Vegucation and Its Complications!

The other day, Kei stunned me by suggesting we watch the film Vegucated - stunned because he has been in a nearly nine year battle to get me to eat meat with him, never missing an opportunity to ask me if I wanted to taste that particular burger, lamb, steak, etc.  But I quieted my shock, and alas we put it on.

Let me start by this - just watch it. No but seriously.  Just watch it.  It is not an anthem of lectures and moral superiority, and it requires zero commitment to change your own diet, it just sheds light on some interesting and generally misunderstood issues. That it would have an effect on me (to say the least - see below) is less than surprising since I've long been prone to this thought-process, but for the last few years, I have gotten increasingly lax on the whole vegetarianism thing (eating seafood and poultry ever since I lived in Tokyo), and Vegucated served as something of a wake-up call to me.  The thing is, I can't seem to settle on precisely where my awakened state leaves me.

While we watched the film, many of the points were valid, informative reminders of the vast benefits of eliminating meat & dairy from your diet (environmentally, food production efficiency, etc.).  It was when the conversation turned to the treatment of animals in today's industrial meat/poultry/dairy production system, however, that my reaction became visceral .  My horror came out my eyeballs, and I was literally sobbing.  That's my first somewhat embarrassing confession... though I suppose anyone who has witnessed me watch any movie featuring a dog or horse will be less than surprised by the prospect of my tears.  I digress.  My point is that it is simply horrific what happens each and every day to these creatures with functioning nervous systems, fear, affection, personalities... To treat them without a shred of humanity, like parts of a machine that have no sense of pain or fear - just because they don't have a voice and people want to make a buck - makes my blood boil.  I don't want to be a part of it.  Period.  And that is precisely where I was as the credits to Vegucated played along the screen when I turned to Kei and simply said, "I just turned vegan."

However, my second embarrassing confession is that I'm finding myself bizarrely confused about my convictions.  I still feel the same horror.  The same desire to NOT be a part of that whole awful process.  But... You see, it started with the yogurt and half & half already sitting in my refrigerator - both parts of my daily (beloved) breakfast of a smoothie and coffee with cream.  Hmm.  Kei - the ever-logical voice in my ear was quick to remind me that throwing away perfectly good dairy products will neither save an animal, nor affect the company/production process since it has already been paid for. So there's that.

Plus, when I compare my reaction to the thought of eating a bite of pork (just not possible, way over the line of what I can handle) to my feelings about adding cream to my coffee... conjuring the same disgust feels somehow affected. But both are part of these horrific processes, right?  So why the difference, if it is the process that abhors me?  Hmph.  Working this out... (o_0)

For now, I appreciate being considerably more conscious of all these issues.  I am making a concerted effort to refrain from animal products, within reason.  "Within reason" is currently defined (by me) as not causing a lot of trouble when someone else is cooking for me and/or we're sharing food, etc... Exceptions will probably be bountiful, but small steps are still steps after all, right? Right?!

Benefits of Being a Cat-Owner

Yes, I grew up with dogs and am dying to get a dog (but will alas wait until we have a yard).  Yes, plenty of people are cat nay-sayers, given their intermittently aloof or at least difficult-to-discern attitudes.  And yes, my Dad nary enjoys a giggle much like those surrounding our current cat-craziness or the painful memory of him once selling the cat I had in high school on the internet (this was pre-craigslist or any precedent and without my knowledge or consent while I was away at volleyball camp that summer).  But here's what ya'll are missing:

Warm lap and eager napping buddies (even on road trips!)...

Bed kept warm and love-filled for you...

Auto-affection and phenomenal bargaining chips with your four & two year old nieces...

Pure joy. (Please move on without noticing this and the first one were both mid-road trip, and I was driving and playing photo-journalist...)

Merry Christmas & Gingerbread Glory

Merry Christmas!  While in Wisconsin, Kei and I had our sanity questioned more than a few times for more than a few reasons.  

(1) My dad still hasn't quite gotten past the third cat (who is cute as ever, and likely the subject of the next blog post).  

(2) Very few can comprehend what made us pack up said three cats into our car and drive for 36 hours from San Francisco to Manitowoc… and we were among them for a bit there… We were on the road for a whopping 15 minutes when suddenly a horrendous stench began to take over the meager air space inside a Prius. Turned out Cosette had a bout of car sickness, and it came out her back end... Really though, the real victim here was Heidegger, given that he was locked in the same cage as her at the time and held hostage with the foul contraband until Kei and I figured out what was going on and pulled over to clean up. In any case, we survived that one and Heidegger's brief foaming of the mouth (more car sickness) and made it to Manitowoc in tact!

(3) Kei was inspired to make a gingerbread house… and as I'm every day discovering: marriage means WE were going to be making a gingerbread house.  This may not have been sanity-shaking alone, but true to our SF nature, we insisted on doing everything by scratch and going above and beyond minimum expectations.  All the nay-saying and hours (okay, days) of effort eventually became worth it when the finished project emerged: behold the process and the product!

Kei was the chief dreamer, planner, architect, and builder... credit certainly must be due:

 My main contribution came in when we started dreaming up the decorations, beginning with the melted butterscotch candy windows.  Turns out this is more fun than I ought to admit.

The pine trees were my other great claim to fame (frosting and sugar cones - wa-laa!), and the two of us worked together for the rest of the decorations...

 Finished product!

TA-DAAA!!! The front & main show!

Merry Christmas from your favorite crazy Kondos!

So THAT'S How Kelley Does It...

I've long been teased for failing to keep up with my oldest sister, who can only be called a master blogger - usually posting multiple times every week... compared to my hardy "once in awhile when I think of it..."  But today, I realized (one of!) her secret weapons, and that weapon calls herself Juliette - who's natural tendency to ham it up renders her full of readily available blog post content!  Behold:

 The kickoff, her school's Christmas show, where she was a very excited and musical camel...

The hamming picked up some momentum when we grabbed an iPhone and started playing at GiGi's (my mom)'s house...

We then moved to some emoticons - an old favorite of mine since college...

The Classics:

"Angry" 

"Surprised" 

It was on "Suspicious" that I realized I couldn't compete with the acting skills of my 4 year old niece...

Kelley and GiGi got in on "Confused"

Not even sure what this is - but it simply rocks

"You love GiGi soooo much!"

"Magdalenne (her sister) just took your toy"

"What is the face you make when I say you should take a nap?"

"What is the face you make when I tell you to eat your vegetables?"

Sassy and She Knows It

And finally some bonus shots I just snapped while she was hanging with the girls...

Love this little lady!! xoxo

Meet Simone

Heya... In yet another blogging absence, Kei and I pulled one of our signature moves: got impulsive.  For some reason, Kei thought it would be entertaining to tempt fate and bring me to SPCA because I had long been longing for a dog.  Though we entered with full commitment that we couldn't manage a dog at least until after the holidays, the universe had another scheme in mind for us.

In my defense, I know myself well enough to have uttered this sentence, verbatim, as we walked through the doors and faced the decision of turning right for cats or left for dogs:

"Don't even let me near the cat section, I won't be able to help myself..."

Kei smiled his devilish grin and turned right.

Meet Simone (AKA "Pip-Squeak" or "Pips" or "Squeak-Box," so-called because she literally squeaks rather than mews when she wants attention... and she's such a pip-squeak):

Our new baby is becoming predictable with a few key MO's:

(1) Non-Stop Action (rendering her VERY difficult to photograph!!)

(2) Plot-While-Appearing-Innocent... usually dedicated to figuring out how she can best taunt her older brother and sister.

(3) Snuggle Time!  This is one seriously snuggly kitty... which is absolutely awesome except in the middle of the night when you wake up to her purring like a motorboat and rubbing her face all over yours and/or licking your defenseless nose...

(4)  And.... true for any kitten out there: SLEEP - anywhere, in any position, anytime.

Love.

Kelley Will Be So Proud of Me!

My sister, the amazing blog-master, Kelley, has been "hinting" at me (on more than one occasion) about how easy it is to make all my pictures bigger on this blog, and how much better it is for the readers. At long last, I went back and fixed them up today.  So in case you once found yourself thinking "Badlands?  I can't see what the big deal is," or "Who are these people that are so interested in pumpkins?" - then you may enjoy looking back and finding enlarged pictures that had been previously posted.

Good job, Kell - your message finally got through! :-)

Jellyfish Saviors of Stinson Beach

Yesterday we gathered our favorite troop of San Francisco newbies, packed our Prius to the brim, and headed out to Stinson Beach for a BBQ and getaway.  We were graced with a gorgeous day, easy parking, and awesome company... and in the case of Neil & Kei, the opportunity to be heroes of the beached jellyfish (we won't discuss whether or not they were already dead, nor the fact that jellyfish overpopulation is generally threatening seas).  Behold:

Can't very well be on a beach without one of these shots, am I right?
 

Hero squad in the making... and a beautiful background to boot.

At this point, I confess, I love these pictures more for the scenery than the plot, but in the spirit of narrative continuity, I'll say "the heroes stumbled on the first hapless victim..."

 This one I just plain love... but the jelly is disgusting.

My man.

Hooray!  A great day!