Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cats, comics, dreaming, monster cat, monsters, silly, tennyson

I’m sure you probably have something like this… there’s an album, or a band, or a song or even a whole musical with which you cannot, even under threat of death, prevent yourself from singing along. Regardless of where you are, with whom you find yourself or what you’re actually doing, you find yourself humming or singling along quietly. Or, for the worse afflictions, you must sing full-voice, loudly too, along with your favorites.

This, dear Reader, is why I only allow myself to listen to The Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Miserables, featuring an all-star cast singing the entire operetta, within the confines of my home office or alone in my car.

Les Miserables is the first Broadway show I ever saw and I completely fell in love with it. Shortly after I saw it, this recording was released. I splurged the $30 for three cassette set instead of buying the $10 soundtrack that only included a handful of songs. In college, I wrote papers with Les Mis as my soundtrack – almost 3 hours of epic drama is definitely useful to keep my brain going. At my first couple of jobs, I would listen it to it in my cube on my little walkman tape player thing.

I sang along quietly at first.
By my second job I was getting looks from people over the cube walls.
That’s when I started limiting where I could listen to these tapes: home, car, or otherwise alone.
At some point, I misplaced the tapes with my other cassettes then sent them to be sold in a yard sale.

The time of cassettes has passed, and I never did get a converter to digitize my tapes anyway, so earlier this year I found and re-purchased the same recording from iTunes. Guess what? It’s cheaper now than it was 17 years ago! But it’s just as wonderful as I remember it. And this recording is still excellent when I need to get things done. Like today, or any other time things are particularly crazy. The intensity of the music keeps me from getting too distracted – I can either pay attention to what I’m working on or the music. There is little else.

And after singing to it all again this afternoon? I still think Marius and Cosette are spoiled children who need to get a clue and my love for Fantine’s and Javert’s songs persists.

Oh, and I’m totally pretending no one can hear me when I sing in my home office.

les miserable, singing

That’s right… I have fierce Mouse Guard action figures! They are so cute! Er… FIERCE! My darlingest Fop brought them to me before he went off to fencing practice so I have fierce MOUSE GUARD mice to protect me while he’s off doing swooshy-pokey things with the Tadcasters.

I have some of the most adorable creatures on the planet to comfort me until David Petersen publishes the next issue of Mouse Guard.

I saw my latest chiropractor this morning. My lower back is behaving nicely and required only cursory poking. My neck is much improved but my knee is being stubborn. As an added bonus, Dr. “I’m going to poke all your nerves really really hard” decided to work the muscles in my left shoulder to release some of the grick and stress in the interest of my neck’s continued improvement. I’m actually surprised I didn’t hit him. I wanted to. I threatened to. He giggled. Yep, giggled. I like him. And the shoulder felt good, for about 8 hours… now it’s really sore yet somehow still feels better than it did. I continue to chug down water.

Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam (the Mouse Guard trio) are currently keeping my desk very safe. Time to go to sleep!

action figures, chiropractor, comics, cuteness, health, mouse guard, shoulder, stress

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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If you’re feeling brave, take a look at the photo at its original size. I love how this one came out. (Yes, I’m a little bit vain sometimes.)

The weekend was fun and productive. I got a lot done though not as much as I’d hoped. It looks like tomorrow I’ll be doing math during the Fop’s birthday/movie night. And by math I mean “figuring out how big the pleats in the Fop Pants need to be in order to fit the waistband correctly.” It’s not difficult math. It’s just pesky. I hate pleats. They are evil.

Work today seemed to drag on forever, hence the subject line. It really feels like it should be later in the week by now. I also got a lot done at work today but not as much as I’d hoped. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life. Tomorrow I shall drink More Coffee in order to combat the plodding of the day. You have been warned. [insert evil laugh here!]

coffee, orange, photographs, sca, sewing, work

Another beautiful applicant for the position of side-kick! And yes, to those few of you who remember a stray, mouthy kitten in Hanover, NH during the summer of 1994, this is cat is one and the same.

Today Tenny has placed himself between my computers on the desk. I have about 10 square inches to use my mouse in for my work machine (handily it also has a track pad). He is also quite talkative – more chirpy than his usual whine. He’s also already pushed a pile of mail and magazines off my desk this morning. I need to clean my desk a bit before he decides to push any more piles off. He’s not the best officemate ever, but he’s certainly the cutest.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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Apparently it’s random photo week here at Casa di Monster Cat. Here is a long-promised dead jellyfish photo. There were many, many, many dead cannonball jellyfish on the beach when we were in Hilton Head in April. They were really quite remarkable.

I’m not a graphic designer, nor would I play one on TV. Luckily, if I try really hard, I can color using Photoshop and a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Annoying and niggly work, but (hot damn) did it work. I think I need to do more coloring as practice. In my copious spare time.

I’m taking tomorrow off from work but will probably log in to see if any progress can be made on the current fire drill. I really am a sucker for getting things done.

Now, I should post Monster Cat and go to sleep. Really.

cannonball jellyfish, random, work

So, while I was home in Maine my little brother grinned with glee, took my camera and scampered (yes, scampered) to the attic of Dad’s garage with the comment, “Oh you’ve got to have a picture of this!” And this is how I ended up with the Shag King on my camera. The Shag King is, naturally, a vacuum attachment for the 30+ year old Kirby vacuum cleaner in my parents’ house. Presumably, if it were attached to said Kirby and pointed at some shag carpet, the Shag King would indeed voraciously devour all dirt in its shaggy path.

I have redrafted the pattern for Fop Pants and cut out a pair. I have more fabric in the dryer. Apparently I’m still procrastinating my Viking apron dresses. I’ve got plenty of pre-Pennsic projects to do it with too.

attachment, dad’s attic, kirby, random, sewing, shag king, vacuum cleaner, dad’s attic

That’s my cat: a catnip addict. When I was away on the road trip last week, “someone” got into the cabinet where we keep the straight catnip. “Someone” took a bag of ‘nip up to my office. “Someone” ripped open that bag and spread it all over the floor and apparently rolled in it. I have to say it must have been the best trip ever…

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

cat toys, catnip, cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson