27 December, 2009

Simon Sunday: The Return 

Yes, yes I know: Thinking Out Loud was sorely neglected in 2009. I'm going to try to change that in the New Decade. Specifically, I intend to keep up my Simon Sunday posts, since I know there are some of you out there who have missed his antics. To kick things off again for Simon Sunday, here's a photo of him dressed as the most adorable reindeer ever!

Simon has been doing well since his pancreatitis attack earlier this year. He remains on a very strict diet of Prescription i/d (dry and canned), with a very occasional tiny bite of cheese or bread (shhhhh! Do NOT tell his vet, plskthx). I'm still amazed that he and Billie will devour canned food now when less than a year ago they would give me the hairy eyeball if I ever tried to serve it to them. I'm glad that their diet is better balanced between the two, since having good, quality wet food can help to ward off UTIs and kidney issues (fingers crossed).

We have a new addition to the household. After hemming and hawing for a year or so, I finally upgraded my 1984 Quasar to a new Samsung television. One of the first things we watched was the Cat Sitter DVD and was Simon ever bewitched and beguiled! I parked his scratch post (with a top platform) near the front of the TV and he couldn't get enough of all the critters frolicking on the TV. I decided to go with the 26" model and, after viewing the DVD I'm glad I did: Had he been suddenly confronted by a 42" rat, I'm afraid Simon would have crapped his bloomers! I took some photos from his DVD extravaganza that I'll post once I download them from he camera.

Sadly, we've lost some buddies the last quarter of 2009. Simon's darling (ex) girlfriend Samantha got ill and passed away at the beginning of September and, just days later, her brother, Baby was hit and killed by a car. Thankfully, their sister Simone is still with us, though she rarely comes outside since her brother and sister died so suddenly. The Elder Statesmen of our complex, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Marlowe (who I never could get a decent photo of because he preferred nosing the camera to posing for he) recently moved away to a new home and, while Simon and Billie tend to be anti-social with other kitties and remain ambivalent, I miss all of them terribly.

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Labels: furkids, Simon Sunday

   ~~ victoria on 12:06 AM ~~    0 comments

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26 December, 2009

Looking Forward 

I bought myself a Moleskine Daily Planner for 2010. I decided over the weekend that I want to do a photo-a-day project in the coming year. Since I shoot so much film and as awesome as Arthur Cox (my Nikon F2) is, he doesn't add metadata to my negatives, LOL! So I bought the calendar to keep track of my shots and ideas for shoots.

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   ~~ victoria on 8:57 PM ~~    0 comments

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A Christmas Eve Story 

I had a Border's coupon burning a hole in my email in-box, so I printed it out and headed toward Alameda Town Center (actually, it's written Alameda Towne Centre but I that is so hilariously pretentious I can't bear to spell it like that). On Christmas Eve day. I should stop typing this post right now and make an appointment to have my head examined, I know. Anyway, I had given myself the "just hold your shit together" pep talk, trying to prepare myself for the hoardes that were surely descending on the mall. I didn't make it very far in before I found myself blasting my horn and flipping off some nasty cow in a silver Infinity who ran the stop sign and cut me off. Happily, I managed to get a decent parking spot near the book store. I switched off the motor and got out of the car.

As I walked toward the entrance to Borders, I saw two cars in the lane, clearly at a stand off over a soon-to-open-up parking spot. Only trouble was, neither driver would move and the poor woman in the parking spot couldn't back out because there wasn't enough room. I watched this for several seconds, then looked at the woman in the parking spot. She just shook her head. So I made an appeal to the two drivers.

"Look," I said, "Both of you want this spot, but since you're both here, this woman can't back out, so neither of you can have this spot! So you all lose, here. One of you is going to have to let this go and back off so she can get out!" I indicated the woman still trying to back out of the parking spot. Both drivers stared at me, neither one willing to budge even an inch.

I tried again. "ONE of you needs to move!" I made a separation gesture with my hands. "Come on, someone here must have some holiday spirit! Please, let this woman get out of the spot, then you can fight over it!"

They both backed up! "THANK YOU!" I called out to the drivers. The woman smiled and thanked me as she backed out of the parking spot. I didn't even look back to see which driver ended up with the parking spot. A guy in a Jeep who had watched the whole thing smiled at me and gave a thumbs-up as I passed him. "That was fuckin' awesome!" he said.

I bought my 2010 Photographers' Market with my 30% off coupon and got the hell away from the mall as fast as I could.

Fin.

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   ~~ victoria on 8:56 PM ~~    0 comments

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