I Doubt It Was the Coyote

I started off the morning by waking way damn earlier than I wanted to be up. But it was for a good cause. Which was to go hiking with my parents at Oak Canyon.

Oak Canyon is in the direction of Riverside, and is a Nature Conservatory right in the middle of a suburbs. As you could tell by the name, there are a lot of oak trees. Also, there are streams, walnut trees, and hiking trails. And rabbits. Oh, George, the rabbits! From adult to baby, any size rabbit you could possibly want to take a gander at was hopping about.

Its apparently wabbit season in Oak Canyon, and incidentally, its Hawk season as well. The food chain and all. I also heard Quail, and my parents said there were squirrels, ducks, and tree rats. Yeah, tree rats. I didn’t know that’s something I could look forward to. I don’t hate rats. In fact, I wouldn’t be against having a pet rat. it’s the WILD rats I’m not too fond of. They tend to have a just a tad too much to do with plagues.

The hike was good, and the exercise was something I could always use.

Later I made plans with Amy to hang out with her for her birthday. No, I’m not that great and thoughtful. Her birthday had been two days ago. But you see, I was dealing the car stuff, so I wouldn’t have been the best of company then. So I owed her some quality friend time, so by gum, I would make it happen!

We met up at Starbucks and talked for a bit, before heading out to a Pho restaurant that she’s a big fan of. We followed that up with some hanging out at Borders to show her some of the short stories that Jim Butcher had written over the years. She was now officially in the same boat with me on The Dresden Files… waiting a full year between books. Argh.

We went back to her house so she could print me up a copy of a chapter of her short story she was writing, and so I could see the Illustration finals she had drawn. The drawings were awesome, and I will be reading the story tomorrow, so I will be finding out if she’s a Triple Art Threat: An artist, a musician, AND a writer? I’m getting ready to feel intimidated.

Also, Amy’s mom told me about something that had happened that morning that usually belongs in the foreboding opening scenes of horror movies or creepy X-Files episodes:

Amy’s dad found a severed cat head on their lawn. *shudder*

The people from Animal Services said that it was a coyote that did it. But isn’t that always how this stuff starts? “It was a coyote… oops, actually it was the creepy, insane monster dude two doors down.” Amy‘s dad said that the cat head did not look chewed on, so he was skeptical about it being an animal that did it. But at the same time, he didn’t really want it to be a bored psychopath-in-training. So its one of the few times that I find myself hoping that a coyote bit off a cat’s head.

Weird times.

I got home and was greeted by the arrival of a new episode of Doctor Who: Vampires of Venice. This is only new by the fact that the American On-Demand had just gotten it, but it was one episode behind Britain, which had just aired Amy’s Choice. Its not much of a delay, all said and done. And if I really want to, I can grab the next episode with no problem.

Vampires of Venice was pretty good. As with nearly all Doctor Who episodes, there is bound to be some great moments. A character named Rory had an incredible moment confronting the Doctor on something that had always been one of the Doctor’s biggest problems. It was pretty cool that someone actually called him on it, especially considering Rory’s demeanor.

But I’m getting a little concerned with Amy’s character development. She’s coming off as a bit of a crappy person, and its getting harder for me to really like her, with all the things she’s been doing. I’ll have to watch and see, though. Because this season of Doctor Who is still amazing!

Topics of Conversation: Baby rabbits, Aloha Pineapple, drugging kids to get them to sleep, pizzas, The Fantastic Ruckus, my morning self, fonts, fortune cookies that are sometimes right, an expansive vocabulary, etc.

-Nate