Happy New Year!

Happy Festivus!

My cat died today.

She was old - 19 or 20, I've lost count. Either way, that's about two-thirds of my life. She was a skinny slip of a black cat, more fur and skin than anything else, with almost laughably tiny ears.

We named her Retsil. There's a town off Puget Sound in Washington State called Retsil. The ferry to the town across the water was an adorably small all-black boat. After we got back from Washington twenty years ago, we got an adorably small all-black kitten. The name seemed to fit.

When I was in junior high, she used to climb onto my chest and lick my face until I made her stop. That was the clearest the pores in my nose have ever been.

When she was a kitten, she was practically invisible. She'd vanish for hours at a time. We finally discovered that she was sleeping in the far corner under my dresser, a tiny fuzzball back in the dark.

We had these big pink easy chairs she used to love sleeping on. She'd climb to the top of the back of the chair, and let her forepaws hang down the back of the chair, her chin resting between them.

She was a nervous cat, but a friendly one. She didn't like to hold still, she was always pacing back and forth, back and forth. Petting Retsil was always vaguely comical - she would walk over, you'd pet her head a few times, she'd run to the other side of the room, wait a second, and then trot back. She'd keep that up as long as you were willing.

She started as an indoor-outdoor cat, but at some point moved outside full time, refusing to come back in. We used to feed her on the back balcony. She would carefully climb up a tree to the balcony, eat, and then climb back down again, looking back over he shoulder the whole way. That tree is covered with vertical scratches along its whole trunk.

I always used to worry about her on Halloween - that some wierdo would find a black cat and do something to her. I'd always out on November first as soon as I could to see if she was okay. She always was.

She would never get out of the rain. It would be pouring, and she'd be crouched in the mud under a tree, with water dripping on her head. I always used to build her a house at the start of winter - somewhere dry and out of the wind with her food. She would always stare incredulously at me while I put it together. She'd move in a few nights later.

Finally, she was getting old enough we brought her back inside and didn't let her out again. She moved into what used to be my room. Her favorite spot was just next to the same dresser she used to sleep under. She couldn't fit under it anymore, but she would always sleep right next to the same corner she always used to.

Once, when we brought Isabel over, Retsil came wandering out of her room to see what the fuss was about. She was ancient by cat standards, and old cats and babies never mix well. Isabel was beyond excited - it was all her grandmother could do to keep her contained. Restil padded over to get a closer look at the baby. Isabel's hand shot out towards the cat, a huge grin splitting her face.

"Here it comes," I thought. "One of those two is about to get bitten."

Restil calmly turned her head and let the baby fondle it. Isabel got a fistful of fur, and Restil didn't even twitch. When Isabel was done, Restil quietly padded back to her room.


Thanks, Retsi.

PRIME RIB JERKY?!?

"We've been coming to the same party for ten years, and in no way is that depressing."

Helloooo??

I am DARTH VADER! From the planet VULCAN!

An excellent vintage!

Yard work is thirsty work!

We just took Iz to breakfast!

Super cute is the norm with this gal!

Now that she isn't teething or fighting off a tummy bug, she is as happy as she is adorable.

Sleepy Girl on her way back to Sacramento

The Unabomber is loose in Santa Cruz

Roadtrip to the store! Iz hated it!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Roadtrippin!

Back to the scene of the crime. Again.

Shenanigans!

A baby kicking a table is not a screaming baby

Throughout breakfast, Iz slowly scooted her way down across her stroller until her tiny feets could reach the edge of the table. And then she began to kick it with extreme concentration.

Aha, we thought. She's learned to entertain her self quite well! She's happy and content!

So we finished our meal successfully and strolled out to the car, feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

And then discovered that she had dons the single biggest blowout of her entire life to date at the same time. It was everywhere - filled the diaper, all over her clothes, coated the inside of the stroller.

"I'm beginning to learn," Heidi said, "that there is no such thing as 'I brought too many baby clothes.'"

Situation: improving

Chico Weekend! Let's recap!

It's our anniversary (two years; woooo!) so we decided to jaunt up to Chico for the weekend. For extra sauce, this is Isabel's first overnight trip away from home.

Let's recap the weekend so far!

Chico: Still here!
Jack's Diner: No longer serves the Party Omlette!
French Bakerty: has become a Starbucks!
Employee Quote at Cafe Mondo (which used to be known as "the scone place": "Um, we've NEVER had scones."
Cafe Mondo Coffee: now undrinkable!
Isabel: peed all over the hotel bed!

So, clearly we're rocking a 5 out of 5 here. But, I gotta make this quick - in 15 minutes this wireless access point is becoming a Starbucks.

Isabel's first restaurant!

Status Update

OMG LOOK AT THIS OUTFIT

13 pounds of pure rage

Well, THAT was a long weekend.

Let's recap the day:

Rockstars: 1
Mountain Dews: 2
Items on list of things to do completed: 0

Extremely fussy babies: 1

I don't have a joke, this is just adorable

It's more La Tigra than Blue Steel, I'm thinking

The long drought ends

The greatest restauraunt in the history of the universe returns.

And the food is EXACTLY the same.

This is a child who has learned her own power

So, Isabel basically screamed for 20 hours non-stop yesterday. Today she's calm, collected, just hanging out - with an expression that says "I have learned that I can destroy everything around me whenever I choose."

Bwaaaaa?

THIS is how you make having a newborn work

Anyone who says different is selling something.

"...if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

And so the greatest talk show in the history of the medium comes to an end. Conan's last show was spectacular - if you missed it, make sure to catch it before hulu pulls it.

We'll be here when you land, Coco.

Omega Man!

As alert readers of the Twitter Update feed on the right will have noticed, Netflix streaming let me accidentally watch Omega Man the other night.

(Sidebar: Netflix streaming makes having a newborn possible. Up at 3am for another feeding? Why not just order up Omega Man and chillax?)

Somehow, I'd managed to never actually see this all the way through. The first 30 minutes is excellent, and then it starts a steady downhill slide straight into one of the least subtle alegories of an ending I've seen since Neo went from being a Jesus-eque character to actually BEING Jesus.

Final Score: 2 points, but an honorable mention for this:



Seriously, any movie that can provide THAT image is a winner. (Why yes, those are ruffles, and yes that IS velvet!)

I also bring this up so I can link to Mick LaSalle's Appreciation of Charlton Heston. This was in the SF Chronicle after Chuck died a while back, and it's not an obituary so much as just that - an appreciation. I'm sort of an accidental Chuck fan, and I keep trying to paraphrase this when people ask me why. Omega Man finally gave me an excuse to dig the link out of the web and post it here.

(And, for the record, if you haven't seen it, go rent Touch of Evil. Trust me.)

An amazing number of problems are being solved in this image

When DO they grow legs?

Isabel Helman: Stats

By Popular Demand, her initial stats are as follows:

Length: 20 inches.

Weight: 8lbs, 7 oz.

Adorability: 18/00

Eyes: Baby Hazel, but seem to be darkening

Hair: Black, with expectations that it will drop out and be replaced with something blonde.

Eats: roughly every two hours

Isabel: one week old

TOUCHDOWN

Just out of shot is a vaguely disapproving nurse

Sergeant Grumbles is ready to leave

"It's Grumbles, ma'am - Sergeant Grumbles."

For some reason, this made my butt go to sleep

Helman, Party of Three

Welcome aboard, Isabel Lovell Helman.

I hope we're the parents that you deserve.