her up to the grass, away from the water. She is now clearly afraid of all air mattresses and tubes, avidly avoiding them on the walk back through the park to the car (we had to leave shortly after that as she seemed pretty agitated). Poor thing. She’s always been a nervous dog, but she seems extra on edge this summer.

But the rest of the day went well. We hung out, baked some carrot bread in the BBQ (plus another loaf, later, in the oven), read books, chatted on the cool back porch, I mowed part of the very overgrown back yard, and after dinner at about 8:15 we drove over to Pilot Butte and walked up it under a beautiful harvest moon to the East and an equally orange sunset to the West. (I don’t know if it was technically a harvest moon, since the full moon was two days ago, but it was big, and it was orange.) It was nearly dark coming down the trail, but it was worth it.