Speaking of vicious animals..

A few weeks ago I got home and was sort of wandering around doing random chores in the house when I saw this round spot in the middle of my bed about 8 inches across.

What the..

Nothing on the ceiling so I know the roof's not leaking. I don't think I spilled anything there.. I bend down to smell in and it doesn't really smell like anything. I pull back the down comforter, bled through. Blanket, sheet, mattress pad, all the same. But the mattress wasn't wet.

Damn dog!!!!

I don't have a dog. But my next door neighbor does. Remember feroucious? I was furious. Not at anyone, but my bed was peed on!!!! Not like a little. The dog let it all go right in the middle of my nice white bed!

I immediately pulled all of the blankets off and went into my neighbor's house to ask Anna butt-head if she did it. Her cowering confirmed my suspicians. No big deal, I washed out all the blankets and febreezed everything. Good as new. But still! My neighbor said they had been in the house for about a minute while she got ice out of my freezer. That dog was on a MISSION.

The thing that gets me though is I'm super nice to this animal. I mean I hold her all the time and love her and feed her and walk her. WTF?! Sigh..

S'okay, tomorrow's a new day.

Then, last week my neighbor got a kitty. She's this really sweet little thing that they found near the healthfood store with six kittens. My neighbor being all big-hearted and stuff knew the mama would need a home so she adopter her after the kittens were all claimed. Now she lives next door with Anna butt-head. Which is good because the dog gets bored and now she has a buddy.

H'enyway. Last week my neighbor wasn't going to be home until late so I let the animals out and fed them and all that jazz. A couple hours later I was doing things around the house and let the animals run around inside. Let me clarify, I am the super-intelligent human who let the animals run around in my house. This becomes important later.

But this time, I was smart. Ha! I closed my bedroom door so no little animals could soil my bed. Anna butt-head was running laps around the living room and the cat was just poking around checking things out. But then, I heard the kitty getting into things. Something in the closet of the spare room fell over. I walked in and she's just climbing around on my outdoor gear, no big deal. Then she hops up on the futon, which is my spare bed, and pees. Right there in front of me. Empties her little bladder on the bed while I watch in horror.

WHAT?!

I picked her up by the scruff of her neck and slapped her across the butt, proceeded to carry her outside and tossed her into my neighbors house. Grabbed the dog and put her back in her house as well. Then rushed to get a towel to mop up whatever I could that didn't soak into the brand new down comforter I just bought for the bed.

AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Btw, cat urine smells really, really bad. Nothing like puppies who don't seem to smell at all. And this cat must have been plotting this all day because there is no way she had any less than half a liter of liquid in her bladder. But it was nobody's fault but my own. I'm the one that let her wander around my house.

Fortunately I got everything washed and all is well. But now I have to wonder WTF is going on in animal world that me and/or my house make animals want to pee in my bed! I feel like it's some bad karma coming around to bite me in the butt. But I am really nice to these animals. Obviously not nice enough.

New rule, no animals in the house.

Weather and Memories

It's hard to imagine anything being out of place when you get to see things like this. Somewhere above the continental U.S. a thunderstorm was forming at 30,000 feet while I flew back from Boston last month. I couldn't catch the lightening on film, but the clouds building into a fervor were simply breathtaking. I love weather. Clouds, rain, storms, snow, wind, waves.

I have this vivid memory of sitting outside on the back porch of my house with my baby sitter and little sister, I must have been about 8. We were watching the rain pour down in buckets and the thunder and lightening threaten to shake the house free of the ground. The strange thing is I remember that we were eating green olives out of the jar. To this day I love green olives.

Those are the kinds of memories that will never disappear. I hope.

Transitions

It's definitely not summer anymore, and not quite winter. I love fall but it's definitely one of those in-between phases as far as activities go. And here it's a little less exciting because there is a shortage of deciduous trees that make fall so amazingly beautiful. I'm sort of at a loss. Sailing is pretty much over for the season. It's a bit cold to climb. And snowboarding is not for a solid two months. So what do I do? I mean there are activities, mountain biking, hiking, and so-fourth, but it's not quite the same.

I could take up solitaire. Or knitting! Yay! Oh wait.. I do have a lot of winter projects though. Like the thousands of photos that need to go in albums. Curtains need to be made for the still bare windows in my house. I mean I work, and go to the gym. But then what? I feel completely unfulfilled. I'm thinking therapy. Learn how to feel more fulfilled? Sounds expensive.

By the way, my heat is not working. FUN. It's supposed to be 29 degrees tonight. So that's pretty awesome. I didn't need it all summer. I go to turn it on a few days ago and nothing. Can't light the pilot light. The valve's on. I have a functioning gas stove so I know there's gas coming into the house somewhere. I hope the repair people come soon. I literally am wearing a hat to bed.

Also, I think I'm going to search for a roommate. My house feels awful empty and it could be good to have someone to split the gas bill with. Assuming someone comes to fix the stove / furnace / thing-that-looks-like-a-wood-stove-but-isn't at some point. Not to mention the possibility of a snowboarding buddy. I have a bed for my roommate to be. I got a kitchen table the other day. That's helpful if you don't want to eat sitting on the floor every night. I'm still kind of searching for a dresser for the second bedroom. But otherwise I think I'm pretty much set. I sort of dread having a roommate because there's always something bizarre about them. (Or me.) But I think it would be good for me.

So I'm looking forward, or at least trying to, hoping for positive change.

'Bout that time eh chap?

Half-hearted defenders of the Universe?

Huh-uh, I don't buy it. Wouldn't work. I mean, there would be some crisis like aliens coming to annihilate the planet with weapons of unimaginable destructive potential like planetary liquefication or something and these half-hearted defenders would be like 'Uh.. well, we tried a missile, but that didn't really work. Then we asked nicely if they would leave us alone, but they just kept coming. So guess we're screwed. Sorry!'

Nice.

Sometimes I just feel like what's the point if you're not going to put your heart into it? Not anything in particular. Just anything. Everything. Work. Family. Relationships. I know I'm ridiculously type-A and can't take no for an answer. And oh, yeah, I moved to California where "mañana doesn't mean tomorrow, it just means not right now." I just feel like people are okay with mediocrity and that really gets under my skin.

What do you mean "oh well" ?!

Count to ten. Breathe..

Right.

Maybe it's that people don't feel empowered to change their reality. There was this really adorable quote in "The Wedding Date" where the dad says to the daughter who is not getting married that "women have the exact love life they want". He goes on to say that he refuses to believe her current sitch is exactly what she wants... aww.. But I thought, how true. Now I know this is completely oversimplified and doesn't take into account complex things like criminals and families and all that. But I just thought it was worth thinking over.

H'enyway. I just want you to take a second and think about it. Are you giving it your all? I mean it makes me want to say lots of words rhyming with luck and bell when I get roadblocked by people who don't seem to be putting their heart into whatever it is they're doing. But who am I to say? Maybe I'm just a psycho and can't slow the LUCK down for a second and appreciate whatever other perspectives there might be. I don't know. I do know that I'm frustrated as BELL right now though.

Good for my blood pressure I think.

Shoot for the stars

Sometimes I wonder what all the people I went to high school with are doing now. I remember what they wanted to do and where they went to college, but I wonder where they are now and if that's really where they set out to go. It's really sort of only a vague philosphical, did they end up where they wanted to be question, not an actual personal interest in the people themselves. I know that's horrible. But I have zero desire to go to any reunions. Okay, maybe a 5% desire. But it will probably never happen.

I always did a lot of thinking about where I wanted to be "when I grew up". Don't you love that phrase? When I was in high school I used to hate it when the older kids I knew would say "when I was in high school". But then when I could say things like "when I was in college" it didn't have quite the same allure. Last summer this cute little girl sat next to me on a flight from D.C. to Reno. She asked me what grade I was in. Ugh. How do you explain to an eight year old that you're not really an adult like their mom and dad, but you're not in high school or even college anymore.

My Grandma told me this story about my little sister. When she was really little they asked her how old she thought my mom was. She replied "really old, like 30". Which of course produced much laughter from all of my relatives. But 30 doesn't seem quite so old anymore. Actually not old at all...

Sigh.

But I digress. Here I am in Lake Tahoe. I always wanted to live on the West Coast, and this is pretty close. I have this pretty laid back job that pays well and has mostly encouraging promises of a future. So that's good. If the job doesn't work out I'm more than likely going back to school. I just wonder how many people feel as though they took aim and landed more or less in the place they had hoped to. I feel fortunate to be here.

A picture is worth a thousand words

So I got this cute little dragon puppet. (Who doesn't need a dragon puppet, right?) And I'm sitting on the porch with my neighbor's dog who is bouncing off the walls because nobody has been home all day. She's at the pinnacle of her OMG YOU'RE FINALLY HOME! routine when she spots the puppet.

WOW! A TOY, A TOY! THANKS! I LOVE TOYS! (As she proceeds to run around, toy in mouth strutting her proverbial stuff.)

She loves the thing. I think it's mostly because you can put your hand inside and then it much more closely resembles some kind of poor, helpless animal. I mean she's completely vicious right?

So I guess now Anna Claire has a dragon puppet.

Self Portrait

No glam really. But I would say a fairly good depiction of me. I don't know, it just seems like there's always a simple mirror selfy on the big time blogger sites so I thought I'd play along. Not that I'm big time or anything. Whatever... Tada!


I've had my Kodak Digital Rebel for about 2 years now. I really dig the fixed focal length lens and the pictures I've managed to snap here and there. My friends think I'm trying to catch absolutely every moment of their lives on film. But really I'm just trying to become a better photographer. (I know you hate it when I take your picture. But look at all the great pictures!!)

I promised myself I wouldn't get another lens until I got to know this one. SoI think it may be about time. Hooray! I want a zoom next. Just have to find the right one. And there are never a shortage of cool toys competing for my paycheck. Must prioritize...

Snow Cross

It's supposed to snow on Thursday. Probably only a dusting, and probably only in the higher elevations, but I am not going to be picky. Tahoe is absolutely beautiful when it snows. Even just bits of snow on the mountains make it feel so much more welcoming. It took me a long time to get used to the exposed rock all around the basin, and even moreso without the snow, so I'm excited for its return.

This is an image from tahoewindjammers.com that shows Mt. Tallac in the background. Focus on the top of the mast of the boat on the right. Just above and to the left is the snow cross. It leans slightly to the right but you can make it out. The snowfall last winter was so light that the last bit of snow on the "snow cross" on Mt. Tallac melted in late August.


I took this one of Mt. Tallac in February this year. If you compare the two you can almost make out where the cross is. There are years when the snow cross stays throughout the year. The Washoe Indians that originally lived in the Tahoe area have legends that say when the snow cross melts, the tribe would go to war with neighboring tribes. This may or may not be historically accurate but would make sense given the lack of precipitation during those years.

There are many places in Tahoe where you can hike and ski back country but Mt. Tallac is one of the most popular. Only the early bird gets the fresh untracked powder because it's so accessible and not necessarily a brush with death to attempt. There's a North-facing bowl at the top that catches great powder. But the more serious thrill-seakers dive off the cross. Apparently you can ski or ride all the way down to your car. I'm thinking the hike up 4,000 feet would be tough, but that has to be part of the allure.

Let it snow...

Monterey

This April, just after I moved to California, my friend LTall was in Monterey for business. It was about a 4 hour drive so I decided to go visit her. Monterey is way beautiful. And LTall is way cool. We couldn't have had more fun or spent better quality time together. I miss you girl. I hope you're doing well. MUAH!


Remember sitting on the beach watching the boys row and listening to the sea lions bark?

Also, this picture really isn't black and white. It's really just that muted. And the picture I'm not posting? From the happy hour.. do you still have that one?

:)

Ice Cream Makes Everything Better

This week has been the worst week I've had since moving to Tahoe. The worst. Hands down. But stress in this environment is transient and life has a way of smoothing out the bumps. My boss, probably feeling at least as much stress as I am if not more, randomly decided we should get milkshakes and drive up to Emerald Bay, one of the best views on the lake. I didn't really expect it to help but I felt 100% better. Fearing for my life as he kind of absent mindedly swerves around the switchbacks overhanging several hundred feet of cliff while making offhanded comments about getting low on brake fluid kind of puts things in perspective. Just what the doctor ordered. Ice cream makes everything better.