Halloween, Earthquakes and Things

It's Halloween, and our first Halloween in our house because we moved last year on November 6th. Last year I had to work until 8 pm at a client's office to process their multi-employee stock purchase plan purchase. They were a horrible company with horrible management. Their CEO drove a Hummer - what does that tell you about them? The "I don't care about the environment or the price of gas because the only thing that matters on earth is me" kind of vehicle. Their general counsel was a pompous jerk, but they've been acquired and I hope the company that acquired them was not required to keep any of the employees because they'd be sorry. But I digress. That was last year and this is now.

We expected lots of kids and weren't disappointed. They've all been adorable and polite and sweet. Will is far more into this holiday than I am, so he was giving out candy, and with each ring of the doorbell he reminded me that we're getting lower on candy. It's 7:42 pm, so the T or T should be stopping soon.

Will picked out his favorite candy, little fun size Milky Way bars. The skeleton head tray is something we found at a garage sale. We found the light up pumpkin below in the box at another garage sale.

Last night we were at open mic at a local restaurant. We haven't gone in about 4 weeks. We like to sit along the front right by the windows on the main street, next to our friends, Ken and Diann, and last night at about 8:00 pm we were listening to a guitarist when the place started shaking. I jumped up thinking that being next to the plate glass windows wasn't the best place to be in an earthquake, especially when I could see the curtains moving, along with other stuff such as the "open" sign and bell on the door. Someone said "the show must go on" and it did. The guitarist kept on playing. It wasn't a jolt, it was a shake - lots of shakes, in fact, but it did finally stop. Diann guessed that it was between 4.0 and 4.5, and Will didn't hear her but made his own guess that it was 5.0. It had been so long since I had felt one (how did I get so lucky?), I had no idea. We first heard it was 5.0 located in San Jose, but that was later upgraded to 5.6. Ah, computers. The restaurant owner was able to find out the information almost immediately. At least as soon as the guitarist was done playing his songs.

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_304150501.html

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/121-37.html

I do not like earthquakes. Apparently there were many aftershocks below 2.0, but Will felt the one that was 3.7. Anything above 3.0 from that distance, and we can feel it. I was on the 13th floor in San Francisco, so I didn't feel the aftershock.

I don't think Alex likes Halloween, particularly the ringing of the doorbell. But surprisingly, he's not hiding. I hope there are some Milky Way bars left. I like them frozen, and Will thinks I'm wrong.

It's 7:59 pm and there's the doorbell again!

Whining on a Wednesday 10/24/07

Sorry, no pictures, just whining.

We're at that time of year when time flies. It's already October 24th. We're less than 2.5 months from 2008.

I have been taking BART to San Francisco most weekdays, and while it's great not to drive, and it's great to be able to read for 45 minutes and then get a nice, brisk three block walk each way, I must be a magnet for annoying people. Today on the way home I had a guy who was reading a magazine out loud. Quietly, but out loud. It appeared that English wasn't his first language, and it was probably easier for him, but he was on BART, sitting next to me. On the way in I sat next to someone who sniffed and snorted much of the way. While some of this might not bother most people, I am very sensitive to these annoying things. So while I like taking BART, I'm always happy to get off BART and into the fresh air, except in San Francisco where I have to dodge the smokers who can't smoke in their office building, so instead they are out on the street rain or shine, and I end up dodging walking smokers. I once got burned by a careless smoker's cigarette back when they allowed people to smoke in offices, so I'm a little cranky about this. There must be some way to separate the smokers from the non-smokers in the city. One side of the street for smoking, the other for no smoking? Not likely!

It's also a matter of time before I see a pedestrian get hit by a car since they are often quite stupid about walking against red lights. On a one-way street you can usually tell that it's safe if your light is red, but with an increase in cars running red lights and doing stupid things, why risk it? What if a car with the right of way comes around the corner to make a turn and doesn't see the pedestrian crossing against the light? How much longer is it to wait until the light turns green? So enough complaining about the city, or rather the people in or on their way to the city - it's a great city and I feel like I'm on vacation every day I go, even if I'm getting off of BART, going up the escalator, and walking three blocks to a client's office where I work! It beats going to Silicon Valley, a place you won't find on a map because it's a made up name for several cities that used to be the Santa Clara Valley, and it thinks much more highly of itself than I think of it. I much prefer SF even with all the above annoyances. So thank you for letting me whine. And if you are a snorter or a smoker who blows your smoke in my face, or almost burns me, or a reader-out-louder, my apologies since you're probably a nice person in spite of it.

Aunt Mare had surgery today and the report is that she's doing well. That's great news.

I'm watching game 1 of the World Series, and I'm disappointed that the Boston Red Sox are beating the Colorado Rockies 13 to 1 and it's only the bottom of the seventh inning. I liked the Red Sox a few years ago when they won the WS, but since then I've heard that they are another team with a humongous payroll like the Yankees, and they won just a few years ago, and my niece just moved to Colorado with her new husband, so I'm going with the Rockies. Good thing it's a best of seven series.

Alex is doing very well, and going to the vet for a re-check appointment this weekend. He's back to his old self, humping his little brother Mowry. I'm told it's a feline dominance thing since they are both neutered males. Alex has been following me from room to room all night. I'm not sure if it's because he loves me, or because we no longer leave food for them to graze because Alex has special diet food, so we now have feeding times. This is a concept the formerly free-grazing cats don't quite get yet, but they're learning. And we both swear that Alex has been purring more since he's been home, and what a great purr he has.

I've had this weird rash that I think came from a weed in my garden, not poison oak, but acting like it, so I've been playing "stump the doctor". The dermatologist gave me cream and said to come back in a week if it wasn't gone. Monday was a week and it looked BAD. It was red, itchy and gross. It either spread, or I had a new rash in places, mostly on my arms, a little on my neck and a little on my face. I couldn't get an appointment until today, and wouldn't you know it? It's MUCH better, although it's still there, so he called in another doc to look at it (you can't find that if you go to a private doctor who practices alone, just another reason why we like Kaiser) and they agreed on a stronger cream and come back in 10 days if it's not better. I can't believe how much better it is today than it was on Monday, but it's not gone. Thursday will be three weeks since I've had this annoying rash. Is that like the car you take to the mechanic and it stops making the noise that brought you there? At least it was there enough for the two docs to see. The itch is driving me crazy.

It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to, but ENOUGH WHINING!

Dermatologist, Library, Surveys and Things

Pineapple guavas everywhere! A friend came over and took some and liked them, but the jury is still out here. I liked them served over salmon, but I don't like them as well just eating them by themselves.

Speaking of yards, I went to the dermatologist who said something about "contact dermatitis" but didn't know exactly what caused the rash on my arm. Of course he didn't recognize the plant I brought in in a sealed plastic ziplock bag because he's not a botanist, but he prescribed a stronger cream for my arm, and something else for my face since I apparently touched my face when I was otherwise protected with gloves and long sleeves yesterday. I tried to take a picture of my arm, but it doesn't photograph well, lucky for you who are reading this because it's gross. The white flowers to the left of the statue is the Alyssum. The green plant behind the Alyssum (it has tiny yellow flowers that you can't see and it's a weed) is the BAD PLANT. It's being cut out today using a shovel. No more cutting with clippers..
Look at the size of this weed that Will cut out with his shovel. The Alyssum has barely any roots, but the bad plant had a big root.What is this %$#*@ weed? It's hard to tell from this picture, of course, but the flowers are yellow, not white as they appear to be.And here is the planted area once the bad plant was gone.

Does Alex look happy on my lap? Do I look happy to have Alex on my lap? Today I discovered that the Union City Library, located in the next city north of us, has many more knitting books on the shelves than our two libraries, so we went there and I found three books. I found this vest in a book called "25 Gorgeous Sweaters for the Brand-New Knitter", and while I'm not a brand-new knitter, I read this as EASY and that works for me! I also found these two patterns online for cardigans, though the vest looks easier. They aren't great pictures, but you can see what they will look like.

I like this one, but not cropped and with long sleeves, but I don't want to be editing a pattern.While Mowry is somewhat of an ordinary orange tabby, to us he is anything but ordinary. When we first adopted him from Furry Friends Rescue http://www.furryfriendsrescue.org/, he was more gray. He has no white on him. He's pretty cute, and very sweet, although he did hiss at Alex when we brought Alex home from the vet hospital, but then again, Alex smelled funny (OK, smelled bad) and had that funny conehead on him. Mowry jumps on the bed after our showers and meows to get brushed. He used to fetch cat toys, but he's a grown-up cat now and just watches us throw toys. He has discovered that sleeping just behind my computer monitor is cozy. He used to hang out under the monitor when he was really little, but that was a long time ago, or so it seems.

I bought this yarn at my first Stitches West two years ago. Diann tried to warn me that it does something (I can't remember what - I can tell you in layman's terms that it droops in places - but she didn't tell me I'd hate it. It's a beautiful color and the end result is soft, but it's a royal pain to work with. It twists while I'm knitting and it's just annoying! I am trying one final time to use it to make a scarf, but then I give up. Mowry is bored with the whole thing! Or maybe it's just nap time.

Last, but NOT least, a survey as to how many unfinished projects you have started:

http://aspire.informz.net/survistapro/s.asp?id=957

At the end of the survey it says: Thank you for taking our UFO survey. We solemnly promise not to tell your spouse, roommates, mother, or boss how many UFOs you have.

Rash Mystery Solved, Conehead Off!

I think I've solved the mystery of the rash on my arm that I've had over a week and which stumped my doctor. It is acting much like poision oak, but we don't have poison oak in our front or back yard.

I thought it was from the tomato plant I was cutting - it has some little cilia-like things on it, but apparently it was either the Alyssum (http://www.englishcottagegardening.com/AnnualFrms/alyssum.htm) or the weed growing around the Alyssum (identified today by Diann as a weed - I thought it was part of the Alyssum until I noticed the tiny yellow flowers vs. the white flowers of the Alyssum), because today I wore gloves and long sleeves, but I apparently touched my face and now I have some red spots on my face. I'm glad to have the Triamcinolone 0.1% cream - some kind of strong cortisone cream prescribed by my doctor last Monday, so hopefully I can get rid of this before I have a red face, like my red arm. My arm is looking a little bit better, but it itches more than it did before. The plant will be cut down in the next day or so, with GREAT CARE.

Alex is doing well. He was still under the influence of his final valium dosed at about 9:00 am this moring when Diann came over at 1:00 pm to knit, but he didn't run scared in a panic, as he usually does. She got to see him before he walked off. He went under the bed, but he was back out sharing the cat bed by the window while she was still here. Of all the people he shouldn't be afraid of, Diann is one of them.

Alex has been on Will's lap since almost constantly since he got home Thursday evening, stirring up Will's cat allergies. Notice the poodle cut on Alex's paw on the picture below, from where his IV was inserted. Is this a happy cat?

Diann and I knitted today. I am almost done with my second felted hat, but it is much smaller than the first, so I'm going to have to be very careful about felting it (and not over-felting it). When Diann left, she and Ken walked down the driveway and got into their truck As I walked back up the driveway, I noticed that Kandyman, the cat known for keen his bird-killing instincts, and for the fact that he thinks he is our cat, had been watching us the whole time from beneath the gardenia bush. He is a very sweet cat, and the perfect cat for us - we don't have to feed him, we don't have to take him to the vet (a particularly nice thing this week), and we don't have to change his litter box since he isn't our cat, but he visits us often. His owner even told me he was upstairs in his house "petting your cat when I saw you and came down to say hello".

Saturday Photos Cats and Things

We are glad about our decision to postpone our weekend to Tucson. I think we would have been way too worried about Alex to have a good time, even though we know our cats are in good hands when we leave with Ken and Diann checking on them. It's really too much to ask when the cat is recuperating. When they are okay, it's not an issue to have them come by and check on them, and now that we have special feeding, to feed them.

We lucked out with beautiful weather today. It started out cool and gray, but it's sunny and beautiful now. We went to a few garage sales and to the college flea market. Guess what we bought, besides the obligatory paperback that was 10 cents? That's 2.5 times less than most garage sale paperbacks! Ha ha! Yes, we found yet another glider at the flea market. Yes, we now have three gliders and two rocking chairs in our sunroom. It's really quite awesome for entertaining or just hanging out. And yes, we had driven the Saturn, but the bungee cords were in the van, so the Clampetts used old wires that you use to plug a phone in to that happened to be in the trunk of the Saturn. Hey, don't laugh, it worked. The picture makes the fabric look a little dirty, but it's only the lighting. It's not dirty. I don't even think it came with cat fur!I bought a bag of wool yarn at a garage sale for $2. How could I resist, even if I don't need yarn right now? $2 for a bag of yarn - 50 g each ball.
Alex is home and doing well. He HATES the cone collar. He went into his litter box this morning and then sat down. We were very worried. As Will said, how could two grown people be so excited when a cat pees, which he eventually did, and he seems to be ok, but we're watching with eight eagle eyes (we're each "four eyes").

Caption for photo below: How can I possibly get comfortable with the dang conehead on me? Are you kidding me? I NEED to clean myself. That's what cats do.

Forget that the basket is WAY too small for me. I'm a cat, we like small spaces, but it's the stupid conehead. Where do I put my head? I can't get comfortable.
Oh wait, I guess this is the only way I'll be comfortable until they take this stupid conehead off of me.
Or better still, I'm napping with my human dad. Someone is being a BAD cat. This is the bookcase in the living room. Can you find me?
Now I'm hiding behind Joan's monitor on her desk, but apparently this is okay because she didn't tell me to get down as she did when I was exploring on the bookcase above. How am I supposed to know which is okay?
Back to humans. Aunt Mary, for whom this blogged is named, is having some health issues. Hang in there, Aunt Mare, we're all sending our best wishes, and prayers, and happy thoughts to you.

I'm wearing the green sock that I knitted while on my recliner watching a baseball playoff game. This is the life! Too bad the Cubs got knocked out of the first round of playoffs, but baseball is still fun to watch. Yes, I'm wearing both socks, but I just photographed one. I bet there's someone who reads this who is more of a smartass than I am, so I thought I had better clarify!

It's Friday!

I slept in the guest room so I could check on Alex, but at 12:30 am when he was munching on dry food, I decided he didn't need me in there, so I could go into bed. At 5:30 am he was meowing, so I went in and he had eaten, peed and pooped in his box, and wiped icky paws on a towel I had set out, so he's doing okay. He jumped onto our bed and let me pet him for a long time. I heard something I didn't expect to hear for awhile - purring. His collar is a real nuisance for him - he bumps into things, and tries to get it off. He doesn't understand that if he starts licking himself, he'll end up in vet hospital jail again. Right now he's in our office with us.

Now it's a matter of food management. He must eat special food for the rest of his life, so instead of leaving food out for grazing, we have to put him in the spare room to feed him, and feed the other two, and be sure to pick up their food before he gets out.

I took this picture on the TV because I liked her haircut. It's from Check, Please Bay Area, a show where regular people come on and tell about their favorite restaurants and two others try the restaurant and rate it. It's amusing, but it was the haircut that inspired the picture. When I'm ready to go shorter, this could be it.

Can someone tell me how a picture I photograph from the TV (and Will would love to remind you that it's NOT HDTV, just regular) could come out so good, when other pictures I take are mediocre? OK, the picture above of Alex is looking at the mirror (notice the backwards Crystal Geyser water jug), but still....the food picture is the best one on this post!

It's not ALL about Alex. Mowry dragged this ribbon from the bathroom (where it fell on the floor, but had been holding the shower curtain) in to the TV room in hsi mouth.

And last, but not least, is the baby blanket I'm working on. I've invited 3 women over to knit for a few hours on Sunday. I had planned this for October 23rd, but since we're home this weekend, Diann suggested we knit Sunday, so we can do it this Sunday and/or the 23rd. I wanted it here because I didn't want to leave Will tending Alex for hours since he's got that duty today while I'm at a client's office. It's not a huge job, as Al is doing well, but I thought we might as well knit here this time. I also want to use our sunroom while the weather permits.

Alex is Home!

We picked Alex up from the vet. He's happy to be home! Sadly, he has the collar on so he can't lick himself. He didn't eat while at the vet, but we got him home, and the vet tech gave us samples of special prescription food, and as you can see, he's EATING! Cats sometimes don't like prescription food, but I guess when he's hungry he eats. The food is on a table ironing board so he can better reach it with his collar. Poor guy. Dorothy was right! There's no place like home!

Have I mentioned how I hate to travel? We postponed our trip to Tucson, and we are losing the car rental fee because we went with Hotwire and they are non-refundable. Some B.S. about how they negotiate low fares with the rental companies ... blah blah blah. I told them that I won't be using Hotwire again, and I'm telling all my friends. I haven't gotten a response to that message yet. I should have told them that "hotwire" is how you steal a car, and a stupid name for a car rental organization.

I'm losing $50 from Southwest. Have I mentioned lately how much I HATE Southwest, but I do fly them ONLY because they are the cheapest airline and they go to all the places I need to go, but it doesn't mean I have to like them. My parents are going to use $100 of our credits from the AZ flight, and they are coming earlier to visit than originally planned because our credits expire and we'd lose $148 instead of "just" $50, and the good news is we get to see them earlier. We will use the credits from their original flights to go to AZ in January - their credits will expire much later than ours would have. Southwest, you don't know who you are dealing with. They still frustrate me, but I have whipped their silly system as best as anyone ever will.

I also lost $10 from the car parking company in Oakland. I made the reservation yesterday and probably should have known better, but what can you do.

We're glad to be home with Alex, so to heck with Southwest, Hotwire, and Park'N Fly.

Alex May Come Home Today

At the vet's suggestion we went to see Alex yesterday. His vet and everyone we encountered at the vet's office told us he was "grumpy". When asked what they meant by "grumpy" we learned that our otherwise docile, sweet cat who never uses claws or teeth unless someone visits and he is frightened because he is sure they are visiting for the sole purpose of doing something terrible to him, and we are trying to show Alex to that visiting intruder, had been hissing, growling and lurching at them. He must have been VERY threatened for those usually-hidden instincts to have kicked in. So he was sedated, had a huge collar on to keep him from licking himself (unlike the small collar they had given Cinders when she had surgery a few years ago, which, I might add, she was able to "Houdini" out of).

That's just black fur on the cat bed, and yes, she walked away from the collar.

Back to Alex. The vet was going to take him from the cage where he was probably finally getting comfortable and used to it, and bring him to an examining room for us to see him, but I think they were afraid of him, so they let us go to him. That was a big "duh" to me, but they must have their reasons. There were other animals there, so maybe that was it.

Alex gave a little hiss when Will walked up to the cage, but then he let both of us pet him. He was trying to get up, probably to get into our arms and make us take him home, but since he was sedated, he wasn't going anywhere. We brought him special canned food, and then we left. If he can pee on his own he can come home today, but then we are going out of town this weekend. We picked the weekend at random, but it turned out being a bad one because of this, concern over Will's niece (see prior post), fun things such as the Pleasanton Antique Street Faire (which is 2x a year, and happens to be this Sunday, and the Oholone College once a month flea market. This is the Pleasanton Antique Street Faire below.Our friends, Ken and Diann, who have many cats and much more experience with felines than we'll ever have, have agreed to come and check on the cats, as they usually do when we go away, and we'll do the same for them next weekend when they go away, but I've asked Diann if she minds giving Alex medicine (antibiotics and a sedative per his vet) because if she doesn't want to do this, I WILL TOTALLY UNDERSTAND, and we may end up having to postpone this weekend. It's not an event so it can be rescheduled. It was just a weekend chosen at random to visit an old friend of Will's who also had this weekend available, but WE CAN RESCHEUDULE if necessary. He's not old, just someone Will was best friends with when we were young enough to have "best friends" - elementary school, thus an "old friend".

I'm off to a client's office and I'm going to be late if I don't get moving.

Sick Kitty

Poor Alex is very sick. We knew something was wrong when he meowed if we approached him on Sunday mid-morning. That may sound odd, but we know our kitties and Alex only did that the last time he was sick with a urinary tract infection. This morning Will called to get our 8:30 pm vet appointment changed since Alex was completely listless and barely moving. Will had to take Alex by himself at 12:30 pm. I prefer to go with him for many reasons, but I couldn't. It turns out Alex has crystals in his bladder and will be in the vet hospital for 3-4 days on a catheter and IV. The vet called tonight and said he was just lying there not moving, but when the vet went to check his vitals, Alex hissed at him. Alex isn't much of a hisser, so this is a good sign. We'll check back with the vet tomorrow to see how Alex is doing.

Pictures on Saturday

Today we went to a few garage/estate sales. I found a paperback novel for a quarter, and a few others things, but not much. The season is coming to an end as the weather is colder in the mornings. Then we did our weekly shopping and it wasn't too bad for a Saturday., but weekdays are better.
The leaves are starting to change and it's quite pretty. These were taken on what used to be our favorite street - Walnut Avenue.

We have many pineapple guavas on the ground in our backyard. I was picking them up and I caught Mowry looking at me in the window. The sunroom is in the reflection. It's the same window seen above.

Earlier in the week we had a beautiful sunrise. I see them now that they occur later!

And reflected in the window. Mowry is watching me get the paper and take the picture.


I was trying to decide what to do with this spot in the yard. Now I know. This was before the remainder of the cord of wood that didn't fit on the side of the house was moved from the garage.

This is Niles Blvd. facing toward our house. It feels like it's North, but it isn't exactly North. Probably more West since that's where the sun sets. It was quiet at this moment when the picture was taken just before noon.There used to be a family-run restaurant called "Big Daddy's" on this corner that was here since 1951, but it's long gone. Too bad, as this isn't a very nice substitute. Actually, it's quite pretty if you take down the fence and the signs.

Our prayers and best wishes go out to Will's niece, Carrie, who is recovering from a pulmonary embulism in Washington State.

San Francisco

What a nice city!

One of my clients is in SF! I take BART and walk 3 blocks and I'm there. They are near the Embarcadero next to the Bay Bridge. I'm on the 13th floor - none of this silliness about pretending there isn't a 13th floor. On the 7th floor is the cafe and an outdoor terrace. Today the Blue Angels were practicing for Fleet Week in SF, so Will met me and we had lunch (shared a Cobb salad and sweet potato fries .... mmmmmmm) and he hung out on the terrace with his binoculars watching the Blue Angels and other interesting airplanes, and ships, etc. NY may have bridges, but probably not bridges and palm trees in the same scene.Can you see one Blue Angel flying below? It looks like a speck in the sky toward the left of the picture to the left of the barge? (Oops, I'm told it's a container ship).

The view from the 7th floor terrace is awesome. It was a magnificent day in SF.

The hydrangeas on the terrace are beautiful!

We left at 4 pm and walked by the Embarcadero, past the Ferry Building to BART.

I don't have a window where I sit, and that's probably a good thing since I'd want to look out the whole time I was there, it's bright inside and the windows aren't far. This is a view from the 13th floor looking toward the Ferry Building (which isn't in the picture).

On the way was this new art we hadn't seen before.

Completely off-topic - I like to collect tsotskes - I got the two AFLAC ducks (one stuffed animal and one rubbery styrofoam-ish not sure what the material is, so I'll call it rubber) from someone I have known for many years, since the first business conference I went to in the 1980s. He works for AFLAC. I found the rubber replica of an outhouse at a flea market. It is my statement on Silicon Valley. As I used to say about Beverly Hills, if you take away the prententiosness and phoniness you have an empty lot. So it is with SV. Not that there aren't some good things, but .... And last but not least, not all clients are created equal. I thought this rubber van was cute, but you can see what I thought of the company and its management.