Adventures in Paradise

True Love?

My little Moose has gone to what I hope will be his final home...

My friend K, who loves to kitty sit for her friends, met Moose last week. I knew it was going to be love at first sight for her and Moose loves all people. Moose spent a good portion of that afternoon (while I was teaching her and another friend to knit) in the position you see above, using K's lap as a pillow, but we still had a reluctant spouse to convince. I got lucky when J showed up at the house to join us for dinner and Moose jumped up and curled up on his lap, purring his little heart out. I was pretty sure we'd won when J whipped out his iPhone and took pictures of Moose in his lap. We agreed that they'd take him for the week after Christmas to see how Moose fit into their home, sort of a test drive.

Today J came and picked him up this afternoon. I told him that if they decided he didn't work, to give me a day's notice and bring him back to me. He gave me a look and told me that he was pretty sure that since Moose is a such mellow little dude, they'd love him and wouldn't be giving him back. Then Moose jumped onto the couch J was leaning against and asked for scratches. Sigh.

Stormy is really happy and I'm thrilled that Moose has a good place to live with people I love, but I'm a little sad. He really is a cool cat and I miss him already.

Christmas Can Come Now

This time last year I was working out logistics for holiday meals, movies on the flight deck, and services on the Iraqi oil terminal. This year the logistics have no international implications, but are no less complex.

I've made over one hundred cookies, three batches of marshmallows (saffron, plain peppermint, and peppermint with a chocolate and peppermint candy topping) and knitted nine mini sweater ornaments. Gifts are wrapped and the first family visit was wonderful as always.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Sent from my iPhone

Developments

So...Moose has settled back into being a house cat pretty completely.

I only manage to take pictures of him in the evenings these days, but I'll try again tomorrow. He's a rich, deep gray with a white patch of fur on his tummy. I've got him separated from Stormy by a set of french doors with glass panes, so they see each other daily. He seems curious and she's furious. I'm feeding her tuna next to the door to let her associate his smell with a treat she rarely ever gets, but I'm not sure it will work. I really want to find a new home for this little man, but there's no way I'll send him away if I can't, so I need them to at least share me.

Right now I'm splitting my time between the living room with Moose and the TV room (aka spare bedroom) and my bedroom with Stormy. She sulks on the bed when I'm in the front of the house and he cries pitifully when I'm in the back of the house. And the splitting of time means I've made no progress on wrap I thought I'd wear to tomorrow night's Crew's Christmas Party.

Oh well.  Kitty cuddles are nice, too.

I Did it Again

Meet Moose.

This is not my cat. Yet. He's been hanging about the house since I moved in; I see him every couple of weeks in the evening and I've begun to suspect that he lives under my back porch. That's mainly because I've seen him come out from under there and when I do see him, it's generally at my back door. He was incredibly affectionate and I've tried to get a few friends who have talked about having pets into taking him, but I hadn't had much luck. The last time I'd seen him was two weeks ago, and while I gave him a bit of food to keep him still, I stuck some Advantage flea stuff on him, just to take care of that in case I did find him a home.

This morning, he was waiting for me at the back door, curled up in the base of a chair on the deck. It's the first time I'd ever seen him in the daytime, which struck me as odd, as did his behavior: instead of snuggling up to me for a good scratch, he nudged me a little and then laid himself out on the deck. I started looking him over, and found this:

That's after I cleaned it - it was obviously very infected and tender, but he purred the entire time I cleaned the ear, only pulling away a bit when it hurt. I've since brought him to the local vet and they clipped the fur around the wound and flushed it. I've got pain killer and antibiotics for him, as well as a de-wormer to give him. The vet tech fell in love with him and when I said I hadn't named him, she christened him Moose.

It turns out that he does have a microchip, but the address is on Coronado, which is an island across San Diego Harbor and is nearly impossible to get to aside from a ferry or the bridge, so someone had to have brought him over here. The phone numbers were disconnected (PSA: if you love your animal enough to have him/her microchipped, update your phone number and address). He's about 9 years old and they called him Ranger, but I like Moose and Margot (the vet tech) is thrilled that I kept her name. 

I'm going to try to find him a home because Stormy is even less happy to share her space with another cat than she was to live with my mom's two dogs. I've got a good two weeks of treatment for Moose, so if I'm lucky, she'll settle down with him and if I can't find him a home, I can keep him with me. He really is the most amazing, mellow little dude.

Friday Night Lights

Sent from my iPhone

Mistakes

We've had the great luck of running into huge pods of dolphins all week. I'm talking about hundreds of them swimming, leaping and when we get close to them, playing in the wake of the ship. I've been wondering why I've had such a hard time getting decent pictures of them compared to my days down in Texas when I finally realized that my height above water is more than double what it was on the Mine Hunter. I'd have to be down on deck, which hasn't happened this week. I did still get a few, mostly blurred out of recognition or too far away to be useful.

One of them turned out to be what I think is a rather pretty mistake...I was trying to follow the movements of a couple of them alongside the ship, but between the ship, the dolphin and the water all moving at different rates, it didn't turn out quite the way I expected.

Just Another

Boring San Diego sunset…

Sunset

I generally think sunsets are pretty but make for uninteresting photographs unless there are clouds, mountains, people or something else to add contrast and scale. Looking out to sunsets at sea in San Diego, which is generally cloudless doesn't really give you much to look at, unless you're in the middle of an anchoring exercise during sunset.

The Next Big Thing

As part of my exercise routine, I've been steadily expanding the type of classes I take. I think cross-training is great and since I'll never be a performer, I don't mind not specializing deeply. This weekend I took an handstand seminar and did some things that I've never done before.

Like this, which is the beginning of what's called a lever. In the end, I won't have an instructor helping support me and that forward hand will be up level with the rest of my body, with one hand supporting all of my weight. I suspect there will be a spectacular bruise on my right hip by this evening, but I am so excited to have tried and made progress towards doing something that I never would have considered within my reach.

A post for everyone who is a boss or has one, even if it is technically about the food industry and Chefs...I'd say there are Sharing Bosses and Stingy Bosses everywhere.

http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2011/12/how-to-mentor-manage-inspire-push-listen-to-grow-promote-share-with-challenge-and-send-off-cooks.html