More Cat Drama

Our cat Mr. Pickles,
originally uploaded by Helen Norris.

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that we hadn’t seen one of our cats, Mr. Pickles, for a while. That was a couple of weeks ago. Now I think we’ve accepted that Pickles isn’t coming back. As usual, I am assuming that he found a nicer home, maybe one where they give him wet food or tuna all the time. Probably has his own TV too.

So of course now we need to get a new cat. We just can’t have Tofu all by himself, although he seems to be handling it just fine. So we’ve talked about getting a new one, maybe when we get back from vacation. However, last Friday, Aisling went over to her friend Chelsea’s house, and what a surprise, she “found” a cute little kittie and brought it home. Now I got home late that night *and* there was a powercut so there really wasn’t much choice, the kittie spent the night. And the next morning, we could see it was a pretty damaged kitty, eye injury etc. By then, of course, she had named it Ginger (it’s red/orange). Anyhow, in spite of her attachment to it, we took it to the pound – it needs medical care that it can get there, and she had many tears when we dropped it off.

But we do need to adopt another cat, so now we’re in discussions about whether or not we should adopt Ginger when he’s well (at the pound, they told us it was male) or whether we should wait until we get back from vacation, or adopt a different cat. Stay tuned!

I hate American Airlines

ITLP Annual Conference,
originally uploaded by Helen Norris.

Last week I went to Chicago to a conference. It was a good conference, and on the last evening, we went into Downtown Chicago to the Chicago Blues Festival. A group of us stayed out pretty late (like 3 a.m.) and so the last thing I needed the following day was a six-hour delay at O'Hare. But that's what we got. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:30, but there were high winds in Chicago, so it was delayed by an hour. That seemed plausible. Then it got delayed by another hour, with the gate agent saying it was because the plane flying from Chicago to SFO had just arrived from Frankfurt and needed to be cleaned and clear Customs etc. etc. So the plan arrived at the gate almost two hours late, and the flight crew got on the plane. About 20 minutes later, however, the crew deplaned, as they had become "illegal". They can only be active for a certain number of hours at a time, and because American didn't get the passengers on before the witching hour or something, they turned into pumpkins. So they had to locate another flight crew, which they did, however, that crew was actually in St. Louis, and we had to wait until their (late) flight arrived. Most frustrating. My colleagues and I eventually went to the bar to drink while we waited to depart. We finally did so after midnight (flight was supposed to leave at 6:30), and we arrived in San Francisco at 3 a.m.! And the plane was uncomfortable. it was terrible.

Yet another race

Red Cross Run ,
originally uploaded by Helen Norris.

On the spur of the moment, Aisling and I decided to participate in a 5K run in San Francisco today. It was a benefit for the Red Cross, which is a positive considering the work that they're involved in due to the disasters in China and Myanmar. The run was in Golden Gate Park, a very nice course, around Stow Lake. The weather was good, chilly when we got there in the morning, but really warming up to just right. Aisling thought it was a little sunny in places when she was running, but I was just fine.

This time, Aisling took off and ran on her own, rather than with me. She did really well, she seems to have learned how to pace herself, no running too fast at the beginning and then running out of gas. I had a pretty good run myself, and ended with a time under 30 minutes. Aisling was about 40 seconds ahead of me. Both of us placed first in our age groups! Admittedly, it was a thin field - probably about 150 runners overall - but it was pretty satisfying nonetheless. We won gift certificates, and then I won an emergency kit (since it was sponsored by the Red Cross) in a raffle. I would've like to have spent a little more time after the race in Golden Gate Park, but Aisling was hungry, and probably a little tired, so we left.