We were only able to round up six of the front porch kitties tonight, but we figured we had to start somewhere, so when the six were in the pens, we shut the doors. And they went in-fucking-sane. Like popcorn. Frantic to escape, bouncing around and clinging to all four sides and the top of the pens. It broke my heart to terrorize them like that. I tossed some dark blankets over the pens, and we moved them to the waiting car. They were eerily quiet on the drive over. Paralyzed with fear. I wondered aloud if they might be eating each other's faces off. DreamGuy said we'd have heard some howling if that were the case.( Read more... )

Six out of seven front porch kitties. Missing: Shorty

The front porch kitties must know that The Great Feral Cat Colony Relocation of 2008 is underway. Usually when we pour the food into the metal bowls, they all come running, five babies, two mamas, and the studmuffin. I cleared out my car to make way for the big pens. We've been feeding them in the pens, only putting out food while we were out there, and they've been eating in there the past several days. Last night all eight of them were out while we watched, and into the pens. I wanted so badly to just scoop the doors closed and go, but we weren't really ready at the moment. Of course, now we're ready, and only three of the eight have come out all day. ( Read more... )

Of course, I've calmed down since that last entry. Sure feels good to vent. Sometimes I worry about the impression I leave when I cut loose like that. As you might imagine, that stuff comes much more easily on the written page than it does in real time. Would you believe I am actually pretty low-key and easy-going in person? Most of the time, anyway.( Read more... )

I've been meaning to update you guys on the fate of the formerly-front-porch kitties. Remember I got the two babies into the house last October and we were going through the very slow process of taming them. In January, while I was away in Atlanta, they escaped, but stayed around the house. Under the house, actually. Along with the one we call Big Fuzzy, and sometimes Old Crusty. Well the babies are growing! Shorty, who's close to a year old now, has gotten to be as big as Big Fuzzy. We suspect Big Fuzzy is a she, and that she's pregnant (drats!). Little Miss Fuzzy is the littlest one of the bunch by far. And she's looking kind of nasty and unkempt in her hind area. I suspect she's unwell. She doesn't come out much, but she's still around. ( Read more... )

I hereby officially give up on the cheesecake baking method that begins with ten minutes at 475, then one hour at 200, then one hour in the shut-off oven. I have tried this twice, because it's reputed to totally avoid cracks in the top of the cheesecake. However, for me, it results in a distinctly scorched cheesecake. Every. Damned. Time. So that's ovah.( Read more... )

Home away from home (hospital parking lot)

So sorry to leave you hanging there. My father survived the surgery on Thursday, and has been recovering really well since. It's amazing, really. I am eager to hear his take on the whole experience. I think! ( Read more... )

In my down-time here at the hospital, I've been working on a sort of comprehensive video to tell the whole Lamb0 story. It's not nearly finished - I want to scan some more of his various press appearances and include those along with the WashingtonPost.com mention. But I wanted to do a first run at it and see how it was coming together. A moviemaker, I am not! Lots of rough edges.

Right now, I'm in the surgery waiting area. My father is in the operating room, and I am nearly paralyzed with worry. This Lamb0 business is the most awesome distraction ever. I finally took a few moments to watch this first cut, and I'm embarrassed to say I'm sitting here in the surgery waiting room all weepy after watching it (talk about emotional displacement!). What a ride!

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The Lamb0 Story (second cut)

No doubt, Lambo has been a blessing in the context of what we're dealing with here. News on my dad this morning is just bad, bad, bad. I'll know better when I'm back there myself tonight. I may pick up one of my brothers who can't get there himself and take him to visit dad, then drive him back home after. Mom's not sure he'll make it until Tuesday when Bro had planned to come...

In the meantime, we took Lambo to his new home in the country this morning. Pictures on Flickr, video soon to come, as time allows.

Just got off the phone with a reporter. Local folks - film at 5, 6 and 11.

I'm on the road again, back to Atlanta.

Not much time to write, but I can't resist. I can sort of sum the day's events up by relating the two biggest decisions I was called upon to make today:

1) Do I consent to putting my father on dialysis?
2) How do we decide who gets Lamb0?
( Read more... )

So we were sitting down in front of the television tonight, eating the grilled cheese sandwiches I'd made after my first dinner attempt went up in smoke. DreamGuy had the TV on CNN or something with Ron Paul blathering away. I grabbed the remote and switched to a station showing old Andy Griffith shows. Ahhh. Much more relaxing and enjoyable to me. The episode of Andy Griffith was the one where a goat got loose and they thought it ate some dynamite. Edited to add: The episode was called "The Loaded Goat." The whole episode is online here.

During the commercial, I kept hearing this bleating sound. I got DreamGuy to mute the TV so we could listen. It was the strangest sound. Maybe it was a crow injured in the yard? Some other critter? We went out to investigate. And like me, you are not going to believe what we found outside our fence in the back yard.


Meet Rambo, or as I call him, Lambo!
( Read more... )

OK yall help a sister out here. I am wrestling with a decision and it's a toughy. Well it is, and it isn't. Hence the wrestling (DOH). The front porch kitties have gotten out of hand. First there were two, then there were three, and now there are five and maybe more, coming around for grub every night. They fight and yowl and raise all kinds of ruckus. That, I can live with. But they're getting super aggressive, and that sucks. Even that, I could live with. But Beau is losing his ever-loving mind. He's an indoor-only kitty, and having all those cats just outside the window is making him a little nuts. The trapping and fixing would be fine for the first couple or three, even if expensive, but as noted, they just keep coming. I think the worst thing is that they are spraying around my front porch, and it's starting to smell seriously nas-tay out there. Weigh in after the cut...( Read more... )

Lots to say, no time to say it. First, check out that cat. He's HUGE! I presume he's a he, I guess because he's huge. And also because he has the stumpy tail. DreamGuy is pretty sure front porch kitties Stumpy and Big Fuzzy are females. I have a feeling they're the respective mothers of Shorty and Miss Fuzzy, and that Pimp Daddy Stumpy here is big daddy. Anyway, while DreamGuy had told me about this big guy last week, this is the first I've seen of him up close. ( Read more... )

Pretty city.
Birmingham dusk at 60mph.

...walkin down the streeeet...

Hahahah!

First, I didn't mean to skip posting an entry for Holidailies yesterday. I tend to post in the hour or two before midnight, and last night, I totally conked out on the sofa with the doggies and slept right through midnight. Oh well - I think the site says we're expected to post around 20 entries, and I'll hit that no problem.( Read more... )

Pretty tree.

Today at work, I found myself Googling information about how to determine how many pages are in a megabyte of computer memory. Starting out, I knew the calculation would be imprecise, because the 175+ megabytes of memory I was wondering about are comprised of at least five different document types. So using this handy table, I computed an average of the numbers corresponding to the five document types, and it came out to 100 pages per megabyte. That, multiplied by 175 megs, is 17,500 pages. And I fear this is a very conservative estimate.( Read more... )

Doggies sit! Doggies Watch!

It's been a good year or so since I had the dogs in obedience training classes, but I guess I still put them through their paces often enough that they are pretty good with the basics, like "sit" and "watch," as you can see from the picture. They look me in the eyes when I say "watch," and I actually had the camera in my hand down by my side when I took this shot of them being very good girls. You can see that patch on Rosey's side where she was shaved to expose the bite marks from the attack of a few weeks ago. We're so lucky she wasn't hurt beyond a few superficial wounds.( Read more... )

Self portrait, at my desk.

A few folks have asked about how Rosey the Amazing Destructo-Puppy has been doing since she was chewed on by that dog on our walk a few weeks ago. She's doing great! She got over the limping the very next day, and her surgeon said her knees appeared to be fine, her recently-operated-on one in particular. She's got a weird diagonal bald strip on her side where the vet here shaved her to expose the puncture wounds. They've all healed up fine. Thanks for asking! ( Read more... )

How can it be that Thanksgiving is next week?????

Alrighty then. Next week it is. I made reservations for my sis & her family today and got a good rate & room. So that's done. And I braved the wilds of The Summit in Birmingham to visit the Williams-Sonoma store for some turkey brining supplies. In years past, I have chosen various methods by which to complicate the cooking of the turkey. This year, it's brining. And it's all The Pioneer Woman's fault. So there. ( Read more... )