Weekend!
We’ve reached a couple of milestones with the new kitty. Momo.
This week is the first week where I was allowed to pick him up, pet him without him hissing, and, most surprisingly, when I brushed him, he said “okay, I’ll lie down” and I brushed him for a good two minutes before he got overstimulated and jumped to the floor.
We successfully trimmed his claws. An unqualified success in that he didn’t freak out, hiss, attack, or that sort of thing. He mewed at us a handful of times but it wasn’t even particularly piteously. It went as well as if he were our cat and had been for years.
We have introduced The Baby Gate so that the cats may walk right up to each other and sniff, hiss, freak out, and that sort of thing without engaging in actual violence. Tonight was the first night we set up the baby gate and walked away for a few minutes. (Nobody jumped the gate.)
We’ve had a handful of times where Momo has left his private room and sniffed around the bathroom, the kitchen, and front room to be challenged by one of the established cats where everything usually just goes pear-shaped and Momo retreats to privacy and the other cats hide under the bed once the door to the private room is shut… but the freakouts have more of the underlying flavor of “irritation at change” rather than “terror of the unknown”.
Soon he’ll be ready for the General Population. Maybe. For definitions of “soon” that allow for “August”.
So… what’s on your docket?
Well, tonight I went to Sylvia, or The Goat. About 10 minutes in I found myself saying “HOLY CRAP I FORGOT ABOUT *THIS* EDWARD ALBEE PLAY.” Had I remembered, I would not have gone. Having gone, I found it surprisingly useful.
Tomorrow is work only in the afternoon/early evening, and then porch sitting, this week for sure, dangitall.
I can’t even think further ahead than tomorrow night.Report
Oh, yeah! Saturday is UFC 174, that’s what I’m doing. I still have a big blank fog surrounding the rest of the weekend though.Report
Maribou – I knew you all watched wrestling but I didn’t realize you were an MMA fan. We are so going to have to geek out on that subject one day. Tonight’s card should be a good one.Report
@mike-dwyer I am more an occasional fan than a buff, but I enjoy what I do watch a whole lot.Report
It’s a great sport and I’ve been lucky enough to watch it since it started. The evolution of it in the last 20 years has been pretty remarkable.Report
When I was in high school, the drama teachers would usually ask “what play should we do next year?” of the students and everybody would yell out various things “Once Upon A Mattress!” “Godspell!” “Fiddler!” and eventually someone would yell the play that the teachers had pretty much already agreed upon and then they’d pretend to run with that.
I always did my part to yell “EQUUS!”
“We’re not doing Equus, Jaybird”, I was usually told, in a tone that I’m pretty sure you could recreate right now if you were so inclined.
I’d like to think that, somewhere out there, some kid, when asked “what play should we do next year?”, yells out “Sylvia, or The Goat!”Report
So I was going to start testing out different free off-line available navigation software for Android. Maybe write a post about the pros and cons of each one. I needed to take a trip to Walmart today and thought it would be a good time to try it.
It went abysmally. These programs are… not great. None of them knew where Walmart was. Which meant that I had to find the address and put it in there, where the first two still couldn’t find it but the third one did. Meanwhile, the baby was crying in the back seat because we were in the car but not going anywhere.
My initial plan was to just drive around, put in some addresses, and go. But since this was for a particular errand, I couldn’t take the “This address doesn’t work? Okay, I’ll go here…” short cut. Making the baby upset, myself frustrated, which just made the baby more upset.
Other than that… watching TV and trying to get some cleaning done.Report
The issue with free navigation software is the data set. It’s huge; just think a moment about all the highways, roads, and streets in the U.S. plus all the relevant points of interest (like Wal-Mart). And all this requires constant updating to be half-way useful. No way around it but that’s gonna cost money.
There’s an app for routing software geared to commercial vehicles. It costs $150. The most expensive app I’ve ever seen.Report
The kiddo and I are going to this festival. I’m pretty excited. My wife and her boyfriend are going camping for a friend’s birthday party.
Next week is another festival. The summer is underway.Report
I’ll e-mail you a cease-and-desist letter, to give to this so-called “Glyph and Rojas”. I’ve never met Rojas in my life.Report
They’re actually both good friends of mine, though I still don’t know which of them is Glyph and which is Rojas. Maybe no one does – plausible deniability thing.Report
Well, is Rojas the redhead?Report
A wedding on Saturday. It was going to be in Vancouver, WA, but shortly after it became clear that same-sex marriage was here to stay in Oregon, it got moved to a park in east Portland. Thank you, Basic Rights Oregon, Oregon United for Marriage, the American Civil Liberties Union, Judge Michael McShane and Justice Anthony Kennedy for saving me a trip across the Columbia River this weekend. Honorable mention to the National Organization for Marriage for their incompetence.
On Sunday I have to open the building where I work (a nonprofit) for another nonprofit that is using the space for a meeting and hang out for a few hours, then help out a fundraiser for another nonprofit I’m on the board of, for another few hours. It’s a day of not profiting.Report
@michael-m Huzzah! Pass along congrats to the happy couple.
I, too, have spent many a weekend having a “day of non profiting.” They can be simultaneously energizing and exhausting.Report
Garage sale. Please stop by. Glyph and Will should definitely come by, we’ll have lots of little girl clothes for sale.Report
@jaybird
When we (the ex and me) adopted #2 cat, we did something similiar. Turns out though, #2, which I still have, was the smaller, the bully, and took no prisioners. No violence, just in your face intimidation. Funny to see a cat 1/2 the size of another bully her way into his food bowl. Clever minx. Make sure you give her scratches at the base of the tail. I think all cats love that spot. Hell, I think I do too. 🙂
Weekend: Theatre and dinner with “theatre chick”. Maybe a date sunday….Report
Cecilia (my princess) is above it all. She has hissed only a couple of times at the new cat but only because she deigned to notice him in the first place. She walked past the baby gate, looked over her shoulder, hissed, and walked on.
Tiger (the baby) is the cat who runs up and yells “LET ME SING YOU THE SONG OF MY PEOPLE” and trades hisses for minutes at a time.
Angel (the alpha) has hissed only once, and it was at Tiger. It was a “back off, I’m smelling the new guy” hiss. Angel’s interactions are all curiosity and hope that the new cat enjoys bathing other kitties. I’m fairly sure that the first time they interacted, Momo hissed and Angel sniffed Momo’s breath and said “YOU’RE GETTING DIFFERENT DRY FOOD THAN WE GET” because, soon thereafter, Angel started barreling into Momo’s room and making a beeline for the (yes, different) dry food bowl.
In the meantime, we’ve been buying a lot of cloth toys and marinating them in the 2 ounce bucket of catnip. When the baby gate goes up? The catnippy toys come out.
So while they hiss at each other, at least they’re stoned.Report
Angel has discovered that he can clear the baby gate.
This makes the baby gate useless.Report
http://www.aq-sf.com/Report
Father in law arrives today for a two week visit, and he hasn’t been in Cali in 9 years so lots of fun stuff here. Also, wedding on Sunday, at the Faculty center at Cal, were there is a room named after my great grandfather.Report
@glyph This should go on the Sunday post, but I wanted to put it in a place more visible because it’s kind of time sensitive as I expect to be finished with the series by Sunday. Hannibal!
V qba’g unir n pyrne vqrn bs jung unccrarq jvgu gur Snxr Purfncrnxr Evccre. Vg ybbxrq yvxr gur thneqf znhyrq uvz, ohg gung jnf arire ernyyl rkcynvarq be sbyybjrq hc hcba. Qvq Unaavony chg gurz hc gb vg? V whfg qba’g haqrefgnaq gur ybtvfgvpf gurer.
V’z ba rcvfbqr 10. Jvyy whfg xvyyrq gur navzny qhqr Unaavony frag nsgre uvz.Report
“V qba’g unir n pyrne vqrn bs jung unccrarq jvgu gur Snxr Purfncrnxr Evccre. Vg ybbxrq yvxr gur thneqf znhyrq uvz, ohg gung jnf arire ernyyl rkcynvarq be sbyybjrq hc hcba. Qvq Unaavony chg gurz hc gb vg? V whfg qba’g haqrefgnaq gur ybtvfgvpf gurer.”
Qb lbh zrna Nory Tvqrba trggvat guebja bire gur fgnvejryy ba gbc bs gur thneq pntr? Vg jnf arire rkcyvpvgyl rkcynvarq, ohg V nffhzrq gung N.) Puvygba (be cbffvoyl Unaavony) chg gurz hc gb vg naq O.) Tvqrba zheqrerq naq zhgvyngrq uvf beqreyl naq n thneq va gur onpx bs gur nzohynapr va F1 (naq, thggrq Puvygba). V nffhzrq guvf vf yvxr cevfba cnlonpx sbe gurz.Report
Also: Orne Fhvg.
Amazing.Report
Top of the agenda: Natasha has decided that she hates this fellow:
So he’s going to go even though I think he’s kind of cool looking. We’ll probably just put down ground cover like ice plant down in his place, awaiting a day when we have enough money to re-do the whole area with decomposed granite set up properly (which requires compacting the soil, laying down plastic, and then re-compacting the DG atop the plastic and then re-configuring sprinklers to keep the plants you want to keep but deny water to the areas where you don’t want weeds).
Other than that, I’ve got a newsletter to write, a piece for the upcoming Symposium to write, England : Italy to enjoy, and propane tanks to refill. And I feel like I’m drowning in files, which tempts me to do some work over the weekend, although that violates a sanity-preservation rule I’ve imposed upon myself (again at Natasha’s urging).Report
How to Train your Dragon 2 Saturday, rewatching How to Train your Dragon this evening to get ready. I like that franchise more than I should.Report
Heading up to Boston. Cookout on Saturday and gorging at my favorite taqueria on Sunday.Report
Weather permitting, I’m going out West Coast swing dancing on 125th Street after cleaning my apartment. Otherwise, I’ll be doing something with friends in Brooklyn. Sunday is laundry day and calling the folks in California day.Report
Today is knittingniki’s birthday, so we’ll be having a b-day themed weekend. She and I will go out to dinner this evening at our favorite PDX eatery, and tomorrow her sister comes into town, so we’ll have a family celebration on Saturday; at this point if appears we’ll be having rack of lamb for dinner.
Other big events for this week are in my rearview mirror:
A couple of nights ago, #1 son graduated from high school — which makes me officially very, very old.
A couple of night before that, #2 son — who is on his school’s varsity lacrosse team — won the state tourney championship.
Needless to say, it has been a week of heavy picture-taking.Report
Dang. Congratulations to both sons and a very happy birthday to knittingniki!Report
Wow, Tod. Many congratulations are in order, and a happy birthday to knittingniki!Report
+5!
+1 to knittingniki — happy birthday from the Likkos!
+1 to Number One Son on the very momentous occasion of graduation!
+1 to Number Two Son on what I’m confident was a hard-earned championship!
+1 to dinner out in PDX!
And +1 to rack of lamb in Casa de Kelly, the mere idea of which makes my mouth water.Report
We’ve been on a rack of lamb kick recently. I was afraid to try and cook it but it’s remarkably easy. I might have to revisit Mount Meatmore.Report
Clyde Common?Report
Bar Avignon.Report
@tod-kelly
So you are saying you are an Avignon Pope? 🙂Report
@tod-kelly — OMG that looks yummy!Report
I’m partial to Pundah’s Pit and Clyde Common Myself. There was also a place (perhaps in SW?) that had really good fried chicken and biscuts. This was in 2011. Perhaps it is time to revisit Portland and spend way too much money at Powells.Report
In my spare time, when I’m not a common Clyde.Report
@veronica-dire It really is. Normally we sit at the bar that overlooks the cooking space and talk food with to the kitchen staff as they make the meals. It’s pretty awesome.Report
Congratulations and happy birthday!Report
knittingniki, happy birthday to us! I always enjoy it a bit more when it’s Friday the 13th. (And, my daughter texted me, it’s a full moon too.)Report
This weekend is the ROT Rally, which means we’ll go down and watch the parade on Congress, then spend the rest of the weekend avoiding motorcycles.
When she reached middle age, my Mother suddenly developed a minor obsession with Harleys. No one who knows her could have foreseen this, because nothing about large, loud motorcycles fits with anything else in her personality, but it happened, and it has stuck. My parents never visit Austin in summer, for obvious reasons (it’s Austin in summer!), but after years of saying she wanted to see the ROT Rally, and years of me saying, “You have no idea what you are asking for,” she convinced my Dad to come down here in June and hang out with the bikers. So we went to the parade, then I dropped my son off with his mother (because I knew what was coming), and we headed back downtown to attend the festivities. There were thousands of drunk and high leather-clad people, lots of rock ‘n’ roll, and even a fair amount of nudity, including a woman who had wrapped her breasts (and not very well, I might add) in caution tape, and was wearing nothing else, dancing in the middle of Congress Avenue.
Suffice it to say, my Mother no longer feels that she needs to see the ROT Rally, though she has gotten a lot of mileage out of scandalizing her circle of socially conservative, devoutly Evangelical Southern friends with tales of drunk and naked bikers. Oh, and she got a t-shirt as well.Report
teehee. The corrollary to you only live once is “some things are best done once”Report
Welp, today (Friday) is my last day of my old job. So, yay!
Tomorrow, Boston Pride. (I’ll be marching with the Mad Femme Pride contingent, so if you’re there, I’m the enormous trans gal in purple.)
Sunday I fly across the country to the other coast to start my new job. (Just a orientation visit. I’ll be back here on the proper coast in a week.)
I’m equal parts excited and terrified.Report
I realize there is a whole lot of territory involved in “across the county” from Boston, but if by any chance that means Portland you have at least one person already lined up to buy you a beer/martini/glass of wine and shoot the s**t.Report
It will be the Bay Area.
I do want to make it to Portland sooner or later. I have a number of friends there.Report
Have fun and safe travels!Report
Thanks 🙂
I’m not sure how “fun” it will be, at least this first week in a strange town, but it is a really cool job.Report
@veronica-dire
If you like Thai food, take advantage of your time in the Bay Area.Report
@james-hanley — I’ll see what I can find. I’ll be in the Mountain View area and I don’t plan to rent a car, so I’ll either be eating on campus or finding places to walk to.Report
There are oodles and oodles of noodles to be found in Mountain View. You just need to search.Report
Hmm, if you were in “the City” (as San Franciscans so amusingly call it), I could direct you right to a great Thai place. Mountain View I don’t know at all. Yelp says their are some decent and inexpensive ones there, though.Report
Yelp says their are some decent and inexpensive ones there, though.
There are at least 10,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000,Â000.Report
Mmm. Mountain View is not quite the same thing as San Francisco. Not trying to knock the Santa Clara-San Jose-Palo Alto area at all, but it’s not going to be as densely urban as SF. (You’ll be glad of avoiding having to drive, though. Traffic there is every bit as bad as Los Angeles at its worst.)Report
I don’t think I’ll have time to make it into the city. I land late Sunday night, present myself at work Monday morning (“Hi, I’m Veronica. For some reason you hired me.”), work each day, and then fly back out Friday night. So, unless I can arrange an evening trip with someone who knows their way around, I think I’ll be sticking near the hotel.Report
I put my wife on a plane to New Orleans yesterday morning for her trip with the college roommates. My only request was that she not appear on any future Girls Gone Wild videos (seriously, do they still make those?)
Sabbatical started when I got home yesterday. My in-laws were nice enough to let the youngest daughter stay with them until she leaves for camp tomorrow. She’s going to come by tonight to pick up her gear and I’ll make her a proper send-off dinner. UFC 174 tonight.
So far the writing is going well. I wrote for about six hours yesterday and three more today. I promised myself I wouldn’t edit until the first draft was done but old habits are hard to break so that ate up an hour today. I’m 4,500 words in and I have to say this is some of the best stuff I have ever written. Really excited about this project and looking forward to publishing later this summer. Sunday and Monday I am going to push hard to do at least 5,000 words both days with the goal of wrapping things up on Tuesday morning.
Oh – and this isn’t technically the weekend but I am closing out the Part 1 Sabbatical with a Lionel Richie concert Tuesday night. That’s right, I’m going to be dancing on the ceiling and partying all night long.Report