#Holidays + #Baking + Cute #Tortoise Behaviour + Other Random Stuff

I had another attempt at making vegan cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago.  Well, more than a few, I suppose, since it was this time last month I made them.  But I had other things I wanted to post about first, hence it taking me a month to post about it.

     

I made them around the Autumn Equinox, since we weren't really doing anything special for it what with trying to avoid people who don't live in our building as much as possible, trying not to spend more than we absolutely have to so as to save to move, and the fact the weather that day was terrible.  Though I was a day late making them for the equinox, because the equinox fell on September 22nd, and it was the 23rd I made the cinnamon rolls.  I'm even later posting about it, since that was a month ago, as I already mentioned.  But never mind.

     

Either way, they worked a lot better this time.  I did better with how much cinnamon I used, and I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that actually having yeast made a lot of difference too (last time I made them I hadn't been able to get hold of any, but figured I'd carry on anyhow, since I only remembered this fact part way through making the dough).  Here are a couple of photos Kelly took of them for me to share:

    

So, how were they?

    

Well, put it this way, Kelly had eaten two before they were fully cooled, and half the rest were gone by morning.  I'm torn between being glad I only made a small batch for the sake of our waistlines, and wishing I made more so they hadn't been gone so quickly.  In other words, I'd say this batch was very successful, and Kelly seems to agree. 😉

    

*~* 

    

In other cooking elated news: I made pizza. 

    More to the point, I made vegan pizza completely from scratch, making the base and sauce myself, and topping with some grated vegan cheese.  I'd have added some veggies too, but making pizza was a last minut change to dinner plans, so I just did the cheese and left it at that.  If you're interested, the cheese is a combination of two types of VioLife vegan cheese: the original cheese, and the feta style.  They're my favourite vegan cheeses.

 

Here's my pizza before it was cooked:

    

And here it is after cooking:

     

    

It tasted great, if I do say so myself. 

     

I do wish I'd bothered to add some veggies though.  Also, using the feta style cheese for some of the cheese may not have been a great idea, because that one melts so quickly it made quite a mess. So next time I think I'll stick to the original version of the cheese for pizzas. 

     

Or, I should say, "next time I stuck with the original version of the cheese," since I made more homemade pizza this past weekend, this time only using the original version of the cheese, and adding extra toppings (mushrooms, onions, sweetcorn, and pineapple).  It was very tasty, if I do say so myself! 

    

    *~*

    

Though our weather's not been too bad, we've had some mild storms (just a load of rain and wind, but nothing really bad) and our weather's been a lot cooler over the past few weeks even on sunny days. 

     

Cooler temperatures make Artemis not be quite so active.  So much so that she's been demonstrating how to eat your food when you're a tortoise who wants to use the minimum amount of effort possible.  Here's a photo of her trying to rest and eat some lettuce at the same time:

 

She's usually much more enthusiastic, especially where food is concerned.  Even has this cute thing she does where she follows the leaf with her head if you wave it in front of her before grabbing a bit and starting to chomp away.  Here's a video Kelly got of it to show you:

 

     

Who would have thought a tortoise could be so cute and full of character?

    

*~*

    

The Jason Donovan concert I've been looking forward to since about this time last year isn't happening on December 1st.

    

They've tentatively rescheduled it for next September, but whether or not it goes ahead is conditional on all virus related things being completely over, so they also offered the option of having your tickets refunded. 

     

After some consideration, I took the latter option and got the refund.

    

I'm sad to be missing out on the concert, but there's no guarantee it will happen next year, and right now I could use the money.  Plus, with how expensive it's getting to live in this area, we're thinking it would be best to relocate to somewhere we'd have more luck finding an affordable suitable home, which means it would potentially be difficult for me to get to it if it does happen.  So I figured it was best to take the refund. 

 

It felt like the right choice, even though I'm really disappointed about not getting to see Jason Donovan after all, and it feels like yet another thing to add to the list of things to hate about 2020.  That list is getting quite long for us all, I think.

    

*~*

   

In other news: they're still doing work in the hallway. 

     

For those who don't know, "They," means the landlord's repair guys.  Well, mostly guy, since it's mostly just the one guy doing the work.  But sometimes there's more than one guy out there.  Though usually only if it's a two-man job being done.  Maybe if more than one guy was doing it the work would be done by now? Then again, since the landlord keeps showing up with more stupid ideas of things he wants done to the building, maybe not. *sigh* 

    

~

 

    Anyway, we gave them no choice but to let me take Logan to the vet for his neuter, but - since we weren't sure if Logan would need carrying anyhow - Kelly went to fetch him.  I took Logan for his follow-up appointment myself too though.  I always try to be the one to take the petkids for their appointments... Only Lilie has ever been without me.  I wasn't going to change that just because the landlord doesn't seem to care if I can get in or out of the building safely or not. 

     

Kelly had to leave Lilie upstairs by herself while he  helped me make my way through the hallway with Logan.  Lilie wasn't happy, and it still wasn't easy. 

 

~ 

     

    But mostly I'm trying to stay out of the way, and hoping the work will be finished sooner rather than later. 

     

Though I'm not holding my breath on that, since the lack of logic as to which order things are being done means sometimes work is having to be undone and redone so another job can be done.  Like this past weekend when they had to make a mess of the hallway ceiling and walls again to get access to the wiring to - I hope - fix the buzzer properly.  So what should have been them popping in for a few minutes to replace the buzzer turned in to them spending the whole day trying to get at the wires, replacing them, etc, setting the fire alarm off in the process. 

    

It was a good thing I'd already planned on spending my Sunday just hanging out watching DVDs in the livingroom with the dogs and Mollie, because that's how I ended up spending the day anyhow, since it was the easiest way to keep the dogs out of the way (they had to keep coming in to our place to access the part of the buzzer system that's inside our flat). 

    

We won't talk about how I feel about us only having about 20 minutes notice that this was happening. 

    At least the buzzer works again - for now.

 

*~* 

     

On the bright side, at least my card to say I'm exempt from mask-wearing and social distancing rules because of disabilities arrived before I needed to take Logan in for his appointments, so I didn't have to go through the constant explanations as to why I wasn't wearing a mask and needed to come within touching distance of the vet this time, which I had needed to do when I took Artemis to the vet back in August. 

    

*~* 

    Speaking of Logan's neuter: he's now back to his old self. 

     

He's a good boy.  We took the cone off him a week after his surgery, like the vet said we could, and he wasn't being excessive with licking, so we didn't have to put it back on him at all. 

     

This totally confused him for a while, and he actually tried to put his head back in it.  It took him a moment to realize he really was allowed to have the cone off, and even longer to realize he no longer had to make allowances for it when moving around.  On the bright side, his confusion over being cone-free meant it was a couple of days later before he started playing properly with Lilie, and those extra days of not being back to full play mode were probably good for his recovery.

  

*~* 

    

In other other news... Our washing machine died. 

    

In its defence, it was one we brought refurbished about eight and a half years ago. 

    I knew it wasn't doing so great, but was hoping it would last until we moved.  It didn't, and we had no choice but to replace it.  Well, I suppose technically we did have a choice, but since the amount a new one cost would have been the same as we'd spend in the next few months doing our laundry at the laundrette, it worked out cheaper in the longrun to just buy a new washing machine now.  And don't get me started on how much repairing it was going to cost.  Basically, the cheapest and most reliable option was to buy a new one.  So, we have a new washing machine. 

     

Could have done without that right now, but it is what it is. 

     

*~* 

     

We had moved a load of our stuff down here from the upstairs flat without actually packing it, and unpacked a load of what we had packed.  So now we're working on repacking the stuff we unpacked, and packing up the stuff we moved without packing it. 

     

Since moving is tentatively planned for January (I'd like it to be sooner, but we need that time to get the money together, especially since things like the washing machine decided they weren't going to wait) the goal is to have everything but what absolutely can not be packed until the last possible moment - so, everything we don't use on a daily basis, and don't need to continue using on a daily basis - packed by the time the Winter Solstice and Christmas roll around.  That way we don't have to rush to pack anything but those last few items, which won't take us long to get packed. 

  

*~* 

    

Speaking of Christmas, I keep seeing posts about how Halloween and Christmas are cancelled, so just want to say this before I end this post: 

    

They aren't cancelled. 

    

They might look different this year.  Some - or all - of the things you used to do might have to be cancelled or done differently.  But the holidays will still happen. If they've cancelled something you wanted to go to, or your traditional plans can't happen because sticking with them would mean you're breaking rules you don't want to be breaking, but you still want to celebrate, all you have to do is celebrate differently. 

    

The holidays aren't cancelled.  They can't be.  They will happen no matter what.  It will still be Halloween on October 31st, for example, whether you celebrate it or not.  The pandemic can't change that.