Monkey and the Blustery Day

Now that our deck is all done (thanks, Trevor!) the cats love to look out the door and watch the leaves blow around. Today is fairly windy, so there's lots of action.

Monkey loves to watch the swirling leaves

Dinner Date

Hey, there's the happy vegan!

Last night we headed out to meet Dave and Julie for our reservations at Vegiterranean, Chrissy Hynde's vegan restaurant in Akron.

It was so nice having a dinner out with friends and the guys were relatively up for the challenge of trading their meat and potatoes for an all-vegan dinner.

Dave and Julie

We started with a zucchini appetizer that came with a horseradish dip. Really yummy. For dinner Julie opted for the sampler of side dishes. We all tried her order of "Chrissy Fries" and all wish we had ordered them. Dave ordered one of the specials (they had a really long list of specials, all seasonal and sounded great) which was a portobello gnocchi.

Richard ordered the Italian fritto chicken and I ordered the risotto. Both were really good, but I'm really glad I ordered the risotto rather than ordering one of the meat-substitute dinners.

The restaurant was pretty overall very nice and trendy and we can't wait to go back. The only drawback were the tables, which were tall tables with stools. Next time we make reservations I'll see if we can get a normal table.

Richard's "chicken"

My risotto

The highlight of the evening was the dessert, something which I rarely order when we go out to dinner because there are never any good options for me. The waitress listed lots of really yummy options, but let's face it, she had me at "Tiramisu!"

Ta da!

The dessert was really quite good and hard to believe it's vegan. Even Richard thought it was better than the tiramisu he ordered at Macaroni Grill.

We'll definitely being going back the next time we have something special to celebrate.

Our new house guest

Meet Monkey, our new "house guest." You may have known Monkey (a.k.a. "Monchichi") by another name, but we thought it would be best to give her a new identity as part of the kitty witness relocation program.

She was a little cranky at first, but who could blame her. Now she and Scout get along very well, but she's still taking time to warm up to Buttercup. She has officially made herself at home and has found a favorite place to hang out. We're thinking of getting her a little smoking jacket, ala Hugh Hefner.


It's hard to get good pictures of her where she doesn't look like a demon kitty because her eyes are a very light blue and always reflect lots of light.

We'll keep you posted with pictures of our new house guest. We're trying to get some video of her "meow" because it's just hysterical. It's such a wimpy sound from such a pudgy kitty!

Another Belated Birthday Bash Blog

Last Sunday the "Bingo Bunch" (minus John, who was away at a movie con) ventured (at 60 miles an hour) to West Virginia to celebrate Dad's birthday and the best way we know how: supporting the economy of another state by placing our money in the pockets of casino owners. Woo-hoo!

We started out in high spirits, wearing our lucky clothes. Mom took the picture, after a brief training session on how to take digital photos. Not bad, Mom!


Richard and I ran through our budgeted slot machine funds fairly quickly, but Dad and Jen did relatively well (in our world, that's either breaking even or coming home with a few extra bucks).

Here's our self-portrait at the end of the day (since Mom wasn't there to snap the picture). Sorry, I covered the flash with my finger, so we're looking a little orange. Or maybe that's what happens when you spend a Sunday afternoon among smoking gamblers...