Hobbes, 1989-2008

A bit of sad news.

The feline count at the Johnson tiki hut has been reduced by one. Hobbes, my grouchy old lady, has passed on. She was 18 years old.
Hobbes was the grumpy matron of the house, and the other cats seemed to live in mortal fear of irritating her, except for Roscoe, who delighted in annoying her. :)
Hobbes has been through many things with me, including a few moves, a career change, job changes, and a husband change. For the record, she really liked Daniel. But since he's the cat whisperer, none of us should be surprised.

Anyway, we got back from Mexico to find that Hobbes wasn't looking so hot, and acting very indifferent to things that she normally grooved on, like cooked chicken. After a few trips to the vet, a lot of hydration and other meds, she let us know that she was done. So the vet came to the house today and put her to sleep. The remaining felines have sensed something is up, because I've received a lot more lap/scritch/pester time from them, especially today.

Here's a picture where I actually got her by surprise. She could always feel me coming with the camera, and I would usually get a butt shot as a result.

24 hours in San Francisco

I know these posts are out of order, but oh well. So are the pictures in this post, come to think of it.
:)
After 3 days of family phun in Santa Rosa, CA, we played tourist in San Francisco for 24 hours. What a fun town!
Some pictures to document...

This was taken at the Marin Headlands, just before we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm always just stymied at the sheer engineering feat this bridge is.

We went down Lombard,which is this switchbacked street that's a block long, and incredibly steep and cool. The view was amazing, the houses along this little stretch were incredible, and the drive was quite slow. And yes, that's Daniel's nose in the picture, heeheehee...

Alcatraz!
Don't try to swim your way out, there's sharks in the water, not to mention it's BUTT COLD!

Chinatown's gate.
One thing I loved about San Francisco--their Chinatown was an honest-to-pete one (complete with the smells), and it was pretty good sized too.
Just over the hill, there's a Japan town as well. We walked into the shopping center there, and I swear I was back in Japan. The mall even SMELLED like I was walking through one of those places I found in Yokohama.

We also found an amazing fabric store called Britex, but we had to get to the airport, so I ran through and looked at stuff. Next time, Daniel gets a man chair to get comfy in, and I shop hardcore. :)

my new ride

Note to the parental units...I guess I've joined the ranks of the yuppie scum...
:)
We sold the Tundra for a variety of reasons. So this time it was my turn for a newer car. And, instead of going to a car dealer (which is really another way to spell scumbag), I went to an auto broker, who is just up the hill from where I work.

And now, I present my new-to-me ride!!!!

After some exhaustive research, I decided that a Lexus RX300 would be the best as far as safety, reliability, and cost to insure. I told the auto broker what I wanted, and he found me a 2001 model with navigation, all-wheel drive, cruise control, many widgets, and 81,500 miles. The color is a muted gold. This picture was taken in my company's parking garage, so the light isn't the best. For the record, I have my evil bendy doll mooning folks from the rear view mirror, and my tiki air freshener keeping the inside of the car tiki-fresh.

Here's a somewhat better picture in daylight.
This thing rides really smoothly, which means Calvin the Amazing Wonder Cat won't get barfy carsick on his way to the vet now. :)
Now I just need to move my personalized plate over.
And for those asking about the Subaru, we still have it. It becomes Daniel's new ride, and he gets to pimp it out as an artcar if he so desires.