Here’s the good thing about IKEA: while it’s true that a lot of their items are cheap in a pejorative sense, if you look around carefully you can get some great deals on some wonderful pieces of furniture. We found an awesome dining room set there, a couple of very nice dressers, and some bookcases we desperately need.

Here’s the problem: since there’s no way we could fit that stuff in our car, we ordered it over the internet and arranged to have it delivered. It arrived last night, and about half of it is going to have to go back.

Three bookcases were totally loose. As in, the shelves and hardware were stacked freely in the truck. The delivery folks even looked shocked when they saw that. One of the pieces of backing is cracked through; several shelves are splintered, crunched, or broken, even just at first glance; and we have no idea whether anything’s missing.

Several other boxes had been so thoroughly broken open that things got damaged or, once again, we have no way of knowing if anything’s missing—that’s a fourth bookcase and BOTH dressers. In fact, the only things we’re going to be able to hold onto are one full-sized bookcase, one narrow bookcase, and the dining room set. Truthfully a couple of those boxes were damaged, too, but the damage was little enough that we could see the items themselves weren’t damaged or missing anything.

Well, it’ll be an interesting test of IKEA’s customer service to see if we end up with what we ordered, and how difficult the process is.

In the interests of not simply griping on this rainy Friday morning, here are two review links and two cute cat pics. First, reviews of Crichton’s classic The Andromeda Strain and Pamela Clare’s new and fantastic Unlawful Contact. Finally, cuddly cat photos. Well okay, the first one isn’t so cuddly; if you tried, you’d probably get a few playful scratches:

Oh come on, you just knew it couldn’t last. I have a camera. I have cats. Of course this would eventually mean cat photos. If you’re insane enough to want to view lots of ‘em (well okay, I’ve been trying to exercise some minor bit of restraint) you’ll find more at my flickr album, errant cats. Yes, I use my flickr account strictly for my cat photos. I realize that’s silly and I don’t care.

I’ll at least try to stick to only one or two photos posted directly here, so if you don’t care about a ton of cat photos you won’t have to run screaming. Deal? Good.

Now I just have to upload my latest homemade pizza photos to my photobucket account before I finish with that book and review it…

Oh, speaking of cat photos, go look at this post at B&b ex libris for a hysterically unusual tale of cat love and an adorable cat photo.

And now, Cahlash and Selene:

Sometimes I latch the screen door and leave the door open; they love to roll around in the sun in the doorway. They’re remarkably kitten-like given that they’re nearly 7 years old!

Since I had to order a case for my camera anyway, I ordered Elizabeth Vaughan’s ‘Warlord’ trilogy, using the excuse that it would bring me over the limit for free shipping. (It just leapt into my cart, I swear!) It got shipped in two parts, and although the first package that arrived listed the first two books of the series on the invoice, instead I received one of the books and… a classical music CD I’ve never even heard of before. That was odd. Luckily Amazon has a very easy return process, although they had no option to select for ‘you sent me the wrong item’.

Anyway, speaking of fiction, today’s review is of Lynn Viehl’s upcoming Twilight Fall. Enjoy!

I forgot one thing on that list yesterday: we had to trim the cats’ claws. That’s always a real adventure. It’s made easier by the use of Kitty Kaviar as a reward (freeze-dried bonito flakes), but things got interesting when the cats heard another pair of cats fighting in the next yard over. Or mating—with cats it’s hard to tell.

Today’s review is of actor/writer Emmett James’s wonderfully entertaining memoir, Admit One. I highly recommend that you give it a read!

Meanwhile, we improvised a dessert this weekend that I have to share.

Tropical Turnovers

• Frozen sheets of raw puff pastry
• Fresh coconut, shredded. If you can’t find any, use unsweetened dried coconut. If you can’t find any of that, use sweetened (found in the baking aisle), and reduce or remove the agave nectar, honey, or sugar from the recipe.
• Crystallized ginger, minced
• One ripe banana, diced
• One tablespoon agave nectar, honey, or sugar
• One quarter cup water; more as needed
• One egg, lightly beaten

Filling: Combine a small handful each of coconut and ginger in a small saucepan. Add the banana, sweetener (if using unsweetened coconut), and water. Bring to a boil and simmer until all ingredients are tender (add more water a tablespoon at a time as necessary) and the liquid has all but boiled away.

Pastry: Prepare pastry as instructed on the package for turnovers. (The Trader Joe’s package we had said to thaw briefly at room temp, quarter each sheet of pastry, and brush with egg.) Put a spoonful of filling in the middle of each square, fold over, and seal shut. Brush with egg and bake as instructed on the pastry package.

Serve as is, or with a drizzle of honey, agave nectar, or even maple syrup.

The rough amounts of ingredients above made enough filling for two sheets of puff pastry, or eight turnovers. Adjust amounts as necessary for different results.

Our next-door neighbors have a golden retriever named Missy (which is kind of funny, since if I recall correctly, my grandparents used to have a golden retriever named Missy too). Historically I don’t like dogs, largely because my father let his two black labs (and the half-great Dane that he eventually got) run roughshod with no training. It’s no fun being five feet tall and having a dog jump up with his forepaws on your shoulders, taller than you are and definitely heavier, when you know darn well he’s just as likely to knock you over as not.

However, our neighbor’s Missy and I have gotten along ever since we first met, for certain definitions of getting along. She came bounding out of their backyard, and with uncharacteristic confidence I turned, looked her in the eye, and said, “go home, kiddo.” She turned around and went right back to her yard. Since then she has never again come running at me, and she also no longer leaves their yard; I think they now have her trained not to, even if the gate is open.

There’s also a gray and white cat that roams our neighborhood. He’s obviously someone’s pet; he’s clean and collared. He really loves our house, though, and particularly enjoys sitting outside our windows taunting Selene. Cahlash couldn’t care less whether there’s a cat in our yard, but Selene—oh, our tiny, seven-pound terror would rip that cat’s heart out if she could just get to him, and she lets us know that in no uncertain terms. When he goes round the house’s corner she tries to follow him, but she hasn’t yet figured out that the glass doors to the fireplace aren’t a window, so she stares in vain for him to appear.

This morning I went out to rotate the tumbling composter. Missy was in the neighbors’ backyard, and apparently isn’t used to having someone in our yard, because I was treated to much barking. When I came back out of the yard I noticed the gray cat sitting in front of Missy’s ajar gate. Missy barked at me, leaned down to the cat, *whuffed* in its face, and then ran off. The cat looked over at me with a comical look of surprise on its face and trotted after Missy. That’s one of those moments when I wish I could understand the language of animals.

Our latest reviews are of: Veronica Wolff’s Sword of the Highlands and the supremely quirky A Corpse in the Soup by St. James & Bradner.

It’s 2 am. You’re sound asleep, ensconced on your back on a comfy bed beneath warm, fluffy blankets.

Without warning, an 11-pound cat leaps from the floor and, with unerring aim, lands dead-center on your stomach, paws stiffly outstretched as though trying to burst a balloon.

You bolt upright in bed, wide awake, startling both cats into racing from the room. You know that in the morning, every muscle in your back will ache.

Welcome to the 2 am psychokitty:

Don’t accidentally kick over a heavy Maglite while holding a sometimes-skittish cat, even if she is a small cat.

If I had a camera, this is where I’d insert the photo of my right arm with its three bandaids and one gauze pad, plus a variety of other uncovered scratches (they weren’t actively bleeding, so I figured they didn’t need it). We actually did clip her claws recently; she just dug in particularly hard this time.

I haven’t actually taken any cat photos in forever (one of these years we’ll get a camera, I swear), but I’m feeling the need to share a pic anyway. Even though this was taken more than three years ago, back when we lived in New Hampshire, it’s very accurate to what the cats look like now. Most of the old photos show a much paler Cahlash; we call him our cappuccino cat now, but he used to be white(!). One advantage of old photos of Selene are that her fur is in better shape, actually. Unfortunately, ever since the dental incident of ‘06, when for a couple of weeks she couldn’t groom herself because she was wearing a plastic collar, she’s had a bad tendency to pull at her fur, leaving small bare patches. I suspect it has something to do with how frustrated she got over being unable to groom, which left her repeatedly and rather aggressively grooming those couple of places she could reach, namely her legs and hindquarters.

Oh, hey… Amazon reviewer rank of 994. Broke 1000! That’s kinda cool.

This time I couldn’t resist snagging an animal meme from bookeywookey. I don’t normally do this much memeing, but I’m too tired to think of anything more interesting this week.

An interesting animal I had:

My first pet was a gerbil, and I had two cats growing up. Hands-down, though, the most interesting animals have been our two current cats, both Cornish Rexes. We got them because neither of us reacts nearly as strongly to them as to normal cats. We read up on them first, though, so we knew they were a bit… different… than other cats. They’re very chatty, for one, and extremely high-energy. (Someone remind me not to get Rexes when I’m old, okay? I’d never be able to keep up.) They both have allergies, unfortunately, and one of them has asthma. They’re just the most affectionate cats I’ve ever met, though, and incredibly clever, if not always so bright.

One of my favorite cleverness stories regarding our cats: They were still kittens, and we’d just gotten them fixed. Of course this was a lot harder on Selene than Cahlash since it’s a much more invasive surgery for girls. We were keeping the two of them confined to our room until they healed up a little so they didn’t rip their stitches or anything. Selene was curled up on my husband’s lap and clearly just wanted to rest, but Cahlash apparently had a lot of pent-up energy from being cooped up at the vet’s. Well, he kept trying to pounce on her, and we kept pulling him off of her. Being the clever girl that she is (she’s more clever than her brother), she took a half-hearted swipe at his butt and watched carefully as we pulled him off of her again when he tried to retaliate. Then she hauled off and—WHACK!—swatted his ass hard! That’s when we realized we were going to have to separate them for the duration.

And yes, this is typical of their antics!

An interesting animal I ate:

I’ve had bison, ostrich, escargot, squid, octopus… I’ve had many of the weird things that you can at least get in relatively normal US markets or restaurants. When I visited New Orleans years ago with my then-fiancee (now husband), we went to a wonderful restaurant where we had, among other things, rabbit and, if I recall correctly, alligator. The manager at some point passed our table and commented with a grin, “we’re having all the fuzzy little animals tonight, aren’t we?” We loved that place.

An interesting animal you’ve seen in the Museum, library, or its natural habitat:

I love cheetahs, and got to watch some at the Smithsonian zoo not too long ago.

An interesting thing I did with or to an animal:

Now there’s an odd question! I suppose the closest thing I can think of is the way our cats deliberately teach us little games. Like, sometimes Cahlash races my husband to the bathroom in the morning—over and over, getting carried back out again each time, until either Jeffrey wins or Cahlash’s attention wanders. Selene, on the other hand, has taught me her own morning ritual. She sits on my right knee while I eat breakfast, and then almost always wants to be held on my left shoulder and cuddled. When I pick her up from my knee she’ll start turning her body in that direction to make it easier for me.

a favorite literary animal (that can be a literary character or a whole piece about an animal):

Darn it, that’s three mentions in two weeks of How it was with Dooms! If this doesn’t get people reading that, nothing will.

I also love Moggett the cat in Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. While he does provide some amount of comic relief, he’s also kind of scary at times, so he isn’t your stereotypical YA fiction animal.

Anyway, Jeffrey’s coming back from yet another week of business travel this afternoon, and then it’s off to figure out how to eat almost-no-fat for a week (and apparently in the 24 hours before the ultrasound I have to eat entirely fat-free, joy) without going crazy. This turns out to be a great time to have a review copy of Tosca Reno’s The Eat-Clean Diet.

I’m almost as stubborn as my cat

It seems it isn’t one foot Selene is having troubles with—it’s all four. I’m now wondering if she’s allergic to her pine litter (it’s the one thing I can think of that would routinely contact all of her feet and nothing else), so we’re going to try a new litter; the vet recommended the “Yesterday’s News” variety. The vet gave us some stuff to put on her paws, too, which should help the reaction.

I have a once-again-growing stack of books to read and review, which is good since I’ve been mowing through the things of late. I’m currently reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Coffee & Tea, and I have two yummy-looking books from Countryman Press as well: The Vermont Cheese Book and A World of Dumplings. (The latter is a cookbook.) Naturally I have plenty of other books to review, given time. I’ve added a bunch of James Rollins’s books to my Amazon wishlist, since I quite enjoyed his Black Order, and several people have graciously given me recommendations of further similar books to read.

I’m also still spending a couple of hours a day searching out links to the site and asking to have them updated; even with Google’s excellent web developer tool that gives me a straight-out listing of pages with links, it’s taking forever. I had no idea there were that many sites with links to us.

At any rate, time to go post on the Errant Epiphanies before I get back to link updating and review book-reading. Have a great weekend!

Yes, it’s time to take one of our cats to the vet again. Selene is chewing on one of her back paws until it hurts her; I expect it’s allergy-itching. For the moment I have some anti-itch salve for pets—all-natural stuff—I’m putting on it (she hates the smell, but it does seem to help), but I don’t want to use it too much. With our luck, after all, she’d end up allergic to it.

In this way, she and I are surprisingly alike. My husband and I often joke about it, it’s so eerie. She and I both tend to have allergic reactions to inconvenient things like medications and topical preparations, and we both become easily sensitized to things over time. We also both have asthma.

Unfortunately it’s a bad week to have to take her to the vet, as my husband has some long work hours coming up. I think we can manage some morning toward the end of the week, however. Now we just have to convince her not to chew on her foot in the meantime.

I mentioned recently that our KitchenAid stand mixer died (*sob*). Well, thankfully it was still under the extended warranty we’d gotten for it (just!), and KA has awesome customer service. Without any questions (other than what was wrong with it) they sent us a new one and had us send them the old one in the same box (at their expense). The new one’s a slightly newer model, so of course I’ll have to review it eventually. (*happy sigh*) We even had a chance to make cookies with it when we went to a friend’s on Saturday. We’ve been told our cookies may well be the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, but we have to give due credit to Shirley, the delightful food scientist who created the master recipe and all the tips we use.

We also finally had time to do some gardening this weekend. We weeded the little plot under our bay window, mulched it with pretty dark pine bark nuggets, and put in some silly-looking cockscomb annuals—furry-looking neon things in orange, red, fuschia, and gold. I think they appealed to the kid in me. I’m looking forward to being able to afford a good composter again one of these years, as well as everything I need for some good old-fashioned edible gardening (tomatoes, peppers, squash, kitchen herbs, strawberries…).

Anyway, too much to do today, too little time. I’m sure I’ll write about something interesting again in a day or two.