lol coffee

Working from home. The electrician is fixing some scary wiring out in our garage. The cats are all sleeping. I'm hoping 2009 is more stable than 2008 was.

Took a break from working to view the latest posts at icanhascheezburger.com and found this.

Happy almost 2009 folks.

accepted into their clan

Leg wrapped like King Tut after his "natron bath".

Cats on my lap, sleeping soundly.

Working from home and listening to a podcast of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me.

The kittons are settling into their new home. Catrina has significantly cut down on the number of random times per day that she vanishes into an empty room to start yodeling at the top of her cat-banshee lungs.

The rats are enjoying the new location of their cage, which allows them to watch my Mister while he's at his computer. I know their eyesight is limited, but they do seem intrigued by the activity nearby. And they can probably tell by smell and sound which of us the shifting object nearby is.

Zabartik, as I've mentioned before, very much seems to want to be just like His Person when he grows thumbs. So, if my Mister is replacing the power supply in his computer, Zabartik is there to help. If my guy is checking that the blinds are level before drilling holes and driving screws, Zabartik tilts his head to the side and watches intently. He doesn't seem the least interested in what I'm doing most of the time. But if my Mister is doing something with tools, chances are he's got a 14 lb white fuzzbutt apparently memorizing his every move.

Ok, back to work. But first, a lol.

visit ihasahotdog.com

holiday music

My top 10 holiday songs in my iTunes playlist right now, in random order.

A couple of them are songs I don't usually like, but I really like this version. Others are childhood favorites that I just can't resist. And Chiron Beta Prime and The Holly King are songs I admit to listening to year round.

• Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton
• Carol Of The Bells by Angels Of Venice
• The Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams
• A Winter Wassail by Faith And The Muse
• The Holly King by Lady Isadora
• The Holly & the Ivy by Loreena McKennitt
• God rest ye merry Gentlemen by Loreena McKennitt
• Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht by Andrea Bocelli
• Do You Hear What I Hear? by Duels
• White Christmas by Amazing Pilots
• Sleigh Ride by The Late Greats

Prop 8 The Musical

Disclaimer: This video is an example of shamelessly Liberal humor. As a brazen Liberal, I enjoyed it. YMMV

A star studded mini-musical about California's Proposition 8. My Mister pointed me in its direction and I've since seen it in a few places on the interwebs. Neil Patrick Harris steals the show, IMHO.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Home

Cross posted from flickr.

It's official. We'll be signing the closing papers tomorrow. Then we begin the chaos that is moving house. And once we're all moved and a renter is found for our townhouse, we'll be able to really take a deep breath and settle in.

We'll have a lawn to mow in the spring and summer, snow to shovel in the winter (and fall and spring) and all the new responsibilities that come with a single family home. But we'll also have so much more space and many more options than we have at the townhouse.

Assuming the minor renovations that need doing at the new house are done by then we've got a move date of December 21st.

Heads or Tails

Food for thought. American Thanksgiving is coming up this week. A time to give thanks for the things in our lives that are meaningful to us.

To me, it seems like it should also be a time to reflect on what it means to be grateful. And for that matter, what is the other side of thankful? Not the opposite, but the other side of the same positive coin. I think the answer is the ideal of forgiveness.

Flip the coin.

Heads - be grateful. Tails - forgive.

This Thanksgiving week, I challenge myself to be more mindful of both sides of this potent coin.

Some of the baggage is that it's a namby pamby thing that doormats do. But from everything I've managed to read and see and understand, forgiveness is a brawny, muscular exercise that I kind of imagine someone with a great passion for life and a great hearty sort of disposition being able to take on.

~Michael McCullough on Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet, Getting Revenge and Forgiveness, aired November 6, 2008

* * *

Forgiveness, I feel, means not to forget what they have done. But forgiveness means do not keep your negative feeling towards them. So, as far as their action is concerned, sometimes you should use your intelligence. You deliberately have to take countermeasure, but without negative feeling.

~H. H. the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, in an interview with Paul Ekman

I spotted this on Wil Wheaton's site and couldn't resist cross posting it here from YouTube. Star Trek meets Monty Python. Hilarity ensues. Much goodness if, like me - you both recognize every scene in the video, and you're known to blurt out quotes from Python sketches at seemingly random moments.