KatMulkey

My Neighbor's Water

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:42:10 GMT

The other day I posted on Twitter about stealing my neighbor's used water from the gutter, and people have been asking about it.

My neighbor totally redid the lawn with new sod, which needs to be watered a lot.
Here's how you too can reuse sodwater (oooh, that has a bad sound, doesn't it?).

I noticed the runoff into the gutter (drains to the sea) and captured it with this setup, to water my dry lawn:

It's just a 1.5 Liter soda bottle, cut in half. This bottle has a 4-inch diameter, which fits the 4-inch drainpipe nearly perfectly.

Dear Mr. Mackey of Whole Foods

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:33:30 GMT

Dear Mr. Mackey of Whole Foods,

Your company’s health-insurance plan sounds great. It’s one answer for this country, so can you please hire a LOT more people, in my generation, and my daughter’s generation? Will you hire me? I’m a thin-ish, exercise-every-day vegetarian. I’m unemployed, and therefore must purchase my own health insurance.

Your opinion piece in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal was a two-pronged essay about modifying taxes, laws, and regulations; plus, how we could be a healthier country. They are two very separate points, with no bridge between them. Perhaps it is emblematic of our nation’s current dilemma--we’re polarized about health care. We have seen evidence of this on the news lately. That’s why I wish that you had not used the Margaret Thatcher quote to open your piece. Using the word “socialism” these days can get you labeled a wingnut, and may blind the reader to any useful content of your essay.

The WSJ article featured a list of “eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone.” And, yeah, they seemed like pretty good ideas (well, except for #3 about repealing state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.” I think portability is difficult for reasons other than state laws) to tweak our current situation (which I don’t like to call a healthcare system, because there’s nothing systematic about it).

But while your eight reforms might impress your corporate equals from CEO school, they don’t give warm fuzzies to your loyal customers—the compassionate, rational, liberals who shop at Whole Foods. And the reforms may not give immediate hope to the many ill employed and underemployed taxpayers who are without enough means to purchase insurance or treatment.

Of course it’s true, as you said, that “we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.” Right on! This, to me, is the preamble to the real patients’ Bill of Rights. I’d like to add that we must dismantle the entire Obesity Industry, rework all sedentary occupations, and ban all meat, dairy, alcohol, and cigarettes. But then I would be a wingnut. So instead, let’s try to get everyone calmed down, in order to meet somewhere near the middle and solve the most immediate problems first.

Thanks for your time, Mr. Mackey.

And now this goes out to everyone else. Everyone wanting to really converse about healthcare: Care about people (or at least pretend to care); be informed (don’t just make stuff up or willfully misinterpret language written in a Bill); speak carefully (watch labeling); and try to avoid the smugness that your current good health and employment situation might be swaddling you in. You might be sleeping under the freeway next month. With no health insurance. And melanoma.

fun window effect

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:10:08 GMT

I noticed this rather Magritte-like (guess it's the hat) silhouette at Berkeley Art Museum today, made by removing some of the window tinting stuff from a downstairs window. Love it, but I'm not sure it's "official" BAM art. Anyone know anything about this?
In any case, gonna try it.

Ladybug on mulberry leaf

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:29:18 GMT

I was looking for silkworm moths on my mulberry tree, but found this guy, instead.

How to make a relationship fail, part 2

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:37:26 GMT

Part 1 (a previous entry) was more about the beginnings of a relationship. But what can you do when you're deep into it? Here's Part 2 with some guidelines to achieve relationship Fail:

6. Respect. You really don't need to give or get this overrated psychic commodity. Treat him contemptibly. After all, that defined your parents' generation's ideas of Relationship, right? Spend all day making him feel small. This will make you feel big, right? Right?

7. Listening. Really listening is hard work. What's the point when you don't respect (see #6) what your partner says? When she is speaking to you, try to catch a few key words--just enough so you can fake at listening--and give a general response. Why should you have to do any work? You're home! (Hint for the elderly: This is easy for you, just turn off your hearing aid, turn up the unwatched TV, or both. Or fake sleeping.)

8. Blame/Turn things around/Play on guilt. When she is very very upset, and tries to tell you why, first remember step 7. Then play the injured card like this: "I can't believe you made that mistake of ______ while I was working on ________ just for you to be happy. Now I can't trust you to never make a mistake. I don't know why I try so hard for you." That was just an example. If you really want your partner to bail, there are many other perfect things to say to show how much you don't care, and to avoid responsibility.

9. Criticism. Oh, the power of well-misplaced criticism! If he spends hours on a complicated meal for you, find at least 9 faults with it. Or express displeasure with your partner's weight, hair, houshold habits, family, or income/jobstatus. You can multitask with criticism--it irritates your partner and bashes his self-esteem! (reinforcing #6 above)

10. For an extreme solution to the Making-it-fail problem, become irrational, or even more irrational. Snap at them for normal, everyday things. Hold a ginormous grudge. Bring home animals that your spouse is allergic to. Lose February's mortgage payment gambling. But whatever you do, don't take responsibility. After all--it's the other's fault that you're unhappy.

Lavender Cocktail Berkeley Pier

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:33:51 GMT

My friend Rosalie and I walked a bit on Berkeley Pier last night, after drinking some lavender cocktails at Skates. That's right, there was lavender in the drink, and crushed lavender on the glass. Yum!

The sunset was lovely, but the air was beginning to nip our ears. We didn't make it to the end of the pier (it's a half mile long). Hey wait a minute! Are some of those clouds . . . lavender?!

How to make a relationship fail, part 1

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:41:13 GMT

For the (almost) 30 years that I've been with Ben, some of it was blissful. Some of it was darn rough. Perhaps only by a miracle or inertia did one of us not bail. Now after years of work (and practicing my important Three C's: Communicate, Compromise, Cuddle) it seems as good as anything can be. We're almost giddily happy, in a realistic way.

From my experiences, and from what I have witnessed with what some friends have gone through, I know how things can work out great, and I also understand how to fail.

Here are the first five ways to make a relationship fail:

1. Let your gonads help you choose your partner. If your body says "Go for it" but your brain yells "Wait, I have a bad feeling about this person," ignore the brain.

2. Let desperation and your biological clock choose your True Love, e.g. "I finally got engaged, and there are red flags about my sweetie. But I'm too old to start over."

3. Don't discuss important issues before you fully commit. The less you know about your partner, the more hopeful you can be that all problems will just sort of go away.

4. Choose a spouse who you feel superior to; there will be no question about who will be The Boss of the relationship. You get to make rules for him or her to follow, then you can play bad cop when he or she messes up. Happily, since you're not equal partners, the action doesn't work both ways. Nobody gets to tell you what to do or chide you when you err.

5. If your spouse shows any independence or reluctance about your plans, assumptions, or actions, try yelling or lecturing. The longer you are vocal, the more firmly your spouse will believe you are correct.

more guidelines to come

hawk dancing

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:15:46 GMT

Yesterday these two hawks were flying in dancing patterns (together, apart, around, together, apart) for awhile, but I never saw them touching.

strange kitteh

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:51:54 GMT

Patty likes to lick the bottom of these sheer curtains. She has peed on them in the past. Then I have treated them with natural enzyme stuff. Then she licks them every night. She's a twisted cat!

scorpion in Contra Costa County

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:01:21 GMT

I think this scorpion is the Uroctonus mordax mordax. Does that mean "show me the money" in latin? or does it mean "Hey is this a Hawaii state quarter? That's the only one I don't have."
?

My neighbor found this scorpion in his brick pile. I took her photo and returned her to the neighbor. I hope the kids release it back into the wild.

Where does the time go?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:25:55 GMT

My nephew Joel Griffin has always been a character--personable, musical, funny.
Over the years he has made friends in Slovakia, Roswell, Coos Bay, and other places in between.
Wonder where this cute baby is now?
He's a grown man with a big smile who just graduated from Marshfield High School.
Seems like yesterday he was playing miniature golf in Roswell, New Mexico, using a club that was taller than he was.
Memories...

little friend

Wed, 13 May 2009 01:12:00 GMT

After he sat on my hand for awhile...

. . .he jumped on my shoulder and tried to eat the polkadots on my shirt.

(Kat's note: I know that you're supposed to leave baby birds alone when you find them on the ground. But I didn't find this guy on the ground, he was in a cat's mouth. The cat was going to torture him and then NOT eat him.)

4th & mission

Mon, 11 May 2009 02:48:02 GMT

OK, two questions about this photo from May 7, 2009 at 4th and Mission in SF:

1. Where did they even GET all that chocolate milk?
2. Why are they throwing it into the street?

Mr Turkey

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:01:15 GMT

I shot this photo (here's a closeup of its head) of a turkey in the neighbor's yard yesterday. As I stared at it, the deathlike, beaky head (with brooding eyebrow) looked familiar.

I just finally figured out who the turkey looks like:

right?

death and ashes

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:15:59 GMT

For yesterday's monthly museum field trip, my group chose the Columbarium of San Francisco, just off Anza near Stanyon. The building itself has remarkable ornamentation and baroque flair, and the contents of such a building--not only people's cremated remains, but other memorabilia as well--make a person feel a bit sad and sentimental and touched.
Lots of gay couples have chosen to remain here together, making this monument a sturdy piece of evidence for legalizing the relationship held already by same-sex couples. Together in eternity.

spring hike proves that bugs and flowers are all out

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:49:34 GMT

The Painted Lady butterflies are migrating through the area. I "captured" one with camera on my Lafayette Ridge hike today--she was hanging out in some vetch.

And here's a bumblebee getting a snack from a lupine--you can see how he has manipulated the stamen or whatever (see the pollen on the end) out of its pouch, the better to grab pollen off it.

to M on his 13th birthday

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:20:14 GMT

BEST BOY, I’m writing you a poem for your 13^th birthday. Will you ever see this? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. But I still had to write it because of giant Xmas stockings that you could climb into, and happy times at our house building lego wonders (those fantastic, impressive engineering projects) and many other good things. I wrote this poem for the world’s smoothest sock-floor slider, indoor-scooter rider, guitar player, remote-control-vehicle operator, imaginative artist, and fort-building, snowball-preserving, kite-flying (and DOUBLE-kite-flying) book-devouring BEST BOY. I’m writing you a poem for your 13^th birthday.

PIRATE KITE

I want to fly a pirate kite with you, here, on my hill.

First we'll make the black kite skin and frame, then test different tails.

Of course you should draw the skull and bones--

you’re good at that, you’re good at everything.

(we miss you)

Our kite will soar and swoop menacingly and pirate-y.

Those kite birds—the raptors who think they are the power of this hill--

will get scared out of their talons when they see our kite

and they will hover at the Andersons' house, instead, as if they wanted to go there.

But it won’t be what they wanted. We don’t always get what we want.

(I miss you)

Let’s remember this:

Sometimes when the wind falls off a bit

and the string goes slack, you think the kite is gone

until the tug returns, and you are reassured.

Even when the string breaks

(it just happens, it’s not anyone’s fault)

you may still find the kite again, eventually, if you love it enough.

This is not the end. I’m not saying goodbye, because I know that I will see you again.

BEST BOY, I wrote you this poem for your 13^th birthday.

Secrets

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:42:59 GMT

The new exhibit at the Bedford gallery, where I am a docent, is call PostSecret. Frank Warren--the guy who put collected the postcards, put the books together, and put the exhibit together--spoke to our docent group yesterday about the exhibit, about the project, and about why people have secrets. He talked about the people who have submitted the secrets anonymously on postcards over the past four years (mostly female, mostly younger).
His public evening talk was sold out--he has quite a following. Some folks have had their tickets for months.

Overturn Prop. 8

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:15:22 GMT

Last night I joined a lot of demonstrators who massed at Market & Castro for a march down to SF City Hall steps, to demonstrate for equality, since the arguments about Prop 8 were to be held today at the Calif Supreme Court.
For most of the march, I was a few steps behind the married couple holding this banner. Their marriage and so many other is at stake in the Court's decision about Prop 8. For more about today's opening arguments, go here.
It was an incredibly upbeat, happy, harmonic group.
My voice got worn out, but I'm so happy to have been there.

Waterfowl galore

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:21:28 GMT

There are birds migrating through Northern California on the Pacific Flyway, and there are the birds living there all year.
Here is the scene early this morning at Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
.

©2009 Kat Mulkey

Kites

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:03:09 GMT

These two kites were really going at it in an aerial ballet, or battle, or mating ritual.
This is just one of many kite and other bird photos that we (me, sister Jennifer, niece Julie) got this weekend.
.
.

©2009 Kat Mulkey

Lucky Jennifer, she lives just a block from where these kites hang out.

Hawk

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:53:33 GMT

©2009 Kat Mulkey

In one of my fav photos from our Pacific Flyway photo field trip this weekend, you can see a hawk (Cooper's? Sharp-shinned?) clutching a vole or other small, brown, furry critter in its talons. This shot was taken in West Sacramento, near the Port of Sacramento.

Napa Valley Mustard

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:23:24 GMT

©2009 Kat Mulkey

(is it spring yet?)

The mustard is in bloom in the Napa Valley vineyards. Its golden brightness makes me happy.

ewwww...chlorine in your food?

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:01:59 GMT

Another reason to avoid wheat flour:

Bleached flour is treated with flour bleaching agents to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and to give it more gluten-producing potential. Oxidizing agents are usually employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, or chlorine.

(this is from here)

Unwoman+Radiohead Hooping List

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:34:51 GMT

Music is great for hooping or cardio workout. Here's my happy hooping list:

1. Habit (unwoman , Trouble)
2. Bodysnatchers (Radiohead, In Rainbows)
3. Knowledge Scars (unwoman , Knowledge Scars)
4. Where I End and You Begin (Radiohead, Hail to the Thief)
5. HSEN-423 (unwoman , Wildness & Artifice)
6. 15 Steps (Radiohead, In Rainbows)
7. Envy (unwoman , Wildness & Artifice)
8. There There (Radiohead, Hail to the Thief)

For a really fun almost-37-minute workout!