Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

18 Jan

Too close to home

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

From my brother, Sparkles—

Please read the linked story before you read this post. My rant does gets a little nasty at the end, I try very hard not to swear on Facebook but not this time. I’ve had a little time to think and calm down after hearing about this today so that I don’t alienate everyone but that doesn’t say much. Just know the bear has been poked…

My daughter’s school was put in lockdown today for absolutely legitimate reasons. She sat huddled with her classmates in a fucking corner while the teacher read to them just like the kids in Newtown. What did your right to own a gun do for her today in this scenario? I don’t think guns should be banned but it sure as hell better get a lot harder and more expensive to purchase, sell, own and posses any firearms, ammo and paraphernalia. Luckily she is still too young to know all the details of Newtown, but she does know about it. So, it was no big deal to her that they were in lockdown. They really are still too young to understand the danger. But I have to deal with it.

We need to fix mental health care and its stigma.

There are many, many types of weapons that civilians have no business owning.

Your rights are starting to infringe on my right to feel safe and that my family is safe from your “sports” equipment whether in your hands or someone else’s.

I’m a runner, my shoes are not capable of mass murder. What is your “sports” equipment capable of? 

What well formed and trained militia do you belong to?

Is it the French or English you are worried about? Maybe Old Ironsides haunts your dreams?

If you think teachers should have guns like some do in countries like Isreal please move there. They also have to worry about their house being shelled every night. 

In other words, keep your guns away from my kids. There is no place for weapons at school by anyone other than trained professionals. The risk of accidents far outweighs the possibility that they would actually need them.

If you are not a cop but think you are a trained professional in firearms and own any firearms please unfriend me now. You are a danger to yourself and those around you. No, seriously, I don’t want to know you.

Was it harder to get a gun or a drivers license?

If you have a loaded weapon in your house, please unfriend me. You are a danger to yourself and others.

My daughters can not accidentally fire the piece of steel load bar under my bed. It can be stolen but I’m pretty sure it won’t sell for much and probably won’t be used to kill someone you know or love.

I’ll take my chances with that load bar in my house against someone any day, it has no safety, I don’t have to load it and it can not get jammed. And I know my house better than someone else. It could be used against me, but at least I have a better chance of living because, more often than not, your gun gets used against you by strangers and people you know.

If we knew what caused cancer we would eradicate it, correct? Well, we know what causes death from gunshot wounds.

We need to be talking also about gun violence in our cities. Newtown happens everyday when you combine daily gun deaths in America. All life is precious.

If you are a responsible gun owner who keeps your weapons and ammo locked, continuously, away from each other, then I’m not talking to you. If you are a hunter with a one shot rifle, I support you. If you are someone who likes to go to the gun range with a hand gun, I’m still ok there. Again, as long as you are truly responsible with your weapon, I support you. If you are a rancher, or farmer, who needs to protect your herd or crops from predators, I salute you—you put food on my table. If you think we should arm everyone including teachers, then please take your knuckles off the ground, extend a finger, and find the unfriend button. Whether friend or family I don’t want to be associated with you. You are a dangerous Neanderthal and I don’t want myself or my family associated with you. Think I’m being a little over zealous? Fuck You! My daughter sat in a corner for 20 fucking minutes today while someone played with a gun a half mile from the school. Illegally obtained. If he didn’t have THE GUN she would not have sat in a fucking corner and I wouldn’t have the fucking image in my head.

Think your tough guy attitude and your gun would have solved the issue? FUCK YOU! Unfriend me now.

What if the government breaks down and I need to defend myself? Then you are a paranoid delusional and you need help and shouldn’t own a gun. Until you get that help please unfriend me and stay away from me and my family. You are a danger to yourself and others.

Gun enthusiasts have had their “fun” but it’s not fun anymore. Your equipment can cause mass murder. Even a 6-round clip can cause the devastation that happened in Newtown. All you need is more clips. The “sport” is over, it’s time to be responsible citizens and care about each other. What you see as recreation has the possibility to cause death and devastation on a very wide scale. What is sporting about that? Is your recreation really worth the even small chance your weapon could cause the death of your child?

17 Sep

Karma++

Posted by K in Only you, Uncategorized.

Perl and I went out for our morning morning constitutional.  Just after passing the carports, she stopped to poo.  About two feet away, I spotted a plastic, blue checkbook.

I looked inside.  The address wasn’t in my complex.  And there was no phone number.  So I put the checkbook in my pullover and went on our walk.

When we returned back to my condo, I emailed the management company to see if there are any owners by that name.  I went for years without changing the address on my checkbook.  It still said Connecticut.  Even the bank name had changed during that time.  The routing number was still the same, so I figured it was okay.

Her bank was Wells Fargo.  Not exactly a local bank that would know all its customers by name.  I looked through the registry, just out of curiosity.  Maybe there would be a small, local store that would know her.  Nordstrom’s, Macy’s, the IRS.  I felt dirty for looking, so I stopped.

The management company responded.  She didn’t own a place in the complex.  I decided I’d just mail it to her.  But by the time she got it, she definitely would have cancelled all the checks and wondered where she had left it. I have a better plan.

I was scheduled to have lunch with a friend, M—he doesn’t have a name yet, and don’t get excited, he isn’t single—so I asked if we could go early because I had “errands to run in Los Gatos.”  He said sure.

We were five minutes down the road before he asked, “What errands?”

“I found a checkbook and want to return it to get the karma points.”

Only me, right?  He was excited to be included on one of my “adventures”.  This was bound to be blog worthy.

So we drove to Los Gatos and found the house.  No cars in the yard.  There was a mailman on the street.  I went up to the front door and knocked, ready with my, “I’m looking for C” speech.

No one answered.  I wasn’t particularly surprised.  I looked around for any identifying information.  A “Welcome to C’s House” mat.  Something on the door.  Nothing.  But I had a backup plan.  The postman.

I walked up to the truck and asked, “Excuse me.  Is this C’s house?”

He looked skeptical.  He thought for a moment that this was a question he shouldn’t answer.  I used my vulcan mind tricks on him and convinced him to answer.  ”Yes,” he said timidly.

“Sweet!” I said excitedly as he recoiled, so I continued, “I found a checkbook and just wanted to return it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.  I could use the karma points.  Where is the mailbox?”

“Follow me.”  It was a slot on the side of the garage behind a bush.  I never would have found that.

I slipped the checkbook through the slot.  Just then, I wished I’d left a note in it.  Something like, “Pay it forward,” or “Check this website for the story of your checkbook,” but I hadn’t done it earlier.  Now it was too late.  Eh.

I walked back to the car and exclaimed as if I’d just leveled up in a video game, “Karma points earned!  Now we can go to lunch!”

Since we were in Los Gatos, I reluctantly suggested Enoteca La Storia.  Reluctantly because I knew I would enjoy it too much and spend too much time there and that I might lose all of the karma points I’d just earned.  A friend works there during the days, so we asked her for recommendations.  The fresh, spreadable mozzarella with the owner’s homegrown, heirloom tomatoes on toasted bread with fresh basil was just as they had described it. “Hedonistic.”  Paired with a pinot grigio.  And the Hazelnut and Chocolate cake with shaved bacon (it was barely any bacon—I’ve eaten more of my own skin grating parmesan cheese) was to die for.

Supposedly, a decadent meal is not cause for losing karma points, but this one was sinful.

I still think I’m up at least one karma point though.  I’m trying to save them up for Italy.  I might need them.

8 Jul

Yosemite

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

It has taken a while, but I finally put my photos of Yosemite up.  Enjoy!

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9 May

Mitsy and Pablo

Posted by K in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , .

I have a hard time admitting to reality sometimes.  But eventually, it catches up with us all.  So here is the story of what has happened over the last week.

On Tuesday of last week, I took Mitsy and Pablo to the vets.  They have been losing weight, which they desperately needed to do, but they got too skinny, as if that were possible.  I could feel their spine.  They weren’t eating.  I knew things weren’t right.  Mitsy also has a large, marble-sized growth between her nose and her left eye.  We’ve been afraid to test it because doing so might damage her eye, but now it was so big that wasn’t a concern.  On Wednesday, the vet called with the results of all the expensive blood work.  Mitsy’s growth was not a tumor—always said in an Arnold voice.  So in addition to her hyperthyroid medication, she was issued a steroid to break it down.

Pablo has diabetes in addition to his arthritis.

On Thursday morning, I took my two fifteen-year-old cats back to the vets.  Mitsy got an antibiotic shot for her growth, and I brought Pablo to learn how to give him twice-daily insulin injections.

Pablo is awesome with his insulin injections.  He almost even likes them.  I’ve only pricked myself once so far.

Mitsy, who used to love Pill Pockets, quit her pills and food a month ago.  So getting her to take her medication is a chore.  I have to invent new things all the time.  I first figured out that she likes Salmon Pill Pockets but not Chicken Pill Pockets.  But after a day or so of that, she wasn’t interested in them either. Luckily, Perl still likes them with her allergy medication.

On Saturday, Mitsy was breathing really heavy.  I could see her chest rise and fall at a rapid rate.  She and I and Perl went outside to sit in the back yard.  I called the vet.  They said to bring her in.  I let her sit in the back yard for a little while longer, knowing it might be the last time.  And I started crying.  I didn’t stop crying until Sunday.

At the vet, they took X-rays.  I paid extra to have a radiologist stop his golf game long enough to respond to the photos.  The vet could have told me the same thing as it was obvious from the photos.  Mitsy’s heart is enlarged, she had fluid in her lungs, and her kidneys are shrinking.  She is dying.  Congestive heart failure.

It was mentioned briefly that we could do an ultrasound, but really, she has been on hyperthyroid medication for six years, she has a large growth next to her eye, and she is fifteen.  It is her time.  But I still wasn’t ready.

I was there until an hour past closing, using up all their tissues.  We talked about where I could take her on Sunday when my vets is closed if I needed to euthanize her.  The vet gave her an injection of something and sent me home with heart medication and a diuretic to get rid of the fluid in her lungs.

I was certain this was the end.  I would have to call it sometime on Sunday or Monday morning.

The vet called Monday night.  She was timid about what to ask about Mitsy, not knowing what happened.

“The drugs are a miracle,” I exclaimed.

“That’s great!” she said, relieved that she hadn’t just called someone who’s cat had died over the the last day and a half. Then she said, “Just remember, your cat is having congestive heart failure.  That means her heart could stop working at any time.”

“I know,” I said.  The thing was, the drugs had given me another day.  I spent all day Sunday pampering Mitsy.  We went outside again.  I moved her food bowls to the bedroom so she doesn’t have to walk as far.  I put the child gate up so that she can walk between the bedroom and the bathroom without the dog bothering her.

The dog.  The poor dog.  She stepped on something Saturday and started limping, holding up her right, front paw.  I couldn’t see anything wrong besides her ego not getting enough attention.  Her ego has miraculously healed.

Pablo is taking his insulin shots like a champ.  He probably loves me more now than he ever has.

Mitsy doesn’t like to take her pills.  My latest trick has been to crush them up and mix them with water from a can of tuna.  I’m going to be eating a lot of tuna.  But she looks great.  She is eating again, she seems happy.  Her breathing still isn’t great, but it is a lot better than it was on Saturday.

Every day, at this point, is a new challenge.  Will she be alive when I wake up.  Will she be alive when I get home from work.  I pet her and give her a kiss on the forehead and tell her I love her every chance I get, not knowing if it will be the last.  Mitsy and Pablo have been with me for the last fourteen years, through three different states, three cross-country trips, and nine different housing arrangements.  I’m writing their memoirs because they have been the only constant in my life over the last fourteen years.  Everything else has changed, except for them.

And now that is about to change.

I’m trying to be ready.

But I’m not.

6 May

The Fridge

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

Before

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During

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Hope it fits!

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Doesn’t fit. =(

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So I filled it and bought a planer.

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Now it fits!

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17 Mar

St. Patrick’s Day

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

My day started by playing golf on a vibrant green course under a bright blue sky, the sun warming my back as I swung and the ball flew far and straight.

Then I woke up.

I did play golf this morning with Cupcake.  However, the sky threatened to rain the entire time.  We played in a tournament.  There were only eight people signed up, so the mens league that played this morning was also included.  We played with a woman who had just started playing a year ago, and she was doing quite well.  She wasn’t in the tournament though.

Eighteen holes went by surprisingly quickly.  By 2pm we were drinking a beer and listening to the results.  The third place team came in at 50.  The second place team scored 46.  And we, the only women playing, scored 45.

We won!

Thank goodness for handicaps.  Cupcake and I play well together because it usually works out that if one of us is having a bad hole, the other is doing well.

We then went to Lilly Macs for a late lunch and a couple of Guinness.  It was busy for a Saturday afternoon, but then again, it is St. Patrick’s Day.

I went home to “walk the dog”, and fell asleep for a late afternoon nap.  I showered and dressed and went back out around 2030.

Parking was atrocious.  Cars were just hovering, waiting for an open spot. I went to the Caltrain garage.  When I pulled in, there was a Lexus that was almost blocking my way.  Someone got out of the passenger side.  I was a bit annoyed at having to go around.  And then the woman put her window down and indicated she wanted to speak to me.

She was blonde, in her late 40′s, well dressed.  I turned down NPR as I rolled down my window and wondered what she was going to say.

“Do you know you have a headlight out?” she said. I smirked. “You probably already know.”

“Yeah, I realized it yesterday morning.”

“Be careful out there tonight.”

“Thanks.” I’d forgotten.  I was grateful for the reminder.

“I think we are wearing the same shirt.  Is that H&M?”

“Yes”

“I have the black one on underneath.” She showed me. “They are a bitch to keep ironed, aren’t they?  Especially that crease on the back.”

She kept chatting.  I was making friends with a random woman in a Lexus in a parking lot over my burnt-out headlight.  Then I noticed that the friend she’d dropped of was ready to back out and I was in the way, so I thanked her again and parked.

I walked back into Lilly Macs.  It was packed. All the Irish pubs on Murphy Street were.  The band was playing.  The young girls were getting ready to do a set of Irish dancing.  Reaching the bar was near impossible. It was loud and crowded and my senses were immediately overloaded.

I have a headlight out.  There will be tons of cops out soon.  I couldn’t stop thinking this.

I looked around to see if there was anyone that I know besides everyone working. Nada.  It seems my friends had all done the same thing I was about to do—walk in, and walk out.  Where are all these people on a normal night?  I love being there when it is busy, but I don’t do crowded. Not my scene any more.

Out the door I went as the bouncer was telling a woman she couldn’t bring a pizza in.  I stopped off at the bookstore down the street just to reset my equilibrium.  I was all dressed up and was out, but couldn’t justify staying out, so I took my car with the burnt out headlight and went home.

I’ve spent the evening on my couch listening to This American LIfe and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

I’ll get my headlight fixed this week.

But first, to bed early.

Good night!

7 Mar

Oil and Capitalism: The Republican Party Salad Dressing of Choice

Posted by K in In the Media, Uncategorized.

Many Republicans think of themselves as capitalists.  I’m talking about the people who exclaim the virtues of the free market.  They expound upon the need for laissez-faire economics.  They cry out against government regulation.

Until you mention gas prices.

Then, without hesitation, these same people will complain that gas prices are too high.  And in one statement, everything they have claimed about capitalism flies out the door.  They think that the government should do something about it.

Sounds kind of socialist to me.

Oil drilling and production in the United States is at its highest in eight years and gas is cheaper than the start of the recession under Bush.  We are actually exporting more oil than we are using. The oil companies are making record profits and still getting $4B in tax breaks. If you want to blame someone for high gas prices, why not ask the oil companies how they are making so much money off of you.

Oil is not a finite resource.  There is always more oil being made, however, it is believed that it takes millions of years for oil to form.  Thus, the more we take out of the earth at a higher rate than the earth can make it, eventually the oil supply will dwindle drastically and we will have to go through more effort to find it and refine it.

However, we Americans are more dependent on oil than any other nation.  This is what the current usage of oil looks like today for the top five consumer countries.

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As you can see, the United States, which is the third most populated country, uses almost twice as much oil as China and India combined, while the population of China and India is eight times that of the US.  As you can imagine, both of these countries are increasing their demand for oil as their population demands the same conveniences we are afforded here in the US.  While the demand for oil in the US has actually decreased , in 2001, China was the third largest consumer and India was the seventh.  Both China and India are demanding more oil.  Another decade and this chart will change again.

That brings us to supply and demand.  Capitalism is built on this theory.  As supply diminishes and demand rises, prices go up.  In a free market, the goal of the company is to make larger and larger profits and keep its shareholders happy with increases in stock price or dividends.  So the more demand, the higher the price the companies can charge.  Same for dependence.  The more you depend on oil, the more companies will charge for it because you can’t quit.  This is great for the bottom line of the companies.  They can produce less, charge more, and the shareholders rejoice.  And capitalism shines.

However, it isn’t that simple because production has kept up with demand.  So the laws of supply and demand are being taunted by another evil.  Oil Futures.

It seems that we mostly have Wall Street to thank for our higher gas prices.  Before the mortgage market tanked, they were already looking for the next big bet, so they started selling oil futures and ran the price of oil up.  From How Stuff Works,

As a result of the artificial oil market, the average price per barrel of crude oil increased from $31.61 in July 2004 to $137.11 in July 2008 . The average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the United States grew from $1.93 to $4.09 over the same period .

If we want our gas prices to go down, then we need more government regulation to curb the oil futures market.    The Dodd-Frank Act passed a year and a half ago attempts to do this, however Republicans have continuously tried to kill the act instead of doing something to ensure gas prices decline.  But like I’ve said, the Republican party is pro-capitalism and anti-regulation, so there is no reason for them to want gas prices to go down.  If gas prices go down, then the oil companies don’t make the big profits.  Four of the top ten most profitable companies in the world are oil companies.  One is a natural gas company.  This is capitalism at its finest.

One of the mantras of the Republican party is, “Drill, baby, drill.”  Yet we are now exporting more oil than we import.  And gas prices still haven’t gone down due to oil futures, and because our consumption of oil may have decreased, but the demand worldwide has increased.  Thus, economically, it makes a lot more sense for us to slow our production, use up the supply of oil from other countries while it is still relatively cheap, and then parcel out the last bit to the world from our reserves slowly and at the highest price possible.

In conclusion, US demand is decreasing, but more populated countries are taking up the slack.  Wall Street is still trying to suck the poor people dry by betting on our future.  The Republicans want to continue giving four billion of our tax dollars away to the oil companies instead of investing in a replacement source of energy.

I leave you with this quote from President Obama at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire,

Let’s put every single member of Congress on record: You can stand with oil companies, or you can stand with the American people. You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that’s been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean energy future.

 

6 Mar

GOP : Greed. Oppression. Piety

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

Some friends started a new Facebook page about the Grand Ole Party.  Quite entertaining.  I highly recommend stopping by!

23 Feb

Dear Republicans—I am the Other

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for too long.

It’s made me jaded.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the Republican candidates make me so angry. Why I feel like they are so small minded. Why I think they are bigoted.

Then I realized I’ve lived in the Bay Area for almost a decade. Well, it would have been a decade if I hadn’t taken that two-year sabbatical back to Connecticut. I thought I could move back to New England after two years in Cali, but I was wrong. I can never go home.

I loved Connecticut when I was there. And upstate NY, and the suburbs of Boston, and the eighteen years I grew up in Maine. But the places I lived all suffered the same problem. Homogeneity.

No, not Homosexuality. Homogeneity. They were all white Christians of European descent. The only diversity that existed was imported. And now being a female in a male dominated field, I’m beginning to understand that as much as the minorities tried to fit in, they always felt different. Alone.

But here in the Bay Area, I live in the land of diversity. Just tonight, I was hanging out with friends who are white, black, Asian, and Indian; Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, and atheist; straight, gay, and bi; carnivores, vegetarians and vegans. I work with Christians, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, and even a Christian Scientist. My friends are from far away lands all over the world. They have stories that differ in how they arrived in the United States. Some came as students, others as workers, and some came as refugees when they fled their country by boat in the dark of night. But they are all here for the same reason: to make a better life for themselves and their families. Just like my forefathers.

Religious freedom is the principle on which our country was founded. The right for anyone to practice any religion of their choosing. But I watch the Republican debates and it is all about Christianity. And forcing their religious morals and values on others. Government sanctioned homogeneity.

So I wondered what percentage of the country is actually Christian. It must be a large part, since that is where the Republican party is focusing. As a guess, within my group of friends in the Bay Area, I would estimate that five percent of them are practicing Christian. A majority were raised Christian but are no longer practicing, and the rest were raised in another religion. I was curious, so I researched some statistics.

The country statistics all came from the government census data. The California statistics are from Wikipedia. In the country, approximately 76% consider themselves Christian, whether or not they practice, versus 69% in California. In the country, almost 19% are another religion or don’t practice any religion, where in California, that number is almost 30%.

This made me wonder what the overall trend has been throughout the last few decades. I used the census data to compare the country’s statistics. From 1990 to 2008, Christianity has dropped over 10% points, while all other religions/non-religions have gained over 10% points.

The curve isn’t drastic. Not as much as I’d expected. Not as steep as I feel it is among my group of peers. Just to see more stats, I also broke up Other and None into two separate categories.

The Republican party will probably look at this chart as the demise of American morals. I look at it as a beautiful mixture of cultures, religions, races, and sexualities. I see colors of all shades. I see conversations of many viewpoints; no one trying to convince anyone that they are right—like when my priest made us repeat how Catholicism is the “One, right, true religion”—but rather people learning about their differences and embracing them. I see love in many forms. I see diversity.

And then I remember that the rest of the country is homogenous. I’ve found that in other cities and small towns, even when there is a mix of people, they seem to segregate themselves. It is more comfortable to live near others who share your beliefs. It isn’t like here where everyone lives together. Below me is a guy of Asian decent. Beside me an Indian couple. Below them is a Hispanic guy and next to them are another Indian couple and an elderly Eastern European couple. On the end of the building is one white guy who looks like he was in the military and another who looks like he sells drugs. Diversity is all around me every day.

I look at the Republican candidates and am puzzled why all they talk about are Christian values and Christian morals. Why are they ignoring the other twenty percent of us who don’t really want our president to be our spiritual leaders, but instead want the president and the government to provide services, security, and economic stability.

I want a leader who understands global economies, respects other’s religions, and embraces the differences of other cultures—not someone who wants us all to be like him.

I want a leader who encourages us all to lead, not one who wants us all to follow.

10 Aug

Pasta Primavera

Posted by K in Uncategorized.

8760ec7438644a3785a7b10790c2dd67_5.jpg

Whole wheat pasta from the farmer’s market. A pan of hot virgin olive oil. Four cloves of garlic. A carrot and a broccoli. A mixture of regular, pear, and cherry tomatoes from my deck garden. Dried oregano from SpiceHound.com. Basil from my herb garden. A dash of sea salt. Topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Probably the best thing I’ve made yet.

Oh, and a bottle of 2007 Loma Prieta Cabernet Sauvignon.

(see full image)

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