Beasties

We share our house with a number of critters: one Dog, three Cats, and a Burmese python. The Dog is half basenji, and half (we believe) chihuahua. He looks something like a basenji, with little round bulbous chihuahua eyes, but unlike a basenji, he has a loud and annoying bark. As he gets older and more senile, he used this bark more and more often. He drives us completely crazy and we completely adore him.

The three cats are all black and white, but one (the Evil Cat) is more white than black. He HATES the two other cats. HATES HATES HATES them. They make his blood boil. He wishes them dead (after preferably a miserable torturous death.) For this reason, we must maintain cat apartheid. At all times, we have to be aware of where the cats are and make sure that the Evil White Cat does not end up in the same room as the black cats. If he does, there will be a fight, and it will be a horrible thing. Speed Racer puts up with this daily disruption only because it is necessary to me to have cats -- even if they are Evil. Thank you Speed Racer! The picture above is of the Evil Cat playing Godzilla in Speed Racer's North Pole Village.

The python belongs to Second Son. It eats rats, and the less said about that, the better!

I am cool

Second Son's friend Kelly is sitting here watching me post on my blog and she just said that it is weird seeing an parent posting to a blog. I thought that was funny, so I starting writing this post, and she said, "are you writing that I said it was weird to see a parent blogging?"

and I said yes.

we both laughed.

What was really cool was that I had send the link to my blog to my family, and my brother e-mailed me and as a result he stopped by our house for dinner (which is not that easy as he lives in New England and I live elsewhere on the East Coast.) So blogging is good. And I am a cool parent who blogs.

The Life Aquatic

Last summer, Speed Racer and I, in a fit of foolishness, dug a pond in our back yard. Well, to be really honest, Speed Racer did most of the really efficacious digging. The result looks like this.
It's not very big, (Speed Racer's brother says it is a puddle) and it is not all pretty and elegant, like the pond that some people dug in a yard a couple of blocks away, on the very same weekend we dug ours. But it provides us with endless entertainment. There is a filter that needs to be cleaned and plants that need to be taken care of, and best of all, five fish. They are four goldfish and a koi. There used to be two koi, but one died almost immediately (I think he was shocked by the lack of elegance he was expected to live with.) These fish have lived in the pond for almost a year now, putting up with rain, snow, leaves, trash, and mud. They have gotten bigger and bigger and fatter and fatter. Speed Racer says that pretty soon we are going to barbecue that koi.
Late last summer, a frog moved into the pond. He/she hibernated in or near the pond, and has now invited two friends to join him/her. We are hoping that they will make some tadpoles who can eat the algae that have bloomed in the pond. The fish can eat the tadpoles, and the circle of life will be complete. Jacques Cousteau would be proud.

Fooled by my Blackberry

I had a great time in San Francisco – it was the first time I ever stayed in the city, rather than going to Newark or Mountain View or Palo Alto. I stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf, walked four miles to the UCSF campus (at least on the first day), and after the conference ended last night, I had a whirlwind self-guided tour of the city. I got dropped off at Union Square, where I got on a cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf. I shook off Jerry, a homeless(?) guy who seemed to think he was going to be my tour guide. The cable car ride was amazing – I was so excited to really be on a cable car, so see the views from the top of the hill. After weeks and weeks of feeling crazed and frustrated and harried by life in general, I was elated to be immersed in this experience. I realized that I had really missed being by myself, and really missed traveling and the new experiences it brings. All this for five bucks! Later I went to Pier 39 and had dinner at the Sea Lion Café. Listening to and watching the sea lions was the best dinner show I’ve seen in a long lime. I went shopping on Pier 39 and bought wine (for the family) and chocolate (for the family and for the office) and a North Pole Village piece for Speed Racer, who collects them.
Today, planning on a 12:15 flight, I got up early and took off in the other direction. I walked up to Ghiradelli Square, (after giving $5 to another homeless guy who was pretending to be an actor doing a performance to raised money for a shelter for the mentally ill), and then walked all the way up Hyde Street to the top of the hill, and came back down via Lombard Street (the crookedest street in America). Then back to Pier 39 to buy some fruit to eat on the plane, and back to the hotel to catch the airport shuttle. I really really enjoyed myself. Only problem was, my flight was at 9:15. My Blackberry was still on East Coast time, and the reservation on the Blackberry, which looked like it was for 12:15, was three hours off! So while I was walking down Lombard Street, admiring the flowers and watching the tourists take pictures, my plane was taking off without me. As soon as I figured it out, I called my fearless assistant, who got me on a 1:00 flight, for a ridiculous payment (Big Company saves money by making us buy non-refundable, non-transferable tickets). So I’ll get home a few hours later. I feel guilty about enjoying myself so much, especially now I know how much my mistake cost! (but the conference was free, and I ate on the cheap….)

I am Surprised!

I am writing this on a plane flying back to the East Coast from San Francisco, where I attended the Institute for the Future’s Health Horizons Spring Conference: New Media Technologies & the Biocitizen. In my last post I said that I wasn’t going to blog about work, because I didn’t think that Big Company would be amused. I mentioned this in passing in the hearing of Dmitriy of Trusted.MD. He told me that he had been involved in discussions with Big Company, who are reaching out to healthcare bloggers, and that Big Company is thinking of putting out a policy supporting employee blogging. So who knows, maybe I will be blogging about work – we’ll see!

Meet the Family

I think this blog is going to be more about family life than work; I work for a Big Company, and I don't think they'd be amused if I shared too much of the goings on there.

So meet the family!

My husband's name is Speed Racer. That's not the name his parents gave him, but it is the name of my first childhood crush. He's 49 years old and has been 49 for at least four years now. He is "retired" -- we figured out a few years ago that we really needed a parent at home for our teenage sons, and he left his job at the chemical company with no regrets. His mother and a few friends keep asking him when he's gong back to work...if he says he's retired they say "okay."

First Son is 23, and just graduated from college with a liberal arts degree. He's living with us and trying to decide/see what comes next. First Son's Girlfriend also lives with us. She dropped out of college, and is going to beauty school.

Second Son is 19. He graduated from high school two years ago, and is living with us and trying to decide/see what comes next. He is currently "between jobs." He has a boyfriend we like a lot, but who is also not going to college.

Third Son is 16 and in 10th grade. He plays video games, and lives in the basement. I am a little worried that he will still be there in 20 years.

So we are waiting (and waiting) for our nest to empty.

My first post

I've been thinking about blogging for a while -- I spend a lot of time at the computer in highly useful activities, like reading Television Without Pity, and playing Spider Solitaire. So why not do something potentially more interesting and possibly even more addictive? After all, I too have opinions! Some of them are half-baked, and some barely warmed over. And my life is fascinating to me, so perhaps there are some poor souls out here who would, having driven themselves mad lurking on websites and playing Spider Solitaire would gain some measure of comfort knowing that they are not alone in their pathetic lives.
So here goes...
oh my gosh...
it's almost time for Lost...
I'll be back