End of an era in the White House and at work

Well it's was a traumatic, stressful, rage inducing 4 years. 

I'm completely obsessed with the wonderful young poet Amanda Gorman. Her poem was amazing and her performance of it, from her choice of outfit & jewelry to her hand gestures to her voice, transfixed all of us.

On a sad note at work, we were informed that Mike Mason is being let go from the company as of the end of February. No one (aside from the decision makers) understands this decision and those of us on the project are devastated.

The kitties are finally getting comfortable around me. 

Even Roly will hang on the bed with me. Such beautiful boys!

New cat visitors & a traumatic week

What happened this week at the Capitol is a wholely predictable travesty and tragedy. Also potentially terrifying. No more from me on that.

The kittens from December had to go back to the shelter during the last week of December due to needing medications for parasites. Candy corn was not going to be having any of that and let me know it. 

I found out a week later that they were being adopted. I was so thrilled for them but so missed them. They were so cute.

I picked up two new cats, this time 1 yr old orange tabby brothers. They are gorgeous cats but extremely skittish. Grubs, the short hair has been out playing with their toys and has even gone so far as to sniff my hand but won't let me near. I barely catch a glimpse of Roly Poly as he's dashing away between hiding places. 

They are amazing jumpers though! Grubs got himself into the tiny window ledge.

Roly stayed in the crate for quite awhile, although now he's mostly under the bed. I did catch him jump onto the top of my 5' cabinet in the bathroom! 

I hope they warm up soon, otherwise this won't be fun like the *corn sibs.

Ends and beginnings

The whole idea of the new year as we celebrate it in the west is fairly arbitrary. I mean, why not on the solstice? What meaning does this particular day have tied to anything going on in the real or natural world?

As has been the case for the last several years, our company was mostly shutdown between Xmas and New Years. Because we are being switched to new email addresses, we received new laptops and new phones just before the break. Not surprisingly, the instructions we received for switching over were pathetically inadequate so I did spend some time on the phone with tech support staff. Still lots of problems so that's going to be fun to deal with on Monday.

Xmas was spent alone. I ordered a meal from Casa del Mar/Shutters which was delicious and the family Zoomed in the morning but it was even more depressing than other years when I have chosen to stay home for whatever reason. 

I did plan an excursion with Ferreby to Huntington Garden which was supposed to be Monday, then was rained out by torrential thunderstorms! She worked a miracle to get us in on New Year's Eve. Ferreby has been a godsend over these past months. When people I thought were close friends have never bothered to reach out (despite my doing so), she's someone who has consistently found ways for both of us to get out safely and spend time together. The Garden was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We mostly stayed in the Chinese Garden, which had recently been expanded and reopened. While the plants in Winter are muted or dormant, they still add a beauty to the paths, water, and the backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains.

During the week, I saw an article about things to do on New Year's Day and it mentioned a horse ride through the Hollywood Hills. This was something I always thought would be fun but didn't really ever get around to. Perfect time and perfect excuse to get myself out of the house. Our group was just me and another couple. Again, the weather was perfect. The skies were really clear all the way to the ocean. Lots of people were on the trail, but most everyone wore masks plus being on horses, we were well above people's breathing zone and they also kept us safely 6' from each other. 

We rode up to My Hollywood (with a view of Griffith Observatory) and also right under the Hollywood sign. Although my butt is still sore, it felt really good to get outside this way.

The bonus of heading to this part of town is being a few minutes from Steven and Rob's house. I stopped by after and because they have a beautiful wide sliding door, we could be inside and still have an amazing cross breeze to keep us all safe. We still kept our masks on. I so thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out, no agenda, catching up with old friends. It really made for a nice start to 2021.

While I have no illusions that much will change by the turning of an artificial calendar, I do hope that with a new administration in DC we will at least start to have sane, scientific responses to this pandemic and that we will eventually, slowly (and maybe with some backsliding) start to find our way to our new future, whatever that may look like.

Fostering kitties

Last weekend, I took in two sibling kitties for fostering until they can find their forever homes. 

They are the cutest!! I kept them in the guest room their first day but they seemed pretty curious by day 2, so I let them check out the digs. The neighbours met them in the hallway that afternoon.

They have very different personalities. Popcorn is the male white and orange. He is more bold and took to me right away but he's also kind of feisty and prefers to play with his teeth. I'm trying to train him out of that but it's challenging.

Candy Corn is the female calico and she was more cautious but is super affectionate when she wants to be. She tends to enjoy pets and likes to sleep right on me or next to me. 

While I'm working, she will tend to sleep in the guest room with me, he will be on the sofa. They're pretty good eaters. They like playing with the felt dangly toy they came with. He's better and using the scratching box, she doesn't seem to have figurdt it out yet. 

He figured out how to climb the Xmas tree but hasn't done it again. Litter box duty is a pain. I'm still keeping them in the room when I'm out. Luckily, I don't get out much due to the pandemic. 

They can sometimes sleep in the most uncomfortable positions. I'm enjoying them while they are here, but it will be a lot less work when they are adopted.