Sometimes one’s cat accidentally advertises one’s wife’s upcoming play.

My cat rocks. His little brother rocks too (but in a much more… blond… way). But Dexter is just awesome. This is one of his favorite things: snuggling under the blankets to cuddle with his humans. What kind of cat does that? :D This kind of affection almost negates his insane, neverending, house-destroying quest for food.

You, in the front row. You’re from Wapakoneta? Interesting.

It’s Sunday morning. Do I have important things to do? Heowz yeh. Am I doing them? Nah. I’m posting a picture of my cat to the interwebs.

Here are my suggested captions¹ (which are kind of weak):

1. Anvilaniaaaaaaa²

2. …and what’s with Hillary? I guarantee *she* has some feline ancestry, am I right? Am I? ooh, tough crowd.

3. when nine hundred years old you reach, cough up less phlegm you will not

4. Is vomitz in cup 2 sta pretti

1. note: “invisible microphone” and “invisible ice cream cone” are kind of obvious and not very funny, don’t you think? [↩]
2. only funny for Animaniacs nerds [↩]

Back in Texas. The travel was nearly uneventful. The events were happy ones. In Detroit I just barely made it onto my next flight. And got an entire exit row to myself. My ride (Craig & Melinda) showed up to take me home, and we chatted a bit. My house is relatively clean, and I just ate the delicious sandwich I made back in Hamilton with the last of the Thai-seasoned chicken. With some leftover gouda still in my fridge. I will soon check to see if there is any ice cream in the fridge. I have a suspicion.

The phone messages were a nonevent. That’s nice. The mail, however… it filled the box. Rejections from UNCG (polite) and Dickinson (short and summary). Pie of the Month Club update from Sue Anne (Nesselrode Pie - I think I’ll try it sometime). Late gifts for Jason (music) and Alex (now it’s a birthday present). Bills. Mountains of junk. Latest edition of Analog (just finished reading the last one on the plane today).

Being home is wonderful in many ways. Yes, I already miss my wife and my cats. And my social life (which, spotty as it is, is pretty much all in Hamilton). But being home is a bit of bliss. My stuff is all handy. My couch has a back. My TV has stereo sound. My job is waiting. Sigh. I think I’ll bask in the homeness of it all for a day or two. Then get all frazzled with work again.

Oh. And church is now at 1:00. Do not want.

Yes, that is what you, astute reader, should be asking yourself right this minute. The answer is “in the other room, drying off.” Why? Because I peed on him. Yes, I urinated on my cat.

It was not my fault. He has developed some tear-around-the-house-at-high-speeds habits lately. So, when I lifted the seat and took a wizz - after closing the bathroom door incompletely, as it turned out - this little yellow fuzzball jumped up on the toilet (apparently believing it would have a lid on it, as it does when he practices athletic high-speed kittening all day when I’m at work). Somehow he avoided falling in, but he did not avoid getting his head entering the, um, stream.

So the next step was to catch him (tearing off at high speed) before he contaminated any more of my house, rinse off his head, and put him in the back bedroom. Stupid cat.

Sign in the parking lot of a Big Cat zoo in Spokane

Student: Dr. Rogers, do you enjoy being evil?
Me: I’m not evil!
Student: Okay, then do you enjoy being… whatever you are?

 today Basic Instructions had a wonderful post about cats (sort of). Click the excerpt above for the full joyfulness, with 3 more amazing panels.

and yesterday I finalized the getting of a kitten. Coincidence? I think not.

Know what else? I’m part of a delegation. Seriously. I’ve never been part of one of those before. I’m in Monterrey (Mexico), and it looks pretty cool so far. I’ll be back to Texas just in time to see Alex on Wednesday. Yessss!

And I miss my new kitty. Also Dexter, whom I never see anymore :(. Oh well. He is loved, and taken good care of. That’s important.

So I had a bit of an adventure yesterday. I moseyed on up to “Lake” Edinburg (actually a reservoir, not a lake) and paddled. It was overcast, bathwater-warm, and very nice. The lake/pond is a good 2 feet shallower than last time I paddled it, but I still had a good time. Saw 2 kinds of egrets, some herons (small ones…?), some cormorant-type things (lighter-colored, smaller), some kingfisher-type things, frogs, toads, fish jumping… lots of life in semitropical Deep South Texas. Also lots of garbage. Stupid Deep South Texans.

Then at about 7:15 I tried to leave. Tried. All gates locked. @#$%. I beat my brains against that for quite a while. No way out. While I was examining one of the gates for possible lock-jimmying (no dice) or alternative gate opening strategies (even fewer dice), I heard a very loud, piercing meow. I thought perhaps a local person’s cat had come to say hi. But there are no houses for half a mile or so, there. And the cat was a vaguely orange-mud-colored kitten. Very small. And it was bleeding. It ran up to me and whined very loudly. Then it wouldn’t stop following me (stupid cat). So I took it home with me.

This involved walking a little over 3 miles to the nearest phone in my paddling sandals, carrying a sometimes - not - cooperative kitten in a little bag I found in my trunk. We negotiated a position with the bag over my shoulder like a purse, and the cat popping his head and front paws out to see where we were going. After a while, he just slept. Musta been tired. And I found out that nobody picks up a thirtysomething bearded hitchhiker in shorts and a paddling top at night, even if he is carrying a kitten.

The cat was a mess. Huge goobery black eye boogers all over its face, filthy, fleas EVERYWHERE, and bleeding from a wound under its chin. Fresh wound. Craig suggested maybe it was thrown out of a moving car very recently. Or maybe it was bitten by something unfriendly very recently.

Now the wound is healing a bit, the eye boogers are gone, he’s bathed, and he has been given flea treatment, eye ointment, shots, a checkup, and pretty much a clean bill of health. The vet said he’s about 8 weeks old, so that’s a relief (I was worried he was younger). The vet also said he’s a he. I was wrong about that one. Gotta rethink name possibilities.

Now off to get some kitten food. I don’t know if I’ll keep him. Maybe. Or maybe someone else wants a very cute little kitten who’s had his shots and has figured out where his litter box is and everything.

Did I mention today’s my birthday? :)

[The rest of the pictures, after the jump, are mostly for my wife. You can look if you want, but unless you’re as gaga for kittens as she is, you might get bored]

  Continue reading →

ironic… like rain the day after your wedding.

I’m leaving now. I’m ambivalent about it, because there are pluses and minuses to being here in Ontario. In fact, here are some of them:

+ First, I enjoy living with my wife much more than living 2,000 miles away
- I do not enjoy being isolated from the university, people, and other resources that help me do my job. It feels like trying to run a business in Pittsburgh from a tent in the Sierras.
+ It’s only 3 months in the summer
- Then there’s winter… Continue reading →