Monday, August 25, 2008

What I've Been Up To: Back At Work


A few people have commented on the dearth of posts lately. Sorry, folks, I don't have a regular internet connection at La Casa de Doctor Cool so it is tough to post sometimes.

Friday night I had my first shift back at the emergency clinic. The photo above was actually taken last spring by a friendly animal control officer. Far from feeling like being in jail, I was elated to be back at the clinic and very touched by the warm welcome I got from MonkeyButt and others. Thanks y'all.

Saturday morning I didn't get to sleep till around 5 am but I was up and awake at 10 am. I headed over to the Wildlife Center Silicon Valley for a class on behavior. I always learn a few really interesting tidbits on top of the overarching ideas. This time what I gleaned was that when stellar's jays spot several birds feeding on a really good food source, like peanuts, they will make the alarm call of a red tail hawk (or was it red shoulder?) in order to scare off the other birds. Quite clever those corvids.

Saturday night I got the heck out of Dodge, more on that below.

Sunday morning I headed to the Princeton Plaza farmer's market, then I wrote part of an essay I really needed to start.

Sunday afternoon I headed over to the Los Gatos Wild Bird Center for a display of local Bay area photographer's work depicting birds and other wildlife. My favorite photographs were a series done over several years of an Anna's hummingbird nest in the backyard of one of the photographers. You can check out some of her work at this website, though she hasn't updated it recently so my favorite hummingbird photos aren't on here.

Sunday evening a friend and I headed down to Monterey for dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants, Stokes. I love the atmosphere of old town Monterey, the restaurant is in a 171 year old adobe house in the historic district. Plus the food is good, and it is all line-caught or humanely raised or locally grown. The best dish there is definitely the heirloom tomato pizza. It's only available for a little longer, once there are no more locally available heirloom tomatoes that is it until next summer. It is my goal while living in the Bay area to have heirloom tomato pizza at least once every summer, so I was happy to achieve that and to get to spend time with one of my favorite people in the world too.

Right now I'm chilling out at one of my other friend's houses taking advantage of her wireless connection after a long day. Here's the view when I parked in the driveway at dusk-- the house overlooks beautiful Almaden valley:

1 comment:

eb said...

This is a great HT photo! Cesar Millan sometimes gets into dog crates, too, so you're in good company