Kitties Love Couscous

I made an excellent chicken and apricot tagine last night (basically Moroccan spiced braised chicken served over couscous) and both cats begged shamelessly for bites of chicken at dinner. I reheated some again today and they were once again swarming me. It's pretty normal for them to be pests at dinner, but they usually leave me alone at lunch! My conclusion is that kitties love couscous. I also think that would be a great blog name. Feel free to take it! :)
I'm somewhat dissapointed to find out that my flat iron needs a special type of cord that I can't get. It has a circuit board built into it for extra safety but I can't order a new one from the company and I can't pay them to fix an out of warranty iron. My vacuum repairman and I have agreed that we've reached a dead end and I need an new iron. I only have good things to say about the guys at All Brand Vacuum though because they were wonderful sports about trying to fix it in the first place, and they aren't charging me a work fee since they can't repair it. I'll definitely be taking my ancient and lousy vacuum to them again if it needs work in the future!
Does anyone have a suggestion for a good flat iron? It's been 6 years since I've purchased one so I'm not sure if I should get another Chi or if there's something better!

Edited to ad that I ended up stumbling onto an amazing sale at Ulta and got a new Chi for $50. There are still some available for $87. The catch is that they are all in pretty garish colors and patterns. But since I was expecting to spent abut $30 fixing the flat iron, I'm pretty thrilled to get on for $50. Now if only I didn't use that as an excuse to stop at H&M on the way home....

Mr. Fix-it

In the past few years, I've started investing the time and money it takes to fix things rather than just to discard and get new stuff. I've always mended my clothes, but a couple of years ago I moved on to having my shoes and purses repaired by a cobbler. (I suggest this cobbler in New Orleans and this one in Portland.) About a year ago, I went to a vacuum repair shop for what turned out to be a new plug for my vacuum. It cost $8- way less than a vacuum! Lesson learned: I try to repair *everything* now. The latest broken item in my house is my beloved flat iron. It's served me well for 6 years of heavy use, but now the part of the cord that swivels at the end isn't staying attached inside the iron, which means that it only turns on and stays hot when I hold it at a very specific angle. I've tried to find a small appliance repair shop in Portland, but there don't seem to be any. I'm unwilling to shell out big bucks for another iron since there are apparently a lot of counterfeits floating around on Amazon and I just didn't want to deal with it. I'm also reluctant to try to fix it myself since I'm not incredibly handy. (Worst. Engineer. Ever.) Finally it occurred to me to call my vacuum repair shop to see if they could try to fix it since a cord is pretty much a cord. They told me that they try to stick to vacuum's but will help out on other small appliances when they can. They went on to say that they've fixed my exact problem on a flat iron before and would only charge $20 (way less than the cost of a new iron) to fix mine. SCORE! I'm going to bring the iron in on Friday and I'll update if things don't go as planned, but I think this will prove to be a smart move. The moral of the story- it never hurts to ask!

This cowlick must be tamed

Way to Go, Bill Murray!

Just an update on Bill Murray because I'm amazed at his progress. He hasn't given me any more tomatoes but the second little green one is slowly turning red and he has several flowers now. Most of his progress has been in the form of sheer growth! I'm so impressed!

He's a behemoth!