Even though I'm off work until January 9th, this hasn't been a very restful vacation period: there's been two bouts of hosting/entertaining, separated by two bouts of home renovation (at my place and my S.O's place), and peppered with freelance work. I've got two guests asleep in a bedroom, a tidy garden, and a freshly painted guest room. The ( Read more... )

I had been thinking that my ambivalence and stresses about owning my own abode were a classic “first world problem.” Poor me! So spoiled! Have to decide whether to paint the guest room cream or sage all on my own! And then I saw this piece:

Women own 1% of world’s property.Which made me go "Huh." Because, in the US, for at least the past 5 years, ( Read more... )

Welp, my cat's dead and National (the local equivalent of the Republicans) is back in power after New Zealand's election this weekend. So I may as well extend my grumpiness with a post about fracking ( Read more... )

-biggest sigh ever- Put down that glass of water: it's safe on any surface, now. I had my cat Northey euthanized yesterday afternoon.

She was still under the shade of the tree ferns where you in LJ land last saw her. At 3 PM, I'd gone out to check on her, and her breathing was harsh and labored, open-mouthed gasping. After two phone calls, we were ( Read more... )

Aw, LJ friends galore, thank you for all the good wishes for my cat Northey. Today she's slow, breathing hard if she moves too fast, and evidently not well. But she is doing what she wanted to do this morning. Sitting outside in a spot that's half-sun and half-shade, enjoying the spring breeze, watching bees bumbling around the foxgloves in bloom. ( Read more... )

Today, I took my cat Northey to the vet for a standard day of vet care - grooming, vaccines, the like. She's 13, had been a little lackluster, and her last vet visit was seven months ago, so it was time. I expected to post amusing "shaved pussy" photos on the Web afterwards. Instead, I got a call from the vet. They wanted to drain fluid from her ( Read more... )

My thoughts on taking a budget cruise...

( Read more... )

Cruising...hmpf. Not so sure about this. The infrastructure of it is flawless, but it's like being inside a television show. An Australian television show. An extremely mainstream idea of The Good Life is socially constructed around us, nothing is intellectually taxing, the staff resemble the cast of a Bollywood movie, and shipboard magazine ( Read more... )

Today I had a very interesting conversation with a dear friend in the USA. Her job involves some complex permutation of health insurance, and as part of it, she deals with "clients" (families) working out their healthcare solutions and options. Often her "clients" are retired. She often goes to their homes for consultations and she says ( Read more... )

I went to Auckland this weekend, and it was a bit creepy how perfect it all went. There were three missions: Cirque du Soleil with some friends, spending the night with more friends, and a volunteer meeting the next day.

First, I wandered around briefly, on my way to meeting mundens and seraphs_folly. When did downtown Auckland get turned into someplace mildly ( Read more... )