katfaw

9.   I once burned my eyelashes, eyebrows and bangs off by lighting a match in front of an open oven when I could smell gas.  (Very stupid I know and I was very lucky but when you're 23, having no eyebrows or eyelashes for 4 months seems like a pretty big tragedy.)

10.   I used to be a travel agent and a very long time ago I was a bank teller.

11.   I have been tap dancing since I was 18.

12.  My first real kiss was on my 16th birthday so I really was "sweet sixteen" and never been kissed.

13.  While I was taking my driving test to get my first driver's license the water hose on my Dad's car broke and steam poured out from underneath the hood.  I still passed the test.

14.  My first airplane ride was when I was 18 years old.  Since then I have gone up in an ultra-light, hot-air ballooning (crewed as well), been towed by motor boat while hanging from a parachute, flown to Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Jamaica, Greece, Europe many times and all over the United States.

15.  I stole a purple fringed suede purse off the handlebars of a bike when I was 11 because I really wanted it.  Then I realized I couldn't just show up with it at home without difficult questions being asked so finally ended up burying it, and feeling very guilty but also disappointed that I couldn't keep it.

16.  I am a TERRIBLE speller.

I was driving home from work Tuesday night about 7:15PM and about a block from my home a coyote crossed the street in front of my car!  He/She then trotted up the sidewalk a bit, crossed back across the street and went down the side street.  Now I live up a hill right next to a very large open area.  It used to be the Golden Gate National Recreational Area but now it's been taken over by the National Park Service.   I walk up there every morning with my dog and am used to seeing various critters.  Rabbits, deer, coyote, an occasional bobcat and once down near the beach a quick glimpse of a mountain lion (once was enough).  However seeing coyotes walking up the same sidewalk that I walk on when I take the dog out for her last walk of the evening, and that's much later than 7:15, shook me up a bit.  I'm sorry that we've encroached so much on their landscape that they've become part of ours but I still don't want them eating my cat or dog!

Yesterday I took Ariel and her two youngest brothers, Ash (7) and Andrew (9) to the city on a Christmas visit. First we stopped at Union Square to see the holiday windows at Macy’s with the real kittens and puppies.  We also visited Niemann Marcus to see the enormous Christmas tree in the rotunda.  I remember doing that as a child when the store was the City of Paris.  That tree was much better as it was really decorated with ornaments and actual tricycles and toys.  It also revolved if my memory serves me correctly (anyone?)  This tree just had red balls on it but it was still very large and the stained glass ceiling on the rotunda was still as beautiful.

I had considered taking the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf but after seeing the line and the price we drove there.  Lunch was at In-N-Out Burger then we walked down to Boudin’s the main reason for our trip.  My brother Michael (our boat skipper from last week) is Santa Claus there every weekend until Christmas.  Ariel had given him insider information on the boys so Santa would "know" things about them.  When we got there, a note said Santa was feeding the reindeer and would be back in 30 minutes.  So we decided just to wait there and Ash and I sat down in two chairs that were in front of Santa's area.  Within minutes and with no warning, Ash bent over and vomited all over the floor!  Oh dear!  Ash had been fine until lunchtime when he didn't eat but a few bites and spent about 15 minutes in the bathroom while I waited for him.  He said he had a stomach ache but felt better and never said anything about feeling nauseous.  With kids you never know exactly what a stomach ache means.  The people at Boudin’s were very nice, bringing us paper towels and all so we just hightailed it out of there to the public restroom nearby to clean him up.  The good news was that he hadn't been sick all over Santa Claus as he had taken his break just in time!  I was also extremely glad we had our car with us, not parked halfway across town at Union Square.  Poor Ash didn't even feel like walking to the car so the kids waited on the sidewalk for me to come pick them up.  He fell asleep in the car on the way home and went straight up to bed when he got home.  Not exactly the day we had planned.

My Siamese kitten Xander (8 months old) is driving me crazy!!  I've always had girl kitties before and they certainly never behaved like this.  Xander was named Phoebe at first because I was told (and I wanted) a girl.  After I had Phoebe for a few days I noticed that she seemed to have a lot of equipment for a girl.  It's hard to tell with kittens but the person I got her from should have been able to tell.  After several days of lifting her tail and having various friends and neighbors inspect her from the back and compare the view with a downloaded sketch from the internet I was pretty sure Phoebe was a he.  So at the first vet appointment I got confirmation that I indeed had a male kitten and went home to decide on a new name.  Since the kitten was already behaving like Alexander the Great I shortened the name to Xander.  He's been an individual from the start!  He loves my 9 year old long haired dachshund Ruby and would sleep with her every chance he got.  My last Siamese cat was older than Ruby and only ever tolerated her so wasn't sure how the relationship between Xander and Ruby would development.  Ruby however was very sweet and even let him suckle on her chest and purr and knead her with his claws.  She has only recently cut him off from that, deciding that he is old enough to be weaned (he is 8 pounds now) and she is only 13.5 pounds.

Xander loves dogs.  He has two special dog girlfriends that he likes to play with.  One is my next door neighbor's dog Ginseng.  I live in a condo so share a boardwalk with Natalie and Xander goes to her front door and meows until she lets him in.  He and Ginseng (a Chihuahua mix about 14lbs) wrestle like crazy.  Natalie and I keep thinking they're going to hurt each other and every now and then one or the other will yelp and they will separate for a minute before jumping on top of each other again.  When I went out of town with Xander for a few days they acted like re-united lovers when they saw each other again.

His other girlfriend is a prissy white poodle named Lucy who is his devoted hand maiden.  She loves to chase him or have him chase her around the house but doesn't really know how to do the wrestling thing.  Xander also wrestles with Ruby and plays keep-away with both my upstairs neighbor's golden doodle and my walking buddy’s border collies/golden retriever mix.  He is not intimidated by the size of the dogs.  My efforts to keep him inside (I never thought he would be an inside only cat) until he was older were sabotaged by his amazing ability to sneak past me out the door even when I knew he was there and was going to try and get out. 

The problem is that now with the shorter days and a new job with a longer commute he is not allowed outside during the week at all.  I can't trust that he will come back in before I have to go to work in the morning.  He has always come when I've called him but won't come in until he's good and ready or I have a very good lure, like one of his girlfriends.  In the evenings it's already dark when I get home and I don't want him out then.  I live close to a very large open space with coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and skunks, even the occasional mountain lion.  Coyotes are seen regularly, Ruby chased two coyotes a few weeks ago on our morning walk (heart attack moment!).

Xander wants to go OUT and is very pissed off.  I've had Ginseng over every night I can to play with him.  I play with him, and try to have a "new" toy every night (something he hasn't seen recently).  He is still knocking over and breaking lamps, climbing up shelves, turning over plants, trying to climb the crystal chandelier (which is already wrapped in fabric because he thought the crystals were so fun to play with).  He's not deliberately causing damage, just bored and trying to entertain himself.  However saying "NO" and removing him from where ever he's not supposed to be repetitively, squirting him with water (he's fascinated by water), zipping him up in his carrier for a time out, or flicking him on the nose are having any effect.  He's waking up every night about 2 A.M. and spending the rest of the night closed up the bathroom so I can sleep because he's virtually bouncing off the walls.  I don't know how to burn off this excess energy.  Any suggestions anyone?