Overnight Guest, Jasper

Yesterday afternoon as I was heading over to Sacramento, an acquaintance of mine asked me if his dog could stay with me overnight as his family wanted to go out of town. I told him that normally I would love to but I wouldn't be back until after 6 p.m. He thought about it and asked me if I would be comfortable to pick up the dog on my own after I return from my day trip. I was okay with it. I was pretty sure I could get the dog even though I never met him before. By the time I got back home and got the direction to the house, it was 8 p.m. The little dog was probably confused and sad. He barked me a couple times as I entered the house. As soon as I got a hold of his leash, he was happy to go with me. Since I didn't know the dog, I put him in Cracus' crate on the way home. I could hear him whimpering in the back. Cracus and Kelsey was excited to see the new dog especially Cracus. He wanted to play rough house immediately but Jasper was too timid. He just got here and didn't know us. This morning, I put the dogs in the car. Cracus always rides in his crate. Kelsey rides next to Cracus' crate. I was going to put Jasper in the back, but he immediately moved himself to the passenger seat and was quite comfortable staying there. Okay, now I know why he was crying last night on the way to the house. He is a front seat dog!
 

Point Isabel is our weekend stop. We either start our day with Pt. Isabel or end our day with Pt. Isabel. It was a bit of a challenge trying to keep both Jasper and Cracus on the leash. Cracus is a spaz. He just can't walk a straight line. Finally I just let him run off leash even though potentially he might get ticks on him again. A few nights ago I found an engorged tick on his face, and I had to remove it. It was the first time I ever found an engorged tick on my dog and removing it. Cracus completely flipped out and bit me several times although he didn't break my skin. For days he was scared every time I tried to check on the tick bite on his face. Anyway, I decided that I can't just keep Cracus on the leash forever. Dogs are meant to roam freely sometimes.

Kelsey was a bit jealous of Jasper. Since Jasper was our house guest, I naturally paid more attention to him. I wanted him to feel loved while his humans were away. Kelsey actually growled at Jasper every time he got too close to her. I was pretty surprised that by the early evening, Jasper was sharing Kelsey's bed! It took Cracus at least a week to lay next to Kelsey on her bed.  Around 7 p.m., Jasper's humans got back in town and picked him up. We are going to miss you, Jasper!

iGotTech #1 Best Screen

iGotTech #1 Best Screen

Ever since we moved into our new home, I have been thinking of installing a screen door for the backdoor so that on warm summer days and evenings I can leave the door open. However, my budget is extremely tight after getting the new place. I started thinking about how I could make a screen that just hangs over the door. It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps there already is such a product on the market. I Googled for "portable screen door" and sure enough there are several similar products on the market already and some are very affordable. Next step was for me to compare these mass manufactured mesh screens.  At first I looked at Magic Mesh Instant Magnetic Screen Door which is a As Seen on TV product.  It has mixed reviews, and its main complain seems to be the stress on the top Velcro strip that hangs the screen to the door. While I know there isn't much human traffic here, Cracus just loves to run in and out of the house. He is another reason I wanted to get a screen door. I am tired of opening and closing the door for him.  If he knows I am home, and he's outside, he would go nuts at the door until I let him in. On the other hand, if he thinks I have left the house, he would just stay put until I get home. I don't want to buy a cheap item and only to find it coming off in a few weeks, so I also looked at Bug Off Instant Screen Door, which has a retractable bar on top to hold the screen up. It looks pretty good and gets very good reviews. I was just about to get it, I saw iGotTech #1 Best Screen, which is cheaper than Bug Off but a little more than Magic Mesh. iGotTech is very similar to Magic Mesh except it comes with a lot more Velcro that covers entire frame and has highest quality, durable mesh.  It also offers a guarantee.  At the last minute, I canceled my Bug Off order and changed it to iGotTech screen.

Putting up the screen in the morning

It only took seconds for both Cracus and Kelsey to figure out that they can walk through the screen. Cracus just runs in and out of the house with all his hair flying. I also discovered that there is some metal components in the door. When the screen mesh flips up too high, the magnetic part could get stuck on the door. Solution?  Open the door half way. By opening the door half way, Cracus would just run through the piece that's further from the door and leave the other piece almost untouched.

Problem #2 is that I knew Cracus would just destroy the screen if I leave it hanging all day while I am at work. I would have to either take it down entirely or hang it up somehow so he can't reach it. I figured out a way to only stick the top panel of the screen half way on the Velcro strip. Before I left the house for the day, I lifted up the mesh panels and stick the sides to the unused Velcro strip on the top as shown in the above photo. My only concern was that if the backing of the Velcro stripe wasn't sticky enough, the whole thing could fall off. It would then be destroyed by Cracus.  However, I thought it was unlikely since a lot of the weight was still distributed on either side.

I got home today after more than 8 hours at work and was relieved to see the screen held up.  This is going to be awesome.

Spicy Roasted Garbanzo Beans

Beans have been soaked

A few Sundays ago I stopped by Kensington Farmers' Market and was offered some samples at Tofu Yu's booth. I grew up eating all kinds of tofu products, so it would take a lot to impress me. I was however impressed with their red quinoa sushi and soy cheese sushi although I could detect slight cilantro in them. They were quite good, and I wished they didn't contain cilantro. I was immediately addicted to their Cajun spiced garbanzo beans. I got a bag and just couldn't stop eating them. During the week, I went to a couple natural food stores trying to find some but nobody sells those spicy garbanzo beans even though they do have other Tofu Yu products. In fact, spicy garbanzo beans aren't even listed on Tofu Yu website. I don't understand why!  Two Sundays later I went back to the same vendor at Kensington Farmers' Market, and this time he had five spice garbanzo beans. I should have bought 2 bags instead of one. They are $5 each bag, but if you buy more than one item, the vendor gives you a dollar discount for each item.

I decided that in order to support my addiction, I need to make these beans at home. I was able to find a bunch of recipes on the internet. They all use canned garbanzo beans, which would probably be my first choice if I didn't happen to have a bag of dried garbanzo beans a.k.a. chickpeas.

Pre-roasted

I soaked the beans overnight and then left the beans to dry in a colander. I can easily mix some ground cumin, salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper together but I happen to have a bag of spicy rub from "tale Gator." It was given to me at some natural food festival. I just used the rub and some extra virgin oil to coat the beans. I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper and spread all the beans on it evenly in one layer. It was then put to bake in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes or until you see the beans start to jump.

This spicy rub is way more spicy than the mix I put together last weekend. The smoky chili
pepper permeates my entire kitchen and living room. I can't wait to eat these beans!  I also learned something from my last batch - don't put the beans in a sealed bag right away even if they seem to have cooled down. Leave them out overnight. The beans lost their crispness after I put them in zip locked bags.

While I just love the crunchiness and spiciness of the roasted chickpeas, they are also one of the healthiest foods that's high in fiber and lowers cholesterol.  Since I only roast my beans in extra virgin oil, there is no added animal fat.  I won't feel guilty eating them non-stop at work. Oh, be sure not to rub your eyes after eating these beans with your hands. That was another mistake I did last time.

All done!

Transplanting the Kiwi

Shortly after moving to the new house, I got myself a pot of one female and one male fuzzy kiwi plants.  For months, the pot lived in the corner of my kitchen. I watered it regularly but the leaves continued to dry up and fall off until there is hardly any leaf left. I was concerned at first and read many articles about growing kiwi particular growing kiwi in the Bay Area.  It turned it is normal for the leaves to fall off during the winter.

As the weather starting to warm up, I decided it is time to move it outside so they can expend their roots and get open air and rain.

It took some struggle to remove the plants out of the pot. I laid the pot on the ground sideway and pressed it all around with my knee and shin to loosen it up.  I almost wanted to just cut it open, but I had something else in mind with the black planter and didn't want to destroy it.  Finally it all came out in one piece. There are so much roots. I spent a great deal of time trying loosen and break open some of the roots so that they can integrate into the ground better.

Now I am just going to hope Cracus will leave it alone otherwise I would have put up a barrier of some sort.

Pomelo Hat

Famous Limecat

I love pomelo. A week ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see pomelo in Giovanni's, the neighborhood produce store. Even though it was $3.99 each, I grabbed one. I don't know why I haven't seen any pomelo at the farmers' markets. I had this big pomelo sitting in my fruit basket for a few days. When my neighbor Katie came over, she asked me what it was. I told her, "It's a pomelo!" She had never seen anything like it, so I cut it open and shared some with her. I was very happy that this young girl liked the fruit. I then proceeded to tell her about all the cat pictures on the internet wearing pomelo hats.  Since I didn't tear apart the pomelo peel this time, it served as a pretty good hat.

After we enjoyed the healthy treat, I took my pomelo hat and went out to the yard to let Kelsey and Cracus try it on. It's a bit small for Kelsey. It's about the right size for Cracus, but he just wouldn't hold still. I barely managed to put it on him for a second.  I went over to Giovanni's and got another pomelo after work today. I am going to enjoy this incredible fruit while it's in season. Pomelo has many health benefits including anti-aging and fighting cancer not to mention it tastes great. I love grapefruit, too, but pomelo tastes even better!