Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

It’s been a long, busy week already and I’ve still got one more day left. I worked in the office this morning, flew home this afternoon, got flowered and ballooned at the airport (Super-HURRAY!) and then settled in to work again for a little bit. Too many long days this week. Luckily the flight was uneventful and arrived 20 minutes early.

Rant Warning Level: Red (Probability of Rant = 100%)

By the by… the threat level is still Orange or high, specifically for air travel. The threat level was raised to Orange on August 10, 2006. When was the last time it was Yellow? Oh right, over a year ago in early August when I stopped being able to bring my own water bottle through the Security check point and the requirement began to show all my toiletries and other sundry liquids and gels to the world in a quart-sized zip top bag. Oh joy. So now that this crack down on toothpaste, eye drops and hydration has been in effect for approximately 18 months, the threat level is still Orange. Why? Gosh could it be because all these silly security measures aren’t doing anything to actually provide additional security?

Seriously, making everyone put their 3.4 oz containers of shampoo and ointments in zip-top bag is not making me feel any safer. Not only that, it’s not making the flights any safer. I don’t mind a little extra process if it actually works.

“Raising the threat condition has economic, physical, and psychological effects on the nation.”

Yes, raising and maintaining a high threat condition annoys me. But that’s not all. Unnecessarily high threat levels and absurdly increased security have already had unwelcome effects on this country. We’ve seen a decrease in international tourists, our currency has fallen pretty significantly… our economy is indeed feeling the effects. I’d love to see some evidence that showing the world my moisturizer and nasal spray is actually preventing terrorism. I won’t hold my breath.

On the other hand, I had the hiccups pretty badly between dropping off my rental car and getting to my gate today and the TSA guy said it was cute. Yep, those are our tax dollars at work.

tags: airports, rant, security, silly, travel, tsa, work

Episode 19!!!
The very first day I had Tennyson, before he even had a name, I took him to the vet. Falstaff had developed a delicate constitution so I wanted to get the kitten checked out before introducing them to each other. My favorite vet tech was working and she thought it would be so awesome if she had a camera because the office was chick-sitting some chicks who were about the same size as my new kitten.

Unsurprisingly, I had my camera in the car.

More of the Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, kittens, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Another long, crazy day. Busy and crammed with stuff and enjoyable. The novel thing about being in the office is the random things you learn about each other. Turns out most of my officemates for the day are photo geeks of one flavor or another. Hurray! In among the craziness or perhaps as participation in the craziness, I got a lot done. Not that there isn’t an extended list of things to do in the morning.

The photograph here is Shannon Falls, a waterfall outside of Vancouver that we stumbled upon on the Sea to Sky Highway. The falls are just gorgeous. The Sea to Sky Highway makes me tense. “Oh what a whimsical little name it has,” was my first thought. Then I drove it - two hours up to Whistler. I’m glad I never had to drive both ways. My hands were sore enough from gripping the steering wheel on the drive up. They really mean Sea to Sky. On the drive north, to your left is a sudden and treacherous drop down to the bay. To your right is sheer rock face. It’s a two lane road. (They don’t mean the “highway” part of the name so much.) Oh, and to top it all off, it’s very curvy - sharp curves… often with little notice. The locals are all about driving it fast, furious and dangerously. Every week it seemed the news ran a story of a fatality or serious multi-car accident on the Sea to Sky. It’s a gorgeous drive. Breath-taking. But much harder to appreciate when you’ve got a death-grip on the steering wheel trying to keep the car from careening off the side of the cliff to the left or slamming into the rock face tot he right. (I got better at it… with a few trips… really!)

The views are amazing. When new folks came to Vancouver and had time, we’d take the drive if they were in town on a Saturday or Sunday. There are actually two waterfalls on the highway (Rte 99, by the by) as well as several other random pull-offs at which you can gawk at how blue the sky is, how green the trees are, how amazing the islands are below in the bays, or just how amazing the landscape is.

The hotel internet sucks tonight but I successfully got in to World of Warcraft and raided anyway. During our mid-raid break, a bunch of guild members sang happy birthday to me over Ventrilo. They were clever about it too - they didn’t try to sing together but picked up one line each. (Singing together on Ventrilo almost never works because inevitably the latency gets people out of sync. Hilarious but painful. Taking turns really worked for them!) So my lovely guildies made me laugh really hard with pure happiness. They sing “beautifully.” It was really incredibly sweet and cute.

tags: birthday, british columbia, driving, photographs, photography, sea to sky highway, travel, vancouver, work, world of warcraft

So yeah, it was a big, bad, crazy Monday. But my Monday wasn’t the worst in the office, so I’m counting myself lucky. I started by going to the wrong site then running to the other site and being late to a meeting. I was busy and productive most of the day - a pleasant combination not always associated with being on-site. The guy having the worst day in the office helped me make a lot of progress on a headache project schedule. Hurray! Had a lovely dinner with a new team member - corrupted her appropriately, I hope. Now I have retired to my posh hotel room. Well, I pretend it’s posh. I miss Vancouver and Le Soleil. For so many reasons. And I’m really tired. I will sleep tonight… or else I’ll be a freakishly tired girl tomorrow. Possibly both.

Whee!

Yep. Tired.

tags: sleep, travel, work

Another episode of bunnies. Turns out the Killer Rabbits don’t talk much. A new killer rabbit may take the stage soon though… violet_amy sent a long another little friend.

More of the Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, killer rabbits, monster cat, monty python, tennyson

For the second Saturday in a row I felt like crap and succeeded in not doing anything at all. I had a properly crappy day. Annoying to say the least. Well, I did successfully pack for my trip up to Connecticut. I was ready like a whole 24 hours before my flight. A new record, I believe. So now I’m in Connecticut, settled into my hotel for the week and stuff. I’m not all that excited about this trip for various non-work reasons, but it’s promising to be productive. I fly back home Thursday afternoon. As a side note, my new awesome bag of doom is not ideal for carrying two laptops. I’ll need to switch back to my backpack next trip. Or I need to buy a new MacBook Air. Air, baby, AIR. I think I’ll just swap to the backpack - much cheaper.

The Philly airport was about what I expected today - busy and populated by stupid people. The ID screeners have a new little tool - a blue light that confirms the legitimacy of your state photo ID. Kinda neat and faster than checking the other security features of most photo ID. The security line was long. There were a bunch of bag checks and carry-ons put back through the x-ray machine because apparently folks don’t understand that the signs pertain to them too. I don’t mind full flights or kids on the plane. I don’t even mind the fact that the plane ran half an hour late. It’s the stupidity that bugs me. Even when I’m prepared for it, get there early so the stupid people don’t make me stress about being late, and generally brace for the idiocy, stupid people can still be annoying.

Today’s oblivious moron award goes to the woman ahead of me in the security line who didn’t understand that everyone was taking off their shoes and coats because security had been announcing that we had to do that. The airport was not suddenly too hot when we arrived at the x-ray machine… No deafness to excuse her. She also didn’t seem to grasp that she needed to put all her liquids and gels in the quart-sized zip bag, not just the things that would have been in her toiletry case. The perfume, hand lotion and water bottle in her purse apparently slipped her mind. Hmm… because… when the security person asked you if you had any liquids or gels and if you had them all in your zip bag you forgot about the 32 oz bottle of water in your hideous faux lizard purse? See why she gets the oblivious moron award?

Airport security isn’t really all that secure, I know, but at least play along with them.

Speaking of the MacBook Air (because I can’t purely rant)… it looks awesome. I can’t wait to see it in person. So light, thin, tiny, cute… It’s not perfect, but it tries. *happy sigh* I don’t want one yet, but it’s a beautiful little package and will be my next laptop. Eventually. The desktop is next on the shopping list, but probably not for a while yet.

tags: airport security, airports, apple, macbook air, oblivious morons, travel, work

More of the Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, killer rabbit, monster cat, monty python, tennyson

Back in July, my dwarf kumquat tree was in bloom! Apparently it’s a happy little tree because this morning I harvested 15 little orange kumquats from its branches. (15 dwarf kumquats don’t amount to much - maybe a heaping tablespoon of unpeeled fruit.) Apparently dwarf kumquats are mostly seed inside. I’m thinking about drying the seeds and planting them in April or May to see what happens. The tree is even happier now because it can stand up straight-ish again. All those little kumquats were weighting it down pretty significantly.


I was excited about the tree blooming in July with its pretty little white blossoms. But the fact that the blossoms actually successfully made the transition to fruit (I should have taken photos of the green kumquats!) and ripened beautifully is just awesome. Perhaps I’m too easily amused. Perhaps I like orange too much. Perhaps I like my camera too much. And perhaps I use the word “perhaps” too much. But what it comes down to is that you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. And perhaps the gnomes that live under my dwarf kumquat tree.

tags: dwarf fruit, indoor gardening, kumquats, photographs, photography

Fixed: I noticed earlier today that Monster Cat was showing up crappily in Windows IE. (Because it’s been so long since I cared that I’d forgotten that it’s taboo just to resize images on the fly despite the fact that they look fine when you do that on the Mac…) So I re-exported and fixed that little problem tonight. The latest (2008) episodes should all display clearly and legibly now.

Suggestions? If you notice any other weirdness, feel free to comment. Also, I am not a comic artist so if you see something I could do better, please mention it!

Monster Cat! This will be week 3 of doing Monster Cat on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. I wonder how long I can keep that up. I already have 2 for next week and plan to build the 3rd before I leave for CT on Sunday.

Travel: Oh yeah, I’m going to be up in Connecticut Sunday evening through Thursday afternoon next week. Save me some snow, folks!

My car! Because what random, “late”-night post is complete without me gushing about my car? My Subaru turns 10 years old this week! Happy birthday, Green Hornet! Still under 155,000 miles, only 12,000 of which I’ve put on it in the last 5 years. Yeah, that tells you something about how radically my driving habits changed when I moved to Pennsylvania.

tags: car, monster cat, random, travel

That’s right… Monster Cranky! Every once in a while Tennyson decides to go into hiding/hibernation for a day or so. It’s all quite normal and feline I’m sure: long naps, a certain anti-socialness, some seriously annoyed looks whenever anyone disturbs him. And, since he’s a cat, he gets away with it and keeps looking cute while doing it.

Me, I get cranky and people bug me by trying to cheer me up or placate me. This is even more annoying than being bugged in the middle of a cat nap. It’s good to be the cat.

So after a day of napping and avoiding me, Monster Cat is back today. He’s been whining for toy time, tromping ALL over my desk (pausing wherever I’m focusing while I try to do work), and generally making a needy nuisance of himself. Good thing he’s cute… and good that I’m not running any conference calls. The kitty whines in the background would assuredly get me reported to the ASPCA for neglect… because you know my cat gets no attention at all. Ever.

In other Monster News, the new favorite toy is starting to show some significant signs of wear. The fuzzy covering is starting to come apart at the seams and the decorative feathers of fun are almost gone. We may have to venture over to the pet store for a new toy soon. Of course, in the pet store lies serious danger: Kittens. OMG KITTENS! Kittens to melt your heart and make you say things like, “Oh, we should totally get all 3 of those little guys!” Right. Because Evil cat would put up with that so well. We barely escaped with our lives the last time we went to the pet store!

The Complete Chronicles of Monster Cat are but a click away!

tags: cats, comics, cranky, monster cat, tennyson