a99kitten's Musings

I blog about a WHOLE LOT of stuff :)

San Diego Comic Con 2013 is over. I hate the day after con withdrawal. But I am quite happy to be home to Stormy!

What a trip! Up at 4:30am Wednesday morning to arrive early enough to check-in, drop luggage off and get in line for badge pick-uo. Once in line, we made line friends. This is key to con survival in my opinion. You spend a LOT of time in lines and I can’t just sit and read the whole time. Ended up meeting very nice people from LA, NY and DC. We played card games, chatted about what we all wanted to see, our past con experiences and what we wanted when we hit the floor running tonight! Turned out we wanted similar things so we divided and conquered and each picked a booth and bought the items for the others. Met up over the next couple days to exchange and it worked out perfectly!!!

Then we got our badges and moved to the exhibit hall line where we waited for hours again. But we kept our line friends :) Then we got on to the floor and I had to run across the the entire exhibit hall to get to the Funko booth….with a huge line. DOH! No good line friends there, but made friends with some security and Funko people. I won 2 things while waiting in the Funko line and got ALL of the items I wanted plus the items my friends wanted!!! Sonya had gone to the Marvel booth and got us the exclusive Old Man Logan figure and Levi got us the Stark Shields! Our line friend went to Hasbro and got Sonya the Star Wars Angry Birds set and me the Boba Fett and Han in Carbonite – exclusive black series. VERY productive evening!!!

Then we dropped off our haul at the hotel and went to dinner at Nobu. SO. SOOO. Yummy.

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Thursday was a floor morning and Hall H afternoon. We hit up the Walking Dead booth first and went on from there. The booths by the big shows/studios were all great as usual. No line for Hall H yet so we walked in and the seat master (my friend Sonya who I always go to cons with) got us seats in dead center row 11!!! For HARRISON FORD!!!

First up was the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel. It’s 3 directors with movies coming out. They were all fantastic. But I really liked Edgar Wright- he was FUNNY. Then the Divergent panel. I had never even heard of the movie and barely recall hearing about the books. But the panel was fantastic. A lot of the cast showed up as well as the author and it was a very fun panel. Footage looked great and it intrigued me enough to download the first 2 books of the series (3rd coming out soon.) I’m about 1/3 of the way through Book 1 and really like it so far.

Then it was Ender’s Game time. Again, I have barely heard of the book but, according to the panel, is required by the US Military? Between that and the footage, I was intrigued enough to download Book 1 of that series too. Will start after Divergent 1 and 2. But of course, the main reason I was in that Hall H today was for my man. He never, ever, never does cons. When he showed up unannounced for Cowboys & Aliens 2 years ago the place erupted into to a giant flashbulb and long, unending scream. This time he was announced a week or 2 ago. Hall H was easily 1/2 empty when we showed up around 12:30. But as it got closer to Enders Game panel time (3:30 I think), the place filled up completely and there ended up being a line of people who didn’t get in. Every single person in our section said they were there for Harrison Ford. Of course :)

Of course the applause and screaming and flashbulbs went on forever when he came out. And of course during the Q&A you get the jackass who doesn’t ask him about his current movie but instead a Han Solo/Indiana Jones question. This is the reason he doesn’t go to these things. The question was “if Han Solo and Indiana Jones met, what would they say?” Everyone in the hall booed the guy and yelled noooooooo. Come on. Harrison took off his glasses, looked around and said “I’m never coming back here” and started to get up. He was obviously kidding and chuckled and sat back down. Then said “I don’t know…..’Hi. How are you?'” He has definitely settled himself comfortably into the role of the lovable curmudgeon with a dry sense of humor we all can’t help but love. Got a few good pics but this is my favorite..

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Sonya and I both agreed that I could have *easily* run up there and jumped him before security could stop me. But I restrained myself :)

Another awesome Thursday activity was being a pool of gold and silver!!! This is my ultimate Uncle Scrooge goal (but with real gold and silver) :)

Hehehehehe

Hehehehehe

We left Hall H after the Enders Game panel was done. More floor time, drop stuff at hotel and then dinner at Lolita’s. Carne Asada fries! O.M.G. We ran into some friends so went to the MTV2 party after dinner with them. We lasted about 1 hour. Not my thing. But a big party that I think MTV spent a boatload on. Live bands that I might know if I was a tweener. Huge fireworks display, tons of interactive stuff all around plus free food and wine/beer/sodas. Plus free giant glowsticks :) It didn’t have one single thing to do with SDCC other than being a spectacle but oh well.

Friday was a beast. Sonya’s fiancee camped out in Hall H line starting around midnight. We met him around 5:30-6ish with Starbucks. Day was loaded with The World’s End (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Kick Ass 2 (cast), Riddick (Vin Diesel and Katee Sackhoff), The Walking Dead (huge cast panel) and The Game of Thrones (huge cast panel.) All were great but I think GOT was my favorite. Although the footage for TWD S4 was INSANE!!! But besides the fact that I love the books and TV series and the cast are always great to see on these panels, they started the panel with lights off and this video:

http://youtu.be/9m4ZPULXJKw

ONLY watch if you are caught up on Season 3! It’s an In Memoriam of all the characters who have died through the 3 seasons set to Boys to Men and with a little humor thrown in. GREAT execution. They never have footage to show since their season just ended and hasn’t start filming for the next season yet. So they need to be creative and always are. During the panel, Jason Momoa ruhed onstage and kissed Emilia Clarke (Daenerys). I didn’t hear what he said to her but then as he rushed off she said “My Sun and Stars…” You could tell they were all surprised by his fly-by so that was fun :)

After the GOT panel ended, my friends went off and did their thing and I went to the floor for a bit. Picked up a drawing I had commissioned on Artists Alley:

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It really is amazing watching these guys draw.

The GOT cast were at the WB booth. Peter Dinklage waved at me. But sooo crowded around there I left pretty quickly. After checking out the floor for a bit, decided to head over to check out the stuff on the lawn at the Hilton Bayfront. Checked that all out and decided to get a soda and sit down. As I was tweeting/instagramming/facebooking, I looked up and saw Jason Momoa (aka Khol Drogo.) I jumped up and asked for a pic! He was very sweet and even though his handler was trying to rush him away, he did. When he saw my Chewbacca phone case he said “Your Chewbacca phone is a f***ing awesome!” LOL

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By Friday night, we were all far too tired to even consider camping for Hall H on Friday night/Saturday morning. We all really wanted to see everything in there but at some point, your adultness sets in and a bed and shower sound better. I really think they will need to do something about the camping. Pretty much not fair if a family with kids or 60 yr old wants to see a Hall H panel but can’t because camping is truly a suck option. Plus being that exhausted makes for not as fun of a day, IMO. And frankly, the non-showering situation is very noticeable. But oh well. I’ll find a college kid and pay him to camp for me next year. Capitalism will prevail.

So Sonya and I did Ballroom 20 all day instead. Only had to line up at 6:30am! And then Sonya’s seat-masterness won again – front row! All fun panels PLUS I got to run to the floor and pick up the last SDCC13 exclusive collectible that I had wanted. You needed to get in line for a wristband in order to buy it and I was able to get it on Saturday AM! Sonya got to ask a question in the True Blood panel and I got to see the panels I wanted to. While we were bummed not to be in Hall H for Tom Cruise and Marvel, we had a really great day.

The key to having fun at Comic Con is have a Plan A, B and C. There are a LOT of people, so a lot of lines. So you can’t always get into/do your Plan A. But that’s no reason to not have fun since there is sooooo much stuff going on!!

Dinner at Fleming’s was super delicious. There was a table across from us that I saw 3 different women stop and ask for pics so it was someone famous-ish. Just someone I didn’t recognize. Turns out it was some cast members from Survivor. Then saw the guy (also an MMA fighter?) who played the Mr T role in the new A-Team movie there. And then a long time twitter friend met me there with his wife for drinks. A fun day and night for sure!!

Sundays are for packing up, checking out and walking the floor or downtown. Sonya and I were strolling downtown and saw Michael Rooker right in front of the Hard Rock Hotel! Merle!!! Asked for a quick picture and he said sure even though his handler was trying to wrangle him. He was very sweet and told me take good care of my ears (was wearing my fluffy wold ears as usual) :) We went on to an early lunch after waiting in line for the Game of Thrones exhibit but giving up on it. Off to Lolita’s! (Hey – these are only found in San Diego!) Then we hit the floor for a bit. Madness! Got some decent swag and took a few more pics and then it was time for Sonya to head for the airport. I went back downtown as I wanted to go to the Chuck Jones Gallery. They always do fun things for SDCC week. I walked in, and saw the canvas of the piece I almost bought on the floor but talked myself out of several times, right there front and center. Turns out the artist was in the gallery and doing dedications if you bought the piece. Seriously? It was fate at this point. So I did it. This is the larger original:

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I actually bought 2 pieces there. When I get them (being shipped to me), I will blog again with photos and their history. Both are beautiful. At least to me.

Then it was time to go! No more buying!!! Hotel, airport, airplane, airport, driving. HOME! Plus I shipped most of my stuff so when I get that box in a day or 2, it will be like a mini-Comic Con/Christmas all over again :)

The only bummer about the Con is that Disney kept any and all news about Star Wars away. Nothing. Nada. I assume they are holding anything back and will release it at D23 – Disney’s expo. But this is truly their audience and since they realize that with Marvel, they should realize it with Star Wars. I can only hope that since they probably don’t have that much to reveal yet, they WILL change their minds and do something at SDCC14 when more information about the new Star Wars movies are available. Fingers and paws crossed.

I realized that while I was there I only saw tweets or FB posts related to Comic Con. No other tweets, no Facebook, no news, no TV, no politics, no media other than fun. And I was in a GREAT mood the entire time! I way, way prefer that. I think I need to clean up my twitter and FB feeds.

I have tons of fun every year. It gets crazier each year plus more and more crowded and maybe I will get tired of dealing with that at some point, but probably not. I like finding new shows, movies, comics and books to investigate and it’s fun to be surrounded by people who like the same things. Of course, I can only take that many people for so long :) Sad SDCC is over but now back home in the mountains with NO lines, very few people plus my very own Hoth Stormtrooper so it’s all A-OK :)

Storm 7.22

Flickr link for all the pics: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjH1QZjv

Cynicism: a Greek philosophy of the 4th century B.C. advocating the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control and individual freedom, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath the dignity of man. — Cynic, n. — Cynical, adj.

I was catching up on my Vanity Fair reading in the sun yesterday. Actually just my legs were in the sun. It was so hot that my head felt like it was going to spontaneously combust after 15 minutes. And just why exactly are calves the hardest part to tan?!?! Anyway…

I have not read my VFs since last year so I have a stack of them. They are more of a summer time in the sun reading item for me. I like to page through the entire thing including the Letters section. I noticed 2 people wrote in about inaccuracies from an article about King Tut. It happens all the time and usually the pat response is “we stand by the author, the end,”

But in this issue, someone pointed out that the packing and shipping of the artifacts wasn’t entirely explained (having to do with political upheaval, the navy, etc. not just packing tape issues. Actually interesting details.)

The second letter pointed out that the article stated that the “Treasures of Tutankhamum” tour concluded at the Met in NYC when, in fact, it went on to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco afterwards and that the attendance surpassed that of all other shows. And even that the museum stayed open longer several days a week (until midnight) to accommodate all of the visitors.

VF replied that the original article by the author included all of these details but they were cut due to space constraints.

Really? It’s a 13 1/2 page article (about half were photos.)

So a couple details about a subject you were writing about were just cut? And by cutting the SF detail, you could say the article stated a falsehood by saying the show concluded in NYC. I assume anyone taking the time to read the article was doing so because they are interested in the subject and wanted to know about it. So who decided these were insignificant details to simply cut?

But I’m not some huge Tut fan or SF museum tour fan insulted by this slight. No, my bigger question is how many times does this happen in more “important” articles such as Vanity Fair’s tiresome Obama and liberal ass-kissing/bashing anything and anyone not drinking the Kool Aid being force-fed to everyone.

The media’s job now is to sell magazines, newspapers, ad clicks, get eyeballs on the site and unique visitors up. The truth? Include all the facts? That’s just silly and old-fashioned. We report what we want to report. What we think you should read.

This is why I never, ever, ever just believe anything I read in a magazine, paper or anything from any “news” outlet. But you’d hope that at least the fun/fluff subjects would be easier to be honest about. I guess not.

2nd quarter is in the books. It’s crazy to think the year is halfway over. Zoinks. 180 days until Christmas!!

I just did a quick calculation and for Q2 2013 I am up +13% in my trading account. I say once again not too shabby at all. Sadly, I would have been up more if we ended the quarter at the end of May but that’s my fault. Ugh. But again keeping in mind that my trading account is small as I consider it more of my gambling/learning/shopping account. And through May we have had a great bull run.

My biggest win by far for the quarter was trading TSLA. Sadly I wanted to buy and hold in my 401k as well as trade it but never did. When it was in the low 30s! Doh. Oh well. I day traded it with everyone else so it’s not like I was genius. Sure was as a fun run though :) I’m still holding a 1/4 position. Second biggest win was definitely in solar. Mostly SCTY calls before earnings, but then trading in and out of FSLR and SCTY. Again…sadly though…I am still holding 1/2 positions from higher prices in both so they might be my sad face positions next quarter. Also did very well with NUGT and DUST. Consolation trades for my physical gold. But that’s a long term holding and like Uncle Scrooge, I will just keep hoarding! ;) I know most people hate gold. Maybe that’s the reason I like it.

scrooge-mcduck

Ironically my biggest loser was DUST. Sold my last bit of it for a loss right before it skyrocketed. Dope. But I’ve learned my lesson there. Other big losers were all option ER plays. While I’ve apparently not learned some lessons, I have learned to limit downside risk if deciding to gamble on ER.

Like the 1st Q, besides my TSLA and ER trades, I am still basically following trades in the 12631 trading room made by chessNwine and RaginCajun and a few other ideas thrown out by other traders in the room. I have way, way more winners than losers by doing this.

But my biggest mistake, that I KEEP making and ***really*** need to deprogram myself of, is the feeling that I will miss a run so don’t sell when I have a winner. Then some stupid headline comes out or some bad economic data point and the market tanks taking my wins with it. I am really, really, really, not being very disciplined and I think I would cry if I looked at what I *could* have made but let go due to greed/stupidity/whatever. Now, true, sometimes I do get the wins and they do run further but I am determined to make myself learn this lesson. I keep a spreadsheet of all my trades and mark the ones that I feel were failed whether they turn to losses, flat or even still positive but not as much as they were. I label them *stupid*.

My gut ends up being right a lot, but I don’t listen to it enough. Sigh.

Started my hike with Shadow today on the paved path. I had him up on the path versus by the river to walk past a section where some birds are nesting. We don’t need anymore carnage. As I was coming around a bend, I saw a woman with her dog on leash yelling at another older woman with an off-leash lab. Shadow and I have met the lady and her lab before and the lab is pretty darn innocuous. But I didn’t see what happened so what do I know.

Then as the woman was approaching us on the path, I see that she is on her cell phone. She is talking but I assume to whoever she was on the phone with. Shadow was walking on my right sniffing stuff but then saw the dog and crossed in front of me to go see the dog. He’s actually really good with other dogs and likes to sniff and say hi to everyone. Then the woman starts yelling “leash your dog please!”, so I grabbed Shadow long before he got up to her dog. Easily 5-6 feet away. As she walked closer her dog starts pulling and growling and she says “Nice. Thank you sooo much for leashing your dog” quite sarcastically. As she walks by us with her dog snarling she says “you need to show some respect.” Umm. Excuse me? When YOUR dog is being the aggressive one?

I say back “this is an off leash area.” She argues that if you see someone with a leashed dog, you should put your dog on leash. I respond “No – this is a popular off leash area and every other dog is off leash as well. And YOUR dog is trying to get mine who is just quietly standing here” She screams back “You need to show me respect and leash your dog!!” Screaming like a fracking nutbag. I shake my head, say “All about peace baby” and walk away. I was *not* spoiling my walk with this freak. She was a glaring example of a modern dirty hippie. Long stringy hair, tie dyed tank top, VERY obvious unshaven arm pits (GAH! Cover that nonsense up), and heavily tatted up arms. All she was missing was a giant neon sign flashing hippie. Although one who clearly didn’t smoke enough pot this morning to take the edge off of her day.

Behind me, I hear her yell at this old woman with her VERY old off-leash dog (Shadow and I had just passed them.) WTH? Who yells at an old lady with an old dog. Also, keep in mind, she never once got off the phone and put it in her pocket. Stupid hag.

I understand having a leashed dog where there are off leash ones can be stressful. It’s hard. I used to keep Angelus and Storm on leash a lot as they were typical huskies. Take off at the drop of a hat to explore. They were only allowed to go off-leash at a fenced dog park or a beach that was very protected. Or in the snowy forest. Angelus was never aggressive but Storm could get into it with some dogs when he was younger so I would always scout out the dogs first. And having a dog on leash, in a leash-only area, and having an off-leash dog come running at you is stressful too. I’ve had that happen plenty of times. It usually ends with ever popular “Oh, my dog has never done that before”.

But bringing your aggressive dog to a very popular dog area where dogs are always off leash is just plain stupid. And irresponsible. Happened a couple times last week. First a golden retriever attacked Shadow, who just sniffed him (Goldens are not the dream dogs people think they are) and the woman asks “Is your dog a male?” Yes I say. “Oh, he is aggressive with males.” If you know that, then why the hell is he walking off-leash you stupid wench?? 2 minutes after the altercation with Shadow, I hear him do it to another dog on the path. Gah.

Then a couple days later a woman with a giant pitbull, who she could barely control, started pulling and barking at Shadow and 2 black labs he was playing with. It was a Saturday and the place was full of dogs so what the hell was she thinking? I took Shadow down to the river and I could hear her dog barking at several other dogs as she continued her walk on the path. Nice.

It boggles my mind when people think everyone around them should cater to their needs. Sorry. Not the way it should work. Unfortunately society has started to go this way more and more and people just expect it.

“All about me – who cares about anyone else.”
“I’m not responsible”

If your dog is aggressive, you need to keep him/her on leash. Period. And if they are aggressive on leash if other dogs approach them, walk them in a leashed area only. Where all dogs are on leash so there are no attempted meet and greets. Because that is what dogs do. But getting agro and yelling at people and expecting them to cater to you and your needs. No.

I ordered these last week during a Neiman Marcus sale and they were just delivered. And then the CEO for Manolo Blahnik was on CNBC with this pump (but in the awesome suede pink color!) as soon as I walked in from my hike. He was saying that this shoe (Bb pump) is THE classic shoe to own. I agree. He also mentioned that sales are showing how women are tiring of the stacked pump (so, so, so true…waaaaaaay to rap video now.)

So…fate, right? :) I say keepers! They were on sale!!

Bb Bright Patent Blue Pump

Bb Bright Patent Blue Pump

Yesterday at lunch there was a guy showing everyone his Samsung Galaxy #*whichever number is the newest one*. Literally every other person sitting there had an iPhone so he wanted to show us what he could do that we could not. He was trying that ‘talk to the phone to get it to do things’ like in the commercials. But he had to yell at it several times to get it to make a call. If I saw some guy walking on the street yelling at his phone, I’d assume he was crazy :) But maybe he was doing it wrong?

He showed us the new Superman trailer. Definitely looked very cool on his screen. Cannot deny the screen is its best selling feature. After we all watched the trailer (and the girls ogled at Henry Cavill!) he assured us that we would all switch over if we tried it out. No. No I won’t. Again, the screen was nifty – both in clarity and size, no denying that. But the size was also the problem. There was no way that giant thing felt right in my hand. It was considerably bigger – not just the screen but the whole phone was a LOT bigger. There is no way I could do 1 handed thumb typing on it like I always do when hiking. I’m sure it works well for guys. Or the lady with man hands from Seinfeld. But I really, really hope Apple figures out a way to give us a slightly bigger/better screen without making the entire handset bigger.

And there was no way it would fit in ANY of my pants, skirts or shorts pockets. Girl pockets are very small. I’d like bigger pockets since I’m always carrying my phone, dog cookies and poo bags in pretty much all outfits, but fashion seems to disagree with that and has since the dawn of time unless you rock the mom jeans look like Obama (Never. Ever. Ever.) And it wouldn’t fit into half my small handbags. Or if it did, nothing else would.

I already almost drop my phone out of my pocket or jacket on a regular basis. Or it will just slip out of my pockets when sitting in the car, etc. which then gets it drop-kicked across the parking lot. Sonofa… Anything bigger, forget it. I’d need a backpack!

Funny thing is remember back in the 90s when phones were getting smaller and smaller. The teeny-tiniest ones were the best and we were all convinced it would just become a node in your ear (or implant in your head!) Obviously that won’t work with a smartphone (yet…) but no way I want a “phablet”. Plus since I have a Mac and iPad, Apple TV and iTunes – I have no intention in messing with my eco-system.

So here is hoping Apple designers already know the above. And don’t just bow to the cries of fanboys who seem to have to watch videos everywhere so demand a bigger everything.

…we adopted this messy, drooly, fluffy, critter-hunting pig pen of a beast…

Beast

Beast

Shadow has been a challenge for sure but he has made a lot of progress in becoming a good canine citizen. I’m glad we rescued him and have been able to give him a life he can enjoy, even if he says he is being abused when not allowed to catch all of the chipmunks that torment him from the yard :)

Storm still says “he is a disgusting mess and keep him far away from me.”

Adoption day

Adoption day

Got Snow?

Got Snow?

No, not me. My kitty. She was the original a99kitten. Back in 1999, when I would work on my computer at home at night as my husband (well, fiancee back then) and I started a company at night while I worked at a hedge fund during the day and he was in business school at Stanford, Gypsy would demand attention by laying across my keyboard and knocking the mouse around. She was a cyber kitten and she got the nickname a99kitten when she wouldn’t let me type as I was choosing my username :)

I was signing up for Yahoo and needed a username. I came up with a99kitten for her. It’s been with me since then and I can’t imagine ever changing it. But usernames seem to last longer than kittens :(

We got Gypsy to keep my other cat Jack company. He predated my husband. Jack was a good kitty but since we worked so much and were out of the house a lot, he seemed lonely. We would come home and he’d be in the window looking out and meowing :( So we got him a sister. He liked her right away but she would hiss and swat at him. Jack was a BIG kitty and she was a small kitten but she really wanted no part of him. Her first weekend with us, Jack was sitting on my lap and she was sitting next to me on the bed. She would hiss at him for no reason, and he would smack her in the head with his tail. They kept this up for about 20 minutes. Was pretty funny actually.

The next day, she was still hissing and swatting him at him all the time, even though he wasn’t doing anything. I left them alone for about an hour in the house. I figured, they will work it out. Came back home and they were sitting next to each other. With NO hissing or swatting! They were best friends and inseparable from then.

When we got Angelus, he would chase them up into their cat trees if they ran from him but was generally he didn’t care about them. Then we got Storm. All of a sudden there was a pack. And prey. Storm taught Angelus how much fun it was to chase the cats and try and get them and shake them. If we were home and awake, everyone could live together without incident but at night, the dogs stayed in the bedroom with us. And if I had to leave the dogs home for some reason (they typically went with me everywhere), then I would put the cats in the guest room.

But they got Jack and Gypsy each once. Each time it was for only a second or 2 and the cats were always OK since we separated it quickly, but it was not OK for them to live in fear. So my husband found this company that made outdoor cat enclosures that you build in your yard. They were the size of small rooms. He drove out to the middle of nowhere California and picked up the kit the weekend after the dogs got Gypsy. He built it and put in several cat trees and shelves. I filled it with their beds and blankets. Had tarps on it to close when it got stormy. We ran electricity from under the house to it and put in an electric water fountain (Jack refused to drink standing water) and moved them in.

They actually really seemed to like it as they got sunshine in, could watch the birds, etc. But it also meant they couldn’t snuggle with me anymore :( And from pretty much that point on, I felt like a failure of a cat mom. Sure they were safe, dry, well fed, etc but still. I recognize a lot of cats live outdoors and don’t get that much care but mine always had. I would go out and see them daily. Give them fresh food, water, etc. Pet them, brush them. When I went out of town, friends came by to check on them or I hired a local woman who did pet care to come daily.

We considered finding them a new home but that’s pretty much impossible. There are so many cats and dogs in shelters that I couldn’t ever ask a friend to choose my safe and cared for cats over a shelter cat who would be put down if not adopted.

Several years ago, Jack died. So that left Gypsy alone out there. Then I felt really horrible. I would try and visit her more but it was still not the same for as having her kitty brother or living inside with her humans. But it also wasn’t right to bring her inside so she could be afraid every day.

When I moved up here full time last November, I brought her up with me. I made the upstairs her domain and the dogs were not allowed up there ever. She seemed so, so, so, so happy. I have 2 guest rooms so she had numerous beds to sleep on and under (of course she didn’t want either of her beds that she had.) She would cruise downstairs at night when the dogs were asleep and I went upstairs numerous times during the day to pet her and brush her. She seemed like a happy little kitty.

About a month ago or so, I noticed that she wasn’t eating. After 2 days of that, I took her in to the vet hoping for a simple, fixable problem. Nope. She was in renal failure. Now, that can mean a day, a week, a month, a year. You just don’t know. I started giving her sub-cutaneous fluids daily, extra potassium and put her on a special diet. She seemed like she was happy again. Yay. But kidney failure isn’t curable. Just manageable. And she is 16.

Yesterday morning she didn’t want to get up to eat. She’d ate like a champ if I brought it to her but she didn’t want to walk anymore. I brought her out into the sun with me on the deck and we hung out. Storm stayed in the shade and said we were crazy.

But then she didn’t want to eat last night. I brought her bed into my bed last night and she slept there. This morning she doesn’t want any food or water. She doesn’t get up from her bed. It’s her time. We are now hanging out on the deck in the sun. She has always loved the sun. Every time I pet her, she purrs and purrs. It’s a very hard decision to make when you see them looking at you and they seem like they are “there”. But her body is betraying her. And I do not want her in pain or feeling very sick. She deserves better than that.

I called the vet this AM and she agreed that beyond giving her fluids, there is not much to do at this point. It’s just deciding when. I had to with Jack and it was awful. Angelus took that decision out of my hands, which I am frankly still not fully recovered from. Gypsy will need me to help her. We are sunning for the rest of the morning and afternoon and I am taking her to vet late this afternoon. It’s not fair. She finally gets back inside and is happy and nature takes her away.

Gypsy has been a great little kitten who always just loved people and attention. She is the true a99kitten.

Gypsy

Gypsy

So I drove down to the bay area yesterday for some appointments. It’s funny because I as drive down the mountain, through Auburn and Sacramento valley, I was thinking it was a calm, easy drive. Hit the tail-end of the morning commute traffic in Roseville but I planned the drive to avoid any commute traffic in the East bay/SF area. Yeah….

It was 11:00am when I got to Berkeley. It should take me 15 minutes to get from there across the Bay Bridge. Took 45. Non-commute traffic on a weekday. What. The. Hell?

Was nightmare traffic all the way down 101 to Palo Alto. Once in Palo Alto, an old man almost crashed into me as well as run over a pedestrian because he failed to notice the GIANT sign and painted words on the asphalt designating the lane he chose as right turn only. He thought that only applied to others apparently and went straight. The girl in the crosswalk in front us, who he almost took out, looked like she wanted to shoot the guy in the face. Rightfully so. I would have helped her.

Finished my Palo Alto appointments and headed to the coast for the last of my appointments. Again, non-commute hours. 2:45pm on a weekday. Driving up Sand Hill Road to 280 and 2 different cars ran stop signs and almost took out cars or bikers. One guy held up traffic so he could do an illegal u-turn right in front of the No U Turn sign. Guess that sign didn’t apply to him.

I won’t mention the numerous jackasses (statistically almost always in a Prius) that claim the fast lane as their own and go 55mph on the freeways. I literally want to punch them in their faces.

Then on Hwy 92, a huge truck decided that the center line divider was merely a suggestion and almost caused a huge accident by gong waaaay over the line and taking out all of the oncoming cars. Thankfully he dropped his cell phone and corrected in the nick of time probably only causing a mild heart attack in the driver of the car first in his path.

I left the coast around 7:30pm after checking traffic online and seeing both ways to Highway 80 were equal in their suckage. Chose the Bay Bridge over 880. A guy on 101, near the 101/80 split stopped his car in heavy traffic, put on his blinkers, and pulled out a map. Yep. Car wasn’t stalled. No car problems. He just wanted to see where he was going. So who cares about the hundreds of cars around and behind you. Not kidding. Pulled out a map. First of all – who the hell has a paper map anymore?!?!?! After tons of cars were honking, he put the map down and drove off flipping off the car behind him who dared honk. I was in the lane next to him so I saw it all. Unreal.

On 80 somewhere between SF and Cordelia (I don’t pay attention to those places except the exit to Napa!), a guy went from the far left lane all the way across to an exit. I guess he realized he was about to miss his exit. And who cares about the 5 lanes of traffic you just cut off and caused everyone to slam on their brakes? They aren’t important.

Once I got out of east bay, traffic cleared up. There were spots of slowness due to nighttime road construction but nothing major. And no idiots showed themselves. I’m sure they are out there, but simply statistically less of them once out of the way-too-crowded bay area.

I lived in the bay area during the dot com boom and the traffic then was a nightmare. Every day. All the time. You can never just go anywhere. You have to plan on horrific traffic. Weekend jaunt? Ha! Plan an extra few hours of sitting in or navigating traffic. It’s stupid. The biggest stupid part is the local governments all talked about expanding the roadways, blah blah back during the dot com boom. They did start working on Highway 101 then. They are still working on it. 13-15 years later. Awesome.

The place is simply too crowded. And it will stay that way as long as the area stays successful. And who doesn’t want that? Of course we do. BUT, people need to learn how to drive. If people just applied common sense and **paid attention**, a lot of accidents and slow traffic could be avoided. But that won’t happen.
And guess what? You are not the most important person in the world so you don’t just get to do whatever you want. There ARE other drivers out there. You do have to look when merging. You need to look in your mirror or turn your head, Not just close your eyes and pray no one is occupying the space you want to move into. But also need to merge. Not come to a complete STOP on the on-ramp and sit there too scared to move. ARGH!!!! Get off the road. Turn in your license, sell your car and take the bus.

I know traffic is bad in other areas. We are not alone in that. But I am willing to bet we have some of the WORST drivers in the US in the bay area. The Worst. Worst. Worst. Ever.

Now I am back in the mountains. And so happy. Peace. Sure the tourists are stupid in the winter and cause all sorts of problems with their inability to drive in snow and ice. But it’s still waaaaay better than dealing with the mess and masses in the bay area. And guess where most of those tourists are from……

I was down in the Bay Area today and HAD to go to the Stanford Shopping Center to return some shoes.

I wanted to swing by the Louis Vuitton boutique to look at a bag I saw in Vanity Fair. It was super cute but I was pretty sure wouldn’t be right for me, especially at the price. But no harm in looking….right?

As I assumed, the bag was too big for me (whew.) Especially for a fun spring/summer bag. Now that I don’t tote around a bunch of junk to and from an office, I have gone back to my little bag preference. Way more me.

As I was saying “sorry no” to the salesgirl, I saw a cute yellow bag up on the highest display shelf above all the standard LV monogram stuff. She followed my eyes and said “oh yes, you will like that.” :)

She pulled it down and bingo. That was it. I carried both around the store and both my salesgirl and another salesman agreed the smaller bag worked for me better. Since the other bag cost more than twice as much, I was glad to see they weren’t trying to push it! Plus my salesgirl was super friendly and we chatted about Tahoe.

I’ve never been a big fan of LV because I don’t like to be a walking billboard for your brand. A small logo, sure. Who doesn’t like to see those small, cute interlocking CCs :) But when the designers plaster their logos all over your bag or shoes (or arse…talking directly to you Juicy Couture), I say no thanks. Not for me. Although I do really like the Murakami line they did. Very pretty.

But this bag has only 1 little embossed LV in the corner. Perfect! Plus it’s yellow! Well…technically Citron. She is my first Louis. The Alma BB Epi. And unfortunately for me they make her in a quite a lot of cute colors. Uh-oh…

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Since my birthday is a month-ish away, I decided that this would be my annual gift to myself! I blame re-watching Sex and the City last weekend. That and The Devil Wears Prada always and without fail make me want to shop. I also blame my friends who were not there to talk me out of it ;)

Cannot wait to take her out and celebrate :)