Special Delivery

Exactly two years ago to the day, we were picking Eddie up from the animal hospital after he had stayed the night. He was quite sick and we were so worried. Not to go into unnecessary detail but he had a urinary problem that is a major killer of cats. As we had no idea how old he was, but knew that he had spent some rough years on his own on the street, we were in the dark with regards to his health history. He had been to the vet for regular check-ups and we thought all was well, until the day he made it perfectly clear to us that it wasn't.

Having lost our previous cat Johnson to the same ailment, I just assumed that it was time to prepare for the loss of our dear Eddie. I was a mess.

However, excellent medical treatment and two doses of medication seem to have healed him! Two years later we have no reason to believe he is not perfectly healthy. Yes, he has been on a special diet since he got sick, but the food is no problem to get, as it's available right down the street, and he really loves it.

When that all happened I did a ton of research into feline health and what repeatedly came up is that they are really quite fragile creatures. And they really keep their pain to themselves, so oftentimes by the time the cat-parent is aware that something is wrong, it could be too late.

Food Friday : Banana Chocolate Muffins, a la Laura

The other day I found myself with a couple of really ripe bananas in one hand and my ipad with Laura's recently posted recipe for her "Banana Chocolate Muffins" in the other, so I got busy and made them. She is right ... they are delicious.

Since I didn't have enough banana to make the full recipe, I cut it in half, but I didn't want to cut the one egg in half, so I made up for the extra moisture of using the whole egg by adding 1/3 cup of bran (the type for baking, not cereal) and 2 teaspoons olive oil. Also, I only had a bar of extra-dark chocolate on hand, so I chopped some of it up, instead of using the milk chocolate. This would have made the muffins less sweet, which I found to be ok, but if you make the substitute but prefer more sweetness you might want to add a teaspoon or so of extra sugar. I used a small muffin tin to make two-bite muffins. I've had this tin for ages and have never used it. The muffins sure came out cute. In order to make up for the smallness factor I reduced baking time to 13 minutes. Half the recipe made 24 minis.

I will definitely be using this recipe as my go-to banana muffin recipe from now on. I recommend you give it a go! Find it here .. Yummy Laura's Chocolate Banana Muffins. Thanks for the great recipe, Laura!

Small versus Tall .. It’s a Relative Thing

I like seeing pictures of myself standing next to Nick because in them I look like I could be short! He is 6'3" so beside him I am a small person; I am kidding here because petite is something that I will never be! Being between 5'8" and 5'9" does not make me overly tall, however I have always been bigger than most women, beginning when I surpassed the height of my fourth grade teacher! With the average female in Canada being about 5'4" I am a little over 4 inches taller than most.And my height was magnified growing up, as my mother is not tall. I always thought she was extra short, but another surprise in looking at the statistics of average heights is that she is exactly average! Our difference in height did not mean that I was never able to raid her closet though, because our torsos are the same height, mine being relatively short for my height, therefore making most dresses look like they have an empire waste-line even when they don't. My extra 4 inches are in my legs so while I could wear mom's tops, wearing her skirts meant wearing a mini! And her trousers? Forget about it.Anyway, here are some photographs of me and Nick with my parents taken last Saturday.

Being Part of a Live Studio Audience

Last month we were the lucky winners of a raffle (that I talked about winning here), the prize of which was a series of outings for fun things to do on a Date Night. Most of the tickets are for two people, however this one I am showing pictures of today was for four. So we invited my sister and her boyfriend along to be in the live studio audience of the season finale filming of The Rick Mercer Report, which took place a week ago Friday. Rick Mercer is a Canadian comedian / political satirist and blogger, with his own weekly show.

The program was being taped in a studio on an upper floor of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building, which was within walking distance of our place, so my sis and bf drove here and we all walked over together.

Before we headed over I got these pictures of my sister's outfit. I love her bag!

Much Love Monday : Hearts Abound

Hello and happy Monday! I am joining the group over at Anna's blog Much Love again this week, where the idea is to post a photograph that contains a heart in it and to discuss something you love.Since I began participating in this weekly link-up, I have had no trouble taking photos with hearts in them. It's as though they just seem to pop out more now and I'm seeing hearts everywhere! Isn't if funny how when you begin thinking about something you start to see it over and over again? For me these days, it's been hearts. In fact I have a little stash of heart pictures in a file now.But the hearts in today's post were not taken from this stash. They are brand new and a result of circumstance, that just happened to fit in with the theme. While visiting my parents for Easter this week-end, my sweet mother had a gift for me ... this lovely heart-shaped jewellery box. I just love its design and simplicity.