Project Pause

I stopped where I needed to but am happy with the progress. Most of the pots match-ish, and I have new herbs growing at the top. As things grow in I can move them to different levels. Not sure what I'm going to do with the bottom three spots.

A lovely thing happened on the way home from the movie theater the other day. There were goats grazing on the field in the abandoned middle school. I pulled over and took photos. It smelled so goat-y, and they were chewing so loudly that I could hear them over the distant freeway, passing cars and light rail. I liked it so much that I took mrguy the next day to experience it.

Such goat variety!

A Saturday in April

It is a magnificent grey day here in the big brown box. We had a good coffee time convo this morning, with the brilliant mrguy realizing that if our insurance doesn't pay for the PET scan we want, we could totally pay for it ourselves and make it happen. This is exactly what money is for. For saving your life. Yay!

Yesterday we talked to the oncologist and our oncology nurse navigator. The onco doctor has referred mrguy to a radiologist, and now is suggesting that because we think there aren't any mets, radiation could just zap that little effer and get rid of it. Radiation is not a groovy time. He'd switch to carbo/taxol as his chemo, and for 5 weeks he'd get zapped 5 days a week. Both the carbo and the radiation are cumulatively awful. That's why we'd want to get a PET sooner than later. a) are there any metastases and b) is the kanjinti already beating the cancer back by itself? If b, why worry about radiation? It was doing so well before. Or can he have kanjinti instead of switching up his chemo while he's doing radiation? Our nurse navigator is hoping for kanjinti rather than radiation. Anyhoo, mrguy is doing his research.

Today's The Kentucky Derby. It's my sister's favorite thing, and it always reminds me of her. It used to fall on the same weekend as Norway Day, which was our sister thing we did together. But we'd always need to find a spot nearby to watch it. Apparently I wrote this up in mrsguy and don't have to retell that story! But today my sister reminded me of a different story that she was telling to some friends over coffee this morning:

My brother-in-law, her husband, used to go to the races on Fridays with his friend Junior. One of those Fridays was the day before the Derby, so my sister gave her husband a tenner and asked him to put it on Giacomo to win the Derby. She wanted Giacomo specifically because that was her husband's grandfather's name. Next day they were watching the Derby and Giacomo won!!! It was at this point that her husband confessed that he hadn't placed the bet because he thought it was such a bad bet. Yeah, he was wrong. It paid out 50-1. A $2 bet paid out $800, and her ten bucks would have been many times more than that. Sis told this story to her feisty 90-year-old friend this morning over coffee and her friend said "And he's still alive?!" Funny. And Giacomo the horse is still alive, apparently, living the stud life.

Because it is Derby day today I went to the Derby website to look at the horses. I don't believe in racing, but this was in solidarity with my sister. There was a grey horse who was sooo pretty. Then I remembered that my grandparents owned a grey race horse at one point. Her name was Eleanor Grey. Not sure what the nomenclature was, but she was a harness race horse, and a pacer. She did some racing in the early 1950s. So like my granny to want a race horse.

Before signing off, here are some of yesterdays colors.

Favorite Animals of 2025

Gordon (Ears) left us this year, not long after Ausma. That was super sad. Still is super sad. Such a good boy.

Boy Kitten is 5 1/2 right now, and has started sitting in mrguy's lap. Mrguy has a new name: Flame Daddy!

Flame Point Siamese Cats of FB!

We said goodbye to Heathen and Jean Luc Chow (cried so hard!), but got to watch Marshall Mischief Chow and Hijinx Tajin Chow grow into cats who successfully avoided Krampus. I always look forward to photos of Jinx in Sinks.

Declan, the manx flame, is so swoonable. His mom now knows that Declan's fans are not satisfied with frontal photos of him and Bella Jade. We need nub!! Every time.

Ocean is such a beautiful lady. She lives in Nebraska with her mom, Jody Ann. Ocie loves the outdoors, stalking rabbits that she never catches, and catching snakes. She gently carries them to the stairwell and lets them go. It wasn't that great a summer for snakes this year.

Man wasn't around much this year since his mom gave him a flesh brother. But he's one of the handsomest flames on Facebook.

Rafiki the hotdog king has been under the weather. He used to break into the fridge and eat an entire package of hotdogs (multiple times) without batting an eye. I miss those days. He's matured into digestive ailments, so fewer hot dogs and stealing.

YouTube Friends -- Not All Animals

I am obsessed with Rockalina and Otis, and now know way more than a person should know about how to incubate turtle eggs. Also ask me about removing stuck eggs from a gigantic python. I guess that once the algorithm knows you're into Botched and Dr. Pimple Popper they toss anything weird your way. I don't like that many of the YouTube episodes of DPP are blurred out.

Similarly, I enjoy the soothing voice of the lady from Adore Her Beauty, who waxes lady beards.

And I have been super into the anti Scientology community, which is currently turning inward and feasting on their own. Aaron Smith Levin seems like he's at the apex of an elliptical orbit with mania. He has the loudest voice, but self-destructive tendencies. There's a lot of energy in the movement, but these people have to get their oars moving in the same direction or else this is for entertainment purposes only.

Back to animals, Poppy the prairie dog! I look forward to her Wahoo Wednesdays.

And always, The Kitten Lady. If you have an extra dollar, please consider donating to your local spay and neuter clinic.

The Trees

So I'm obsessed with this house. Where do I start?

I could never afford this house, but I fantasize about it. It has gorgeous architecture, a beautiful swimming pool, privacy, and...every horizontal surface is piled high with bizarre crap. If this is your house, I'm sorry I'm capping on it but you need to get help.

The listing first appeared on Zillow a few weeks ago, with tiny photos. Even those and the description made me alternately drool and ask myself rude questions.

This house was originally listed for over four million clams. Yes, it's sitting on 60 acres and it has gorgeous bones, and the pool and a koi pond. Did I mention that? Or the Japanese garden? But when you look at the photos and notice that there seems to be a parrot aviary with parrots in it, and then you see the splotches on the walls and furniture (meaning you're going to need to do some bioremediation) and then you want to know more about the history of the place so you start reading the real estate agent's writeup and realize that you are not only buying a house on 60 acres, but you're essentially buying an old man also...

Yup. The guy wants you to let him live in the house until he dies. So for 4mil clams you don't even get to *touch* the house. You have to let the man live in his current squalor and perhaps even acquire more of the things he loves:

1. Armor and armaments (both Western and Japanese)
2. Statues in the shape of birds
3. Actual birds (that may or may not have run of the house)
4. Zebra striped accoutrements
5. Actual zebras (Read the fine print, Fool. You are buying an old man AND his zebra)
6. Statues in the shape of horses
7. Mini horses (see #5). OK it's just one mini horse and just one zebra, but that is one more old man, little horse and actual zebra than I've ever seen in a house listing.
8. Ship models. Among the bronze statues of animals and Hindu deities and armor and swords are multiple, large ship models, some housed in vitrines as large as a man.

Only some of this was apparent in the original house listing on Zillow. But now I have located a different listing with larger photos and a more elaborate description that indicates that in addition to categories 1-8, above, plus a swan or two (raising the bird count to a minimum of 4) there is a 100 gallon gas tank for the tractor and other vehicles that come with the property. Holy cow.

My favorite quote from the listing:
"Use of the property is only limited by your imagination."

after the guy selling it is done with it and your 4 million clams, I say.

Dude nobody will buy this house with you and your mammals and farm equipment and fire hazard gasoline tank in it.

I suggest that readers of mrsguy scrutinize every photograph in this listing while it's still up.

tinyurl.com/29x48p2w

Enjoy!

Bear Update

Remember Brutus, the bear that walked into our dining room while we were on vacation a few years back? He is no more -- killed in a legal bear hunt last year.

I feel bad for him. And now I know that two years before he invited himself for dinner he was officially weighed, and came in at 575 lbs. Good grief!

Here's the link about Brutus. Do not click if you do not want to see him after he was hunted. 

So sorry, guy.

Thermos -- An Update

As soon as we got used to him, Thermos wandered away. But headed to work the other day I *did* see three male turkeys putting on an impressive display for a very bored looking lady turkey, so maybe Thermos has gone off to be with his people.

Or maybe my raccoon deterrent is working on Thermos as well as raccoons. It's a motion activated doohickey that flashes light and makes a clicking sound. It seems to be effective, because the raccoons avoid the plants on the porch now.

At the factory this week I rode a mechanical unicorn (5 seconds, yo!) and picked apples that can't be eaten by humans to feed to the elephants at the zoo. Kinda varied week!

Tahoedad 2018, Post 1

We're 4 days in, now, but Tahoedad 2018 got off to a rolicking start.

Nose, the 22-year-old cat, had a seizure at the vet as mrguy was checking him in to board. We learned that he has hypertension, needs his subcutaneous fluid intake increased, and that he has anemia. Most of those are also problems mrguy's mom has, so that's a little trippy. Nose has many fans at the clinic, so everybody came running to see him and make sure he was ok as the doctor was treating him. The founder of the practice came by. "Is that Nose? He must be 23 by now!" Pretty close, doc! They think that he will recover.

A few minutes after I got the initial phone call about the cat, my sister-in-law called to say that his bro-liness is in the hospital. Blood clots in the lungs, but he has been treated, is out of the hospital and is supposed to join us tomorrow.

Then the mama's fave caregiver's sister died in New Zealand, so we're figuring out scheduling around that. Poo. So sorry for her. Of course it's remarkable that her sister passed away when the mama was on vacation and didn't need her.

Here we are at Day Four. The mama, the frenchman and D were playing gin rummy. I was in the kitchen making sandwiches for mrguy and I. He was upstairs busying himself with fancy book learning. D, who missed Bear Night last year, looks up from his hand and says "Bear!" Yup, the door to the porch was open and there was an adolescent bear on the porch, lumbering toward the dining room. Really, Dude? The boys closed the door to the porch and siblings shouted for the caretaker, who was away from the house. His friend apparently heard us and called him to let him know there was a bear on the property. The bear went down the hill the same way Brutus did last year, and the caretaker walked around with his rubber bullet-filled rifle. 

I Take It Back

And I'm beat. After three sleepovers, an ER visit, two doctors' visits and 3 falls (Mom's, not mine) I was ready for some help.

My brother and his wife have taken pity on me and are coming down for two weekends as we figure out how to staff permanent nighttime caregiving. They are truly some of God's good people.

So today I did fun stuff. Got back into my quest for Irish citizenship, pruned some bushes and acquired a new skill: separating rabbit pellets from hay. It's all in the wrist, really. Then I stuffed rabbit poop into some old socks, turning them into rabbit manure tea bags. They are currently soaking in a bucket, making me rabbit manure tea to fertilize my plants with. Yay!

You know I really undersold the rabbit store experience in my previous post. It was...surreal. The rabbit store we went to is run by folks who have a repeating ad on Craigslist that features a Natalie Dee cartoon. Because of this, I expected the Rabbit People to be of good cheer. But that would not be the case. 

Last Saturday, when we got to Rabbit People, Mrguy and I were on a high because we'd just finished scoring our second brick of Amul water buffalo and cow's milk butter at the Himalayan market. So we go next door to Rabbit People, whose ad says that they have large bags of rabbit cage sweepings on the sidewalk, free for the taking. They don't, so we walk inside to ask. The place is a small and very dark warehouse. On the left side as you walk in is some random stuff that is either for sale or the Rabbit People live on that side of the room. Hard to tell. On the right is some strange scene where a bunch of people are under a task lamp, examining a rabbit that's on its back in someone's lap. The people are intently trimming the rabbit's claws or performing a Satanic ritual. Again, hard to tell. The very normal looking girl (there's always one, right?) asks us if she can help us. We want to have our gaze directed away from the activity on the right because when we walked in it felt like everything in that place stopped. Like the time that a group of us went to a place called the Church of the Mother Goddess because one of our friends wanted to find a place where she could worship a female deity (hey, it was 1980). And I tagged along. And they told us that their service would be starting in a little while and we could wait in the room with the altar and all the disturbing art (OK, that's not what they told us but what actually happened) and they kept checking in on us and fervently wishing for us to go away, which we eventually did.

It was just. like. that. So I use my friendliest voice to let her know that I'd like to acquire some rabbit poop. She tells us we can take as much as we want, so we do. And we leave. Whew. We have a big old bag full of Satanic ritual rabbit manure and I hope it doesn't kill me or the plants.

The Post-Bear World

We're a month out from our encounter with the bear, and it seems as if bears are everywhere. In the news, in a gigantic flag that hangs from the rafters of my office building. The story has gone a bit viral with my friends, who ask me to retell it for friends who haven't heard. When I tell the story my stomach gets a bit crampy.

Mrguy has had a similar reaction, which is hard when you are already a naturally hyper-vigilant person. But I guess that when you've been surprised inside your cozy vacation home by a 600lb animal it makes you feel as if it can happen anywhere. You spend a whole lifetime training yourself *not* to consider every shadow a threat and then there is a bear in your living room, standing on the sofa, and on the third floor, using the sink in the bathroom. 

It makes you rethink things. I used to find survival manuals at estate sales and give them to my brother-in-law for fun. Now he's actually been in a life-or-death situation with a bear. And I can assure you that none of the manuals cover how to react when encountering a bear in the third floor hallway.

5 days after the bear I got my period. First one in 8 months. Mrguy said the bear scared an egg out of me. One month later, I got my period again. I texted my bandmate. She responded "Damn bear".

A Bayor!

It's the guy family reunion. 

As usual, we have too much to eat, some Balderdash, card playing and general merriment. 

Last night there was a little twist.

15 of us were at the dining room table yakking it up and finishing dessert and we had a little one upstairs asleep for the night by himself. All of a sudden the youngest at the table said loudly "BEAR" and we turned around. There was a very large bear (locally known as Brutus) heading up the stairs to the dining room. For one beat each of us thought it was a joke. And then we realized it wasn't and split.

mrguy grabbed our elderly cousin and carried her down the stairs to the deck. One nephew grabbed the mama and got her into the den. We, the daughters, all gravitated toward the mama and barricaded ourselves behind a piece of furniture in the den. By then the bear was in the living room trying to figure out how to leave. Everybody on the other side of the table from me ran outside and closed the door.

But there was a bear trapped in the house and a three-year-old sleeping by himself upstairs. My neph, the father, scaled the outside of the house with my brother-in-law quickly behind and got in via the balcony. They arrived just as the bear was retreating from the second floor (where he visited my sister's bathroom). One of the men barricaded himself in with his little one. The other grabbed a piano bench and brandished it at the bear. The bear went downstairs, back through the dining room, into a back bedroom and broke a window to exit. The caretaker shot rubber bullets into the air to scare him off.

It's going to be a bad day for the bear when he's trapped. There's a giant device there for bear catching, larded with sweet rolls.

A few shots from after the incident:

Mrguy's chair. I was in the folding chair next to him. At first the bear was scratching at the window below, but quickly turned around and walked up the stairs.

The bear was too big to exit via that tiny window, and there are gouges in the paneling underneath. He kinda wrecked things all over the house while trying to get out. 

He entered via the door below, and tried to exit that way but wasn't successful. He dragged a Costco pie out onto the drive and ate it there, along with the gigantic platter of spaghetti left over from the other night.

He is apparently not a coffee drinker. That would have been a real tragedy if he had eaten the coffee.

During his visit he took a poo on the ugliest chair in the house.

And he eventually blasted out the mama's bedroom window (now boarded up).

The next day we are *still* talking about it. So's everyone else in town, apparently. Our 7-year-old grandnephew will have the story of his lifetime, about how he saved his entire family. Could not be prouder of him and of each of us.

Local Wildlife

At our big brown box, we now have various forms of wildlife. Teensy woodpeckers, turkey vultures, deer and a turkey or two. And a turkey who seems like his name might be Henry, has a bride but she's not seen very often. 

He mostly appears on the steep road up to our house, at a place we like to call Turkey Curve. I have seen him chase pedestrians around their cars. I have seen him on lawns and in the street, with his plumage relaxed or in full display for the ladies. mrguy saw him eating seeds off a newly seeded front lawn.

Yesterday, while driving home, the car in front of me slowed down and then pulled over. Henry ran across the street to the driver's side. A moment later the window rolled down and a hand cast some stuff into the street and drove off. I drove around Henry and followed the car. It was expensive and headed into the hills. 

Henry seemed happy.

Update: yesterday I paused the car in the same spot and Henry ran across the street to engage me. I was so excited that I had to take a picture.

A Murder of Crows

Over the last few hours two crows have been claiming their territory via a series of caws. Twenty minutes ago they were joined by a flock, a murder of crows, who all jabbered simultaneously and flew close to the house.

I love crows, and it wasn't always that way.

When I lived in New Hampshire for a brief time, there was a giant pine tree outside my bedroom window and another outside the bathroom window. Both were infested with crows. The din of these crow communities began early in the morning, and I worked nights. I hated crows with a passion. My heart felt light and happy when I saw one dead in the middle of our street. One for us!!

I don't know when the crow love began to overtake the hate. Maybe back at the old place, when I first heard them make the sound of castanets with their tongues. I just don't know why, but I think they're beautiful and funny.

On the way to work in the morning I pass the slimy green runoff from a neighbor's morning watering. Almost every morning, two crows march around in it like drunken sailors, weaving from side to side. It's part of the morning ritual of happiness.

Makes me wish today were a work day.

Chicken-flavored Prozac

The cat-lovers' email list at work is usually like a sleepy, two stoplight town. Not much happens.

Within the last few weeks, however, it's really picked up. First, our factory cat had kittens, and then someone brought up the subject of declawing and a very long discussion ensued. As you can imagine, people are pretty passionate about this topic.

Yesterday someone mentioned that as an alternative to declawing, her vet has prescribed chicken-flavored Prozac for her cat. I like the spirit of this approach. And People...there is CHICKEN-FLAVORED PROZAC. What a wonderful world.

Reminds me of the best cat in the world. When she got older and required heart medicine, we had to go to the compounding pharmacy, and they would make us chicken and herb flavored medicine in a cod liver base. Very stinky.

My favorite part of the process involved visiting the pharmacy. I never got tired of reading the article that they proudly displayed at the counter, about how they'd been commissioned to create elephant suppositories. I link to it here because it gives me so much pleasure to share it.

Do you think they make Cheez-it flavored Prozac? I'll take it orally, thanks.

Jumbo

When I was little, my Pop would tell me the story of Jumbo the elephant when I was sick. I'm not sure why a story that ends in elephant death seemed to soothe me so, but it worked. Between the Jumbo story and the animal cracker box I came to know that circuses traveled by train, but it's not something I thought about with any regularity.

Many years later, when I was too old to be told the story of Jumbo, I spent a few days working for Pop. I was stacking firewood there by the railroad tracks and looked up. Passing right by was the circus train. I could make out the animals inside, just like on the cookie box. O.K., not just like on the cookie box, but I could see them.

Today, as a train passed by really close I thought of the tigers and Jumbo and Pop.

Hawaii 2009, Day 8

The last day in Hawaii always ends up being a road trip.

First, we were jonesing for some nature. We'd hoped to snorkulate at some point, but the weather turned rainy and that wasn't possible. As a substitute for watery pursuits, mrguy found us a walk to take in Koko Crater. There many plumeria to enjoy, but one of the best items we saw was this bush with large, oddly-shaped fruit.

After Koko Crater, we made our way through Waimanalo, stopped at the nut shop again, and did a photo op for the girl band. AM940 played The Gabby Band's version of Ipo Lei Manu as we passed through town.

One of our goals for the day was to see the site of the Marconi wireless telegraph plant in Kahaku because of this article we'd read in Hawaiian Airlines magazine. This destination was also in keeping with our interest in electricity and other technologies coming to Hawaii.

Once in the North Shore, we stopped at Banzai Pipeline beach. I spent most of my time at this stop peeling one of Senator Fong's enormous pomelos that had been our mascot this day. Other tourists began to watch me, as I struggled somewhat to pry it apart. Ouch! Eventually I asked mrguy to help. It was delicious, like a delicate and perfumier of grapefruit.

Next we stopped for turtles, which are near and dear to ms scandiwaiian's heart. There were more turtles at the turtle beach this year, and some were bobbing around in the surf. I'm not the turtliest person around but seeing them in the wild like this, swimming in the surf and eating limu off the rocks, for crying out loud, was really great. Occasionally we'd see a flipper break the water, or a head would rise to the surface and we were close enough to be able to see the pattern on the turtle's neck. A big monk seal slept on the beach and periodically scratched himself or blew the sand out of his snout. It's a seal's life, I tell you.

Before dinner in Kaimuki, we made another Goodwill stop. Mr finn kindly let me buy these awesome glasses that he'd found. Mrguy made us a potion in them later that evening.

And so concludes Hawaii 2009. A happy, yummy vacation with wonderful friends, music, some turtles, lots of fruit and a tip of the hat to technology.

A Message From Squirry

I am in your base, eating your lemons.


Squirry is a sly little fellow, and a creature of habit.

He steals our fruit, takes a single bite and leaves it on the fence where we can see his handiwork.


Punk.