Another round of the same

Greenies and Tuna Juice
"What's that?" I hear you cry. A new girl-group hailing from the northwest? The next great American novel? The latest menu options at Localvores R Us? No, no, nothing like that. Greenies and tuna juice are the only two things Mao will ingest. Her kidneys are failing—have failed?—and she doesn't have much of an appetite. However, since she is still ruling this roost, she needs to eat something, right? So we tried two special diet dry kibbles with no luck. Same success with the canned food. Heck, then I figured since she's dying why not let her eat what she wants. So out came the tuna. She'll eat the juice but not the meat. While the effect on her breath is the same, her ribs and hips are starting to protrude. At treat time when the other cats come running at the shake of the bag, Mao manages to get up enough momentum to peek her head around the corner. She'll eat about six greenies before sauntering back to continue her nap.

Sigh. The adage regarding it not being the fall that kills you but the hitting the ground is wrong. It is the falling that kills you.

What I Found Today

I'm fried. We're only three weeks into the quarter and mentally I'm toast. I have nothing else to say to y'all but wanted you to know I'm thinking of you and your internet needs. Enjoy these finds.

Three Philosophies.
Found at tweebiscuit.net

Honey, could you bring in some wood for the fire?
Found at the artist's site.


What happens when eBay, Amazon, Google and MySpace show up at a party....
The Internet Party, at Cracked.com

Old pictures, new taglines. Brilliant.
Married to the Sea


What I won't be doing on the long weekend: going for an infinite walk. Check out the movie to see how this path was made.


Either someone has too much time on their hands or some whiz-kid in marketing has earned a vacation and a promotion. Hilarious. Click to see the rest of the book, the newsflash, etc.

Two+ Hours I'll Never get Back

Resist the temptation to watch the Matrix trilogy. Stop after the second movie. If you feel the need to watch a trilogy, watch the second one twice. Avoid the third movie if at all possible. Clearly the dialog was all used up in the preceding movies but the fight choreographers needed to get paid.

What a waste of an evening curled up in front of the laptop.

Random

File under:

a) Things I never want to see again: a hot pink velour jogging suit. Those four adjectives never need be lined up again. Unfortunately, you can't erase your retinas.

b) New words in my vocabulary: negify verb to change the sign of a number. -ied -ing ex. we can negify +2 by changing its sign to –, thus obtaining –2.

c) Longest period of measurable time: the time period beginning when you know your new office computer has arrived on campus and the moment it is placed on your desk. I've aged weeks in the past few days.

d) Do I really want to think about this?

The basic facts: Toxo can infect many species, but it undergoes sexual reproduction only in cat digestive tracts. Once the parasite reproduces, the cat passes it in its feces, where the next unwitting host picks it up by digesting it (intentionally or unintentionally). Then the cycle starts again. In the long run, Toxo must find its way back to a cat’s stomach to survive. So the parasite has evolved a complicated system for taking over its hosts’ brains to increase the likelihood that they’ll be eaten by cats.
(c) New York Times Magazine 12/09/2007

I clean four litterboxes every night. I'm going to freak if any of the grrllzz start licking me.

We made it home!!! Oh joy! Oh fur covered bed! Oh blissful sleep! Oh
gawd, the quarter starts tomorrow. The wheels touched at 8, the car
was fetched by 8:30. A hot meal was had at 10. The roads were empty
the whole way home and sleep began at 12:03. I think both my ears have
finally popped back (the worst part of flying for me: deafness and
pain often for longer than the flight lasted) and the grrllzz are
draped all over the bed. I wonder if we have any food in the house...

My kind of town

So we never actually saw the ground until the wheels touched it. I
think I prefer those types of landings. I get a little wonky when the
ground is coming up quickly. Anyway, we let the woman who shared the
misery of her trip thus far and the drama of the continued flight
delays which only added to her, ahem, joy with the five rows around
her go ahead of us when deplaning. It was a small gesture which
probably was not the difference between her making her connection or
not but 'tis the season and I hope she made it. We also met a
gentleman from the Buffalo Bills' practice squad. Mr. Copeland Bryan
was gracious while I was a babbling idiot. I wish him well in his
football career. We then found a beverage spigot and are now huddled
at the gate with our fellow travelers. So far the departure time has
been delayed by 43 minutes. I've never been in a de-iced plane before.
Wish me luck.

Not moving

While sitting at the gate, a gent taped up a sign that informed
travelers that a new state law requires airlines to make accomodations
for food in and food out if the plane is stuck on the tarmac for three
hours or more. It seems now to have been prescient because we are now
sitting on the runway without our main engine running. We can't fly
into Chicago due to traffic at their end so we get to sit here for 40
more minutes. The folks in front of me have partially unpacked their
puppy (how do you tell an animal to yawn and pop their eardrums?) and
the woman behind me is sharing her misery with whoever answered their
phone at the other end as well as rows 15-20.

Hmm, I wonder if FrenchieFoo got out of Chi-town ok ...

Stay tuned. I'm not going anywhere for a while.

Sent from my iPhone

And so it begins

This (below) is what we like to see: pavement! No worries for the
first flight and I hope the runway in Chicago is just as clear. We had
a good time but I'm ready to be in my own bed, fighting the grrllzz
for space.

Mother Nature comes through at last

Finally, a bit of fluffy white hit the ground. Of course, I hope there
is none of this on the runway in a few hours but I'll enjoy it in the
meantime.

Last day of world's best cuisine

Tomorrow we head back to the great northwet and leave this snowy
wonderland behind. Apparently Mother Nature forgot we were coming and
failed to order up the snow. Absolutely no frozen water to be seen. Oh
well.

The trip has been a culinary delight. It began with a fish fry that
cannot be beat anywhere else in the continental U.S. If the beer-
battered fish isn't hanging over the edges of the platter-sized plate,
take your $8.95 elsewhere. I've lived in two regions of the country
that are not here and have reputations and industries based on seafood
and they cannot hold a candle to the fish dinners found in this Rust
Belt city. That meal alone made wrestling with TSA worthwhile.

I'm drooling again so perhaps it would be best to set the electronics
aside now.

Sent from my iPhone