Monthly Archives: May 2006

10 years ago this weekend was when my roommate found a black cat with green eyes meowing loudly & hiding from the rain in the parking lot near our apartment in Sacramento. My pet rat Gypsy had died a few months before, and my roommate knew I wanted a black cat with green eyes, so we both went back, armed with towels & deli meat in the drizzle. I coaxed her out from some bushes, picked her up in the towel & carried her across the street back to the apartment, getting gouged on my neck in the process – she still doesn’t like being held! She had no tags or collar & we never saw any lost cat signs around the area. She tried sleeping on top of my head that first night – the only time she’s ever done that. She did have to stay at my parents’ house for a year while I lived in San Jose & then in the UK, but otherwise, Kylie the Kitty has been my longest live-in relationship. 😉

I refuse to believe that she could be 12 or 13, or even 15, since she is still plenty spritely as she tears around the house, getting into everything just on principle. I call her Entropy Embodied, since that seems to be her calling…knocking down orderly piles of CDs, pulling books off bookshelves, tearing any & all paper to shreds, just because. She still talks more than any cat I’ve ever met, but I still don’t speak Cat fluently…you think I’d have caught on by now!

Kylie does have her own web page that is sadly out of date, so here are some more recent photos of her behind the link. No gray hairs yet, except for her one white whisker she has always had…

Happy Kylieversary!

Just got back from seeing the movie which was entertaining…I have not yet read the book, so I figured might as well see the movie first, since often reading the book before the movie is just disappointing, so this way I can enjoy both. A few plot “twists” seemed too predictable IMO, which could perhaps be how it was filmed with setups and all, but some of the puzzles/clues were clever, so that was fun. I haven’t specifically avoided reading the book, but when everyone else I knew was reading it a couple years ago, it was still in hardback & I didn’t relish hefting that around. I do read hardbacks but either borrowed copies or really worth it (Harry Potter, etc). I know it’s in paperback now but it’s just been a matter of lack of effort & time. One of these days I’ll get around to it, since I am curious how many clues & locations were left out, if at all, and I’m definitely one who enjoys such puzzles. Subscription to GAMES magazine for how many years way back when? Made my own anagrams by hand for party puzzles? heh…

A philosophical thought behind the cut that might be spoilerish…

Swamped for the 3rd week in a row with frustrating work making me treasure bashing more concrete and I’ve been dying to update with some house & garden progress, but no time yet to type enough to do that justice with photos…so for now just a couple tidbits:

* Tomorrow the NASDAQ bell will be rung by not only the EQIX executive team but some co-workers of mine who were voted by their peers to represent the company…very cool idea for the peer recognition, and those who got the free trip to NYC definitely deserved it!

UPDATE: Pics of the bellringing are here! In the big group photo, my team member Mylene on the left end in the white jacket got to tag along with her sister Maricar who is just in front of her. Maricar was definitely deserving of the peer recognition.

* I was told by co-workers today that they think I look like Izzy aka “Dr Model” from Grey’s Anatomy. I’m going to finally try to watch the Monday night finale so I don’t know how things ended yet, but as long as I only look like her, not how she overreacted on Sunday night’s episode, I’ll consider it a very nice compliment, a la looking like Phoebe from Friends but not acting like her… 😉

* I might not be able to last all summer with no AC…Sunday night was almost too hot to sleep even with my fan running all night and wet hair…tempting since I already have central heat so it’s a matter of just adding an AC unit somewhere to use the existing ducts…maybe I could sell some stock options to finance a more comfortable summer?

Off to try prying more living room paneling while catching up on Tivo…

Well, maybe I should be okay about my Acceptable grade that I tossed off in a quick run-through of the WOMBAT test on www.jkrowling.com…here is Jo’s own explanation from her website:

“I wrote the examination, determined the marking scheme (which was quite complicated) and set the Grade levels, so you can take it from me, as the sole examiner, that if you received ‘Acceptable’ or higher you really earned your grade.”

It still doesn’t quite put my inner Hermione to rest, though…

Darn! In addition to the other silliness I mentioned before, this just might be what pushes me over the edge to buying a Roomba!

RoombaMIDI!

😀