Screenshot from my Google homepage.

Here is the latest! Don’t put your dog and baby in the car trunk!!!

…EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING…

THIS EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IS BEING ISSUED UTILIZING THE NEW HEAT HEALTH WARNING SYSTEM. IT IS SPECIFIC TO THE AREAS INCLUDED IN THIS HEAT WARNING. IT IS TARGETED AT THE ELDERLY OR INFIRMED…WHO MIGHT BE MUCH MORE SENSITIVE TO HEAT AND THUS AT GREATER RISK. INDIVIDUALS WHO FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY SHOULD BE ESPECIALLY CAREFUL BY DRINKING PLENTY OF WATER AND SEEKING A COOLER LOCATION FOR THE DAY IF NO AIR CONDITIONING IS AVAILABLE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT FRIENDS OR RELATIVES CHECK FREQUENTLY ON THOSE WHO MIGHT BE PRONE TO HEAT SENSITIVITY.

ALSO…NEVER LEAVE CHILDREN…ELDERLY OR PETS UNATTENDED IN ENCLOSED VEHICLES…EVEN FOR A SHORT TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE- THREATENING LEVELS EVEN WHEN THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPENED.

Kaati, not eating a bird

the office cat kills a bird in the courtyard and eats it next to your chair. No thanks Kaati, I’m not that hungry. You go ahead and finish it yourself.

Dog on Shoes, in Venice CA.

In the spirit of the “Daily Puppy” website that some of you may be familiar with, I present the Markasaurus “Tuesday Pet Pal” feature, that may or may not ever be repeated. I took this photo in Venice, CA on my recent trip. This dog s sitting on the shoes that are displayed in the bottom of the store window while someone puts up a new display.

I should mention that the most popular post I’ve ever written was about the Black and White Tegu, a large semi-aggressive lizard that some of you might remember from last August. It makes up over 3% of the pageviews for the entire site, and is the top landing page behind the index. If anyone knows anything about why these animals are so popular I would love to hear an explanation.

Handwriting Analysis, near the corner of 9th and Lincoln. 

I spotted this sign on Lincoln Blvd. today on the way in to Golden Gate Park. A handwriting analysis office? I’m intrigued. Even more intriguing: they aren’t on yelp.com yet. If you have had your handwriting analyzed at DaHil’s, now’s your chance to be the “first to review.”

On a side note, did anyone else catch “Desperate Housewives” tonight? I was drinking a 16 oz. can of Bud Light on the couch with the cat and couldn’t help but be fascinated by the insane number of plot twists the writers managed to pack into one episode. Phew. I need to go to bed.

Rite Aid Beverly Hills, at night.

Yes, that’s right (or should I say “Rite”). Not only is there a Rite Aid in Beverly Hills, they actually call it “Rite Aid Beverly Hills” with “Beverly Hills” written in script on the sign as if it were a Bentley dealer or Cartier. Upon going into the store, it was mostly good old Rite Aid- sunscreen, medicine and snack food as far as the eye can see. There was an ice cream parlor inside too, but I have seen those in other Rite Aid locations. It’s not like they were selling caviar and pate flavored soft serve or anything either, it was just regular ice cream.

This picture depicts a display window on the back of a trashy lingerie shop on La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood. What was I doing at a trashy lingerie shop? I was on my way to the organic vegan restaurant next door, of course. Note that one of the mannequins in this photo is disintegrating. I don’t have any theories on that, or at least any theories I could reveal in a family-oriented blog like this.That’s the best part about LA- you’ll find insane juxtapositions of high and low culture, good taste and bad, or hippie food and pervert mannequin fetish all on the same block (oh, wait, this is starting to sound like my Master’s Thesis).

As long as we’re on the subject of weird juxtapositions in Los Angeles, don’t white plaster statues of men with American flags make you want to run out and buy a suit?

Santa Monica Topiary Dinosaurs, proudly guarding the Promenade.

Yes, even Los Angeles has dinosaurs. Of course, they are made out of shrubs and shoot water from their mouths while people casually eat frozen yogurt and shop at an outdoor mall. This is one of the many highlights of last weekend’s trip.

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I’m sure many of you have heard of it by now. It’s a museum that is really more of a conceptual art project. While it projects the trappings of an “official” museum, you never quite know whether the things on display are real or not. You also never really know why they are on display, as much of what’s in the museum looks either obscure, insignificant or both. Long story short, I can’t describe it well enough to do it justice. If you are passing through Culver City, give yourself at least an hour and a half to see the displays and more than that if you want to read everything (actually you would need a whole day for that).

One of the displays featured this glass case with a dog’s head inside. Through a series of prisms, the image of a man fidgeting in a chair and barking is projected into space so that when you look into the case, he appears to be in the dog’s head. Then he starts barking. It’s priceless, and this one exhibit is worth the price of admission alone.

Yesterday (April 23rd) was my 30th birthday. While some people fear this occasion, I was not particularly dreading it. I had a small gathering with some friends at the Dovre Club on Valencia Street in San Francisco. My friend Rob thought to bring a piñata, which is becoming a tradition for him.

Foods Co., Rob’s normal source for piñatas, was out of stock (Foods Co. is a discount grocery store where you can get a box of faux-Mexican cookies for that will feed desert to 60 people for $2.99 and you can get great deals on nearly-expired bread) so he had to go elsewhere and purshase a Sesame Street Piñata with streamers. This was fine, because I like streamers, and the candy tastes the same either way.

We couldn’t find anywhere to safely hang it inside the bar, so Rob rigged it up to the street-crossing sign out front, which happened to be in front of a very photogenic mini-backhoe. I managed to bust the piñata open after about four whacks, and everyone (by everyone, I mean my friend Andy while everyone else stood at the side and stared at the filthy sidewalk) rushed in and took their pickings from the selection of suckers and chocolate. Despite the razor-sharp staples that were protruding out of the sides of the piñata (watch out kids!) a good time was had by all- even though I am now officially “old.”

More photos here, if you dare.

I’m not sure what to make of this one. I suppose it could have been domesticated, but that squirrel I saw on the sidewalk looked and behaved sort of “domesticated” too and I couldn’t catch it either.

Okay, I admit I’m posting this a bit late. I have been really busy and we actually had some hot weather for the first time in about a year last weekend, so I haven’t been blogging. Last week, Caltrans (the California department of transportation) threw a festive gathering in front of my office to celebrate the new overpass that has been under construction on the other side of the wall at my office for the last year. They call it the “West Approach” because it is the west approach to the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The Governator showed up, but nobody actually saw him. He pulled up in an SUV on the overpass, out of site of the party, and gave a speech the was telecast to people standing on the ground about 200 feet away. Following the speech he drove away. It was completely surreal. Then, they served really awful (free) food including vegetarian baked beans that tasted like wet packing peanuts. Oh, and cupcakes. Sweet, delicious blue and orange cupcakes. Unfortunately the frosting melted instantly in the sun. Special thanks to my friend Angela and her iPhone for the photos.