Turned out to be a different day

I have the weekend off, and wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it earlier in the week. I considered renting a carpet cleaner and taking care of the carpets in the house, but those plans kind of changed.

I got home from work last night with a plugged-up ear. I thought maybe it was because there was a live jazz band at the mall for a fundraising event, and I'd spent too much time a little too close. But this morning, it was still plugged up. I got the critters fed and went back to bed for a couple hours with the heating pad on my ear and neck to see if that might help. It didn't.

Other than occasionally having some drainage, I don't feel like I've got any other symptoms. I'm not dizzy or congested or anything. But I thought that just in case, it'd be a good idea to have some cold and flu fighting foods on hand, so I went to the grocery store. I got a few oranges and a couple sweet potatoes, and some ingredients for other things, a gallon of milk and filled up both of my 3-gallon water jugs. Just in case I do come down with something, I'm stocked up.

I also figured it'd be good to have some spicy stuff on hand to help fight off anything. I had hamburger cooked up, but it was in the freezer, so I decided to try this meatless chili from Thug Kitchen. It is REALLY good. I used Redd's Strawberry Ale, since that's what I hand as far as beer. I'm just not a beer drinker, but that's OK stuff. For the carrots, I had a bag of shredded carrots I'd used for another recipe. I just dumped a few handfulls in the pot, but next time I will actually chop them up a bit smaller.

I also decided to try making these biscuits. I don't have a rolling pin, or really the space to roll out dough, so I made them drop-biscuit style and they turned out great.

That's probably enough for today (although I might make some brownies in a bit). With that veggie chili and some other things I already have made up, I'll be OK if I wake up in the morning feeling horrible. And if not, I've got some more cooking I want to do.

Kitty castle!

This took me longer to make than I thought it would, and was scaled down from what I originally wanted, but I think it worked out fine. We'll see what the cats think as they check it out on their own, I guess.

I got the idea from this site. There were some boxes left over from when my parents moved, so I used one of those to make the supports and the floors. I was originally going to have three floors, but it proved to be more work than I thought it would, and I didn't want to spend the whole day working on this.

I first cut the cardboard into strips 2 inches wide and about 18 inches long, 2 inches wider than the box. I cut a few longer than that for the "balcony."

Then I cut the slots for the floor supports to go through.

The floor supports are all in. In the lower left corner is where there will be an opening for the cats to go from the ground floor to the second floor. I cut a door in the side so they can get to the first floor.

And here's the floor...

Test kitten.

Test cat. It seemed to hold up pretty well, even under Keaton's weight. 

I cut a little archway for the second floor. I used the longer floor supports and used the cutout from the archway for the balcony, along with another scrap piece.

Keaton tries it out.

I cut the top flaps shorter, and gave them a turret kind of look. There are floor supports for the top floor as well, but I didn't make an entry from the second floor. 

Alex on the tower.

Keaton did not seem amused when I put her there to try it out. They can get down from the top floor by the ladder. I put a piece of thin plywood on top of the bottom box for a bit more stability.

Alex checks out the balcony.

It's certainly no wonder of engineering, but if the cats get at least a couple months of enjoyment out of it, then it's worth it.