For those of you who checked it out before (and for those who didn’t, you might try it now), Tim just posted the final ep of Star Trek Aurora. This is a fan-made (Tim does all the art but he has help with the voice actors) full length animated movie of a merchant-style story set in the ST universe. It’s really quite mind boggling what a single person and a computer can accomplish…and some darned nice techy story-telling to boot!
Thanks, Tim!
Enjoy!
Note: All pix here available as puzzles! See Puzzles page (tab above)
As most of you reading this know, OSG went kitteh huntin’ last week and came home with some darling new babies. Carolyn and I were lucky enough to be asked along for moral support (but also to drive so OSG could commune with her new babies! 
)
First stop was the animal shelter. OSG had her eye on an Emily lookalike that matchmaker CJ had found on the internet. The facility was a lovely surprise. Comcast has donated beautiful big glass enclosures where the kittens can run loose and be played with. Great cat trees and overhead runs. Several very nice people were there with kids, some adopting, some who couldn’t have pets where they lived and so brought their kids to the shelter to get their furry “fix.” I found one utterly adorable 8 week old black kitteh-girl who just about came home in my pocket. If it weren’t for our traveling with our cats…by golly, I’d have done it! Fortunately, it was her first day there and I bet she was snapped up by someone in the next couple of days. She had a motor you wouldn’t believe.
Then it was into another room lined with pristine very large cages. (I assume they rotate the kitties in the glass room and the outdoor facility.) There were several older cats here…really lovely creatures that I hope someone snaps up soon. But the one I immediately headed for held two little grey fluffballs.
Now…I must digress a moment. When I was growing up, we had a rescued (from under our house) Siamese mama cat who presented us with many beautiful kittens before we finally caught her between litters and got her spayed. (Fortunately, we never had trouble finding homes for them.) For the most part, they were beautiful little Siamese (our neighbors had a randy Siamese male) and even more beautiful little black half Siamesesss. (Thus beginning my lifelong love affair with black kittehs…but I digress even further.) There was also a Persian-type male floating about and we got a couple of long haired babies out of it. One a gorgeous black female and another that was, yes, a longhaired silver tabby…looked just like the little girl in this cage with her equally beautiful little brother.We lost Fizzy tragically and much too soon and I think about her often. (I’ve got a pic of her somewhere…hope I can find it…Sis…if you’re reading this, do you have one?)
I hoped…oh, I hoped…OSG would be attracted to them, even though she seemed more interested in the litter in the next cage which had more beautiful babies…one that was very like her Emily. I didn’t say much of anything tho I oo’d and ah’d a lot, because bonding can’t be forced, but when I picked up the little guy and he began purring and cuddling, I was very thankful for my hard and fast rule of black cat ownership. I wanted to take these two home, too!
Suffice to say, when I came back from cuddling my little black girl in the other room to find OSG on the floor snuggling with Bella (now Luna) my gut did a little happy dance. However, I knew OSG also had her heart pretty well set on Angie, the rescue kitty out in the valley, which I totally understood, but I was really afraid that in the name of a two-kitty/two-person household, she was going to break up the set, which would have been a real shame. Having now had two kitties who luhooooove each other, sleeping and cuddling together, I’d hate for her to miss out on the fun. I was also really afraid that shy little Bella, who was more into escaping than cuddling, w/b pretty traumatized if separated from her much bolder brother. I fear I did some pretty fast talking to support my thesis, but in truth, I think OSG really wanted them both anyway, cuz she was pretty fast to get on the phone with OSGuy and get the “go ahead” for three, if Angie ended up a keeper as well.
So…she put the twins on hold and we headed out to the valley and Angie’s rescue-mom. Now here’s where the most important part of the day happened for me. Rescue-mom had experience with a bengal with the same, er, flatulance problem as the Shuster and it turned out to be irritable bowel which a few days on prednizone cured. I went home armed with hope that my little boy’s tricky gut might just get solved (and so far, after a quick visit to the vet and some pills, it looks like it’s going to work!) and OSG went home with kitteh #3.
We picked up the twins on the way home, picked up our car from Swinging Doors and drove OSG home (in all honesty, we wouldn’t have let her drive herself. I think she’d been going on adrenaline since she lost Emily and Kate and having made this very positive but still difficult decision, her whole system just crashed.) Kitties were quiet and good as gold in the car. OSGuy was waiting when we got there. CJ and I stuck around for the initial introduction, then scooted out the door, leaving the new parents to get to know their babies. As we were leaving, little Mr Twin was already carefully exploring every nook and cranny of the living room, bold as brass. I think he’ll be the courage (and instigator) for all three and OSG/Guy can look forward to a very happy household for a long time to come!
Thanks OSG for inviting us along!
Here’s the slideshow, such as it is. Same pix she has on FB, which is cool, but we KNOW there’re more pix. This is OSG we’re talking about. C’mon, woman! Kitty action pix!
I’ve added a new page with links to my jigzone puzzles (see the tab above). Kittehs, covers…probably some pond pix soon. Great time waster! Have fun!
A new twist on LoL Khats. This is just a taste… More here:
(Note to OSG: I need a picture of little Mr Grey…and what about the one you took through the cage door of the twins all curled up together, eh? I need slide show fodder!)
We’ll miss you…
Thank you everyone for all your kind wishes! I’m truly truly blessed to have such friends.
Had a great day…began with going through some of the last boxes in the basement. Not that everything is unpacked and put away, mind you, but I think we’ve finally got a pretty good sort. I feel as if I’ve been packing or unpacking for the last 25 years. We’ve needed to get rid of some stuff but it’s really hard to make decisions about what to get rid of when you’re not sure anymore what you have!
Then…it was back to the rink for the first time since the Great Fainting Sunday. For a while after the anemia thing came to light, they wouldn’t let me skate (wisely…I was so subtly dizzy, I’d probably have fallen a dozen times a minute!) But once I got my lacing right (my feet were seriously squoozed at first!) I had a wonderful time. Hoping to get there regularly again.
Then CJ and I went to see the new 3 Musketeers movie…in 3D. Great movie…if you liked the RD, Jr. Sherlock Holmes, you’ll like this…it’s sort of a steampunk version. Very fun! And SCENIC!!!!! For guys and gals alike. Yum! The 3D was…interesting. But a bit fuzzy… sort of like watching a normal movie without my glasses. Back in the fifties, the 3D movies were specifically filmed to use the effect. This was not. There were a few cool moments, but not enough to make me prefer it over a good clear image. It says something that the most impressive 3D is in the credits and other lettering! 
Then, it was home to meet up with OSG for dinner at Swinging Doors for my free steak (yum) then back home for prezzies and dessert and champagne and lots of kitteh kisses (the Shuster is hepping right now.) Lots of fun stuff beneath the wrapping (and Lynn A joined us via the phone line, which was fun!). One of my prezzies was How to Train a Dragon starring Shu as Toothless. OSG hadn’t seen it so we forced ourselves to watch it again (the things we do for friends.) It was even better the second time around.
Then OSG went home to get some much needed sleep and we watched Dancing with the Stars, which had some wonderful moments. My only caveat is that I wish someone would explain to Chaz and Hope (and Max, while they’re at it) that in order for their scores from the judges to go up, they have to improve more than the other stars are improving and that’s just not happening. As for the so-called cruelty of the judges…I think they’re actually pretty reasonable.
Hope Ricki can get to where she can do the lifts without worrying about Derek. He’s not going to ask her to do something he can’t handle and one of the most important jobs for the liftee is to trust the lifter is going to do it and commit fully to the move. (Speaking from experience, tho slight, this is FAR easier said than done! :D)
Meantime, I went up on FB and was absolutely floored, honored and humbled by all the birthday wishes. Wow….
Anyway…it’s now bedtime. I promise, I’ll get some pix up of some of the stuff I’ve been working on. I was planning a very clever post where Shu would answer for me but that seems to have gone into the same mental junkyard as all the other posts I’ve written…in my head…over the past month. Sorry, everyone…
Big big big hugs! And thanks again!!!
to celebrate the amazingness of modern technology and cleverness of humanity in general….
