Beastie Boys are back! Not that I like them, or their blend of music, but I was perusing the iTunes Music Store, and I saw their new release called “Ch-Check It Out”, and guess what, they have a rat on the cover! Now that album cover might be good enough for me to buy their album hahaha …. just sampled the song and it ain’t bad at all. Ch-Check It out if you can

I couldn’t write this yesterday because it was just too overwhelming to do so. Everytime I start thinking about it, I’ll cry. But now I’m feeling a little better now, so let me tell you what happened.

Yesterday (Monday) morning, as I was setting up my iBook at work, Dan was mentioning that there was something wrong with the network, so we started checking URLs. I’d just completed my entry about the weekend, and wanted to write about the Bird Mart I went to on Sunday. Just before I started writing I glanced over at the screen of my iBook, looking at the list of new emails, and there, staring me right in the face, was three words - “URGENT Re: Mac” - Suddenly, the goings-on around me just muted, and I remember faintly that Jessica was asking me something, but I could hear nothing. All I could look at was that email from Janet, my breeder. Something’s happened to Mac.

As I read the email, I felt really cold. Mac had been raspy for a couple of days, and the Vet had said she will be fine. But it seemed that he was wrong, and Mac had passed away in the middle of the night. Janet found her in the morning on the cage floor. Janet had written more, but that was all I could get out of the email. Mac is dead. My little birdie whom I have waited for weeks to bring home next week, was gone.

We’ve only seen her once, on March 20, to pick one green cheeked conure out of a clutch of five. We chose Mac not because of anything special, but because she was the youngest and her coming home coincides really well with our moving. Parrots are sold weaned, and so I’d have to wait till they are about 8 to 10 weeks before I can bring Mac home. In the weeks that followed, Janet sent me pictures of Mac, and it was so heart-warming to see her lose her baby feathers, and getting her new plumage. Choosing a name, watching her grow, buying a playpen and toys for her, all this had felt very real. We felt like we know her, and she was our little baby. I didn’t even know she was a Girl until a week ago, when she was DNA sexed. It didn’t matter to me whether my parrot’s a girl or a boy, but it was nice to know.

We have decided to take Clover, who is Mac’s older brother. Clover actually belonged to Janet - she had kept one baby as a pet, but she told me that they actually decided a few days ago that they didn’t really have the space for another parrot. If Janet hadn’t kept one from the beginning, I might not have the chance to get a parrot from this clutch. It’s quite significant for me, since I’d come to know the other owners of Mac anc Clover’s siblings, so it will be a great experience to see our fids grow up together.

I guess I’m beginning to accept it now. It’s hard. But today’s a new day. Life goes on. We will love Clover as much as we would have loved Mac. Goodbye Mac, our little birdie girl.

When will this end?! hehe … It’s amazing this impatience we have, maybe coz we are urban folk. In the beginning everything was new and fun - Yeah, we are going to paint the house! Yeah, we’ll do it all in one weekend! Yeah, it’s so fun to paint! - Now after 3 weekends, it’s like “Are we there yet?” Geez, too long I tell ya. I’m dying to move into our new home, but there’s quite a lot to be done still.

We spend the weekend varnishing our stairs, which was new for us. Now the stair railings are a dark rich mahogany. It looks really great. We put a second coat in our master bedroom, painted the attic, the closet, the coat room, the guest bathroom, and the bath of the first bedroom. We also redid the faux treatment on the exterior kitchen wall. I’m seriously thinking of getting the ceiling done before the carpet guys come, but maybe just touch ups, not the WHOLE ceiling. We are left with about 20% of the guest bathroom, and the kitchen, touch ups to the paint near the stairs and we’re done!

It’s inevitable. Your pet will get old, your pet will get sick, your pet will die. I’ve gone through this too many times, but it just NEVER gets easier to deal with. Otter, my rat, has misaligned teeth, so every month I would bring her to the vet to get her tooth trimmed. The vet technicians do it, so its $20 every time. Today I made an appointment with the Vet coz her hind leg mobility seemed to have deteriorated - she was using less and less of her back legs. The Doc told me that what’s really common in rats is pituitary tumors, which might be what Otter’s got, basically she’s terminally ill. She’ll just get worse, soon the “paralysis” will progress to her front legs, and eventually she won’t be able to eat or poop properly.

DANG.

I hate times like these. He prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication for her, which reminds me of how a doctor would give a patient vitamin C just to make that patient feel better about himself. He didn’t even tell me to bring her back for a check up. I guess to him, she’s on death row. Sigh …

Schlepp, on the other hand, is healthy. She’s now double the size of Otter, and I think she’s taking advantage of Otter’s immobility by snatching food from her, which explains her “expansion”. Silly Schlepp.

I always get a little nervous when driving to the Santa Cruz area - CA17 has so many curves and turns, and drivers who are used to communting that stretch always drive so fast, even though the speed limit is 50 mph. Sigh …

Anyway, last night, Catie was playing at Henfling’s, a biker’s bar just off of Highway 9 in Ben Lomond, CA. I do admit that I’ve never heard of this little town before I went to the show. It has a population of about 3,000, old-town feel, situated in the mountains, a quaint little town. Fortunately there wasn’t any traffic, so we arrived on time. The show was great - Catie was in top form, even though she still had a slight hoarseness in her voice from the cold, but she sang with so much more feeling compared to the previous night at the Freight - That’s the real Catie we all know and love. The crowd was much smaller than the Freight, but louder. My favorite song has always been Magnolia Street, and seeing and hearing it live is so much more emotional for me.

I bought a Girlyman CD and got the band members to sign it. Also took a picture with them.

Catie will be making her way south and performing in LA in the weekend, and hopefully we can get to see her again soon!

Click here for pics of this show.

I got one more free song to redeem from iTunes, and I’m stumped on which song to choose!

Fun, fun, fun! Doug and I drove up at about 6pm from San Jose up to berkeley. Fortunately there was a car pool lane on 880N so it came up to only about 45 minutes drive upon reaching University. We grabbed a bite at a mexican restaurant nearby. I was too excited to be hungry, so I didn’t really eat much.

After “dinner” we drove to the Freight. Man, already, at 7pm there was a long line outside the place - everybody anxious to see Catie. Being first time merch sellers, we were at a loss at what to do. Luckily as the entrance doors opened a man, after asking us who we are, helped us with the box of t-shirts and lead the way to the merch table. I saw Catie as I walked in, and she seemed to recognize me, but stupidly, I said … “I’m Bernie”. Duh, I always act doofy when I’m nervous. We hugged, exchanged pleasantries, and Catie walked me to the merch table, and said she needed to get backstage coz people were starting to come in. Ahhh …. and I saw Heather! She was sort of my partner in crime on catiecurtis.net, along with Abby, who lives in New York. It was great seeing her in person after conversing back and forth through instant messenger and email.

The evening went smoothly and very well. Girlyman was the opening act, and after that, Catie came up to perform. She had a small cold, and you could hear it in her voice, but being the great person that she is, she carried on singing.

After the show, we stayed behind to clear our t-shirts - more people bought Catie’s CDs than those who bought the t-shirts. Catie autographed my t-shirt and we took photos. It was awesome.

By the time we got home, it was already midnight. I had a great time and I hope tonight, at Henfling’s in Ben Lomond, it will be great night too.

Click here for pictures I took at the Freight

Those of you who want to know what events that are on tonight, you can go see Catie Curtis, who will be performing at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, CA, 8pm.

We wised up and got our paint on Friday, so on Saturday, we started painting early at about 10am. Thanks again to K, B and Y for helping us out on Saturday.

Here was our To Do List:
2 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
2 closets
Hallway
Stain the stair railings
1 attic

We completed:
2 bedrooms
1 bathroom
1 closet
almost all of the hallway, except for the touching-up part

We stripped the stain off the stair railings and sanded the wood, but have not put on the stain yet.

Ohhh, so much to do …

Apple improved their powerbook line during the weekend. Now for the 15″ powerbook that I’ve been dying to get - the specs are 1.5 Ghz, with option to increase the video card and HD speed. Still $2599 after all the options, but a higher-performance machine. Now I’m thinking if I should wait for the G5 powerbook … ARGH!

I want this to be true …

This whole week has been quite hectic, but fun. We usually don’t go anywhere after work - just dinner and TV, but this week was different. Monday we went to Home Depot, Tuesday, IKEA, Wednesday, Great Mall, and yesterday we were at Valley Fair. Not bad huh ;). Tonight we got to get paint for the second floor of our house, so we can start early tomorrow.

Of course I’m excited. For those of you who know Catie’s Music, good for you, for those of you who don’t, I recommend these two sites to find out more. You will not regret it:

Official Catie Curtis Site
The Catie Curtis Fans Site (I’m the webmaster of this site)

She’s just started on her “Dreaming In Romance Languages” tour, beginning in Seattle, WA. Here are the dates, times and venues for her shows in the Bay Area:

Apr 21: Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 8PM (http://www.thefreight.org), Berkeley, CA

Apr 22: Henfling’s, 8PM (http://www.henflings.com), Ben Lomond, CA

I didn’t get this entry in yesterday, but I just wanted to let you know that I got an email from the breeder in Oakley, which said … IT’S A GIRL! Yep, I chose to find out what gender Mac is by having a DNA sexing performed. No, I didn’t do it myself - the breeder did that.

Now I have to wait an agonizing 2 more weeks before I can bring her home. *ugh*. Check out her “preeedie peecture”.

Right now, is “Where Is My Mind”, cover by Placebo, and “The Bitter End”, by Placebo as well.