Presenting Parker, the Monocular Cat

Ta-daaaaaaaaaaa.

We have a new addition to our household! It’s been over a year since we lost Kitty and in that time, Gertrudis has managed to lick all the fur off her lower abdomen. She’s also gotten extremely loving, which is just weird for her. I’ve been trying to convince Michael that she’s lonely now and it’s only recently that he’s come to agree with me. On reading this content, it will be easy to figure out the perfect shelter for your pet.

So my co-worker Chrissy walks into my office last week and says, “Does anyone want a one-eyed cat?” Who can resist such an offer, especially after seeing the adorable picture (see left) she forwarded me?! He was the pet of her boyfriend’s friend Matt and sadly, he had to give him up when he moved in with roommates with two dogs. He did find a temporary home for him, but sadly, that wasn’t even going well because of an allergy situation. Poor buddy! He’s really loving and everyone wants him but no one could take him!

He was born in Baltimore about 4 1/2 years ago and the story is that he and his litter were in a fire. He’s the only one to survive, poor thing, and apparently an infection meant the vet had to take his eye. At least it happened when he was young. He did have a thread-eating incident last year and had to have surgery, but other than that, he seems to be in perfect health.

We were only going to meet him last night and take him home on Wednesday because Michael left for San Francisco today. But before we even got to his house, Michael had already made up his mind that we needed to take him right away!

He’s a timid little chubbus, but boy can he love. Even strangers get the full rubdown when he meets them, so if Gertrudis was lonely, she won’t be now. He’s in a “safe room” for a couple weeks so we can introduce them very, very gradually. Gertrudis didn’t even realize he was in there for a couple hours, but boy — when she did figure it out, she made sure to keep watch on that door. We think she spent the whole night outside his room growling at a steady, low volume. She’s better today now that I cleaned his litter box thoroughly. Man, his pee stinks to high heaven and we’re hoping it’s just cause he’s nervous. I’m not too worried. Putting his litter box through the dishwasher and giving him fresh “crystals blend” seem to have done the trick.

You’ll be hearing more about him soon, I’m sure. And I’ll even try to get some pics of him in his new digs if he’ll come out from behind the sofa long enough.

The long-delayed first cupcake-rating post

Well, after a big opener over a month ago, I’m finally getting around to posting my first cupcake ratings.  I haven’t been able to get out and try as many cupcakes as I’d hoped (although I just finished a delicious Entenmann’s Hallowe’en cupcake) but I’ve got three rated, and that’s enough to kick things off.  I’m going to list them in the order I rated them.

The Blue Frog Bakery – Rating:  47

I have enjoyed delicious pastries at the Blue Frog in the past, and honestly, I didn’t even know they made cupcakes.  I often park next to the bakery when I have to run into the post office, so one morning, after doing just that, I happened to notice that they had some adorable cupcakes in their rack.  Knowing I was going to be rating the Commonwealth’s cupcakes, I decided to start with a local bakery.  The cupcakes were vanilla cake, with white frosting, drizzled with chocolate and with a chocolate shard stuck into the frosting.  The big disappointment in this particular cupcake was the cake.  It was fairly dry with little flavor at all.  It was as if they were counting on the frosting alone to carry the cupcake, which for me just doesn’t work at all.  The frosting had an interesting flavor, and it was nicely proportional to the cake, but it wasn’t very sweet.  All-in-all a disappointing kick-off experience.  I will continue to enjoy the Blue Frog’s other pastries, and may even try another cupcake at some point, especially if they make different kinds, but the standard vanilla was definitely  lacking.

Kickass Cupcakes – Rating:  57

Much has been said about Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square, Somerville, and I was eagerly looking forward to trying them out.  I was also armed with the comments that accompanied my first cupcake post however, that reported that Kickass’ cupcakes were unreliable… sometimes good, sometimes not so good.  I bought an assortment of Kickass Cupcakes, but I didn’t get to the “special” cupcake until it was stale, so I’m not going to count it.  The cupcake I rated was vanillla cake with white frosting sprinkled with pink candy crystals.  I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with the standard Kickass Cupcake.  The cake was marginally better than the Blue Frog cupcake, as was the flavor and proportion of the frosting, however, the Blue Frog cupcake’s frosting was much sweeter (in a positive way).  However, there was nothing original about the flavor of the standard cupcake, but I did give it some points for the pink, candy sprinkles, which were fun.  There are a host of cupcake flavors listed on the website, so I do plan on trying out some of the other varieties.

Party Favors CupcakesParty Favors – Rating:  94

I didn’t want to start with the Party Favors cupcake, because I know how much I love them.  Well, I’m happy to say that when faced with my rating system, the Party Favor cupcake still scored strongly.  I rated a simple vanilla cupacake with white frosting and a small flower.  This is definitely going to be the cupcake to beat, and it is deeeelicious.  I ate the chocolate cupcake with white frosting as well, and was amazed how delicious that one was as well.  I believe what makes the Party Favors cupcake such a winner is the incredible moistness and delicious flavor of the cake, things that many cupcake makers tend to ignore.  Additionally, the sweetness of the frosting is just perfect… that sweet, sugary frosting that I just love.  The cupcake with the small flower lends the ease of eating a very high rating, although the more elaborate cupacakes, while potentially earning points for beauty, would be another matter in this category.  Party Favors score a perfect rating in the overall attractiveness category; all their cupcakes are just beautiful.  Finally, the Party Favors cupcake scores top points in the discretionary for the surprising cream filling within.  Again, this is the cupcake to beat in Massachusetts.

My middle name

I was born Scot Alan Tannreuther.

For reasons I shouldn’t have to explain, I was eager to dump the last name in 199…6? and dropped my middle name in the process. And in 2004 I changed my last name to Colford cause I married THE RIGHT GUY. But I still didn’t fill in the weird middle name gap.

Guess what. I just chose one.

I am now Scot Hussein Colford.

How about you?