Feline Holiday Decorating Tips

Holiday decorating in a house with five cats in it is not easy.  There are only about 2 places in the entire house that cannot be reached by felines and one of those is the ceiling.  This severely limits where we can decorate and what we can decorate with.  After much trial and error (note: decorating a tree with only unbreakable or paper ornaments saves on cleanup of broken ornaments but still results in a tree with no decorations on the bottom third) we have reduced our decorations to:

• A mini (2 1/2′) tree that gets hidden in the bathroom at night to protect it

• A few tree ornaments that will stand up on their own scattered on the mantel
• Some glass balls hung from the decorative metal leaf sculpture above the mirror over the fireplace

• A wreath hung on the outside of the screen door

And of course, nothing in my life would be complete anymore without a little Zenyatta:

We also got a Christmas cactus that sits on the mantel during the day and on the bathroom counter at night (because apparently the first thing a cat thinks to do when encountering a new plant is eat it):

The cactus and the tree both go into protective custody in the bathroom at night, mostly because of THIS creature:

Pippin

Don’t be fooled by the innocent act; he is deviously smart and has the power of levitation as well.

Things That Are as Old as Me

Image via Wikipedia

Okay, I blew it.  I missed posting yesterday, but in my defense let me say I had a History of Music lecture/quiz that I had to do online and then I was distracted by a new episode of “Psych” on the television.  And there was a video of Zenyatta at the farm that I just had to see … Still, no excuse for not writing on the second day of the month! 

I just perused my list of wacky holidays and discovered that I am older than PBS!  Only by a few months, but still ….

Some other things (and people) that are as old as me:

• the Moon landing
• Woodstock
• “The Brady Bunch”
• “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” – I’m a bit chuffed about this one
• “Sesame Street”
• the Internet
• Boeing 747
• the ATM
• Marilyn Manson
• Jason Bateman
• Jennifer Aniston
• Chaz Bono
• Renee Zellweger
• Cate Blanchett
• Ice Cube
• Jennifer Lopez
• Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Gwen Stefani
• Matthew McConaughey
• Sean “Diddy” Combs
• Gerard Butler
• Jay-Z

A New Beginning

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been contemplating this move for a while.  I started a WordPress blog for work so that I could post under the name “Ms. DuVall” — I didn’t think “FionaCat” was quite professional enough.  I really like the WordPress interface and all the fun bells and whistles, like Zemanta, which recommends images and links to add to your post.  So, here we go … a new era for A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep!

All of my old posts have migrated over with me so it’s not like I’m completely starting from scratch, but I hope this move from Blogger to WordPress will kick start my blogging habit.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Are You More Attentive Than a Baboon?

I’m currently reading My life as an experiment: one man’s humble quest to improve himself by A. J. Jacobs.  I’ve read his previous (and hilarious) books, The Know-It-All (in which he chronicles his quest to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica) and The year of living biblically (in which he tried to follow all the rules in the Bible for a year, despite being agnostic).  In this book, he attempts to stop multitasking, outsource his life to India, always tell the truth, live by George Washington’s code of conduct, and be perfectly rational, among other lifestyle “experiments.”  Not only are these intriguing ideas, but Jacobs has a knack for being a complete idiot and irritating his wife to no end in the process, which leads to much merriment and laughter on the part of the reader.

Here’s a little sample from the chapter on “unitasking”:

Multitasking costs the economy $650 billion a year, according to the Institute of Pulling Numbers Out of Its Ass.  (That’s a real estimate, though not the institute’s real name.)  Whatever the actual total is, I’m starting to think this isn’t a problem along the lines of love handles or bad cell service.  This it the Eleventh Plague.

And another:

Baboons have a better attention span than I do.  This is true.  My favorite theory about attention comes from a baboon study.  Male baboons, it argues, evolved attention partly so that they could guard the female baboon for a good long time after sex, to make sure that no one else conducted any monkey business that might interfere with their sperm.  (My question: If this is true, why are men so opposed to cuddling?)

In my dream-world, I would write stuff like this (but funnier, or at least more profound) and make boat loads of money while being able to indulge my interests in just about everything that exists.  Except NASCAR.  I really have no interest in NASCAR, except for the movie Talladega Nights, which was pretty funny.  Except for Will Ferrell running around in his underwear.  No one needs to see that.  Not even a baboon.

Rainy Day Randomness

Jasper loves Mommy!

They say it never rains in California but it’s sure coming down right now.  At least it stayed dry this morning just long enough to run some errands: buying a new type of cat food for Jasper.  Our vet diagnosed him with small intestinal disease (which seems to be a form of irritable bowel syndrome) and switched him to a different Hill’s formula. Fortunately, he LOVES it … unfortunately, he loves it so much he and his brothers chowed through most of the partial case they sold us and they didn’t have any more in stock today.  We bought a bag of the dry formula and got a prescription and referral to another animal hospital that did have a case of the wet food in stock, which meant driving to Rancho Cucamonga.  Now Jazzy is happy, we don’t have to worry about running out of cat food for a while and my sister and I got home just as it started raining.

It was one of those curl-up-with-a-blanket-and-a-good-book afternoons and soon morphed into a curl-up-under-the-blanket-and-take-a-nap afternoon.  After a busy week at work, I probably needed it!

After dinner, we watched the film Inception on DVD.  All too often, when I pop a movie in the player, I end up simultaneously reading or using the computer, but I’d heard that this movie required full attention, so I mentally cleared the decks.  I’m glad I did, because this was truly a movie that engages the mind.  In fact, when it was over, I felt a measure of mental exhaustion, like I’d just finished reading a really good, challenging book.  Just like books, movies come in all degrees of complexity and merit.  There are the guilty pleasures you watch just for entertainment or laughs, the lush historical pieces you can lose yourself in, the beloved classics you can watch again and again and again, and the “literary” works that take some effort but leave you feeling like you really learned or experienced something important.

In today’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (our local newspaper) there was a copy of Inland Living magazine, which contained an article about the Madonna of the Trail monument in Upland.  Now, I’ve seen this statue all my life and I never knew that there is a rattlesnake hidden in the grass at her feet, or that she is made of algonite (a poured mixture of crushed rocks). I did know that she is one of a series of identical monuments placed along the National Old Trails Road highway back in the 1920′s.  Ours is the westernmost statue; the other end of the chain of Madonnas is in Bethesda, Maryland.  And just like Lady Madonna in the song, she has children at her feet (and, apparently, a rattlesnake!).

I love learning about history, local or otherwise, but it’s always more interesting when I’ve been to the location I’m learning about.  Right now, I’m reading A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California by Laura Cunningham (published by one of my favorite publishers, Heyday Books) and my favorite images in the book are the re-creations of landscapes I’ve been to as they might have been hundreds or thousands of years ago.  What I wouldn’t give to be able to actually see the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley when it was one vast marsh/lake complex with the snowcapped Sierra Nevada clearly visible though the (non-polluted) air!  Or to see a grizzly bear roaming the grassy hills above the San Fernando Valley.  From a safe distance, of course!

Happy … Whatever

It’s Valentine’s Day.  Normally, I wouldn’t really notice it but I work at a public high school and it’s kind of hard to ignore 50,000 mylar balloons and teddy bears and chocolate roses wandering around attached to teenage girls.  You might think I’m a little cynical because I’m single and single people are supposed to hate Valentine’s Day because it is just a reminder that they are alone, yadda yadda yadda…

No, I’m cynical because I just finished reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman and I’m really sensitive to displays of senseless consumerism right now.  Yes, I’m in Sustainable-Living-Girl mode and apt to look askance at anything that’s wasteful and silly (at least to me).  Spending money on plastic doo-dads and cheap chocolate that was probably grown in degraded rainforests just rubs me the wrong way.  Teenagers don’t see it this way, of course; they are easy marks for advertising and suggestion (we all were at that age, and far too many of us still are).

Now I am feeling guilty about my own less-than-green actions like that frozen meal that was so convenient to throw in my bag and microwave for lunch, instead of a home-made organic meal. Or the moral quandary of whether it’s okay to spend $99 for two days at the Disneyland Resort (which I haven’t been to in well over 10 years, since they were still building California Adventure the last time I was at Disneyland) or if it’s just a frivolous waste of money that could be better spent on something concrete and useful.  The little kid in me wants to go to “The Happiest Place on Earth” during spring break and have fun; the responsible adult in me rebels against the giant marketing machine that is Disney.

Why do I have to over analyze everything?  Please, tell me!  Unless you think it’s best that I don’t know …

Resolved: Clutter Shall be Banished!

It’s New Year’s Day, a time for new beginnings and fresh resolutions.  Believe it or not, I actually accomplished something today, which is reason enough for celebration!  I got up (just) in time to watch the Rose Parade live on TV, took care of my grocery shopping for the upcoming work week, and went through a backlog of magazines, tearing out the articles I want to keep for future reference and dumping the rest into the recycling bin. I sent a check-in email to the professor of the class I am trying to add on Monday when the winter session begins, and I already have a copy of the textbook, so if I get an add code I will be ready to go (I’ve even done the initial reading assignment but haven’t started writing the essay yet just in case I don’t get the class).

It’s really rather scary… I am fairly organized at work but all my organizational skills seem to flee my body when I get home.  I pay most of my bills online simply because it’s harder to lose an e-mail from my inbox than an envelope on my disaster of a desk.  Oh, now and then I shovel it off and toss half of it into the recycling, but I can’t remember the last time I was able to actually use the desk.  The chair ends up hidden under a couple of sweaters that never seem to make it back to the closet; the writing surface disappears under those ubiquitous free address labels that every charity mails out once a month and a clutter of papers I mean to file “later.”

So, my big hope for 2011 is to get more organized, reduce the clutter in my home and brain, and thereby reduce the level of stress in m life.  I’m off to a good start so far, but the year is only one day old.  Here’s hoping the momentum will continue!

Art, with Squirrel

If you look closely at this photo of part of the art installation Radiant Light at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, you will see a Western Gray Squirrel perched on the artfully draped textile.  Aw, how cute! you might say.  Until you take a closer look and see exactly what this little rascal is doing:

Yep, he (she?) is chewing up the graceful willow’s scarf!  I can only assume that he wanted the fabric as nesting material.  Still, one has to wonder: does the squirrel and his antics add to the art or deface it?  Is this static art display now performance art?

Today was the first day WITHOUT RAIN in almost a week.  The sun made a brief appearance in the morning, then hid behind the clouds most of the afternoon but at least they were light grey clouds instead of dark rain clouds.  It was wonderful to get outside and interact with the world again, and even more wonderful to be at a botanic garden rather than a crowded shopping mall!

Tomorrow will be busy, getting ready for Christmas Eve tea; Saturday will be busy with gift exchanging and a tamale dinner; Sunday will be spent at Santa Anita Park for Opening Day.  Today was all about a pause in the frantic pre-holiday swirl, a moment to commune with nature.  And watch a squirrel vandalize art.

The Longest Night of the Year

It has been quite a while since I last posted.  I will take the coward’s way out and blame work.  That doesn’t explain the past six days, when I’ve been off for Winter Break, but for that I’ll blame the weather.  It has been raining since Saturday and we have at least one more day of rain in the foreseeable future.  It does rain here in California but usually not for days and days at a time.  The sun has become a distant memory and all I seem to want to do is sleep and read.

I need to finish up my Christmas shopping, and wrap gifts, and buy food for Christmas Eve tea and Christmas Day lunch, and get some more candy canes, and meet my friend Sarah for lunch and … whew!  That’s a lot to do in three days, and tomorrow is supposed to be rainy as well, which really gives me two days.  No wonder I feel tired, it’s anticipation!

Today is the first day of winter (actually the first evening of winter, as the solstice occurred at 3:38 pm this afternoon).  I had meant to do something special to celebrate the solstice but with the rain coming down I don’t want to go outside.  I take great comfort in the rhythmic cycles of the natural year, especially when our contemporary holidays and celebrations coincide.  In our urban and suburban lives, we are too often divorced from the natural world, and taking a moment now and then to honor the rhythm of the year is both grounding and uplifting.

Bread and Circuses

I’ve been on the Weight Watchers program for almost two years now, and recently reached my goal weight and achieved Lifetime membership (which means I don’t have to pay to go to meetings anymore, as long as I stay within 2 pounds of my goal weight).  This morning, WW launched a brand new program, which is both exciting and a little scary.

In the old system, the points values of food were calculated using the total calories, fat grams and fiber grams.  Now, with the new system (which is called PointsPlus) the points are calculated using four nutritional factors: total fat, protein, fiber and total carbohydrates.  Calories don’t “count” anymore, which is a bit scary.  I do like the new emphasis on nutritional value of food rather than strictly how many calories are in it.  Higher amounts of protein and fiber lower the value; higher amounts of carbs and fat raise the value.

The one thing I don’t like is that now breads are higher in points than they used to be!  Of course, high-fiber breads (which are what we all should be eating) will have fewer points but still … I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that the meat in a sandwich may “cost” me less than the bread!

On the plus side, all fresh fruits and most vegetables are 0 points each (that got a big cheer from the group at the meeting!).  So even though the point values of most foods went up, it will still be easy to stay full and satisfied with all that “free” fruit and veg.  We do get more points per day under the new plan as well, so it should all work out in the end.

I’m sure it will take some time to adjust but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to maintain my weight AND be healthier following these new guidelines.  Wish me luck!