Update on Kai, and a few more animal photos

Kai is still doing very well. He’s lost a lot of fur, for some reason, though. Whether it’s a result of his treatment, or a thyroid imbalance, or just that spring is here, I don’t know, but he’s shedding his undercoat and has lost a lot of his beautiful feathering. As a result, he looks very skinny. If he starts to go bald, I’ll worry, but in fact his coat is — finally — actually growing back on the throat, where he was shaved for his treatment.

Although he’s officially qualified as a therapy dog (and wears a little red tag that says “Hug me — I’m a Therapy Pet”), we’re not doing any visiting yet. We’re in the middle of qualifying to visit at the Kaiser hospital a few blocks from our house. In order to do that, we have to go through Kaiser’s volunteer process, including a background check (for me, not Kai) and a four-hour orientation (also for me, not Kai). We’re hoping to be ready to go in a few weeks.

The little guy with the big ears in the last photo is Calvin. He’s about nine months old and was recently adopted by the family of my former boss at UC Berkeley. We had a meet-and-greet at Point Isabel a few days ago.

P1000447

P1000448P1000450P1000454

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

BART garage

 

One morning we woke up to find this behind our house.

Actually, it’s been under construction for almost two years. It’s supposed to look better when it’s completed (in a few months), and it doesn’t block *all* our sun.

P1000457P1000458

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on BART garage

Karjala piirakoita — it’s what’s for dinner

P1000455

 I played the piano for Jukka-Pekka’s cello performance at a benefit event at the Finnish Hall in Berkeley on Saturday. So he bought me some homemade Finnish delicacies while we were there, and we had them for dinner (along with some sausage-vegetable soup) today. It’s traditional to serve them with a mixture of butter and eggs, so how could we not? Obviously Finns have no cholesterol issues.  Here’s the recipe in case you want to make them yourself:  http://www.food.com/recipe/karjalan-piirakka-karelian-pie-with-egg-butter-137150

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The peaceable kingdom

Photo
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The peaceable kingdom

More Momo and Baby

Momo and Baby have staked out favorite places in the bedroom/office.

Momo likes the scanner/printer, and Baby likes my computer chair. The chair has a nice scratchable back.

P1000441P1000442

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on More Momo and Baby

This is what’s left of the gorilla

Photo

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Earthquake

We just had a 4.0 about three miles away. It was 5:33 in the morning, and we’d just woken up. It lasted only a couple of seconds, but it was very loud and the whole house shook. No damage. We’re fine.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Kai’s first post-treatment checkup

We went to Davis on Thursday, March 1, for Kai’s first checkup. (He’s scheduled for evaluation every three months now that his treatment is over, and his last chemo session was in early December.) He had x-rays and blood work and was pronounced cancer-free. There’s no guarantee that the cancer won’t return, but for now every day is a gift. His next checkup will be in June.

Here’s what the doctor wrote in his report: “Congratulations on becoming a therapy dog! We love seeing Kai, he is such a sweetheart!”

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Meet Momo and Baby

Momo (left) and Baby (his sister, right) are Coco and Bianca’s cats. They’re staying with us because the girls can’t have them at home. They’ve been with us since Labor Day.

They’re not used to living with other cats, never mind dogs, so it’s been quite an adjustment. They manage to ignore Kai, because he ignores them, but Chester is harder to ignore, because he wants to play. Baby has made it clear to Chester that he’s not welcome to come closer than about a foot and a half, and she’s intimidated him to the extent that he won’t try to enter the upstairs hall if she’s staked it out. He barks a pathetic bark that means “Come rescue me from Baby”. (She weighs eight pounds to his seventy, by the way.)

However, if he keeps his distance, everything is fine. Both Momo and Baby love to nap with us (actually, on top of us), even if the dogs are present.

Img_0012P1000433

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Meet Momo and Baby

Matt Taibbi Explains It All For You

I try not to post about politics because it’s usually too distressing, but this is too good not to pass on.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/arizona-debate-conservati…

And as long as we’re at it, if you’re not reading Charlie Pierce regularly, you’re missing a treat.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Matt Taibbi Explains It All For You