Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Yes, I expect tomorrow when we get home there will be some very whiny cats indeed. Tenny will howl like he’s been imprisoned for decades, get some attention then ignore me for the evening. Then he’ll be all in my face when I go to bed… Evil will insist on fresh food, lots of attention and goodness knows what else.

There was a little blip of technical difficulty with this site this morning and probably last night. The offending plug-in has been nuked and de-config’d. Shouldn’t be a problem again. I even fixed it before having coffee… which reminds me, I should have coffee now.

Happy Friday, all!

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

blog, cats, comics, monster cat, silly, technical difficulties, tennyson

I’m at the point at which I need to think about what day today is. Hurray!

There have been walks on the beach, games of mini-golf and more dead jelly fish. Today we went down to the beach during a higher tide than usual. Most of the jelly fish had been washed back out to sea but some of the very dead ones were mostly submerged in the sand with a dusting of sand blown over them like little jelly fish land mines.

The weather has been gorgeous though it’s starting to get a little warm. Luckily there’s always a breeze down by the ocean. Oh darn, we might have to spend more time down there.

jelly fish, travel, vacation

What could be more blissful than sitting at an open window watching the birds and feeling the breezes? Oh, how about sitting at an open window without a screen in it? Monster Cat will not be getting that option anytime soon. ;) The open window with the screen makes him happy enough, luckily. Maybe I’ll toss some bird seed on the porch roof. That’ll make his day!

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

birds, cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

The flights to South Carolina Saturday were easy and uneventful. We had to call the owner of the house to find out where the wireless router and cable modem are located because the network wasn’t working. (The prospect of a week without internet was actually kind of scary-sad…) After standing rather precariously on a chair to power cycle the network equipment, all was well with the world. We had lunch at Fudruckers and dinner at Lonestar because they’re easy and reliable and required absolutely no decision making of our tired brains. There’s nothing worse than having to actually read a menu when you’re foolishly tired from travel…

Sunday we walked down to the beach where there were many dead cannonball jellyfish. (There are photos, they’re just still on the camera. We figured out what type they are but we’re still not sure why they’re dead. Perhaps they were having a jellyfish party and didn’t notice that it was time for the tide go out. And some of them might not be quite dead yet as they were closer to the water.)

The weather is gorgeous despite the dead invertebrates. We had lunch at my favorite pizza place down here (yum), learned about kayaking tours (which I now want to do at least one of) and bought sandals, hung around and did very little, etc. I’ve been assured by a very nice man at the Outside store that I an unlikely to flip the kayaks they provide. Eventually we went out and had dinner at Frankie… er.. something. Frankie Bones! Divine steak (which I fully plan to try to reproduce myself), a string of tasty drinks and smores for dessert. That’s right, smores. They let me play with fire at the table. It was awesome.

Today, there are no plans yet… I could quite happily sit around and read or write or nap or go to the beach again.

beach, food, frankie bones, jellyfish,, outside, pizza, smores, steak, travel, vacation

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Ah, the cat-tummy-trap… If you know a cat, you know how irresistible that tummy is. “Aw, he’s lying on his back giving me that ‘pet me’ look! I’ll have to rub his tummy!” And the trap is sprung and your hand is a mess of lacerations from the Claws of Doom! And now the cat is giving you that look of, “You stupid thumb monkey, I am not a dog.” And we fall for it every time.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

So I have several favorite quilts from the International Quilt Show as well as several I was heartbroken that I couldn’t capture about because they had “no photography” signs on them. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to most of you that one of my favorite quilts is a winter tree quilt. It’s a little quilt – 9×11 inches – and the stitches are very intricate! In the close-up version you can see the tiny stitches that make up the graceful snowflakes. I really love the shimmer of this quilt too. Just pretty… very pretty. :) I love that a lot of very careful work went into this small work of fabric art.

Happily, in other news, the week is half over! 2 more days then I go on a vacation with no firm plans other than our plane tickets! YAY! I have a huge list of things I want to edit or write not to mention a large pile of books to read on the trip. I will whittle down my lists and still not accomplish much on vacation I’m sure… which is probably how it should be. I still really need a vacation so I should take the time for a proper recharge.

I did get the Bernina embroidery software installed on my laptop last night. The delay was because I had to install Windows first. (Boo!) It all seems pretty stable so far. I opened a few designs that were pre-installed and decided I should probably go through the tutorial. That’s right… I’m going to do the tutorial for a piece of software. Why? Well, it’s essentially high-end graphic design software and that’s not something I’m very good at and the icons often make absolutely no sense so it’s hard to punt. I’ll figure it out probably half way through the tutorial, get bored, quit the tutorial and be off and running.

bernina, chicago, embroidery software, international quilt show, quilts, snowflakes, vacation, winter

I’m very protective of my coffee… I hope he doesn’t take a liking to it. ;)

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Join Carbonrally with Monster Cat!
That’s right, Monster Cat has a Carbonrally team and you can join!

Carbonrally.com is a nifty little site that raises awareness for just how easy it is to reduce your environmental impact. You sign up, join a team (optional but Monster Cat would love to have you), take on challenges and watch your CO2 savings grow! It’s a fun toy! Several of the challenges take very little effort and they are taking suggestions for new challenges. I’m not sure their math is perfect (in terms of CO2 impact), but it’s the thought that counts and the challenges do make a difference.

Kick the Catalogs
My favorite recent challenge is the Kick the Catalogs Challenge. I signed up for Catalog Choice and started going through the pile of catalogs that came in while I was in Chicago. I do like catalogs – they’re great for getting ideas and finding interesting little things – but we get so many at the house it’s not even funny. I think our postman does weight training to prep for the holiday season. Catalog Choice will, hopefully, get me off the mailing lists for all the catalogs I don’t really read or want or ended up getting duplicates of. Oh, and the recycling bin will be a little less over-stuffed in the future!

So join up if you’re interested! Monster Cat is here to lead us to a greener planet!

, carbonrally, catalog choice, environmentalism, green, kick the catalogs, monster cat, save the planet, save the world, tennyson

When tumbleweeds made of fur travel the hallways and dust bunnies start to look more like woolly mammoths than benign fluff… you know it’s spring. The temperatures are rising and the cats are shedding that extra layer of winter fur. Not that cats that never go outside NEED a winter coat. Not that the ambient temperature of the house is all that much colder in the winter anyway. And yet, here we are, dodging great balls of fur as they hurtle down the stairs and watching our step for the inevitable results of too much shedding and self-cleaning.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cats, comics, hairballs, monster cat, shedding, silly, spring, tennyson