Couch 184: Welcome to Zanzibar!

That bottom left pic in the top one... It's just too cute, I can't even handle it...

Daw, such a cute kitty. There's no best pic, they are all great!

Awww. What a cutie.

R replied to my email. I told you he was gonna!

BlessedCheeseMaker

I do. But I get really sad because I hardly get any in return. It's like, hmmm. Okay. But I noticed a few of my friends only have received a few too so I'm not alone.

I knew exactly which pic you meant before I even looked. That was always one of my faves. I called his back feet his "Thumper paws" because he reminded me of the rabbit from Bambi.

This was my other favorite kitten picture, I'm not sure why it wasn't on the card

Awww. Cute!

What an absolutely perfect little creature!

Dawww, don't know how to make a heart, but I love cats, so cute!

In other news, it's finally snowing here, first time that it actually somewhat stays this year.

Don't be fooled, he is not always so regal, especially in the morning

Do you at least have a snowblower?

I grew up in northern Illinois (near Chicago) and moved to southern California for grad school a few years ago, and everyone talks about going up to the mountains to see snow and I'm like lol no I'll pass. Giving away my windshield ice scraper before beginning my drive out here was an amazing moment.

The place where I used to work also had an office in LA, and we'd have regular conference calls with the team there. I recall one where a couple of us were trying to explain to them what an ice scraper and frost were!

When I worked in retail during my uni days, it was in So-Cal but not LA and we sold ice scrappers at Christmas and literally no one knew what they were. I was like, don't you ever go to the mountains? I mean if you can go to Vegas which is further away then surely you can go to the mountains now and again. I never did understand that. I live in the desert but it's close to a mountain range so we do get frost on the car sometimes and I do have an ice scraper for those rare times when we get snow and stuff because I found out using a credit card to scrap ice doesn't suffice.

No, that’s Jack, my older kitty. I did teach him how to play fetch when he was a kitten, though.

No, our janitor has to shovel away snow if it gets too bad. I'm in Switzerland, usually we get snow from November on, but this year it decided to wait til it's almost Christmas. Now the mountains have some decent snow though, although the skiing places still have a bit of trouble I think. I could never do a winter without snow, honestly, it sounds frightening for some reason xD

My baby kitty Amelia was trying to play with the dog bones this morning and the dog was not happy about it. I was like, don't worry, she's not going to eat them, she's just going to bat them around. Of course the dog didn't know that and looked at me with those sad little eyes, so I collected the bones and separated the dog and the kitty for a while. Kit

I mailed my former T a handmade Christmas card today. I made her one every year, and even though she's not my T now, I still wanted to give her one. I wonder if she thought I wasn't going to because it's later in the season, but it took me a while to come up with a theme and then make the card. There's no way I could forget her. I miss her today though. Kit.

Your telling me! I dreamt i had a date with Lee Iacocca.

Fun SoCal culture shock moments from the last few years:

Someone who was from the area but had spent a few years a bit inland at a higher elevation was saying that sometimes his windshield would have frost on it in the morning "and then you have to go pour warm water on it to melt it"
Me: "I'm sorry, you do what?"

Me: "yeah, they didn't even consider closing school for the cold unless it was at least twenty below"
SoCal native: "Below what?"
Me: "... Below zero? Like -20 farenheit"
Him: "oh"

Me: I got a newer motorcycle because I figured it was a lot safer to have ABS on my first bike and only newer bikes have that option"
SoCal native: "What's ABS?"
Me: "anti lock brakes?"
Them: "what's that?"
Me: "like when you brake in the rain or snow and there's low traction and your brakes do that pulsing "thud thud thud" thing?"
Them:???
Me: "okay, for the love of all that is holy, next time it rains please go find an empty parking lot, pick up some speed, and then brake hard so you know what it feels like. You don't want to experience it for the first time on the road and get freaked out."

SoCal native: "wait, what temp farenheit does water freeze?"
Me: "32... How do you not know this?"
Then I realized you really only need to know this if it matters whether or not it's below freezing outside.

I also had to learn that if it rains you need to account for that in your commute because it's going to take a lot longer due to all the accidents.

We had a thunderstorm last week and everyone was freaking out like it was a hurricane or something.

It's definitely weird to see Christmas lights on houses with no snow

As a So Cal native I have to admit, I'm guilty of the first thing. I used to do that until someone told me that was the wrong thing to do. Shrug.

My doctor's office got my medications approved through my new health care plan because they needed pre-authorizations. So the pharmacy has already filled my anti-depressant and anti-psychotic. I'm glad that problem is taken care of. Kit

Though as long as it's warm enough outside that you're not going to crack your windshield or have the water freeze, I guess I don't see why you can't. Though if that's the case, windshield wiper fluid is probably more convenient anyway.

I was in Florida for a year for an exchange in university. They had palm trees with Christmas lights!!! It was one of the most confusing experiences ever xD