Goodbye Bubba

FG's cat died today.  His mother is a mess.  Bubba lived with her.  There was some shared custody after FG's parents divorced but for the most part, Bubba was the companion of my MIL.  He was a cranky old cat, with good reason.  FG got the cat in 1991 a few months before we met in 1992.   Thus, we stared calling him "Yoda" because he was so freakin' old.  He used up all of his 9 lives in the first few years - he was 1) attacked by a dog and nearly killed - he had a notch out of his ear as his battle scar
2) Shot.  That shattered his leg and it was rebuilt.  He had a funky external cast thing on for awhile that looked like a handle sticking off his leg.  I think that was on there when FG and I got married.
3) right after he got his "handle" off, he jumped and broke the same leg.  Literally days later.  He had more surgery and got some metal put in there.
4) he developed kitty diabetes and had to have shots of insulin daily

I think there's a few things I'm missing because it seemed like that cat kept the Vet in a Mercedes. 
He was obnoxious when he was younger too.  He sat and tried to take food off my fork when I would eat dinner.  Why he bothered me I have no idea.  But always me.  He would swipe at my hand while I ate.  He also "felt me up" regularly.  FG would pick him up and hold him like a baby. He would reach out one paw and always put it on my boob.  When we were first dating and FG was still living at home, I would spend the night even though I wasn't supposed to.  We managed to keep it a secret in his little twin bed and MIL would come in and put the cat on FG every morning.  As we hid under the covers trying to look like one person, she plopped the cat on us.  We finally told her a few years ago and she swears she had no idea.  (Yes, she really is that clueless sometimes).

The funniest thing about him is the past few years he had a "gang" of old men cats.  I have never ever seen a cat go to another cat's front door and meow until the other cat was let out.  Bubba had two friends who did this regularly.  They came to his door and waited until MIL let him out and then off they would go - grumpy old men.  I think they swapped kitty war stories...."Then the dog, enormous with giant sharp teeth, had me in his clenched jaw...." 

MIL will be very sad for awhile. It's hard to have a cat that long and not miss him.  FG will miss him too.   My kids will really miss him too.  DS does not do well with the animal's deaths.  So I lied. This morning before school I told him that Bubba was sick but still alive.  At that very moment, he was but the vet was on her way over to change that and I knew it.

Super cheap-o dinners

Last night I roasted a whole chicken.  I have to say I went old school and did not waste a thing with this chicken either.  I paid $3.58 for it. (I picked up three whole chickens on sale last week at $.77/lb).
This is what I got out of it. I even fed the dog.

• Cooked the giblets for the dog's dinner
• Family had 2/3 of the chicken for dinner.
• Used a small portion of leftover meat and mixed it with the rice pilaf we had as a side dish - that will be FG's lunch tomorrow.
• Saved the rest of the meat for another family meal - maybe enchiladas or pot pies?
• Simmered the carcass for a few hours for stock.

I am not sure how much stock I got yet because it was late so I just put the whole pan in the fridge to deal with this afternoon.  I'm guessing 1 1/2 quarts.

Not bad for one $3.58 chicken!

Whoa! Slow down Time, just a little bit please!

Yikes! October is well upon us.  What did you do for 10-10-10?  I went to a baby shower.  It's been awhile since I've gone to a baby shower.  Baby Showers and Wedding Showers seem to be abundant in your 20's & earlier 30's.  By the time I hit my mid 30's the Wedding Showers were rare and now that I'm, gulp, in my late 30's approaching 40 Baby Showers aren't happening every week either. 

Since I only blog on my PC but can do just about everything else on my ipod I haven't been on here at all. I feel so behind catching up with Bloggy friends!  A few little highlights have been:

• I chaperoned a field trip for DS's 4th grade.  We had to take charter buses and we left school at 9:15 am and returned just before 6 pm.  It was 95 degrees outside and we were in the middle of the desert with NO trees.  It was hot, dusty and sticky.  LONG day that wiped me out.
• I covered for a girl who was sick at the toystore the next day.  It was busy and we are training newbies.  Not fun on a super busy day.
• Last week was Walk (bike) To School day so I helped herd along 9 little children walking to school from a park.  (Our house is a bit far.  Maybe next year we'll attempt it!)
• DD whipped out a poster on Safety about 3 minutes before we left to meet others at the park.  The school was having a contest.
• DD came home from school that day saying she won a new bike & helmet.  I didn't believe her so I called a few people and the PTA President confirmed that she indeed won the bike. 
• DS was very upset.  I do not know how to make this kid happy. I seriously want to take him to a psychologist and find out why he seems to thrive on being unhappy.
• I have been helping out in DD's classroom too.  So. Many. Kids.
• I switched out my summer clothes/shoes for the cool-weather ones over the weekend.  This was after I spent my ONLY day off in a couple of weeks scrubbing down my house.  It was 80 degrees outside while I was packing away shorts and flip flops and pulling out sweaters.  It was definitely a conundrum but I know I won't be wearing the linen pants until next spring anyway.

Now here's my menu

• Sunday - Soup & grilled cheese
• Monday - Roasted whole chicken, rice, veggies
• Tuesday - Kids will get their choice. FG and I have to go to the parents night informing us what they will be teaching our son for the sex-ed program they start in 4th grade.  Lord help me!
• Wednesday - Pork chops, roasted red potatoes, veggies
• Thursday - Grilled tri-tip steak, noodles, spinach salad
• Friday - no idea. I'm hoping FG and I get a date night!
• Saturday - Homemade pizza

Last week I made a chuck roast in the crock pot, chicken fajitas (I had mine on a salad instead of in a tortilla), bacon wrapped stuffed chicken breasts, hot dogs.  It wasn't an overly exciting week!