I finally went to the county's one stop clinic and licensed and microchipped Butters.
During most of my ownership of Butters (last year), I thought the county forcing people to license their pets is tantamount to extortion. I didn't see the purpose of it at all. I don't care to help offset their fees. Afterall, most of their funding already comes from other sources, why should I have to pay some more? The only argument that made sense to me is if Butters somehow got lost (which I can't really imagine), the shelters might be of help.
With that, I periodically get the perverse urge to browse through the pet section of CL. I know I can't adopt or foster any animal. Yet, I like reading about their stories and looking at their pictures. I think it helps me appreciate Butters and want to make his little life the best I can. The stories are a constant reminder to never be one of those people who gives up their pet due to moving, work, school, or other excuses. Humans are infinitely adaptable. I'm sure we can find ways to deal with the problem if we tried hard enough. I get the feeling that mostly people just don't see the dogs as a deserving member of the family. I can't imagine giving up a child just because it takes up too much time, so I don't see why we should give up pets because they've become a burden. If anything, any behavior problems are the human's fault with lack of training and/or exercise. However, with that said, I do want to leave people the benefit of the doubt as owners pass away or are sick and can longer fulfill their obligations towards their pets.
For the past few days, I've been glued to rescue, shelter and CL pet sites. I read one post on CL that has since been deleted (I can't find it again) from someone claiming to work as a manager at a shelter giving a behind the scenes look at what happens when people surrender their pet. S/he described the sadness of dogs left in kennels, some succumbing to illnesses. Comparatively speaking, very few are adopted, despite being purebred or not. S/he went through the process of euthanizing an animal and its disposal after. I don't know how much of this is true. However, it did make me feel that if nothing else, $14/year for licensing that goes towards helping to keep shelter animals alive even just a little bit longer is worth it.
So I took Butters to the Gaines St shelter (had the hardest darn time finding it because it was a tiny street right before the police department that looked like a drive way). The people were very nice, didn't give me any crap at all about why I'm licensing him now, almost four months after his rabies shot. They took Butters away for microchipping, so I don't know if he yelped. When he came out a few minutes later, he looked none the worse for the experience with just a little bit of blood at the injection site. The whole process was fairly quick despite quite a few other dogs there as well.
Since I was there, I filled out an application to volunteer with them, walking dogs, or whatever else they need. My main goal is to make the lives of the dogs/cats there better while they are there. With that, I have an orientation on August 25th. =D I'm quite excited.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Vitamins
I don't know which nerves are crossed in my brain (a Chinese saying that I've translated because I love that it's so great at describing random impulses that we get on occasions), but I suddenly remembered my friend's advice when she was in med school telling me that women stop absorbing calcium at age 35, so we better start taking supplements because it's harder to build bone density when we really need to.
Went to Henry's and bought myself a bottle of Sun Harvest Calcium Citrate with Vit D3.
On the way to the calcium aisle, I browsed through the multi-vitamins, like one-a-day type of thing, just to explore my options. If I can take one with calcium and iron, then why not?
Here's the first thing about multi-vitamins that bothers me: why do I need 2000+% recommended daily value of thiamin? Why do I need more than 100% of any one vitamin? At its most benign, as Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory says, that makes for some expensive (and smelly) pee. At its worst, vitamin toxicity. So no thank you.
Same thing with the calcium aisle. I was surprised to find calcium supplements also sold together as cal-mag-zinc. I feel like they are selling fertilizer and that I'll be ingesting fertilizer (yummy steer manure anyone?). You know, the 10-20-10 or some other ratio of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. Anyway, eventually I settled on one that had 63% daily value of Ca and 100% daily value of vitamin D3. Even though the instructions told me to take 2 tablets once or twice a day, I'm going to ignore that and take one a day with my dinner. I feel like that's safe enough.
Which leads me to the second thing about vitamins that bothers me: I opened the bottle and swallowed a pill, even with water, that was a tad difficult. Really, were it just a bit bigger, it might as well be a suppository. So what is up with the size of the pills? I might be able to understand multi-vitamins needing to be bigger because of the crap that they need to put in them, but Ca and Vit D3? There are fillers. How about less of that?
One cool thing though that I do like about my shiny new jar of suppositories...I mean pills is that it came in a brown glass jar. How cool is that?
Went to Henry's and bought myself a bottle of Sun Harvest Calcium Citrate with Vit D3.
On the way to the calcium aisle, I browsed through the multi-vitamins, like one-a-day type of thing, just to explore my options. If I can take one with calcium and iron, then why not?
Here's the first thing about multi-vitamins that bothers me: why do I need 2000+% recommended daily value of thiamin? Why do I need more than 100% of any one vitamin? At its most benign, as Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory says, that makes for some expensive (and smelly) pee. At its worst, vitamin toxicity. So no thank you.
Same thing with the calcium aisle. I was surprised to find calcium supplements also sold together as cal-mag-zinc. I feel like they are selling fertilizer and that I'll be ingesting fertilizer (yummy steer manure anyone?). You know, the 10-20-10 or some other ratio of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. Anyway, eventually I settled on one that had 63% daily value of Ca and 100% daily value of vitamin D3. Even though the instructions told me to take 2 tablets once or twice a day, I'm going to ignore that and take one a day with my dinner. I feel like that's safe enough.
Which leads me to the second thing about vitamins that bothers me: I opened the bottle and swallowed a pill, even with water, that was a tad difficult. Really, were it just a bit bigger, it might as well be a suppository. So what is up with the size of the pills? I might be able to understand multi-vitamins needing to be bigger because of the crap that they need to put in them, but Ca and Vit D3? There are fillers. How about less of that?
One cool thing though that I do like about my shiny new jar of suppositories...I mean pills is that it came in a brown glass jar. How cool is that?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sexism
I have been reading this incredibly long thread for the past few days on one of my favorite sites, MetaFilter (side link) about the prevalence of sexism in today's society. The blog it links to features real examples of sexism in women's lives. This led to a whole discussion in MF about whether the stories are real and also people sharing their own stories about how frustrating it is when treated differently for having a second X chromosome.
One topic discussed was being talked down to by doctors.
In college, I worked at Summit, one of the on-campus dining halls. After about a year or so of working there, I developed a pain on the bones in my hands. I went to see a doctor at Kaiser about it because my family has always liked them. Not really wanting to base a decision without knowing anything about the doctor, I was ok with the nurses assigning whomever was free to see me. Anyway, the doctor (male), did his exam, looking over my hand this way and that, asking me to move it in different ways. He then made his diagnosis which was a pretty long word. I couldn't catch any part of that word, so I asked him to repeat it. He again, said it at the same speed.Then looked at me. I again, had no idea what he said. He went on to tell me how to treat it and if it gets worse, that he'll have to give me an injection of corticosteroids to help with the pain.
To this day, I have no idea what I have/had (it only flares up occasionally when I've been repeatedly picking up/carrying heavy objects). And I regret not standing up for my needs by asking him to write it on a piece of paper or something. I know I'm not the fastest in comprehending auditory information, but I shouldn't have to feel bad about it.
I am not sharing this as an example of sexism because I don't know if it's just his way of interacting with female patients or if he does it to everyone. And most of the time, I don't really care to see the problem because it makes me depressed when I do. I'd rather just deal with these things on each individual basis and hopefully, I'll have enough self-confidence to know and help myself when something is glaringly not ok with me. Plus, I think a lot of times women use these attitudes from men to their advantage in getting what they want. I've certainly done it on numerous occasions.
One topic discussed was being talked down to by doctors.
In college, I worked at Summit, one of the on-campus dining halls. After about a year or so of working there, I developed a pain on the bones in my hands. I went to see a doctor at Kaiser about it because my family has always liked them. Not really wanting to base a decision without knowing anything about the doctor, I was ok with the nurses assigning whomever was free to see me. Anyway, the doctor (male), did his exam, looking over my hand this way and that, asking me to move it in different ways. He then made his diagnosis which was a pretty long word. I couldn't catch any part of that word, so I asked him to repeat it. He again, said it at the same speed.Then looked at me. I again, had no idea what he said. He went on to tell me how to treat it and if it gets worse, that he'll have to give me an injection of corticosteroids to help with the pain.
To this day, I have no idea what I have/had (it only flares up occasionally when I've been repeatedly picking up/carrying heavy objects). And I regret not standing up for my needs by asking him to write it on a piece of paper or something. I know I'm not the fastest in comprehending auditory information, but I shouldn't have to feel bad about it.
I am not sharing this as an example of sexism because I don't know if it's just his way of interacting with female patients or if he does it to everyone. And most of the time, I don't really care to see the problem because it makes me depressed when I do. I'd rather just deal with these things on each individual basis and hopefully, I'll have enough self-confidence to know and help myself when something is glaringly not ok with me. Plus, I think a lot of times women use these attitudes from men to their advantage in getting what they want. I've certainly done it on numerous occasions.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Breaking bread in La Jolla
Seems like the heat wave is finally on its way out.
Luis and I came home rather late because of Kathryn's birthday party last night. We woke up late to find a message from Butters' "grandma" (in quotes because I am not really comfortable with the dog park convention of calling owners moms and dads. Used here however because it helps more to convey her relationship as the owner of the bitch who gave birth to Butters.) saying that she won't be home, much to our relief. We both needed more sleep.
In the afternoon, we had a lunch/dinner date with Amanda and Syrus at his parents' place in La Jolla. She warned me that Butters might get lost in the yard since it's pretty big. I dismissed it because 1. I couldn't visualize in my mind just how big it is and 2. had no idea it was on a hillside with copious vegetation. I thought a little white dog, if I can find him in the dusk when all other colored dogs have disappeared into the night, then I can find him amongst the greenery.
The house is located on Mt. Soledad. In addition to a gorgeous view (why didn't I bring my camera again?) of the cove, the ocean, pier, and beaches, it had a sloped yard that could've been any child's dream with secret paths, trees, and secret places to play and run in. If a 70 lb black dog can disappear, I'm not even going to keep track of where Butters might go. I trust that he loves us enough to come when we call him.
The other thing she wasn't kidding about was the combination of the meal being lunch/dinner. The dining room, adjacent to the kitchen, presented the entire view the property has to offer. Throughout the whole dinner, the cool ocean breeze never let up through the balcony doors. I felt like I was vacationing in a private beach house, escaping the summer heat of Mira Mesa. When they invited us to sit down, I noticed the table was "informally" laid out with a plate, two glass bowls, two glasses, a knife, two spoons, and a fork. Yeah, don't ask me about the names about any of them. I just remember (was it in Titanic? Or some kind of movie.) to go from outside and work our way in. Plus, the table was so big and I was far away enough from Syrus' parents that I don't think they can see what utensil I was using. Not that they would care, I think.
Anyway, lunch/dinner. The table was laden with food before the main course even arrived. Five different cheeses. Bread, crackers. Many different vegetables. My stoplight salsa. Enough roughage to fill everyone up even before the main course. Syrus bbq'ed different sausages, asparagus, portobello mushrrooms, salmon burgers and corn. Amanda made potatoes with corn flakes, really flavorful.
The whole thing lasted from 2 to 6pm. We were eating the whole time and I loved it. Reminded me of dinner affairs in China. I wish we could have kept going.
At first, I was nervous being in Syrus' parents house, but they were such nice people. In the end, we were comfortable enough where there was even a bit of teasing.
Luis and I came home rather late because of Kathryn's birthday party last night. We woke up late to find a message from Butters' "grandma" (in quotes because I am not really comfortable with the dog park convention of calling owners moms and dads. Used here however because it helps more to convey her relationship as the owner of the bitch who gave birth to Butters.) saying that she won't be home, much to our relief. We both needed more sleep.
In the afternoon, we had a lunch/dinner date with Amanda and Syrus at his parents' place in La Jolla. She warned me that Butters might get lost in the yard since it's pretty big. I dismissed it because 1. I couldn't visualize in my mind just how big it is and 2. had no idea it was on a hillside with copious vegetation. I thought a little white dog, if I can find him in the dusk when all other colored dogs have disappeared into the night, then I can find him amongst the greenery.
The house is located on Mt. Soledad. In addition to a gorgeous view (why didn't I bring my camera again?) of the cove, the ocean, pier, and beaches, it had a sloped yard that could've been any child's dream with secret paths, trees, and secret places to play and run in. If a 70 lb black dog can disappear, I'm not even going to keep track of where Butters might go. I trust that he loves us enough to come when we call him.
The other thing she wasn't kidding about was the combination of the meal being lunch/dinner. The dining room, adjacent to the kitchen, presented the entire view the property has to offer. Throughout the whole dinner, the cool ocean breeze never let up through the balcony doors. I felt like I was vacationing in a private beach house, escaping the summer heat of Mira Mesa. When they invited us to sit down, I noticed the table was "informally" laid out with a plate, two glass bowls, two glasses, a knife, two spoons, and a fork. Yeah, don't ask me about the names about any of them. I just remember (was it in Titanic? Or some kind of movie.) to go from outside and work our way in. Plus, the table was so big and I was far away enough from Syrus' parents that I don't think they can see what utensil I was using. Not that they would care, I think.
Anyway, lunch/dinner. The table was laden with food before the main course even arrived. Five different cheeses. Bread, crackers. Many different vegetables. My stoplight salsa. Enough roughage to fill everyone up even before the main course. Syrus bbq'ed different sausages, asparagus, portobello mushrrooms, salmon burgers and corn. Amanda made potatoes with corn flakes, really flavorful.
The whole thing lasted from 2 to 6pm. We were eating the whole time and I loved it. Reminded me of dinner affairs in China. I wish we could have kept going.
At first, I was nervous being in Syrus' parents house, but they were such nice people. In the end, we were comfortable enough where there was even a bit of teasing.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Janet's visit
Spent Thursday with my Precious Heart.
First order of business: dog beach with her, Butters and Mona. Seeing her in bathing suit, I'll have to ask Grant again what he was talking about with regards to her weight. I thought she looked great. She just have the body type where the lower body is rounder than other parts. Hourglass?
We didn't have enough time to drop off Mona and so took her with us to meet up with her friend for Thai food. Her friend is Thai and gave her stamp of approval to this place, Sab-E-Lee, that's almost literally a hole in the wall, that's how small it is. We had sticky rice with papaya salad, raw beef, fried beef jerky, and a ground pork dish. We also ate with our hands, which is awesome, because I love eating with my hands. I love the licking finger part. Precious juices that just won't adhere to metal utensils. Anyway, raw beef. It was seasoned wonderfully and I loved the precious first few bites when I didn't think about it as raw beef. Then my mind kept circling back to the fact that it's raw beef and the texture came through and I couldn't eat it anymore.
Afterwards we went beer tasting at Alesmith. Janet's friend works there as assistant manager, so we got a very educational tour of the place and barely managed to taste all the beers they listed. We were so buzzed that we had to take only sips of the last three. I am not a fan of beer, however, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the beers as well. I'm surprised that beers can be so different. I see more beer tasting in the future.
Overall, I had an awesome time with Janet and found some more great places to keep coming back to.
First order of business: dog beach with her, Butters and Mona. Seeing her in bathing suit, I'll have to ask Grant again what he was talking about with regards to her weight. I thought she looked great. She just have the body type where the lower body is rounder than other parts. Hourglass?
We didn't have enough time to drop off Mona and so took her with us to meet up with her friend for Thai food. Her friend is Thai and gave her stamp of approval to this place, Sab-E-Lee, that's almost literally a hole in the wall, that's how small it is. We had sticky rice with papaya salad, raw beef, fried beef jerky, and a ground pork dish. We also ate with our hands, which is awesome, because I love eating with my hands. I love the licking finger part. Precious juices that just won't adhere to metal utensils. Anyway, raw beef. It was seasoned wonderfully and I loved the precious first few bites when I didn't think about it as raw beef. Then my mind kept circling back to the fact that it's raw beef and the texture came through and I couldn't eat it anymore.
Afterwards we went beer tasting at Alesmith. Janet's friend works there as assistant manager, so we got a very educational tour of the place and barely managed to taste all the beers they listed. We were so buzzed that we had to take only sips of the last three. I am not a fan of beer, however, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the beers as well. I'm surprised that beers can be so different. I see more beer tasting in the future.
Overall, I had an awesome time with Janet and found some more great places to keep coming back to.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Good deed for today
Took Butters to the dog park in the evening. He spent the entire time trying to hump a female dog. While he was doing that, I noticed a family come in their their tiny little maltese puppy. A frisky husky puppy was picking on it, the maltese got scared and the owner picked him up. I observed them some more and they really seemed like they didn't know what they were doing. So the next time she picked him up, I walked up to her and told her she's basically rewarding his fearful mindset. I told her to leave him on the ground and watch his tail. If his tail is in between his legs, then help him by blocking the bigger dogs but don't pick him up. Otherwise let him figure out how to interact with other dogs. By the time they left, the little one had his tail up and exploring and trying to sniff out other dogs, but came running back and hide between human legs if anything scared him. Yay! One less fearful dog for the future!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Book club: World War Z
Discussed the book today over freshly made deli sandwiches (Luis) and creamy chicken and wild rice soup (me!).
Seems like most everyone who read it enjoyed it.
Before anything else, I don't really understand the popularity of zombies and vampires in today's culture. Ok well, maybe I can see the romanticism behind vampires ala Twilight which I don't think is so different from Anne Rice's vampires. But this thing with zombies baffle me.
As for the book, it definitely made me think about survival in the event of an apocalypse. We agreed it's probably best if we stay in San Diego since knowledge about our surroundings is important. Some sort of transportation that doesn't require fuel would be good too. Emergency food to get through the immediate crisis. If it lasts longer, then we'll definitely look at a more self-sustaining living style. I know from my mom's place that it takes significantly less than an acre to grow enough vegetables for seven people during summer. I don't know about winter though because vegetables tend to grow slower then and fewer things grown during that time. In southern California, finding water for the plants will be a problem.
I remember reading an article about someone's personal experience living in siege like conditions. As I recall, the author said that things s/he missed the most during that time was oil, salt, and others.
That got me thinking about how to prepare. Making my own vegetable oil. A bit of luxury: homemade olive oil. Store tons of salt, pepper. Seeds. Chickens. When I have my own place with a yard, I'm going to make it as self-sustaining as possible.
Seems like most everyone who read it enjoyed it.
Before anything else, I don't really understand the popularity of zombies and vampires in today's culture. Ok well, maybe I can see the romanticism behind vampires ala Twilight which I don't think is so different from Anne Rice's vampires. But this thing with zombies baffle me.
As for the book, it definitely made me think about survival in the event of an apocalypse. We agreed it's probably best if we stay in San Diego since knowledge about our surroundings is important. Some sort of transportation that doesn't require fuel would be good too. Emergency food to get through the immediate crisis. If it lasts longer, then we'll definitely look at a more self-sustaining living style. I know from my mom's place that it takes significantly less than an acre to grow enough vegetables for seven people during summer. I don't know about winter though because vegetables tend to grow slower then and fewer things grown during that time. In southern California, finding water for the plants will be a problem.
I remember reading an article about someone's personal experience living in siege like conditions. As I recall, the author said that things s/he missed the most during that time was oil, salt, and others.
That got me thinking about how to prepare. Making my own vegetable oil. A bit of luxury: homemade olive oil. Store tons of salt, pepper. Seeds. Chickens. When I have my own place with a yard, I'm going to make it as self-sustaining as possible.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tantrum
I threw a few tantrums today. Not proud of it. But it speaks to just how frustrating not being able to do a simple thing is.
I worked out my arms last Wednesday with a trainer. I thought it was getting better yesterday. However, today I woke up, any my triceps are in a special kind of pain. I touch it gently and pain flares up. Luis finally convinced me to take some Advil, which eventually helped a few hours down the line. However, meanwhile, I can't touch the top of my head, much less reach around to the back of the neck...which means I can't tie a pony tail. Unfortunately, today was the day I was supposed to wash my hair because it's rather noticeably greasy and I knew by afternoon it'll be unbearably greasy.
Thus I asked Luis to tie the ponytail for me.
I now harbor a special sort of dislike for any guys preferring girls keeping their hair long without the accompanying appreciation of how much work goes into managing that long hair.
1. How to gather long hair together in a ponytail
2. Knowing the need to smooth/brush the hair so I don't look like a crazy person off my meds when I step outside the apt.
3. Brushing the hair. How?
4. Holding the hair while brushing it.
5. Using a hair tie. How to tie it? How to tie hair with it? Luis looked like Dr. Zoidberg trying to tie a pony tail. No joke.
The first try I stopped him after getting stuck at #2.
I asked him to try again because the hair kept tickling my face and scratching my face was a chore.
We skipped #3 and 4, and threw a tantrum after reaching #5. I showed him how to tie things with a hair tie using the said hair tie and his finger as an example. Apparently translating that act to tying up hair is a different matter entirely.
I feel sorry if he had to do that for any daughters we might have.
Washing hair. Need to use fingers to get to scalp! Otherwise I feel like he got the surface but down the roots, where it matters, it was still greasy.
Combing wet hair. Start from the bottom. There's a reason why combs have teeth. To reach the scalp and comb out everything.
Argh!!!
Who knew such basic knowledge as prevalent among girls as masturbation is among guys has such a massive gender divide?
I worked out my arms last Wednesday with a trainer. I thought it was getting better yesterday. However, today I woke up, any my triceps are in a special kind of pain. I touch it gently and pain flares up. Luis finally convinced me to take some Advil, which eventually helped a few hours down the line. However, meanwhile, I can't touch the top of my head, much less reach around to the back of the neck...which means I can't tie a pony tail. Unfortunately, today was the day I was supposed to wash my hair because it's rather noticeably greasy and I knew by afternoon it'll be unbearably greasy.
Thus I asked Luis to tie the ponytail for me.
I now harbor a special sort of dislike for any guys preferring girls keeping their hair long without the accompanying appreciation of how much work goes into managing that long hair.
1. How to gather long hair together in a ponytail
2. Knowing the need to smooth/brush the hair so I don't look like a crazy person off my meds when I step outside the apt.
3. Brushing the hair. How?
4. Holding the hair while brushing it.
5. Using a hair tie. How to tie it? How to tie hair with it? Luis looked like Dr. Zoidberg trying to tie a pony tail. No joke.
The first try I stopped him after getting stuck at #2.
I asked him to try again because the hair kept tickling my face and scratching my face was a chore.
We skipped #3 and 4, and threw a tantrum after reaching #5. I showed him how to tie things with a hair tie using the said hair tie and his finger as an example. Apparently translating that act to tying up hair is a different matter entirely.
I feel sorry if he had to do that for any daughters we might have.
Washing hair. Need to use fingers to get to scalp! Otherwise I feel like he got the surface but down the roots, where it matters, it was still greasy.
Combing wet hair. Start from the bottom. There's a reason why combs have teeth. To reach the scalp and comb out everything.
Argh!!!
Who knew such basic knowledge as prevalent among girls as masturbation is among guys has such a massive gender divide?
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