Meow gets a bath

Most of you have perhaps met our feline companion, Meow. We've had Meow in my family since she was a wee tiny kitten being fed with an eye dropper. I told my sister over and again, "Do not get attached to this kitten. She is not remotely likely to survive, she was taken from her mother far too young." Well, that loud tiny kitten did survive, and she came to live with Jay and I when she was around 8 weeks old (I should mention this was without Jay's consent or knowledge, but that's a tale for another day). Meow has been with us now for 12 years, through 3 cross-country moves, graduate school, and marriage. She's lived in Georgia, Massachussetts, and California. She's visited San Antonio, TX, the painted desert, and the Grand Canyon. Over the years, our little girl has become quite the dumpling. Hey, she's a spoiled house cat, it's part of life! But one downfall to this is that she cannot quite reach the more delicate parts that a cat needs to keep clean, if you catch my meaning. So about every other week or so, she gets a bath. To be fair, she is extremely good-natured about the whole thing, right up until she has to be dried off. Then, she hisses and the claws come out. I finally decided to let her "drip dry" so to speak. I wash her, then wrap her in towels and hold her in my lap till most of the water has been absorbed off of her. During this time, she licks her paws and complains about her recent experience. It's really quite funny, and while we didn't capture it on video, Jay did take some pics. I'm laughing in all of them, because each time Jay tries to get Meow to look at the camera while she's licking her paws, she proceeds to complain bitterly. Poor kitty. But she smells so nice!

MDA Muscle Walk

This weekend was a very nice mix of busy and relaxing. We went for a run on Friday night to cap off our week. Lately we've been jogging at the UCLA track in the evenings. It's well-lit and very convenient to the lab. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to attend the Muscular Dystrophy Association Make a Muscle Walk at Studio City. Jay's office had formed a team, and we walked two laps through the CBS Radford studios. We got to see people building sets, and some of the city scenes used in various TV shows. We had lunch with our friends Dan and Gretchen at Mexicali Cafe and did a little window shopping. That afternoon we relaxed at home, as Jay continued planning his camping trip with Rob that is coming up this weekend! We ended up visiting Santa Monica where we had dinner at Real Food Daily. It's a vegan restaurant my friend Jenny introduced me to - so very yummy! Sunday we had our Pilates class, and followed that up with errands and sushi for lunch. It was a nice, busy weekend. Hopefully our team photos from the walk will arrive soon, and will be posted below!