schong's Profile

@embryoconcepts - we bought the IKEA Kivik b/c it looked nicer as a sofa than the Mansted, but after sleeping on it for a week when my family was visiting, I have to say it's not so comfortable -- REALLY firm, and that's considering that I usually like firm mattresses AND we piled on multiple blankets and sleeping bags to add cushioning. It might be better if you added an actual memory foam topper.

Not only am I depressed that Gourmet is gone, I have no idea what I'm going to do to fill the void that it will leave behind. I loved both cooking and reading Ruth Reichl's Gourmet, and I just don't see Bon Appetit and Saveur filling those gaps for me -- nothing to read in BA, and nothing interesting to cook there, either, and I remember Saveur being on the thin side, with less-than-yummy recipes. (I will still have my Cook's Illustrated subscription, but it's all recipes, no articles.)

Anyone have any suggestions for other food mags? What do you all think of Food & Wine? Anything else out there worth looking into?

I personally can't stand the volume of stinky trash that the clay litters generate, so I've always used the biodegradable flushable kind. I started with Swheat Scoop but it really generated a LOT of fine dust and didn't always clump so well. Now I've been using the corn-based World's Best Cat Litter and I really like it! I have two open-faced litter boxes in a spare half-bathroom that's for the cats only, surrounded by a few of those fake-grass cat mats that catches most of the stray litter. There's still a bit of tracking outside the bathroom, but nothing that my Dyson Root handheld vac can't get. (I also love the Dyson for sucking up flies and wasps, but that's another story.) I can keep the smell mostly under control by scooping often, and using one of those plug-in air fresheners that comes with a fan to air out the cat bathroom (just don't put in any fragrance, or else you get flowers poo).

Two sets of friends use the crystals, but I don't like it much. I agree that they feel like shards of glass! And it's creepy how much pee it absorbs -- I feel cleaner throwing out my clumps of litter on a regular basis.

My family never kept a tree, so it doesn't have much meaning for me. Still, to be festive, I usually hang a few ornaments on a house plant. Some years, it's the ficus, other times a rosemary plant (when I used to live someplace warmer). Once, in college, I brought a big branch home that had lots of arms and hung origami on it -- pretty nice, so long as you don't have pets to knock it over. And way cheaper than the choices shown above.

Japanese Golden Curry, made with carrots, potatoes, onions, and chicken, served over rice. Mmmmmm.... (recipe's on the box)

Actually, any curry (Indian, Thai, Singaporean) over rice makes me very happy!