Aby-a-Day – 29 Augusti: Thai tuna salad (Silly Singapura Sunday)

I have an awesome recipe for Thai tuna salad from the Wei Chuan cooking books I learned to cook Asian food with back in the late 90’s.

The books had been boxed up since I moved out of my Somerville apartment in 2009. I rediscovered them earlier this year, and one thing I wanted to make again was my Thai tuna salad. Canned tuna isn’t a staple in Sweden the way it is in the States, so when I found canned tuna on sale at the supermarket, I was all over that action.

It’s such a great salad because it doesn’t involve mayonnaise. The version I make has fish sauce, sweet chili sauce, lime juice, mint leaves, celery, lemongrass, and scallions; I also add cucumber and Romaine lettuce. But you can also include cilantro (coriander), tomatoes, crushed peanuts, Thai basil, carrots…well basically anything Thai and salady.

Alfred was quite interested in my empty container, as you might expect.

Izaak can express so many feels in one look.

Aby-a-Day – 26 Augusto: Izaak and his new rat (Thursday Things).

Björn rented a car, and we went to Fallköping and Jonköping today.

One of the things we do when we go to Jonköping is to go to IKEA.

IKEA may have discontinued their mice, but they still have rats.

There’s only one colour now, a sort of shiny beige, but Izaak doesn’t care. It’s an IKEA rodent plush…he loves it.

And Zak violently loves his IKEA rodents.

Even though we have about a dozen of these things around the house, this is now his favourite.

Aby-a-Day – 22 Augusti: “You cannot handle my swag” (Cinema Singapura Sunday)

As you might recall, I have been trying to document Izaak’s swagger for a while now.

Yesterday, when we took the cats outside for a walk, I think I finally managed to get it.

You can really see his bum swing in this series of photos.

Compare the way Zak walks compared to the way Alfred walks. Freddy’s back stays straight and he bends his wrists and ankles more.

Here’s a short video showing Zak’s Singa swagger on YouTube.

Aby-a-Day – 7 Augusti: Funny Angel (Silly Saturday)

Since moving to Sweden and becoming the eldest female in the house, Angel has become very comfortable and secure in the house.

She has several favourite spots, and one of them is the IKEA cat bed at the end of the sofa.

She loves to sit there whilst I am doing things on my computer.

However, when she yawns…

…she shows off the fact that she only has one tooth in her head!

Aby-a-Day – 5 Augusti: Necks-level logistics (Thursday Things)

The only downside to having Emma stay with us was the fact that she occupied the spare bedroom, where Alfred and Lorelai eat their daily chicken necks.

There is a very good reason for this.

Rory and Freddy eat their necks wicked fast. Sometimes, Freddy will be finished with his neck before I can get the door shut!

Dashiell and Izaak, however, eat their necks at a more leisurely pace.

Which is somewhat ironic, considering Zak is the entire reason we have the evening neck ritual at all. But he’ll look at his neck, and then try to follow me out of the room. It’s like, dude…eat your damn neck! You wait all day for it and yell at me until I give it to you!

It’s arrangement that works well. Freddy and Rory scarf their necks down, growl at each other if one tries to steal the other’s neck, and can pretty much defend their necks from one another. Dash and Zak respect each other’s boundaries and generally don’t try to poach the other’s neck (although sometimes they do trade).

So you can see the problem. Dash and Zak aren’t accustomed to competition. Meanwhile, Rory…

…and Freddy are hovering like vultures, just waiting for an opening to swoop in and snatch a neck away from one of the boys.

Rory…NO!

“Whattaya mean, ‘no,’ Mom? He’s not eating it!”

Finally, Dash ate about half his neck, and I gave up and let Rory have the rest. Better her than Freddy; she needs the calories more than he does. And I needed to go eat dinner with Björn, Kalle and Emma.

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"Thanks, Mom!"

Yeah, I'm glad we can go back to the two-room system.

Aby-a-Day – 1 Augusti: Emma and the cats outside (Swedish Cinema Sunday)

Today we took the cats out with us to take out the recycling. Emma got to handle Lorelai’s leash.

It’s been raining most of the week, so the cats haven’t been outside in a while.

While we usually let Izaak and Alfred follow us at their own pace, Emma wanted to try and keep them all with us.

When we first saw this little Yorkie, I was afraid it was going to start yapping and being annoying, but it actually seemed curious about the cats.

Rory was curious, too. We let them say hello.

Rory and I continued to the garbage bin whilst Björn and Emma tried to get Zak to follow us (he had been spooked by the neighbour boys and was hiding from them). On the way we passed one of the rug racks being used for its actual purpose.

In the end, Björn and decided Zak would be fine until we got back, and finally made it to the bins. When we got there, we met an adult Vallhund!

At first, the dog was a little too eager for Rory’s liking.

But don’t worry. Although she be small, Rory is mighty fierce. She can hold her own.

Eventually, the Vallhund settled down, and they and Rory had a nice little meeting.

Freddy got to meet the Vallhund, too.

When Björn went to Stockholm yesterday to collect Emma, he’d left his bicycle next to the bus stop. It was very convenient to fetch it on the way back from the bins. As Björn was wheeling it up the path, Rory did something surprising: she jumped up on the chain guard!

The thing is…she didn’t jump off even when Björn continued to move the bike!

She rode on that chain guard for a while, too.

Long enough, in fact, that I was able to make a little video. Click on the image to watch it in a new window on Flickr.

Aby-a-Day – 30 Juli: Memories of Logan and Alfred together (Friday Flashback)

Facebook reminded me yesterday of Logan and Alfred, my brothers from another mother.

I had kind of forgotten what scamps they were! They used to get into everything when they were kittens.

Like Logan “helping” me in the laundry room.

And he put himself in that drawer-basket himself.

I’m not sure who the instigator of this little foray to the top of the bookshelf.

It was probably Freddy, although Logan was no slouch when it came to getting up and down from high places. Much better than Izaak ever was.

Then one day, I went into the bathroom and found…Freddy in one of our storage baskets.

Still not sure how he managed to get up there without knocking off any of my Catzillas!

He definitely looks very proud of himself.

Aby-a-Day – 29 Juli: “And what is a foam after all, but a big collection of bubbles?” (Thursday Things)

Björn is working on a project, and he needed a piece of foam. He’s working on the project in the living room, and he set the foam down on his laptop and books.

Of course, Izaak had to investigate this new and fascinating object in his territory.

He tried to walk on it or sit on it, but it was unstable and kept teeter-tottering. I admit, it: I laughed at him a little.

“What?”

“I would greatly appreciate you not judging me.”

Zak then spent a great deal of time examining the situation. He seemed determined to conquer the foam.

Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain. Zak ended up settling for sitting next to the piece of foam.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Aby-a-Day – 28 Juli: Wordless Wednesday (Sometimes, Izaak just stares at me for no reason)

Aby-a-Day – 22 Juli: I think Angel secretly likes him (Thursday Things)

This is starting to be a regular thing.

Angel’s napping in a bed…

…and Izaak decides he just has to be there, too.

But look at Angel’s body language.

She seems totes okay with his intrusion!

It’s kind of funny, because she’s never really been much of a social cuddler. She did sleep with Jacoby when he was young, but that stopped as he matured. Of course Singapuras never take no for an answer, so maybe she’s just given up. Himbs doin a heckin assimilate. No resistance. So much futile.

Aby-a-Day – 15 Juli: Snuggly Freddy (Thursday Things)

I know some of these photos today are a bit blurry, but I wanted to share them anyway because this is so Alfred’s personality.

Freddy loves to cuddle between us when we’re sitting on the sofa watching television.

He especially likes to lay up against my bare legs when I’m wearing a skirt. It’s kind of sweet to see him next to Jacoby.

It’s not the most fun when it’s almost 30°C, but it is cute.

For some reason, he also likes to touch peets.

I am not sure what this is, however.

Aby-a-Day – 27 Juni: “You must get high on lawn clippings, Jack, ’cause this ain’t grass, man. I’m telling you that.” (Swedish Sunday)

One thing all of the cats love to do when we go outside is chew on the grass. Alfred and Lorelai especially enjoy chomping on fresh, green bladage.

It’s funny. Izaak and Dashiell aren’t as much into eating grass. But it’s the first thing Freddy and Rory do when we open the front door.

Nom nom nom.

Sometimes, though, the camera catches some humourous faces.

Like this one. Freddy’s trying to catch moving grass…but he looks like he’s doing a heckin’ screm.

Aby-a-Day – 21 Mars: Who me? I’m not doing anything…(Singapura Sunday)

I walked into the kitchen to find Izaak on the stove. And, as you can see, he’s clearly not doing anything at all suspicious.

“La la la…pay no attention to the feline on the stovetop…”

I have no idea what he was doing there.

He’s not usually the one on that counter. That’s usually Alfred, looking for edibles.

“Oh! Hi! I totally did not realise you were standing there!” (Spoiler alert: He totally did know I was there).

“And I absolutely was not doing anything at all naughty.”

“I promise!”

Aby-a-Day – 13 Februari: Takes a licking and keeps on ticking (Silly Singapura Saturday)

The other day, I looked over and saw Izaak licking my laptop.

It was perfectly clean. Nothing at all lick-worthy there.

I have no idea.

And it wasn’t just one or two licks. He licked my laptop for a good five minutes.

Why, Zak? Just…why?

Aby-a-Day – 20 December 2020: Wordless Wednesday (Warriors plushies!)

Aby-a-Day – 26 November 2020: Sausage party (Thursday Things)

The other day, I went into the bedroom for something, and I discovered all the boys in a pile on the middle of the bed.

I joked that there was a sausage party going on in our bedroom.

Then Alfred started to…move.

Freddy, I don’t need to see any sausages..!

Completely non-plussed, Freddy carried on with his grooming. I love the expressions on the other two boys’ faces.

Also, can we all just take a moment to admire Freddy’s grabby hands action?

Aby-a-Day – 18 November 2020: Wordless Wednesday (Izaak chases his tail)

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Aby-a-Day – 12 November 2020: Angel’s peets (Thursday Things)

Well, my laptop is still limping along…the replacement is meant to arrive tomorrow.

As a result, I have only been turning it on and using it when absolutely necessary…basically, when I need to use Photoshop and make a post. Yesterday’s post was set up a week ago, so I haven’t turned my laptop on since Tuesday.

Anyway, this was how Angel was sleeping in her bed last night.

I thought it was cute…and a little awkward.

So please accempt this peet offering.

Aby-a-Day – 5 November 2020: Angel soft (Thursday Things)

Even though Angel has been with me for twelve years, she’s still quite skittish, due to her early life experiences. Sadly, twelve years of security can’t undo a year of trauma.

But she has her cuddly moments. Sometimes, she’ll curl up on my pillow and purr while leaning on my head. She also gets super affectionate on the back of the sofa. As I am typing this, she’s purring and kneading the Icelandic sheepskin behind me.

One night, she was doing the purr and knead routine behind Björn, and he used her as a pillow. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that at first. But then…

That’s right, girly…just go with it.