December 2003 Archives

This weekend, Marc and I put up our Christmas tree. It's a fake one we got a Target, I think it's 7' tall. It doesn't look bad, for being the first fake tree I've ever had. But Marc says since I'm all "Miss Pro-environment" I should have a fake tree. Grudgingly, I agree that he's right. It was a pain to assemble though. :P

So we got it all decorated, and this update was supposed to start off with a nice picture of our tree. As you can see though, it does not. Why? Because the day after we got it all set up, the lights didn't go on when they were supposed to. Why? Because the cats chewed through the lights. Yeah, like that Christmas movie with Chevy Chase, except our cat didn't get fried. Right now I can't decide if that's good or bad. So here we are, with no picture. Target sold out of our lights, so I guess I'm going to try to fix the wires and see if I can get it to work.

Once we get the tree going again, we might take a picture of us and the pets in front of the tree and send it out in Christmas cards like the weird pet people we are. Who am I kidding though, we still have a box of unopened Christmas cards we bought back in 1999.

Friday night we went to go see "Timeline." Talk about a sucky movie. I wanted to see it because I'd read the book, which was really good, but this movie stunk. Not to mention that we were surrounded by the most noisy people. But yeah, the acting? Horrible. The costuming? Horrible. The cinematography? Horrible. I mean, Paul Walker is cute, but he seriously couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. I'm just so grateful that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is out now, and I can go watch it Friday and cleanse my pallet of that waste of film.

So yes, Lord of the Rings!!! I can't even begin to say how excited I am about it. I can't believe it's out already. This is going to be the best movie of the year, and I can't wait to see it. I would've gone to see the midnight showing (like I did last year for The Two Towers) last night, but I didn't feel like driving all the way down to Fremont to see it with my friends that late. So we're seeing it Friday. I have my tickets already. Eeeek! :) The only thing I'm bummed about is that this is the end of the trilogy, which means there won't be another one to look forward to next year.

Woohoo! I had my last class for Developmental Biology last night, thank God. I still have an assignment to turn in, but at least I don't have to commute 2 hours to Berkeley and sit in class for another 3 anymore. I don't think I can eat any more grilled cheese sandwiches from the campus cafe anymore. Well, maybe I could. They are pretty yummy.

Also, I don't have to deal with annoying girl anymore. Whew! Funny story though - this girl is always late to class. And yesterday, at the very beginning of class, our instructor handed out a form for everyone to sign and indicate what grading option they wanted (letter or pass/not pass). At the end of class, the instructor holds up the sign up sheet and says:

 

Instructor: "Does anyone know Holly McComb?"

Annoying Girl (enthusiastically): "Uh huh"

Instructor (to AG): "Oh good, because I guess she's not here today, and I need her to tell me what grading option she wants."

Annoying Girl nods and smiles: "Sure"

Instructor: "Could you please write down her e-mail address so that I can contact her?"

Annoying Girl (still smiling vacantly): "I'm Holly McComb."

 

If I hadn't needed to ask my instructor later for a letter of rec, I think I would've started banging my head on my desk.

Which brings me to the very end of class, where I'm waiting to talk to the instructor about said letter, but end up waiting for like 20 minutes while AG pratters on about how great the class was. At one point she mentions her boyfriend, and judging from the look on the faces of everyone who was there, I was not the only one surprised she had one. :P At one point I shared a mutual annoyed/amused smile with a fellow classmate who was also waiting. Which happened a LOT between people in class whenever this girl opened her mouth. Oh, how I will miss her!

But I finally did get to ask for my letter, and the instructor said she'd be happy to talk to me about it (we only have 1 of 3 assignments graded so far, so who knows what my grade will be). Which is cool! And today I spoke with the head of our veterinary services group at work, and they're going to let me observe some of their surgeries and sit in on their meetings, and talk to the vets and techs there. I go for the tour of the facility next week - I'm stoked!

My boss sent me this e-mail, which I thought was too funny.

Subject: FW: Cat question

What happens when you have
1) nothing to do
2) a sharp knife
3) a large lime
4) a cat, and
5) too much tequila?

Scroll down.............

 

It reminded me of an urban legend story I found on snopes.com which had some story from a woman who went to get a "line" cut for her cat, but the person misunderstood her and gave her cat a "lion" cut instead.

The story isn't true, but the picture is real - it's usually what they do to a cat that has terribly matted fur.

The thing I love best about both those pictures is how pissed off the cats look.

Marc and I are going to try to get some Christmas shopping done tonight - I'm hoping that also translates into some personal shopping for me. ;)

This weekend, we went down to San Diego for my cousin- in-law Chris' 40th birthday. He and Mark (my cousin) had this huge incredible weekend planned. Marc and I drove down on Friday morning, and stopped by Disneyland on the way down. We'd originally planned to go to Sea World in San Diego, but they closed fairly early, and we weren't going to make it down early enough to get our money's worth. So we decided to go to Disneyland, since it's open until midnight.

Disneyland was a lot of fun, even though we've been there half a dozen times (Marc even more than that). Space Mountain was closed (until 2005!) so that was kind of a bummer, as was Thunder Mountain Railroad (it jumped the tracks a few months ago and killed someone). We rode the rest of the big rides though, and they redid the Haunted Mansion for Christmas, which was pretty awesome. We got in some shopping too, and I got a Lady and the Tramp ornament, as well as a Grumpy sleep shirt, which we both felt was completely appropriate for my morning demeanor. During the parade, we had a little excitement as we tried to make our way through the crowd back into the park. They really should do something about that - no one was able to move anywhere, everyone was shoved against each other, and people were quickly become irritated. I actually had this one snot-nosed brat of a girl look at me and say, "You don't have to lean on me you know!" Kids have no respect - they should make it legal to punch kids like that. I flirted with the idea of stealing her Mickey Mouse ears.

Saturday we went to the mall in San Diego, because I needed to buy shoes for the dinner cruise that night. I ended up buying other shoes too, as well as a purse and earrings. Yay for the mall! While at Macy's, I saw this lady who was browsing through the clearance rack. I saw her tear one of the price tags off a dress, and stuff it in her purse, and continue browsing. So I went to the ladies' dressing room and told the worker there what I'd seen. I figured that the lady was planning on taking the tag and reattaching it to a more expensive dress. The employee asked me to point the lady out, which I gladly did. I'm totally curious what happened to her. I hope she got her ass caught. Then in the afternoon we headed for the cruise. It was on a Hornblower ship, and the cruise was great! It was a really nice, intimate party, and the food was really good. Afterwards, we went back to their place for cake and presents.

After the party, Marc and I went to see a late showing of "The Last Samurai." Awesome movie! The action scenes were great - after one scene, which I thought was terrific, the audience actually broke out into applause. I wasn't sure how Tom Cruise would be in this kind of movie, but he turned out to be great.

Sunday morning we went to a brunch buffet at the Lighthouse, the final event in the birthday bash. It was a seafood/breakfast buffet, and the food was pretty good - shrimp and king crab legs, yum! I think the highlight for me definitely had to be the freshly made belgian waffles. Melted butter, strawberries, and whipped cream. It was like heaven.

Then we drove back home - I managed to sleep the whole 6 hours down, and the whole 6 hours up. Which really, isn't anything new for me. I did offer to drive, but Marc doesn't trust me!

Bandit's been busy. The other day, he decided to chew a nice big hole in one of our dining chairs. Today, while I was stuck at home waiting for the guy to come replace our couch cushion (that Bandit had puked on a while back), he managed to pull both of our houseplants off our fireplace mantle and got dirt all over the living room floor. I came downstairs to the sight of him romping around the living room with a flower pot on his face.

So the couch guy showed up later in the morning, and holy crap, I have never wanted someone to leave my house so badly in my entire life. First thing this guy says when he shows up is, "You know there's no parking out there...that's really terrible" (the street in front of our house has no parking, although there are spaces nearby). Then I take him up to our loft to show him the couch. His comment as we walk up: "I'd never live in a house like this." Yeah, it's three flights of stairs to the loft - I like it though, thank you very much.

So he looks at the couch, and I show him where the stain is. He says, "You can hardly even see it." I'm like, yeah, well that's because your lame-ass company kept giving us the run-around and took so friggin' long to get out here that by now the stain, along with any color on our couch has completely faded. He says, "Well, this is going to be a pain to do, and I'm going to have to get ALL my equipment from the truck." Well it's a good thing this is your job then, right dude?

He starts working on the couch, and then starts telling me how he'd never have any animals in his house. At this point I'm thinking, "Can I offer you a coke? Perhaps one laced with cyanide?" He asks, "Do you know how many diseases cats and dogs carry? People get sick from them all the time." I said, "As far as I know, there really aren't many diseases that are communicable between dogs and cats and humans." He's all, "Oh yes there are." My response? "Well, I've had a dog for over 16 years now, and I've never gotten sick from them." And in my head I finished off with, "plus I happen to know this for fact and I happen to know that you're a friggin' idiot."

He continues to tell me that I should be concerned, because AIDS came from monkeys, so of course cats and dogs are dangerous. Oh. My. God. Then he says that cats are especially dirty, because they have larvae in their urine. Urine is sterile, ya dipshit. His last little gem? "Well don't say I didn't warn you when you get rabies! Just kidding, heh." Holy crap, you mean they don't have a vaccine for rabies? I've been fooled all these years by my veterinarians!

I'm really too nice, because I could've put that guy in his place a dozen times. I hope he felt like a dumbass when he asked me later what I did for a living and I told him I was a biologist. That's not an ego thing, just an I-hate-morons thing.

My next personal goal is to learn how to replace couch cushions myself.