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I found this tiny, lovely wildflower growing in one of my container gardens on my deck.

You’ve heard of Flexcar, the car-sharing service? Yahoo! News has a story about FlexPetz, a rent-a-dog* service in San Francisco. (*Oh, wait, the owner hates it when you call it that. It’s a “shared pet ownership concept.”)

The “petz” part of the business name is not only misspelled, it’s misleading, since the service rents … er, shares … only dogs. Why didn’t they call it FlexPooch?

When asked if they’d like to be part of FlexPetz, most cats responded, “We can’t afford it, we don’t earn income. Besides, we don’t like dogs.” Upon clarification (“No, would you like it if various people could rent you? I mean, share in your ownership?”), the cats universally replied, “Nobody owns a cat. We simply allow humans to live with us and serve us. Now feed me, pet me, stop it, give me catnip, go away.”

As if one “nursing home cat predicts patients’ death” story isn’t enough this week, King 5 News has a follow up story about Buckwheat, a local cat with the same interesting ability.

Bonus: The King 5 URL includes the words “death cats.”

The Associated Press brings the story (via Seattle’s King 5 News) of Oscar, a cat who lives at a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. Oscar apparently can predict death. The feline “harbinger of death” makes daily rounds of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center’s dementia unit. Oscar has been known to “sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours … Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there …” This scenario has played out 25 times so far, with patients dying within two to four hours of Oscar’s visit.

Things to ponder:
1. Given that the cat works in a dementia unit, isn’t it possible that people are … shall we say, mistaken about Oscar’s predictions?
2. Most cats have a low opinion of humans. Does Oscar merely predict deaths, or does he actually cause them? Maybe he steals patients’ breath. See Cat’s Eye, by Stephen King.
3. Even if Oscar truly can sense a patient’s imminent demise, shouldn’t the medical staff be at least as astute in these matters as the cat?

My friend Selena and I ate dinner tonight at new, 100% vegetarian–with vegan options–Thai restaurant in Wallingford: jhanjay vegetarian thai cuisine.

For a starter, we shared the Vegetarian Rolls (“C” in the Dinner Appetizers section). For entrees, Selena had the Jhanjay Noodles (#35) and I had the Rama Garden (#18).

Vegetarian Rolls: “Fresh mint, green leaves [basil?], carrots, cucumbers, rice noodles, and tofu wrapped with rice paper. Served with homemade [peanut] sauce.”

Jhanjay Noodles: “Chopped bamboo shoots, mushrooms, tofu, water chestnuts, green peas, and corn wrapped inside wide rice noodle sheets. Served with spicy sweet and sour sauce.”

Rama Garden: “Stir fried mixed vegetables, mushrooms, bell peppers, and garlic topped with peanut sauce.” [Veggies included carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and the afore-mentioned mushrooms. I didn’t see any bell peppers or taste any garlic. I enjoyed it, I’m just saying …]

Everything was delicious, the service was very good, and our server was knowledgeable about the vegan options.

Most of jhanjay’s main dishes feature vegetables and tofu. I noticed only one item that specifically listed “vegetable meat” as an ingredient. However, a note under the Curries section mentions that veggie meat can be added for an additional $1. This is a great option for vegetarians who don’t like faux meats. (I didn’t ask about the veggie meat, so I don’t know whether it’s soy- or gluten-based, or whether it’s vegan.)

Jhanjay opened approximately two months ago at 1718 N. 45th St. (between Wallingford Center and Stone Way); phone (206) 632-1484. Next time you’re in Wallingford and crave delicious Thai food, try jhanjay. (Jhanjay’s take-away menu lists a Web address, www.jhanjay.com, but it isn’t working right now.)

Mental Floss magazine’s online edition features a Trivia section with several quizzes.

I took the All Kinds of Steve quiz. I scored 100% (5 questions). Above average, according to Mental Floss: “The average score for this quiz is 62.6% from the 2080 people who took it.” I would have felt pretty silly if I’d missed a Steve question!

You don’t have to actually walk it to find out. Input a street address and city, state, or ZIP code, and Walk Score will tell you how “walkable” the neighborhood is. Walk Score rates addresses using a scale of 1 to 100.
* A score of 90 and above indicates “Walkers’ Paradise,” an ideal location for the car-free.
* 70 to 90 is “Very Walkable … possible to get by without owning a car.”
* 0 to 25 means the area sucks for walkers. Or, as Walk Score puts it, “Driving Only. Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range.”

(If you’re car-free and live in a place with a Walk Score of 50 or less, you might be able to take advantage of a car sharing service such as Flexcar. )

I put in 3 addresses, with these results:
* My “home away from home” in Berkeley scored 83.
* My real home, in Seattle, scored 86.
* The Boyfriend’s house scored 35.

I agree with the score for TB’s place, but disagree with the Berkeley score. And, to a lesser extent, I disagree with the score for my place. I like to walk, so I don’t mind walking a mile or so to do an errand. I haven’t really analyzed it, but Walk Score seems to award more points if an area has a variety of businesses within a half-mile radius.

To give you a very general idea of the location, “my place” in Berkeley is bordered by Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (west), Shattuck Ave. (east), Hopkins St. (north), and Virginia St. (south). At least 1 bus has a route along MLK Jr. Way in that area, and I remember at least 3 buses with routes along that part of Shattuck. This particular location is within a mile of all of the following: 2 BART train stations (Downtown Berkeley and North Berkeley), at least 4 grocery stores, 2 drug stores, several coffee shops, lots of restaurants (vegan, vegetarian, and non-veg), a few clothing stores, a kitchen/home accessories store, a post office, 2 Copy Central stores (for Internet access, printing, faxing, etc.), a couple of dry cleaners, laundromats, a library, 2 movie theaters, and the University of California Berkeley. In my book, this location rates a 100.

My actual neighborhood, near the Ballard Bridge, just isn’t as close to as many conveniences within a mile: 4 bus lines, 3 grocery stores, several coffee places, 2 drug stores, a library, a post office, 1 movie theater, a few restaurants (and only 1 vegetarian one), a Fed Ex/Kinko’s (Internet access, etc.). On a blog, my Ballard neighborhood seems comparable to the Berkeley one, but trust me–Berkeley has a lot more stuff. Nevertheless, I’d give my little corner of Ballard a Walk Score of 90.

The Boyfriend lives in Steilacoom. His house offers a wonderful view of Puget Sound and is within about a half-mile of the waterfront, a coffee shop, a pub and a wine & beer place, 3 small restaurants (1 is in the pub). No grocery store, no clothing stores, no dry cleaners or laundromats. Now that I’m really thinking about it, those 35 Walk Score points might be a bit high; 30 is probably more like it. However, if you want to walk in a residential area without beautiful views and not a lot of traffic, Steilacoom’s great.

Walk Score aside, walk when & where you can. And watch out for those pesky cars.

The Boyfriend (TB) is training hot-and-heavy this month for his favorite bicycle ride: the Courage Classic, a 3-day ride over 3 mountain passes. Proceeds from the Courage “help stop the cycle of child abuse and neglect in our communities by supporting Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Trust Foundation.”

“The Courage Classic Bicycle Tour was created as a fundraising ride to support the Rotary Endowment for the Intervention and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. This endowment will ensure that the children in our communities and their families will never be turned away from the help they might need in the case of sexual or physical abuse.”

You can read about TB’s training exploits on his blog. You can find out more about the Courage, Mary Bridge, and the Foundation here, here, and here.

If you donate, tell TB that Steve sent ya.

The Boyfriend (TB) owns a house. The house, which sits on 2 lots, was built about 30 years ago. The house and the yard require a certain amount of maintenance. And by “a certain amount,” I mean … it seems like it never ends.

Whenever TB has to do something house-related (replace an attic fan, build a deck, etc.), I tell him, “Remind me never to buy a house.” And whenever he has to do something yard-related (mow the lawn, pull weeds, prune a tree, etc.), I tell him, “Two words: rock garden.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever buy a house, but if I do, something like this just might work: 84 square feet (yes, 84; that’s not a typo), constructed from salvaged materials, no yard maintenance. And it’s on wheels. Bonus!

June 30, 2007

Is it possible to be “killed by stab wounds”? According to the Seattle Times, it is. Today’s story about the murder of Mike Webb, a former radio talk show host, says Webb was “killed by stab wounds.” That may be technically, medically, and/or forensically correct (I really don’t know), but it sounds grammatically and/or semantically incorrect. “Died from stab wounds” and “stabbed to death” sound correct.

Not the point of the article, I know. The point is, Webb was last seen alive in mid-April, reported missing approximately one month later and, despite multiple police visits to Webb’s home—one with a cadaver dog—, Webb’s body was not discovered until the end of June. And it was discovered not by police, but by a worker hired by Webb’s landlord.

But it does go to the point of this post and one of my … um, tendencies.