hooray for avian ovulation!

my little minnie became a woman-chicken today. yay minnie!

i cooked the egg over easy with a side of homegrown squash and beans, and some little tomatoes. all-homegrown dinner, with protein for the first time.

the egg was delicious. the yolk was so dark and rich.

i was really hoping to get eggs this week, because my cousin is coming to visit next weekend, and we have this tradition of baking brownies together every year when she visits (mainly so that we can pig out on the batter until our insides explode). we've been making them with egg substitutes for the last decade, and that works perfectly fine, but it'll be fun to make them with eggs!

i think wynnie will be next. probably any day now. the ladies turned 18 weeks this tuesday/wednesday.

hello my name is potato!

how cute are these dog tags?!

i got them on etsy from ID4pet.

and how cute is this little potato?! he's already accumulated a bunch of potato-related nicknames. tater tot, sweet potato, french fry, curly fry, tato, mr. potato head, spuddy buddy...

office space cake

yesterday i baked a cake for the first time in about a decade. cam and i had an office space themed dinner and watched the movie. i had two themed cake ideas that i combined into one:

i looked into that classic "PC LOAD LETTER" error message, and it turns out the old printers that gave that message were made by the same company cam and i met working for. i tried to make the cake look sort of like a printer, but that was tricky.

here's the recipe for vegan vanilla cake. i substituted vanilla soy milk instead of water, vegan margarine instead of shortening, added about a tablespoon of ener-g egg replacer and doubled the recipe. i'm not a big fan of cake usually, but this was the shit. better than any non-vegan vanilla cake i can remember ever eating.

cam made a "TPS bowl" for dinner--tomatoes, pasta and spinach. plus some kale.

i made initech badges. laminated even! i thrifted this hand-crank laminator for $5, intending to use it to make waterproof plant tags for my garden, and after that i thought i'd stow it away and hardly ever use it. but you would not believe how often it comes in handy. i also laminated the paper coming out of the printer cake, so it wouldn't get all yucky.

i decorated with a bunch of TPS report cover sheets, a mini "jump to conclusions" mat, a picture of a red swingline stapler and an initech sign.

potato's first day home

 potato is the sweetest, cuddliest little dog. he's also a troublemaker! i gave him his first bath in the sink, then let him outside to dry off. and then this happened:

 he IMMEDIATELY rolled in ALL THE DIRT.

 he tossed himself around, kicked up dust--it was just like the chickens taking their dust baths.

 so then he got his second bath.

 it's going to take andy a while to get used to him. they sorta play together, but there's also a lot of growling.

new puppy!!!

is he the cutest little guy or what? he's a 1.5 year old yorkie/poodle mix (normally referred to as a "yorkie-poo," but i think i'll call him a "porkie."). i'm still working on his new name. he comes home tomorrow!

i found him at a small, under-funded, no-kill shelter in emmett, called pet adoption league (give them your money and facebook likes!). i went there for a different dog but fell in love with the porkie when he reached out with his tiny paws and then licked my fingers through the cage. when i go back tomorrow i'm bringing a whole bag full of dozens of toys, bones, collars, treats and other supplies for all the sweet doggies and kitties. i wish i could take them all home.

i've been thinking about getting a second dog for a while, and then last weekend i was pugglesitting for my parents, and it was so fun having a cuddly small dog around. andy is the best dog ever, but he's never been much of a cuddler, except when he's scared.

i bet porkie and puggle will get along really well--they're about the same size, although the porkie weighs less, probably under 10lbs. they will be so cute playing. what's with all the designer dogs at shelters lately? i've always been a fan of mutts, but so many of the mixed breeds are intentional mixes now, it's weird.

now andy will have a little buddy to keep him company while i'm at work! i hope everyone adjusts quickly. it's a very big deal. i'm going to work from home until everybody's acclimated.