Remembering Mama

This week's pet post is dedicated to my baby, Athena. I guess I have said all I care to about what happened to her on this day three years ago, so instead of rehashing that crummy story, I will just post some of my favorite pictures of her.

As a side note, you may have noticed that I post a great number of pictures of my pets each week here on Athenamama. That is part of Athena's legacy. I bought my digital camera soon after Athena came to live with us, and I took a fair number of pictures of her, but I wish I had taken more. Therefore, I take a bazillion pictures of my pets. You can never have too many pictures of those you love.

Also, If you click here, you can hear Athena's voice.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mama. It really highlights her eyes, which had a fire in them that had a real affect on me. As you can see, I like this picture so much that I use it to represent Athena's site, Athenamama. Jackie reminds me of Athena in a lot of ways. One of them being her taking over the role of Ear-washer. Like Jackie, Athena loved to wash ears. One of the very rare times all three of the cats were together long enough for me to take their picture. Athena and Ebby were very close, so I have several of them together, but Salem likes to keep to herself. Now that Athena is gone, Ebby also likes to be alone. Athena was older than Angel, and here she is watching over him as he sleeps. He is still a puppy in this picture, and isn't as big a Athena yet. I was taking pictures of the panther statuette when Athena came along and stole the limelight. I guess she thought a real cat beat a statue of one every time. Just another great picture of Mama. Don't worry, I eventually let the cat out of the bag. Another of my favorite shots of Athena. I still vacillate between this picture, and the first one as my favorites. I guess I have two favorites. Okay, maybe three favorites. This is Mama watching me work at the computer one night. Athena always liked to be with me. My mother-in-law stayed with us for a while when Athena was still alive, and told me one afternoon when I came home from work that every day, just before I would come home, Athena would go sit in the window and watch for me. Not the greatest pictures, but still one of my very favorites because it's of my Mama sleeping on my lap.

"The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline" will return next week.
Don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Olszewski's Jungle Cruise

Last week I let you all in on my decadent hobby of collecting Olszewski's miniature sculptures of various buildings at Disneyland. I had just purchased the Haunted Mansion sculpture, and had raised enough cash to buy the Jungle Cruise sculpture. Well, last Sunday we drove down to Anaheim and picked it up, and I have posted a few pictures of it below...

(As always, you can click on the pictures below to get even a bigger picture!)

This is of course the front of the sculpture. You might remember from last week I mentioned that the Haunted Mansion was one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland, but that I coveted the Jungle Cruise sculpture more because it was, in my opinion, more beautiful. Maybe by looking at these pictures you can understand better why I said that. I still have difficulty getting the focus right on such tight close-ups, but I am getting there. I initially wanted to take a series of pictures and put together an animated gif that would showcase the piece by panning around the whole sculpture. But, I got lazy so you are going to have to look at the individual pictures one at a time. In this picture, we are moving to the right of the sculpture towards the back. This one is just a little clearer and from a slightly different angle of the same section. In this section we see a python hanging from a tree limb menacing a baby wildebeest. Adult wildebeests menace the python. Just as in the attraction, they are all fake here as well. A lovely picture of a miniature trashcan, and miniature pay-phone. This is the elephant bathing pool, and in the background we see alligators milling about an ancient Cambodian shrine. A view of the elephant bathing pool from above. Moving counterclockwise around to the back of the sculpture. And back over towards the wildebeests. I used a flash on this close-up of the ancient Cambodian shrine area to show some of the detail. For instance, just to the right of the center, at the top of the steps of the shrine, is a tiger. Like the Haunted Mansion, this sculpture lights up. It's hard to tell, but there are gorillas in that tent playing with the property of the tent's owner. Next to the tent is an overturned Jeep. This is the elephant bathing pool area again, only with the lights on this time. A line of explorer boats as they approach the dock. Same area, but from above and with flash to show the detail. This is sort of an overall, map-like view that should help you figure out where all the other photographs were taken.

So there it is in all its glory. I next hope to buy the Pirates of the Caribbean sculpture when it comes out in November. Maybe I will get lucky and one of my family members will buy it for me for my birthday in October this year.

The Return of Pedie Twinkie

Jackie's arch nemesis, Twinkie, is back in town and staying with us. Twinkie and her human mommie got in late, so I wasn't able to take any photographs. The reunion looked much like an earlier post I did back in May, so I am cutting and pasting this week's entry. And now, without further ado, (and from last May,)....

This week I am going to be lazy and just post a bunch of pictures, but skip the narrative. There is a theme though. Midget Wrestling...

Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Jackie and Angel Cell Phone Pictures

I used to lug around my digital camera on my afternoon walks with Jackie and Angel, but it's tough juggling two dogs and a camera, so now I clip my cell phone to Angel's leash and sometimes use it to take a few, low-res shots. Let's take a look at some of those pictures now...

Jacqueline almost always finds something to carry in her mouth during our walks. She carries them to the front door where she typically drops them as she goes into the house. Jackie shows off her prize. I took it from her just after this shot, but don't think me cruel, I fed them just after that. Very rarely we stop to sit during our walks, but when we do Jacqueline usually comes to sit as close to me as she can, or sit in my lap. Here she looks like a little guard dog. They ain't kiddin', brother. This sign is at the park across the street from where we live. There is a one and a quarter mile path that we occasionally use for our afternoon walk. I have lived in this area since I was a kid, so I am very aware of the local beasts. In fact, every once in a while Jackie, Angel, and myself see a coyote or two trotting through the condominium complex where we live in the wee hours of the morning when we take our morning walk up to the corner to get the paper. Just a few weeks ago we saw a coyote maybe ten yards away from us strolling through our complex on his way back to the barranca after a night of hunting cats. They usually will leave you alone, but the part of the sign you can't read is pretty scary. Essentially it tells you to yell at a coyote if it doesn't leave the area immediately, and to throw rocks at it if it follows you!. It also admonishes those with dogs to keep them on leashes at all times. I get somewhat paranoid while walking the dogs through this part of the park even during the day. But I can tell you I am armed with pepper spray and my 110 Buck knife should trouble find us. OK, this isn't a cat or a dog. This is my step-grandson, (or just grandson,) Josiah. I had several pictures of him on my cell phone and this one was just too cute to not share. He used to sleep like an airplane when he was littler. (He's a pretty big baby.) I look at his smiling face and wonder if he is dreaming about flying what with his little arms outstretched like that. I never wanted children of my own, and do not regret that choice by any means, but I sure do love my little grandson.

And that's all we have this week. Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and a very special, centennial edition of the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals. I don't know where there is a carnival of the babies.

Queen Mother Salem

I had several requests to highlight our oldest cat Salem in a post of her very own, so I figured why not now?

Salem is the oldest of all our indoor pets. She was my stepdaughter's kitten when I met my wife eight years ago. She was a skinny little thing back then, and didn't bulk up until after we moved in together some two years later. Maybe it was the stress of the move, or maybe it was the mice in our home, whatever it was, Salem now weighs in at 24 pounds which also makes her the heaviest indoor pet, even surpassing Angel.

Salem is a big, big cat. She looks even bigger because of her full coat. Her undercoat is very thick, and she has a pretty sever case of dandruff. Therefore, Salem is subject to baths. Here she is again on the edge of the bed, little does she know she is about to spend some quality time in the bathtub. Although the pictures of Salem getting a bath would have been most entertaining, I decided not to post them so that Salem might maintain her dignity. (That, and it's impossible to keep a pissed off, 24 pound cat in a tub of water and take pictures of the event all at the same time.) This is what a wet 24 pond cat looks like. Surprisingly she looks no thinner dripping wet than when she is perfectly dry. It is also quite tough to get her soaking wet. Her fur repels water like a duck's back. It's a lot of work, but once it's done Salem is a happy kitty.

And that's all we have this week. Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and a very special, centennial edition of the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

My Own Private Disneyland

When I was about nine or ten years old I was fascinated by ghosts and haunted houses. I always wanted to explore one, and spent many a Saturday morning watching Scooby-Do and friends solving mysteries that usually involve haunted locations, and supernatural entities. I remember my friend and me building our own little haunted house using shoe boxes and marking pens. The lids were the roofs, and we would cut doorways in the sides of the boxes and glue them together to form different rooms. It was a lot of fun.

Just around that time the Haunted Mansion had opened at Disneyland. For me and my obsession with ghosts and haunted places, combined with my other obsession, Disneyland, it was like a dream come true. I was finally going to be able to explore a haunted house!

Of course I understood it was just an illusion, but I was also old enough to recognize that this was going to be an experience one step up from a movie or television show about ghosts. I had been to Disneyland before by that age, and knew that a lot of the park was like being in a movie. Therefore, my anticipation level was high.

My parents typically took us to Disneyland once a year, and usually sometime in the fall, so I wasn’t going to be able to go to Disneyland and see the new attraction right away. My dad worked for an aerospace outfit called Raytheon. Raytheon worked closely with the Naval Base in Ventura County located in Port Hueneme, and Point Mugu, and one weekend each year the company and the Navy bought blocks of tickets to Disneyland at a reduced price, and offered them to their personnel at a discount. Ever the penny-pincher, my dad took full advantage of this offer. He would buy enough tickets to take his family of five to Disneyland on a Saturday, and then go back the next day with his loving wife. That way us kids had a day in which we could do whatever we wanted, and then my folks could go back and do whatever they wanted. At the time I felt cheated, but now I fully appreciate the idea.

Anyway, the point is that it was going to be a while before I could realize my dream of exploring a haunted house, so in the mean time I sucked up every scrap of information I could find on Disneyland’s, The Haunted Mansion, which wasn’t much.

On March 22, 1970 a one hour special on The Wonderful World of Disney that featured the Haunted Mansion. It was hosted by Kurt Russell, who got his start at Disney, and co-starred the Osmond brothers and E.J. Peaker. I first noticed the show was going to air from previews shown the week before. I could hardly wait for Sunday to roll around, and made it very clear to all of my family that come 7:30 Sunday evening we were going to watch The Wonderful World of Disney.

I had a cassette tape recorder that I had received for Christmas the year before, and I set it up right next to the television speaker so that I could record the show on audio tape. It was a Magnavox console television, and the dials to change the channels and adjust the volume were conveniently above the speaker. I was able to hang the cord of the tape recorder microphone over the dials so that the microphone itself dangled just in front of the television speaker. I did a test recording before the show came on to ensure the highest quality recording possible. The microphone was equipped with an on and off switch so that I could edit out the commercials on the fly. The finished product was pretty good if I do say so myself.

The show was great. The Osmonds and Kurt Russell covered a lot of the park, and at the end Kurt showed some of the tricks that went into making the Haunted Mansion. Then, Kurt, the Osmonds, and E.J. Peaker all went on the ride, 90 percent of which was shown on TV. It was as big as the moon landing.

Later that year I discovered that Disney had released an album entitled “The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion”. I of course had to have it. It became a quest, and was the very first Disneyland related souvenir I bought with my own money.

For me, Disneyland is a ton of fun, and I really enjoy going. I enjoy it so much that since I was a kid I have been looking for ways to enjoy it at home. The Haunted Mansion album was one of those attempts. Another was when I got together with the neighborhood nerd Lego Baron and attempted to re-create Disneyland in Legos. I was all of about nine years old, full of big aspirations, and had my friend’s cache of Legos at my disposal.

I brought over a souvenir map of Disneyland from the last time my family went, and my friend and I set about building the park entirely out of Legos. He also had a small electric train set, so we first set up the train track like the train at Disneyland, and then we built what were essentially just square boxes out of Legos, and set them inside the track. Unfortunately I had more ambition than talent or tenacity, so the Lego Disneyland never came to fruition.

I guess someone at Disney must have felt the same was as I did as a kid, because now you can buy miniature sculptures of the buildings at Disneyland. They are designed by Robert Olszewski who, interestingly enough, lives just a few miles away from me in Camarillo California. His first piece in the series was the parks’ primary icon, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. (By the way, most of the time you can click on any of the pictures here on Athenamama and be treated to a larger version of it. Just so ya know.)

The sculpture was debuted in December of 2002, and while I thought it was beautiful, and would love to buy one, I couldn’t justify the $195.00 price tag.

But, I didn’t know at the time that it was just the beginning. Since 2002 Olszewski has issued sculptures of most every building on Disneyland’s Main Street, and has even issued sculptures of some of the buildings from other areas of the park. Once I discovered that Disney had commissioned Olszewski to miniaturize the whole of Disneyland, a new quest was born. (What’s even better about these sculptures is that they detach from the wooden base they are mounted on so that they can be placed together to form the entire park!)

I must have every piece so that I might build my own miniaturized Disneyland in my house.

One of the reasons I love my wife is because she indulges me by letting me collect silly things like this. I told her of my desire to buy each sculpture whenever we might find a little money, or if I could raise it myself, and she agreed. Having the green light, I rushed out and bought the Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. It’s as nice as the pictures show, and it has battery operated lights that illuminate it at night. It’s stunning.

Rather than buy the sculptures in the order they were issued, I decided to buy the ones I liked most first. So, the next figure I wanted to buy after Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was the Jungle Cruise sculpture. Like I said, most of Main Street has been completed, but the Jungle Cruise sculpture is very intriguing with its lush flora and neat little boats in solid water. But then Olszewski pulled a fast one, and released the Haunted Mansion sculpture which presented me with a dilemma.

You see, both the Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise sculptures cost exactly the same, and to be quite honest, I favor the Jungle Cruise because it is so much more interesting to look at. Yet, the Haunted Mansion has traditionally been among my favorite attractions. Moreover, it is generally more popular among Disneyland fans than the Jungle Cruise attraction, so whenever the sculptures become available in the stores at Disneyland, (or in stock with the mail order department,) they sell out quickly. Therefore, even though I wanted the Jungle Cruise next, I went ahead and bought the Haunted Mansion sculpture as soon as they got some stock in.

So now, I proudly present my Olszewski sculpture of Disneyland’s, The Haunted Mansion:

This is the sculpture without the lights on for daytime viewing. And this is the sculpture with the lights on for nighttime viewing. Unlike the Sleeping Beauty’s Castle sculpture, the Haunted Mansion lights are on a timer, and turn themselves off after fifteen minutes or so. I wish that was adjustable, but I guess it’s a good thing because many of the lights are inaccessible. Once they burn out, that’s it. Here’s a close shot showing the detail of the sculpture. I am not sure because I have only seen two of the sculptures up close, (this one and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle,) but I think the quality of these sculptures might have slipped a bit since Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was issued several years ago. Between the two that I own, I think the detail on the Castle is a tad bit finer that what is seen here. Of course I could be wrong. Detail of the attraction’s exit. Although I have my doubts about the overall quality of the piece versus previous releases, it is still a stunning piece of artwork. Yet another angle This is the backside of the piece. You might think that it is sort of boring, but it is actually one of the more interesting features of the piece. The back comes off to reveal a scene from the attraction! If I knew how to handle my camera better you would see that this is a depiction of the graveyard scene. I tried to take better pictures of these scenes, (there are three altogether,) but I ran out of patience. Closer shot of the graveyard scene. These interchangeable scenes have an added feature… They light up! The sculpture has a series of lights built into it, and the interchangeable scenes have corresponding holes that allow the light to illuminate certain portions of the scenes. Trick, huh? This is the changing portrait hallway scene. In the real attraction the paintings along the wall change whenever lightning flashes outside. (There is a perpetual storm that can be seen through windows on the opposite side of the hallway from the paintings.) I wish they changed in the sculpture as well, but no such luck. Detail of the attraction’s exit.In the real attraction you ride an elevator disguised as a stretching room down to the changing portrait hallway. When the elevator reaches the lower level, and before its doors open to the hallway, lightning flashes, and reveals a corpse hanging from a rope in the rafters of the room. This is depicted here, and is activated by pressing down on the mansions copula. This is the ballroom scene from the attraction. It is one of the better pictures I took of these three scenes. The other three scenes don’t let through as much light as the ballroom scene, so as you can see the ballroom scene looks the best when the lights are turned on.

Honestly, I am thrilled that Disney is reaping in gobs of money by allowing us truly fanatic fans buy these over priced miniature sculptures so that we can fill our houses with the magic that is the Happiest Place on Earth. I really, really am. But, more than that, I appreciate and love my wife for allowing such things to fill our house. She really is a wonderful woman.

Let's Find the Pets

Today I thought we might do something new, something that might involve most all of our pets rather than just Jackie and Angel. So today we are going to play...

Let's Find the Pets!

First, let's look for Thalia.

Thalia isn't a very good hider. She has so much energy that it is difficult for her to stay put for very long. She also isn't very bright, so she thinks just because she saw an ostrich do it once on some nature show on the Discovery Channel, that it works for cats as well. Of course I am talking about...

...hiding one's head in the sand. Or sheepskin throw, as the case may be. (And Thalia is actually very smart. I just said she wasn't for the sake of this little story. I'm sorry mama.)

People have asked before how she might breath what with her face stuck in the fleece like that. The answer is, I don't know. But she must be able to because she stays that way for hours. Or until some schmuck with a camera comes along.

Next is my boy Angel.

Angel is pretty good at hiding. He learned early that if he doesn't want to take a bath, he better hide well. However, when he takes a nap he puts minimal effort into his hiding. It looks like this time he adopted Thalia's idea of hiding the head, and the body will follow...

This lump of white fur is Papa. He needs to see his groomer, but if he finds THAT out I'll never find him!

Here's the rest of Angel. He does this often; rests his body on that small pillow, and hangs his head off the edge. He looks so lazy in this picture.

Next is the baby of the house, Jackie.

Jacqueline doesn't really need to hide. She is so little that she is pretty much hidden all of the time. But here she is in her crate.

We keep it up in our room because sometimes at night she likes to sleep in it. Here she is taking a nap while daddy reads Stephen King's, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass.

Like I said, Jacqueline is hiding even when she isn't hiding. Sometimes people leave her on the couch, and if you don't look first you might just sit on her!

Now we will go looking for Salem, the matriarch of the house.

Salem hides from no one.

Salem rules the roost, and she puts down any darned place she pleases.

Finally we look for the best hider of all, Ebby.

Ebby is a loner in a house full of activity, and it wears on her nerves. She longs for solitude, and will search it out at all costs. Once she finds it, she clings to it like lichen to a rock. But, where is my sweet Ebby today? It took me a while, but I found her...

After searching the house in vain for Ebby, I decided to take a break by looking for worthless stuff to buy on eBay.

Suddenly, my screen moved all by itself, so I decided to investigate. No, nothing back here... but wait... There's Ebby!

And that's all we have this week. Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Me and the Acupuncturist

I have mentioned before that I struggle daily with pain. I have been taking some pretty strong medication for it, and while that medication really doesn't seriously impact my day to day responsibilities, I would prefer not to be taking it. It is because of that reason that I started seeing an acupuncturist.

Typically I am skeptical of such things. While I trust the scientific method, and appreciate the value of empirical data, I also recognize that acupuncture has been around for a very long time, and I am open to the idea that perhaps it is a viable alternative to modern medicine that just hasn't been fully explored yet.

I also think that it might be true that one of the reasons the scientific community hasn't shown the practice of acupuncture any love is because it claims to tap into something that doesn't exist, or at least hasn't been proven to exist. Acupuncture is all about the tweaking of your "meridians", and claims to provide relief by re-balancing "yin", "yang" and "qi".

In any case, I spoke with my doctor about it and she thought as I did, that there must be something to it since it has been practiced for thousands of years, and millions more swear by it. Even if it is just the power of suggestion, if a person experiences the expected results then there's no refuting that, on some level, it works.

So my wife found a licensed acupuncturist, and secured an appointment with him. Once she told me his name, I did what I do with almost everyone who performs a service for me. I Googled him.

It turns out that in addition to being a licensed acupuncturist he is also a "medicinal herb specialist" and a doctor of oriental medicine. How one goes about achieving these things, I don't know. But it still sounds impressive, and his office is just as impressive. He has his diplomas and certificates on the wall for inspection, and if I could read Chinese I am sure I would be even more impressed. He also has vials and baggies of herbs all over the place, and he is happy to explain to you what is in each container, and what it is supposed to do. He is pleasant, mild mannered, and well spoken. He makes you feel at ease, and has a real passion for his work. I like him.

I have seen him four times now, and it costs me about a hundred bucks for each session. Mainly he performs the acupuncture, and sends me home with some herbs that are supposed to help me counter aspects of my life that are contributing to my pain. While I have yet to see any real results, I have been a trooper and try to keep an open mind. But, my since last session I am starting to have some serious qualms about his practice.

During the past week my pain level has been pretty high. I told the acupuncturist this, and also told him that I had what people refer to as tennis elbow. Because of the meds I am on, I am obliged to see my doctor each month, and when I saw her last week I told her of my elbow, and she confirmed that it was indeed tennis elbow. The acupuncturist examined my elbow, and told me to bring my chair closer to the table. He placed a white sheet of paper in front of me, and told me to put my left hand palm down on my thigh. He positioned me in my chair, and then placed a container with some capsules, (presumably a herb of some sort,) in front of me, and told me to put my had palm down on the container.

Then he waved a crystal in front of me.

The large, clear crystal was suspended on what appeared to be fishing line, and he would sort of wave it around my hand and arm much like a hypnotist would do in front of your face. In fact, at first I thought he was trying to hypnotize me!

He would change containers, and swing the crystal over my hand again and again. At one point he put two containers under my hand, and almost immediately after the first pass of the crystal he said, "Incompatible", and took the containers back. He removed a couple of capsules from each, put them back under my palm, and swung the crystal again. "That's better", he said, evidently satisfied with the new combination.

To be honest, I was shocked. So much so in fact that I couldn't bring myself to ask him about it because I knew it would come out in an accusing tone. I just couldn't buy into the idea that swinging a pretty rock over my hand while it covered some plant matter would make one iota of difference with my pain.

Like I said, I am a skeptic. But I think I am an open minded skeptic. I don't believe you can dismiss something out-of-hand unless you experience it yourself, even if you do investigate it using the scientific method and find it to be bogus. Maybe there is something about it that is real, and we just can't quantify it through the tools available to us today.

On the other hand, maybe it is strictly a matter of mind over matter, or the power of suggestion. Perhaps that is why it hasn't worked on me so far. I just don't believe in it enough. But I seriously doubt that the whole crystal swinging thing has any effect on anyone. It certainly didn't have an effect on me.

It is late afternoon, and I am in as much pain as I normally would be, and I am about to do something I know for a fact will get rid of my pain. I am going to get a glass of water and take my 80mg of Oxycontin.