Turn of the (20th) Century Cat Meme

The Original Grumpy Cat?

Sometimes I feel self conscious of the fact that I am a cat person.  Well let me rephrase that.  I am self-conscious about the way that other people will react when they find out that I am a cat person.  There seems to be such a stigma about people who own cats.  Somehow owning a cat automatically means you are two steps from crazy.  And if you are single and own a cat you are just one swift breeze away from going down to the local shelter and smuggling out a duffle bag of kittens.

I find it interesting to note that this stigma is still around despite the fact that cat's own the internet.  Without cat's the internet would never have gotten the hold that it has on the world.  Of course maybe that is part of why the stigma has been maintained.  I mean cat videos, pictures, and memes don't upload themselves.  And while cats paws are perfectly designed for catching mice they are not designed to run a computer mice.  Or maybe this stigma has really come into it's onw since the internet became ubiquitous?

I remember being young and knowing and fearing becoming the "crazy cat lady."  But I wonder when this came around?  I mean is this just a hold out from when owning a cat meant that you were a witch?  So strange...

I few weeks ago, a friend and I went to see the Pittock Mansion.  It is an amazing mansion build in the west hills overlooking Portland.  The mansion is amazingly beautiful and suprisingly homey.  Downstairs there is a painting of a fluffy white cat which looks perturbed about being forced to sit for a painting.  When I saw that painting I couldn't help but giggle.  I felt some vindication in the fact that these very wealthy people had spent the money to commission a painting of their cat.   I felt slighly less self-conscious of all of the pictures I have taken of my cats over the years. 

At least one of us is comfortable in this picture. 

Annual Cake Decorating Practice

Rosina's Comedy/Tragedy birthday cake 2013

When I moved back to Oregon in 2006 I needed something to entertain myself so I decided to take cake decorating classes.  My mom had decorated all of my cakes growing up and they were always amazing.  She had all of the cake decorating kits and I decided I wanted to officially learn.  So I took three courses at the local craft store and I can decorate a pretty decent cake, I just don't very often.

In fact I seem to really only decorate a cake once a year, for my friend Rosina's birthday.  It's so interesting that she is the only person that I really decorate a birthday cake for.  My other friends don't get one, my parents don't get one, my coworkers don't get one...  I think it's just kind of become tradition.

It started when Rosina moved back to Oregon after a few years away (there must be something in the coming back to Oregon that inspires cake.) and it was coming up on her first birthday back here.  We were going to have a party and I had recently had my cake decorating classes and I wanted to test my skills.  So I asked her what she wanted her birthday cake to be.  Her response: A shark.  So I devised a plan and created a shark cake.  The next year it was Cherry Blossoms cupcakes.  Then a whale's tale. And last year was a cake version of one of her paintings that she had just sold.

This year when I asked her what she wanted she said, "Well the year was had some really great moments and some really crappy moments, what about the comedy/tragedy masks.  That seems appropriate."  So I set out to make a comedy/tragedy cake.

While this year the initial aesthetics are not particularly stunning the cake ended up having a lot of symbolism.  I decided that since we were showing the light and the dark of the year that the cake should reflect it with more than just the design.  I decided that the cake it self would be both light and dark, chocolate and vanilla alternating.  Additionally, I chose to create the masks in yellow and blue and then create the border by mixing the two colors.

Like I said the cake is not as aesthetically impressive as some of my past cakes but it is steeped in  symbolism.  Maybe I should find some reason to practice more than once a year.  Anyone want cake?

The inside of the cake -
I was pretty pleased with the outcome of this aspect of the cake.

 

Action shot of the cake fulfilling it's destiny.

 

 

A Sign of Spring

A lamb looking as a lamb should look.

I work for Portland Community College.  This is the first week of spring term and for the first week of the terms I work a few days at a campus.  Earlier this week I worked at the Rock Creek Campus.  The Rock Creek campus houses the Veterinary Technology program.  To support the Vet Tech program the campus has a farm.  One of the highlights of the year at the Rock Creek Campus is when lambing starts. I used to work at Rock Creek and they would always send out emails letting everyone know that the lambs had come.     

Since I was at the campus and it was that time of year I headed out during my lunch to look at the animals.  There were a bunch of lambs and of course they were adorable.  But the farm animal that really tugs at my heart strings is the calves.  There is something about their little pink noses and their gangly little legs.  I just find them adorable.   

I don’t have much more to say beyond that. Baby animals = adorableness.  

Curious Baby Cow

Baby Cows looking cute way in the back.

Evaluation of Easter Candy

 

 The Next Evolutionary Step in Easter Candy

Of all the candy holidays that there are, Halloween is of course the best.  But the best candy is Easter candy. For the other candy holidays the candy is just regular candy in holiday colors.  Easter is the only holiday that has candy that is only available at this time of year.  Once the holiday passes those candies disappear into the vault only to emerge in the spring again.  Of courses the best of these is the Cadbury Crème Egg which is the most exquisite confection in creation.  

I could write a dissertation about the perfection that is the Cadbury Crème Egg but I want to save that for when I actually have to write a dissertation.  Just know that I think that it is the most perfect confection. Once in college I bought enough crème eggs to fill two shoeboxes, enough to last me the entire year.  Unfortunately, I ended up keeping them for two years and threw most away. Every time I went to eat one I had the thought “If I eat them they will be gone.”  Lesson learned.  To get Crème Eggs year round I just need to move to the source. I knew that the UK was the place that I was meant to be but when I studied abroad in London I found that they sell Crème Eggs year round. The dream was cemented.  

Besides the divine Cadbury Crème Egg there are other things that make Easter Candy the most amazing candy.  For example the egg shaped candy bars.  I enjoy Snickers and Reese Peanut Butter Cups any day of the year.  But the egg shaped Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups have the perfect ratio of all of the ingredients creating the perfect balance of flavors for the pallet.  

Then there are the Jelly Beans.  I love Jelly Belly’s which are of course available all year long and the best Jelly Beans known to man.  But at Easter other companies get into the Jelly Bean game.  We get Jolly Ranchers, Starburst, Nerds, Life Savers, etc.  Any company that sells any kind of fruit flavored candy the other 11 months of the year jumps on the Jelly Bean band wagon.  This is great for Jelly Bean fans.  I mean the other 11 months of the year we have Jelly Belly’s and flavorless balls of gummy color to choose from.  It is fun to have a variety. 

Finally we have Peeps.  People either love or hate Peeps.  I happen to love them.  I mean really what is not to love; its spun sugar dipped in sugar.  Peeps have become a staple for all candy holidays which is fine with me.  But they are originally an Easter only candy so I am including them in here.   In their constant quest to improve the people at Peeps moved from chicks to include rabbits, hearts, Christmas trees, ghosts, etc.  They added flavors  and now they have created a Peep Pop. I mean what could be better than peeps on a stick.  Everything is better on a stick.   

Dream Traveling

Kayak tour up the Wailua River, Kauai - 1/28/13

 



I generally don't dream at night or at least I don't remember my dreams at night. With the change to Daylight Savings Time I have been remembering my dreams, mainly because my sleep pattern is obviously off and I am being woken up mid-dream.  The interesting thing is that in the few days since DST I have had three seperate dreams in which I am traveling.  I am not sure what that means.  On the one hand it is pleasant to think I'm getting to see the world in my dreams.  On the other, it's a very strange world.

Megan and I not in Japan but at Hanalei Bay, Kauai 1/25/13

Megan and I Travel to Japan

My friend Megan and I were traveling in Japan and had stopped at a convenience store which seemed a lot like the ABC Stores in Hawaii. (Gee I wonder why that would be the store that I pictured.) As we were checking out the girl at the check out counter invited us to come and stay with her and her family.  Apparently we were traveling without any reservations and decided that staying with random sales clerks we encountered. 

So this nice sales clerk took us back to her place which turned out to be incredibly small.  She lived with her entire family in a tiny place.  Each grouping had basically a room that they lived in and the rooms were less like actual rooms and more like little caves.  She was being very generous and she and her husband were going to let Megan and I stay in their tiny, tiny cave and they were going to go stay with in her parent's tiny cave with them. 

As we were settling in we were both commenting on how small the places were, and they were small.  There was no communal area just living completely in these tiny tiny caves and the doors opened onto the hallway of the apartment building (?).  As we were discussing it we started to hear voices coming from next door. Not only were these rooms incredibly tiny but you could hear your neighbors almost perfectly.

It was then that I woke up and realized that I actually could hear my neighbors above almost perfectly.  They were having a loud conversation, not a fight, just a conversation, at 3 AM.  :-/

If my subconscious is right, this is what it looks like between the Hawaiian Islands.  It's not.

Kayak Trip up Wailua River - 1/28/13

Dad, Aron, and I Paddle Between Hawaiian Islands

My Dad, my brother Aron, and I were taking a trip paddling between the Hawaiian Islands.We had apparently decided that rather than use a boat to do this trip we would use surfboards.  If we insisted on using boards to paddle between islands and chose the surfboard as opposed to the paddle board, I have no idea.  The problem with the surfboard is that we couldn't stand up and paddle, like with a paddle board.  So we were paddling between the islands like you normally paddle a surfboard.  Which means we were laying on the surfboard paddling with our arms.   I could insert a joke here about how my arms are tired but that didn't seem to be the case.

The more concerning bit was that we were constantly encountering whales.  Now the area between the islands was not so much open ocean as you would think but actually more like a river with dense brush at the edges.  In fact it looks exactly like the picture up above.  Now I know that we weren't just paddling a river because of the whales.  

The Hawaiian Islands is where Humpback whales come to have their calfs and spend the winter.  So there are a lot of them around the islands.  But in my dream there were practically schools of them.  And they were curious, or maybe they were just jerks.  More than once my feet hanging off the end of the surfboard would brush up against a fin.  Now in real life I get nervous swimming in live water because I am honestly paranoid that I am going to run into some aquatic creature.  So having these whales constantly bumping into me was freaking me out. 

The Last View of Hawaii - Honolulu Airport 1/29/13

Andrea and I Travel Through the Denver Airport

My cousin Andrea and I were coming home after a trip abroad.  Where we were coming from I don't know but it required a stop in Denver.  Now I don't think I have every been to the Denver airport but I am pretty sure in real life it is much bigger than the airport that I traveled to in my dream. 

First we unloaded from a small plane directly onto the tarmac, like they used to do it the early days of aviation and at very small airports.  We gathered our stuff off the ground where it had been piled and headed into the terminal.  The terminal had it's standard airport terminal things; video screens announcing arrivals and departures, baggage carousels, and the like.  But this particular terminal was also part elementary school library. 

I am not sure whether Andrea and I had only planned as far as getting ourselves to Denver or if there had been a change somewhere along the trip back that had stranded us there.  Eitherway we needed to figure out a way to get from Denver to Portland.  And in waying our options we needed to view a map to see how far we were from home.  And where is the logical place to go and find a map?  Why the reference section. 

We headed over to the reference section of the airport and pulled out an atlas to discuss whether it would be better to just drive back to Portland or to try and figure out how to get a flight back.  I will honestly never know whether how we made it home because I woke up.  But I am convinced that every airport needs a reference section.

No Judgment Zone

Cup o' Goodness - It might look disgusting here but it was a beautiful thing.

Today was one of the bosses birthday and so we had cake. In fact there were three cakes. Now I can't eat wheat and so I never get to indulge in the cake at the office birthday parties.  But luckily most store bought cakes come with copious amounts of frosting which I can eat, and I do.  I am quite adept at stripping a piece of cake of its frosting without disturbing the cake underneath.  There is pretty regularly cake in our building and my coworkers know that I enjoy eating the frosting so some actually bring me their frosting off of their cake. It's a nice system.

So today there were three cakes in honor of a birthday and for some reason, most likely meetings, the party was at 9:30 am which meant cake for breakfast.  Breakfast cake is the best.  Because there were three cakes there was plenty left over by the time lunch rolled around.  I happened to be in the kitchen area microwaving my lunch when I realize that the sheet cake was on the table and it had some frosting flowers on it.  Now frosting flowers are the best because they come off the cake easily without disturbing the base frosting and cake below so removal doesn't waste the pieces below.

Yes that picture is a cup full of frosting.  It is two flowers worth and some of the decorative edging.  And yes I did eat it for my dessert after lunch.  And I enjoyed every minute of it.  And I am secretly hoping that there is still cake tomorrow that I might take the frosting off of again. And yes, I might have a problem. 

Cake with the two full frosting flowers removed. 
Notice how the underlying structure is undisturbed? Yup, I'm that good.

Happy Birthday Mom - February 16th

 

Mom and I on a black sand beach on the Big Island, Hawaii
December 2009

I have the best mom in the world. I know that everyone says that, but I am pretty sure that I am the only person telling the truth. 

My mom is the most generous and kind-hearted person that I know.  She is constantly thinking about and doing things for other people.  I benefit from her generosity more than I probably should since I am a full grown and almost fully functioning adult. 

When I started this post I thought it would be so easy to talk about how amazing my mom is but I have been sitting here trying to adequately describe the level of awesomeness of her but I find that mere words can not express it. I think that the only adequate way to express it would be to have all the adjectives that describe her spelled out in the sky... by fireworks.  That might come close...maybe.

All I can say is that if I am even a quarter of the person that my mom is when I grow up, I'll be pretty lucky.

Happy birthday to the undisputed most awesome mom in the world!