Google Street view...my front door

This is cool...Nathan did this on his blog, http://www.nathanvalentine.org/, and it has taken me three tries to figure out how to do it.

My front door my car is not there : (

Nathan's car at his work

I'll be a famous photographer.....

I received an email stating that one of my Reno, NV photos on my Flickr page was selected to be in the 3rd edition of the Schmap Worldwide Travel Guides - Reno edition.

I'm so surprised and proud, "tickled pink" if you will = ) Either my picture is great...OR they can't find many pictures of Reno. I'm betting on the latter... Anyway here is the photo they like.

3.0 Earthquake - Was 3 miles from center

Latest Earthquake centered in Berkeley. It felt like a car ran into the building. A hard Jerk. A few things rattled and a picture frame fell in the HR loft upstairs. It lasted all of 3 seconds. Then everyone turned around and said "Did that really happen? Was that an earthquake?"

Real Time Shake Maps - I entered my info = )
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/STORE/X40200915/ciim_display.html

Info
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40200915.htm

Baker Beach Pictures - AKA Nuddie Beach

No nuddies on the beach yesterday ; ( The waves were pretty big and had a nice crashing sound. I'll try to post the video file later...

More pics here.

Amazing Dalmatian Rescue Footage

Great Video of a Dalmatian rescue
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/08/21/wsaz.dog.dug.out.affl

Freecycle is great!

I picked up 2 huge Star Aloe plants & 4 spider plants from Freecycle. The rest of the plants followed me home from Home Depot when I went to get some huge pots for the huge Aloe plants ; )

I'm so excited... plants are going outside on my stoop & next to the building. To try and prevent stealing I'm going to tie the pots together loosely with fishing line. I'm on a visible corner and the previous people had some plants taken occasionally. My neighbor said she saw one little old lady running down the street with a plant. That's okay though ; ) they are cheap or free and they must really need/want them if they have to steal from me ; p

Freecycle is great...you can offer Items for free or post a message for Wanted Items...

http://www.freecycle.org/

Metal Chain Closet Storage Solutions

Real Simple Article& Pic

This is exactly what I'm doing for scarves & shoes...and I never read this issue. I also hung a metal grid on my closet ceiling to hang "S" hooks from to store stuff above my head (since I'm short) ; )

Car Fire

Yes, it is 3am Monday morning and my camera chose this day to have battery connection issues...there goes another $150...

Anyway, It was 2am and I was awake and watching TV due to the dogs freaking out over the smoke detector's low battery alarm. All of a sudden I realize there is a background noise that sounds like a continous car horn. I stop the dvd and realize it's outside but it was faint...like it was a block away. I looked out the window and see an SUV on fire two doors down. So I throw on some clothes, grabbed the cell phone, and ran out the door. The dogs were laying on the bed and just looked up at me through all of this ; )

The story was a neighbor was at a bar and was too drunk to drive home. So she asked this women she met to drive her in her SUV. This other woman hit something and kept driving. When they pulled up to my neighbor's house the car just caught on fire. The other woman took off.

I'm so mad I didn't get pictures! I even tried my remote batteries that work and the camera wouldn't turn on. I did get a hell of a lot of use out of it though but I'm dissapointed if it doesn't even last a year. I'll try new batteries at work tomorrow.

Some new pictures

I'll continually add interesting miscellaneous photos to this Flickr Folder
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600988361326/

New photos of the Planet of the Apes trail in Pacifica, CA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600484329848/

This strikes me as funny & cute...

From the BBC, "A keeper at Berlin Zoo feeds a bunch of bananas to hungry hippopotamus Gregor."

I did not know hippos ate bananas...

Losing Steam

Not as many posts lately. I'm feeling stretched thin. I think a lot of is was 2 weeks of intense cleaning every day due to the pet issues. Plus I actually have work to do now and I'm on a learning curve which sucks. After work I don't really want to do anything. I've thought about not catering for a weekend or two but I don't think that will help.

Pets < Stress (for now.....)

Pet update...
All the peeing is under control! The daily cranberry juice stopped Ari's peeing the very next day. Since it was so successful I decided to try it on the kitten before I kicked her out. I haven't found cat pee all this week. So maybe that was successfully too! and SuzyQ will still have her happy home ; )

I still flea brush the cats daily and I only find 3-4 fleas per cat. The dogs usually have 2-3 on them as well. I still have one more month of Frontline for all pets so I'll probably treat them and see if that gets rid of the remaining fleas.

Horse News...!
I am considering two barns with large pastures right now. And I have a Sept 8th ship date booked! Should make a decision this weekend on which farm. The one barn doesn't have direct trail access, is across the bridge (toll) on the sunny side of the Bay, and doesn't allow dogs on farm trails. The 2nd barn allows dogs on trails, no bridge toll, but is in the foggy side of the Peninsula. Which may be a problem for my horse allergies like two of the other farms I had to rule out.

This time it's Politicians...

Tonight I served Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. She seemed nice and short in stature : ) All the Politicians I've catered to are short. I almost bowled over Gov. Ernie Fletcher at the 2004 Rolex and he wasn't much taller then me!

Battle of Kruger (lions vs buffalo vs gator)

This is just amazing! It is a little long 8.+ minutes but worth it. Lions attach a buffalo calf, then a gator tries to get the calf, then the whole heard of buffalo come back to attack the lions and free the calf. I have a whole new respect for buffalo!

Yummm

Awesome dinner last night.... Veggie Burrito from Taquiero Cancun in the Mission then Peanut Butter Indulgence ice cream at Mitchell's. Mitchell's is the same place that makes the Filipino Ube (purple yam) ice cream. I haven't found a great ice cream place like this since Storhimes in Green Bay, WI.

Pets = Stress

The researchers are wrong!!! Pets cause stress! And lots of it!

Fleas, for the past few years frontline hasn't seemed to work much at all. The start coincided with Vikki's move to a new barn....Anyway, I had treated the cats once this summer but not the dogs. Cats were scratching and it almost time for another treatment. Out of curiosity, to see how many fleas the dogs had, I bought a flea comb. The dogs had 2-3 fleas per dog which has been standard the last 3 years in KY *with* frontline. The cats had 30+ fleas per CAT...OMG!! I freaked out! That night I put together a homemade flea catcher and relaxed some when it didn't catch a single one : ) Then I proceeded to do a lot of natural treatments some of which are listed on the Barefoot Lass's site. Why should I pay $$ for frontline if it's not working!!!!!! Now I'm wiping the dogs down with lemon water, flea combing the cats daily, rubbing borax & salt into my wood floor once a week, and moping for flea eggs. I know I don't have an *infestation* but the cats really freaked me out!

Next Ari has been peeing during the day and it had a strong smell. No infection, however, struvite crystals were seen. Which is unusual since Dalmatians are prone to Urate crystals and her PH was 7. We'll see if 1/2 cup of cranberry juice mixed in with some yogurt daily helps. I'm still not *unconvinced* that it's not a product of anxiety or old age pissiness.

So pretty much daily, I have to clean the kitchen floor. I do put down a towel which she pees on but it soaks though. So I thought puppy pads! Unfortunately I forgot Ari likes to tear up paper products left on the floor....so after two days of confetti I have abandoned that idea. Next is a loner crate from the dog-sitter......


Then the kitten........SuzyQ has been peeing again. And I'm certain she's voicing her displeasure which will ultimately result in her being without a home!! To calm her down, I started doping her with Rescue Remedy, a natural herbal calming serum. Which does calm her down but I still found another violation during these days. I'm trying one last verification test...I am shoving pureed steamed beets down her throat daily. The idea is that the beets will color her urine so I can be 100% sure it's her and not Dolly. Then I put down her favs...plastic bags and towels.


The one good bit of news is the dog-sitter volunteered to take SuzyQ if I get rid of her. And she knows about the peeing. Yeah!

Love the BBC

"A car rests upside down against a wall and a handrail as pedestrians look on in central Moscow. Witnesses say the driver walked away from the accident unharmed." BBC

Abu Grab

I never heard anything about this side of the story....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6930197.stm