Some excitement today in Seattle

Thanks to Obama's visit to Seattle, western Washington experienced quite a scare today:

Sonic Boom

At the sound of the first boom, my knees buckled and I froze. Then a few seconds later, another one. It felt like a drum banging in my chest. The house shook, windows rattled and then I thought, "Is this an earthquake?? But why the big bangs first?? Maybe that's how they happen here in Washington?!?" Then I thought maybe it was a gas explosion and a neighbor's house just blew. Twice. It was hard to comprehend what could have made that type of intensely loud bang and shudder. Wrigley ran upstairs whining and pawing at the bedroom door so he could run into the closet and hide. Chumley got really low to the ground, almost belly crawling, and his eyes were as big as could be, as he kept looking from side to side. He stopped to hiss a few times and then slithered into the study to pee on the floor.

I grabbed the computer, tried logging on to local online sources and couldn't connect. Then I hopped on facebook and started a shit storm of panic over there. People heard this as far north as Edmonds and south as Olympia (actually I don't really know exactly where these places are but one is really north and one is far south).

Pretty much everyone who heard these booms was in an immediate state of panic. 9-1-1 couldn't handle all the calls - some people armed themselves with weapons thinking it was a terrorist attack while others searched their homes for an intruder. Some thought a small plane crashed in their backyard or even Mount St. Helens was erupting. It was nuts!
Here's a story on our local blog with real time updates. The comments are pretty entertaining to read especially those who were really freaked out (myself included).

Yes, we heard it too

Today, I've decided...

...I'm going to drastically lower my expectations of people, that way I won't be so disappointed when they turn out to be:

a) inconsiderate

b) self serving

c) manipulative

d) insincere

I will put forth my energies to those who are deserving of what I have to offer.

Thank you Bette, my 89 year old soul sister for your friendship and providing me with a world's worth of wisdom in the last 7 months.

(Bette and I at her art display, July 2010)

Wonder where this guy is now...

During the summers while in college I worked for my sister, who managed a shared office suite. I answered phones for the various businesses - about 30 of them, some with actual offices, others with just phone access and an address to make it appear they had a physical presence. My sister gave me the low down on who's who and how to treat the incoming calls. There were quite a few clients who only came into the office once or twice a week so I mainly just took messages and passed them along.

I had only been working a week or so when I got a call from a very quiet man asking for a therapist who was out of the office. I told him he was not in and asked for his name and number and if he'd like to leave a message. He became really agitated, almost frantic, and was pausing after every few words then finally blurted out, "I can't stop masturbating!"

I freaked out (can't recall what I said - it was either, Ewww! Oh my GOD! or Pervert!) and hung up on him. I ran into my sister's office and told her about the obscene caller.

After we had a laugh with a couple other co-workers who popped in to see what was so funny, my sister asked whose line the pervert called. I told her it was one of the therapists. She got all serious and asked which one. I said Dr. McKay. Her eyes bugged out and she said "OH NO!! He's a sex therapist!! That wasn't a crank call!"

We still laugh about this now and for all we know the guy's still masturbating because he never called back.

(me answering phones, 1994)

nicknames for Wrigs

Wringles
Wringo
Wring Leader
Wrigamortis
WringWrings
Wridley
Wrigglesby
Mr. Wrigglesbottom
The Wriddler
Noodle
Big Yellow Dog
and approx. 10,000 more

I also have a song that is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O

"There was a dog his name was Wrigs and Wringo was his name O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"And Wringles was his NAME-O!"

(I know it doesn't make sense singing it with an "E" but it sounds better. I tried it with the "R" and it just doesn't roll off the tongue as easy.)

Psychotic Pet Sitter

I'm cat sitting for some friends this weekend and their cat, Gracie, is known around town as being somewhat aloof to others and not very friendly. When I went yesterday she was curious but not too interested in getting close and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable so I kept my distance. When I came by this morning she was super sweet and affectionate and after some coaxing even let me snuggle and kiss her. I took some photos to send to my friends and wrote this text, (using predictive text not the keyboard) letting them know all was ok:

"Gracie is so incredibly loving today. Pushed her head into mine and was grunting while I stabbed her ears."


What I tried to type was "rubbed" but accidentally hit an extra "b" key. I quickly shut down my phone while the text was sending and thankfully it didn't go thru. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to read while your animal's in someone else's care.



She's such a little sweetheart.

The House

Here's a compilation of five songs from Katie Melua's latest album The House.

Definitely worth downloading. Or just buying the album.

And if you want to hear the full length versions of 3 of the songs, here they are. These are my favorites on the album:

I'd love to kill you

The flood

A happy place

And here's another great song and video from a couple years ago:

If you were a sailboat

I know, I know, enough with the links already.

She don't use jelly

I keep a big tub of vaseline next to the bed because my hands and feet have been really dry so while I'm in bed I can slather it on to my liking and not have to walk from the bathroom to the bed collecting tufts of fur and litter remnants on the bottom of my feet.

So, we had an appraiser come by to take pics of our house including every single room and umm...well, I forgot to remove that big ole tub of vaseline.

I'm sure someone's having a laugh right now.

13 seconds

of funny

The clip above was from my friend and Doga instructor Brenda's Dog Yoga Blog where, as you can see, Wrigs and I have been spending our Saturday mornings.