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I used to wonder if cats just thought of people as cat furniture. A sort of movable, flexible couch…
When we first brought Mite home, we had a brand new fleece cat bed (donut) waiting for him. He went straight into it. He loved it and was happy to have it back again. We have four (one for each cat) but they haven’t yet all been occupied at the same time.
Mite is a lap cat… just like they said at the shelter. He loves to be right on your lap and will purr away (when he’s not licking or nibbling). Because of his problems with his backlegs, he can’t really jump that well. He reaches up with his front legs and then climbs up, spidey-like.
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We spend a lot of money at Herbivore because we like the food, the portions are good (and they seem to have gotten bigger since Geranium and the new Urban Forage restaurants opened!), and it’s convenient.
The service can be kinda iffy… just last week it seemed like we sat at the Valencia Herbviore forever… hungry and waiting to order. I actually had them on my cellphone, and it was ringing, when the server started to come over to take my order…. it amused me though… the idea that I might get quicker service by phoning my order in than actually being in the restaurant.
Just like waiting in line at the bank today for 10 minutes. That made me laugh too.
I got bored waiting in line so I left Chris waiting patiently and I walked around… and read the back-side of the display sign that I could see when I was standing in line.
The front side was some advertisment for something. Don’t remember what it was. The back side was some PR about the benefits of being a customer … I didn’t read it too closely…
I went back and chatted with Chris and commented how long had we been in line. Then something triggered in my memory… about the manager saying they wanted to help customers within 5 minutes. 5 minutes.. that rang a bell. What did the manager tell me when I opened my account a few months ago? Was it that they would give me $5 if I waited more than 5 minutes in line…
Hmmm… the other customers (standing in line behind me) couldn’t see the back of the sign. But I returned and there it was… saying they would help customers within 5 minutes. It didn’t say anything about the $5.. it didn’t need too.
I joked with customers waiting behind us in line about the 5 minute/$5 offer. We schemed with great cunning that we would all return again at the same time next week on Tuesday to create another backlog. When I made it to the teller’s window, he asked ‘Do you want your $5 deposited to your account or in cash?’
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Mite has been spotted today almost snuggling next to Harry, and then later with Jack. Looks like he is being accepted by the other guys.
And just for the record, his name ‘Mite’ is pronounced like mighty, because that describes his can-do attitude in getting around. Except for the wobble when he suddenly stops or when he is walking, he’s just like any other kitty.
Because he’s so playful, we also think he’s younger than 3 years. Our two other cats (who are 3) are much calmer than he is. He might be 1-2 years…
Moo seems to like him the least, and will actually walk off when Mite approaches.
t.
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Chris and I (representing Bay Area Vegetarians) were guests on Vegan TV, a show produced by Gabe Quash on SF Community Access TV.
Mat (who’d been on the show last year) gave me a copy of his tape to watch. It was him and Gabe dialoging about the cruelty of eating animals with slaughterhouse footage playing as a backdrop. They talked non-stop… and answered live calls… for 30 minutes.
I’ve never been on TV before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. When the red ‘on air’ light went on, would I lose the power of speech or turn into a fountain of speech?
It actually was a lot easier than I expected. I discovered the hardest part was where to look. Gabe’s show is basically run solo. He is the camera man, producer, director and secretary all rolled into one. The studio is a small room (about the size of a small bedroom or large bathroom in one of the urban mansions). The chairs are behind a control panel and the camera is on the opposite wall.
So, when Gabe was talking to us, or we were talking to callers, the trick was to look straight ahead, so we were ‘facing’ the camera and it would look more natural to folks watching from home. That was more difficult than I thought. Oh, and no fidgeting! Everyone is watching! Gabe does his show ‘live’… no seven second delay or word censoring.
After we did the show, I scrutinzed the broadcasters on the news show. They look straight ahead, no nose or head scratching and the credits on their show weren’t as good as Gabe’s. The last credit was something deserving of veganporn.com — a Spanky Productions.
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On the way home from our letter writing party last night we spotted this on a lamp post in Bernal Heights 
It’s good to see that team BAV strikes again. Thanks Warren I think 
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Just got back from our activist letter writing event at MaggieMudd. We had a pretty good turn out, with 11 people cranking out letters on topics ranging from the Foie Gras Bill which is going in front of the Assemble soon, to asking Yum! Foods about the recent footage from PETA on abuse at their chicken suppliers.
Of course we all had get some great vegan desserts.
Some of use headed over to Urban Forge for a late night snack before calling it an evening.
Thanks everyone for coming along.
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Tammy and I just spent the evening with Gabe Q and appeared on his live TV show called “Vegan TV”. It’s on cabel channel 29 in San Francisco each Wednesday evening at 10pm. It was a pretty cool experience.
We got to talk about BAV and the SF Premier of Peaceable Kingdom. We gave away 2 free tickets to the show.
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I got up today all excited about adding a real blog entry, then read Tammy’s latest rant and got bloggers block before I got started .
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This may be politically incorrect for a vegan.. but I have a pet peeve. Nothing sets me off like this does. I become agitated, and irritated, at the offender.
And what is so deserving of my wrath? JUNK MAIL.
I hate it. I loathe it. It is the scum of the earth… especially when it comes from an animal organization!
After many years of donating to organizations, and becoming mired in the quagmire of groups who sell and exchange mailing lists, I freed myself by moving and not supplying a forwarding address. I chortled with unbridled glee at the beautiful vision of all that junk mail lying undeliverable at the Post Office. Me 1, Junk Mail 229.
But my euphoric vision shattered into pieces of litter with the arrival of two pieces mail from the Pet Adoption Fund of Canoga Park, CA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund of Petaluma, CA. Me 1, Junk Mail 231.
The first one, from the Pet Adoption Fund, was addressed “Dear Caring Friend”. It’s weird how someone I never met knew what I nice, caring peron I am. I searched the rest of the letter in vain for a phone number so I could call my new caring friends and express my gratitude at receiving their letter and find out who I should thank for setting me up. How weird… it’s not there. But it’s not over yet… I know how to google.
In a few minutes, I was talking to Sue. She doesn’t know anything about the mailing lists or how they get them; it’s all handled by another woman named Marilyn. I call Marilyn, who has already been warned about the new caring friend who will be calling soon. Marilyn tells me that they have their own mailing list plus she vaguely tells me they get another mailing list but cannot tell me where it’s from. But I can mail them my name and address and they will remove me from the list.
I righteously tell her the evils of junk mail. She listens patiently. I hang-up, still dissatisfied and still on someone’s mailing list.
I open the 2nd piece of mail. Somehow they knew — I’m not a “Dear Caring Friend”, I’m just a ‘Dear Friend’. In true lawyer fashion, they’ve got their phone number and website conveniently listed on the letter sent specially to me. As soon as I explain to the woman who answers the phone, give her the code above my name, she identifies who my matchmaker was. The evil animal organization who sold me out.
That’s not true. It’s an animal organization whose mission that I believed in, and wanted to support with some money. They aren’t evil… but I wasn’t happy with them. I called up and got myself placed on their ‘private list’. Funny, it would have been nice to have been given that choice before they started commoditizing me and using my name and address. What a strange choice for an animal organization fighting against the exploitation of animals. Ooops, that was non-human animals.
I guess they figure everything is fair in their need for funds to carry on their work.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve fought the Junk Mail War. I’m a veteran of two tours, and early on found this great resource which I will share and forever preserve in the immortality of my first blog entry so I don’t have to spend two hours next time searching my email logs and memory banks..
Names in the News, California, Inc.
This is an organization that brokers mailing lists for many non-profit organization. I like to look to see what the policies are for the groups that I support, or the groups that I am considering supporting. If you’re reading this blog, I encourage you to take the first safety measure in the war against Junk Mail. Browse down the complete alphabetized list and check out the policies of your favorite charities..
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I was a little late, but I decided to do some Spring Cleaning. I started with my desk.
I unearthed an interesting artifact from my past. It carried a special meaning for me, and I’d kept it out of the recycle bin since 1987. Yeah, it hasn’t been sitting on my desk all those years, but at least for the past couple of years if I can timestamp it according to its surrounding strata of clutter.
