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Month: May 2008

WE GOT HIM!
Yes, indeedy: Homo sapiens bested Wile E Kitteh (Felix nutbar) in a contest of wills! I would post some pics but none are forthcoming while the lil fellar is currently trashing the shower room. The very first thing he did upon exiting the humane trap was leap for the shower curtain/bar and then I knew it was time to beat a hasty retreat—even though I was wearing a Kevlar jacket and steel-lined gloves. I was reminded of the time greel08 "managed" some guests in their bathroom; catigerz said she could hear it when they (more than one wild kitteh) (how gutsy is greel08?) (or....?) decided to use HIM as their highway to heaven. As in, they ran up and over him, no matter our dermis is not designed to withstand razor sharp kitteh claws. She could hear his cries of distress but catigerz is one slick chick and knew better than to enter THAT fray.

Its a sad day in Xangaland when one's post centers around some poor innocent wild creature...but Mr Shithead is actually not that kind of feral and completely deserves the monniker assigned to him. He's so slick that we have yet to figure out where the frack he was holed up in the warehouse. You have to understand how absolutely triumphant we feel, considering one small kitteh was holding the rest of us hostage for days...the others couldn't frolic and gambol like normal since he would attack and injure them. He appears to be a young-ish male, full of vim and vinegar (translation: spiteful and spitfire) so I fully expect him to be completely unpleasant during his stay at the Hôtel d'IZ. Kinda like a someone on PCP. Or maybe Naomi Campbell when she finds out her luggage was lost at the airport.

All I know is that Himself did not participate in the actual bagging and sequestering of Mr Shithead so he has to clean up the shower room after our guest has been "processed" (tested, vaccinated, neutered and released). My guess: Mr Shithead makes Amy Winehouse look like Mother Teresa.

Update: (9:00am PDT) Himself just went in to take a shower; I told him he'd better enter the room fully clothed in case Mr Shithead decided to go for the jugular or other parts. MS was actually hunkered into the cat carrier and said not one word. He HAD made a complete tour of the shower and that meant scaling the walls where IKEA baskets hung about 6 feet up, loaded with shampoo goodies. Now all the goodies are now on the ground because MS was using the baskets as an elevated roadway (like the Chicago Ell). MS has got to be one of the smallest yet....most active—yeah, that's the term—feral we've processed yet!
- 4:43 am
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Various and Sundry
First of all, Happy Belated Frackin' Friday - slash - Happier Start to a Holiday Weekend!

I Can Has Cheezburger Strikes Again
The following pic reminds me of the detente struck between Fredders and the Ever-Expanding Jorge. I was not a proponent of making Señor Jorge a member of the flock (that would be Himself) since things were pretty dicey to begin with. BTW, cats are not pack animals like dogs so there is a definite maximum capacity for a given territory. Initially, Jorge and _____ (fill in the blank) did NOT get along so there were lots of stand-offs, hissing and snarling (= drama) although interestingly enough, no physical altercations.

Now that the testosterone levels have chilled, there are occasional raised hackles or inadvertant face-to-face's with both parties backing off asap but things have somewhat mellowed out. Its kinda nice that Fred has maintained the upper paw; when we first got him, the vet looked at the scars on his tush and clucked sympathetically as they were proof he was the one to run while the aggressor(s) swiped at his retreating backside. Now big ole Jorge is the one to shrink back and take wide detours around the Fred-meister even though Ever-Expanding probably outweighs him by at least 5 lbs.

Eerie Pictures from China
The following SFGate pictures were captured by a photographer taking wedding shots for one of five couples posing by an unused church in Sichuan Province. The screenshots also show Yahoo! ads which add irony to the visuals:

DigiShots Photography
If the Moment Matters, the Photographer Matters.

Minneapolis, MC Wedding Photographer
Getting married? This special day of your life deserves to be documented by a photographer with talent...

Missouri Photographer Artistic Weddings
Duncan Photography specializes in unique, storybook style wedding photography...

Personal Log 24.05.08
Its now One Week of No TV which hasn't been completely horrible due to the existence of YouTube and MySpace TV videos and blogs and....well gee whiz, the advantage of not wasting time in front of the boob tube has been supplanted by perusing every other type of media possible. The real pain in the ass has been Looking for Mr Shithead which is now on Night ~~Three~~ Four. Although we finally managed to lure the sucker into the warehouse and close off the cat door, the latest problem is his ability to successfully secrete himself in said warehouse. And can I say: Mr Shithead is THE smartest frackin' cat we've ever crossed paths with—more brilliant than even Tobi.

I. AM. POOPED.

We now have the VEO observation camera trained on the cat door leading to the outside and Himself is setting it up to send out email alerts if there is movement detected.

Somehow I don't think this is going to work.
- 2:55 pm
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Random Thoughts du Jour...
- gojeannie wrote the most awesome blog on the day California legalized same-sex marriage; her writing was thoughtful and reflected her very personal views. She explained that she was presenting her opinions and although people might disagree, they were entitled to their viewpoint and she was not going to censor their choice. Leave it to Xanga to list this blog under Featured Content on their homepage. ZOWIE! Talk about going from SciFi Grrl to the Most Popular Blogger...Ever! I guess responses were flying in fast and thick—to the point where Xanga changed the format and prevented comments from being posted, allowing only emails sent to gojeannie. Sure enough, there were puh-lenty of people who were negative, condemning and ultra-narrow/unforgiving (as if there was a transgression) but also many, many supportive and kindred spirits. I had to laugh at the Xangans who were so incensed at not being able to post their views that they appended them to unrelated entries. Amazing, the power of the written word and especially, the global impact of the blogsphere. Thank you for your openness and forthright writing, gojeannie—and for just being yourself. You GO, girl!

- and now for probably the most non-controversial topic ever: Brown Rice. Seriously. GlamGrrl and patticass both discovered Trader Joe's has its own label brown rice that is pre-cooked and frozen. Each packet only needs 3 minutes in the microwave for grainy goodness. Genius!

- well, its been frackin' windy all afternoon. This does not bode well for "Looking for Mr Shithead," part deux. As in, it doesn't look good for Himself and moi since MS has his own fur coat, thank you. Wish us luck!

- I'm a' likin' the semi-theme of today's I Can Has Cheezburger:
- 6:30 pm
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Day Five of No Television
But who's counting.

Found substitutes that aren't exactly equivalent...however, beggars can't be choosers:
1) Apple must've flagged my account for suspicious activity by now as the iTune store has had more downloads in the past 5 days than in the previous 2 years. Focusing on New Wave, esp British.
2) YouTube - not that I would stoop to watching video after video on my iPhone as Himself is now doing these days (= addicted). For one, I don't have an iPhone.
3) gojeannie pointed me to MySpaceTV.com which, fortunately or not, has full-on TV shows. Watching on a 17" 3 year old notebook kinda sucks pondwater, though. When you can't see the difference between Laura Roslyn and Gaius Baltar, you know its time for an upgrade.
4) Never realized just how many books I bought in the past year or two which were unread. Will remain so as items 1-3 take up most of my bandwidth. Kidding.
Finishing projects comes as a distant fifth but yes...there is some closure on that front.

Entertaining TV Substitute...or not
Turns out the New Kid in Town, a lithe cream tabby, is younger, faster and aggressive-er than our Kidz as evidenced by the slashes and gouges inflicted on Fredders, Cinderelly and the Ever-Expanding Jorge (thanks for that monniker, patticass!). All told, Mr Shithead, as he will be fondly (not) called from now on, has cost us more than $600 in vet bills, mucho stress and time spent waiting in exam rooms in the short space of 2 weeks. Plan of Attack: snag him, get him over to All About Pets (which still processes ferals) and see where things go from there. If he's sick—meaning FIV and FeLV—then its the Long Goodbye; otherwise, its the Big Snip and, hopefully, a more Koombiyah attitude (yarite).

Here's how things played out last night:

8pm - Sat in the wind tunnel, aka the IZ backyard [comment: how did the temps go from 90's to 50's in a week's time? And what's with this gale-force wind? Man, its cold!]
8:30pm - Himself was cleverly emailing during this whole time [comment: DANG, its cold!]
9pm - HEY....there's Mr Shithead coming in the gate! OH NO....here's Himself coming out the back door!! Stop, Himself—you're scaring MS off!!! But to no avail [comment: rats]
9:05pm - Himself finally deigned to join the fun. He was going to smoke while waiting...which could scare off MS but it was another case of blah-blah-blah (Ginger) blah-blah-blah (bad dog) [comment: DAY-AM, its cold!]
10pm - Went inside to get something—anything—constructive done [comment: heh, heh...now its Himself's turn]
11pm - Moved the van close to the cat door so I could sit in relative comfort and maybe MS wouldn't see me (yarite) [comment: not half-bad...tunes and a drink...this is civilized]
11:05pm - What's that noise?!?? NOOOOOOOOOOO—its the Dumpster Divers scrounging for (get this) ant-laden cat fud cans! MS is staying away, fer sure [comment: stoopid vultures]
12midnight - Snuck out the other man door, tiptoed around the back side of the bldg, spent 5 minutes moving my head slowly past the corner to watch the gate [comment: obviously out of shape; neck is already getting stiff]
12:10am - Went back inside to get something—anything—constructive done, encore [comment: fergit this]
2am - Took trash to the dumpster and THERE WAS MR SHITHEAD! But—wouldn't you know?—he saw me and blasted out the gate [comment: maybe a Wily Coyote 200 lb weight perched above the gate isn't a half-bad idea at this point] [wouldn't have to worry about neutering]
3am - Remembered the van [comment: yeah, short-term still ain't what it used to be] and sat there with tunes playing. Pulled on a wool cap to complete the fashion statement of sweater-fleece-Himself jacket, sweatpants, socks and flaps [comment: am wondering if maybe this is a close recreation of the Ice Room in Red Square? Well, without friends. Plus no fur coat. Certainly sans vodka and appetizers. Okay, scratch that thought. Must be getting delirious]
4am - What's that noise?!?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—its the garbage truck! Calling it a night, as I should've about 4 frackin' hours ago [comment: Sheesh]
- 1:34 pm
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Can I Do It???
By It, I mean: can one live a normal and productive life SANS TELEVISION??!? <horrified gasp!> Yes, indeedy, we're talking visceral life-changing, priority-arranging shtuff here. El Boob Tube bit the dust after many years of faithful service and in this day and age of disposable belongings, its almost not worth the effort to get this sucker fixed. After all, flat screen TVs have become "affordable" (assuming you have a job) and fixing older electronics is decidedly not. Also, some of us who shall remain nameless (Himself) have a bad back which will definitely get worse-er trying to lift the behemoth. And truly, one has to consider the time spent (= wasted) sitting slack-jawed and unblinking in front of the entertainment god...time which could otherwise be used towards bigger and better things.

Must ponder.

Various and Sundry...
'Alien' as envisioned by William

The final scene has been deleted in order to maintain the "G" rating of this entry. Suffice it to say it wasn't a pretty picture. Seriously.

So Maybe I Shouldn't Be Allowed to Garden...
Yas, I know its way late in the year to do some pruning but the gardening bug didn't hit until very late. That coupled with the fact the yard got practically NO attention last year meant a real machete/jungle scenario. In that vein, I chose to hard-prune the roses as I firmly believe they like to be abused rather than pampered. Perhaps I overdid it a tad.

Starting point

Uncle!

Twins? Not so much. Darwinism will tell.

In Vino Veritas
Went to a Kendall-Jackson Wine Club event courtesy of GlamGrrl's co-worker (who shall remain nameless) (for real, this time). It was a pleasant outing in the middle of the Russian River countryside at K-J's bee-yoo-tiful chateau, for wont of a better descriptor. The theme being An Afternoon in Paris meant puh-lenty o' wines paired with delecto French-ish fud (although LaurenKaz was D-D and driving a rental car so that meant Don't Screw Up ergo wine intake was at an all-time low).

K-J employed their own Thor, the magnetic induction cooktop that is the best thing since sliced bread, to warm a sublime cassoulet whose ingredients included duck confit and sausage. Yep, watching the calories and fat content. Watching them land on my backside, that is.

Believe it or not, both GlamGrrl and I feasted our eyes on the cassoulet...

...and completely ignored the beefcake serving it. We DO have our priorities, after all.

GlamGrrl and Our Companion

K-J employed a fabuloso caricature artist...he was fun and flirtatious and somehow able to draw while sitting in gale force winds. Glamgrrl and I got the royal treatment—he brought out all sorts of colored pens to jazz up our likenesses but, alas and alack, Our Companion didn't fare so well and only got a cursory wash of GREY. Needless to say, OC wasn't too pleased but artistic license means that reality is in the eye of the beholder. The hair coloration of the person on the left, BTW, is completely realistic; the cleavage, not so much.
Random Monday Thoughts
Finally made it through the latest BSG episode, "The Road Less Traveled." Have to admit being painfully bored with the last 2 shows in spite of the portents pointing to a grand revelation or two or twenty. This ep seemed very much like how pilots describing flying: (seemingly) hours of ennui interspersed with moments of sheer terror—or in this case, some entertainment. Whizzed through with the TiVO setting on FF2 which is kinda like speed reading, touching on the main points without being dragged down by drivel. But then I thought to myself: Self, you could be missing something really pivotal so you'd better watch it in real time.

I really shouldn't listen to myself.

- Would love to nuke the Baltar storyline altogether. When I hear his psuedo-religious-cult slash demi-god psycho-babble, I think of the Far Side What Dogs Hear cartoon: Blah blah blah (Ginger) blah blah blah (bad dog) blah blah blah. Or the Charlie Brown wha-wha-wha-wha sound. He'd be better off juggling whilst riding a unicycle and sporting a chartreuse tutu, fuzzy blue wig plus big red nose to keep attention on himself. I say they should airlock him so he really goes out with a bang.

- The producers owe us the frackin' best series ending of all time for putting up with the Starbuck thread. Seriously, if SHE was confronted by a finger-painting loony-tune such as herself, she'd be the first to airlock that person. HO HUM.

- What's with Anders not having a brain once he figured out he's a Cylon? Its one thing to have an unrequited love that's romantic or poignant (of which it is neither). He's seven cans short of a 6-pack if he thinks Starbuck is worthy of his adoration or (I pick Door #2, Monty) isn't smoking and not sharing. He deserves to be airlocked for stoopidity. YAWN.

- When did those formerly fine BSG crew members, now stuck in the Demetrius, become milquetoasts or pantywaists? After Adama assigned them the thankless task of serving on a garbage scow under a female Jim Jones (or wait—that's Baltar). Airlock the lot of 'em. SNORE.

And then I realized the True Meaning of BSG: they introduced the verb "airlocking" as a convenient and still thrilling way of excising expendable crewpersons while maintaining audience interest. Gold star for that one, folks.

Lest you worry that sci-fi has taken over my brain, fear not—I are not a Pod Person. Here's something to brighten your day: winsome shots of Marvin aka Marfin the Muffin Man. Sucker has to weigh more than 25 lbs by now.

This series of shots shows Marfin's progress across the carpet (he is the master of subtlety, BTW):

Don't be fooled by that somewhat svelte marbled side shot, however...here's his best sea elephant impression (yes, that's all Marfin, all the time):

Doing a darn good job, too.

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Month: May 2008

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