The 2010 SAQA Auction is on!

"Neopolitan" by Rose Rushbrooke

I await the SAQA auction each year with enormous excitement. Even if I never bought a single piece, I'd get immense pleasure just out of seeing so much wonderful art work on one website. It's pure eye candy - better than a 100 pound box of See's! Of course, I never don't buy something, and this year is no exception. I love Rose's work - it's imaginative, free spirited, and totally beautiful. Based on fractals, her work draws me into it as though I were being led into a magic cavern! I can look at it for hours, and never get my fill. I discovered Rose and her work earlier this year, and find myself visiting her gallery pages again and again. Each time, my spirit is lifted and my heart soars. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach, William Byrd, and Ralph Vaughn Williams affect me in the same manner. It's something I'll never be able to explain, but I don't really desire an explanation. Let's just leave it at, "It sends me!"

Martina - Cat of the Week

Martina is a fun cat - she's tiny, cute, affectionate, incredibly curious, has an impish personality, does cool cat stuff with every move, is a great lap cat, and has a beautiful, chirping voice - most of the time. When pissed off or frightened, she can utter a gawd-awful shriek that's enough to raise the dead. I guess she can be called a "rescue" of sorts... one day my gardener drove up with Martina in her truck, and pleaded with me to take her because she (the cat) had been hanging out in the back yard, and she (the gardner) was afraid her husband was going to damage the cat. Now, my unfortunate gardener happens to be married to the world's biggest jerk, and whether or not the cat was in danger, I'll never know, but I was unwilling to take the chance, knowing some of the capabilities of said jerk. On that day, I happened to be ghastly sick with the flu, so I asked the gardener to take the cat directly to the vet and leave her in their hands. I called and explained the situation to the vet, and requested they clean the poor baby up, test her for FIV, give her the necessary shots, and "fix" her, and my husband would pick her up when she was ready to come home.

Several days later, with me still sick out of my skull and nursing the most gruesome fever-induced headache I've ever experienced, she came home and we got our first taste of her vocal capabilities. At the sight of 20-some other cats, she propelled herself, shrieking, out of the cat carrier, did a complete over, under, around, and through circuit of the house, then rocketed up onto the top of the highest kitchen cabinet, whencefrom she proceeded to issue that blood-curdling noise for a solid fifteen minutes, until she got hoarse and her voice gave out and she finally stopped. She then stayed on top of the cabinet for the next 24 hours, refusing to come down to eat or pee, steadily glowering over the edge and starting up with the screaming again any time one of the resident inmates came over to check her out. All of the others were, of course, extremely curious, and filed past her at regular intervals, day and night, and caused one and all a totally strung-out earth orbit.

Finally, the next day, she came down and we immediately grabbed her and shut her up in a bathroom with a couple of litter boxes and a bowl of food. Several hours later, when we opened the door, she walked calmly out as though nothing had happened. Whenever she saw another cat, though, she gave a loud, calculated scream, accompanied by a vicious swipe of the paw, and the other cat backed off. She headed for the top of the cabinet again, and stayed up there for a week or so, coming down only to eat and use the litter box.

After what seemed like forever, she finally adapted, and things are much more pleasant around here these days.

Favorite place to snooze...

Nosy, snoopy, always into something...



Loves to pose for the camera...

Yom Kippur 5771 / 2010

May your fast be easy...

Beading 101

I love big, bold pieces of jewelry, especially necklaces, so it's not surprising I adore Iris Apfel and her stupendous jewelry (see my post of July 17, 2010). I've always dreamed of creating such pieces, so when a new beading store appeared on the Downtown Vallejo horizon (see August 6 post), I decided the time had come for me to learn. I've been buying beads for years, and, like a lot of my fabric, I spend a great deal of time admiring and playing with my beads, but have never been brave enough to jump in and make something. Silly, because it's a lot "safer" to play with beads than with fabric - if you don't like what you've done with your beads, you can just snip the beading cord and start stringing all over again. On the other hand, just TRY "uncutting" fabric!

Anyway, last night I took my first beading class, and this is what I made...


Its' big, bulky, and weighs a ton, which is exactly how I like my necklaces to be! The first friend who saw it offered to buy it on the spot. Hmmmm... this is something to think about...!

29 Years...WOW!!!

In spite of misgivings from more than a few family members and friends, WE knew this marriage would last... and it has! It's been exciting, fun, wondrous, silly, wild, mostly smooth, definitely interesting, and, each year, we're more and more glad we did it!

Ralph - Cat of the Week

Am I permitted to have a "Favorite" child? I think most parents do, whether or not they wish to admit it. Though I try to love and treat all of my kids equally, This One stands out on personality alone! Smart, entertaining, outgoing, sociable, elegant, good-natured... this guy has it all! Actually, the word that applies best to him is "Neat". In fact, he's a Medically Certified Neat Cat. Every time we take him to the vet, whichever vet or tech handles him, always returns him to us with the words, "This is a really neat cat!"

He got off to a rough start in life, and pure chance led me to him. I was on my way home from a crushingly boring board meeting late one night (the one night the vet happened to be open until 10:00 pm) when I realized I'd forgotten to pick up some meds for one of the other cats. I was tired and pissed and totally fed up with Boards, and had a brief argument with myself as to whether to drive over to the vet hospital before hitting the freeway, or waiting until the next day to make the trip. "Do It Now" won the argument and I headed for the vet. In the lobby I saw two young women crying as they hugged one another and peered anxiously into a shoe box that held a limp little grey furball, almost too small to be believed. They said their kitten was sick and they couldn't afford to take care of him, and the vet had said he would have to be put to sleep. Those words always send a red flag up in my brain, so I asked if I could speak with the vet. Turns out, the young ladies had just gotten their first jobs, first apartment and first car, and, of course, wanted their first kitten to go along with everything else. At four weeks old, he was way too young to be taken away from mom, to which was added the problem that these well-meaning ladies had no idea what to do with a kitten. They pretty much expected him to be a self-functioning, maintenance-free unit, so they didn't feed him right, didn't clean up after him right, didn't know how to deal with the fleas, didn't keep him warm enough, and on and on. He was literally hanging on by a thread of life. I told the vet I'd intervene, but, if I did, he would become my cat. Long story short... I won custody, he stayed at the vet hospital for a week while they repaired him, and then came home to join our family. He truly is a Neat Cat - there's just no other way to describe him. I've never known such a personable creature, and will be eternally grateful to whatever made me turn around and drive to the vet's that night!

First day home, fearlessly exploring his new life...

Up close and personal...

Always into something...

Knows how to relax...

Displays just the right amount of "attitude" about what's his vs what's ours...

Very well read...

You Go, Ralpher!!

Wind!

Our home is on a hill above the north end of San Francisco Bay, and it's one of the windiest areas I've ever lived in. Usually, I enjoy the wind because it keeps things cool... but I do have my limits! Last night the wind was fierce and non-stop, and rattled the windows until they made the most unearthly whining noise... it was spooky and chilling, and totally unnerved both me and the cats. True to form, DH slept through it (my guess is, he would have slept through Katrina.) This morning I found my bean tower doing a Tower of Pisa imitation:


The hummingbirds were having a terrible time zeroing in on the feeders, and had to hang on for dear life once they did land as the feeders were buffeted about. Several other birds (lower left) got blown into the fence. They finally stopped trying to fly and just sat and ate, no doubt in an attempt to gain more ballast...


The following is a dicy picture thanks to my cheesy camera, but the whole thing was so amazing to me, I had to try to capture it...


The flat area in the center of the picture is the southernmost tip of Mare Island. Directly behind it, there's a short breakwater extending out into the bay, and it's a popular place for people to fish. If anyone had been fishing today, they would have gone to visit Davy Jones. Here, the breakwater is almost totally submerged, with a couple of giant waves crashing over it near the shore.
Everything finally calmed down a couple of hours ago, but I'm sure things will get rough again soon...

Yoda - Cat of the Week

It's difficult to write this week's "bio" because there's a very strong possibility Yoda won't be with us much longer. He was recently discovered to have substantial cancer growing in his liver and kidneys, and it's quite obvious to us he's going downhill quickly. In the meantime, he's acting his usual self, and doesn't show much evidence of being sick, except that he's lost a frightening amount of weight. These pictures are from his more "beefy" days.

For years, Yoda was the neighborhood thug, as in, this was HIS neighborhood. He was mean, fearless and BIG. He pounded every male cat that crossed his path, and impregnated every female. People tried to trap him, a few shot at him (he still carries around a BB in his chest), and just about everyone hated the sight of him. At the time he wasn't our cat - supposedly he belonged to the neighbors next door (though I seriously doubt he ever "belonged" to anyone.) Said neighbors fed him (occasionally) and their dysfunctional/psychotic son claimed ownership and carried him around like a sack of potatoes. He was always getting injured in fights, or picking up some upper-respiratory crud, whereupon we'd scoop him up and patch him up, only to have him return a few weeks later with something else wrong with him. Finally, he showed up on our doorstep late one night, staggering, bleeding from the nose and groaning with each breath. Enough! We took him to the vet and left him there until they got him completely repaired, including shots, dental work and neutering. In the meantime the neighbors had been evicted (no surprise there) and spent the week Yoda was in hospital moving out of their house. When they asked, we denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, so they left without him. After nearly two weeks in the hospital, we brought him home and explained to him that he was going to be an indoor cat from now on. He quickly decided he'd landed in Cat Heaven, and settled in easily to regular meals of good food, cushy cat beds all over the place, zillions of cat toys, lots of windowsills in the sun, plenty of bathroom sinks (his favorite place in which to lounge), and regular petting and brushing. He's become a wonderful pet over the years - affectionate, playful, mellow, and always, but always, eats everything put in front of him. He's still a bit of a bully, but old habits die hard, and the other cats have accepted him, for the most part, with only an occasional swat or hiss when he tries to push them around.

Here he is a few days into the "indoor" life - still looking every bit the thug he was...

If you happen to be where Yoda wants to be, you can either move, or he'll sit on top of you...

It's a good thing there are plenty of sinks in this house!

Over the years, we've determined the only bad thing about having pets is that you always outlive them. We'll miss Yoda terribly when he's gone, but, in the meantime, we'll give him the best of everything we can, and promise to help him transition with dignity when the time comes.

Chickens

I did my bi-weekly fresh egg run to Soul Food Farm this afternoon. The drive there (about 25 miles on I-80, one of the nastiest commute arteries in the Bay Area) was absolutely dreadful. Even though I knew the reverse-commute drive home would be much more civilized, I felt the need to re-group before I got back on the highway. So, I sat at a picnic table in the shade of an enormous tree, and chicken watched for half an hour. The normally very hot farm was quite balmy this afternoon, and I felt totally refreshed after my break.


This little lady kept walking past me and making the most wonderful, soft chicken noises as she scratched and pecked.

I love chickens, and wish we could have a few in our yard, but I must rein in my enthusiasm and be sensible, and leave our menagerie where it stands, at 21 cats. No sense being a total fool! I'll stick with quilted chickens. I don't know who made this adorable piece, but isn't it wonderful? It's hanging at the shop where I bought my new sewing machine.

What is truth, then...

Night after night... endless variations on a theme... we experience beauty beyond belief in something as simple as a sunset...