29 | November | 2013 | WEGGIEBOY'S BLOG by Doug Thomas

I received a nice “thank you” from Andy and Dougy’s groomers in today’s mail. I mean, the boys are a hit!

The boys are a hit!

Meg, the owner, says: “We appreciate your trust in us, Doug.” [The shop has a great reputation, and the results I’ve had confirm word of mouth!]

Athena says: “Thank you so much! Your cats are a pleasure to do.” […a pleasure to do! Woo hoo, boys! You must blink those big Persian eyes at the groomers!]

Debby says: “We enjoy Doug[y] & Andy! Thank you.” [The boys not only behave, they are favorites of the staff! Way to go my kitty cats, way to go!]

Sarah says: “Thank you very much! Love the boys. :)” [The boys apparently feel the same about their groomers, too, since they behave!]

OK, Andy does look like a little angel! (But that isn’t angel dust on his fur…!)

Charlie says: “Thank you very much.” [I left a very nice tip to make up for not realizing until recently, thanks to my Seattle sister and her cat Sox, that it is reasonable to leave groomers tips. I always tip the woman who cuts my hair, so I don’t know why I missed the point of tipping the women who cut the boys’ hair! It’s very obvious now!]

Peggy says: “Wishing you great blessings for the holidays ahead.” [Thanks to this talented group of groomers, the boys look great, they only leave poopballs right before they get their grooming. This month, if the scheduled grooming date had landed closer to the middle of the month, where earlier appointments landed, the poopballs wouldn’t have shown up. That alone makes the boys’ and my life easier, more enjoyable. I guarantee the three of us agree on this one thing: poopbaths for cats is not fun!]

And I say: “Thank you, too, Murphy’s Grooming! I wasn’t prepared for the vicissitudes of Persian cat grooming needs, and you not only took care of the worst of it, you are a hit with the boys and me! AND I won’t forget tips in future!”

Thanksgiving this year was odd in all regards. I made chicken breasts earlier in the week, and ate a couple “Thanksgiving-like” meals with cranberry sauce (my favorite after dressing!), green beans with french fried onions (not a casserole – just sprinkled on top of plain green beans, which was tasty enough!), dressing (lots, since I like this best of all for the herbs used in it), pureed sweet potatoes (simply made with salt, pepper, butter but not the peanut butter I usually like to put in sweet potatoes), and acorn squash (also a favorite that I prepared simply with just salt, pepper, and butter).

I didn’t fix potatoes or dessert, mostly because I had too much of everything else. I don’t like to make so much food I’m eating on the same foods after two days. Nor do I freeze leftovers because I’ve found all that does is preserve them till I toss them out months later…! Fixing meals for one requires a bit of waste if one isn’t careful! The breasts came three (large!) breasts to a package, so I had one left headed into the last day I’d eat one as a leftover.

After two meals of pre-Thanksgiving chicken, I was ready for something different that I could have for lunch, maybe even supper if I didn’t get through it at noon. Chicken salad seemed my best bet for something simple that I could combine with ingredients on hand yet not make so much I ended up wasting part of it.

So, here’s what I put in my chicken salad: cubed chicken breast, cinnamon applesauce (about 1/4 cup), crumbled pecans (lots – I break them up in my hands), fine-shredded carrot (about one medium carrot, mostly for color), cranberry raisins (a nod to the season, and to add texture and a little tartness), powdered ginger (because it adds a little zing to food and I love the combination of chicken and ginger), mayonnaise, salt, and pepper. I don’t use recipes for the most part. When I do I usually add or modify the recipe “to taste”!

Fortunately, I thought the salad tasted just fine, surprise, surprise! I ate it with crackers and mashed potatoes. (What?!) Yeah, it was a strange meal. I had cranberry juice mixed half and half with diet Seven-Up, a further strangeness that somehow worked: This was not your standard Thanksgiving!