~ Unpublished Opinion

#8: Visit Starved Rock State Park

Two weekends ago, I completed #8 on my 101 in 1001 list: visit Starved Rock State Park.* While there were several pretty parts of the park, I really think that we went at the wrong time of the year. In the winter there are bald eagles and later in the spring/summer, I imagine it is more green and otherwise colorful. When we went, it was just kind of brown. Also, there had not been much recent rain, so the waterfalls were not as impressive as they could have been. Parts of it reminded me of the woods behind my parents’ house; mostly the trees, plants, and the like.

We did the shorter hike to St. Louis Canyon, which has the one waterfall that always runs, even in times of no rain. We wanted to make sure that we got to see at least one decent waterfall. The hike was not too rigorous, except getting to the trail. We started at the visitor’s center and then had to climb several flights of stairs to get up to the elevation of the trail. It highlighted how completely out of shape I am. The only problem we had during the hike was when E decided we should take a path that eventually dead-ended. We saw the path below, however, so we slid down this rock wall:

We did see a couple of good animals during the hike. We saw two turkey vultures:

And we also saw a woodpecker, although neither of us got a decent picture of it. I heard it first (it was quite loud) and it took me awhile to find it. Funnily enough, I heard the same sound just yesterday. There was a small bird pecking at the tree outside of our window.

Finally we reached the waterfall. It was nice and calming to watch, even though it was not as robust as it would have been if there had been more rain, and I loved the drop in temperature there after getting warm on the walk. However, we only had about five minutes to enjoy it when a group of about 25 people showed up. They were loud and screechy, so the mood was kind of lost.

You can see all of my pictures on Flickr.

The verdict is that it was nice, but probably not worth the drive in early April. We want to go back in the winter to see some bald eagles.

* I learned that the name for the park came from a battle between Native American tribes that involved one tribe surrounding several members of the other tribe on top of a tall rock structure. They stayed there until the men starved to death. Nice, right?

iPhone 365 Project Completed!

Today marks the end of my iPhone 365 project–a challenge to take a photo everyday using my iPhone and post it to this Flickr group. Given that so many of my photos throughout the past year were of the cats, it is only fitting that my 365th photo was this shot of all four cats together, sleeping. They joined me on the couch this afternoon as I, in true cat lady fashion, wore my Snuggie and watched Twilight: New Moon.

If you want to take a look back at the past year of my life in photos, here is the full set. If you aren’t logged into Flickr and/or you aren’t my Family/Friend on there, some will be missing. (Those of other people’s children, Prince E, and myself).

I just watched the whole slide show of all 365 pictures. I noticed some trends: 1) the cats sleep a lot; 2) my everyday life (when I just go to work and come home) does not really lend itself to interesting photography 3) my favorite non-cat pictures were ones where I did things out of the ordinary (random stuff on the ground, interesting signs, etc.); 4) I know some cute kids; 5) it was a fun year and I am glad that I documented it.

I have already started a new project, which is the more traditional Project 365 where you take a self-portrait each day (although I already missed a day once). There isn’t a group for that type of project that is only iPhone as far as I can tell, though, so I made one of my own. (Have an iPhone? Feel free to join!) However, I am not really keen on showing the pictures where you can actually tell who I am to the whole world, so I may make a lot of them friends/family only.

#46: Take a Cooking Class

Earlier this week I completed #46 on my list of 101 things in 1001 days: take a cooking class. The class was an introduction to vegetarian cooking class at the nearby Whole Foods.

The good thing about the class was that it was only $5 and I got three yummy recipes to take home (and to sample in class). The bad thing was that it was really just a demonstration class and not one where I got to do anything but observe.

When I originally put this on the list, I was really thinking about a class where they would teach me how to chop things and saute things, etc. This class was more of a lecture on how to eat as a vegetarian and I already knew about 80% of what they said because I have read several books on the subject. They really just glossed over the actual prep of the food, as one person did it all while the other person lectured.

I still would like to take a cooking class where they actually teach me how to cook, but I am considering this list item accomplished even if I still can’t cook.

Simba Kitty Turns 12!

Today is Simba Kitty’s 12th birthday. So far today he has meowed at 5am, meowed for food, meowed because he was bored, and taken a long nap. Typical day for him, really. As a special treat, I danced with him and sang him a birthday song. He doesn’t really care for that too much, though, so I kept it short.

Horrible Dream

I had the worst dream last night. Normally I love dreaming because, if you have been around here long enough, you know they are weird and fun. Last night’s dream was awful. The worst part about it was that it seemed real. Looking back on it now, there were signs that it was a dream, but I didn’t really catch them at the time.

The dream:

I was in some country town at a vet to take Simba for something routine. I went out the backdoor and realized that I was trapped in a fenced-in area and had to crawl under a fence to get through. Simba was in his carrier. All of a sudden I heard the screech of tires and a horrible wail of pain. I looked back and saw a teenager in a car, with Simba under a tire. The kid was freaked out and called his mom. He was talking about how there was no vet nearby, which was weird since it was right there.

I put Simba back in the carrier. The front gate on it was off, which I surmised was how he escaped. I was mad at myself for not checking it and re-checking it before I left the vet, which is something I always do. I carried Simba in and they asked me if I had ever been to that vet. Kind of weird they were being so routine since I was carrying in a gravely wounded animal and I had just been in there 10 minutes before.

I was told that I was lucky because the surgeon just finished with a patient. At that point a man with a bandaged head came out and I was told there is no people ER nearby so they treat people, too. Reminded me of Baby Boom where she confides in the doctor she was taken to, only to find out he was a vet. They took Simba in and I had to wait.

Then I was told that he was going to die. They put him on a window ledge thing like the ones we have here, I guess so he could die in peace? Then I got to go over and pet him. He seemed perfectly fine and I remarked to someone there that I had thought it was a dream, but I must have been wrong. Then I asked for a brush, because being brushed is Simba’s favorite thing. Simba looked into my eyes as I brushed him and I started crying. I woke up and I was crying for real.

I got out of bed and went toward the bathroom. Simba was sitting on the toilet (lid down of course) and gave me a hearty, “MEEEEOOOOOWWWW!” I gave him a big hug (which he hates) and he looked at me like I was a little nutty.
Hey, lady! Quit your crying and get me some treats!

As I have been typing this post, Simba has come over and jumped on my desk. He has always been pretty in tune with my emotions. He has always come to cuddle with me when I am sad, etc. (even though he really hates to cuddle). He must have realized I was upset by my dream and came over to help.

Guess that Cat! Answers

Thanks to everyone who played “Guess that Cat!” If you haven’t had a chance to guess yet, go visit the original post before checking out the answers below.

It can be pretty tricky to tell Eggy and Paducah apart, can’t it? Here are the answers:

1. Eggy. Even I wasn’t sure at first, but the time stamp on the photo predates Paducah’s birth, so I knew it was Eggy.

2. Paducah. Her romp with the wrapping paper was used to make our holiday card this year.

3. Paducah. I discovered this week that she likes Cheerios, just like her older cat brother, Simba.

4. Eggy. This was a bit easier because you could see a sliver of her blue eyes.

5. Eggy on left. Paducah on right. They are getting harder and harder for me to tell apart from the side now.

Thanks for playing! Congrats to Shoreturtle for getting them all right!

Audience Participation: Guess that Cat!

One of the fun things I like to do these days is send Prince E a text message with a photo of one of our two white cats. He then has to guess whether it is Paducah or Eggy.

Since I am getting near the end of my month of blogging and running out of things to write about, I thought I would try the game out with all of you! Feel free to make guesses in the comment section and I will post the answers tomorrow.

Just to recap–This is Eggy (2.5 years old):

This is Paducah (7 months old):

Let the games begin.

5. In this one, tell me which is which. (i.e. X on left and Y on right)

A Sandy Beach?

On my walk home from work today, I came upon the scene below, which looked at first like a sandy beach.

Of course, it was just dirty snow. One of the unpleasant downsides of winter.

A Ghost?

As promised, here are some photos that I took on the ghost tour of New Orleans. As you can see, there is definitely a something in the second photo that is not in the first picture of the exact same spot. Supposedly a woman named Julia died on the roof of the building and now haunts it. So, what do you think? Ghost? Or just a weird light effect or something?

This hotel is supposedly haunted, but I didn’t find any ghosts in any of my pictures.

Oh and I don’t think that this next building is haunted, but it was pointed out to us during the tour because Richard Simmons attended elementary school there.

This is unrelated to New Orleans, but I saw a movie on TV a couple of weeks ago about photographs with images of the dead in them. It had Pacey from Dawson’s Creek/Fringe in it. It wasn’t too bad and I was surprised I hadn’t heard anything about it. It’s called Shutter. I wouldn’t recommend paying for it, but if you can watch it for free it might be worth a glance.

Tired, so here are some bullets.

* I went back to the office today and am quite tired as a result. Although technically yesterday was a day off, it was a travel day and not very relaxing. I could use a proper day off.

* Paducah got her stitches out today.

* I am uploading my New Orleans photos. I didn’t take that many, given that I was indoors most of the time I was there, which is a bit disappointing.

* I wish I was still at my hotel in New Orleans because I could really go for some PB&J and hot chocolate.

* I never realized until I went to New Orleans that I like chunky peanut butter. I feel like I have been depriving myself all this time.

* I took a picture on a ghost tour that has a “ghost” in it. I will post about that tomorrow.

* I think that the stingray in the picture above looks like he is smiling. He lives at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

* I just realized that my post from yesterday didn’t post. I wrote it and pushed publish (on my phone) but I just opened the app on my phone and it was still loading. I am counting that as not missing a day in this month of blogging because it was not my fault.