The hills of San Francisco, with the Bay to the East and Pacific to the West, offer many opportunities to enjoy magical beginnings and ends. As in dreams, many of those locations reveal themselves at the end of winding stairways, as unexpected treasures, often breathtaking.
People who live here share these places and moments with reverence and the instant friendliness of those who respect life in all its forms: their four legged friends abound and welcome newcomers and natives alike.
We took the following pictures at sunrise, a wonderful beginning to yet another day. Bernal Heights is located just south of San Francisco’s Mission District. For more photos and a bit of news about the area, visit Bernalwood, a local blog.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!. Rather than go into the history of this day, I’m going to talk about my love: I met Lastech back in November of 2001. He cracked a joke about cats and that was all she wrote. LOL! We’ve been together since. I had to wait until middle age to find him, but you won’t hear me complain.
Soooooooo I’m going to post a vid or two. They best express how I feel.
The first is by Barry Louis Polisar, who writes children’s songs and this one was used in the movie “Juno”. My hope for today is that our readers have as much happiness as we do.
Note: In spite of what you see on the video, Rod McKuen did NOT write this song. He translated it from the French. The song was written by Jaques Brel. I couldn’t find an embed of it that was good enough. Dame Shirley Bassey did an excellent cover of the song.
Sunday Humor with Simon’s Cat
Friday Night Cat Blogging with Sith Cats and Cat Sith
Well, it’s another Friday. Tonight we have some trivia, some humor, and the boys, of course.
First, the cat trivia:
Cat Sìth (Scot.) or Cat Sidhe (Irish) comes from Celtic mythology. According to Wikipedia:
Legend has it that the spectral cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. Some common folklore suggested that the Cat Sìth was not a fairy, but a transformed witch.
According to Celtic Myth Podshow:
The cat, whether wild or domestic, is sacred to the Goddess in Celtic tradition, appearing in Irish, Welsh and Breton folklore. But it is in Scotland that is found a particularly powerful connection. A number of Scottish clans held the cat as their totem animal: those of MacIntosh, MacNeishe and MacNicol the domestic cat, and the MacBain the wild cat. The cat-people, a Pictish tribe known as the Kati, lived in Caithness, the ness or promontory of the cats, and in Sutherland in Gaelic is the Cataobh – cat country.
Note: The MacBain in bold is my doing. It’s my clan. The clan motto is touch not the catt bott a targe which translates to touch not the cat without a shield. 🙂
Sooooooooo what happens when we mix that with a bit of Star Wars? Well, instead of Cat Sìth we get Sith cats.

For those with short attention spans… SQUIRREL!!!!
Hmmmmm, so what does Tito think of all this? As a young kitten he bored easily and fell asleep. He just wasn’t a Star Wars fan.

Kitsune, on the other hand, adores Star Wars as do I.

Friday Night Cat Blogging? A dog and…
Gung Hay Fat Choy: It’s the Year of the Hare or Rabbit
Gung Hay Fat Choy loosely translates as “congratulations and be prosperous”.
Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year. The festivities begin with the new moon on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. It ends fifteen days later on the full moon and is celebrated by the Lantern Festival.
Follow me below the fold for the pictures and traditions.

Continue reading “Gung Hay Fat Choy: It’s the Year of the Hare or Rabbit”
For the Fans of The Princess Bride
Klusmanp over at youtube has a reenactment of the “Miracle Max” scene in The Princess Bride. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Friday Night Cat Blogging: Tongue edition
A trip to Beautiful Saratoga, CA
Saratoga is located on the West side of Santa Clara County, due West of San Jose.
According to the Saratoga Historical Society:
Saratoga, it is said, is derived from an Iroquois word, Se-rach-to-que, literally, “floating scum upon the water,” a completely understandable interpretation to be put on the presence of mineral deposits showing up as vari-colored film on the surface of a pond.
We decided to take a trip there to see three different places. We visited Villa Montalvo, now called the Montalvo Arts Center. From there, we went to Hakone Gardens and then finished it off with a trip to Mountain Winery. Follow me below the fold for a bit of history and lots of pictures.

Jack LaLanne: An Icon is Gone
I don’t use the word “icon” very often. However, this man was a part of my life at a very young age. I’m going to celebrate a half century of life at the end of the year. This man was there for 49 years of it.
A lot of you won’t remember life withoutout color tv or cable or computers or cell phones. I remember all of that. Note for younger people: It doesn’t make me better…just older. This man…

was a part of my life for all of those years.
















