Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

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cats, comics, monster cat, napping, silly, tennyson

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!

cats, comics, evil, hiss, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Via the power of cell phones, my brother and I discovered that our parents are apparently without power and phone up in Maine. Ice storms are messy, messy things.

My cold is drifting away. Slowly. Somewhat painfully. The coughing is going to kill me.

I shopped for holiday goody baking. I’m behind schedule compared to last year since I’ve been sick all week but I won’t have that pesky work stuff in the way this week. (My gift shopping, on the other hand, is a lost cause. I’m going to have to go to… the Mall.)

Venice, Italy is a peculiar place unlike anywhere else on the planet. One of the things that makes it particularly peculiar is “acqua alta” – high water – when astronomically high tides flood the city. This month’s acqua alta is the deepest the floods have been in 22 years. Boston.com’s “The Big Picture” features some incredible photos. One of the lowest areas of the city is St. Mark’s Square. Coincidentally, this is also one of the most popular tourist zones and a bustling retail area. Lisaf and I were in Venice for acqua alta in 2003 and it was indeed really peculiar. You can get some really interesting photos of St. Mark’s and the various architecture of the square reflected in the pools of water. Venice is not warm this time of year – being on the water gives the air a damp, brutal chill to begin with. Having the water this high, well that must make that chill even worse.

In other news, we have Teddy Bears in Space. How cool is it that students made space suits for their little bears and then sent them almost 20 miles up into the atmosphere? The photos at the link above are really remarkable. Beyond that, how cool is it that middle school aged students are launching things nearly into space? They are currently “designing a system to launch a rocket from a balloon platform to out space for under £1,000 a go.” Incredible! Don’t you wish you’d thought of that?

Photos: 1. St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice as reflected in a puddle from the acqua alta in November 2003. 2. A lion overlooks the canal in Venice.

acqua alta, baking, cooking, health, holidays, ice storm, maine, miscellany, random, space flight, teddy bears, venice, weather, weekend

Stay tuned for more on the investigation of Miss Evil next week! I’ve got a wicked cold and wanted to save the next part of the story for when I’m a bit more clever.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!

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

The as of yet unnamed Mini Clubman in my driveway is pleased to make its first appearance with its new stripes. I particularly adore the driving lights (the bug eyes) and the chrome on the hood scoop. Yes, it’s a black car… I didn’t like the way the British Racing green seemed to fade over the years so I went with black instead. I’ve put just over 100 miles on it so far and figured out what many but not all of the buttons do.

I’m sure it will be a great comfort to my father to learn that my Mini is very helpful. So helpful that when the temperature dips below 37° it puts up a little warning that conditions could get icy. In short, Dad, my car warns me about black ice just as often as you do.

cars, clubman, mini

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I have survived my first week of unemployment! My contract at Pfizer ended the day before Thanksgiving, so Monday was my first official day as a Lady of Leisure. I had a more productive week than I’d expected. I did a lot of paperwork-type things such as applying for unemployment, poking at my resume, updating my LinkedIn profile and insuring my new car.

Oh right. That new car. I picked up my new 2009 MINI Clubman on Monday. Because I think it’s always better to start something like unemployment with a bang. I suspect I have lost my title to the Subaru so I need to order a replacement title before I can sell it, but I will be selling the Green Hornet. No pictures of the new hotness yet – it’s getting its final touches Tuesday morning (bonnet stripes!), so you’ll just have to wait.

I finally successfully rearranged my desk and got it vaguely clean. Of course, it’s already cluttered again but there’s more space for the Monster Cat now. Unfortunately he likes to take his half out of the middle and in this case the middle is the desk space between my chair and the keyboard. If he were smaller, he’d be an excellent wrist rest. Well, and if he didn’t insist on leaning his head on the keyboard. The turf war continues…

Thursday evening was the final reading for my non-fiction essay class. Four of us read our final essays and I think it went fairly well. Nerves attacked us all a little – the whole first page I was reading I had that “need to remember to breathe” thing going. However, I think all of us did very well! We had a small audience and people were appropriately appreciative and amused by our essay I think. The Fop quoted some of the best lines from everyone’s essays all through dinner, so I’ll call the reading a success!

So despite a little anxiety about the reading Thursday, as of yesterday I feel like I’m actually relaxed. The weather has turned chilly, the latest issue of Mouse Guard finally arrived, the Church is putting up their Christmas lights right now, and I myself actually will have time to decorate for and enjoy the holidays this year. We’ll see how long this bliss lasts.

cars, cats, clubman, holidays, mini, reading, unemployment, work, writing

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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Photos & Words
Thursday, December 4, 2008

Opening 6pm – 8:30pm
Continuing Studies, 9th floor
Terra Hall, 211 S. Broad Street

Reading 7pm
Connelly Auditorium, 8th floor
Terra Hall, 211 S. Broad Street

(The photography opening will be providing munchies and beverages!)

Shameless plug: Done.

cars, reading, this american life, uarts, writing