Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Tennyson has been particularly whiny and pathetic the past 2 days. I’m attributing this mood to not being in Wednesday’s strip. He’s been particularly pathetic, really. Super-duper, silly needy and attention-mongering. You’d think I’d been gone for a week. One of my tape measures has mysteriously disappeared from my desk as well. I wonder where I’ll find it… if I find it. Mr. Paw enjoys playing with tape measures.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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

I don’t quite have a “Somewhere Safe” but I do have a little box where I put little things that I don’t want to lose but don’t have immediate usefulness or relevance to my world. It is my little box of awesome. This is where I put the Spectrum Scientifics business card the Fop handed me. It’s also where the business cards of people like our accountant, mortgage dude and various doctors end up. Merchant cards from Pennsic and quilt shows? In the little box of awesome. Card for the random 60-something man dating a a 20-something guy my coworker tried to hit on in a bar in Mystic? Tempus’ card? Charles the potter’s card? Colleen’s card? All in the little box of awesome. I also keep the various membership cards and expired ID in this box.

But, most awesomely… I thought to put the pinnacle of handy things in the little box of awesome. Instructions, hastily written in metric units on two 3×5″ pieces of paper torn from a little notebook by a lovely woman (with a lovely accent) at Pennsic whom I accosted*** from the line for the ATM two or three Pennsics ago, to make a viking apron dress. I was terribly clever to put these 2 bits of paper in the little box of awesome. They would have been lost long ago if it weren’t for the little box of awesome.

I have transcribed them to one of my notebooks and ordered linen. I need crappy, ugly, horrible fabric for a mock-up. I might actually have an apron dress by Pennsic!

Of note, I apparently can translate metric to English but I fail at converting feet to yards. For a good 10 minutes I thought I was going to need 8 yards of fabric when in fact I only need 8 feet. I should sleep more. Now perhaps…

***To say I accosted her is a terrible exaggeration. Really, I remarked to lisaf that I needed to make an awesome apron dress like that fabulous one on the woman walking by. The lovely woman stopped, chatted a bit, and drew up a quick pattern which she then thrust upon me. She apologized for being in such a hurry - she was late for court preparations or something.

tags: little box of awesome, random, sewing, unit conversion, viking apron dress

Evil is today’s guest star for this episode of Monster Cat. She’s a pain to photograph because she hates the flash and her fur is so dark I usually need to use flash to get her. However, she does sing. Well, she howls… frequently when she’s lost in the house or hauling around a catnip toy. Often this occurs in the wee hours of the morning. An evil delight.

And I have no idea where she learned that Aqua song, “Barbie Girl”. I take no responsibility.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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

Doom is the new black.

tags: black, doom, doom is the new black

I did not get enough sleep this weekend. I even went to bed around 10 last night (though I did end up watching tv for 2 hours). This does not bode well for my day. Hopefully I’ll catch up tonight. *yawn*

I had a good, busy weekend. Dinner with cool people Saturday night, a bustling birthday party all Sunday (which started me down the slippery slope of not enough sleep by keeping me out until 2 a.m.) and puttering and Indiana Jones yesterday. The weather was beautiful all weekend though it started to warm up a little too much for my taste yesterday. Today we’re back to gray and wet, though it’s not due to be cooler until tomorrow.

The new Indiana Jones movie was fun. It lacked some of the coolness, plot complexities and plausibility of previous movies but Harrison Ford can still kick ass. I didn’t go in expecting too much so I wasn’t disappointed. It could have been much much worse.

tags: indiana jones, movies, socializing, weather, weekend

Yes, I am procrastinating cleaning my desk, my office and running to Home Depot by sharing a cartoon of Monster Cat helping with one of my previous desk-cleaning adventures. At least I think I was cleaning my desk. He’s completely capable of fully hiding a keyboard under him but I think in these pictures my keyboard was elsewhere. I could be wrong though. The mouse is clearly visible on the right… Hmmm….

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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

Don’t tell my Subaru, but…

Yesterday we went out test-driving.

Our first stop was the Toyota dealership where Priuses… Prii are going like hot cakes and they didn’t have one on the lot to look at. The nice sales dude did take us to the warehouse for “already sold” cars (on the third floor!!!) to sit in the only Prius they had around. The Fop mostly fits. I still think it’s too light on highways (it gets blown around a lot) but I might get used to that. It gets 20 more miles per gallon than my current car, but I worry about the stability, especially in extreme weather, given how light it is.

Our second, rather fateful stop was at the Mini dealership. The Clubman is adorable. I didn’t like it all until I saw it in person. The only stick shift they had available to test drive was a turbo version. Oops. That was fun! Too fun probably. Now I’m comparing horsepower between the turbo and the non-turbo and cross-referencing against my current car. I’m going to go back for a longer test drive during the week and one out onto the highway. I’m doomed, I think. Even the turbo gets 10 mpg more than my current car. Bonus feature of the Mini: No new car smell. Drawback: Rear visibility limited but mostly mitigated by side mirrors.

Our last stop was at the Subaru dealership. Foresters got huge at some point in the past few years. I tested out a Forester (automatic… *yawn*) and a Legacy (stick shift, more fun but not exciting by any means). Alas I still dislike what they’ve done to the Impreza with the latest redesign. I like the “baby wagon” look of my 1998 Impreza. Now the Impreza looks like every other hatch-back. And the Forester looks more and more like every other small SUV. Ultimately, this is a drawback for me. I like my car NOT to look like every other car in the lot. I suppose I could get flames painted on… The Subarus are all-wheel drive and handle well, but they don’t get significantly better gas mileage now than they did 10 years ago. Another drawback: Intense new car smell. Ew. Bonus: Subaru actually has cars in stock.

The Prius is back-ordered 6-10 weeks. The Clubman is back-ordered 3 months or more. But I could have walked out with a Subaru yesterday. (The only annoying moment of “I hate salesmen” yesterday was at the Subaru dealership when the sales manager swung by to be all sales-y at us about wanting to make a deal on the L.L. Bean edition we were poking at so he could get it out of his showroom. The sales guy who was helping us was pretty annoyed by this too.) Luckily, my time line for purchasing is like 6 months. I think I’ll need to replace my car this year - it’s got a few more good trips in it, but I think ultimately it’s getting to the point where I should stop taking long road trips up and down the Eastern seaboard with it. It’s 10 1/2 years old after all!

At this point, I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Prius and the Clubman - the Clubman with a strong lead. I have a few friends who are Mini and Prius owners. I’ll be asking them how their cars handle in the winter and on highways. I’m still taking suggestions. I’m looking for a medium-sized car that gets over 30 mpg, doesn’t look like every other car in its class and is a stable, reliable vehicle. I’m not a fan of trunks.

tags: car shopping, cars, clubman, mini, prius, subaru, test drives

You always mock the ones you love…

Sometimes the urge to mock the Monster Cat is just irresistible… hence the beginning of the Chronicles of Monster Cat. Tenny puts up with a lot, really, but he’s also quite possibly one of the most adored cats on the planet. As always, it’s good to be the cat!

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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

There’s nothing like coming home to a scolding and a guilt trip from the cat. He sits at the top of the stairs giving the most reproachful glares. We’ll go to a movie, be gone may be 3 or 4 hours and he’ll howl at us like we abandoned him for days. And then he declines to move when we reach the top of the stairs. Crazy cat.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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

The following is an excerpt from a conversation with slyppi last night… this morning, far past our bedtime.

Me: Perhaps the use of “reliquary” when referring to a wedding keepsake box connotes something they don’t want to connote… [referring to the wedding reliquary box]

Slyppi: “felt-lined to hold jewelry, coins, small objects and, of course, wedding keepsakes.”
Such as, your groom’s ring finger.
Minus his flesh.

So technically reliquaries are for holy relics and wedding keepsakes could be considered holy… but most often, when I hear about reliquaries they’re holding bits of saints. Usually little, dried out bits that still resemble the original bits…

tags: late night conversations, reliquary, unfortunate english, weddings