Out in the world

It's so hard being the puppy. We went to the vet today and then into Menlo Park for a tug of war toy.

A Thursday

Fun has been had since the last post. The Girl and I are making more of an effort to do fun things outside together. And she has made an effort to do a fun thing outside herself - GOLF! Well, really it is the driving range. Last weekend, no two weekends ago she went out and got a golf club. It isn't a driver but it is some sort of hybrid - I got a brief education on the day of purchase but that information is gone from my head.. Anyway, she goes to the campus driving range at least twice a week and enjoys it. She reports back that some efforts are better than other but that she is improving her skills. Of course she still occasionally reports back that she nearly took out her neighbor with a rouge golf ball, but I am guessing that is part of the process.

This month is my Mother's birthday and it is challenging for me. Part of me is thinking wow, I should really celebrate the anniversary of her birth as opposed to the anniversary of her death, which is only a few months away (time really does wait for no one). So, I am somewhat melancholy.

The kitties are mostly well. Fang is under the weather. She has two enflamed nail beds and is on meds, as a result her belly is upset. But long before all that, Fang was pretty ticked-off at us and had taken to using our bed as a litter box - her normal accommodations are our bedroom where she can be guaranteed safety from the other kitties who want to sit near her and play (she wants neither company nor an activity partner). Luckily, she got moved to the office for poor behavior before the upset belly started, well, perhaps just as the upset belly was starting. Anyway, she is recovering. Other kitties are doing fine. 70% goes outside with supervision and his harness. He mostly hangs out on our little stoop with occasional walks across the path to get to the vegetation. Zig Zag goes outside on a harness and a leash and mostly just sits down immediately. He would lay there for hours if I would stay with him. As it is now he lounges on the balcony for hours coming in only to eat and use the facilities. Charmin is just starting to have interest in going outside. We went out today and it turns out that she is the only kitty that would actually take a walk with me. We made a small loop around the building.

The Girl, as mentioned before, is home for a bit. There may be a trip East in the fall for her. Classes start for me on Sept. 1 so I will be staying local. I am still enjoying work. OH, and I start volunteering up the road at the Ronald McDonald house on the 31st. I am going to do chair massage twice a month. I am looking forward to that. I just had my TB test so I am a walking test tube! No reaction as of yet and I am about 11o% sure it will stay that way.

I have been doing lots of baking lately. There are many breads I'd like to try and make, too. I haven't really done too many breads this month, or even knitting really. I have been working on the same two project for a long time now. I continue to enjoy knitting group, we meet once a week. Lately I have gone mostly to hang out and not so much to knit. I enjoy all the folks I knit with. I am trying to plan a field trip with one of the gals to go check out local baking supply shops! She is a bread baker and a baker in general oh and she does BEAUTIFUL KNITTING WORK.

That's my story for today. I am going to go wash the car. Have a great day.

Adventures

It is a pretty nice when The Girl isn't traveling for 20 days out of the month. She has been home for two whole weeks now and it is always exciting when Sunday night comes and we aren't driving to the airport so she can sleep on a red-eye flight across the country or across an ocean. So, short story long, The Girl is home and we are enjoying California together.

Saturday night we each went our separate ways and then met up in the middle . . . I took a brief bicycle ride and The Girl went to the driving range. After the driving range The Girl suggested we meet in the middle of our two separate locations which happened to be the on campus. Well, we lucked out and found out that the National Senior Games (read: Senior Olympics -- if the Olympic folks weren't such proprietary creeps) are happening right here in Palo Alto!!!

http://www.2009seniorgames.org/ We got there very late so there were no more competitions happening but there was a cover band! The band was from San Fran and they covered 70's music, which I am pretty sure was quite a bit after the band members actually came of age. BUT let me be the one to tell you, those folks were rockin' it! The singers, 3 older women all had sparkly shot dresses and one had a dress with slits so far up the sides I swear we could see her hip. These gals were totally ROCKIN' it!!!!! The athletes and their supporters were all dancing! It was a totally fun scene. We left only because it got to cold and we didn't have our jackets. The event runs through Sunday and we hope to see actual sporting events.

I took the motorcycle up to Napa Valley this week. The whole thing happened quite by accident and I just sort of felt my way there. It worked out fine. I got some wine at St. Supery which is something The Girl and I have tried before and we enjoyed. We can generally find a plethora of lovely wine at the local grocery store and sometimes when we look really hard we can find it for under 4 bucks a bottle. FUN!

Long Time No Talk

It's been months since my last post. A lot has happened. I'll run with the highlights.

The Girl continues to travel the world. She been about domestically in too many places to even remember. Sadly this week she woke up in Bethesda and didn't really know where she was. Kind of a downer. From Bethesda to Buffalo, NY. She should be flying home as we speak but Philadelphia weather got her planes all in a huff and she is hanging out in DE this evening. Since I've last written The Girl has also traveled internationally, most recently to Sweden and, well drats, I have to look it up . . . Germany. Yep, it was Germany in April.

I found a job. Hooray! It is at a fancy pants spa up the road. http://www.sensespa.com/ Right now I am on-call Friday and Saturday mornings and I picked up some other days through the end of August. I will figure out what days are good once school starts up again. So, the on-call thing seemed a little dicey to me when I first got hired but the place is so very busy that I am not worried. So far I have typically done three or four massages per shift. I didn't even do that many massages in school. I can tell you that after my shift my body is a little beat. I can feel muscles in my arms and apparently my third hamstring has been hanging out all these years doing nothing because NOW I CAN FEEL it on the inner back thigh. Whew, folks!

70% who is typically afraid of all things not native to the house caught a bird this week. Yes, I think it was a young bird because folks tell me that now is a period in CA when Momma birds are teaching their baby birds about life ~ but not apparently the dangers of life. The birdie was on our balcony and then in 70% mouth. I got him to release the bird and the bird was shocked but seemingly uninjured. I proceeded to put a bell on 70% collar. Now he mostly hides from the bell, which, unfortunately follows him. You see the rub here, right? He is working on being brave.

We continue to be in awe of our surroundings. The native flowers and weather is still surprising us. It would seem that since Spring started I am passing a new, undiscovered bloom about once a week in my travels. This week I noticed that some of the trees that line our very street have blossomed with red bursts of flowers. Quite lovely.

Since the rain stopped in, well, it stopped a while ago and since it has I have been primarily riding the motorcycle. With the exception of household errands that involve lots of bags I am mostly a motorcycle girl. I like it and while it is fun and cool and even a little sexy it is just not very convenient (gear, preparation, chronic bad hair days and lack of fun strappy shoes), alas, I generally forget all that once I am on the open road and enjoying the natural scents of the area and feeling the breeze. Ahhhh. Oh, and I always score rock star parking.

I have been exploring in San Francisco. I went to Golden Gate Park and tooled around. I hit the Conservatory of Flowers (much like our own Longwood Gardens - the folks at the Conservatory knew of Longwood!), walked many flower lined trails and strolled about. I went back to the park with some east coast visitors last week - FUN!!! We went to the Japanese Tea House and I got to see that famous intersection of Ashbury and Haight - it is a lot like (perhaps exactly like) South Street only there are more relaxed homeless people and the whole block smells like marijuana and patchouli.

That's my story for right now. I'll work on posting more regularly.

Peace

Outside

I am going out into the world. Hat secured; sunscreen on.

How cute is this cat?

How in the HELL did these get back in st

How in the HELL did these get back in style???