First week of fall. It's been the longest week ever. Maybe it's the dark, cold mornings... or the evenings that end so much earlier than I want them to. Lethargy all around, sweaters and knee-high boots, talk about Halloween and turkeys and such crap.
The good news is, it's symphony season again. Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 this weekend, featuring Leila Josefowicz; Shostakovich next week, and more excitingly, Bruch's Violin Concerto during Thanksgiving weekend.
Finally, at long last, I'm embarking on The Time Traveler's Wife. I was promised a good sobbin' in the last twenty pages. Need to finish reading Love in the Time of Cholera before the movie comes out next year.
Ugh. TGIF.
9.23.2006
Kitty networking
9.22.2006
Breakfast matters
This morning, like every morning, I brought my trusty oatmeal raisin breakfast-on-the-go to work. Don't know why I never tried this before - the package said to try zapping it for 10 seconds in the microwave for warm oatmeal raisin goodness, and it sounded really yummy. So I stuck it in the oven in the office's kitchenette, and set it for 10 seconds. Beep! Pop crinkle fizzle. Fearing the worst, I stopped the oven and yanked the door open, hoping to save my breakfast from anything untoward before too late. Alas, I already was too late. What a sight - the wrapper had clung to the poor cookie like it was vacuum-packed, and the sorry block of toxic oatmeal looked like a piece of purple tempeh. Grudgingly, I tossed it out, and with that moment of stupidity, I gave up breakfast. (Edit: In small font on the back, packet read "Remove from wrapper." Me dumbass.)
I know starving in the morning does evil things to one's metabolism, but somehow, because I missed breakfast, I felt vindicated in scarfing down a giant sandwich at lunch. Dinner was at Spice Island Tea House, where I had pad thai and raspberry wheat beer (tasty!). After that, we made a pit stop at Dave & Andy's for choc chip cookie dough ice-cream. Confession: I have not had a lick of ice-cream for over a month. Oh, the humanity. I had forgotten how sinfully good it was. Calorific, too.
After being a pig all day, I was determined to bike for 1.5 hours tonight, an extra 30 minutes for good measure to expunge the extra calories I acquired from my delinquency. I couldn't even do that - after only 50 minutes, I started winding down cos I was getting bored. (To do: find better work-out distraction than TV.)
Moral of the day: Never go without breakfast.
I know starving in the morning does evil things to one's metabolism, but somehow, because I missed breakfast, I felt vindicated in scarfing down a giant sandwich at lunch. Dinner was at Spice Island Tea House, where I had pad thai and raspberry wheat beer (tasty!). After that, we made a pit stop at Dave & Andy's for choc chip cookie dough ice-cream. Confession: I have not had a lick of ice-cream for over a month. Oh, the humanity. I had forgotten how sinfully good it was. Calorific, too.
After being a pig all day, I was determined to bike for 1.5 hours tonight, an extra 30 minutes for good measure to expunge the extra calories I acquired from my delinquency. I couldn't even do that - after only 50 minutes, I started winding down cos I was getting bored. (To do: find better work-out distraction than TV.)
Moral of the day: Never go without breakfast.
9.18.2006
Everyday Decisions
Corky and Tu Madre
We knew it was going to come to this: we have to decide if we want a second kitty. Pepper rubbed noses with Tu Madre, which I take to be a good sign. Two cats means one each for us to cuddle with on the couch. Pepper is pretty, Tu Madre is friendly. We have the means to take care of Tu Madre. Pepper might like a friend. But should we? E has been agonizing over this all weekend. (To be continued.)
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Got a new phone - a sleek candy-bar Nokia. Dare I admit, it's also my first camera phone. Didn't need an upgrade for over 2 years, when my old trusty phone worked just fine (until I flung it down a flight of concrete steps). After envying the cool kids for so long, I'm finally catching up. To be fair, E got a new RAZR*, the object of his lust for some time.
*On a semi-related note, can you believe that the RAZR has become so iconical of this generation, a benchmark of today's technology and pop culture, that it's immortalized as a token in the new Monopoly? So have the Toyota Prius, and New Balance shoes... Corporate branding at its best.
I've been playing with the FM radio and camera. Practically like a neanderthal fascinated by fire. I hate to be a clueless twenty-something; I've a lot of catching up to do.
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3 weeks and counting, still going strong. Spiffy's got well over a hundred miles on 'er now. 1 hour on the trainer everyday (medium-high resistance), 20 miles downtown and back on weekends. I can see and feel a difference; my goal is to eventually be strong enough to do a century ride. Won't be hopping on the triathlon bandwagon any time soon - not much of a runner, and I'm happy just treading in water. Still, this pedaling addiction feels pretty good and I'm feeling a growing sense of accomplishment.
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This vid speaks to me. Aug 30th installment of the mrbrown show - of all people, I found out about it through Lee, my Taiwanese Singapore-schooled American-bred friend. I can relate on so many levels. (The episode with Hossan Leong is pretty funny too... wildly appropriate choice of song.)
9.10.2006
Sleepless in Squill
Nursing a hot cup o' tea, surfing aimlessly, reluctant to go to bed. Just came back from the lamest party ever, and I feel vastly unsatisfied. Hubs has gone to play a very late night impromptu scrimmage of Ultimate with his friends, who quit the party early too. So here I am - tea, laptop, kitty, some peace and quiet.
The new biking regimen is going well. I think I will call my silver stead Spiffy. As evidence of my zealousness, within the first 3 days of acquiring the bike, I put well over 15 miles on it already. It felt like death, especially when climbing the hilly streets of Pittsburgh, and yet it felt so good. It was strange to cross over from cyclist-hating motorist to furious pedaling car fodder, nearly overnight. I became instantly grateful that we live between 2 of the city's major parks, so I don't have to piss off more drivers and pedestrians than I would otherwise. Schenley and Frick each have scenic trails that go on for miles. Spiffy's virgin trip was to Frick - sadly, I was so winded just from getting there (4 sloping miles) that we only dabbled in circles before turning around. The next day we tried Schenley's Bridle Path, a winding gravel trail that took us through the woods, minorly interrupted by a 6-way intersection, up along a lake (the same one where we buried Mojito, our pet fish), and ending back where we started. That was almost 9 miles from start to finish! Been building resistance and stamina on the new trainer for an hour everyday. Last weekend, we ventured a little further and went on the Eliza Furnace Trail. Still don't have a bike rack for the car, so we biked it to the trailhead, did the whole stretch and back. Feeling good - maybe in a year, we'll be ready to do a century ride.
L and W planned a vacation in Nicaragua last week, so they left their summer 'charity project' with us. They took in a stray teenage cat for foster care, whom they later found was pregnant. Three kittens and a vet trip later, they are *almost* ready to be put up for adoption. Pepper hasn't been too pleased with the guests, and the feeling is mutual with the mother cat (she doesn't have a name yet - used to be called Skanky McKnockUp, now she's just Little Girl). Growing up, I've heard cats fighting in my neighborhood, but it's not the same at 2am right outside your bedroom. Out came the guides to handling multi-cat households and mediating kitty conflict.
On the other hand, raising kittens has been fun. Of the 3 kittens, two are snow white with grey patches like the mother, and the third's a tuxedo kitty (must be what the dad was). Tuxedo kitty is Paco, from 'apocalypse', and the twins are Corky and Tu Madre (short for tu madre es nada, 'your mother is nothing'). Watching the 3 of them play, tumble, nibble, is beyond fascinating. The finer points of cat psychology probably has enough substance for a doctorate thesis. Each kitten has a distinct personality - Corky, for instance, has an unmistakeable middle child complex. They are smart, cheeky, aggressive, and yet they're barely old enough to mew (so far, they can only manage squeaks - the cutest squeaks, that can melt the hardest of hearts). Poor Pepper, unfortunately, has been exiled in her own home; she hides like a felon and dashes (only when necessary) between the bathroom and kitchen. Guess she hates company. She purrs like mad when we scoop her up at the end of the day to the bedroom, where she redeems her dominance for the night.
Tu Madre is curled at my feet, napping... Having 5 cats scampering around is kinda fun, I'll miss them. L and W will be picking them up tomorrow, and it'll just be Pepper again. We haven't decided if we're ready to adopt a second kitty.
Think I'm ready to hit the sack. 'Night!
The new biking regimen is going well. I think I will call my silver stead Spiffy. As evidence of my zealousness, within the first 3 days of acquiring the bike, I put well over 15 miles on it already. It felt like death, especially when climbing the hilly streets of Pittsburgh, and yet it felt so good. It was strange to cross over from cyclist-hating motorist to furious pedaling car fodder, nearly overnight. I became instantly grateful that we live between 2 of the city's major parks, so I don't have to piss off more drivers and pedestrians than I would otherwise. Schenley and Frick each have scenic trails that go on for miles. Spiffy's virgin trip was to Frick - sadly, I was so winded just from getting there (4 sloping miles) that we only dabbled in circles before turning around. The next day we tried Schenley's Bridle Path, a winding gravel trail that took us through the woods, minorly interrupted by a 6-way intersection, up along a lake (the same one where we buried Mojito, our pet fish), and ending back where we started. That was almost 9 miles from start to finish! Been building resistance and stamina on the new trainer for an hour everyday. Last weekend, we ventured a little further and went on the Eliza Furnace Trail. Still don't have a bike rack for the car, so we biked it to the trailhead, did the whole stretch and back. Feeling good - maybe in a year, we'll be ready to do a century ride.
L and W planned a vacation in Nicaragua last week, so they left their summer 'charity project' with us. They took in a stray teenage cat for foster care, whom they later found was pregnant. Three kittens and a vet trip later, they are *almost* ready to be put up for adoption. Pepper hasn't been too pleased with the guests, and the feeling is mutual with the mother cat (she doesn't have a name yet - used to be called Skanky McKnockUp, now she's just Little Girl). Growing up, I've heard cats fighting in my neighborhood, but it's not the same at 2am right outside your bedroom. Out came the guides to handling multi-cat households and mediating kitty conflict.
On the other hand, raising kittens has been fun. Of the 3 kittens, two are snow white with grey patches like the mother, and the third's a tuxedo kitty (must be what the dad was). Tuxedo kitty is Paco, from 'apocalypse', and the twins are Corky and Tu Madre (short for tu madre es nada, 'your mother is nothing'). Watching the 3 of them play, tumble, nibble, is beyond fascinating. The finer points of cat psychology probably has enough substance for a doctorate thesis. Each kitten has a distinct personality - Corky, for instance, has an unmistakeable middle child complex. They are smart, cheeky, aggressive, and yet they're barely old enough to mew (so far, they can only manage squeaks - the cutest squeaks, that can melt the hardest of hearts). Poor Pepper, unfortunately, has been exiled in her own home; she hides like a felon and dashes (only when necessary) between the bathroom and kitchen. Guess she hates company. She purrs like mad when we scoop her up at the end of the day to the bedroom, where she redeems her dominance for the night.
Tu Madre is curled at my feet, napping... Having 5 cats scampering around is kinda fun, I'll miss them. L and W will be picking them up tomorrow, and it'll just be Pepper again. We haven't decided if we're ready to adopt a second kitty.
Think I'm ready to hit the sack. 'Night!
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