3 posts tagged “domesticity”

The kitten is becoming far more interested in exploring her world vertically. Just this morning, she has vertically explored my floor-length cotton dress, the BF's white dress shirt, and his bath robe--not to mention leaping onto the side of the bed to grab onto the bedclothes and pull herself up there to frolic in the throw pillows.

She's ridiculously cute, but I think she's outgrown her playpen and baby toys and it's time we built a climbing pole with a platform at the top. If I carpet it in a neutral color, I can get away with one in the bedroom near where the final CatGenie will be installed.

The latest bit of cat-related construction will be on the stairs, and will involve running a ramp up the right-hand side of the steps, under the handrail. (My grandmother was disabled for most of her life, so my grandfather put in a second handrail that there would be one on each side.) The ramp will extend to the landing, and then a shorter ramp will go up to the top of the last few steps. It will just be a board, stained to match the stairs and held in place with a couple brackets that will be hidden under the steps so as not to ruin the woodwork. I'm going to finish it off by buying a few of those rubberized stair treads and using them longwise, running them up the boards so that the cats get some additional traction. I'm planning to use the heavy-duty outdoor kind so they last longer and hold up to any potential clawing. I considered carpet, but: A.) they would sharpen their claws on it and it wold look awful in a matter of weeks, and B.) I have done away with almost every last rug and carpet in the house, and I want to keep it that way.

Also drawing up plans to build a new mudroom, but that is for another post, as I plan to solicit some opinions from you lot.

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I made this rum cake that theldara linked to the other day, and oh, my god. Fabulous.

The only change I made was to omit the nuts and substitute a slightly lesser amount of chopped dehydrated apricots. You can see them on the top. I still sprinkled the brown sugar on them, too. Also--used dark rum rather than light.

Home Despot is selling very inexpensive 18 gallon plastic storage containers for $3.44 each, which is quite a good price. They're made by Best Plastics for Home Depot's Eco Options line. They are black with black lids, and made from 99% recycled plastic. The lids snap on at the handle. They're light but sturdy, and seem to stack well without compressing the lids on the lower containers. There is not a lot of weight in mine, so I can't say how they'll hold up if they're filled with, say, bricks. (Or something equally weighty.)

I bought 5, and will probably buy a few more to use in the attic and basement.

(The product code appears to be BP200778, bar code 9111800227. I did not see them online, but then, they were just putting them out.)