When we first found him, nearly three years ago, he was emaciated and got fevers all the time. He smelled funny, like he’d been eating out of the trash. His teeth were not pretty…
Now he’s made up for lost time: he has a big beautiful Buddha belly, a sweet baby smell, and squeaky clean teeth.
Our vet also said REM was, not obese, but over-weight. See REM below, pictured in a shoe box a size too small.
After watching their food intake for a few weeks, we’ve noticed they don’t even finish their allotted calories. Maybe they just need to be more active. Do they make kitty treadmills?
For Valentine’s Day, Carlos and I made fried tofu, mushrooms, and spinach over a potato and carrot purée.
Ingredients:
1 package of extra firm tofu (NOT the silken kind)
enough potatoes for the two of you
carrots (I used 6 baby carrots because that’s what I had in the fridge)
as many mushrooms as you like
a couple handfuls of spinach.
Directions:
Boil the potatoes and carrots for about 30 minutes (note the potatoes may take longer, so to make sure it’s soft enough, you want to be able to stick a knife straight through the potato with ease).
Mean while you can press your tofu. To do this, put the block of tofu on a plate, and gently place another plate over it. Leave for 30 minutes and when you lift the plate, you’ll see that a pool of water will have collected underneath the tofu.
When the potatoes and carrots are done, purée them together with some butter to taste, and salt if you like that sort of thing. I’m not big on salt.
Put oil in the frying pan, and stir in mushrooms until they start to soften and turn golden brown.
Mean while, to cut the tofu into wedges, first cut the tofu’s height in half or thirds, depending on how thick you want your wedges. Then cut a big X on the face of the tofu, to make four wedges. And finally, cut across the center of the X, cutting the length in half.
Add tofu, spinach, and soy sauce to the mushrooms. Fry until spinach has wilted and the tofu is heated and browned (about 5-10 minutes).
Put your purée in a mound at the center of each plate. Lean the tofu wedges against the purée, and the rest of the stir-fry can be poured over this.
For dessert we had fried banana, fresh strawberries, and a chocolate honey sauce (on occasion, I do indulge in honey, but this could easily be substituted for maple syrup). In retrospect, I wish we’d done a soy yogurt parfait with fresh bananas and strawberries, so I’ll do that next, and let you know how it turns out!
“Reinvent America and the world.”
–Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I like reading this imperative. It doesn’t mean we should all reach international stardom like the Beats did or like Barack Obama has. We do, each of us, have the potential to reinvent ourselves, our communities, even our country and our world, but I don’t, not at this moment anyway, feel the pressure to reach every ear in the universe. Right now I can let go of old perceptions and create new ones. I can, in the world of my poetry, change anything I want.
A special note: let it be known that, as of yet, I have never published a poem on the internet…
It was recently brought to my attention that a person named Estella Ramirez has submitted a poem to poetry.com. The site is questionable, at best (the site is a scam), so I would never submit to it. And let’s be honest, I’ve written some bad poems in my life, and will probably continue to write bad poems into the future, but I’d like the burden of only those bad poems I write myself, and not those of others who submit poems online under my name, even though it is, of course, their name too.
This is the problem with my namesake. If this other Estella Ramirez had been a mechanic, or a painter, well then, I’d be just fine; what an interesting story to tell about the “other” Estella Ramirez…but what happens when both of us are aspiring poets? How to distinguish?
I would like to believe that my work would be my signature in the universe; surely no one could read my work and then read hers and believe they are from the same author? But what if I am wrong, and both mine and hers get lost in the fray of poetry’s mediocrity, neither of us distinguished from even each other–what a sad fate for our poems.
And what if someone I know runs into this person’s poetry, and believes (humiliatingly enough for me) that I had written these? Friends, acquaintances, you have been alerted.
But I can’t help but imagine what would happen if one or the other of us did gain some recognition for our poems, or even reach large audience even hundreds of years from now. What would Estella Ramirez-ians make of the “other” Estella Ramirez? Her or me?
This is my second Radiohead show to date. My first Radiohead concert was a tour date in Columbia, Maryland for the Hail to the Thief tour. I don’t remember the name of the venue, but I remember I had lawn tickets, and it was beautiful to hear them play live for the first time, even if I couldn’t really see them. I had a small step up this time for the In Rainbows tour, seats right in front of the lawn, on the 17th of May 2008, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion in Houston.
According to this comment on an article in the Austinist, when Radiohead opened for R.E.M on tour, the Houston audience was so enthralled that it moved Thom Yorke to promise always to come back. The comment’s author says he heard Thom say it. Well, true or not, Radiohead did come back for two encores!
The Set List
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Lucky
Morning Bell
Nude
Pyramid Song
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The Gloaming
The National Anthem
Faust Arp
Videotape
Optimistic
Where I End and You Begin
Reckoner
Everything In Its Right Place
All I Need
There There
1st Encore
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
House of Cards
Climbing Up the Walls
Planet Telex
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
2nd Encore
You and Whose Army?
Idioteque
Overhanging pipes were arranged across the stage like an alcove for the band set up. These made for a brilliantly colorful light show. My fiancé observed that at times song titles scrolled across the pipes, as can be seen in this video by “blakeeb”:
Let’s be honest, I am completely biased. If Radiohead did not do the most magnificent show in the world, I wouldn’t know it. For me, of course it was. Nonetheless, judging from the other show of theirs I witnessed, and by the quality of their light show, this one was a particularly spectacular one. Radiohead fans won’t go wrong catching a show of theirs this tour.
This show started strong, with two high-energy tracks from In Rainbows. Performance highlights from the set list include “Morning Bell,” “Nude,” “Pyramid Song,” “Optimistic,” and “Everything in its Right Place.”
And then, for the 1st encore, things got even better, as though the band was expecting to encore (justifiably confident fellows that they are) and had saved their biggest, more shattering performances for that. “Climbing Up the Walls” was gritty and good, and “Planet Telex” was a big production, with great big sound and psychedelic rainbow colors (appropriate to the tour) pulsing through the afore mentioned pipes. That should have been the show ender, actually, but they ended with a fantastic “Street Spirit.” Not terribly anti-climactic. And then of course there was the 2nd encore. Can’t go wrong with that.
If she is yours, or if you are interested in providing a loving home to her, please e-mail found-kitten [at] estellaramirez.com
This precious thing wandered into our lives, but we already have 3 cats–absolutely no room for more. We’re feeding her because she’s so skinny! And she’s a sweetie who will make someone a great friend. Please give her a home! Look how cute she is!!!!!
