Sore. Sore. Too much gardening yesterday. Feels like I did 100 squats because I did, squatting and digging and planting and potting. Sunburned, too, but I don't mind that at all. Today we finished hanging the new door. It's beautiful, and cuts down on noise as well as drafts. John did most of the work on it because he owns the drill. Me, I took down the ghastly metal towel bar in the bathroom, but the resulting holes were so large I had to give up on just spackling them and will try to find little dowels to fill in the gaps. As compensation I bought a metal cabinet with three shelves that fits over the toilet. Instant space saver, all is tidy. Home improvement report over. Please wake up.
I spent hours in Japantown at the Nihonmachi, a festival of sorts. Time just slipped away while I prowled all the shops I normally don't have time to go into. It was good to hear Japanese spoken all around me. I bought green tea in a can at the Maruzen grocery store. I ate teriyaki corn on the cob. I congratulated myself on having bought such nice yukatas for cheap when I was in Japan three months ago as the ones I saw on sale were twice what I paid. I considered buying some plastic sushi for about three seconds. So tempting, but so unnecessary. I miss Japan.
We met the pet sitter who will take care of the fur units while we're in Portland for the Huntzinger Family Reunion. She's nice, seems sharp, and the cats liked her, but the cats like everyone so that's not much of a recommendation. Unfortunately, she won't be here the first night so her boss Eileen will come over instead. Eileen is an extremely dim bulb. Eileen has to discuss everything three times. Eileen could not get over her instructions with Dixie, which are to insist the dog keep going for a walk even after she first urinates. I must have said "walk her until she has a bowel movement" about 12 different ways. I am not terribly impressed by Eileen, but she's the boss and this is a thriving business.
So thriving, in fact, that we have told in completely unsubtle ways that they really don't like to visit us here on the north peninsula because they have so many more clients in the mid peninsula, i.e. Palo Alto where we used to live, and it's just inconvenient for someone to come all the way up here. Jesus Christ, it's a half an hour drive. John does it every day. I do it twice a week just to have dinner or see a show. And they make good money. Saaaaaay....
No, I don't want a new career, but I swear if I ever have to give up the travel business I'm going to work with animals. Being a pet sitter sounds like a relatively low stress job. We're paying $18 a visit, and I'm sure they're not here more than 30 minutes including the walk, feeding, litter box scooping, and ten minutes of playtime. I'll start my own business right here for all the Silicon Valley people who got squeezed out of home buying in the places they work like we did. I'll call it Pets Like Us.
Ha. I slay me. Guess I'd better start writing down the instructions for Eileen.
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