I took this one day last week while recording some game video for the site (hence the wireless PS2 controller), and busted my setup just to capture this photo of a couple of my best friends being very sleepy.
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Not sure why these pictures flared up so much – sure, it was noonish and the sun was bright, but the light level in the photos (despite my trying to bring things down to a sane level in Paint Shop Pro) makes it look like a comet was passing directly overhead at the same time.
Othello and Xena lounging around the doorstep and in the front yard.… Read more
It turns out that the Chinese New Year rings in, in fact, the Year of the Dog. Somehow that seems appropriate – Xena has been acting up a little bit lately, ripping trash bags asunder and spreading their contents liberally across the yard, biting through the strap on one of the new gloves I got for Christmas, and completely destroying a perfectly good feather duster. After all of that happened in the span of three days, the past 36 hours or so have become not just a celebration of the Year of the Dog, but the Day The Dog Stayed Outside. I think she’s starting to get the message.
Today’s been one of those days. Literally, within half an hour of my boss telling me I need to come in earlier, my wife calls to tell me I’m feeding horses (and, presumably, donkeys) in the morning. Ah well, it’s almost February anyway – time to kiss the concept of eight hours of uninterrupted sleep goodbye. (Don’t be surprised if I also wind up kissing the concept of stuff like “giving my best shot to updating the blog everyday” goodbye for a bit too.)
I’ve officially pre-ordered some of the new Doctor Who figures, and have proceeded to beg a friend of mine in the UK to see if he can snatch up one of those dandy “transformer” figures which starts out as Christopher Eccleston and then, thanks to the magic of a removable head, can turn into David Tennant-in-Eccleston’s-duds. If I thought sticker shock was bad comparing the American dollar to the Canadian dollar, buying something priced in pounds sterling was even more sobering. By the time’s all said and done and shipped, it looks like I will have spent something in the vicinity of $15 per character on these puppies. (Fortunately, my Star Wars figure collecting has taken a steep nose dive since the holidays – they’ve relaunched the “saga” collection, heavy with characters from The Empire Strikes Back, which is kinda like going into reruns for me – so my toy budget is otherwise freed up.)
I’ve sent Character Options, the UK outfit producing the Who figures, a calm, not-too-gushing letter telling them that the product shots thus far look fantastic, and do they have any plans to produce pre-new-series Doctors/characters, and might they be selling these things even as close as Canada? Because believe me, I’d rather be putting my dollar up against the Canadian dollar than the British pound. And I know more people in Canada who I can talk into a trip to the toy store. 😛 … Read more
Man, I’m just having a cranky-ass day. We’re getting our rain (see yesterday’s entry), but not nearly enough to help the drought situation. Not even enough to really do anything about the fire danger. But try telling that to the great unwashed masses (and you can read whatever you like into that phrase and probably not land too far from the truth).
I’m rapidly developing an urge to cut and run where my web hosting service is concerned. It seems like Globat’s been going down and coming back online every five minutes. I can’t FTP anything up to the server (and I have a bunch of updates ready to go), and can’t even access Globat’s web-based upload tool. Something has got to give with these guys, and soon. The amount of downtime, SQL server failures and other problems lately has been incredibly irritating. I’ve got a lot of cool new Phosphor Dot Fossils video segments to show you guys, but if I can’t send the new pages up…well, it doesn’t do anyone any good.
At the same time, I seem to be unsuccessfully dodging a cold bug, and my left knee has been killing me for about a week and a half anytime I have to hike it up to put on pants or anything of that nature. Walking and sitting and driving aren’t a problem. Having to draw the knee up any higher that anything normally required by those activities, however, is getting to be an incredibly painful problem. I don’t think I did anything to myself on the farm, so I have no idea where that pain is coming from, unless it falls under the heading of “I’m gettin’ old.”
So perhaps you can see where I might be just a little bit cranky.
Here’s a picture of my dog to cheer everyone up. Or maybe just to cheer me up.
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This picture really says it all, doesn’t it? After being inside for most of the past few days, Xena was happy to see the snow melting off of the deck (and her doghouse) and spent some quality time outside today. I can see where it’d be easy for an 80 pound dog to come down with a bad case of cabin fever, even though she loves her people and her kitty friends.
However, she doesn’t like the other four-legged denizens of our home. Neither do her kitty friends. We’re talking about a sudden convergence of mice on our home. I think someone booked a convention and didn’t tell me. I’ve only seen one, but we’ve been hearing them up in the attic for a couple of weeks now. The one I’ve actually seen in the house has been pretty bold – he got as far as the game room last night before Othello decided to address the traditional role of cats with relation to mice and chased the little bugger right back into his hole behind the washing machine. We’ve left some D-Con treats for our new guests to feast on, so hopefully Othello can rest easy again here in a few days.
Sadly, I can only assume this means that we have a Barn Kitty vacancy. I haven’t seen Gabby Cat in about 9 months, so I assume she moved on or decided to stick closer to home (and come on, as nice as that cat was, she had to have a home of her own – that was somebody’s baby). With this weather, and some of the stormy weather we had when it was warmer this year, I don’t blame her. There was also a mountain lion screech about three weeks ago, which seemed a bit early in the year, but I can see where a small cat, even a feral one, would say “Okay, I can see you’ve got this under control, big guy” and cede the territory.
Apparently that kind of psychology doesn’t do it for mice though. A Barn Kitty could be intercepting mice between our overgrown field and the house, and could probably feed herself and a bunch of Barn Kittens quite handsomely that way. So, if you’re reading this and you’re a Barn Kitty, please, consider me open for applicants.… Read more
Some pictures taken right after I got home, around 2:30am.
The street just next to my driveway – not a thing’s been done to clear it! Fortunately it’s mostly snow, but I did hit quite a few icy patches too. Right after I snapped these photos, to my horror, I heard a vehicle coming around the corner – and everyone takes that corner too fast. And here I am, standing right next to the icy street, camcorder in hand. Turns out it was sheriff’s deputies on patrol. Whew.… Read more
So in early August, my wife went on a week-long trip to a postal conference to New Orleans, while there was still a New Orleans to have a postal conference in. One day before going on her trip, however, she spotted a kitten sitting next to a mailbox in the blistering heat, panting. Nobody in the nearby homes knew anything about him. She took him along for the rest of her mail route and brought him home, where he proceeded to drink water like a fish.
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When I wake up and it looks like this outside, it’s usually not a good sign. It’s also usually April or May. In this case it was in the middle of January. … Read more
Everyone talks about the pond behind our barn, but you never get to see it. Not that you can really see it here, but take my word for it, it’s behind the brush. Really. Xena’s checking it out here, but it’s too cold for a swim.
Two days after Christmas, I discovered that we have a new family member too: our very own bona fide Barn Kitty. … Read more
