Cats & Dogs

"The Truth About Cats and Dogs" is on right now. Besides the fact that I adore Janene Garofalo, I also love the dogs and cats included in the show and the scenarios they call her about (as a radio vet) are pretty funny. The part about abuse and pretending she's someone she's not, is irritating.
It's one of those cases where you fast forward through the irritating or embarassing parts to another animal part. I think the same thing is true with "Must Love Cats and Dogs". It's all about the animals. OK, maybe a little about John Cusack. For that matter, I like Diane Lane too. Oh well, I guess maybe I like that movie a little bit more.

So, I'm thinking animals get more senile as they get older just like humans. For instance, (our cat who we figure is about 6 now) has started doing this crying thing, I mean the really eerie, creepy meowing so you can't think when they're doing it. It's a good thing I don't generally have to listen to her throughout the day, she would drive me over the edge. Maybe there's some hint of Siamese in there somewhere. It's that kind of yowling, you know. You have to admit, most cats don't cry until you come watch them use the litter box. Very wierd, we admit it.

Although, we could have it worse, she could be throwing up all over the place all the time like my daughter's cat. And they have it in stereo since their dog does the same thing. This condition obviously runs in their family. Maybe I'll keep my yowling cat after all.

Well, time to go to bed so our yowling cat can climb on top of me and clean herself when I'm close to falling asleep. No she doesn't run our lives, it merely appears that way to everyone else.

Conquering Frontiers

Where would we be if there hadn't been people with the courage (and a streak of crazy) to push the envelope, to go beyond where anyone had gone before, to test and try new things.

Take the Wright Brothers, if you've ever seen their first plane, it was held together with nothing but spit and chewing gum. Who in their right mind would have left the ground in that thing. With the appreciation of millions of air passengers today, we honor their crazy courage. Just one more goofball thinking he can fly off the roof of the garage.

Incredible feats like breaking the sound barrier done by Mr. Yeager shown here with the x1, the plane that actually did the deed. He broke speed record after speed record, in at least one case he walked away from a firey crash. The guy had no fear.

Then, of course, there was a search for men with the "right stuff" to graduate from test pilotdom to astronautville, eventually leading us to the moon and where was it we went most recently, Pluto? There's obviously no end to the frontier these men opened up.

But let's back up a little, if it weren't for these two men and this amazing lady, we could be living in Pittsburg right now, or worse yet possibly Cleveland. This was a phenomenal case of collaboration and one of the earliest acknowledgements that women do have value. She left her tribe and trekked across country to lead these two guys and their merry band to the wild, wild west.


Then there's the scientific aspect of our history. Just imagine if Marie Curie had not taken the chances she took with testing and failing and trying again and again to discover radioactivity, the only woman to win two Nobel prizes, the first woman to become a full-fledged professor at the Sorbonne, the only woman to be buried at the Pantheon in Paris. Unfortunately, following her discovery, eventually came her death because she had not yet learned of the dangers of radioactivity and carried it around in her pockets during her years of experimentation.

And last, but certainly not least, we have this gentleman to thank for the invention of the convenience we most appreciate, especially if we are abroad in less populated areas. And just in case you don't recognize him from his picture, his name is Thomas Crapper. So we all know what that means!

History Repeats Itself

I wonder why when I hear new reports everyday of more Americans being killed in Iraq it makes me sad, it makes me feel helpless and it makes me worry about my nephew and others who will reach "the age to serve" in no time. How do you show support for something you are firmly against?

I believe I heard the other day that Congress succumbed to Bush's demands for more money to keep this pointless conflict going. Is there anyone in this country who is willing to say "no" to this guy? Does the lunacy truly have to continue? How do we stop this death spiral? Do we have enough collective bodies to throw in front of this train?

When we were on our cruise last week, there was talk of the need for us to reinstitute a draft. Do we not learn from history? How exactly is this conflict any different from Vietnam other than it is on a different continent (no jungle rot on the soldier's feet) and we started this one ourselves? The inability for us to win is the same, neither conflict has had popular support, the government continues to feed us propoganda but now there is even more daily factual footage from the press than we had during Vietnam, reinforcing how pointless, expensive and costly in lives this entire campaign is.

For my generation, this is an especially painful experience. We all fought through demonstrations and vigorous campaigning to end that senseless waste of lives over 30 years ago and we swore nothing like that would ever happen again. How soon we forget...

Our Society

What does it say about us that people get into fights over "stuff" at a garage sale. There's a big one going on across the street today and you actually see people racing each other to get to the "stuff" first.


Then, let's layer onto that our strong preference for fast food since the number of hours in the day have significantly decreased in the last few years and this is obviously the only way we can eat.

Of course, what immediately follows fast food but extra weight quickly leading to that lovely word, obesity. Once this problem exists, then you join the league of giant SUVers so you fit within its confines and you can easily drive to places you would otherwise have walked (or hiked). It never ceases to amaze me that so many can afford to much in the way of car and gas payments.

I think I can safely say I will never need a vehicle of this size.

And of course, you no longer need to remember not to lock your keys in the car or to leave your lights on, because you have a little 24/7 voice that takes care of any possible problem for you, including leading you to wherever you want to go.


Oh, and let's not forget the other type of fast food, even faster than a big Mac because it's right at your freezer fingertips. Yes, dinner is just a few toaster oven (or microwave) minutes away.


And where do you sit while eating this scrumptious meal, on your massage recliner of course, where else?


So now that you are piling on the fast food (both types), you decide maybe you should start exercising while you are sitting and watching your Reality TV. So, here you are. Of course, when you get hungry from all that exercise, you can always run into the kitchen and have some more food really fast.


Or perhaps you decide you want to get out into the great outdoors, so you buy a canoe, or a sailboat, or a rowboat...no that's silly, you get one of these so the boat does all the work and you still have plenty of energy to swill down the beer.





Okay, so what does all this say about our society? Let's just say I can still remember when walking a mile or riding your bike even further was considered no big deal, you did stuff like that everyday. Of course, those were the days when PE was part of the school's regular curriculum, not something the parents had to pay hundreds of dollars to access.

How long can we keep heading in this direction? I guess there's no time concern as long as we keep making bigger cars and larger doorways in new construction. Scary. I heard the other day that the mortality rate, or life expectancy, is now decreasing. No big surprise.

Quickie

Fuzzie Wuzzie was a bear, that's what always comes to mind when I see Baby B's head of hair (of course, nothing detracts from his cuteness). I swear the older he gets (8 months old on Saturday), the fuzzier, more flyaway it gets. Actually, I think the same thing happens when you get old. You lose your hair and what's left looks like a silver patchwork quilt or maybe only the fringe.

It's so interesting how much small children share the same characteristics as their very elder counterparts or maybe I should say relatives. I wonder if certain brain cells or brain functions align themselves at certain thresholds of very young and very old ages. It would appear that is true from my experience. Perhaps I should use this as the subject for my thesis.

Oh wait, first I have to have an undergraduate degree. Oh, never mind, it all feels like way too much effort and who really cares. By the time I'm acting that way, I won't know any different and it's only everyone around me who will have to deal with it.




(Here's where I give you the "raspberries"!)

SOLD!

We have officially sold our dining room furniture, every speck of it. Boy does that feel good since the new stuff starts arriving tomorrow. I guess you call that cutting it close, by the skin of our teeth, within a hair's breadth, blah, blah, blah. I've decided there is some magic in cutting your price in half. We had immediate calls and e-mails once we did that. Not a single call previously. Craziness.

It's amazing to me how quickly you can lose the relaxed glow of vacation upon your return to the workplace. All it took me was 24 hours to get a headache and buy a lottery ticket. Back in the old rut with more e-mails and work than I can possibly complete. And now one of my managers (direct report) is on vacation so it should only get better :) NOT! Retirement is looking better and better, it's a good thing I had lazer eye surgery so I can see that far into the future.
Hint: we're talking years and years.

Yep, me putzing around in my capris and flip flops, with my hair pulled back in a pony tail and NO MAKEUP or STOCKINGS with Bob Marley establishing the right aura! Sounds like heaven to me.

Hm, I'm watching stinky mudpots in Yellowstone. Over 2,000,000 acres, it's larger than Pennsylvania and Rhode Island together. That's enough of that, I have work to do and still have to practice. Who took an hour out of my day anyway? I'm off to the next task, probably walking through my empty dining room (tee hee).

A Mixed Bag

I'm back! We found it very interesting that we had better weather in Alaska then we had when we returned to Portland. It has pretty much rained ever since until tonight. But I have new colors in my house, my plants survived for the most part and I remained in a pretty good mood until the drive home from work tonight.

OK, I know you are supposed to yield for the damn bus and I do when it makes sense. But why would I slam my brakes on when there is a huge gap right behind me and I'm right behind the car in front of me? Well I didn't stop so the bus driver tried to pull into me and gave me a nice, big honk. Just exactly what was preventing him from waiting until I had passed? It wouldn't have put anybody out and it just made sense. I guess he was basically senseless. But then, I got to stop by L & T's to pick up some stuff and that was all it took to put me back in a good mood. If you are welcomed by people and pets who love you, it quickly recalibrates your frame of mind, as it should.

Anyway, here is just some of the really cool stuff we saw last week in Alaska.
Dahl's Porpoises - I had never heard of them and in fact Mike and I thought they were penguins as they swiftly swam as fast or faster than we were along side the ship.


We saw a number of whales but this was the most that we saw of them, no breaches. With it being this early in the season, they are only just now making their way back from Hawaii.


No matter how many of these we saw, the majesty of these
birds never ceases to amaze. There is no shortage of bald
eagles in Alaska.



We saw this actual buoy loaded up with sea lions. If I had my photo I would include it instead because it got much closer but this gives you a good idea of the King of the Hill game they were playing. There were a couple of harbor seals trying their best to find a spot on the buoy but the sea lions raised a huge ruckus everytime one of the smaller seals tried to scrunch in and booted them back off the island. It was fun watching them in their little buoy world. It kind of reminded me of the good old days when we tried to see how many kids we could stuff into a Volkswagen bug or a teleph0ne booth (remember telephone booths - your kids will never even know what they are, kind of like record albums...but, I digress).

There are a number of huge glaciers that are worthy of an entire blog in and of themselves.
Suffice it to say that they are magnificent, very blue, very cold and shrinking by the day. We did not see any calving as they call it when chunks break away from the mother ship.



Ah, now for the grand finale! BUTCHART GARDENS IN VICTORIA, B.C.!


There is nothing more I can say, these pictures
as poorly as they represent the reality, say it all.
If wishes were horses I would have this entire garden in my backyard!



It was a lovely time away, I'm going to see how long I can maintain the glow...

Bon Voyage!

36 hours from now we'll be heading "North to Alaska" (go ahead, sing it) so there'll be no posts from me for over a week. I'll have lots of reading to catch up on when I get back, that's what's fun.

Here are some of the sights we hope to see while we're there...
some from a float plane, some while hiking and some from a boat for whale watching. I hope I don't come back with a major headache caused by the effects we see of global warming. Nope, I'm not going to think about that, not a bit. Not for a few days anyway.

and let's not forget the critters..they always make any trip worthwhile. I hope it isn't still hibernation or something stupid like that.




Well, we're 'off to totem pole land.

Speedy!

This will be the Speedy Gonzales post because I have the painter arriving in 15 minutes and I have two billion things to do (at least). So, you need to tell me if I'm guilty or innocent. I was driving down Belmont and was probably about 15 - 20 feet from a crosswalk when two bicycle cops pulled up to the edge of the street.

I had two choices, I could slam my brakes on (this was rush hour mind you) or I could continue on and the next car would let them cross (which is what happened). Well, I saw one giving me the evil eye and I have this feeling I'm going to end up with a ticket out of the deal. I make it a rule never to slam my brakes on during rush hour, does that make me guilty?

You decide...

Mother's Day Celebration

Yesterday was my Mother's Day with my kids since we will be in Alaska on the actual date. It started with a lovely, full-scale Mother's Day high tea, prepared and hosted at my oldest daughter's home.

Baby Boy woke up from his nap just in time to join us!





The sun slowly made it's way out from behind the clouds and we all trooped into their car (along with Sock Monkey) to go to the Rhododendron Gardens for our special outing.














What is a rhododendron, you ask? Here you can see some of the bright pink evidence behind us.





And here the full effect of many types
planted together.








You're wondering if there were any critters?






























Beckett even got to play in the water!





















NO ONE COULD ASK FOR A BETTER DAY!

The Hair on the Back of Your Neck

Are there certain people who give you the creeps or just make you angry? I'm talking about it being so bad, you can't even stand to see or hear them because it gives you an instant headache.
Here's my list, which is not all inclusive, believe me.



So what do we have here, we have politicians, we have radio personalities, we have poor, little rich girls and would-be singers/actresses.

To a person, I avoid any exposure to them, voices or visuals. What really slays me is that many of them are plastered all over the magazines at the check out counter in the grocery store.

What happened to the good old, two-headed babies and the half man, half dog bodies that used to be on the front of
those magazines?

Who wants to look at these mugs, must not be anyone because I still see magazines in the racks and I don't see anyone buying them. Or, there may possibly be just a few people out there without my discriminating taste. That is very sad. Everyone should have more in their life than wanting to read about these sad excuses for humanity.