19 Crows

March 11th, 2008

12:14 pm
When I went to the pet food store on Sunday to get crickets, there was a woman there with her parrots. Take a look here and here at the elaborate contraption she was carrying them in.

We left at the same time, and when she unstrapped the box and put it in the back seat of her car, the birds started whistling in protest. She said they can't stand to be away from her.

February 18th, 2008

09:24 am
Saturday night, we went to a college hockey game. Between the periods they had a kids' team come on the ice for a "game". These were really little kids, maybe six year olds, and it was fun to see them play, all bundled up in their gear.

At the end of the break when they were ready to come off the ice, the college players were all gathered at the gate ready to go back on. We were at the end of the bleachers with a good view. As the gate opened, the college players stood to the side so the little kids could come off, and as they came off the ice, the college players formed a line and high-fived the kids trooping toward the dressing room. I heard them saying things like "Great game, kid!"

The kids, of course, were thrilled, and eagerly reached up to return the high-fives. It was funny how tiny their gloves were compared to the college kids'. But what was really cool was looking at the faces of the college players. They were beaming.

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February 12th, 2008

09:23 am - Minn's big adventure
Last night I got a scare when I got home: there was only one turtle in the tank! I immediately knew what must have happened. Minn has been standing up on the island and reaching up to the edge of the tank. I'd just changed the water the day before so the level was high. I didn't think he was strong enough to pull himself out, but I guess I was wrong.

So fearing the worst, I went on a hunt for the fugitive. I got a flashlight and looked behind and under the tank's stand - no Minn - then crawled all around the kitchen shining the flashlight into every corner and under everything he could have crawled under or into. We're big slobs so there were lots of places he could hide, if he wanted to. No luck.

I basically crawled all over the whole house shining my flashlight everywhere. Finally in the guest room, at the far end of the house, I thought I was close because the cats were acting hinky and looking under the futon bed. He wasn't there, but I found him nearby, wedged into a corner under a little table and behind a stack of books.

I picked him up - he was bone dry, and had a lot of cat hair on his soft parts - and checked his shell all over. It looked fine. I was so relieved! I was sure he'd have broken something - he fell five feet! I put him back in the tank and he swam around like nothing had happened. This morning he still looks fine. I feel so lucky that he wasn't hurt and that I found him, but I would have searched all night if I had to!

If you're wondering why I didn't put screen over the top of the tank once he started standing up, it was because it can filter the light too much, plus I never dreamed he could get out. Now we have a plan to put a strip of plexiglass along the edges so the light will be unobstructed in the middle but naughty turtles won't be able to climb over the sides.

January 20th, 2008

10:17 am
Yesterday was a marvelous day. We got up early and drove to Napa where we were finally able to meet up with JC, a guy who could sell me jade from Peter Schilling, an artist whose work I love. JC knows all about jade and had a little showcase in his office filled with modern and ancient jade pieces, as well as various pendants by Peter. He has a all sorts of lovely things, like a huge cylinder of Chinese jade, a blowfish seen from the front done a by a modern carver, Toltec beads and heads, a wonderful carved pig, and more. He showed me different jades from places like Siberia, British Columbia, and Guatamala, and pointed out their differences. It was absolutely fascinating.

Then I played around with the pendants he had for sale. Pat was going to get me one for Christmas and one for my birthday, and I was going to get myself one. In the end, I narrowed it down to four pieces. After all, for months I've been talking myself out of getting various impulse buys because I knew I'd be buying this. Two are kind of free form twisty shapes, one Siberian yellow jade, one apple green. One is a shell form and the other is a ginkgo leaf or maybe a whale fluke. It's from Wyoming and is very dark, but translucent, with little dark specks. And then JC gave me another shell shape, also dark olive from Wyoming. It was such a pleasure meeting him and that was totally unexpected.

Then we set off for Pat's mother's house in the gold country, and got to take a completely different route than we usually do, which was great. We drove through the Delta and the central valley, then up into the mountains. I asked if we could detour to a town near hers where there's a thrift store. It was closed, but then we stopped at a cemetery just outside town, which dates from 1852. I took a lot of pictures of beautiful and interesting grave markers. The most interesting one was from the 1860s and had an Irish name and "Killed by a Chineman." Now I want to find newspapers from the period and see what that's about.

We arrived at Gail's place, took her out to dinner, then she and Pat spent the evening playing blackjack while I knitted. She has a new kitten, Cassidy, who is tons of fun, and three other friendly cats. It's quiet and lovely here, and I'm enjoying everyone's company. Today I'll help her with her computer while Pat watches football, then we'll head home tomorrow.

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January 14th, 2008

12:02 pm
From

wordweaverlynn.

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January 5th, 2008

07:08 pm
The Big Storm was fairly exciting here. I got to watch the creek next to my office get really high - normally you can't even see the water from 2nd floor windows, but Friday you could easily see the muddy water. We all kept going to the end of the hall to check on it, and the parking lot next to it develped a big lake in the middle. (A few years ago that creek backed up because of debris where it goes under Valco Parkway, and some QA people who were here at night couldn't get to their cars because the parking lot was flooded.)

I got home to find the power was out, so I found candles (never a problem for Pagans), set them up, and lay down with my foot elevated, because there wasn't much else I could do. The power came on after a while, but went out again. By then Pat was home and it was time to go to my birthday dinner at a fancy place in Los Gatos that luckily had no storm problems. Dinner was great and power was back by the time we got home.

But when I looked out the back door to check on the trees, I found that we'd put the patio umbrella down but hadn't taken it out of the table. The whole thing blew over and the glass top broke into a million pieces. Dang.

Today I drove around our neighborhood - there's at least one tree down on every block, though none of them seem to have fallen on cars or houses.

January 1st, 2008

05:43 pm - what class are you meme
From this page, a list of class markers. It's based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers hold the copyright and ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

I've bolded the ones that were true for me:

Father went to college (junior college for a while, until he was drafted for WW II)
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Both grandfathers finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home (my father was a fan and my mother was a teacher - any more questions?)
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18 (an extension, not my own phone)
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (if you count my mom drilling me on math and working on a SAT prep book with me)
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (I was unaware of how much any bills were for my family, or how much my parents made, because my mom considered that confidential)

We were well off, but my parents weren't indulgent or open about money. In some ways, that made me less aware of the privileges I had.

December 28th, 2007

03:09 pm - Christmas
We spent the holiday with my mom and had a very pleasant, low key time. I didn't expect to do the usual shopping and museum-going because of my current lack of mobility, but I didn't expect to get a 24 hour stomach thing. Luckily, with no place we had to go and nothing we needed to do, I slept all day while Pat watched football and hung out with my mom. I woke up feeling much better the next day, though sadly not energetic enough to go to the big Dali exhibit at LACMA, as we'd planned. That's okay. We went on a couple of long drives, looking at houses and weird neighborhoods in the Valley.

We had Christmas dinner with my mom and her friend Martha. There was turkey breast, ham, and my mother's sausage dressing (the BEST). Also good mashed potatoes and a baked potato for Pat, who mysteriously hates mashed potatoes.

Gifts I got: zip up ankle boots, an Origins eye shade, a hideous doll that "sings" and "dances" (Uncle John is known for such things), Trader Joe dark chocolate covered caramels, The Difference Engine, the 2nd book of Popeye strips, a couple of Kim Deitch graphic novels, Bill Blass' autobiography, the Onion atlas, a necklace of turquoise chips, a necklace of native american bear fetishes, some ornaments with birds on them (which I traded to my mom for the copy of Craft in America she'd received).

still to come: something from this artist.

December 20th, 2007

06:32 pm - The Bonus of the Beast
This year they are doing profit sharing in an annoying way in which it depends on how much profit one's division made, if any, and upon one's performance (rather than just a straight percent as in previous years.)

Luckily we did make a profit and my boss met with me today to tell me what I'm getting: 6.66%. I found this hilarious. She was actually a little apologetic and said that it was a different amount originally, but TPTP adjusted it to this. She's fairly religious, and I'm sure there are people who would have been offended. But I got a huge kick out of it.

December 18th, 2007

12:36 pm - Christmas
I don't really hate Christmas, I just hate the decorations that go up the day after Samhain and the music in every public place and the people who want to know if I've got all my shopping done. But since I don't go to malls much and don't know that many Christmas-crazy people, it doesn't impinge on me that much.

But. I do have one Christmas peeve. Every year I know it's going to appear in the paper, and I steel myself because every year for no good reason it bugs the shit out of me. And that is the annual article about how much all the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas would cost.

First of all, it's stupid. Second, I hate that song and this gets it playing in my head. Third, they always refer to "calling birds," which is wrong. It's colly birds. Colly is an old English word meaning black. Fourth of all, it's stupid. Oh. I said that already.

Have a happy Solstice, everybody.

December 17th, 2007

04:41 pm - Who are these people
Stolen from

karnythia

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. (Some I know too well. You know who you are, I've pinched your bum or been naked in front of you.) I read your journals, or we have something else in common and we chat occasionally. Some of you I hardly know at all. Perhaps you lurk, for whatever reason. But you friended me and I thank you for your interest in my words.

But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...they listen in rapture to the love-music of she-turnips." I might feel compelled to mock your musical taste, but I'll certainly remember you.

I'd love it if every single person who friended me would do this. Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal and see what gems of knowledge appear.

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December 16th, 2007

11:36 am
Here I am on the knee scooter I've been using. Don't I look happy?

It actually works really well, better than crutches. Today I practiced getting down the two front steps. Later today: getting in and out of the car.

I'm counting down the days not to Christmas but to when I can put weight on my foot again: January 2.

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December 14th, 2007

01:03 pm
The surgery went okay, and today I'm home with my leg propped up, feeling grateful for vicodin. The doctor told me the bone he took out was pretty large, and the tendon was inflamed, so it will be sore for a while. But it's not bad. He thinks I won't need vicodin by Sunday.

My little knee scooter is great, way better than crutches. I'm trying not to think about how I'll get in and out of the car, though. I'll think about that tomorrow (tossing head).

Off to nap now.

December 12th, 2007

07:03 pm
This has been my year for medical stuff - tomorrow I'm going to have what I hope is my last surgery for a long time. I've had pain in my foot for a while, caused by an an extra bone, called an ossicle. Here's an X ray of one, and some other ossicles people get in their feet. I'm told you start out with more bones in your feet than you end up with, because some of them fuse together. Anyway, I had the same thing in my other foot a few years ago. It rubs against the tendon and makes it hurt. No, they didn't let me have the bone last time, but I got to see it.

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December 2nd, 2007

01:00 pm - Help me out here
Isn't there a place where you can choose the style for your Friends page? If there is, where the hell is it? I've looked all through the profile pages but obviously am missing this. Does anybody know?

Thank you, thank you.

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November 26th, 2007

01:54 pm - Four day weekend
Thanksgiving was okay. Our tradition now is that Pat gets up early to start smoking the turkey, and various people come by to sit around drinking bloody marys. I usually sleep late but this year I got up early too, and I was glad I did because although I didn't join in the bloody mary drinking, it was great to see people.

We took the turkey to Pat's aunt & uncle's and had dinner with them, his mom, and his sister and their family. I was glad to see his mom for the first time since her husband died. She is doing okay but is just living through the sadness. She'd brought the autopsy report for us to read. I'd never seen one before and reading the narrative of his death was really sad.

As far as I'm concerned the best part of the weekend started on Friday. We got up early and went to the Santa Cruz flea (next week is the last one, boo hoo), then went to the sauna place, had drinks and dinner on the wharf, and stayed over. The next day we drove around looking at scenery and cute beach houses, then went to the San Jose State football game with friends. I don't care about football and I made good progress on my knitting.

Sunday was a day of rest except that Pat and his buddy Wade drove to SF so Pat could buy a Vespa. This is the man who always says he was born without a center of gravity...

November 25th, 2007

01:38 pm - Dead Club 2008
I've just mailed out the annual invitation for the dead pool that we run. Anybody reading this is welcome to join. If you're interested, see what it's all about at The Dead Club. If you aren't scared away, email me - crow AT well DOT com.