And Furthermore

Spider Solitaire

2008-09-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

2008-07-25T16:44:00.001-07:00

Just bought all nine seasons of X-Files on DVD for $20 a piece on Amazon! Today-only price. W00t, what a deal!

2008-07-23T15:01:00.001-07:00

Just got accepted to the Ping.fm beta! Yays!

Just a Quickie

2008-01-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

Hey! Today is January 22, 2008. It is my birthday. And it is SNOWING in San Francisco! Yes, I got snow for my birthday!!!!! W000t!

Long Time, No Post

2007-08-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

Inquiring minds want to know ...

Conventions recently (more or less) attended:

My first BayCon in about ten years, the 25th one! It was fabulous! I went to several enjoyable panels, including one about costuming. Bought hundreds of dollars worth of treasures in the dealers' room, got lots of ribbons for my badge and had many wonderful conversations with interesting people. The best things, though, were the room parties every night. My favorite one was the Klingon room party because they had the best bar and some of the best decorations. My favorite drink was the Warp Coil Coolant. Cyrus tried a couple of different shots; can't remember what they were called but they were much stronger than the Warp Coil Coolant. Honorable mention for room parties goes to the Evil Geniuses for great decorations and experimental drinks (I earned a "Lab Rat" ribbon). Can't wait until next year's BayCon, when the theme will be Pirates (arrrrrr!)

During BayCon, we made a quick trip up 101 to KublaCon, the gaming convention, where we met up with Forrest and Lynn for lunch and I bought more stuff in that dealers' room.

A few weeks later, at the same hotel as BayCon, was Gnomeward Bound, the 60th annual Westercon. It was much smaller. There were a few good panels, like the Harry Potter panel which made me realize I had to go back and re-read the two last books before the new one came out because I had forgotten too much. The dealer's room was smaller than Baycon's, so I didn't buy too much, fortunately! I got a bunch of ribbons for my badge there too. The Klingons weren't there, but the Evil Geniuses were, along with some other good room parties. Kudos to the Firefly room party for its fresh fruit. Speaking of Firefly, we went to a charity showing of Serenity where Cyrus won one of the auction packages. I also went to Alexander James' concert (Cyrus unfortunately missed it) and it was very good. Alex is the "Heir" to Heather Alexander, the famous Celtic/folk singer.

Next convention is Silicon in October, I think.

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On the home front, we lost little Raspberry back in March to a tragic spinal column disease. I don't want to say anything further except that it was very difficult and I miss her.

Bucky Katt is now grown up and is free to roam around the house without fear of the dogs. Another kitten has joined us: Queen Hatshepsut, aka Hattie. She is a little nuclear-powered kitten whose mother is a Siamese look-alike to Bucky, but Hattie has some interesting faint stripes on her legs and body in addition to the points. She now lives in the bathroom and gets to come out when the dogs are behind the gate in the kitchen. Pretty much the previous Bucky situation. When Hattie gets big enough then she will have run of the house. She is pretty wild, biting and scratching way more than Bucky ever did, but all in fun (hers, not mine). Hopefully she will grow out of it.

Lastly, there is Savannah. She will be joining us very soon; I had hoped she would be here by now. Savannah is a rescue from a puppy mill auction in Ohio. She had spent her entire life inside a tiny wire cage, pumping out puppies to be sold at pet stores. She was all skin and bones when they got her, couldn't walk, and had rotten teeth. She also has only a stub of a tail. She has been in foster care for a few months and has gain weight and has learned to walk, albeit a bit unsteady but getting better all the time. She needed to have her teeth pulled and while pulling a molar, they accidentally broke her jaw so there was additional healing time. I am waiting for her last appointment with the vet before I can pick her up. Despite her horrible past, she is a very beautiful, loving dachshund and I intend the rest of her life to be filled with love and attention.

Lastly, I have had electronic problems. My stereo receiver/DVD player ate Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. When I took it in to be repair, they couldn't fix the DVD part but they got the movie out, unharmed. The receiver part still works. So I have to replace the DVD player. My HD DVR satellite receiver HDMI output didn't work. Dish Network shipped me a new receiver and now I have full HDMI connection again which looks absolutely fabulous. My iPod died. It's dead, Jim. The hard drive is messed up and it would cost more to fix it than the iPod (4th gen, 40gb color) is worth so I need to buy a new one. The repair people were supposed to ship it back to me because I can get a 10% discount on a new one if I turn in the old one. It is currently "in transit" although it should have been here yesterday. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

My friend Noel says he thinks the planet Mercury must be in retrograde. I wonder how long that will last?

Silicon

2006-10-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

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!