I used to think inline skating was only for the ’90s, but today while in Golden Gate Park I happened upon the International Freestyle Inline Skate competition, and it was super cool! I guess this is a really new sport because the competition was really small, but there were still skaters from all over the world there! Some of them are in the video below:
Embarrassing fact: I LOVE Skymall magazine. I’m a frequent flyer, and it never gets old — I’m not one of those people who reads Skymall after they’ve exhausted all other options, I tend to pick it up as soon as I’m in my seat, and pore over every page, often rereading it later in the flight. Of course, I never imagined that among the electric nose hair trimmers, tacky garden statues and pet stairsets that I’d find something I needed to buy.
Yet, about a year ago, I discovered in Skymall the dog DNA test. With a simple cheek swab and $70, the product promised to discern your dog’s breeding. Immediately I knew I had to have it. You see, my family has a very cute mutt dog, and her breeding a topic of frequent and bitter debate. Though the pet store advertised her breeding as “chow, lab-terrier,” my father insists she must be half golden retriever, and we have spent several hours a week debating this point for about ten years now.
You can judge for yourself:
$70 is a small price to pay to irrevocably beat your dad in an argument, and so I purchased the DNA kit, hoping for long-overdue vindication.
Finally the kit arrived, and the family gathered around to swab the dog’s cheek. Naturally, we all had to be present to ensure that neither side unfairly tried to skew the evidence.
After a long wait, our results arrived — Chow was the clear winner, genetically speaking. The rest of the breeds the test picked up were Pomeranian and Husky, both of which are related to Chows. That was $70 down the drain.
The last time I was on a flight, I noticed a new Skymall product, or I guess I should say, I noticed that they have repurposed the dog DNA test for humans. A friend of mine has tried the DNA test offered by National Geographic, which she strongly supported, but I have my doubts.
After all, dogs have been much more carefully bred into distinct genetic types, yet this DNA test was pretty useless. I can’t help but wonder how accurate the human test can really be, but it is exciting to think about the future possibilities for learning family history with the swab of a Q-tip.
Those who know me well know that at least 60 percent of my dreams involve marine life, usually whales, and that a common nickname for me by my family is “whale.” So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a lifelong dream of mine has been to go whale watching, and on Saturday, I did!
First of all, what an amazing day, made possible by Monterey Bay Whale Watch, which I can’t praise enough. They have marine biologists on each trip and share tons of information about all the wildlife you see. Plus, the crew was really helpful and took great care of us!
The day started with a delicious breakfast of waffles and strawberries — don’t forget this, it’ll come up later. After a leisurely morning, Jeff and I headed to Monterey and boarded our small whale watching boat, the “Sea Wolf II,” a humble vessel that looked like it had seen better days.
From the very outset, the trip was great. There were several otters in the bay, and though I didn’t get any good pictures, they were approximately this cute:
The Monterey harbor is just lovely, with lots of boats that look like this:
In addition to otters, we also saw sea lions and seals:
The sea lions had taken over this wall of the harbor and were having a nice old time sunning themselves and splashing in the water.
Once we got into open water, the numbers of cute animals went down, but we still saw some albatross and pelicans.
It took us about forty-five minutes to get out to the whale migration highway, and though the day was clear, there were huge swells. I actually didn’t mind too much, and the pay off was great! We ended up seeing several different groups of whales over the course of the three-hour trip.
All the whales we saw were gray whales, which are no longer endangered and are currently migrating north. Did you know that gray whales only feed half the year? It’s true! Pretty incredible, but they go thousands of miles north to Alaska on empty stomachs!
After about an hour, the swells finally got to me, and I got gloriously seasick. Remember how I said breakfast would come up again? Well, it did twice with a vengeance. I actually didn’t mind too much, because it tasted good the second time around — more or less like a Jamba Juice actually — and as Jeff pointed out, the strawberries turned my upchuck a lovely shade of magenta. Plus I’d like to think that the sea creatures got a chance to have a taste of my delicious waffles and strawberries, a rare divergence from seaweed and krill.
Despite the seasickness, I LOVED my whale watching trip, and I think I’ll go again some time. But of course, the next time I’ll take some motion-sickness medications ahead of time to avoid the impressive puke fest that occurred this time. See how much fun were having?
At any rate, I highly recommend everyone try this! Whale watching was so fun, and March is the month to do it. If you go in summer, you can also see blue whales and humpback whales, so get out there!
Winter came somewhat suddenly to the city a few weeks ago, and since I have about 20 minutes of walking twice a day in commute, I resolved to trade in my cute flats for rain boots.
Originally, I planned to buy them in-person so I wouldn’t have to wait for the boots to come in the mail, but I was foiled by pre-season sales. For some reason, though it was pouring rain and still January, Target was stocking bikinis. Nordstrom, Macy’s and DSW sold only $100+ rain boots. Marshalls, Old Navy and Kohl’s disappointed, and before you know it, I’d been to scads of stores with no rain boots to show for it.
Finally this week I broke down and bought some boots online, and I’m so excited it’s raining right now! Soon they will be here, and though I suspect the rain will stop once they arrive, I also hope that it will continue so that I can actually use them.
Aren’t they just lovely? Too bad I lost my rainbow umbrella… I’m having to make do with rainbow polka dots — such a sacrifice! ugh.
While we’re on the subject of defining Caitlin and being cool on Facebook, here’s my photo for doppelganger week:
No, that’s not me. It’s a French pro tennis player Natalie Dechy. She doesn’t usually look like she did a Nic Cage-John Travolta swap with my face. Usually she has her own face. But this picture really creeps me out!
Being the cool cat that I am, I decided to follow the latest Facebook fad of looking up your name on Urban Dictionary. What I found was hilarious, mildly offensive and definitely worth sharing.
The definitions started out making total sense:
And then proceeded to enter the land of crazy:
Ya think some of these authors had a personal vendetta against a Caitlin in their life? Check your name on Urban Dictionary if you dare — I just learned so much about myself!
My entire life, I’ve been saying “nip it in the butt.” That’s 22 years of people probably thinking, “Did she just say what I think she did?” and then shrugging it off and not telling me I had it wrong. Oh for lollerskates….
I’ve been geocaching lately, and to be honest, I’ve been a little disappointed in the items I’ve found. I had always imagined geocaching to be like this scene from Amelie when she discovers the treasures a little boy had hidden in her apartment 40 years previous, and decides to return them to him.
In reality, most people leave things that I doubt ever had an real emotional significance, such as mardi gras beads and stickers.
To me, geocaching should be about making a connection to a stranger and sharing with them something that really could be treasured, something with meaning.
As I’ve been pondering this and creating my first item to be geocached, I was inspired to go through some inherited treasures of my own. Over the years, I’ve collected a small trove of clip-on earrings, bracelets, broaches and necklaces from relatives who have passed, and while many are beautiful and interesting, I don’t know what to do with them.
Here are some photos, suggestions most welcome!
This is a jewelery box from my great aunt. I love the hand-painted scene, and it’s filled with the same little keepsakes many of us have — coins, stamps, odd beads, safety pins and so on. It’s sort of profound to see an entire life of tiny treasures left in the world without explanation. After we’re gone the strangest things stay behind as our testimony.
Assorted clip-on earrings.
Unique broaches — there are a few you can’t see of other types of animals.
I love the little suitcase charm, I wonder why she had it.
Clip-on earrings shaped like clocks!
Anyway, I haven’t decided how to best use and honor these little keepsakes. I’m toying with the idea of using some of them to embellish picture frames, but I just can’t decide. If anyone has neat button and bead ideas, send them along!
People who know me well know that I have bizarre and entertaining dreams almost every night, but this one was too funny not to share with the general public. It goes like this:
I was at some sort of large party that my family was throwing, and had a boy problem. I was with my current boyfriend in the dream, and an old flame of mine came to the party. Long story short, they argued over me quite viciously, and I eventually ran outside to cry rather than choose between them. While outside, rapper Lil Wayne and his whole crew came over to me. Lil Wayne gave me a hug, and told me to just cry it out. Then they stuck around while I attempted to do handstands backwards.
Um…. what does THAT mean? In my humble opinion, it just good for the lolz. That, or foul-mouthed, prison-sentenced Lil Wayne is my fairy godmother.
