Well Hello There

This little niche in the wide wide world of interweb is pretty quiet, isn't it? It has been for a bit now. Lazy again, you'd ask? Naturally I would mentally search for a lame excuse, but you'd know I would be lying through my teeth. Therefore, I am not gonna lie. I'm not going to offer some excuse or thorough well-thought of but still untrue explanation.

The fact of the matter is over the time this spot has been asleep, in the background I had drafted several posts that had never seen light. I have not checked my drafts folder but I am almost 100% certain that those essays are no longer relevant. My nature is to write down things that upset me, that rile me, that amaze me or anything that interests me. Not all of these, however, are for public consumption and so has never been posted here.

I have every interest to continue writing here. Managing three other blogs + a full-time job + a full-time life is harder to juggle than I expected. I wonder how others do it - and they even have kids. I don't. Kudos to them.

So what is happening in my neck of the woods you ask?

First we are currently getting a good dousing courtesy of Mr. El Nino. And the rain will continue throughout the weekend we were told by ecstatic meteorologists. The slight discomfort of wet slippery road is nothing compared to the dire consequences of drought and so you will never hear a bad word about the rain from Californians, even though some areas are prone to flooding. It is this that I don't understand. I grew up in a tropical country and I know rain. And I know typhoons and storms and monsoons. This thing that California gets that everyone gets crazy about will not raise an eyebrow in the tropics. This rain is drizzle compared to the ones we get every afternoon during rainy season. But - a little rain is cause for flooding here in California. Why is that? The soil is different? I can't understand. I remember when I first moved here and there was a sign posted on the side of the road cautioning drivers of "flooded areas" in the freeway. As it turned out, the "flooded area" was simply a large puddle of water. Too much hype about nothing I thought. Since then I didn't put too much stock in the warnings like this, although that might not be a wise move on my part.

Anyway, I personally welcome the rain, whether we are in drought or not. I simply like the rain. I just wish I don't have to go to work when it rains so I can sit in my sofa, my legs under a comfy throw, the cat sitting on top of my legs and we are both watching the drops of Jupiter in the backyard through the glass door. Wishful thinking!

Secondly, I went to my first cat show EVER. One of the blogs I maintain is about my cats EMMA AND BUSTER and through their blog they have made kitty friends and one of them is SUMMER SAMBA who blogs here. She is a show kitty. The minute I heard through her blog that she is coming in my neck of the woods I knew I had to see her. Thankfully it was not difficult to convince the husband to drive all the way to San Jose for the show because he was keen on attending the TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE show at nearby Santa Clara Convention Center, which is next doors to Levi's Stadium where the Forty Niners play. So we hit the Cat Show first and we made the rounds, visited the cats that were competing and spent a good time with Summer, watched some judging and fell in love with two or more cats. We made the rounds of the merchandize for sale but nothing in my price range caught my fancy.

The Travel and Adventure Show was another first for us. We went from booth to booth making sure we collected the freebies they offer, mostly reusable bags, signed up for free travels - which I'm sure we will not win. Although we stayed for the drawing of 2 free plane tickets to Taiwan from the Travel Taiwan booth - which went to a lucky woman. In addition, they also had free bobba drink for attendees. Rick Steves was on stage giving a talk, but he was preaching something that every seasoned traveler or backpacker already knows so we just left. But his stage was packed with people wanting to hear what he's got to say. I grabbed one of his travel brochures from his booth, but it's been a week since and I haven't checked the brochures that I got from the show. The only problem with Rick Steves is that his trips are above my price line so I will never be able to be on any of his trips - unless Mr. Mega Million or Mr. California Lottery has anything to say about the matter.

Lastly, on the last post I was telling you about how we just arrived from a 3-week trip to visit family in Bangladesh and a little R&R in Bali. Well not too long after, exactly a week after we arrived we got news that my FIL had passed away. So my husband who was just getting over jet lag had to turn around and go back for the funeral. I stayed behind. We felt blessed that we were able to spend time with him over the Christmas holidays, his last, who knew, right? When I saw him he was more ill than the last time I saw him which was 3 years ago. I was there when I found out that he had COPD and I knew two people that lost their lives on COPD. He was a smoker, a heavy smoker at that when he was younger and so this was the result of it. Still, I didn't realize he didn't have much time. Just a sad way to begin the new year.