Lots of kitty goodness again this week! The Carnival is at Watermark.
November 2004 Archives
"I'm sooooooo full! Maybe I shouldn't have had thirds."
"Oh, would you just shut up and take a nap already."
Last night after dinner--we're playing Quiddler in the dining room. The TV is on VH1 Classics in the living room, so we have a background game of Metal going on as well.
New song. Two notes. "Cars!" from Mark and Geoff at the same time.
One beat later, "Live Cars!" from Mark and Geoff at the same time.
And of course they were right. Now, I ask you, how is a mortal human supposed to compete with that?
This is an example of why I peruse Gizmodo fairly regularly (from this post)
I hadn't realized how many people still used XLR microphone inputs until I made an offhanded comment to a musician friend earlier. I have been suitably informed: Take the number of people you think might still use XLR inputs, add in the number of musicians you know personally, then multiply that by every star in the universe. The end product will not be the number of XLR users exist, but a measurement, in pounds, of how full of shit you are.
Well, that and all the cool stuff that I'll never buy but like looking at.
Found this post making a case for less regulated health care (via GeekPress). The Thanksgiving Lesson post on the same site is also interesting (takes a bit of work to digest the Olde Grammare in the citation, but it's worth it.)
Maybe this is a reach, but these comments seem to me to fall in the same category of "aha!" that Dave Ramsey's "pay for everything with cash and you'll THINK a lot harder about what you really need and want" attitude. We appreciate things that we work for and earn*. And when we have to spend our hard-earned cash on something (like Lasik) and it's not covered by insurance, well, we're not going to get the procedure until we think it's worth the price. And the providers have to figure out what our price is and meet it or go out of business. (Of course, you could be like me and just be too chicken to do it, no matter how cheap it gets. That's different ;-)
* Of course we ALSO appreciate gifties! I'm not trying to dis Santa here....
Yesterday Mr. Man was off to a MTG tourney, so I had the day to myself. I spent most of my time poring over census records in search of my great-grandfather James Deam. And it was worth it, because I found him! Not only that, I found his parents and their parents. All the way back to 1860!! I guess this is old hat for experienced genealogists, but it's downright amazing to me.
Of course, this census data throws my filing system into disarray, so I have some thinking to do there, but that's okay. It is just incredible to look at a PDF file of an 1860 census and know that the people listed there are my family!
After my last range session, I did a bit of research, and decided to try holding the gun differently. The pro of the new grip is that I seem to be more consistent and it's much more comfortable and doesn't beat up on my weak hand index finger at all.
The downside is that now that I've wrapped my strong hand further around the grip, I can barely reach the trigger in double-action, so I'm reduced to cocking each time to shoot single-action. I can only shoot three shots double before my forearm gives out and I just can't get the trigger back again using the tiny bit of fingerpad that reaches.
BUT, I shot two boxes and was as accurate (it's all relative, okay?) at the end of the session as at the beginning, so that is heartening. Based on the handy-dandy target analysis card provided by the range 
I think I need to work on a smoother pull.
The Carnival of the Cats is at Leslie's Omnibus this week. TONS of kitty goodness :-)
I found more to love at my public library :-)
"Hmm. I hear ribbons are supposed to be slimming."
"Now how do you suppose you wear this thing?"
"Okay, I think I've got it. I'm just going to rest here for a minute and practice looking svelte."
Lorax: "Psst, your ribbon is undone."
"Okay, seriously. Does this ribbon make my butt look big?"
The remains of four vases.
Rotten feline.
Sigh.
Yesterday Marianne and I shopped ALL DAY, initially fortified by a delicious Just Joe breakfast (complete with mimosas!) and resuscitated with a typically incredible Chez Mark dinner (and several rousing hands of Quiddler). We have such good men!!
First we went to the powwow, where I found a necklace and two (2!) rings. The chain on the necklace is kind of beat up, so I may do something a bit more attractive with it at some point, but I like the spiral links.
This ring isn't nearly as fuzzy in real life...
and I thought I'd show this one in its natural setting.
Then we went to the Houston Bead Society show at the Firehouse in the Heights:
I have NO idea what I'm going to do with those teeny tiny bugle beads. They are the smallest beadies I've ever seen. But they were just too gorgeous to pass up.
Oh, the glittery goodness of it all.... 'Twas a superlative day indeed.
Mark got a call this morning from a friend who had been hunting, and an hour later, we had a cooler full of bones. Ewwww.... But he cooked all day and now we have a freezer full of venison stock and wild boar stock, and tonight for dinner we had wine soup (with the venison stock), ribeyes, broccoli rabe, and risotto (with the boar stock). Well! And tomorrow night we're having pork chops (with wild boar demiglace), boulangerie potatoes and brussels sprouts with pancetta. Okay then!
When I married my husband, I got the best deal on the planet.
I actually got a picture of Lorax without the glowing green eyes :-)
I didn't realize how photo-intensive this catblogging gig was going to be. Now I have all these really horrible pictures of the felines, so I think the next entry will be Embarrassing Cat Pictures.
Okay, after that last post I realized I still haven't put up a picture of Ivan, so here goes:
Isn't he handsome? (Like all the men in my life :-)
Mark bought Ivan for me from Mr. On-the-Water. I met Jim at Kim's open house in September, and hopefully he agrees that his gun has a fine new home.
So I went to the handgun range by myself for the first time today. I'm still kind of amped up about it, even though I didn't shoot very well. I only shot one box and with no-one to talk to, no targets zooming in and out, no switching guns, etc. it didn't take long at all. I'd love to go every day at lunch, but I'd be broke in short order.
Anyhow, here's the first target (4 inch diameter inner circle, 6 inch outer):
and yes, that leftmost one is really only half-a-hole off the edge of the page :-( Plus I can only find 11 holes there, so one must have gone off into the wild blue yonder.
My next target wasn't any better, but about halfway through I finally found the middle (more or less):
I quit early on that one because I thought it looked pretty good :-) There was one waaaaay down at the bottom of the page that obviously didn't belong, but we're not talking about that right now, are we?
I'm shooting all double-action but very close--the first marker on the range. Maybe 3 yards? I don't actually know....
It didn't get any better than that, although, looking at the whole page, it didn't really get a whole lot worse. (Pat on back.) Even though it wasn't a very long session, I was physically done after shooting just one box. Partly from being tense about being there by myself, and partly because, well, the gun's heavy.
I definitely need practice, but Ivan rocks :-)
Thank you to all the veterans of our mighty armed forces. Your service guarantees my freedom and I am grateful beyond words.
Now isn't this the sweetest kitty ever??
I can't believe she held still long enough for me to get this picture. Usually she puts her nose right in the camera as soon as she sees it....
But I thought it first ;-)
And they usually have problems at inconvenient times. Thus I found myself choosing my clothes this morning based on what I could get into with the phone glued to one ear. And I learned that it's hard to comb my hair with my left hand. And now my Mad Oilman and TxB are off to shoot sporting clays and I'm waiting for my cellphone to ring again with the latest chapter in the saga that is NOT a move to production after all.... Sigh.
Both the cats are scared stiff of the vacuum cleaner, so Saturday morning usually isn't their favorite time. Today I decided to invade their hiding places....
Melvin goes behind the curtains in my bathroom. This is her standard "I'm not here" location, no matter what she's scared of. I think she's a big proponent of the "If I can't see the bad thing, it can't see me" theory. I snuck outside and stood in the azalea bush to get the picture.
Lorax tucks in under The Mad Oilman's shirts on the desk in his closet. As you can see, there is just exactly a cat-sized space between the top of the desk and the hems of the clothes. And she fills it elegantly, as she does most things.
I think I'm going to have to investigate Hello Kitty World just to see if Chococat is in town, so I can revel in unabashed cuteness....
[Link from BoingBoing--hopefully they'll shut up about the election soon]
UPDATE: OMG how cute is this....
Lileks takes on 70s interior design and comes up with the fabulous Panic Room. If I kept my shotgun anywhere near my sewing machine, I can guarantee that the Singer would not survive its next project. Normally I just curse and throw bobbins. If I could actually SHOOT it.... Oh, that would be so satisfactory.
Our precinct votes at an elementary school. I figured the kids would have the day off, but no, there they were. Wandering around, seemingly at random. I was beginning to wonder if there were any classes going on. Finally at 8:05 (I had over an hour to wonder about this) the announcements began. Why do the kids get there so early? I got to say the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time in a while, just a few minutes before I voted. Very appropriate, I think. No moonbats with videocameras in evidence. Everybody was pretty well behaved except the guy behind me who kept crowding me. Really, Mr. Space Invader, it didn't get you through the line any quicker.
