Sticks and String: February 2010

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Poor sick kitty

A few days ago my kitty was throwing up, or at least trying to. She just hid under the couch and wouldn't eat or drink anything. I took her to the vet and ran all sorts of tests. Nothing showed up so the vet gave her anti-nausea medication and sent her home. The next day she wasn't any better. I took her back to the vet, this time for x-rays and more extensive blood-work. Everything came back normal. She got an enema to get rid of backed up poop and had diarrhea for a while. Now poor May-may has a sore butt and stinks like poop. She ate a little bit today and I tried to wash the poop off her. Now she's just taking a nap on a heating pad. I didn't want her to get cold with a wet butt. Poor May-may :(

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

San Fran: Day 5 and beyond...

Last day! Glenda and I were getting worn out by this point. We walked probably 7 miles a day, ate next to nothing and barely got any sleep. That City Pass keeps you busy! It was pretty much the backbone of the trip since we didn't plan anything out in advance.

The last day we woke up somewhat early and went to breakfast at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. It's a somewhat well-known restaurant in San Fran. It's a tiny place and we had to wait in a line that went out onto the sidewalk. The food was super amazing, though.

Here are some pretty houses:

And a little market thing going on sort of near where we stayed that last night:

The last day we did the Museum of Modern Art.

The picture of this isn't great, but this was pretty cool. And each individual picture was pretty nice:

RIP Michael Jackson:

I don't normally like things like this, but this struck me. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice. It felt almost like a landscape.

So much cooler than an iPhone:

A Calder:

Amazing!! I *heart* Magritte:

Then Glenda and I pondered all the great art.

And found Waldo:

The rooftop sculpture garden had more of these fat-bottomed guys:

Then as our last hurrah in San Francisco, we walked the Golden Gate Bridge. The whole thing, out and back. It was raining a little and loud from the cars zooming by.

And there were lots of emergency crisis phone lines with little plaques saying something like "Jumping off the bridge is fatal and tragic. There is hope."

View from the bridge:

My shuttle came to pick me up at 8:30 to take me to the airport. I got to the airport to find out my flight was canceled due to bad weather. I ended up staying one more night at a Raddison, for $60. Super nice room, even though I didn't get much sleep.

I had to get up at 6am to get back to the airport. Got to Chicago for my change-over. Got delayed another hour when the plane was late getting in, and then two de-icings on our plane. Finally got to Minneapolis at about 9 pm. Waited around for the 9:45 shuttle back to Wisconsin. Got home about midnight. Loooooong day. Long weekend. Why aren't vacations relaxing? I had a lot of fun, but my next vacation is going to be sitting on a beach somewhere reading a book!

San Fran: Day 4

Up early again, although more tired than the day before. Part of that was probably lack of proper nutrition. We tried to eat on the cheap by only eating one meal at a restaurant a day. The rest was english muffins and pbj's.

We started off by going through Golden Gate Park. There is a big list of things you shouldn't do there.

With the most important, at the bottom:

I wandered around the Japanese Tea Garden for a while.

A pretty tree:

A zen garden designed by some famous zen garden architect guy. That'd be a fun job.

Peace lantern:

Some temples:

Bonzai trees hundreds of years old:

Some herons in the water:

Then off to the DeYoung Museum. Across from that was the Academy of Science, notice the grass roof:

And this neat outdoor theatre:

Inside the museum: Some art I liked:

My favorite was the room with all the "illusion" art in it. Lots of really nice little still-lives...

And this crazy thing...

Sort of grotesque, but from across the room, I thought it was real.

Here I am getting attacked by a giant safety pin. You gotta love Claes Oldenburg:

Apples...

And these guys, that I feel like I've seen somewhere before...

A tiny, tiny little hummingbird:

That night we stayed at Glenda's friend's apartment to save a little money (even though the hotel was only $45 a night. Thank you Priceline!) We went back there and watched 30 Rock online and played Quiddler (like scrabble played with cards) until late, late, late.

San Fran: Day 3

We woke up early the next day after staying up late the night before. I was sore from walking so much in ballet flats and decided to look like a dorky tourist and wear my running shoes the rest of the time.

The second day we went to Alcatraz.

There's a cardboard cut-out of a guard in the lookout tower.

The laundry room:

Showers:

Recreation yard:

Barred windows:

Solitary: (I went in there and it was super creepy. The other cells didn't bother me, but there was bad mojo in these. I just wanted to get out.)

Some upper-level cells:

The library: Totally the nicest place there. The sun was coming in. I wouldn't have minded having a cell across from the library. Apparently neither did anyone else. They were considered some of the best cells in the whole place.

A typical cell layout: Notice the crochet!

Accordion!

This would be my cell, yay art! I don't know.. books, crochet, free meals, accordion, painting... this prison sounds like my kinda place. Of course, the toilet is preeeety close to the bed...