Saturday Kitties

Like Ntodd's Sam, Ripley has a grey smudge under her lip. It makes her look like she's mouthing off.

Haallooooooo!! Maddie has such a sweet face.

I am very lucky- the kittens get along well and now they both sleep with me. What could be more delightful than sleeping in on a Saturday with two plushy kittens? (well, okay, breakfast in bed, but ya can't have everything)

Kitten Wars!!

No kittens were injured in the making of this post.

Scamp!!

Kittens gone wild!!

Memorial Friday Maxx

Everyone wave to Maxx up on his comet. Such a handsome boy.

Kittenpaloooooza

Ripley really, really wanted to play.

Maddie finally gave in and wrassled with her until I broke it up.

Maddie seems fine after her surgery.

Miss Ripley Chainsaw pretends to be a sweet kitten. Don't be fooled.

Freakshow

Against my better judgement, I did watch some of the republican debate last night. I don't know about you guys, but I found I couldn't watch the whole thing. I kept having to switch channels.

I did, however, catch one astonishing question and answer exchange with Tommy Thompson. Chris Matthews asked him, "If an employer believes homosexuality is immoral, and he finds out he has a gay worker, should he be able to fire that worker?"

Thompson said yes.

Color me astonished. Since when did one's employment in America depend on whether your boss believes you are moral or not? That is completely outrageous.

So let me just ask, if my boss thinks birth control is immoral, and I take the pill, can my boss fire me?

How about if I'm living with my girlfriend or boyfriend?

Or if I practice wicca?

Or if I don't go to church on Sunday?

Or if I haven't accepted Jesus as my personal lord and savior?

Or if I drink alcohol? pierce my nose? get a tattoo? refuse to recycle?

Where does one draw the line?

The most astonishing thing to me is that Thompson's answer isn't even mildly controversial in the republican party. Or in the media either, for that matter. I looked in vain this morning for a mention of it in the debate news coverage. Nada. Apparently "hating the gay" is now mainstream.

I hope that Americans will reject that kind of nonsense, but I noticed that Thompson's colleagues on the stage didn't jump to correct him. I single out Thompson (because yes, there were lots of outrageous statements made last night) mostly because he's probably correctly viewed as a fairly middle-of-the-road, nonfirebrand republican. He's not even remotely on the fringe. This, america, is what the modern republican party is all about.

On women's rights, civil rights, war.... on every issue they are wrong. They are nothing but a freak show.

100,000

Sometime in the last 5 minutes or so, this blog reached the 100,000 hit milestone. Incredible!!

My thanks to all my readers, both domestic and international.

Late night plushy babies

"I'm kind of sleepy. I'll play with you tomorrow."

"Awwww, no one wants to play with me."

Poor Maddie, she's feeling a little sore tonight. What a difference in care though. Maddie came home with interior, dissolving stitches, an adhesive patch and 3 days of bupronex. The good news for her is that she's done for the year, her appetite is fine and I'm sure she'll bounce right back.

In contrast, the shelter sent poor little Ripley home with 2 ugly staples in her tummy and no painkillers. Hasn't seemed to slow her down any. She's currently killing the lavender peep.

New pics tomorrow, I'm extremely tired tonight.

Jupiter!!

The photos coming back from Jupiter are amazing. This is a composite, of course. Released by NASA.

Whaaa????

"Nooooo!!! They cut open my tummy and took out all my girl stuff!!!!!

Curses!!!!!"

Just got a call from the vet, she's waking up and doing fine. She gets to come home this evening.

Kitties

No playing today. So sad.

"I am home all by myself. No one to play with but my mousies and my peeps."

Maddie is at the vet getting her spay surgery today. Poor thing, she was terrified when I dropped her off.

Ripley has decided that she lurrrrves the little baby peeps I got Maddie for easter. She plays hockey with them and carries them all over the house. Such a good kitten, enlisting in the peep wars are such a young age.

More kittenz

Attack of the teddy bear! Or is it an ewok?

Maddie takes her naps seriously.

Action photo

It is suprisingly hard to get them in the same photo- one of them will either dart off, or come up to investigate the camera, or start biting my feet... or something.

As you can see they're having a good time together.

Everest

Reuters/Desmond Boylan

I couldn't very well go to bed and leave chimpy up on the top of my blog, now could I?

As an aside, I don't know why the hell people climb mountains. I just don't.

Hey chimpy

The democrats aren't trying to "substitute their opinions for the judgement of the generals on the ground" as you keep saying.

They're trying to substitute their judgement for YOURS. Because you are the most incompetent, dense, stupid fuck who ever walked into the White House.

Do the country a favor, go to your ranch and cut brush until your term is up. (Cause it's been raining here ya know- and the brush is growing like mad!!!)

Update: Oy, corrected for grammar. And sense.

Embrace the Eeeeeeptitude

That's her teddy bear in the background, which she has taken to killing with a vengence.

I'm not sure how she sleeps with her head upside down like that. Goofy kitten.

They're not awake yet. Little scamps. I think they play all day, have some dinner when I get home and then crash out. They'll be awake again around 11:00, just in time for me to go to bed.

Jupiter, Bitch!!

NASA has released some amazing new photos of Jupiter sent back from the New Horizons spaceship. NASA Probe Reveals New Views of Jupiter.

Europa rising over Jupiter.

The icy moon Europa rises above Jupiter's cloud tops in this photo taken by New Horizons with its Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on February 28, 2007, six hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Ganymede.

New Horizons' best views of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, gathered with the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and its infrared spectrometer, the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

So lovely. Interestingly enough, the probe was actually programmed to take "artistic shots" as well as scientific ones, something this centaur is thankful for.

Cats

Sorry, didn't get a chance to photograph them last night. This will have to hold you guys until later.

They both went to the vet this morning. Maddie got pre-surgery bloodwork, and Ripley got her first "wellness" checkup with her real vet. She seems to be in fine shape except for a reaction to her staples (the vet said that it's common and since it doesn't seem to be painful or infected, nothing to worry about).

Poor Ripley, she seemed rather dejected. I think she thought I was going to leave her there. When we got home she purred and purred.

Update: Maddie looks all grown up, doesn't she?

Tenet

I've been trying to reserve judgement on George Tenet. Ah, fuck it. No more.

Maybe it wasn't your job to make the decision about whether to go to war, but there's nothing in the job description of CIA Director that includes PR. It was never your job to help "sell" the war.

And quit whining about Bushco throwing you under the bus. This crew always finds a scapegoat- you were never part of the kewl crowd, so of course it was going to be you.

And I don't want to hear another fucking word about how "we don't torture" and how the AG signed off on everything you did. We're talking about an AG who thinks the Geneva Conventions are "quaint." Just forget it. We DO. NOT. BELIEVE. YOU.

So you want to tell us your little feelings are hurt? All the wingnuts are beating up on you for being disloyal? And everyone on the left is pointing out that you were too busy sucking up to Bush to do the right thing? I know that must be difficult for you.

But hey, I'm sure that $4 million dollar payday eased the pain.

I guess it's just too damn bad about all the dead soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Tant pis, eh?

Let us know how the weather is in hell.

Rippppppp-pllleeeeeeeee!!

Notice my nice whiskers.

Scary Stuff

I have, without a doubt, the best, smartest, kindest and most generous readers in the blogosphere. Today I received a signed, limited edition copy of Basic Black by Terry Dowling in the mail courtesy of long time reader Zoe. I am absolutely overwhelmed.

Some of you have heard me talk of Dowling, or may know of him yourselves. He's an Australian author who is fairly famous for his serious of stories (and collections) about sandship captain Tom Rynocceros, set in a future Australia where aborigines (the Ab'O) control the interior of the continent and control most of the technology (including AI and space travel) and where cross continental travel is done is huge sandships powered by kites. The series, Rynocceros, Twighlight Beach and Blue Tyson are difficult to find in the US, but well worth the search.

Maybe less well known is Dowling's work in what I call the "spooky" genre. Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear is a collection of 18 of Dowling's dark fantasy writings and contains some of the finest horror and ghost tales I've ever read, including "The Daemon Street Ghost Trap," which is by far the scariest ghost story I've ever read in my life. From the cover:

It's dark in here... Not just with the absence of light, but with things made for the dark, things that work best when the wind is in the trees and the sun has gone from the sky.

Shivers! The collection also contains "Scaring the Train" a subtle horror story that you won't ever forget.

Thanks again Zoe! Ripley and Maddie thank you for the packages of Cat Crazies you included for them as well.

More kittenz

I like to nap!

Now what is that crazy kitten up to?

The kids are doing fine. Someone asked about introducing them so quickly, but for kittens that's not really an issue. I also knew that Maddie was not an aggressive cat, so I wasn't too worried about her hurting a smaller kitten. (And I was right.) I was a little concerned that Maddie might be jealous, but that doesn't seem to be a problem either.

Last night they began touching noses and they've been playing chase almost constantly. Ripley doesn't seem intimidated by Maddie's size a bit. She's something of a little bruiser. Before I left for work they were wrastling and I had to break it up. Silly kitties.

Two kittens

A big one.

And a little one.

They're both napping after having some lunch and a vigorous game of chase. Ripley is getting more comfortable with Maddie- she doesn't growl at her at all, but still isn't quite ready to touch noses or snuggle up at naptime.