Notes from home (Oct. 15, 2005)

--Though I may have failed to feed most neighborhood birds due to those ingenious squirrels, I have still managed to make my house a safe, nourishing haven for hummingbirds! Apparently they only eat nectar or nectarous things like sugar water. Their feeder also precludes squirrel paws by its dainty nature.

--Pumpkin is finally off the juice/water/fluids! Since I can no longer afford to take her to the vet, I was entering dangerous, uncharted (or vet unadvised) territory this week. It was oddly empowering to behave like a Christian Scientist, and eschew all medical knowledge and common practice in favor of self-diagnosis and treatment! I wasn’t really worried and was prepared (with trusty ole credit card in hand) to rush her to the hospital if something were to go terribly wrong. But still. My cat has also recently taken to drinking water exclusively from my houseplant watering can, as opposed to her bowl. It’s cute and endearing, but also sort of weird to see her head completely submerged in it.

--Lately, my bedtime reading has vacillated between the scandalous “Diary of a Teenage Girl” which is a graphic novel recommended to me by the wonderful Laurel Frank and is really rocking my world and “Pride and Prejudice” by the insightful Jane Austin. I don’t know what it is with her and Tolstoy, but I feel like they really do get people (psychologically speaking). They both take the time to really develop some characters that I can then take the time to become mildly obsessed with.

--My parents are apparently moving back down to Costa Rica. Those crazy kids! Here are some pictures of and from the shrimp boat.









--I finally downloaded some pictures from my camera, and found a few nice ones!

Here’s the funny skinny building in SF. My BFF is standing in front of it. Apparently we need to retake Pictures for Tourists 101 because we made the time-honored mistake of taking a photo with him in front of the building, as opposed to one with his head in the foreground and the building in the distance. D’oh!



We went on a mission to find the buffalo in Golden Gate Park. We started to doubt their existence as we got lost and confused and walked to the wrong side of their pen. Since we both need to wear glasses and weren’t, we kept pointing to large rocks and asking, “Is that a buffalo?” Then finally, we found them. A whole herd (12) of buffalo, which I was informed, is not actually impressive, as before they were hunted to near extinction, one herd spanned from Oklahoma to North Dakota. They are very cute and oddly shaped with skinny little legs and a huge upper body (sort of like Texan women?).



Golden Gate Park also has these peculiar, twisted trees.



Recent food obsession: Baked Banana. With an ingredient list that has the two trashiest and most embarrassing items I have ever seen for a recipe (marshmallows, corn flakes, cinnamon, brown sugar and banana), and dubious nutritional value, it might seem unappealing. It is in fact very delicious and satisfying.