A breached door redux

I obviously jinxed myself, because this morning at 5 am I was woken by the sound of the door handle twanging open, followed a couple of seconds later by a cat nudging my hand. I put the cat out, but a few seconds later I heard the door open again. I locked the door after I kicked her out this time, but she then proceeded to try to open the door for the next twenty minutes or so, illustrating the fact that extinction does in fact take longer than behavior acquisition. Now I'll just have to keep the door locked for the next several weeks, since periodic reinforcement is the best way to create lasting behaviors (if she gets in every once in a while, she'll keep trying forever).

A breached door

My cats have figured out how to open doors. The first time they did it, a couple of weeks ago, I thought it might have been an accident (and it probably was). However, they let themselves in yesterday morning and again this morning, so I guess they've finally figured out the secret. Fortunately, so far they only seem to let themselves in in the morning after we're already up, so we don't have to start locking the door. I guess they're just really eager for breakfast.

A weekend foray into the world of Frisbee golf

Having been cave dwellers for the past few years, R and I launched Operation Get Out Of the House On the Weekend (aka Operation Stop Sitting On Our Lazy Asses and Watching Television All Weekend). For the past month or so we have just been going to the beach on Saturdays (an easy activity in San Diego, as long as you don't mind the walk to and from the car), but this weekend we decided to change things up and go Frisbee golfing. I suck at throwing Frisbees, so I was a little concerned. It turned out alright, though I was clearly the loser out of the three of us. It was fun. Really fun. So much fun, actually, that we got a set of disks and are going to go again tomorrow. You do have to wonder about the type of people who go there, though. While we were waiting for the group in front of us to finish up, I overheard this conversation from the group behind us:

"So, looks like I'm going to have a girlfriend pretty soon. Guess I'm gonna have to try and stay faithful."
"It's hard to be faithful living downtown."

Dumbasses.

I shall leave you with the shoe tree, which can be found by the second tee.

A tale of curry

So yesterday, R went out to a Japanese place for lunch with one of his colleagues. The guy had been to the restaurant before and recommended the curry. R proceeded to order the curry, and it came, hot and delicious smelling to his table. R took one bite, and then said, "You know, I have this very thing in the refrigerator back in the office." As it turns out, we had eaten curry last night and I gave him the leftovers for lunch. I guess I do a pretty good job, eh?

A trip to the Museum of Man

I've always been a fan of museums. We'd always visit a few on family trips, and I would thoroughly enjoy them until I got bored, at which point in time I would mope around and while until we left. In any case, I saw an ad for an exhibit on body ornamentation at the museum of man, and I decided that I had to go. R, having grown up in San Diego, has been to the museums of Balboa Park for many a school trip, so he didn't really want to go (plus I don't know that many guys who like to hit up museums). I decided to make a day of it and packed myself a picnic lunch (Brie and home-made pesto sandwich on rosemary bread, cherry tomatoes, leftover shrimp with garlic and lemon, mini oranges, and Pocky. I then freaked out and almost didn't go, as I was terrified of going anywhere new by myself. However, after deciding not to go and unpacking my bag, the knot in my stomach made me realize that I wouldn't be able to live with my cowardice, so I decided to go anyway.

After a brief search, whereupon I rediscovered the reason that people bring blankets to sit on for picnics, I found a nice shady spot to eat my lunch. As usual, I brought way too much food.
I then went to the museum, whereupon I found the body art exhibit to be interesting, but less than impressive (and rather small). The other exhibit in the room had a pair of trepanated skulls, so I decided that it wasn't a total loss.

I then wandered about, crossing over an elevated walkway into another section of the museum, and there I happened upon the most interesting exhibit. It was about molas, wwhich are made by the Kuna Indians of Panama. The molas are these brightly colored, finely decorated squares of fabric that are used for the front of the women's' blouses. For me, though, the most interesting part was not the craftmanship (though it was exquisite), but rather the way that these women have integrated the modern world into their traditional culture. The molas didn't just have rustic or traditional designs, but elements of their every-day life as well as reflections of their current culture. They had their own interpretations of appliances, cartoon characters, and even a JFK memorial mola. My favorite, though, were the bra and panties molas. Awesome.

I'll leave you now with "La sirena ambiciosa (the ambitious siren)."