anniemiz

Friday Cat Blogging: From Aruba With Love

We recently spent a gloriously restful week in Aruba.  We'd never been there before.  Turns out that stray cats are a common sight around the hotels/resorts.  We met three friendly cats around the place where we stayed; two were exceptionally friendly.  One was this cat; we guessed her to be a young female:

We saw her a couple of times and then didn't see her for a few days until the evening before we were to leave.  We were eating at the resort's outdoor restaurant, our table near a hedge.  She came sauntering through the hedge and enjoyed some bits of our meal.  Then she jumped up on my lap and settled in for the duration of the meal.

We brought her back to the room and called Aruba Kitten Rescue (AKR; I had emailed them and another organization earlier in the week when I learned about the stray cat problem and wanted to know what, if anything, tourists could do to make these cats' lives easier).   We discussed this cat and decided that they would call the vet early the next morning to see if they could give her a rabies shot, do an exam and provide travelling papers.  AKR came to us early the next morning, whisked her to the vet, whisked her back, provided an airline approved carrier so she could sit under the seat in front of us; a harness and leash for walking her through the metal detector (she walked on a leash like a champ; thoroughly unflummoxed by all the people pointing and saying, 'There's a cat!') and wished us a safe trip.  You can read AKR's post about her here.

If you go to the website you'll see this post, where they talk about the supplies they need.  Basically, the stuff they need -- small harnesses and leashes; soft carriers; KMR -- is very expensive down there.  And it's expensive to ship stuff to them from outside of Aruba.  So they depend on people travelling to Aruba who are kind enough to bring stuff with them.  So if you're planning to go to Aruba and would like to help, contact them first to find out what their current needs are and how to best get the stuff to them once you're in Aruba.

I had ordered some tapas for dinner while she was sitting on my lap that night and one was called 'pinchitos'.  The waiter said it meant 'little bits' (they were mini skewers with one or two small pieces of meat on them) and, since she's a little bit of a thing, I started calling her Pinchita and the name stuck.

The Aruban vet estimated her to be 5-6 months old and they didn't feel any kittens inside her, but, if she was pregnant, she probably wasn't very far along.  Our vet came to see her a few days ago and left a note (at this point in our relationship with her, she just lets herself in and out) saying that Pinchita is not a kitten and that she might be pregnant.  Turns out she also has worms -- lots of them and quite the variety.  The vet gave her a first dose of dewormer when she was here, but now that she has the results of the fecal exam, she's going to give Pinchita a stronger dewormer next week when she comes by to see Dolly.  We've also seen one flea so far, so she's getting treated for that, too.

She's a tiny little thing: 4.75 lb.  How is she supposed to have kittens?  I hope she's not pregnant, but I guess we'll just deal with that if and when it's confirmed.  I wonder if/how her dewormer and flea medication might affect her kittens/pregnancy.  We've never had brand spanking new kittens in the house before; I don't know that we're prepared for this.  I don't know nothin' 'bout birthing kittens.

Friday Cat Blogging: Those #@$?&* Kids Are Back!

Kevin and I recently visited his parents, Jack & Fern, at their home in the Finger Lakes region of New York state.  We celebrated two slightly belated holidays: Mother's Day and Fern's birthday.  Pictures here.

Jack and Fern have a cat, Misty.  Misty only recently began living with them.  She was a stray living near them.  She had her newest litter and a couple of older kits with her when Jack & Fern were able to trap her to get her spayed.  Kudos to Jack & Fern for spaying her!

They kept the cats in a heated room off of their garage.  They couldn't bring any of the cats inside bc their resident cat, Reilly, would not abide other cats in the house.  In the meantime, we ended up taking Miles & Lizzie home with us (ostensibly to foster and socialize them iot find them a new home, which we did: said new home is our home).

Unfortunately, the lone surviving older kit got out of the room one day and never returned.  Misty also got out, but she returned, albeit with a mouth injury.  The vet thinks Misty may have climbed under a car's hood for warmth (it was winter then) and been injured when the car was started up.  She was gone for about a week and then returned to the house with her poor mouth all busted up.  Jack & Fern brought her to Cornell's vet school where she got all fixed up.  Apparently, Cornell has some kind of good Samaritan program to provide low cost care for strays that area folks help.  Kudos to Jack & Fern for taking care of her!  Kudos to Cornell for offering a low cost program!

It was roughly around this time that, sadly, the majestic resident cat Reilly died.  Reilly's death had the silver lining of allowing Misty to come live inside the house, where she's been ever since.  She is a timid cat, although she's getting used to Jack & Fern and is staying out more and more when they're around.  She also enjoys playing with toys with them.  She does allow some petting and scratching.  Keep the faith!  She'll continue to come around.  That she allows you to pet and scritch her is very good.

We took Miles & Lizzie with us during this recent visit.  It had been about 6 months or so since we took the kittens home.  We wondered how the three - Misty, Miles & LIzzie - would do together.

First, they had to meet each other.  But before even that could happen, Miles & Lizzie had to come out from behind the water heater.

Lizzie:

Miles:

That's pretty much where they stayed until we peeps all went to sleep our first night there.  And Misty stayed under her peeps' bed.  Then they were all out and about during the night.  We could hear the sounds of their explorations and Misty's concerned meows when she obviously met up with a kitten.

Misty mostly stayed away while people were awake and about.  She's still getting used to Jack & Fern; I think it was very disconcerting to her to have two more people in her home.  I did get one picture of Misty during a rare foray abroad:

Lizzie takes after her mother very much.  The kittens were out more during our second day there.  They enjoyed playing with toys.

Misty would sit in the window in our bedroom at night.  She hightailed it out of the room if she saw me looking at her.  Her kits enjoyed sitting in that window during the day.

By our last day there, they were looking pretty darn comfortable and at home.

I think Jack and especially Fern would have been delighted if we left Miles & Lizzie to live with them and Misty.  Given time, I think Misty and the kittens would have become thick as thieves.  Although Misty is timid, I think all three cats share a similar easygoing (wrt inter-kitty communication and interaction) nature.  Kevin put the kebosh on that.  I had asked him what he would say if his parents asked to have the kittens back.  His reply: 'Over my dead body.'  You heard it here first.

I feel obliged to note, if only for legal reasons, that the morning after I recounted the above conversation to Jack & Fern, Fern inquired of Kevin if we had wills, what would happen to our cats if we died, etc.  She suggested that he make sure our wills say who we want to care for our cats if we die.  She also offered to take in Miles & Lizzie.  So, my dear readers, remember this post when if something happens to us....

The kittens were excellent travelers.  Notwithstanding the above mortal risks we'd be taking in visiting Jack & Fern again, we'd definitely consider traveling with them again. 

Yinzerville

Kevin and I just returned from a lovely, long weekend visiting my brother, Greg, his wife, Marianne, and their daughter, Gabi, in Pittsburgh.  Here they are in a picture from our visit to Phipps Conservatory.

Here's Gabi and Uncle Kevin in what Gabi calls her 'plain' pose.

Don't know if she had a name for her pose in this picture, but I'll guess it's her 'fancy' pose.

Click here to view the blog's photo album from our visit.  The album starts with botanical pictures from the Phipps.  The glass art mixed in with the plants are from the Chihuly exhibit that runs until February 24.  Very neat.

The next batch of pictures are from the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning's Nationality Rooms.  These rooms are classrooms designed in the style of various countries.  We took an audio tour of the rooms on the first floor and a few of the newer rooms on the third floor.  Exquisite.

Greg and Marianne are expecting a baby in a few months (May?).  Six year old Gabi knows this, but I don't think she knows this.  I don't think she has any idea what's going to hit their home when that baby comes home from the hospital.  It appears they're having another girl which will bring our niece total up to 7 (Mary, Sammie, Ashley, Sydney, Kristen, Gabi and #7) and our nephew total up to 0.

I like Pittsburgh.  This is our second visit there.  I don't know what I expected when we first went there a few years ago, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I especially like that it has all those distinct neighborhoods.  At some point, talk turned to talk, as in Pittsburghese.  That link has a disclaimer that the site is all in fun and is not meant to be used for scholarly research on Pittsburghese.  If what you want is scholarly stuff about how yinzers talk, click on the Pittsburgh Speech & Society Project website.  Huh.  In Pittsburghese, our cat Nosey could be called Nebby.

I like dialects.  I think it's neat how different accents and words develop.  Sometimes I catch myself saying things that give away how long I've lived in NJ and how much I've soaked up the accent and phrasing.  At first, I didn't care for it; I don't really tawlk like that, do I?  Now I don't necessarily embrace it, but just accept it as part of life and where (geographically) life has taken me.

I gotta go do some stuff.  Smudgie's got a new chemotherapy protocol starting today which requires one med 4 days on/3 days off and weekly bloodwork before starting up again; Dolly's going on Smudgie's old chemo drug; Nosey continues to have blood in his urine; the kittens start a once-a-day for three days deworming today (they've been dewormed twice already; what gives?); along with Dolly's usual hyperthyroid pills and Nosey's usual insulin shots.  I want to get and keep all these meds straightened out.  These cats are like a part-time job.  The biggest thing now is to find something that will help Smudgie stop losing weight and start gaining weight.

Vacay By The Bay, II

So the next day in SF, after Kevin was done w/his conference, we had lunch at a yummo restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf.  I can't remember the name, and I can't find it online, but we really enjoyed it.  It was a little ways away from Pier 39 and near where we had to go after lunch to ferry over to Alcatraz.  Our appetizer was some kind of strawberry-noodle-sushi combination rolled in what I think was rice paper.  It was tasty when it first hits the mouth and then, I don't know what all happened, but it lost its tastyness.  My entree was a shaking kobe salad:  greens, tomatoes, highly rare beef chunks, a poached egg on top -- that sold me on it.  Veggies.  Almost raw beef.  And a runny egg.  What's not to like?

Alcatraz was interesting.  I didn't know much about it before going; all I knew was its legendary status as a supposedly inescapable prison.  I like old buildings, especially big, institutional-type buildings.  Weird NJ often has stories of some weird New Jerseyan snooping around an old hospital, mental asylum or the like.  I love that stuff.  I like the history of the buildings themselves, e.g., the different uses Alcatraz had over time.  The self-guided audio tour is pretty good.  It includes former guards, prisoners and I think even some adults who grew up on the island.  I enjoy hearing peoples' personal stories.  The cells are tiny.  And the solitary cells: creepy.

We took a sunset cruise for dinner.  It was okay.  I expected a bit more guide-like commentary; there was very little and, when the captain did say something, it was very hard to hear over the PA system.  The dinner part was a buffet.  It was adequate, but it was more what I'd call a lunch buffet: those small sandwiches you get from making big sandwiches and then cutting them up; small pizza bits; a salad (which was gone by the time we went to the buffet); some fruit; cookies (no chocolate cookies left!).  Now, we didn't leave hungry, but the spread wasn't very impressive.  It all tasted okay; I kinda expected a dinner buffet to have a little more oomph.  They also cut it a little close w/the quantities.  I had the last piece of plain pizza.  The salad was all gone.  Now, one of my greatest fears (or so Kevin tells me) is that someone will go hungry at my house.  I know excess food/leftovers isn't economical, but there's something unclassy about running out of food for your guests.  And I'm all about class (in case you're wondering: not really).  Again, quite cold tooling around out there in the bay, but my ugly jacket kept me warm.

Vacay By The Bay

I meant to be back blogging, but our intarwebbery connection is all kinds of funky so I've not been able to log on enough.  I'm not sure what's going on; the current theory is that there's something wrong w/the wireless adapter in my laptop, which is the pc that was used to set up the wireless for Kevin & my pc's.  I hope to resolve that soon.  Being w/o a connection to world wide webbery is like having withdrawal symptoms.  It's not pretty.

Kevin & I had a lot of fun in San Francisco a coupla weeks ago.  He had some conference to go to there for a couple of days, so I tagged along and we added a couple more days.  We got there Tuesday afternoon and left Saturday morning.  Kevin was conferring all day Wednesday and part of Thursday, so we only had Tuesday evening, Thursday afternoon and Friday together there.

Kev often moans and groans about how I sleep in.  What can I say?  I'm not a morning person.  I've tried and tried to be a morning person and I stink at it.  I don't even mean especially early; 9:00 AM is pretty darn early for me.  So anyway Kevin expressed his concern, on several occasions pre-vacation, that I'd end up snoozing the days away in SF.  Well, not to worry.  I did snooze in a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but I packed  our time together full of stuff.

Tuesday evening we walked down to and waddled along Fisherman's Wharf.  Checked out the sea lions.  Had dinner.  Then dessert at some chocolate store which I can't locate on the web at the moment.  Walked around some more.  Then back to our hotel.  Our hotel, btw, was very much businessperson-oriented.  It's the one Kevin's company encourages them to use bc they have some kind of membership thingie w/the hotel, plus there's a reduced rate for the conference attendees, etc., etc..  I'd never stayed in such a focussed hotel.  You go in, there are staff there at a front desk, but you can pretty much check yourself in at a kiosk.  The rooms are very small and very utilitarian.  Double bed.  Shower, no tub.  Our view was of an alley; I doubt other views were much better.  Desk with all kinds of hookups.  Fridge with bottled water and a bottled water station with refillable plastic bottles on each floor.  A lounge area with pcs and printers.  Wireless everywhere.  Sun deck on the roof.  Small gym.  Separate entance to the restaurant next door.  Even though it was very streamlined and businesslike, I kinda liked it.  You come, you go, you do your thing, you call the guy at the front if you need anything and they take care of it, etc.  I like that, which is weird bc I also like staying at cozy little B&Bs.  Anyway.  Moving on.

Kevin conferred all day next day, all through dinner.  True to my nature, I slept in a bit.  Before I headed out that day, I called the Marine Mammal Center that oversees the care of the sea lions at Pier 39.  The day before when we had been watching the sea lions, there was one youngish sea lion all by himself, far away from any other sea lion.  He didn't move much, which wasn't unusual bc they were all lying around like lazy layabouts.  But something didn't seem right with this fella.  When he did move, he moved differently from the others.  He moved using his rear more than his front.  The others moved by raising their front and using their front appendages to go forward.  This guy kinda moved like a half-inchworm (i.e., like he was half inchworm, not that he was a half-inch worm).  I figured the Center must know about it bc it seemed quite obvious that there are a lot of people and agencies concerned about the sea lions, but then I thought, what if everyone wondering about that sea lion figured someone else must have said something, but no one did?  So I called.  And yes, they were aware of and were watching that sea lion.  The woman I spoke with very kindly answered my questions, providing a little insight into caring for those sea lions.  IIUC, it's very difficult to get to a sea lion that's out there on the floating docks.  It's much easier if they beach themselves, but they kinda have to get themselves in a good position to receive help.

So I waddled up a big long street -- I think it was Market St. -- up to where it meets Van Ness.  I was going to see a play thereabouts, but wanted to stop somewhere for a nice dinner and then stop in at the main library branch for a program before going to the play.  The dinner pickings got slimmer the further up the street I went.  There was always a donut or fast food place, but I was on vacation and wanted someone to wait on me, dammit.  But first things first: it was early evening and it was cold.  I rummaged in my tote bag only to find that I had left my coat at the hotel.  I was not turning around, but figured it should be easy enough to find a place to buy an inexpensive light coat.  Not true; light coats were hard to come by.  I finally found a cheapo place called Gold Diggers that had about 5 light coats, one of which fit me.  It didn't match and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise, seeing as I didn't like it, but it kept me warm.

I took my mismatched self over to The Market Street Grill at the Hotel Whitcomb aka the Ramada.  It was pretty nice for a Ramada; looks like it's an old hotel bought up by the Ramada chain.  I felt fairly underdressed, but the few others there (it was early for dinner: five o'clock) didn't look very fancy, although their clothes matched.  I enjoyed my meal so much I that I decided to linger and skip the library program.  I started w/a mushroom bisque that had a small piece of seared salmon and a grilled shrimp in the middle of the bisque.  There was also a thin swirl of something white -- cream? -- in the bisque.  I decided right away to eat a little of everything so I would have room for a little of everything.  Next was a chicken pepperdalle (sp?).   Wide, sturdy homemade noodles, chicken, tiny vegetable cuts, raisins (I think), and some other yummy stuff in a thin to medium white sauce.  Finished up w/a nice pot o' tea and something chocolate and decadent (okay, I almost finished that).  I had a table near the window, allowing me to people-watch the leaving-work crowd when I wasn't enjoying my book.  I enjoyed being waited on, including the waiter flourishing the napkin onto my lap.  That works.

Having skipped the library program, I did take a few minutes to waddle through the main branch.  Quite overwhelming, compared to my little libraries.  Then I noodled over to the theatre, which was a small affair, at least physically speaking; don't know about its reputation, draws, etc..  Small is often very nice.  Pretty much every seat is a good seat, you can see the actors' expressions, it feels intimate, etc.  The play, 'Take Me Out', was fun.  Obviously, I'm not a big theatre person bc I hadn't heard of it even though it won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Play (along w/a coupla other Tonys).  I'll further embarrass myself as a non-aficionado of the theatre by noting that one of the most memorable things about my night at the theatre was that there was NO line at the womens' restroom during intermission (me and one other woman used the bathroom during the break), but there was QUITE the line at the mens' room.  Women take soooo fucking long in the bathroom.  If you're peeing, just get in and get out.  There's nothing to agonize over in there.  You can smooth your top down over your butt once you're out of the stall and that way you can even stand up tall and straight as you look at yourself sideways in the mirror as you perform the smoothing ritual.  You know what I'm talking about.

Okay, that's enough vacation chat for now.  More later, but bottom line: we really enjoyed our time there, short though it was.  Pictures will be up after I figure out what my freakin' internet problem is.

Dum de dum

I feel like I've been really busy lately, but I don't feel like I have anything about which to blog.  Not that that's going to stop me, so be forewarned: this post will likely only be of interest to people who are me.

Cats are fairly well these days.  Dolly continues to yak on an occasional basis, approximately a couple of times each week.  Whenever possible, she's been getting her thyroid medicine directly by mouth lately.  She had been getting it crushed in her food, but we're concerned bc she doesn't always eat all that food.  Now, we do put it into a tiny bit of food, but she still sometimes doesn't finish it.  Sometimes she's just too antsy to get pilled.  She needs to be sitting fairly still or in a mood such that Kevin and I can array ourselves so that she'll go to her bed for comfort.  Then one of us will give her the thyroid medicine or her transdermal flagyl in her ear.  I don't think she's losing weight, but it'd be swell if she could just break 7 lb. and then we could spend the next 10 years trying to get her to 8 lb.

The others are okay.  Nosey broke 15 lb. recently!  I'd be  happy if he stayed at 15 lb. although he could certainly regain his prior 16-17 lb. fighting weight. Smudgie's Smudgie...just getting older (along w/Dolly, his littermate).  Clara will get some dental work soon.  She was radically uncooperative during the last vet visit so blood was not taken.  At least not in the usual manner.  Edison remains an active kitten.  He'll be 1 yo this summer.  Right now, he's climbing all over the desk, stepping on the answering machine, walking over buttons...there, he's knocked down the calendar...and now my empty water bottle has fallen prey to his advances.  Health-wise, he scoots around on occasion, which usually indicates unexpressed anal glands.  Yay.  And look!  Here's a link bc I know you want to read more about unexpressed anal glands in cats.  His butt looks fine, but the glands could look normal yet still be unexpressed.  Well, the vet manually expressed Edison's glands during the last visit.  Normally, Edison still has this tiny little kitten meow.  I heard him yell and thought, 'Wow, he can be loud'.  Then he got even louder!  Poor thing.  I feel bad, not bc he was getting treated, but bc he doesn't understand that it's for his own good, it hurts me more than it hurts him, blah blah blah.  Well, he still scoots around -- though with less frequency -- and I'm not entirely convinced that's his problem, or at least all of his problem.  He doesn't exhibit pain behavior when scooting.  I hope it's merely inconvenient for him.

Speaking of cats, it's so bizarre that Jim Richards, DVM recently died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.  He's the director of Cornell's vet college's Feline Health Center, the editor of their newsletter (CatWatch), an expert on a bunch of cat-related stuff, etc. etc.  It's bizarre bc the accident was a result of him swerving to avoid a cat that had run into the road.  He was only 58 yo.  Although I didn't know the guy, I felt a sense of loss anyway.  Kinduva sense of loss to the cause.  He wrote a regular Q&A column in CatWatch, which I've been receiving and reading for years.  His writing sounded very friendly and easygoing.  It also seemed obvious that he loooooved cats.  The picture by his column showed him with the CatWatch cat (first, Dr. Mew, who died; then his mother's cat, Elizabeth became feline editor) and he always looked so happy in the picture.

I was just chatting tonight at work with a co-worker and a patron about cats.  The co-worker is allergic to cats, but finds them beautiful, serene, soothing, etc.  The patron has a cat.  We all talked cat.  Cat chat is so friendly and enthusiastic.

Speaking of work, it seems like the stars have been thoroughly misaligned lately bc I've had some less than positive experiences.  Yesterday, a patron stormed out, throwing her library card in the garbage on the way out.  Today, I sent two teens from the library for the night for running in and in & out of the library.  One said, 'Bite me', so now he's banned for the week.  WTF is with these kids who do and say stuff right in front of me or any other staff and then, when you call them on it, they say, 'I didn't do nothin''.  I mean, we're a few feet, sometimes inches away from each other and we're looking directly at each other.  I'm tempted to ask them just exactly how stupid do they think I am.... 

I'll admit that I don't always remain as calm and collected as I would like.  I've been into the Jeeves & Wooster series lately; I'm thinking I might benefit from using Jeeves as a model of cool reserve when having negative experiences.  Now, how exactly would Jeeves respond to 'Bite me'?  Sometimes people are so adamant that they returned such-and-such a book...and then they find it under the car seat or it fell behind the sofa.  That sort of thing happens to everybody wrt all kinds of things; most people realize that; I don't know why some people get so het up about it and take it almost like an accusation of personal failing.  Things get lost.  Sometimes they're found, sometimes they never turn up.

The library's Socrates Cafe will be ending soon.  I must admit that it has not been what I would have liked it to be.  I've tried to get people to talk philosophically about things.  Sometimes it works and it's been interesting, but the discussion often gets sidetracked.  Very often, I should say.  I'm sure there are things I should have done and could have done to make it a better cafe, but I did my best and that's that.  It's been roughly a year since the thing started and I'll be happy to take a break from it.  I think that some of the regular participants have different yet valid interests and expectations from the cafe.  Those interests and expectations don't always jive with a good philosophical discussion.  I think it's a social thing for some people, whether they realize it or not.  I was very pleased to see some new faces show up after the cafe was listed on meetup.com.  But then they didn't come back.  Distance was a factor for several people (who came from LI and upstate NY!).  I'm sure some people probably didn't like me or my style or the group or the setup or whatever....  I'll guess that  some people -- many of whom I was pleased to meet and would have liked to welcome back -- were dissatisfied with the discussion.  One guy who was some kind of scientist around brain chemicals was really into identity and mind, but there was a huge gap between this guy's interest in and grasp of philosophy of mind and that of the regulars.  That guy never came again -- which is too bad bc I think it would have been very interesting to talk with him -- but I can certainly understand that.

Ya know, sometimes I think I worry and concern myself too much about how things with which I'm involved go for other people.  E.g., I know that I was not perfection in dealing w/the lady who stormed out of the library.  I know that I've not done all I could to keep cafe discussions focused.   I know that I'm an imperfect human.  And the other folks involved are imperfect humans, too, who bear some responsibility for how interactions play out.  I don't always cut myself some slack for being imperfect and I really should.  Not that I think I'm perfect; that's not what I'm saying.  This might count as meta-worrying.

On to happier things:  Kevin and I are going to San Francisco soon!  Kevin's got a conference to go to out there and I'm tagging along.  Very happy that it's in SF bc we've wanted to go there for some time now.  I want to see the neat houses, nearby wine country, funky shops, museums, local history, lore and legends, etc. etc.  I hope it's fine weather.  Kevin claims he'll actually have to do some 'work' at this conference.  <snort>  If his claim holds up, then I'll have several days to myself while he's conferring.  I plan on having a very enjoyable time.

Speaking of other happy things, I'd just like to say that Hellmann's mayo really is tops.

Okay, well that's all I want to say about that.

Oh, back to work.  So, yeah, I think I mentioned before how I've got to work more to pay for school.  That is, if I want to finish before reaching NRA.  Unfortunately, the library doesn't have more hours to offer.  I mean, the physical building is, like, this big.  It only requires, at a minimum, two people to run the joint.  I'm looking into adding hours by working at a neighboring town's library.  The county's public libraries are all on the same system, so I'd only have to learn that library's particular practices.  I hope that works out bc (a) I like it; (b) it's very convenient; (c) it's flexible around classes; (d) I like the people I work with; and (e) all of the above.  I don't relish the idea of finding a new job altogether...job searches can be such the bore.  'What are your strengths?'  'What are your weaknesses?'  'What kind of tree are you?'

A co-worker recently left the library to go work at The Seeing Eye.  So kewl.  I wish there were such a place...but with cats!

For someone who allegedly didn't have anything to say, I think I've said quite enough for now.

And So This Is Christmas

Happy Holidays, dear readers.  It's been a while.  I've been busy and, as is my wont at this time of year, I got the flu.  I started coming down with it the last day of class.  That Thursday and the following day, I thought I'd just slept on myself wrong for a couple of nights (although I'm not sure what that would mean).  By Saturday, travel day, I knew I was getting sick.  So, unfortunately, I was a big snuffleupagus for the first few days of vacation.  Yesterday was the first day that I felt I was operating at >50%.

We spent the week before Christmas at Kevin's brother's wife's parents' (capisce?) vacation pad.  Present were Kevin's brother, Chris; Chris's wife, Kirsten; their two kids, 3yo Ashley and 2 mo Sydney; Kevin and Chris's parents, Jack and Fern; Jack and Fern's cat, Riley.  Pictures here.  Somehow I managed not to get a picture of Sydney.  For shame!

So, yeah, I seem to have this tendency to get a cold or flu at certain times: the end of the semester, when heading off to vacation, when a paper's due, etc.  Wrt the end of the semester, it feels like what happens is that I keep my focus on school throughout the semester and just keep pushing with that as my main focus until the end of the semester, when I just stop pushing.  I feel a kind of a psychological shift, almost as if I give myself permission to stop pushing and to relax wrt what I'm doing, what I want to do, when I want/need to do it by, etc.  OTOH, I suppose it's good if I it keeps me healthy when I most need to be healthy.  OTOH, it kinda stinks to get the flu on vacation and holidays.  I had the flu last Christmas, too; I'm really not trying to get out of holiday cooking.

I understand that stress can make a person more vulnerable to getting a cold or the flu, or other illnesses.  And by stress, I include good things, e.g., going on vacation, as well as negative things, e.g., a job loss.  I don't think I live a particularly stressful life, although I do think I have these definite changes in focus/priorities; downshifts when there's less going on/I don't want to get so much stuff done and upshifts when there's more going on/I want to get certain things done.  Seems like those downshifts often coincide with my colds/flus.  So I'd like to see what I can do about avoiding that in the future.  I would really have preferred not being sick on vacation; I feel like such a party pooper.  This link talks about general techniques for avoiding stress-related illnesses:

Certain techniques, like journaling, yoga and even laughter have all been found to increase immunity.

I do find that blogging regularly makes me feel more balanced.  After posting, I often feel, 'I've been thinking about that for a while.  Putting some words on the screen made me think about it in different ways.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.'  There are things I don't write about here, or at least post about here (sometimes I write w/o posting it), usually for reasons of privacy, identification, anonymity, etc.  I had a pseudonymous blog there for a while, but found I wanted to share other stuff w/family and friends, so I started this one.  I've been thinking about starting up a second, anonymous blog where I can let it all hang out.  I suppose I could just keep a diary, but I'm kinda hooked on this blogging thing.  I think I might just do that other blog.

Let's move on to Kevin's Christmas dinner.  We had a nice, quiet dinner, just the two of us.  I enjoy larger holiday gatherings, too, as long as I like and feel comfy with most, if not all, of the people.  One nudge out of 30 is easier to deal with than one nudge out of 5.  Dinner was salad, beef tenderloin, bernaise sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans with pecans, and a warm brownie with ice cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream.  The visuals:

Salad (how healthy of us):

The tenderloin after it came out of the oven.

Dinner is served:

Mmmmm:

Kevin had bought some hot cocoa mix that you use with whole milk, but I begged him to have mercy on me and let's have that chocolate goodness another time.

The chef:

The sous-chef:

Surprise!

Kevin and I went up to Andover, MA this weekend for a surprise party for my brother, Greg, in honor of receiving his PhD in May.  Marianne, Greg and their daughter, Gabi, were halfway through their annual two-week trek to New England to visit family and friends.  Marianne, Greg and Gabi demurely celebrated his doctorate with friends where they live.  Greg had not wanted any kind of party or anything like that.  Marianne thought that was a lousy idea (my words) and planned a surprise party with family and friends to be held during their vacation.  Lisa and Jim, Marianne's sister and BIL, very kindly hosted the party at their home.  Some pix:

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Marianne's brother, also named Greg, and their mother, Mary.

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Kevin looks on at sisters Marianne and Lisa.  Isn't that a lovely shirt Kevin's wearing?  He was a little hesitant about it when I first gave it to him; he thought it might be a little on teh ghey side.  It took him a while to work up to wearing it.  It is a bit colorful, but I think it's awesome.  Now that he's worn it and received compliments - and a few wisecracks - it's his new summer special occasion shirt.

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Kevin and Marianne.  My admiration of Kevin's shirt notwithstanding, click to enlarge this photo of two colorfully clad people at your own peril.

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From left: Greg, the guest of honor, Jeannie, my brother Victor's wife and Jim, Marianne's brother.

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Brothers Victor and Greg.

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Jim toting around cousins Troy (Jim and Lisa's son) and Gabi a la Hannibal Lecter.

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Gabi in our bathroom at the Andover Inn.  It's on the campus of Phillips Academy and was originally built as accommodations for visiting parents of academy students.  It's now open to the public.  It has this column right smack in the middle of the bathroom.

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The shower and toilet were to the left of the column.  To get to the toilet, you had to go to the left of the column.  You could only get to the toilet from the right of the column if you were as small as Gabi and could squeeze through that little space.

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Oh, and look.  What a surprise!  A picture of Kevin in the car as we're leaving for home.

The Long Way Home

This past Sunday was another nice day.  But what to do?  Maybe a walk?  No, I'd had this sub-cold/flu thing coming and going for a while and it was around over the weekend.  So I didn't feel up for a walk.  I think it's gone for good now.

A drive, then?  Fine, but where to?  We often drive out to PA...it's a pretty drive and we like the Lancaster area.  We figured we'd drive out to Lititz, where we'd stayed and visited before, have dinner and maybe mosey around, and come home.  On one visit, we'd gone to Lititz for an auction at the Heritage Map Museum.  (Kevin collects mostly stamps and coins, but he occasionally collects antique maps.)  We passed through Lititz one day on our way home from a stay a little further away in the area.  Hershey is, of course, home to Hershey Chocolate, but Lititz has its very own chocolate factory: Wilbur Chocolate. We pulled into town on a very warm summer day.  We'd had the AC on in the car.  When we stepped out we could smell the chocolate factory...like a giant brownie baking in a giant oven  It's a small town, so we just walked around, following our noses, until we found the factory.  There's a small museum about chocolate making and, of course, a shop.  Their best known product is the Wilbur Chocolate Bud.

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Off we went.  Take the scenic route?  Sure, why not?  Taking the scenic route meant taking certain turns.  Long story short, we missed turns and ended up taking the very scenic route.  No worries, though, bc no rush.  We never did get to Lititz...at one point we realized that was several more hours away.  So we decided to stop for dinner in Lancaster, PA.  Where to dine?  We'd eaten at Miller's Smorgasbord before.  We hadn't tried Good'N'Plenty yet.  Not sure, but I think that place has family-style seating, i.e., you sit with strangers.  That can be fun, but we weren't into it Sunday.

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Continuing to drive around aimlessly, we saw mostly chain restaurants and fast food joints.  Now, I certainly enjoy junk food once and again.  And there's nothing inherently wrong with chain restaurants.  But when I'm on vacation or, in this case, on a mini-vacation since we'd driven about 4 hours at this point, I don't want to eat dinner at Applebee's, when Applebee's is 15 minutes away from home.

Actually, Applebee's prolly isn't the best example, since I've avoided eating there for approximately 10 years now.  Not so much anything against the food; it's adequate, if uninteresting.  Mostly bc they're annoying.  Just to set the record straight for anyone who's been brainwashed by the tv ads: No, Applebee's is not your neighborhood place.  No, Applebee's is not where you go for great steak.  What it is is yer basic family chain restaurant.  I just find their advertising so annoying...trying to be a great steak place.  Come on!  They call that great steak?  Oy.

Well, we hadn't been in the mood for Miller's Smorgasbord seeing as it's, well, a smorgasbord.  But I seemed to recall that they had an a la carte menu, so we went there after all.  I was wrong.  But they did have options smaller than the entire smorgasbord: you could do just appetizers, just soup & salad, just entrees...you could even get your just desserts.  I opted for the soup & salad, mainly bco the chicken corn soup, which is big in the Lancaster area.  Mmm.  Dee-lish.

A friend once told us how her cornflake husband (from Illinois) loved white bread. I thought, White bread?  What's so great about that?  Well, if it was anything like the homemade white bread they have out in Lancaster, I can see what's so great about it.  It's not at all like WonderBread, which is what I'd been thinking.  And iced raisin bread?  Like having dessert.  The salad bar wasn't anything particularly Pennsylvania Dutch, but it was fresh and there were lots of choices.

We didn't linger at the restaurant bc they close up shop at the ripe old time of 8:00 pm.  Hey, let's take a different way home.  Again, long story short: again, we ended up taking another very scenic route.  At one scenic extreme was the Main Line, a succession of some of the wealthiest towns in the country.  At the other scenic extreme was Philadelphia.  Now, I don't know much about Philly, but I can say the parts through which we drove were prolly not their finest areas.  It started out okay, i.e., fairly middle of the road; then it turned into less desirable areas.

Not the most efficient of trips: for a 1 hour dinner, we spent about 8 hours driving, but who's counting?

I would like to visit UPenn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology sometime.  I'd also like very much to get myself down to the Mutter Museum.  Talk about curiosities.

These pictures are all taken from Miller's; these farms are behind the restaurant.  We'll be going away to the Lancaster area later this summer.  I'm very much looking forward to it.  Years ago, when I was a corporate dweeb, I visited the Lancaster area for the first time.  It made me realize that life doesn't have to be as harried and hurried as we make it here, only one state away, in NJ.  I have a soft spot for the area.  Maybe I'll write more on that another time.

Eh

I haven't felt much like blogging lately.  Don't really know why.  I was feeling kinda blue lately bco no grad school funding; maybe it was a delayed reaction to things not working out this year.  I did think I was handling the disappointment almost too well.  So maybe that's why I haven't been into blogging.  Let's see...what's going on here of late?

Kevin's off next week.  We were supposed to go to Big Moose Inn, but they're not open for the season until the following week.  Their website accidentally allowed us to make reservations for when they're still closed for winter.  They apologized ten times over and will make nice for us if and when we do go there.  We'll prolly go there in maybe late spring or sometime during the summer.  They did tell us when they expect to be crazy bco the 100th anniversary of Grace Brown's murder on the lake there, so we'll avoid those times.  We're seeking peace and quiet.  Next week, then, will be a quiet week with Kevin at home; maybe take a day trip here or there.

My young-at-heart buddy, Mrs. S, turns 105 next week!  I'm looking forward to seeing her on her birthday.

Wrt grad school, a plan is in place to make the most of the time before the application rigmarole starts anew.  In addition to what I mentioned before:

• I'll prolly take one, maybe two, courses at one of the programs which accepted me, but did not come through with funding.
• I might do an independent study with someone...just have to find a willing person and a topic agreeable to both of us.  If I do this, I'll prolly just take one course in the above bulletpoint.
• Review and prolly revise the list of places to which I apply.

Our Socrates Cafe at work started up last week, but, alas, no one came. :(  Actually, Kevin came, but I guess he doesn't really count, since he came more for moral support.  And Lisa, a reporter for the very local newspaper, came to check it out and do a write up of it.  She covers our town and has been to previous library events.  Since there were no talkers last week, she did an interview; perhaps that will draw some interest.

I've learned that I need to be clearer about what we'll do at the Cafe.  In publicity and staff communications, I made it a point to stress that it's not a class; there's no homework; no required reading; no prior exposure to philosophy required; etc.  I want all kinds of people to feel comfy coming.  There's been interest and patrons are curious, but I don't think I gave staff enough info to well equip them to answer questions.  I need to describe it positively, i.e., what it is, not just what it's not.  E.g., some folks have remarked that they're not 'smart enough' or 'deep enough' to engage in philosophical discussion.  But, bottom line: people do it all the time, even with themselves in their heads, they just don't realize it.

An example I've been using is something that happened to me about 6 months ago.  The short story: I, along with others in the restaurant, saw a parent do something wrong.  A father was being a verbal jerk to his family...there was a wife, two teen sons - maybe 14 and 17; it was kinda hard to tell if the older one was a big 15 or 16 yo; he coulda been 19 yo - and what I'll guess were one set of grandparents.  At one point, the father punched his older teen son in the arm, hard.  Not a joshing kinda punch...it was a real, angry punch.  I didn't do anything.  I didn't even think about doing anything.  It wasn't until a few days later that I thought, hey, maybe I shoulda done something.  Now, at the Cafe, we'd use this as a starting point to discuss, not simply the question of responsibility in this instance, but questions surrounding responsibility in general...public responsibility, responsibility to certain groups of people (e.g., children), group responsibility, etc.

So, yeah, we all have experiences and thoughts which would translate into Cafe topics, even if we don't know it.

As an aside, I'd always liked to think of myself as someone who would do something in a situation like that.  And look what happened.  Nothing.  I was so shocked...that was my overwhelming reaction at the time.  Fat lot of good I was to that kid.  Guess I'll have to rethink my self-perception and what I would do the next time such a situation arises.

I wasn't too surprised that no one showed up; I will be surprised if, a few weeks from now, there still are no participants.  According to the website, it's common for Cafes to have slow starts; I hope that's all it is bc I think it'll be fun and interesting.

I recently ran into Tom, owner of the Darress Theatre, located right next to the library.  He's planning to start up his own chat group, oriented around independent films, including documentaries about things most of us have no idea are going on.  The documentaries, I imagine, will often be depressing bona fide reality shows...the kinda stuff I feel I should watch, but can't take too much of it at one sitting bc it can be overwhelming and I might just have to end it all already to make it stop.  There'll be fictional movies, too.

I see that, this weekend, there's a political fundraiser at the theatre for some Tom Wyka character.  Hmmm...let's see who this guy is....  Oh, he's a Democratic challenger to longtime Republican incumbent House Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen.  Huh.  I had no idea someone was challenging him.  They have some interesting - and different - stuff at the theatre.  I meant to ask him if he planned on having another Bugs Fest.  Yes, it's a Bugs Bunny festival.  He held them for a coupla years...it feels good to laugh like that for a whole night.  'Hillbilly Hare': classic.  See Bugs fiddle and hear him call the dance here; transcript here.  Excerpt:

Bugs:
(Singing.) Grab a fence post, hold it tight,
Womp your partner with all your might.
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head,
Hit him again, the critter ain't dead.
Wop him low and wop him high,
Stick your finger in his eye.
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,
Bang your heads against the ground.

Ah, good stuff, good stuff.

Well, I gotta drag my lazy arse onto the treadmill for a while.