Blogging for FFUR: July 2006

Jeepers, Guys, It's All Over!

I want to thank all of you folks who stopped by and commented. You have no idea how OCD I am about checking comments during the blogathon. It's been nice reading everyone's notes.

Thanks to our two biggest real-time supporters, akaqueenie who left loads and loads of comments throughout the day, and Jimmy who gave me lots of blogging ideas and kept me company for several hours in the middle of the night--hurrah for time differences!

But clearly, the biggest thanks go to the incredible, generous folks who've signed on to sponsor us and help out the ladies who help the kitties at FFUR. Major props and applause and good karma is going out to:

akaqueenie
Ms. Pants
Marjie
MEW.nu
Mark
Lisa
Holly
Hop
And our 3 Anonymous Sponsors

With your help, we've managed to raise 255$ to help rescue stray cats in Philadelphia. I can't tell you how much we appreciate your support.

If you'd still like to sponsor us, you can go right ahead and do so. Sponsoring is open until about 48-hours after the blogathon, so keep on pledging if you haven't yet and you'd like to. There are goodies in it for you!

Thanks again. I'm going to bed now. Have a wonderful day, all!

'My cat's breath smells like catfood!'

Or it would if she would stop trying to ingest everything that isn't food lying around. I swear, Indy, dainty though she may be, and delicate as her tummy is, will try to eat anything. If there's a poof of fur on the floor and it attaches itself to her--regardless of what else is attached to the fur and irrespective of whose fur it is--Indy will gobble it up. I just caught her trying to eat packing tape. From the dispenser...not a piece that was randomly on the floor--oh no. She went straight for the source.

And at the mere thought of eating (even if it is the disgusting things my cat eats) has made my stomach rumbley. Go figure. At least if I don't feed it, it won't keep me awake longer. Ha! Only thirty minutes left to go!

Tick-tock, Clarice

It's almost the end of the line here. Of course, I had just managed to delude myself into thinking I only had one more post after this. Time drags when you're blogging for infinity hours--that's how the saying goes, right?

I can deal. Another hour isn't much anymore, and I've enough of a second wind (finally) to push me through the morning. Yea!

In response to the final question, will I do this again next year? Yes, assuming I am able. I've done it three times now...or was it four? No, three--once for Doctors Without Borders, once for RAINN, and once for the fabulous FFUR. As much as I hate the way the early morning hours draaaaaaaaaaag, they're kind of like childbirth (or so I've heard)--in time you forget how much it hurt. I really enjoy raising money for charities by doing something so simple, and especially this time around, I have a cause that's very near and dear to me. Where would I be would a daily dose of our resident doof-cat, Maddie?

TV Cat

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before, but here's a little poem that I've always loved about one of the most confused felines in the futuristory of television--Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation:

Data's cat Spot

An Ode to Spot

Felis Cattus, is your taxonomic nomenclature,
an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
contribute to your hunting skills, and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
a singular development of cat communications
that obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
for a rhythmic stroking of your fur, to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
you would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aide in locomotion,
it often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behaviour you display
connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

For those of you who don't know, Spot was a male for most of his life, and then all of a sudden, in the final season of the show, Spot got knocked up. I find it really quite amusing.

And more amusing would have been a regular mix of cats on TV for your viewing pleasure. Ah well. Maybe next year.

Wha...?

If I close my eyes for longer than it takes to blink, I actually start to doze off. I caught myself doing that a short while ago. Thank goodness there are only four more posts after this. I had realy wanted to finish my mousies, but at this rate, that's just so unlikely. Ah well. There's the whole afternoon when I get up, right? It's actually quite sunny out though. I feel inspired to be even lazier and watch some trashy infommercial-type television. Woot!

But a Few Moments

It is officially morning in Philly. It's astonishing the difference that three hours can make on this street. We live right in the middle of Center City, and on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings, as soon as the bars let out, it's crazy loud and insane outside. We get a LOT of 'Oh no you di'n't!' type fights on this block between the very flamey boys (we're in the Gayborhood) and the diva sistahs, so there's frequently drunken screaming of a very bitchy nature. A couple weeks ago upon arriving home very very late, we walked past a big pile of someone's weave sitting in front of the shop next door to our building. Skeavy! For some reason, HUGE crowds of people congregate around the corner of our block, and we're really perplexed as to why.

Fast forward to the six o'clock hour, and you hear overhead the first northbound airplanes flying out of Philly International. Right now, there's a person being airlifted to or from a hospital nearby. And the buses are running again en masse, even though it's a Sunday morning, and no one has to be anywhere for a while. If this had been a weekday, the past two-plus hours would have been filled with a chorus of garbage trucks emptying dumpsters, and shortly, they would be joined by jack-hammering and construction on this block and the next up.

It's just interesting to notice how brief the span between the end of night and the beginning of day really is.

Thank you very much to our anonymous sponsor who managed to make sure that we reached 250$ and met Sarah's goal. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you or any of our other anonymous donors would like to receive your incentives for your generosity, leave a comment somewhere!

Here Comes the Sun

It looks like the sun's coming up/come up. Who knew? That just goes to show how much I'm paying attention. I still haven't managed to make that shower yet, though. I keep getting distracted. Like there. You didn't notice it, but I was sooooo reading something random for about ten minutes after writing the first five sentences of this post...stop!

Showertime.

Incentives of a Nippy Nature

Well, the catnip mousies are coming along nicely, so don't forget that you get one if you donate--no matter how much you donate. Sarah posted a pic of the first 'nip mouse, and she also posted a picture of the fabulous, hand-knit kitty cat hat you get if you donate 50$. And if you happen to have 100$ extra dollars lying around, you'll get a lovely, comfortable bed hand-knit by yours truly for your special furry friend. So it's good for everyone to sponsor us! We only need 6 more dollars to reach 250$, too!

The sleepies are really biting my ass, so I think I'm going to hop into the shower or something. We'll see. Must stay awake for the kitties!

Gah!

Yes, it's officially been determined that the universe is conspiring against me.

I think my legs are trying to fall asleep without me.

But worse than that, even the dance station on Launchcast is disappointingly mellow and sleepy. What gives?

All right...let's try Gay Club Mix. At the very least, it should annoy me awake. Cross your fingers, and I'll get crackin' on some mousies.

Oh for fuck's sake, Launchcast! You just suck! This is slower than the other stuff!

Slowing Down Very Slowlike and with Much Slowness

I'm hitting that point in the night when I'm just kind of here. Mostly I feel really out of it. I keep catching myself staring off into space, and some part of me keeps getting confused and thinks the light behind me is the sunset showing up somehow...through the closed blinds, no less. And I wish I thought of getting some blogathon munchies. Silly me...who needs to eat after almost 20 hours of being awake?

Ahem. I'm whining.

I'm restless. I want to be doing something (sleeping) or to have some company (my stuffed frog and a snoozley Sarah).

And why am I listening to Bob Seger right now? Nothing like a really mellow, depressing song to pick me up, eh?

Sigh.

You Knew It Was Coming...

...knitting talk.

Thank the gods it's far later than most of y'all are up, right?

Well I've been thinking. Partly along the lines of eco-consciousness that I mentioned before, I've been thinking a lot more about voluntary simplicity and making use of the things I have instead of being wasteful and greedy. So that means thinking about stash knitting. And there's quite a lot of stash that I could be knitting.

A lot of the stuff I have is meant for projects. Sweaters and bags and gifts and things. I think I want to really delve into them for a change. Finally knit some of the stuff I've been thinking about since very early on.

It would be great if I could finish some of my UFOs though too. I have a hat, some dolls, a sweater, socks, shawls, glittens, and gods only know what else waiting to be worked on and finished. Not to mention the stuff on my needles...tonight it's mousies, but on top of that there are three pairs of socks, a hat (that's not technically on the needles yet, but which is as good as there), a set of gauntlets, shawls, and I swear there's something else I'm forgetting.

So that's what I'm going to be working on in August, at least. See how much of a dent I can make in things.

Question of the (Half) Hour

How do I plan on keeping myself awake during the last 6.5 hours of the blogathon? At first, I was thinking, well, good question...I'm nigh out of Diet Coke, my favorite music is very low-key, and knitting makes me sleepy.

But then it hit me. I'm just going to follow the same method I did when I procrastinated a bit too long on finishing a book for C.Lit (Contemporary Lit, for those who didn't read the blog or know me back then)--I won't yawn. You would be amazed at how effective a method that is for me in not getting too sleepy. Sure, I'm tired, but as long as I swallow my yawns, I don't get sleepy and weepy and cross-eyed.

Additionally, I'm actually enjoying knitting the mousies. And I get to listen to whatever music I want. And Jimmy is keeping me company. So it's not so bad. Let's hope things stay that way.

Speaking of Pantsless People

Did I ever tell you the story of Pantsless Tony?

Sophomore year at college, my roommate met this guy on the internet. They went on a couple dates, and since she's a homebody, she brought him back to our place to watch movies. Coincidentally, I was out watching movies with my friends that night, so I didn't know anyone was going to be over when I got back at around 1a.

Imagine my surprise when I walk in to see them cuddled up in bed (not doing anything), and in retrospect, just sleeping. I didn't know that at the time. I did know, however, that he wasn't wearing pants. Because they were lying flat on the floor like a deflated, topless corpse.

Naturally, I freaked out and ran across campus to Jimmy's room where I hid out for another 3 hours until I was sure they probably weren't doing it anymore. I went to bed and met Tony the next day.

Well, he kept coming over. He kept taking off his pants and lying them on the floor. And he kept ~~begging~~ asking to 'honk her boob.' It was endearing in that desperate, pantsless creepy guy sort of way.

Well, we had a lot of bugs in our room. HUGE centipedes that carried around whole zip codes on their hair-like legs and ants and wolf spiders (which we didn't know were wolf spiders at the time). We were researching what they could be, and we were concerned that they might be brown recluse spiders. We told Tony this, but this also happened to be the night that his friends had fed him about 30 jello shots without telling him (and then let him drive 40 minutes to Albion), and he got progressively more fucked-up as the night went on. And the more fucked up he got, the more he wanted to honk her boob.

'Why won't you let me honk your boob?' he'd whine.

She was getting fed up, though because he was far needier than usual when drunk. 'If you don't quit asking me that, I'm going to shove you out of bed, and you can sleep on the floor.'

He got this panicked look on his face. 'You wouldn't make me sleep with Brian Reckless! He'd kill me!'

Yes. He would get tangled in your plentiful and very visible sans pants leg hair, and he would have no choice but to kill you. Because that's what people living on our floor do...not spiders, mind you. People.

So, we immortalized him as Pantsless Tony, and I wrote a story about his Pantsless Adventures for my creative writing class. All in all, things were good in the end...until she met the ambiguously gay Sinfonian...but he's another less interesting story.

Thoughtless

That would be me. I keep blanking on things to write about. Thankfully, my good buddy Jimmy's always got my back, and he's going to ask me some questions to answer. Huzzah for Jimmy!

1. If a restaurant were to name a sandwich after you, what would be on it?
It would be on really soft, excellent marble rye. Now comes the tough part--is the sandwich based on my preferences or my personality? I'll go with preferences on this one. It's got luscious tomato slices and pickles and just enough lettuce. The main bit of the sandwich would have to be a huge, beautifully grilled portabella mushroom cap and a lovely vegan herbed mayo...not sure which herbs...perhaps parsley, thyme, and chives.

2. What's one hidden talent you have that most people would never suspect?
Well, if you've never met me, you have no idea that I can do a mean velociraptor impression. But now you do know that, so don't act so surprised when you see me do it, okay?

And I'm running late, so that's all we're getting for this hour. There will be more to come later though. Thanks Jimmy!

1:30--NOT Pantsless!

Though I wanted to be. I'm cold, so I changed out of my capris into some real pants...but I was too cold to spend the five minutes typing this sans pantaloons...I'm such a disappointment.

But now I'm also wearing a hoodie, so nyeh! Fuck your 80 degrees, Philadelphia! Muahaha!

There could also be some question of my grip on reality at this point, but since it's still early in the game, are we really interested in going there?

Of Mousies and Men

Big thanks from Sarah and me to Mark for sponsoring us for 6$. You rock, and we totally appreciate it! That means that we're only 6$ away from Sarah's goal of 250$! Help meet (or beat) her goal by sponsoring us and supporting FFUR!

I've finished the knitting on my first mouse, and I've started in on two more. This is my first time knitting two of the same thing on the same needles. Since they're different colors, I'm not concerned about getting confused, and I figure that it'll make the mousies go a little faster if I knit two at once, you know?

You know you want a hand-knit, genuinely hypnotic catnip mousie for your little bundle of fluff!

And It's Getting Late

Wow, it's getting pretty late. Not that I won't stay up reading for an hour or so, but damn. I'm starting to get a headache too because I've either been looking at the computer or my knitting ALL DAY. Ah well.

I haven't done much today, sadly. Only a couple things crossed off my list. I hate days like that. I always want to "GET THINGS DONE" but my inner slacker usually takes over and I watch a movie or something. Because I'm lame.

I always get freelance deadlines met, but other things, like cleaning or grocery shopping or personal communications, get sacrificed. I always whine about that though, so I guess I'll shut up about the whole thing.

Question #44: You are offered $1,000,000 for the following act: Before you are ten pistols-only one of which is loaded. You must pick up one of the pistols, point it at your forehead, and pull the trigger. If you can walk away, you do so a millionaire. Would you accept the risk?

Fuck no. I'm afraid of death, I'm not a fan of guns, and I can't spend a million bucks if I'm dead. There is NO WAY I would take this particular gamble.

Question #148: If, by having a 2" by 2" tattoo, you could save five lives and prevent a terrorist attack, would you do so? If you were allowed to select the location and the design, where would you have it and what would the design be?

Ugh, this question pisses me off because it inherently applys that tattoos are NOT something people would want to get and that doing so is somehow "bad".

Clearly, since I already have many tattoos, I would get one to save lives and prevent a terrorist attack (though what kind of lame ass attack only kills 5 people?). Is there any place I would not get a tattoo in this instance? No. Because it's SAVING LIVES. And that's more important than not having a tattoo on your face for the rest of your life (that could probably get removed at some point in the future because this prejudiced question doesn't say you can never have the thing removed). Also, I supposed it would depend on WHOSE lives I was saving. But now I'm just getting deeper than the lame question intended. Fucking question.

Bloggger Might be Going Down

Apparently, Blogger has scheduled maintenance for 12am-2am EST today. SUPER! we'll see if it happens. If it does, check out misanthropic tendencies for the blogathon posts. At 2 (or as son as the outage is over) we'll be back over here.

So far we've raised $238. That's so awesome to me. I'd love to make it $250. So, who has $12 they're willing to donate? Or two people can donate $6.... There's catnip mousies involved!!!!

Indy always finds the most uncomfortable places to sleep.

Maddie can, and will, sleep anywhere and everywhere.

Why We're Doing This

I haven't really talked about why we're blogathoning during the 'thon itself. We're blogging for FFUR because we love kitties. FFUR saves the lives of kitties.

The head cat lady emailed me a few hours ago with updates for the site. Two of the cats we had up for adoption got adopted out recently, so I was able to move them to the "success" page.

She also told me that she recently found two kittens who will be up for adoption soon. She found them in a park near her home, sealed in a plastic bag, left to die.

If that doesn't make you sad, I don't know what will.

It's not just that there are too many cats in the world (spay and neuter, people, spay and neuter), but that humans (that's us) treat the unwanted cats and kittens so horribly. People are too lazy to bother finding a home, or taking the hour out of their day to bring them to a no-kill shelter. So they kill them, and not in a humane way. They just get rid of them any way that they can because they just don't care about life, let alone a cat's life.

I don't understand people like that. I don't understand why putting a kitten in a plastic bag and dumping it in a park wouldn't weigh on your conscience forever. But people do it every day.

We're blogging today to help prevent cats in the area from meeting such horrible fates. We know we can't save all of them, but we can save some of them, and make sure they have happy, food-filled homes where they can live out their days in comfort.

Catching Up (Not Really)

So I just poked through some myspace profiles of people with whom I graduated college. On the one hand, it's interesting to see how everyone seems to have headed for 'the big city' and settled in Chi-town. Nothing wrong with that...I loved Chicago the few times I got to go.

But then there are the folks who're out there doing things that I want/ed to be doing. People who live places I want to live or took all this time figuring out what they wanted, and now they're doing it. Like even if I figure out exactly what it is that I want to do, and it involves going back to school, I can't do that for a couple more years. There's a line from a really depressingly beautiful Ani DiFranco song that goes, 'You're turned up to top volume, and you're just sitting there in pause,' and even though I know I'm not alone, that pretty much sums everything up. I'm figuring out a few things. I'm starting to recognize what I want to do and how I want to get there and where I want to go and be, but I'm just here. Not going anywhere.

Old hat blogging, especially from me. I know. But if I say it a thousand times in different ways, it's still true, and I still don't know what to do with it.

There's Nothing Like Cold, Crappy Soup

I used to be really, really big into cooking. Now, I still like food, but the production of it has lost a lot of its mystery and joy. But since I like eating good food and don't have many options as a strict vegetarian, I want to get back into cooking more.

One of my favorite types of cuisine is Indian food. I love the complex interplay of spices and the techniques used to produce the food. So earlier this week, I decided to make a curried potato and chickpea soup. Wow...what a disappointment. It smells good, but it really tastes bland. How does that work? Usually, when you add curry to something, the flavor is just THWACK--I'm Curry!, you know? Even after a few days, it didn't happen here. So I think I need to keep my curry with thicker foods--foods with sauces or with lentils. I make a mean chana masala.

But I'm really interested in finding some fabulous soup recipes. I have my soup cookbooks, but I'd like to find a really big hit for the next time. Can anyone recommend a truly amazing soup recipe?

What Color is Your Ink Pen?

I prefer to use blue ink pens at work (and when I was in school). For personal use, here at home, I really prefer purple. PURPLE!

I just like fun colors. It makes me happy to write out a check in pink ink or sign the back of my paycheck in gold. I dunno. It's fun, that's all.

The Book of Questions 2

Question #29: Have you ever hated anyone? If so, why and for how long?

Yes. In 11th grade one of my "best friends" did a really really evil thing to me. I still haven't gotten over it, nor have I forgiven her. I hated her for years. I don't hate her anymore, but I don't like her, and couldn't ever be friends with her again.

I'm just not ready to get into all the details here though.

Since that one was so short....

Question #132: If you went to a veach and it turned out to be a nude beach, would you stay and go swimming? Would you swim nude?

Yeah, I'd stay, I'd go swimming too. I'm intrigued by naked people and how we all have very different bodies under our clothes. I'm intrigued by the fact that some people, who often have "flaws", are so comfortable with their bodies and being naked around others, and that other people, even if they have "hot bodies", are so uncomfortable being naked around others.

I would NOT partake in the nudeness. I hate my body.

Kitty Cat Hat

This is like, the worst picture of me ever, but I just finished a pink kitty cat hat for my cousin's daughter. This is what the sponsor premium hats will look like. So, yay for that.

Squee!

Wow! I honestly didn't think we'd make it over a hundred dollars, but now we're over 2 hundred dollars. Rock on, sponsors!

Special thanks go to our most recent sponsor through the 'thon site, Hop (whom I only know through Sarah, and whom I fondly refer to as Mr. On Pop...even though I probably shouldn't...). And thanks also go to the fabulous, knitterly Lisa who donated through paypal. Yea for you guys! And yea for all our sponsors! We really can't thank you enough for the good things your kindness and generosity will bring.

I don't think I've turned into a cat lady because I really think of cat ladies as folks who have more cats than they can manage and who really shouldn't own cats because they can't take care of themselves either. I'm a cat enthusiast, I think (I also love dogs...and penguins and pigeons and squirrels and llamas and horses and mooses and meeces), and I think of my enthusiasm and interest as something that ultimately links me with a lot of other people.

Many folks have commented about their cats, many folks have blogs and flickr accounts packed with pictures and videos and anecdotes about their kittle ones, and many folks are blogging because they love their animals. I love that. I love that all these people have found joy and companionship in furry things. So, if I may be so bold, I offer all of you animal-lovers out there a great big ol' karmic hug. And give your little furry buddies a pat or a scratch behind the ear or a milk bone. They really make our days brighter, don't they?

Duuuuuuuuh...

The sleepies have got hold of me already. Not an optimistic sign when you consider that I have the overnight shift. So this should make for some fun and interesting posts in the wee hours. Or lots of posts filled with:

xernjhimrtvbyunjimkol,bniyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Won't that be fun?

I should knit some. I have lots of stuff to work on if I wanted to be working on it. Socks and shawls and hats and other assorted projects. I'll definitely be talking more about my knitting later on in the 'thon. There's just not a lot else that I do that's very exciting...and we all know how exciting wool is, don't we? Exciting like a fox!

Kidlet Games

A couple days ago, I helped one of the kids sign up to play a game on Cartoon Network (it's an on-going game with a character you create that's unique to you). It looked pretty cool, so I signed up and started playing too. Now, though, every time I try playing, the game gives me an error message, and this makes me kind of sad because I was planning on wasting some very long nighttime hours in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at the Big Fat Awesome House Party. Pbbbt!

But for you folks who are game inclined and need somewhere new to play during the 'thon, here are some of the sites the kids go to (and some that they try going to and then don't get to visit anymore because they think it's okay for a 9 year old to play games called Bust Lust or games based on collecting drugs and paraphanalia while being chased by the cops...):

-- miniclip.com
-- gamebrew.com
-- heavygames.com
-- kewlbox.com
-- shockwave.com
-- candystand.com
-- fastgames.com
-- hypegames.com
-- addictinggames.com

So if you're bored, they might help you out some. I kill many a dull moment at work playing on some of the kids' games. Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and Nick also have some excellent games. And the beauty with those sites is that it totally strokes your ego to play games where you can get to level 75 because you've figured out how not to suck (this one...very cute...).

Aaaaaand we're back!

I had a lovely time this afternoon with Marguerite. We met up at Capogiro where I had some awesome canteloupe sorbet and some less-awesome-than-the-last-time-I-had-it apricot sorbet. Then we wandered around Chinatown looking for a paper lamp cover and some chimey stress balls. I found lots of very cute tiny ceramic kitties, but it wasn't meant to be.

Sarah wanted me to bring the camera so I could catalog my adventures, but I didn't find much of interest to photograph. I did get a very short video of some live crabs in a basket. Let me tell you, they were some angry little mothers. I'm terribly easy to amuse.

When we finally found what we were looking for, we hopped over to Saigon Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant. Yes, Jimmy, that's the one that amused you so when we wandered around Chinatown. I can say they were okay, but I can't say I was impressed enough to go back. Visually, their fake meat was quite realistic. Each dish was far too sweet though, and my fake beef tasted like one of those Jif Sensations from a few years ago--you know, the cinnamon-flavored peanut butter. Eh.

We did a bit more shopping around for some things M was looking for, and homeward I came. Alltogether, it was a pretty darned good afternoon. Even the heat wasn't so horrifying. Yea!

I am a bit tired though from all the wandering about. And I'm not sure how I'd best like to relax. Sarah likes watching movies, but I prefer to veg with bad television. More than that, I prefer to listen to my kind of music and read or knit. I guess we shall see what comes about for me. What are you up to?

Catnip Mousie Pattern

For those of you who are inclined: here's the pattern (with my adjustments to make it better) for the catnip mousie. I used Paton's Classic Merino and size 4 US needles. Pattern originally from Stitch n Bitch Nation.

Body

CO3

Inc1 into each stitch

P

Inc1, inc1, k2, inc1, inc1

P

K2 (m1, k2) 4 times

P

(k3)m1) twice, k2,(m1, k3) twice

P

(k4, m1) twice, k2, (m1 k4) twice

Work in stockinette for ~23 rows or to make body as long as desired

(k3, k2tog) twice, k2, (k2tog k3) twice

P

*k1, k2tog; rep from * to end

P

K2tog; rep to end

Break yarn, leaving very long tail. Draw thru remaining sts and pull tightly to inside; secure

Ears (make 2)

Co6

Work 2 rows stockinette

K2tog; rep to end

Break yarn, leaving tail, draw thru remaining stitches, pull tightly to make ear curve, and secure

Tail

Co 2

Work i-cord until ~3” or desired length

Bind off

Finishing

With right sides facing, mattress stitch body together leaving 1” open at end

Turn right-side out

Stuff body

Mattress stitch the hole closed

Stitch on face (or not) as desired

GAH!

I'm getting behind on these posts! Sorry, next one I'll make up for it!

Okey Pokey

I got nothin' this half-hour. I'm about 20 minutes away from finishing freelance project 1, so I'm gonna hop on that. See you on the flip side.

This is Frisky, my kitty back home. I loves her.

The Book of Questions

A few weeks ago, a woman from work died. She'd had breast cancer that mestasticized to her brain. I didn't know her because she went on FMLA a few weeks before I started with the company. But I was still sad because someone had died, and I don't do well with death.

A lot of people at work were sad because she'd been there for 20 years and was friends with a lot of them.

Anyway, last week they started the job of cleaning out her cube (which must have been very hard for her friends). They got four big boxes of books and put them out for all of us to take what we wanted, because the woman who died said that's what she wanted done with them.

I got four books (two for Krista and two for me). One of them was The Book of Questions. I thought it might be helpful during the 'thon.

So, I've decided that when I can't come up with a post of my own, I will turn to a random question in the book, pose it to readers (leave answers in the comments!) and answer it myself.

Here we go.

Question #120: Would you accept $10,000 to shave your head and continue your normal activities sans hat or wig without explaining the reason for your haircut?

Yes. Dude, it's just hair. It will grow back. That's what I never understand about the makeover shows (WNTW and How Do I Look?). The women always spazz out about their hair and how they won't look feminine and their husband won't like it and blah if it's short. IT WILL GROW BACK. Just get over it. And whatever the stylists do will look better than what you're doing because you're on a make over show so clearly don't know what you're doing.

So for money? That would pay off all my debt except student loans? Fuck yes I'd shave my head.

Where Were You When We Were Gettin' High?

I'm listening to "Champagne Supernova" on Launchcast. I used to LURVE Oasis. I still really dig their song "The Masterplan". Other than that, they were so overplayed while I was in high school that I'm still a little bit sick of them. Are they even still together? Eh, I don't really care.

Does your job do random drug testing or pre-employment drug testing?

I guess pre-employment testing is okay--I can understand making sure you don't hire a crack fiend or something. But I think random drug testing--ESPECIALLY in white collar jobs--is a huge invasion of my privacy. AND, the testing (and therefore my job) dictates what I can do in my personal, private, not-at-work time. And I think that's a bunch of fucking bullshit.

First, let me say, that MOST people are not going to smoke crack or shoot up or take a drink while at work. I know there are a few, and that if they're the crane operators or the lift drivers, that's a problem--just look at what happend with the drunk captian of the Exxon Valdez. But since most people at least have the common sense to leave that shit out of work, I don't generally assume that people are doing shit at work. That may be naiive. I don't care if you're a McWorker, a CEO, or an oil worker--leave that shit in your personal time and you can do what you want, I don't care.

But random drug testing doesn't just tell employers if their staff is smoking a blunt during work time--it also tells them if their staff took a hit last night, or over the weekend--off the clock time. And, since it's nearly to impossible to tell from a drug test if the employee was doing drugs five minutes ago at work or five days ago in Vegas, the employee gets canned, even if he wasn't doing drugs on the job.

And that's what's pissing me off.

Most people don't like their jobs. Most people have some form of relaxation to get away from the stress and shittiness of their jobs. A lot of people go out to bars or have a drink at home or have a bowl at home. It's how they relax and how they stay sane. It actually makes them able to do their job better because they were unable to wind a little bit the night (weekend) before.

But they can't do that if they have to fear getting canned because their employer tests their piss every now and again without any warning.

And the thing that really gets me? They don't test for booze. But pot? Oh yes. I could toke up twice a month and be canned before a "functioning" alcoholic would be, because they would KNOW I partook of the hippie lettuce. Bullshit.

I love that corporate no longer cares about the quality of your work, but only about your appearance, your deportment, and if you do drugs outside of work on your own time. It's the fact that my job, which already dictates what I do 10 hours of the day, gets to dictate what I do the other 14 hours of the day too. FEH.

Dark Chocolate M&Ms

...are pretty good. It's interesting, this press release says they came out in April 2005, and I remember hearing about them in relation to Star Wars III, and I even remember playing the little M&M dark game, but I'd never seen them in stores until last weekend. Really.

So we bought two packs last weekend (ended up giving one to Mac) and I'm just now eating them. They're good.

Did anyone else see them in stores before recently? I mean, they must have been, but damn if I can remember. And I KNOW I would have bought them when I saw them, because I try all the gimmicky foods/candies/beverages. Because that's what I do.

Ah, upon further reading, this explains it:

Thanks to popular demand, summer 2006 features the launch of one of our most anticipated products—M&M'S® Dark Chocolate Candies! Look for the purple pack and experience these delicious candies for yourself.

Glad I solved that mystery!

Meh

What I REALLY want to do between blog posts is knit and watch a movie. Instead I'm doing freelance shit. Meh. It's not very fun at all. And I have to pee. Let's hope that gets taken care of before the next blog post.

It's not my cat, but you should go check out this picture and this picture and this picture. They're either HILARIOUS or very cute.

Normally I don't do so much cat blogging, but we ARE blogging for FFUR, aren't we? It's relavant. It IS.

Seattle

Next Saturday, I fly to Seattle for a work conference. I'll be there until Thursday, when I fly out at ass o'clock am and get back to Philly at ass o'clock pm.

I'll be working from about 8am to about 6pm or 7pm S, M, T, W. I do have a friend in Seattle, who I haven't really talked to in about 5 years, but we reconnected a couple weeks ago when I found out he lives in Seattle now. So I'll be hanging out with him Saturday night after I get settled in the hotel.

My question is: what should I do in Seattle after I get done working every night after that? Krista was there at the end of May for a work conference, but she was there with people and did stuff with them and went to yarn stores. I'm not so into that.

I kinda want to go to the sci-fi museum, but I assume it'll be closed in the evenings.

Are there any stores or tourists spots I need to go to while I'm there and CAN go to in the evening? Any places only locals would know about that I should/can hit while I'm there?

Since I won't have a computer I can't just hole up in the hotel and blog at night, so I want to go out and DO things while I'm there (assuming I'm not so exhausted from work that I pass out without getting undressed).

So, let me know what I should do while I'm there!

Whew

Seems like the computer issue may have been fixed. At least now when I open Word those dialog boxes don't come up. We''ll see what happens tomorrow when the computer starts up again. Thanks Metafilter!

In that last 30 minutes, I got the laundry put away, reshelved some books, and stalked metafilter for the answer to my woes. Since I did 0 of interest, here's a cute picture of Indy. We always think she looks like Dame Judy.

Computer Issues

Well, I was going to put away the laundry during this last half-hour, but instead I futzed with the computer because I've been having problems (see this metafilter post for details and, hopefully, suggestions on how I can fix it).

We had a crash last month, and it took me a couple weeks to get all the freelance stuff back the way it was supposed to be. I can't deal with that again. I don't know what the dialog boxes want me to do, but none of my spyware/adaware/virus finders found anything. And I'm so very hesitant to uninstall Norton like the dialog tells me to do, because as soon as I do that, BAM! the viruses will crash my computer again.

I have a feeling bit torrent may have fucked us, because that's the only thing we've installed this week and these boxes started popping up this week. I just want them to go away and to not fuck up my computer AGAIN. Any suggestions are MORE than welcome.

To Do List

Krista mentioned earlier that she had to do lists when she would blogathon at Albion. They were much more wonderful than the one I have for myself for this 'thon (and weekend).

Here it is:

~~mail books to mom~~
mail honey/syrup to krista's folks
clean bathroom
clean fans
dust top of bookcases and dresser
~~put away laundry~~
~~finish kitty cat hat (which is for my cousin, but the hats are also sponsor premiums)~~
knit mousies
post things on craigslist and/or freecycle
~~freelance project 1~~
freelance project 2

Not very exciting, is it? Not very much I can do about it, as, alas, this is my life now--freelance projects and cleaning. Woot.

Your Cat NEEEEEEEEDS This

The knitted catnip mousie sponsor premium that is.

SEE...the stalking pose of our predataor:

SEE...the predator investigate its prey:

SEE...the predator tackle its prey into submission:

How can you NOT want one of these for your cat(s)? It's Maddie-endorsed!

And, as promised, here's the video of Maddie LOVING the catnip mousie I made.

...and the co-pilot takes the controls

Sarah here. Krista just woke me up a few minutes ago (I sleep in on weekends because I CAN) and is currently getting ready to go meet a friend. I'm eating breakfast and surfing thru some of the comments we got, and being very excited that we have TWO more sponsors!

Thanks goes out to:
MB (don't forget to verify yourself--check your spam folder!)
MEW.nu

More exciting posts will come after I've eaten.

Here's a fun shot of Mr. Burns loving all up on akaqueenie last night.

< Insert Clever Away Message Here >

This will probably be my last post until later this evening, as I'm about to wake up Sarah and get ready to head out for the afternoon. Quiche (pronounced kwich by those of us who enjoy being ironic and silly) is in the oven, and the kitlets are sleeping (Maddie) or sitting and glaring at me because the random African radio station I've got on is far too bouncy and annoying to be truly conducive to good cat-napping (Indy). I'm sure it's about 5000 degrees outside at present, and the quiche will probably bring the temp in here up close to that too (even with our crappy AC). Someday, someday we'll have a nicer apartment.

Hopefully, I will have lots of exciting stories to tell you about my visit to Chinatown. I'm not entirely sure what we're going to do there, but I believe that consuming edible thingums is on the agenda. Surprisingly, there are a lot of Chinese vegan (which are usually also kosher for some reason) restaurants there. So we shall see what comes of it.

Anywho, have a lovely afternoon. Keep yourselves cool, and stop by to make Sarah feel welcome as she gives this a spin. Rock!

Planning to Take Over the World Make Quiche

I think I'm totally going to make a quiche in a few minutes for Sarah. She deserves a really tasty breakfast, and I used to make special morning nibblies for her back in the day. I'm going to be heading out with a friend to wander around Chinatown this afternoon, so a lovely meal will no doubt be a happy start to the blogathon. Woot! Maybe I'll even finally cut up those waterlemons. See, I'm supposed to be waking her up in a few minutes. But I think I'll let her snoozle a bit longer and then wake her up when food is in the making. That sounds much better.

And then I'll bathe. Mmmm....cleanliness. Apparently, it's supposed to be like 95 degrees in the city today, and I get to wander around. Let me tell you how much I love the sunshine:

:::crickets:::

Ah yes.

Ahem.

This is Not a Post

Quick note to those of you interested in seeing An Inconvenient Truth next week:

I was going to aim for Wednesday since the Ritz has their discount day then, but it looks like after this weekend and Monday night, the film is only showing before 5 and at 10p. I'd be down with a late movie some night, but others might not. So let me know what you think.

Rock On, You Crazy Cats!

We have new sponsors--woot!

I'm always amazed by and wicked grateful to the folks who just randomly stop by a person's blog and sponsor their cause. I think that's a really unique form of altruism because if you don't know the person in some form, the benefit is totally different, you know? And our two new sponsors are of that sort--folks who just stopped by and decided to drop some dinero in our direction.

Huge high-fives and big thanks to Mew.nu and Marjie for sponsoring us and helping the ladies of FFUR make the lives of local kitties a little better. You rock!

Thank you so much to all of our sponsors so far! I can't wait to get you guys your sponsor goodies. Yea for you all!

Of Dishes and Eco-Consciousness

Well some of the dishes are now clean. Unfortunately, our garbage disposal started trying to go all wonky on me again and not drain, so I spent most of my 'tween post time remedying that problem. Now we know that a shitload of baking soda and a hell of a lot of vinegar will do the job of kicking its mechanical ass back into submission as well enough to not need draino for a while. I'd really rather not use draino.

Part of me is terrified of the chemicals inherent within it and their power to burn the living shit out of anything organic, but lately, I'm also really uncomfortable with using something so harsh because of the ecological ramifications. If you live in the Philadelphia area, you know there's already a lot of nastiness being dumped into the local rivers--in the past two years we've had an oil spill in the Delaware River and a cyanide spill into the Schuykill river. Can we really afford any more crap going in there, even by accident? I don't think so.

As I mentioned on my blog a few weeks back, after seeing An Inconvenient Truth, I feel my old eco-conscious self coming back. I'm noticing again what objects and products I'm using and buying and seeing that aren't good for the environment, and I'm slowly lessening my impact. I know I'll never see the actual difference I make, but at least I'm doing something. And if the movie is still at the Ritz this week, I'm going to try and get a group of folks together to go see it. If you're in the area and interested, leave a comment.

#&$^%!!

Wow...so much for that post. I spent about 20 minutes writing it, and the webbernet ate it. Fucking webbernet.

But to sum it up:

I heart Diet Coke.
I like Jenny Lewis' album Rabbit Fur Coat (even though I didn't think I would).
I am going to go do some dishes.

What a winner that one was, eh?

Tasteful Nudity?

Not so much. Just wanted to get your attention. Muahahaha!

But it followed my train of thought because I was pondering putting images on here. The problem with that thought, though, is that when our computer crashed a couple weeks or months ago (can't recall off the top of my head...shows how much I pay attention, right?), I never reinstalled Photoshop. Certain things weren't totally, ahem, legal with our copy of it. So no more Photoshop. We have Fireworks, but as I have a.) a deep and abiding loathing for the entire Macromedia Suite, and b.) no idea how to use the program for real, I am going to be a little low on the visual stimulation part of the blogging process. I'm sorry about that.

I'd simply rather not post images than post images that are ginormous and too dark or whatever. See, I'm just not much of a photographer. I can manipulate images well enough, and that's what I assume is always going to happen to them--so I don't do any worry about the rule of three or anything else. My subject is directly in the center most times, and I crop around to make it purdy, you know?

But if you were seeing images here, they would be of my knitting and of my cats and that's pretty much it. So I guess it's in your benefit that Fireworks and I are at odds.

Fooding

Sarah's going to be posting some videos of the cats later today since she's the one with the youtube account and the know-how. I did, however, just take a stunning little masterpiece of the start of the weekend with them, though.

It always involves food. Especially with Maddie. We have a very strong theory that she suspects our imminent demise at all times, so even if there's food in the bowl, she NEEDS more because if we died in our sleep, who would feed her? It's hard not to channel my inner-Maddie voice when talking about cat food.

But now it is my turn. I think I'll wander off to the freezer and partake of some Tofutti Cuties (vegan ice cream sandwiches). Junk food: it's what's for breakfast.

Go for Launch

Welcome to Blogathon '06, folks. It's been a long while since I last did one of these, but since I so seldom post on my own blog, I bet I have a lot of stuff to talk about now, eh?

This is my first 'thon where I'm blogging somewhere other than Albion, and this makes me a little sad. I remember how much those 24-hour post-fests were rooted in where I was--I made a to-do list every year prior to this one (I don't have one this year), and it always involved some specific stuff like taking specific walks in a certain amount of time, watching the sunset (and being disappointed when el sol never showed), and doing things that were very rooted to my life there, like making a smoothie at 3 in the morning.

But now there are two people updating this blog, and there's a different sort of to-do list, and I'm in the midst of a city that's almost as different from Albion as I can imagine. So this should be an interesting day.

Thanks again to the folks who've already signed on to sponsor FFUR with us. We really appreciate your support!

bite they tiny heads off / nibble on they tiny feet

i finished the first knitted cat toy (which was immediately given to our cats and they LURVED it) for the sponsor premiums for the blogathon. it turned out pretty nice, but the pattern sucked balls and i'll be doing modifications before i knit any more of them.

also, i put the ears too far forward, so there wasn't really room for a face. that will be fixed on the ones for sponsors.

as an extra bonus, sometime during the blogathon, i'll be posting a video of maddie spazing the fuck out with the mouse. awesome.

Thank You Sponsors!

A big thank you goes out to our 5 sponsors so far:

akaqueenie
Anonymous Sponsor (2)
Holly P.
Ms. Pants

It's not too late to sponsor us.

FFUR has no minimum donation amount, so even $1 helps out immensely!

All donations for FFUR are done via paypal for purposes of the blogathon, so the only requirement is that you have a paypal account. If you don't have a paypal account, but would still like to help out, we do have an amazon wishlist (though purchases made there won't count towards the blogathon, but the donation is what really matters).

And, don't forget, everyone who donates will receive something from us in thanks.

FFUR Wishlist Created

We recently received a great suggestion from a friend of FFUR: create an amazon wishlist!

So we did.

If anyone is uncomfortable sending money, but would still like to support FFUR, you can find our amazon wishlist here.

All items will go directly to the FFUR offices, so you can be assured that we're not using them ourselves!

As always, thank you for your support.

Blogathon is this weekend

The blogathon starts this Saturday at 9am EST. Krista will be blogging in the morning, I'll take the afternoon and evening shift, and K will do the overnight shift ending at 9am on Sunday.

I don't have anything specific planned, and I don't think Krista does either, so if you have any requests, leave 'em in the comments!

You Give. You Receive.

We've decided:

Everyone who donates will receive a handknit catnip mousie (similar to these).

Everyone who donates over $50 will receive a handknit kitty cat hat in their choice of color (similar to this, this, and this).

Everyone who donates over $100 will receive a handknit kitty pi in their choice of color (similar to this, this, this, and this).

How awesome is that? You give AND you receive!!!

A Bit More About FFUR

FFUR is run completely by volunteers; the four primary ladies are all friends with Krista and me. They fund the operation out of their own pockets, along with donations, and they foster the cats in their own homes. They care very much about all the cats they help, and want to see all of them adopted into loving homes.

The main FFUR headquarters are in Germantown, though foster homes are scattered throughout Philadelphia proper.

In addition to rescuing cats, nursing them back to health (and occasionally euthanizing cats in a humane manner when they're too ill or injured to get better), and finding them loving homes, FFUR also cares for several feral cat colonies. If possible, the feral cats are captured, fostered, and adopted. But when that isn't possible, FFUR provides the cats with outdoor shelter during the winter and food throughout the year.

FFUR is a registered nonprofit, so all donations are tax deductible.

Why Blogging for FFUR

Krista originally suggested doing Blogathon 2006 for FFUR. I thought it was a great idea, because as much as we love FFUR, we can't do much beyond maintaining the website--paying off debt, you know.

At first, she was going to do it herself at her new domain name. But we weren't quite sure if it would be resolved in time to sign up and get donations, so we (I) decided to do a group blog.

This will allow a wider range of entry topics, and hopefully entice Krista's readership and my readership to donate to the cause.

We'll probably futz with the blog design a bit until the big day, but until then this is what we've got.

However, you can sponsor us starting now!

Blogging for FFUR

Sunday, July 30, 2006