Bear Droppings

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MFF Info
Kitty and Bear are in room 303.

Hey, Tilt! I'm pounding down Schlitz longnecks! Come get you some!

Family Time
Mom and I had a nice long conversation last night. We just sat at the kitchen table and talked until midnight. We mainly talked about family, and I wanted to gather as much information as I could about my grandfather whom I never met. He died at a very young age while my mom was still in high school. Since most of the old timers have left the neighborhood, the pool of people her own age is shrinking and shrinking. She is talking to people now whom she probably had never spoken to before. All of the old gossip is now coming back to life. It was a very tightknit community although it didn't seem so at the time. She's finding out that there were lots of "cousins" and friends of friends that she didn't know about. The "six degrees of separation" was really only one or 2 people.

It was a very interesting conversation. There is unfortunately a large gap on my father's side of the family. It seems that there was some bad blood between my grandmother and her in-laws. As a result my dad never really got to know aunts and uncles on his father's side. I have a fairly good family tree on his mother's side, but the other side is blank. This sucks because that's the namesake side of the family. I know there is a person in Tucson with the same name as myself. I have been debating contacting him for years and years. Perhaps he could help fill in that missing side or perhaps it would be a dead end. *shrugs* I'm not that much of a genealogy bug.

Still, it was interesting hearing about stories my mom gleaned over the years from her mother. It was hard to wrap my mind around people coming from Poland at the turn of the last century and settling in a neighborhood that could almost be classified as semi-rural. If I get motivated I should do a little more digging. I already found the ship registry from Ellis Island of when my grandmother came to this country. It's just a neat little bit of info.

Ethnic Food!
One of the joys of coming to Chicago is getting to nom on good Polish/Bohemian food. Today we went to say "Hello" to my aunt and uncle. It was just about lunch time, so it was suggested we hit up one of the local restaurants. Mom had been talking about this one place, and it wasn't all that far away. Yay! I got to have stuffed cabbage with dumplings with a side of sweet and sour cabbage. Bear + lots of cabbage = Kitty glad that she won't be sleeping next to me tonight. *grinz* Just keep me away from open flames and no one will get hurt.

Oh, and the rain caught up to me again. *growls* Now I know why I like the desert.

MFF Roadtrip-Post 6 - Safe!
I pulled into my mom's garage just after 3 this afternoon. My strategy to head north paid off as I lost the rain at the MO-IA border and actually saw the Sun for a few seconds east of Des Moines. Traffic was a little heavier and of course it was insane in Chicago. I was doing 70 in a 55 zone and chuckled as I was passed by a state trooper whom nobody was paying attention to. I'm just kicking back now. There is a welcomed new addition to my mom's house. One of the neighbors now has an unsecured wi-fi network! Badda Bing!

MFF Roadtrip-Post 5 - Change of Plans
One of the bad parts about making motel reservations ahead of time is that you get locked into a specific itinerary. It's not all that bad, but if you arrive early you could have perhaps driven another 100 miles or so. Perhaps road conditions suck and a deviation north or south would help out. Well, that's where I'm at this morning. I was looking at the weather radar going, "Fuck!" It looked like another day of shitty weather. But wait! I can do whatever the hell I want! I will be at Chez Madre tonight. I can take any route I want between here and there! I had been so locked into the mindset of taking 36 across MO that I forgot I was right next to an interstate that could whisk me north to Des Moines where I would then pick up 80 to take me right into Chicago! And it looked like there was a lot less rain to the north. Trainspotting in the rain is no fun anyway. Maybe next time. So off I go!

MFF Roadtrip-Post 4 - Safe in Misery
Oh. I'm sorry. I meant Missouri. The rest of the afternoon continued to be rainy and shitty. There were some breaks where I was able to do a little more trainspotting. It's just no fun taking pics in pissing rain. So I'm safe in Cameron for the night. It will be the mad dash to Chicago tomorrow. I had better go check the Weather Service site to see what could be in store for me tomorrow.

MFF Roadtrip-Post 3 - Bleh!
Greetings from Salina, KS. Today's weather can be summed up in one word; CRAPPY! Ugh! I am riding along with the advancing weather system that's dumping snow in Denver. I'm at the leading edge of the storm so all I have been getting is a shitload of rain. I still have managed to do a little bit of trainspotting although the backgrounds have been flat and gray. According to the radar there is a bit of clearing ahead, but then I could go back into the soup near Topeka. We'll see.

I should mention that dinner last night was pretty awesome. I found a Thai place right next to the motel that served up some kick ass food. Yes! Great Thai food in Kansas! I plan on having leftovers for lunch after I post this. It was wonderfully spicy that had me in tears. We won't discuss the "ring of fire." ;oP

I also found out why I couldn't get a room in Great Bend. It seems that this is the peak of pheasant season here. There were all sorts of guys in orange with their dogs checking in to the motel.

Eastward ho!

MFF Roadtrip-Post 2 - 3 Corners x 2
I think I came across an interesting geographical phenomenon today. Highway 56 passed about a mile from the point where NM, TX, and OK meet. I made a quick detour and found the benchmark that marked the point. There was nothing spectacular about the point outside of the small benchmark. Unlike the famous Four Corners of NM, CO, UT, and AZ (where I fursuited!) which is a unique point, there are over a dozen places where 3 states meet, and a person could stand on that point. Obviously if there is a river that forms a boundary, there can be no such point unless a marker was placed in the river (highly unlikely).

I hopped back on the highway and continued east. Less than an hour later I came to a point that was only a few miles away where OK, CO, and KS all meet. I made another detour and found the point. This one at least had a more elaborate monument placed at the site. I would post a pic, but I don't have my cable (D'OH!) It was then that I realized that I was in 5 different states in the period of less than an hour. I don't think there is any other point in the US where you could do that!

So anyway, I'm safe and sound in Dodge City. The storm is catching up to me so tomorrow may be a bit wet. Oh well.

MFF Roadtrip-Post 1
So much for making multiple posts from the road. I forgot about that little problem called "no signal." SO this update comes from Boise City, OK. I just finished off a Subway sammich while watching an eastbound loaded coal train heading towards Amarillo.

The trip has been nice so far. I just crossed the 300-mile mark. The weather has been rather nice. It was cloudy and gray in ABQ, drizzling in Santa Fe, and bright sunshine by the time I got to Las Vegas, NM. Traffic has been blissfully very light. I have been cruising along just above the limit although I did open up the Pilot to 100 when I passed a truck on a very straight stretch of road. It made it up there with little effort. So now I will continue on to Dodge City.

The Road to MFF '09
I'll be hitting the road tomorrow for Chicago. I thought I would apologize in advance because I plan on using LJ like Twitter over the next few days. Don't expect a flood of posts, but I am usually Mr One-post-a-day. If I make 3 or 4, that's really something! Actually, I just plan on documenting my progress every so often so that Kitty knows I'm ok and if I disappear off the face of the planet, there will be a starting point to start looking. My! Isn't that cheerful! The first night will hopefully be in Dodge City, KS. There is a weather system moving in, but I hope to stay just in front of it. I will be hitting Chicago by Monday, spending a couple days with mom, picking up Kitty at Midway on Wednesday, and then hitting the Westin that evening.

So be prepared for a flurry of short posts about dipshit drivers, trainspotting, and the wonderful scenery of Kansas and Missouri. I'll hopefully have time to read LJ in motels while downing a 40.

Veterans' Day
I have been going over and over this post in my head all day. I'm still not sure it will come out right nor get too preachy/ranty. I have very mixed feelings about Veterans' Day. I guess I really am turning into a peacenik. I would love to see a day where there would be no need to "celebrate" this day because there would be no need for a huge military and hence, few veterans. I am not naive enough to think that a country doesn't need some sort of defense force, but how much is too much? I am very wary of a country which is becoming more and more militaristic. It is somehow unpatriotic to question our military actions around the world. Men and women in uniform are becoming supermen and superwomen simply because they choose to serve. Others in this country choose to serve as well in trying to bring peace to the world without the use of the gun and the bomb, but they are totally forgotten.

Something has gone terribly wrong with this country sometime since WWII. In that war we were fighting definite enemies. Ever since then we have been fighting against ideals such as "communism" or "terrorism." How do you fight those with a military? We supposedly hate communism, but China is our trading buddy. We hate terrorism, but we just love that Saudi oil. That's why it pains me to see our military being used for the benefit of capitalism as opposed to freedom. I was totally dismayed to hear our servicemen saying things like, "We're fighting for Iraqi freedom, but they don't want it." The exact same thing was said about Vietnam 40 years ago. It seems so much easier to blindly support the troops as opposed to seriously asking, "What are our country's bravest servants DOING over there?!?" I have been watching a lot of movies lately about the rise of communism and the unions. One thing that made so much sense was a quote saying, "Why should the poor of 2 countries fight for the rich of the 2 countries?" That's exactly right! Why?

I guess I fully support the idea of celebrating the men and women who have chose to defend this great country through military service. I would just prefer that it not be turned into some orgy of patriotism and jingoism where America is only seen as a military might. Our Constitution and Declaration of Independence should outshine the gleam of our bombers and rifles.

Flash Before My Eyes
Sometimes I think I'm about to die. You always hear about your life flashing before your eyes. That happens to me from time to time. I'll be sitting at my desk or walking Mesa and all of a sudden I will get this flood of images from 40 years ago. Usually they are not traumatic events, just some mundane event that happened in my childhood. Most times the images fade just as quickly, but sometimes they will stick with me for a little while. It makes me stop and think, "Now why the fuck did I just think about that?!? That happened 40 years ago!" It's especially bad if it strikes in the middle of the night because the memory can more easily be stuck in the conscious portion of the brain, and I'll end up thinking about the event over and over again. If it was a bad event, then the whole thing starts replaying and I get regrets or I start second-guessing myself even though I was maybe 5 or 6 years old. What the hell did I know back then?!?

So there has been a lot of talk lately about the 40th anniversary of "Sesame Street." The show came out just as I was reaching the age where it would have had a significant impact on me. Every evening I would watch the Big 3 of "Sesame Street," "The Electric Company," and "Zoom!" I think it would both please and piss off my teachers that I did that. On the one paw they knew I was watching educational programing every night. On the other paw they would get pissed when I would spill secrets to the class about the show as they turned on the broadcast the next morning for us which was a repeat from the previous evening.

Thinking about watching the shows then opened the floodgates of other memories of the time. I actually had memories of kindergarten where we listened to radio shows. Radio?!? Holy crap! My! How times have changed! Of course I have very fond memories of listening to the CBS Mystery Theater on drives with my parents as we came home late from parties at my relatives. I know I could probably find them online or on cd, but it would be insignificant. It was one of those things where it was the complete moment that can never be re-created; a boy in the back seat of a '72 Bel Air at 10:30pm listening to a spooky broadcast. OK. Enough nostalgia for today. Gotta keep livin' in the present.

Doggie Dash '09
On Sunday I performed in my 7th Doggie Dash and Dawdle for Animal Humane. Once again it was a great gig although I am really getting tired of Zunipup. I think it's time I upgrade to a better dog. But anyway...it was a fun time running around and interacting with LOTS and LOTS of dogs. There was relatively little growling/barking at the big goofy humans trying to look like canines. Once again, I was accompanied by

scritchwuff in his wolf suit. We were well received by everyone there. Kitty ended up collecting a whole bunch of swag for us which will all go to Mesa. Speaking of Mesa, he also had a fun time once again. Many butts were sniffed. Oh, and yes, my butt was sniffed a lot by the other dogs, much to the amusement of the crowd. Like last year there were constant comments of "Look! It's a dog walking a dog!" as I made my way with Mesa during the fun walk.

This year there were 3 other mascots in attendance; Louie Lobo from UNM, a dog from a grooming/boarding place, and the Magic FM bunny. We saved Louie's butt in that they didn't have a changing area for him so we allowed him to use our changing tent. I think the mascot from the grooming place liked being in a dog suit, but I had to reprimand her in pantomime for taking her head off during the performance. She lol'd.

And now PICS!

Lobo Louie, Creepy Magic FM Bunny, Zuni, Scritch, and of course, Mesa.

( 3 more pics behind cut )

False Advertising
I saw a couple of classic examples of false advertising this morning. One was on t.v. where a local Dodge dealer was offering new cars at 80% off the MSRP. Huh? How can you sell a car for 80% off the sticker price (unless you double the sticker price)? In the car biz (and most every other biz) MSRP stands for "Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price." So I did a little slo-mo using the DVR to see what the loophole was in the ad. It turns out that their acronym meant "Manufaturers Suggested Retail PROFIT." So in other words instead of making, say, $1000 profit from each sale, they would make only $200. In other words, you're not getting any sort of sale/deal that a person would normally get. I thought it was pretty sneaky of them to twist things around like that. That's like saying I work for the CIA when in fact it's the Central Illinois Architects. While I wouldn't be lying, you would expect that I knew about national security instead of spacial design.

The other ad was found on a webpage. I just happened to glance over at the ad which showed various book titles. The title of the ad was "The 10 Greatest Books in American History." Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" popped up. This was followed by Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." Then came John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." I thought it was perhaps an ad from the Library of Congress encouraging people to read. And then the Book of Mormon popped up. Huh? Wut? Oh. It was an ad from the Church of ~~LSD~~LDS. Ummmm....no. If that's your idea of great literature, or even literature that defines a country, I'd have to say that you need to visit your library a little more.

Shotgun
I made a chile relleno casserole last night. I halved the recipe which called for 12 eggs. It also called for 1/2 lb of chorizo. I made the mistake of looking at the nutritional info on the chorizo package. One serving has 77% of your daily intake of saturated fat. Oh yeah! It should be a great dinner!

Mesa likes watching t.v. Every morning Kitty turns on Animal Planet for him and he stares intently at the screen. Last week I was watching Leno when he had a zookeeper on. Mesa went nuts when they showed baby lions and a lemur.

I had been meaning to buy some stock in BNSF because I like railroads and they will do great once the economy recovers. I was just waiting for the price to come down a bit since it seemed to be overbought. Ooops. Too late. BNSF shot up $20/share thanks to a buyout by Warren Buffet. Oh well. There's $2000 I missed out on.

I had a very cool thing happen to me on Saturday. I moved a patio chair into the middle of the yard to soak up some sun. As I was petting Mesa a bird flew into the yard and landed about 15' away on top of the railroad tie retaining wall. I looked up to see a nice Cooper's Hawk staring back at me. We checked each other out for about a minute and then he flew away.

And a big "HAPPY BIRFDAY!" to

overzen. May you always be the king of the Wild Things.

Furry Thanksgiving a.k.a. Albu-turkey
Once again Kitty and I will be opening up Fur Central to those who have no plans for Thanksgiving this year. Perhaps you hate your family or have no family to speak of. Well, here ya go! Your furry family! Perhaps you like your family but don't feel like spending a lot of time with them. Well, then, just come over for pie!

albear and

dexter_fox will once again be making the epic drive from LA. Some locals have also expressed interest. So come on over and feel the furry love! Chef Ours will be cooking up the turkey with all of the trimmings.

I should mention that I joined the fandom just before Thanksgiving in 2002. I was shocked and saddened to read about all of the lonely furs out there especially around the holidays. I promised myself I would do everything I could to put an end to that. I can't cure it all, but I can try to make a dent in my own little part of the country.

Why I Won't Get Elected As President
My Halloween post the other day was extremely brief. It really didn't convey the sense of awesomeness of the party we threw. Much thanks to eveyone who showed up to make it such a wonderful event. Some pics were taken. While this pic was taken, someone made the comment, "You realize that with this photo, none of us will EVER get elected as President."

( 2 more pics behind cut of more people who will never be president )

I also forgot to mention that one group of trick-or-treaters was dressed up as Monty Python's Knights of the Round Table complete with coconuts. They met their match, however, as we all broke out into movie dialogue. We out-geeked them! You could tell that the father put his kids up to it because while he could keep up with us, his poor kids were totally lost.

Oh, and speaking of Trick 'r Treat, Kitty and I watched the movie last night. Someone here on LJ recommended it pretty highly. It was just ok n our books. We could see why it was released direct-to-video and not through theaters. It had high production values and some scary moments (in a comic book kinda way), but it lacked cohesiveness. There was an awesome werewolf transformation scene which made me feel like I do when I climb the rope in gym class. Damn furriness! *grins*

Halloween Furmeet
That turned out quite well! We were not sure how many would show up, but we ended the evening with somewhere around 20. There was much drinking, talking, laughing, and movie watching. Thanks to a post by

nerfcoyote last year, we rented the movie "Splatter Disco." I wouldn't call it a horror movie. In fact I'm not sure what I would call it. It's not even a B-movie. I called it a "D-movie" to which someone else replied, "I thinks it was more of an F-movie." What it did have was a fetish club where there were "furries" in open-faced animal suits. They even used the word "fursecurion!" *LOL* About the only "good" scene in the entire movie was when the furries did a musical number to "Birds Do It, Bees Do It." THAT was hysterical. There were a couple other movies played at various times, but the evening ended with "Beetlejuice."

Of course there were some trick-or-treaters. I greeted some as Nevada but mostly in my dragon sleeper. Fursuiting is great, but if you can't eat or drink, it sort of puts a damper on partying. I crashed around 1 (not sure if it was DST or not). Kitty stayed up with a group until 3. I think everyone had a great time. I know I sure did.

Halloween Musings
Today was Zoo Boo at the Rio Grande Zoo. For the 1st time in 6 years, there was no NM Furry presence. The event used to be the highlight of my fursuiting year. What was not to love?!? There were thousands of kids, many dressed in cute animal costumes, and everyone loved to get a pic with the the big polar or brown bear. I guess the constant begging for some sort of acceptance from the zoo was what finally did it in for me. Every year I would call up and try to get some strings pulled to get us a headless lounge. Every year there would be a sigh and a "we'll see what we can do." Granted, when push came to shove, we were no different than any other person from the public who had an extravagant costume. Why should the zoo bend over backwards just for us? Well, you would think that SOMEONE would have seen the line of people waiting to get a pic with the critters. We thought we were adding something to the Zoo Boo experience. We were not there JUST for ourselves. We wanted to spread the love. It was a zoo, for Pete's sake. Shouldn't big cuddly mascots be something that should be embraced as part of the theme? *shrugs* I guess it just gets old after awhile begging folks for gigs or opportunities to suit. That's probably why I have leaned towards guerrilla suiting more and more. I'm gonna suit on my terms, when and where I choose. I still love Wildlife West because they actually call me and ask if I would like to perform at an event. I guess I'll even take the half-assed acceptance of the City when I show up in Old Town on Xmas Eve. The person responsible for the event doesn't ask me to perform but just sort of expects I'll show up which is just fine by him. In year's past I have bypassed Oklacon because it might conflict with Zoo Boo. I don't that will be the case next year.

Garden Update - Final Report for 2009
A few days ago we had our first frost (as documented in LJ). I managed to save the garden by covering it with a tarp. Well, the night before last we had a HARD freeze with nighttime temps in the 20's. Then it snowed yesterday. When I pulled back the tarp, everything had died. Oh well. It was bound to happen. I was just hoping it would have held off for a couple of weeks to try to get a few more tomatoes and peppers. So overall how well did the garden produce? Pretty damn good! Here are the totals for the year. Yes, I made sure I counted every vegetable that was harvested.

Cucumbers: 8
Bell peppers: 5
Zucchini: 18
Eggplant: 14
Green chile: 30
Green Beans: 85
Tomatoes: 102
Serrano peppers: 221
Watermelon: 4

( Here's a more in-depth description of lessons learned about each crop )

So next year will make more of a "salsa garden." I will have a pepper patch with a few more varieties of peppers. I will plant only 4 tomatoes and make sure they are properly caged. Zucchini and eggplant will definitely be back as well. I also really enjoyed fresh-steamed green beans, so they will probably make a return as well. I will try to keep things a little better organized and give plants a little more space.

Now comes the sad task of pulling out all of the dead plants and getting the bed ready for next Spring!