Why, Hello to You, Dangerous Animals

I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned the first time I saw a coyote. I hear coyotes every night. A few times a night they bay and howl, usually after they find a, um, snack. In December I was sitting at the table, working away, when I noticed a dog outside the window. I thought, "What a pretty dog. Oh, it doesn't have a collar. Maybe it's a wild dog! Like a dingo! Or....crap." A quick Google images search confirmed: Coyote. Right outside the window in the middle of the day.


He stayed by the house for most of the afternoon. Sam never noticed. Good guard dogging, buddy.

Last week, a cat slinked into the yard. Some neighbors had recently posted signs about their lost cat, so immediately I thought it might be that cat. No, that one was black and this is gold with black coloring. And this one doesn't have a collar. Man, those are some big paws, and I've never seen such a muscular house cat.....crap. Google confirmed it: Bobcat. Right in the front yard in the middle of the afternoon. Fantastic.

You can see it if you can zoom into the photo, he's heading toward the brick wall:

Today Skip called out for me to keep Sam out of the office. When I asked why, he responded, "Do you really want to know?" That could mean only one thing: snake. Sure enough, somehow - and for the first time since he's lived here - a snake got into the house. He captured it and escorted it away, and we're pretty sure it wasn't a rattlesnake, but I'm guessing I'm not going to get a lot of sleep tonight.

On Second Thought...

Saturday we spent a large part of the day in cars. In the morning we drove to a vineyard to replenish the champagne coffers, the afternoon brought a trip to Costco, and the evening saw a journey to north London for cheese with Kevin and Craig.

The whole time I was in the autos, I kept wondering: how are the streets of London not littered with the bodies of bikers and cyclists?

Sweet Sassy Molassy, it is INSANE. Narrow roads barely big enough for two cars, plus cyclists and bikers weaving in and out of traffic. I honestly don't know how they survive the journey. My nerves were shot and I was a *passenger*. Good grief. Suddenly the train/bus/walking journey seems far preferable.

I Love Market Research

Friday night we had a nice quiet evening in. The second we got home the jammies went on and cocktails were poured. We decided Indian food was in order, and fortuitously, there are two Indian restaurants just down the road, mere blocks away. No one had tried either restaurant yet, so we had a dilemma: at which restaurant did we place our order?

When two people who work for a marketing strategy firm are faced with this dilemma, there can be only one solution: place an identical order at both restaurants so we can do side by side comparisons.

Once the orders were placed, Excel was launched and our tracking sheet was created. Beyond taste, we tracked ease of ordering, delivery time, packaging and presentation, etc, etc.

It was pretty amazing how the experiences differed. They both had strengths and weaknesses, but overall were very good. Really, there was no way we were losing - I mean, look at the deliciousness:

I Miss My Car

I'm in lovely London Town. It's all very charming, the accents, the shoppes, the black cabs, the red buses. Just lovely.

The fact that it takes an hour to get anywhere is a bit much. To travel 5 miles last weekend, I walked for 20+ minutes, took a bus, and two overland trains. It only took 90 minutes and $9. *5 miles*, people. A cab for the same trip costs close to $40. You really have to make a decision - which is more valuable to you, your time or your money?

I miss my car.

Hard to believe it's been a year!

On February 29, 2008 I sold my condo. I can not believe it's already been a year. It's amazing how quickly time passes. It's astounding how much has changed in the year.

So where am I today? In London, of course. Skip was flying through on his way to Kilimanjaro, so I tagged along. We had a few busy days catching up with friends. He's now in Moshi, and I'm staying in London with Andy and Beth. He is now awaiting the dawn to begin his hike up the mountain. I await the dawn to .... hit the snooze alarm. Guess not everything has changed in a year.