2nd shot kicked my butt, but worth it.
Gratz on getting vaccinated!
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Here is a healty dose of musical art, enjoy:
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At first glance I thought these were Zelda BotW recipes.
Wellā¦ I found a real nice choc chip cookie recipe and tried it to be amazed how good and chewy they are. Theyāre great for christmas time as far as I can tell.
If youāre not keen on clicking links by the end of this post, here are the recipe:
Award winning soft chocolate chip cookies
4 and Ā½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups butter (thatās a lot of butter I know, you may as well call these butter cookies)
1 and Ā½ cups natural brown sugar
Ā½ cup white sugar
2 (3.4 oz) packs vanilla pudding mix (about 192 gr total)
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)Cook time: 12 mins, 350 FĀ°
Hints:
- Pay attention that brown sugar shouldnāt be bleached, added molasses or no additives. Good natural brown sugar has a light brown color and clumps when squeezed. It doesnāt sound like rice when you shake the bag, nor has a very light almost beige color. Very bright brown to the point of beige indicates additives and bleaching. If itās very dark brown then it has extra molasses. No idea if dark brown could be useful for the recipe but I guess doesnāt hurt, no idea how texture would be affect from it.
- You can use melted butter if you have no patience for butter to be softened with room temp, but when you melt it on a pan you have to wait for it to cool down back to room temperature for a while. Using too hot butter may cook the eggs as you add them and this may affect the texture. To add, you have to be very careful to not brown the butter over a flame and use low setting.
- You can substitute vanilla pudding mix with equal parts, cornstarch, nonfat dry milk powder and sugar. This case itās about 50-60 grams from each. Add one teaspoon of vanillin (vanilla sugar), crisp some salt and itās a homemade vanilla pudding mix, ready for cookies.
- Regular chocolate chips just work fine as semi-sweet. Optionally you treat them as fresh fruit and may choose to coat some of them in half cup flour after separating it. This creates a bit chewiness.
Bringing it together:
- In a medium bowl sift all the flour on a fine mesh sieve and mix 2 teaspoon baking soda, set aside as dry ingredient.
- Start the wets and fat ingredients in a very large bowl by creaming softened butter with brown and white sugar. You can use help of a mixer here as it can be pretty tiring to beat sugar with butter evenly before it creates small lumps. Once incorporated beat the vanilla pudding mix and stir it evenly again.
- At this stage just preheat the oven to 350 Ā°F (175 Ā°C) degree prior to adding last touches.
- Slowly add 4 eggs one at a time and incorporate it to the mix with vanilla extract on top. You can still use a mixer to help you here but hand stirring is not bad at this point. Once eggs are absorbed to the mixture evenly add chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Once everything is settled down be sure you didnāt forget small additions like walnuts or vanilla extract. Now pass the dry flour mix to the very large bowl with wet ingredients and mix by hand or kitchen utensil of your choice.
- Array cookie dough in generous spoonfuls on top of ungreased baking sheet. You can use baking paper if you want, which I did and turned out fine. Dough supposed to make 30 cookies as large as palm (a round heaping tablespoon), to 60 small cookies (about two dessert spoon mellowed into one) as large as thumb.
- Bake for 12 mins in a preheated oven at 350 Ā°F (175 Ā°C) or until their edges are gold brown.
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I found this nice version of Malthael from a great movie:
So after having my cat for 10 years of his at least 20 years of life, Iāve decided that it is getting to be that time to put him down. I inherited him from my parents all those years ago and to be honest, I donāt even know if heās male or female. Never bothered to check. For simplicities sake we just call him a boy because of his name but knowing my momās Max could be short for Maxine.
But, Iāve been really emotional about it for the past couple of days. Heās the last surviving thing that I have from my parents. When I got him, I didnāt really know much about cats, still donāt know much. But he was loveable as all get out.
Now, heās just gone downhill over the past week. Heās been real vocal like heās in pain, stopped using his litter box regularly, uses it most of the time but not all the time. And stuff like that.
I donāt really know why Iām so bothered. I knew when I inherited him, that I wouldnāt have him forever. I mean, I know animals die. Iāve had to put dogs and things down over my life, but this is different somehow.
Weāve made an appointment to have him groomed tomorrow to get the tufts out of his hair and then next Wednesday will the day I have to say good-bye.
I guess part of what Iām feeling is the attachment with my parents, like thereās something about him thatās making me like Iām losing a part of my parents too.
I just wish it wasnāt hitting me so hard.
I am so so sorry. You seem to have a good handle on why it upsets you so much. Losing a loving little companion is hard enough but you have the family ties too.
I know running the testing on a 20 year old cat can be expensive and usually does not yield anything you can treat. Do ask the vet though just in case it is a simple urinary tract infection. That is something easily solved with meds and is the most common reason for failure to use a litter box and sudden crying. UTIs hurt like hell! If you can, call them today and see if they can at least do a quick assessment so that he is not in pain between now and Wed.
If it turns out to be something not fixable then fly free little baby 
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Hereās some music that could be used in the franchise. 
I just love cats and i know how to handle them according to their instincts.
My cats always reach 18 years to 26 years of age.
I do 
It may be something that can be handled with pain meds or anti-inflammatories and a litter box with much lower sides or a cutout to make it less painful stepping in and out.
Thatās all possible. But Iām also of a mind that while this might possibly be something handled by medications or something else, Iām also imagining myself where Iām more interested in saving myself some grief and prolonging things until the next thing happens or the thing after that or the thing after that.
As it stands now, Iāve just discussed it with my wife and I wonāt be going with her to put him down. I just canāt do it. Just thinking about it puts me in tears and I donāt want to break down at the vets office.
If itās something really simple then I might change my mind but the emotional connection will start to change. I wouldnāt want to be totally uncaring while waiting for whatever comes next.
Does that make me sound cruel? I donāt know, but I do know that I donāt like the way Iām feeling right now. Thereās just something about this cat, that if I was given a choice, Iād keep him around forever despite my wife being allergic and me developing one to him.
Then again, Iām not sure if Iām putting him down now is the right thing. Am I being selfish in the other direction where I just want to get rid of him? I donāt know but I know itās tearing me up one way or the other.
I was just saying that litter box problems with an old kitty could be something as simple as arthritis and it hurts to stepover a high lip.
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I apologize. I probably came off as attacking you or if not attacking then being really short with you.
That was not my intent. It was just that I had just got done talking to my wife when I read your reply and my emotions were a little high. Probably should have waited before jumping on the internet.
But really, Iām sorry that I came off like I did. I do appreciate your advice and will ask the vet about what could be causing his issues and if they think itās worth it to do what could be done to fix it or if it is just better to let him go.
Thank you again, sincerely, for the advice.
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Well taking him for an end of life haircut wasnāt the best idea. They got most of the mats out of his hair but nicked him with the razor a couple of times and since his skinās so fragile, the wounds tore a little so she had to stop about 3/4 of the way through.
Iād laugh at how he looks, because it is sort of funny, but the idea that I put him through a little pain makes me regret my decision. The groomer said, itās not the first time sheās had to do an end of life cut and I told her how much I appreciated it.
Without all the hair though, you can really see his age showing. My rough estimate of his age might be off by a few years from the look of him.
I lost two cats.
The first was 10 years older than me. I had always lived with it. My parents tried for the first time to reduce his suffering. They came back with āLeonā from the vet. The second time, 1 week later, when I saw their eyes, I āgot itā. And I cried.
The second cat, āLa BĆŖteā, I donāt wish you that. I myself had to shorten its sufferings. Iāve no choice. And I had to announce āthatā to my wife and my two children during the evening. Andā¦
So, I understand itās difficult but go to the vet, see with him if your cat can be heal. If notā¦
Iām rude, I know, butā¦
Best wishes to you and your cat.
Yeah, itās getting worse. Now heās basically stopped eating. The appointment with the vet isnāt till Wednesday, but now Iām wondering if heāll make it that long. Heās always been finicky about his food but usually he eats two cans a day. Heās taken to liking the Friskieās brand with extra gravy. But Iāll give him other stuff too. If I give him something he doesnāt eat, I usually throw it away after a couple of hours and then give him another can of some other flavor and heāll eat that. But yeah, at least two cans a day.
After having all his hair shaved off, he looks half starved. You can see his spines and ribs but I know heās eating, because Iām the one that feeds him.
Iāve stopped crying now and now Iām just resigned to the fact that heās going to die soon whether I put him to sleep or not and putting him to sleep is much better than the alternative, but making it till Wednesday might be a problem.
First āgoodā step.
After that , itās just a pet, a stupid and a ****** pet #irony
I hate cats but I want more
To be serious, take your time to have a new pet.
Apocalypse and Bastet (my stupid cats) are with you
Nah, I donāt think Iāll get to that point. Too important to me to start wishing I didnāt have him. But the wife and I are discussing whether to get another pet. Our dog Zeus is basically hers and I wouldnāt mind getting another dog but Zeus being a rescue, Iām not sure how heāll react to another dog taking attention from him.
On another not, I could take the fence from the bottom of stair thatās there to keep the dog from eating the catās food and heāll be able to come up with me while my wifeās at work. So thatās a plus.
Itāll be good to have the dog spend a little bit more time with me.
No, really there is no such thing as ājust a petā. Living breathing little souls who trust us with their lives.
Call the Vet. They usually have emergency appointments for euthanasia or critical illness.
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Thereās a truck that you can get to come to your house and do it in home but itās after hours for them. Weāll probably call them tomorrow and see if they can come tomorrow.