Katie's photos and journal

Bill and Percy

2009-12-20T23:33:41Z

Our last cat died about two years ago. After having cats for decades, we decided we'd give it a break for awhile. Or longer. But we have a kid in our household and he was feeling pet deprived. And there are a lot of critters out there in need of a home. So we went to the local county shelter and came home with these two brothers. The striped pajamas belong to Bill. The creme with ginger points is Percy's. We got them a very nice, soft cat bed so of course they prefer this hard old basket.
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Dark night

2009-12-09T08:04:06Z

We are tucked up in our warm beds while outside two owls are hooting back and forth in the cold. It isn't often that we hear one. I can't remember ever hearing two together.

leaf and impression

2009-12-04T21:31:40Z

This is a found object but then a lot of photographs are.

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Shopkeeper's revenge

2009-12-01T21:13:51Z

Watermelon Music is one of our favorite places in Davis. Kids aren't unwelcome but idiot parents are. ;-)

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Persimmon

2009-11-25T08:15:08Z

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Literary criticism from behind the cheese counter.

2009-11-23T04:17:50Z

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Davis Food Co-Op, Davis, California

Sunday in Winters

2009-11-23T03:43:20Z

We took a little trip out into the country today.

Bikes parked in front of Steady Eddie's. A lot of folks ride out from Davis to Winters and back.

Shop window on Main St.

House with twisted flag and bird feeder.

welding shop

Two bikies on the way home.

Brrrrr!

2009-11-20T01:16:26Z

It was 29 degree F this morning. (For you folks who reckon in Celsius,that's below zero.)It's getting too damned cold, too damned fast this year. I know that all parts of California aren't warm and sunny all the time, even down South, but we don't exactly live in Truckee either. This whinging has been brought to you by cold fingers, cold toes, and cold nose.

We got taters!

2009-11-05T22:19:58Z

This morning Chris and I rode up to an organic farm & garden supply in the foothills and purchased ten pounds of seed potatoes. We haven't ever done much with our winter veggie garden. Broccoli and cabbage produced almost nothing but I noticed some success with onions and sort-of volunteer potatoes. So I proposed to Chris that we concentrate on spuds and onions this year. These are two things we all eat and enjoy. In spite of too much freeway time, we saw lots of lovely fall foliage on the trip.

Western Marin County in October

2009-11-01T19:28:24Z

I took these on a recent trip to a coastal area just north of San Francisco

Shut up, please!

2009-10-22T18:33:15Z

A neighbor has a malfunctioning car alarm. It has been screaming most of the morning. I left a message on his voice mail. I keep hoping the battery will die, putting us and it out of our collective misery.

favorite lounging spots

2009-10-21T06:20:51Z

These critters hang out under the pier in Santa Cruz. A lot of the locals aren't too fond because the barking keeps them up some nights. I don't know what they did during the storm but they were back here when it was over.

Our vacation by the sea

2009-10-21T05:09:47Z

You know how sometimes you get an idea, but it doesn't come out the way you expected? Well, we thought this would be a knarly trip to the beach and we weren't disappointed. I felt really badly for the gulls. They seemed very stoical about the whole thing. I shot this from the balcony of our hotel room.

Found treasure or why I love Macs

2009-10-06T20:51:24Z

A little over a month ago, one of the tenants was tossing out a broken, laptop computer. I asked if I could have it. I was able to get it running but there were some parts missing and the wireless card wasn't working. Yesterday we took it to a repair shop that specializes in Apple computers. Even though it's an older computer(five or six years?) they were able to replace the missing bits. The Airport card just had a disconnected antenna. So now I have this perfectly serviceable little beastie and it's one less piece of junk in the landfill. This thing cost more money when it was new but amortized over it's still-going useful life, it's cheaper and better for the environment. I love stuff like this. :-)

Can you judge a book by the first sentence?

2009-09-30T20:59:41Z

"Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup."
from Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Please tell me this is going to stop

2009-09-28T21:56:39Z

I'm wondering if there is something to this Mercury retrograde thing. Last week was scary and this past weekend continued the trend. Machines doing weird things, people acting whiggy and then Saturday. What kind of person breaks their toilet tank then goes back to bed while it floods their apartment? I know. Don't ask. We need cool. We need rain. We need some time off.

Need rest and relaxation

2009-09-25T18:46:21Z

I know work is going to calm down eventually but Please! not another week like this one! A least for a little while. The students have been frisky and the earplugs have helped. I'm trying to remember that there are a lot of anxious people out there who have nothing against me personally. I did get this lady at the phone company yesterday who was working the weirdness wonderfully. She was obviously way too intelligent for her job but she conveyed this unintentionally without the slightest trace of snark or condescension.Her name was Linda. Bless you Linda. May you continue to walk between the raindrops. The cable guy is coming after lunch. Please fix this so my loved ones can watch their futbol games this weekend. My husband is getting up at 4 am local time tomorrow to watch Portsmouth get beat again. Did I mention that we pay actual money for this? The Giants blew a lead in the 9th last night. You can put a fork in their season as it is well and truly done. I got a recorder a week ago Thursday and now I can read some music and play three little tunes. I hope to be able to do Greensleeves by Xmas/Yule. I know some find it maudlin but I think it's pretty and it sounds nice on the flute. I wish I had longer fingers and/or bigger hands. I love the sound of the alto too but I don't know if I can make the stretch. Sorry for the random. Have a nice weekend. Love, katie.

Moon When Salmon Return to Earth

2009-09-23T22:27:20Z

Tonight we are celebrating Harvest Home (a tad late) with salmon with leek cream, broccoli with mushrooms and apple pie. We will pray that the great fish get more water to sustain them. Probably should send some money to the appropriate legal defense fund too.
Yes, I know that's a trout on my user pic. ;-)

Music part 2

2009-09-17T20:37:20Z

Today I bought a recorder so my grandson will have something to nag me about not practicing. :-) www.activemusician.com/item--MC.9520

I'm going to go back there someday

2009-08-31T22:29:00Z

This song helped me a lot when I lived in gritty Miami and wished to be someplace else.

I'm hungry, you're hungry, we're all hungry, so let's eat.

2009-08-31T17:51:31Z

It's hell week at work. Not a hell week but the hell week. I have a dinner to go to on Wednesday where I must explain to some dear friends why my spiritual direction is veering away from theirs. None of this is exactly low stress but I find that I am currently harboring a very positive attitude. Maybe because once we get past this huge pile of work, we will be in one of my favorite times of year? Fall and spring are times of transition, and except for the allergies in spring, damn fine seasons. I know this means I'm doing some of my living in the future when I'm supposed to be doing all of it in the right now but I can't help it. It's a hard habit to break. Having worked over the weekend, I just realized it's Monday. And a very good one too.

food glorious food

2009-08-20T23:17:43Z

After lunch I picked a big pile of beans and some tomatoes from our garden. Chris went back and got the watermelon. We also have peppers,squash,cucumbers. I wonder what we could do if we got a little more organized? We are rather half-arsed veggie gardeners but we still get lots of lovely stuff. And it's such a satisfying activity.

All the world's a stage

2009-08-11T20:40:08Z

I've always been fascinated by the way people randomly arrange themselves at transit stops. We're all hanging out with a common purpose but also disconnected, in our own little worlds.

iPhone astrophotography

2009-08-06T20:43:10Z

Last night Erin and I were so enchanted by the full moon we decided to take a picture. The nearest camera was her phone. We waited for a cloud to screen the moon so that lovely halo would be visible. The little white dot to the left isn't dust on your screen, it's Jupiter. ;-)

Turtle Island

2009-07-26T20:46:49Z

I thought this was a wonderful illustration by Mark Wagner. http://www.heartsandbones.com/index.html