a99kitten's Musings

….just took my wedding ring off for the first time since putting it on in 1999. Have never taken it off until now. Guess it was about time.

I guess it’s also time for me to go ring shopping for myself.

Still weird though.

When I was at San Diego Comic-Con this July, I was on the look out for some new, interesting Chewbacca art. He’s actually not the easiest character to portray correctly. I was never able to find anything that I loved (well…Chewbacca wise I mean.) On the last day I made it over to the Chuck Jones Gallery….as evidenced by this purchase: https://a99kitten.com/?p=10450

While there, I also bought another piece. It caught my eye as soon as I walked in but I had been so involved in my purchase of Bad Girls that it took me a while to get over to it. It was not Chewbacca, and I typically don’t collect Leia art, but this piece definitely caught my eye:

It is a good sized piece – 36″ x 24″ on canvas. It’s an artist proof (#3 of 10) and extremely cool in real life :) I’m typically not into the modern or art deco look honestly, but the colors of this just grabbed me. I love the various silvers and greys with white and black (I think another reason I will always have a husky.) My color scheme at home is all browns. Deep, rich browns in various tones. So she doesn’t really fit in but it’ll work. I have a HUGE bus stop poster of Jango Fett framed from Attack of the Clones (all blues and silvers) so they will work together. As I was discussing this piece with the gallery rep, I asked if the artist had done any Chewbacca art. He said not that he was aware of but he could contact the artist. I had actually JUST missed him that day. Darn! And it turned out he left the gallery and went over to the Acme Archives booth inside SDCC. Doh!

Anyway, turns out that no, he had not any done Chewbacca art but that he always wanted to if it was the right feel. Chewie is hard because a lot of artists portray him too cartoony or goofy. I like the fierce Chewie. So we discussed him doing a commission just for me! He would have to get OK by LucasFilm once he did the piece but I was pretty excited!

On a conference call to discuss ideas for the piece, the artist (Mike) asked why I loved Chewbacca so much. That’s easy – because he was Han’s best friend. And protector. Who was big and strong and scared most people but he was a marshmallow inside…to his people. Just like Angelus and Storm were for me. Angelus even sounded like Chewbacca when he talked. And Chewie’s sounds were inspired by George Lucas’ malamute Indiana (who looks a lot like Angelus) so it was a perfect mix. Plus we live in Tahoe and the snow and I always called it Hoth when I’d take the buds out in the snow.

Mike loved the story and it turns out he and his wife are big dog lovers. So he appreciated my love of my buds. And how it translated to my love of all things Chewbacca. So I sent him a bunch of pics of the buds as well as my favorites of Chewie so he could get a sense of how I liked them. He obviously would be keeping it in his own style (art deco-ey, modern. See his site linked below) but incorporating the Chewie, Angelus and Storm in the snow.

The finished work arrived (yes, LucasFilm signed off on it!) and I just got it back from the framers. I. Love. It. He captured the expressions of Angelus and Storm perfectly. Like….perfectly. Plus having an original piece of art commissioned just for me is pretty darn nifty. The fact that it incorporates my beloved friends who are no longer with me along with one of my favorite fictional characters brings together 2 things that I have spent a lot of time in my life enjoying.

I look at this all the time and smile. The buds brought me smiles every day while they were with me, so it’s only natural they keep doing it.

Mike Kungl: http://www.mkungl.com/2/index.php There are **easily** a handful that I would love to hang in my house.

I’m always looking for yummy recipes that will work for tailgating. Has to be easily transportable, eaten easily while hanging out and preferably little mess (at least once in the Candlestick parking lot!) Oh! And also very yummy :)

Have never done chicken before. Honestly my go-to is cheeseburgers because cheeseburgers are delicious. Two weeks ago I decided to use the advice from some food guy on Yahoo about cheeseburgers and use 80/20 meat, American cheese and squishy white bread buns (no pretzel bun, ciabatta, etc etc.) Frankly, I’ve never done that. I always buy 93/7 meat and use cheddar, blue cheese, or some such other yummy cheese. BUT, this guy’s point was make the cheeseburger the way it is meant to be made. You don’t eat them every day so when you do, make them right. He was right – DELICIOUS!!! I will make them that way for tailgating from now on.

But I digress….I wanted to try chicken this time so went on a search for a tasty chicken recipe. Found this one on the Food Network – Dirty P’s Garlic-Ginger Chicken Thighs:

Ingredients

2 pounds skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh tangerine or orange juice
Freshly ground pepper
Vegetable oil, for the grill

NOW…I changed the recipe to this (for my tastes):

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger (used Gourmet Garden ginger paste found in the produce section)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (used Odwalla)
Freshly ground pepper
Vegetable oil, for the grill (I used spray on grilling spray stuff…highly technical)

I hate onions (unless deep-fried into rings in which case they are OK especially when dipped in ranch!) so they had to go. And I just can’t eat chicken skin unless way deep fried KFC style. So skinless as well as boneless chicken for me…

Directions

Combine the chicken, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, juice and 1 teaspoon pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal and shake to coat the chicken with the marinade. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. (I marinated for about 5 hours before cooking.)

Preheat a grill to medium high and oil the grate. Grill the chicken skin-side down until marked, 5 to 6 minutes. Flip and continue to grill until cooked through, about 5 more minutes. (here is where I changed it – since I have skinless chicken cook for 2 minutes on 1 side, flip and 2 more minutes, and then repeat. So cooking for 8 minutes total. BUT, the key was making sure the grill was HOT. In making this at home for a 2nd time my grill was heated to 500 degrees.)

When I went to Safeway to buy chicken for the tailgate, the checkout guy was probably 20 yrs old at most. There was a HUGE notice at checkout about the chicken as there was a recent Foster Farms salmonella scare. When I asked half-jokingly “what do I need to know about this chicken?” he responded “cook your chicken. simple. people don’t cook their chicken and then go around blaming other people for their own stupidity. it’s not filet mignon people. it’s chicken. not supposed to be pink.” I left that in all lower case because he said it so fast, and in such a thick country accent, that I had no response other than a heartfelt smile and a “You are completely right.” Nice to know there are some people out there that I agree with.

Anyway….I digress…..again….

Let the chicken rest 3-5 minutes before serving.

This was SO good. So, so good. Also – FULLY cooked but not dry. Pay attention people. Yummy. Both at the 49ers tailgate and tonight. Very glad I found the recipe and will use it often! And not just for tailgating :)

I received the below email today from the rescue organization where we adopted Shadow. They typically do not send out donation requests other than quarterly newsletters with the info on the back page. They are not an alarmist organization that asks for money every other day or sends out horrible “this dog will die if you don’t adopt now” notices like so many you see on Facebook or twitter. And I appreciate that because I know always they need the money and I know there are too many dogs in shelters.

But if you can spare even $5.00, it can add up to help Boscoe, who is still a baby who clearly had a horrible home but can be fixed up and find a good home from early on.

I didn’t include the pics of the injury because yuck. But am including Boscoe’s little face :)

Boscoe at vet

I hate when people ask for donations so I don’t this easily. But this guy needs our help. We might not be able to help every dog, but we can help this one.

http://www.norsled.org/how-to-help/

Hi friends – I want to let you know about a wonderful three-month-old Siberian puppy I pulled Friday at the Delano, CA, Shelter (central valley/middle of nowhere!). Shelter folks picked him up in a woman’s yard in town where he had laid down to rest, with a horrible gash on the inside of his right rear leg (photo attached) and with the femur on his other back leg out of socket! With no possibilities in store for him except the shelter, I took the 4 hour drive to Delano, and pulled Boscoe. By 4 pm I was at Fourpaws in Dublin and Dr. Tripi was looking at Boscoe (see attached photos)

Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” never paid an adoption fee.
Save animals three times a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner.
What have you done today to make the world a better place?
Torturing one animal is cruelty; torturing many is science.

Q3 has drawn to a close and I must say that I am pretty happy with how it went. And glad I did not sell in May and go away. Well…actually…I could have gone away at the end of May and then come back in July. June trading was awful. But that was soooo last quarter.

To be honest, I checked my numbers 3 times to make sure they were right. And they were. For Q3 I was +17.7%. Not so bad at all. In looking at most successful trades, a lot of them were calls. This is actually bad since I have been trying to limit my options trades and this won’t encourage that attempt at a new behavior ;)

I made some excellent trades in (and out and back in again) pure momo names. TSLA? Check. NFLX? Check. YELP? Check. Plus a few more of the usual suspects. Although — my biggest and best trade was in a former momo — AAPL (calls…doh!) I happened to own some calls *before* Carl Icahn’s tweet (aka pure luck.) I owe him a fruit basket of apples :)

My most absolute worst trade was in another momo – SODA. Ugh. Should have known better on that one though. 2nd worst trade? UVXY. I don’t think I need to say anything more about that one. Those ETFs are garbage. But oh well. I made a note next to it in my spreadsheet “Never, ever trade this again stupid” and highlighted it.

I also started taking more ideas from inside the 12631 trading room. I have typically followed chessNwine in all of his longs. I don’t short much at all though. And this past quarter I followed a few more of RaginCajun’s quick strikes and ideas from other members.

I also was able to take advantage of a few stocks that got beaten down on a single news event and make money on the quick pop up. BA, LL, WMT. This is actually why I keep CNBC on during the day as I wouldn’t notice the news fast enough otherwise.

I’ve also been trying to take more profits quicker. I promised myself that I was going to do that in my trading account. Stocks/companies that I believe in and want to keep – buy them for my 401k. But my trading account is for trading. I just don’t trust this market. So I’d rather take some profits and maybe miss out on another move up than lose them and be in a losing trade on a quick retrace. And you can always join back in if you’ve got a runner. I’ve done that a few times in the Chinese solars lately. In and out and back in (and out) again! (mmmmm….now I want a double double with cheese.)

Although what’s funny about that strategy is that I’ve not sold when a stock turns on me and then had it come right back in a day or 2 (or sometimes later that same day.) My semi-blind trust in the exuberant market working in my favor. It can hurt me too (SODA) but has frankly worked more than not so…

Of course as I say all of this, Washington is doing its darn best to wreck the 4Q. But we’ll see. I think by finding selective stocks and trading quickly, money can still be made. At least for now.

“Work smarter, not harder” ~~ Scrooge McDuck

I really wanted to like this movie. This is one of my most favorite books. I’m not entirely sure why since Anna really is a selfish wretch. But I have always loved the drama of this book. Much more than War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov. Ad I think even more than Wuthering Heights.

For some reason this movie tried for the theater production feel in some ways. Weird set changes caused more distraction and broke up the feel of the scene I think. And the whole feel of the movie was a grand production but not a film. And overly dramaaaaatic *said like Thurston Howell III* (if you don’t know who that is…..well….I can’t help you) without being serious enough considering the book it was drawn from.

Keira Knightley is absolutely gorgeous as usual. Actually more than usual since the costuming in this film was exquisite. But I think she is a bit too young for the role even though in reality she probably is the correct age.

Jude Law actually made Karenin far more likable than he is in the book. And that’s with a receding hairline ;)

But Count Vronsky was so horribly miscast, it was almost comical. He reminded me far too much of Jasper in Twilight. He was so not in any way the object of great desire. Or half of a tragically doomed romantic couple. Or the man a woman might leave her husband, position, child for? He was a goofy fop.

The movie IS very pretty. But it felt like it was desperately wanting to break out in the Baz Luhrmann thing of song/nifty soundtrack riffs at any moment like in Romeo & Juliet or Moulin Rouge. And I liked both of those very much – but I was expecting what I got in them when I sat down to watch them. This film seemed like it wanted to be taken seriously but just quite couldn’t get there. The book is very serious. Very. So it’s unfortunate the movie couldn’t reflect that.

The 1935 Greta Garbo version is pretty good. I never saw the Vivian Leigh version which I should watch. But frankly I like the book and I think it’s best that left way much like most great books. The imagination is a much better movie set :)

It’s been a month since Stormy left me. Hard to believe it’s been a month already really. I still get sad and regularly think, for just that split millisecond, that I hear him moving around.

But when I start to feel sad, I try to remind myself that most people didn’t expect him to make it much past 8 once he was diagnosed with Cushings or past 9 when his 2nd liver tumor (and 2nd surgery) was diagnosed as cancerous. But instead he not only survived those things, he got to go to the beach, play in the snow, have fun, eat freshly made cheeseburger, make and play with friends, and bring everyone who met him smiles every day until he was 11.

When he could no longer stand on his own (late June), I knew our time was limited. I’d help him up and use one of those slings but then he didn’t want that after awhile. But he was still a happy guy every day. He loved to sit on the deck and watch chipmunks and birds. He loved his regular ear rubs, still ahrooed for his breakfast and loved his cheeseburger and cookies. I told him that I wanted him to stay as long as he wanted, but if he started feeling sick or in pain, he had to tell me.

On August 2nd he did tell me. But I do know that he was happy up until then. And I have to remember that is what counts: all of the time that I got to spend with him. I was lucky to have been able to bring my guys to work every day all of their lives, take them to the beach or snow every day, and then work from home and spend the extra time taking care of Storm when he needed it.

I miss my boys. I spent more time with them every day for 12 years than I did anyone else in my life. It’s hard to have that gone. They made me smile every single day. They were the best friends you could ever ask for. If you are lucky enough to have a critter in your life, make sure you hug and love them every day. They deserve it and don’t stay with us long enough.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

Author unknown…

At SDCC, I went by the same booth Thursday and Friday to check out a piece of art. It was the canvas original of “Bad Girls” by Mimi Yoon. In person, this piece was amazing. The colors truly pop out and grab you. It was also almost as tall as me framed on the wall – great, great piece. It was also $15,000 and there was no way I was spending that kind of money on something withOUT Chewbacca in it ;)

Bad Girls original

Besides my Star Wars and Indy collecting, I have always loved collecting the female characters in DC and Marvel. This is a lot easier now than it was when I was younger. I still have carded action figures safe and sound from when I was a kid but they didn’t make too many of them which was pretty silly if you think about it. Pretty (and usually big boobed) super heroes sold to boys? Seems like an easy sell. Although now it’s hard to find the really awesome pieces because those same boys grew up, made some money and now buy them all up :) I think Slave Leia changed it all honestly.

I loved (well…still love) Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Batgirl, etc, etc growing up. Not because I’m some feminist girl who wanted to feel empowered/not need men/blah blah baloney though. I mostly loved that they kicked serious ass while they were pretty and wearing cool outfits with high-heeled boots. I’m such a girl :)

They had an artist proof on canvas (and paper it turned out) at a much more reasonable price plus smaller. Edition size was 100 so still a small run (paper was 250.) But SDCC had just started and I wanted to see if any new Star Wars art caught my eye before spending any money (if I spent any on art at all.) The guy at the booth was nice, and showed me some pieces they had that they weren’t allowed to display (very nice), but he was a bit pushy and kept using salesmen mumbo-jumbo “what can we do to get this done?”, “let’s schedule a sit down and talk about this”, etc. And I hate to be sold to. So I eventually got out of there and said I’d think about it.

I walked by again on Friday and looked at the original again. Still gorgeous. But my proof was gone! Sold. Darn. I guess it was not meant to be. But I was sad. I did really like the piece. Walked by again Saturday and the original was gone! (Turns out it was sold by the Chuck Jones Gallery as I learned on Sunday…)

On Sunday I decided to go to the Chuck Jones Gallery. I always stop by there when in town for SDCC. I walk in the front door and there is my Bad Girls artist proof on canvas all framed and pretty! And there is the artist! And she is signing dedication cards for the canvas if you buy one. Oh man. An employee walks up and asks me if I know this piece and gave him the above story. He smiled and and said I guess this is fate then. Yep. He knew I was sold.

Artist Mimi Yoon (and me!) with my Bad Girls :)

Mimi Yoon writing my dedication card for Bad Girls

My dedication card!

They shipped it up to me and the girls arrived all safe and sound. And I just put them up on the wall. LOVE IT. The colors pop and they catch the light as you walk by. #24 of 100. Absolutely ZERO buyer’s remorse. It was, after all, Fate :)

On the wall!

I hope you are running with Angelus chasing chipmunks.

I will miss you forever Storm.

Storm

I just watched the documentary “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope”. Loved it. I was going through con withdrawal since I got back home from SDCC last Sunday night so this was perfect. I might have to re-watch it in December as we are half way through the countdown clock to SDCC14!

It’s directed by Morgan Spurlock and written by him and Joss Whedon (and Jeremy Chilnick who I don’t know.)

It’s all real people. People who are regular attendees, the celebs who attend, real footage. It follows a handful of “characters” all attending SDCC – 2 artists who want to break into comic book illustration (1 is an Air Force guy!), an amateur costume designer who wants to showcase her work, a toy collector (I thought I had problems), a couple who met at SDCC the year prior and a comic book store owner. He happens to own Mike High Comics in Colorado who you always see there so it was interesting to follow his story.

In between showing you their 5 day adventure at SDCC (with a little back story thrown in in their hometowns first), they have clips of panels, the floor, costumed attendees, and comments by artists, actors, etc who are all part of nerd-dom :) Kevin Smith is hysterical is his clips. Joss Whedon, Seth Rogan and Seth Green show up a few times as they should but plenty more are throw in (Corey Feldman!!) Plus little blurb interviews with real attendees about why they go, what they like, what it means to them, etc.

The story about the couple is basically how he wants to propose at Comic Con. And the proposal is adorable (if you read any stories about 2011 SDCC you already knew this happened – so no spoiler!) but I was a little (lot) creeped out by how she would never let him out of her sight. I would have never given my approval for that footage if I were her. Or married her if I were him. But that’s their business.

The Mile High Comics owner has been going to comic con for 38 years (or was it 34?) and he was worried about his business and the expense of SDCC as it’s becoming less and less about comics (he is very right.) He has a very high value comic he might have to sell to pay off vendors, etc and stay in the green. Anyway, it’s an interesting story. I felt a little guilt since I now buy all my comics through my iPad. I just couldn’t store anymore :/

I think that to people that are not nerds or geeks, I am a giant nerd geek. But to real serious nerd geeks – I’m not at all. So that’s interesting (if only to me.) But I really liked this movie. And yes, I do read comics. But I’m not someone who can tell you what happened in issue 45 of Uncanny X-Men. Tell me the story, I’ll track with you though. But I do also love the movies, some shows, some collectibles and the just the fan experience. So it’s not just for comics for me. Never was. I started going because of Star Wars (my biggest nerd category for sure.) And it really is awesome to be in a place where everyone loves the same stuff. Just like going to your favorite’s team’s home game. You can’t beat that energy. And this has no drunken brawls up in the cheap seats.

They had some footage of Hall H for Kevin Smith’s panel. This is always the last panel on Saturday night. I left right before his panel that year (2011) which was right after the Cowboys & Aliens panel had Harrison Ford show up for his Con appearance EVER and the crazy Marvel panel where they brought out all of the Avengers cast (they show quick clips of both of these.) Anyway, it’s funny because I recognized several people (attendees and employees) who I see at the cons regularly. Like the woman is the traffic director at the top of the escalators going to Ball Room 20!! That made me chuckle. I actually had 3 people tell me they remembered me from last year :) It’s Chewie and the fluffy wolf ears I tell ya!

And Button Lady was there!!! In line with a question of course!! She is a woman whose costume is a long coat/dress thing that is covered head-to-toe/front and back in Con-subject related buttons. And Chris Hardwick called her Button Lady when she came up to the mic and that stuck :)

One of the comments is that Comic Con is no longer just about comics. But it’s about any really, crazy popular thing that has fans that flock to it. That’s exactly right. I’d prefer to keep it more geared to the subject matter of comics or related stuff like that. I don’t see how shows like Breaking Bad or Psych belong. But both have crazed fan bases so they do in that regard I suppose. But I never see any stupid reality TV crap there. I’ll trip Honey Boo-Boo if I have to.

Anyway, if anyone has ever been curious about Comic Con, I think this is a good way to see it. There is NO experience like going to a con for the full 4.5 days. But this is a good beak wetter :) And about all a lot of people could handle any way ;)

Here’s the official site and trailer: http://comicconmovie.com/