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Friday, February 29, 2008

A day at the zoo...

Note: this post is image intensive


On December 9, 2007, the boyfriend and I decided to spend our Sunday at the San Francisco Zoo. This was 2 weeks before the infamous Tatiana the Tiger incident on Christmas day. Just to bring you up to date, that was the day that 3 ass hats decided it would be a good idea to taunt a full-grown, female tiger in heat for shits and giggles. They were "pwned" to say the least.

"RIP Tatiana, you died doing what you loved."

It was about 10:30 AM and the schedule showed that we were just on time for the bears to receive their Christmas gift of fresh fish released into their habitat pools. I managed to get a shot of one of the sister bears snacking on a fish she had been stalking for 20 minutes. The habitat that the 2 Grizzly sisters were in that day was a new installation that the other bears would share in cycles to offer a more stimulating environment than their old concrete exhibit. Giving them new challenges and exercise that they would normally get in the wild (since they were abandoned as cubs by their mother, they would have never survived infancy in the wild).

"Nom, nom, nom..."

In an adjacent exhibit there were 2 polar bear siblings that were meandering about after receiving their meals.

"We're still hungry."

We entered an humid, toasty environment that featured  critters commonly found in the Amazon forest. There were tiny peep birds and large parrots, a green anaconda (that always hides), and giant arowana fish. Then there was this guy just waiting for us to stick our arms in the water.

"Oh hai, I can has your arm?"

Near the Lemur Cafe in the center of the zoo had the flamingo exhibit right next to an open air eating area. Presumably to taunt the flamingos with sights and sounds of pizza, burgers, fries and beer. They were very calm and did not startle easily to the squeals and screams of pointing 
crotch fruit who tried to reach and grab a spindly leg.

"Ready for a game of croquet!"

Since it was Christmas time the zoo gets into the holiday season by offering a real ice skating rink (not that slippery plastic soap surface) and a small herd of reindeer to the delight of the boyfriend. They were very cute in person and their fur was very warm. They never once looked up at us as they were too busy keeping the ever persistent grass from growing back.

"Nom, nom nom x2 ..."

From the reindeer pen we entered the children's zoo area, the part of the zoo were one can get much closer to the animals (for grabbin') and raise our chances of being bitten, pooped and peed on. We tried in vain to get some shots of the snuggable Prairie Dogs but try as we might we were not prepared to deal with such quick rodents. I had a lot of pictures of smudges if you were curious. Instead, we visited their more laid back neighbors, the Meerkats. The weather that day was very nice so the Meerkats were taking advantage of day by recharging their solar-paneled bellies.


"Wanna get my back?" *offers suntan oil*

Right next to the Animal Resource Center (were talks and demos happen) was the birds of prey exhibit. We spied this intimidating looking Golden Eagle that was over 40 lbs. Obviously, he was not part of the petting zoo.

"PET ME!!!"

The children's zoo was surprisingly not filled with raving children but quite a few teenagers and giggly adults. There were 2 barns filled with farmyard animals; llamas, lambs, goats, chickens, donkeys, pigs, turkeys and ducks. This was the part of the zoo that attracted me more than any other part since I could get right up to the animals and take these pictures (also did not grow up on a farm). I took a lot but I'll just show a few since once you've seen a goat you've seen them all (also almost all were pregnant so I have a lot of pics of bloated goats).

"Hug and kiss me please."

"Please to be leaving me alone, my feelings are hurt."

"Ivory and eeeh-bony!!!" *sing-song*

The last stop for the day (since we have other things to do that day) was the big cat house were they were going to have a public feeding of the tigers and lions. This is one of the last pictures of Tatiana alive before the incident. We were told that a male Lion was too agitated to eat because his mate was in heat and so he was compelled to keep an eye on her. We were also told that Tatiana was specially excited since she was going into heat as well. She was very entertaining to watch, what with her jumping about in her feeding cage, playing with a box on a rope and visibly relishing her meal. The male tigers ate and looked as if they could care less that there was a "hot" lady tiger in the next cage or the people outside going "Oooh" and "Aaah".

"Too excited to pay attention to you."

"Like I care..."

"Mmm, fud."

"No more fud?"

We purposefully choose to see only half of the zoo so that we could come back and maybe see a pregnant big cat. Sadly, we will never get to see Tatiana's kittens but did return in February for the "Year of the Rat" festivities (will post more pics of that visit). This is the last shot of the zoo trip; a view of the African animals exhibit with the giraffe house in the background (a little baby giraffe was just born there this week). We'll be back again soon (probably not during the tourist season).

"Y'all come back real soon y'hear?"

Su

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Snack Attack!!!

Just taking a break from this time travelin' journey to share a little snack with you.


A few days ago I baked my first batch of soft pretzels. I was dismayed that the ready to use mix that we bought from Williams-Sonoma wasn't as tasty and delicious as they said it would be. The mix was entirely too sweet and the gluten never formed properly (after so much kneading) so that I could roll long thin ropes to make the knots.

So I went and searched on Food Network's website for a simple pretzel recipe and found a really good Alton Brown version. Let this be known that I am not a baker, baking bread is a different beast in comparison to making cookies or cakes. And much more complicated than making making vindaloo.

 

The baking soda bath ensured that the pretzels browned evenly but the egg wash made it crispy and shiny. The pretzels turned out really great and was worth the effort. I'll make sure to make these again. They taste great with spicy mustard. See?


Su

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Halloween Revisited Part: Deux

*phew* I'm getting winded from all this traveling. I don't know about you but I'm gonna need a break soon.


The last bit of our Halloween was one of the most fun events we did during this holiday. We had volunteered our Sunday to help host the booth for our greyhound rescue group at the 2007 Pet Pride Day. Pride Day is basically a Halloween event for rescue groups and the San Francisco Animal Control. We got to hang out with our group coordinator, Candy and her husband, The Eriksens, the family who adopted Fisher to us a year ago and some new adopters whose names are escaping me right now. If you look close you can see pumpkin covered treat bags with biscuits I baked the night before.


For the past 4 years we always attended with our dog Taylor dressed as one of his favorite foods (pumpkin, fish, lamb, etc) that year we brought back the fish costume and entered him in the contest. That year was Fisher's first Pride Day so he didn't dress up, as he was relegated to booth greeter to get him accustomed to large groups of dogs and people.


That was him before he was "shamed" publicly. When it came time to call out the short list of costumed dogs, Taylor was chosen to walk onstage in his "Catch of the Day" outfit. There were lots of really well-made and clever costumes. And every year there is always a bias in judging in favor of small dogs (since Taylor is 14 lbs. we always thought he could be a serious contender, but 4 years running...).

There was this guy who had his poodle mix play as his mop (clever). A woman had her 3 chihuahuas dressed up as a meal of 3 lobsters (very cute). There is one chihuahua, Martini that has beaten us for the past 2 years. Last year she won over everyone dressed up as a tiny Playboy bunny with a tiny red wig and a tiny martini with a teeny olive tied to her back (so cute I puke). This year she decides to shut us out with a stunning Marie Antoinette costume (if you look close her cheeks are blushed, Kawaii!)

 

Every year we end up posing for pet fashion bloggers (a lot of them are from Japanese magazines, what's up with that). And this year wasn't any different with people asking to take pics of the dogs (makes us feel like we're at some kind of con). The day ran long with all the events and demos that were being held. By the end of the day the dogs were tired and cranky (especially Fisher who basically had enough of the whole thing and wanted to flop on his bed at home). We went home with another loss under our belt but felt good about helping out our rescue group and maybe finding homes for more greyhounds. 

Can't wait for this years Pet Pride Day. I think Taylor should go as a piece of chocolate or a steak. What do you think?

Su

Halloween Revisited

I don't know how you feel about this but Halloween around our place is celebrated more than any other commercial holiday. Its the only holiday that I can think of that requires having fun and scaring the crap out of kids. We start early every year with Halloween festivities in early or mid September with putting up crazy crap on our walls. As October 31st nears, we spend our weekends attending Halloween events, haunted houses, pumpkin patches and corn mazes. Halloween time is the most enjoyable, worthwhile holiday, devoid of all the religious trappings burdening the other end of the year festivities (I don't care what you pagans say, we don't do those things anymore).




First thing is first, we needed to make our house spooky to set the mood and theme (but mostly to keep Halloween-haters out). I have a lot of fun designing decor for our deck, windows and front door in easy to acquire materials (burlap, black plastic lining, colored string lights, miles of tape and twine, paint, etc). This year I went with a simple, distressed haunted house look covered in tattered fabric and natural looking decaying detritus and finished with creepy blood red lighting. Since our apartment is located right next to the open parking area we received a lot of enthusiastic compliments from passersbys and neighbors.


Now that we had set the mood the first thing to do was our Halloween tradition of going to Pirates of Emerson in Fremont. This year we shared the experience with friends that had never been. We were pretty excited since this was the first year the Emerson people invited other haunt groups to hold their own individual haunted houses. The pirate boat was spending 2007 in Santa Cruz but the Fremont site expanded the underwater adventure and brought back the Bilge Rat maze with more seizure-tronic action. Understandably, it would be difficult to take pictures while a chainsaw wielding maniac chases you down a blackened hallway towards a cluster of flesh hungry zombies. But after catching my breath I did manage to take a few poorly lit shots of the entrance.

 

"The Asylum" was a horrifying hospital haunt straight out of the Silent Hill video game series. Towards the end was a very convincing wheelchair guy that rams you into a terrifying morgue area where bodies in clear plastic bags hung from the ceiling and writhe while you try to push your way out. "Heartstoppers" had an apparent wild west theme with the entrance but once you got through the saloon doors the haunt kicks it up to high gear and you enter a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" nightmare. "Leatherface" forced us into a large inflatable, black nylon sphincter that we had to push through into a pitch black hallway only to be prodded by what I assume is the worst thing in hell, clowns. Who then shoved us into a bar filled with abusive 18th century, drunken cowboys. The "Densmore Manor" attraction had no backstory but we were told we were late for dinner. It was a horrifying run through a old mansion that I would describe as a smash-up of "Carrie, The Exorcist and The Devil's Rejects". The last haunt "Rebel Yell" was the worst in my opinion because it made no sense to me. I didn't run but walked through what looked like a Southern plantation mansion in where the inhabitants were doing weird scientific experiments to each other. The night ended with a visit to this little caravan which held a little gypsy woman who would read your "fortune" and offer a future "warning" which was "shocking" to say the least. A night at Pirates of Emerson was definitely worth $20.

The next weekend we went pumpkin hunting which would eventually become Powerset jack-o-lanterns. We took Fisher out with us to pick the perfect pumpkins. And from the look of the gourds that day we had our work cut out for us.



Later on that week the pumpkins were cut, cored and gouged out for the enjoyment of the boyfriends company. (I baked the seeds with spices for the whole office to share) They lasted a little less than a week, the offices were kept too warm on the weekend for their liking. I don't have any pics of them becoming pumpkin puddles, it was too sad.  


I'm going to cut this post here and write about the last part of our Halloween festivities in a bit.

See you after the break.

Su

Monday, February 25, 2008

Comic-Con redux

Wondercon 2008 detoured me this weekend from completing this post. The weather made travel interesting this weekend; and when I mean interesting I mean "damp and windy". Let's go back now and look at last summers Comic-Con and see what the way-back machine has for us.


Looking at my collection of pictures reminded me of why I had so little photos of the con. Delta saw fit to crush my camera in their haphazard baggage handling, leaving it inoperable for the weekend. Since I had left the camera in the care of the boyfriend he decided to buy me another one at the local Best Buy. We got a nice discount since it was open stock but we didn't find out until the next day that the package of extras didn't contain the battery recharger. So needless to say this was a poorly recorded Comic-Con trip.

Every time we visit San Diego we always enjoy ourselves with the various side trips and destinations in the city and beyond. Tijuana is only a 10 minute drive south and open 24 hours for all your pharmaceutical needs. Coronado island has a spooky hotel and unique shopping. Old Town has bangin' authentic mexican restaurants. The weather during the summer in SoCal is usually undesirable to those that are accustomed to the foggy, windy summers of the San Francisco bay. But San Diego is unusual in that it tends to receive cool off-shore winds instead of broil in the convection that is the Santa Ana winds (but it's definitely humid).

We traveled on the first day of the con and didn't arrive until late so our plans to check in and grab badges did not happen. In fact the only thing we could tolerate was to get to our hotel and have dinner at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" in San Marcos (meaning we missed the awesome "Indiana Jones" panel in which Steven Spielberg and the whole cast showed up). We started early Friday morning to make up for lost time after grabbing a free breakfast of bagels and cheese. The traffic to downtown San Diego on a work day is brutal so we relied on the quirky trolly system to get around the city. Getting out of the trolly we spied the totally packed entrance of the convention center and heard grumbles that registration had already sold out Friday and Saturday tickets and had to turn away onsite registration attendees. It was surprising to hear that the con would reach maximum capacity so quickly (need to register early folks).

Now, some people may argue with me on this but I believe the point of Comic-con is to see and meet the entertainment industry players and producers. So much information is gathered in the crazy fan fueled weekend that movies, TV shows, animation and print media can be made or broken based on audience (the paying public) opinion (your money). You, the con attendee payed so much money to get to the convention (flight, hotel, car, parking, food) it kills me to hear that some spend their entire time in the exhibit hall (not to say the hall isn't the shit, there are some awesome booths waiting for you to walk by so they could throw shit at you!). Needless to say, the majority of our time is spent in the hard to get into panels.

On Friday, we managed to get into several big panels and get some pics. The first one was Laurel K. Hamilton which was honestly the only way we'd be able to attend the American Dad panel afterwards (Comic-Con purposefully schedules non-relating panels to follow one another to make sure that people don't do what we do). At least I read her books so that we were there for a legitimate reason. She didn't have much planned in terms of material to talk about so opened the entire hour for Q&A. You can most assuredly rely on the stupidity of fans to make sure juicy literary details are destroyed or ignored for the sake of fandom wank. LKH was a good sport and admitted to Comic-Con being her first big public appearance and spent the entire hour pacing back and forth furtively as she was lobbed question after question about Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard. I found her mannerisms and the way she talks a little off putting (a lot of "bark" type comments and talking out of the corner of her mouth). But I still enjoy her Anita Blake series (besides the fact that it is one big "Mary Sue" storyline) and still believe that her best work was done in the earlier volumes.  And to those naysayers who have a problem with Anita; LKH says it best, "Get the fuck out".


The American Dad panel was great because the boyfriend and I scuttled up the front to get a great view of the entire cast who ended up doing a table read of an episode that aired this past fall before the WGA strike. Since we've been to the con for a few years now we always make sure to attend any panel Seth McFarlane appears in (1. he's a funny guy 2. his voice is deliciously creamy). We also managed to get into the Family Guy panel on Saturday but no photography was allowed because they showed the then unaired "Star Wars" parody "Blue Harvest" episode.

 

The last panel of the day was one of the hardest to get into. Kevin Smith was already talking about his newest side project by the time we were able to get a seat in the ginormous Hall H. We got to see the premiere episode of "Reaper" and were teased with info about the 2 scripts he was working on at the time, "Zack and Miri make a Porno"(which finally started filming) and "Redstate"(a zombie flick). The panel closed with asinine fan questions and Kevin heckling them back to their respective seats.


Saturday is the most event intensive days with absolutely no chance of getting into the exhibit hall. All day we tried getting into the Heros and The Simpsons panel but room squatters kept people from getting any seats. After a 2 hour wait in an endless line we were able to get into the Futurama panel at which the entire cast did a 10-minute table read of the new episode that was released on DVD this past fall (also included an accidental run in with Seth Rogen and the cast of "Superbad"). Again no pics were allowed to be taken so don't ask.

Later that afternoon we managed to get great seats for the Rifftrax panel at which we got a chance see peeks into the new "Film Crew" straight to DVD riffs of cruddy old movies. There was a short Q&A at which the fans asked questions mainly about their MST3K days. Mike, Kevin and Bill were great in person and were kind enough to spend time with the fans after their panel.


Saturday night was going to be our last night in San Diego so it was our only chance to be tourists. We went and had dinner at the little bar/restaurant that appears in Top Gun, Kansas City Barbecue. It was a small place with all kinds of crazy military crap and bras tack onto every surface. The barbecue chicken was really good but I loved their onion rings. In case you were wondering the bathroom was clean and had an amusing condom dispenser you can spy down below.


Another Comic-Con had came and went and we miss it already. Despite the difficulty in traveling, headaches from dangerously low blood sugar, and getting around the body-packed convention center it was an experience we would never pass up. In fact we are set and ready for 2008 and can't wait to start that crazy week of ultimate fandom. If you decide to go this year, you'll know where to find me (in line for that fucking Heros panel).

See you in San Diego everyone! I've been missing you.



Su

Friday, February 22, 2008

All stops between San Francisco to San Diego

Before we disembark on our little memory trip I thought I should quickly introduce some of the players I may mention along the way. That way I won't have to deal with the handful of "Who dat?" and "Who you talkin' 'bout?".


I'll start with the boyfriend, with whom I live with and share the duvet with if I am so inclined. You can visit him on his uber-techy tumblr blog. He means the world to me and I love him bunches.


That's him trying to read in peace while I shove a camera in his face on our last return trip from San Diego. (Update: he's gotten rid of the "goat" and is trying to rock the "stache" until March)

The other 2 entities that may show up are our snorglly dogs Taylor and Fisher. They are both rescues with special medical needs easily taken care of with the miracle of modern medicine.
Taylor is a 13-year old JRT, ranch dog that has been living with Dave before I was ever around. He has a tendency to get out right ornery when he sees strange dogs or off leashed dogs due to being not properly socialized and being just an old cranky dog.  He doesn't enjoy long walks like he used to and is actually solar powered (on the few sunny days we get a year you may find him belly-up soaking up rays).


That's him about 2 years ago when he was a full time Mog Dog (Dave's old company), he's happily retired now with his biscuit pension.

The latest addition to our home is Fisher, a rescued racing greyhound. We've had him for over a year but he's 3 years old, originally from Colorado and adopted from Bay Area rescue group GSGA. He is almost the exact opposite in terms of personality from Taylor. Fisher is a lover of all things (dogs, cats, children, adults, and even you!) People always ask if he likes to run due to the assumption that greyhounds are hyper. But due to their highly specialized body chemistry they can be in top racing form without any training. In fact he spends almost as much time sleeping as an elderly dog. But because he's still young he has a lot of energy to expend but all he really needs is a 5 minute game of chase. 



That's him in the foreground standing in the lake in Marin with another rescue greyhound starring at model RC boats.

These 3 dudes are the center of my life, i'll talk about other people or animals in the future when the need arises. Now that that is out of the way lets be on our way. We'll be stopping briefly at:

- Comic-Con 2007
- Halloween 2007
- San Francisco Zoo (pre-Tatiana incident)
- Christmas 2007
- Alcatraz Island 2008

Our first stop approaches...

Su

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Time Machine of Lurve...

I hope to all that come here (all 2 or 3 of you) that you've had a wonderful V-Day this week or to the rest of you a kick-ass Thursday.


I am fully aware of the nefarious intentions of the manufactured greeting card "industry" but dammit I love my holidays. Although I am a steadfast believer that one really should show love and appreciation to those who are important in our lives everyday not just once a year. The boyfriend and I have been together happily for almost 7 years but make an effort to celebrate VD in our own way. Flowers, cards and chocolate are rarely bought and given but rather we indulge in a day of fun activities we would both enjoy. 

This year we spent the day together being San Francisco tourists. After having a quick breakfast snack at Starbucks we drove to Pier 39. I convinced the boyfriend to finally visit the temporary location of Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 and be terrified of the gigantic, looming "Laughing Sal" automaton near the entrance. I had not been at the Musee in years and there were some new stereograph machines I had not seen before. But the fact that some machines now demand 50¢ kept us from depleting our laundry money. If any of you are interested on peeping at salacious, turn-of-the-century girlie pics I encourage you to find "Naughty Marietta"; it's totally worth it's 25¢ of old-timey porn. After the Musee, we headed to Pier 33 to the Hornblower Cruises to spend the day on Alcatraz Island. It was apparent that the romantic lure of the decaying island prison was evident as our boat was filled with other couples eager to hear gruesome prison life stories from grizzled old men. There was a lot of walking around since we choose to take the storytelling tour of the outside grounds and the audio walking tour of the prison interior. There is way to much to tell right now but I did managed to get a few good pics of the tours. When we had our fill of prison life we decided to go "make a break for it" to Pier 39 for a late quick lunch before heading home. I was thankful that there was decent calamari and chips for a good price at "Chowders" and Dave was satisfied with chili in a bread bowl at "Boudin".
We spent the rest of the day with our dogs at home avoiding the dinner madness at the restaurants and made a meal for ourselves. Including a deliciously, cute heart-shaped sourdough round (it made a great garlic bread) bought at previously mentioned "Boudin" bakery. 

Besides, VD festivities I wanted to inform you handful of readers that I finally got around to uploading a crap load of pics from the past year. Pictures that I should of blogged about but didn't because of this or that; which explains the title of this particular post. 

The "mouse house" will be on a journey of sorts. A time traveling journey in the next week or so as we go back into mid 2007 and visit events that I meant to share with you in the first place. So sit back and relax gentle reader as we travel... back to the future, dun, dun, ddduuuunnnn! (*snort*).

shuff, shuff, shhuuuffff (the sound of a upside-down rice bowl moving on the ground)

Su

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Doggie Traction

How has your weekend fared so far dear reader? 

This is our first weekend in a while that we have had pleasant, warm and dry weather. I love the rain but sometimes I would like to go out and not have soggy socks. Yet so far I haven't had a chance to enjoy the good weather.

Our little dog Taylor has been difficult the past 48 hours; to be fair it's not his fault. Sometime Friday morning, he woke up with the stiffest neck and the grumpiest attitude to date (he is a JRT after all). He was shaking, whimpering and shrunk away from having his collar put on for his morning contributions to the landscaping. After a quick emergency trip to his vet we were turned away due to their full schedule of appointments. We had to wait till the evening, making sure he stayed warm, calm and sleepy we finally were able to get an appointment at Linda Mar. We learn that his stiff body posture was due to a pinched nerve in his neck that keeps him from being able to turn to the left. 

Currently he's doped up on anti-inflammatory, pain killers and sedatives to keep him from being active and injure himself more. He also gets to have a yummy meal of homemade porridge and baby food (pampered baby). In a way its rather relaxing to have him asleep for most of the day, the house is definitely much quieter. 

We hope he has a good and quick recovery since this month is packed with events such as Valentines Day (dur), Chinese New Year Parade and Wonder Con. And various animal rescue events around the Bay Area.

Let's do this again soon,
Su

Thursday, February 7, 2008

From out of the shadows...

*Tah-dah* (makes slightly awkward entrance)


I'm back! Mainly to apologize for my lack of postings and general neglect of my stupid Blog. 

"I apologize"

I've devoted myself mainly to Twitter because I wouldn't have to commit to a well thought out, succinct or coherent blog post. I've found out that I can state my opinion in less than 200 characters per post. And I've found that strangely satisfying. And it has been apparent that some people delight in reading small snippets of my wild and woolly adventures... in the bathroom.

But, I'm drifting from the original intent of this post. I felt I should come back and occasionally type things out in fully fleshed out paragraphs with punctuation, indents and capital letters. If I don't actually practice what is quickly disappearing from age-addled brain; it will all wither away and be carried off on the cruel winds of time.

I've also found it amusing that my post from last fall generally applies to all our recent weather woes (that's how long I've been gone). I'm sure it will apply as we continue to weather our monsoon season.