Silicon

I went to the Silicon convention yesterday with Cyrus. It was a blast from the past. I haven't been to a Silicon or Baycon for a very long time. Everything was very familiar, but on a much smaller scale than I remembered. I bought a bunch of Egyptian things from one dealer and a few trinkets from a couple others. The weapons were almost non-existent. Only one dealer brought four swords; nothing I wanted. We went to a few interesting panels, saw the art show (Stu Shepard, one of my favorite artists, had some wonderful pieces there), watched the Masquerade, aka costume competition, and went to a few room parties before going on. We spoke to someone at the Baycon table and I think I may buy a membership for Baycon 2007. The two best things about the con for me were the cool Egyptian pieces I bought and a drink I got at one of the room parties: coconut rum with pineapple juice -- yum!

Bucky Katt

It's been a very long time since the last post. Didn't have much to say, and only a couple people read this anyway.

So, Bucky Katt. I have always enjoyed the newspaper comic "Get Fuzzy." It's been more than a year since Ruby died and I was wanting another Siamese kitten. I have been without a Siamese since Baby T-Pring died several years ago. So I decided to start checking the shelters and went to Friends of the Fairmont Animal Shelter (FOFAS). The lady there said that they had some Siamese kittens being fostered and she would give my phone number to the foster mom. I came home one Saturday afternoon to hear a phone message that the Siamese kittens were on display at my local Petco from 10:00 to 3:00 that day. It was 2:00! I rushed over there and met two little Blue Point boys. The Seal Point girl was already gone (which would have probably been my first choice because of the color). But I fell in love with one of the little boys, who I promptly named Bucky Katt.

Bucky doesn't get along with any of the other cats or dogs yet, so he is either in the kitchen behind the gate when I am home (unless he is in my lap) or he stays in the bathroom while I'm out. He manages to keep himself quite amused. So far, one roll of paper towels and two double rows of toilet paper. He was already litter trained, neutered, and had most of his shots. The vet's office loves him. I just hope the other animals will get used to him so that he can have the run of the house like they do.

On the chicken front, Gloria keeps smashing and eating her (unfertilized) eggs, so I haven't had any fresh eggs for the longest time! She gets the finest laying mash and treats, so she can't be starving. I really must sign up on the Urban Chicken site and ask for help.

Everyone else is fine. They've all had their annual exams for the year and everyone is healthy. Callie is really fat and weighs as much as Rhona - 16 pounds!

Halloween is only a month away and I will start decorating my office space on Monday. I got my costume last Saturday so I don't have to obsess about that anymore. Hope Harold and Jamie have a Halloween party this year!

Next weekend is Silicon. I will be going on one day with Cyrus. Then The Game is on the 21st. Our characters are up to 10th level. Wonder what Kelly has in store for us this time?

Bored now. Must go.

Wait, one more thing. I got one of those GPS devices for my car and really got to give it a workout last weekend when I went to buy stuff for my costume. This lady runs an Egyptian import business out of her home in San Bruno, which turns out to be not so far from Tanforan Shopping Center. I had never been in the area so I programmed the address into my Garmin device and let her rip. It was awesome! I don't know how I ever got by without it. I just know that I would have gotten lost trying to use Google or Yahoo maps. My new other Motto (besides Free Is Good) is Better Living Through Technology.

Now I'm done.

The Pets

Yay! I got a comment! Cyrus requested an updated roster of the pets.

First we have the cats, Marshall and Calliope Rose (Callie), brother and sister that I first fostered at 4 weeks and then adopted. They are now about 9 or 10 years old. Marshall is a tuxedo cat and is the world's biggest pest. Callie is a very round calico.

Then there are the dogs: Rhona, named after my cleric, age 7, Raspberry, because she is so tiny, age 5-1/2, and Hermione Granger (do I really need to explain?), nearly 3. They are miniature smooth red dachshunds. Rhona is actually a tweenie, between miniature and standard size, and the other two are true minis. Raspberry and Hermione have both been to the game when they were babies.

Birds: we got lots of birds. In order of size, first there is Pedro the blue-and-gold macaw. He has quite a (clean) vocabulary which he uses quite often appropriately. He likes to tell the dogs to stop barking, asks them if they want to go outside and go potty, tells them "Bad Dog!" if they don't wait to go outside, asks "would you like some fresh water?", says bye-bye when I leave for work, tells me good morning when I wake up, etc.

Then there's Gina, the umbrella cockatoo (all white), who can say her name, Hello, and screams. Pedro sometimes tells her "Quiet, Gina!" Gina really likes Lynn, repeatedly telling her Hello when she comes over.

After that is Neal the Parrot, an Orange Wing Amazon, who does a remarkable impression of a bump on a log. Occasionally he makes noise but not very often. He loves peanuts.

Then we have Helios, the Sun Conure. He is beautiful and a total brat. You don't want to put your hand in his cage unless you have a peanut to give him. He can be very loud. In fact, one day someone was walking down the street on a hot day when I had my door open and she asked me if I had a conure. When I said yes, she said she thought so because she had one too.

In the office we have Sunny, the cockatiel, and Chachi, the dilute peach face lovebird. They are cute and make pleasant sounds.

In the bedroom are three zebra finches, two red-eared waxbill finches and one Black Hooded Nun finch. The finches are very quiet and busy, with little sounds.

Last, but not least, is Gloria the chicken who wandered into my yard and life about a month ago. She is a beautiful red hen, possibly a Rhode Island Red. She lives in a cage/pen combination in the backyard around the side of the house. She lays a brown egg about every other day or so. She is very nice and doesn't try to peck me.

I have no fishes, hamsters, bunny rabbits (anymore), lizards or other small mammals or reptiles. So it's not really a zoo. But I would love to have 1) a wallaby, 2) an emu, and 3) an alpaca. Realistically I might get a rabbit someday to live with the chicken, but probably not.

The First Entry

I didn't really plan to start a blog, but I wanted to comment to a really neat Blog called BART Musings, and it seemed like it was necessary to set up one of my own in order to do so. Hey, maybe nobody will read this, but it could be therapeutic.

So here I am. I'm a secretary for what I believe to be the best law firm in San Francisco, working with a great practice group. I live in the East Bay and commute by BART. I have one daughter who is going to Cal State University and is very smart. I'm a computer geek, having recently switched from PCs to Macs. I read scifi and fantasy, watch a LOT of TV, have many pets including a recently adopted chicken who showed up at my door. (How weird is that? Now I have fresh eggs!) I play Dungeons & Dragons with the same group of friends for the last 20 years. Some of us are planning to go see Superman this weekend except for one friend who can't wait until the weekend and MUST GO AS SOON AS IT OPENS. You know who you are.

The main reason I didn't start a blog sooner was because I don't really have much to say. So I may not post very often - only when something moves me to express my opinion. Or maybe just random thoughts. You never know!