Friday Cat Blogging

Cause, you know, I've not been doing any kitteh blogging at all.

This was not Raxi playing, this was Raxi being asleep (until the camera make it's stupid little "I'm-turning-on" music -- hence the one-and-a-half open eyes).


The sound and flash may have woken her, but it did not cause her to move any bits other than her eyelids.

A Kitteh Video

If you're not into cats and cute and the conjunction thereof, do not click play!

Also, a very Happy Birthday to my sister Julie!!

Damburgert!!

For Jen.

Photo of the Morning

(h/t to Foiled Goil at Big Brass Blog)

Costa Rican Fun Fact of the Day

We are in what they call here "Indian Summer", because, despite still being in the Northern Hemisphere -- oh, and in the tropics -- people call this time of year winter. It's hot.

The Answer Is No. The Answer Is Always Going To Be No.

And the question was:

"You don't think that there will be too much chocolate, do you? You know, chocolate ice cream with the chocolate cake with... chocolate... icing...."

Not As Pretty As Some, But...

Quick and dirty, holding the camera out the kitchen window...

Fortnight Of Kitteh

As you probably recall, Jen got me a kitteh for my birthday. And it came to pass that Raxacoricofallapatorius had spent two weeks as part of our family. Yea, verily, I determinedeth to photograph her in honor of her first fortnight here.

Raxi does her best Firefox logo interpretation. Not bad, eh?


Uh, oh. I woke teh kitteh.


Kitteh 'tacks!!

In other news, I went to teach my every-other-Saturday beginners English class, and there was no one there. As in, the door to the place was locked and everything! Turns out today is a holiday here in Costa Rica -- Guanacaste Day.

Guanacaste Day is a Costa Rican holiday celebrating Costa Rica's annexation of Guanacaste province from Nicaragua in 1824. It is celebrated on July 25th.

Well, next time I'll know.

Eek!

Stop busting through the screen, kitteh!

Secret Lair Flashback

Late Winter from Ed's back deck:
Full Summer from the driveway:

I lived there for eight years, and I really enjoyed it.

Wow.

I just did something I've never done before. I followed a link from a blog post to Free Republic. And... wow. There's a long (" * * R O U G H * * D R A F T * * " -- yeah, ya think) post about overthrowing the government and fixing things. If you want to see full-blown winger lunacy, then follow this link.

I think the best part is this:

...Therefore, We the People of America choose to exercise our right to throw off and alter the abusive government by peacefully recalling and removing from office the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States and all U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives effective immediately. An interim provisional Chief Executive and congressional representatives will be established as follows: The Secretary of State shall immediately assume the office of interim Chief Executive....

Hey Freeper Dude, you do realize that Hillary Clinton is SecState, don't you?

I think this shows just how unhinged these people have become in their desire to get Obama out of office. They're willing to install ... a woman, and not just any woman, but the pantsuit-wearing, all-emasculating wife of the Clenis!!1! (and, yes, I'm being over-the-top sarcastic)

As I said in the post title, wow.

(h/t to Wonkette)

Praise Hymn... or Maybe Not. Who Knows?

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but there is a church directly behind our building. My kitchen window looks out on the roof of it, and there is a double door on the side of the church just off to the left of my window that they open up -- for cross-ventilation (hee) -- whenever there's a service going on. Which is daily, and twice -- or possibly thrice -- on Saturday. We have yet to figure out what the denomination is, btw.

Now, as you might have surmised, they speak Spanish in the services. And, as you know, I'm still a Spanish neophyte (although I'm taking a class now). So I really can't understand what's being said.

Thing is, it doesn't really sound like churchy stuff -- except for the hymns. Oh, and speaking of, wow. These people don't "have Jesus in their heart" when they sing. Unless all the hymns in their book are supposed to be dirges.

Anyway.

I was just fixing myself some dinner, and could hear the sermonificating or speechifying or whatever, and I swear, the tone sounded more like accounting instructions than "Praise Jesus" (or, for all I know Cthulu or FSM). I mean seriously, I grew up in a whitey white white Methodist church, and these people make that congregation sound like the crowd in Legba's (where you been boy? He done changed his name to Scratch!) juke joint at the end of Crossroads.

Dear Internets (and Newspaper) Writers Everywhere

Please do me a favor, okay?

Stop saying that California is the largest state!!

It is the most populous state, but both Texas and Alaska are larger.

Thank you.

Blog Playing-around-with

This is just a test. Pay no attention to this post. I'm just playing with some code stuff to see how it looks. Please to continue your internets surfing. Have a nice day.

One Doesn't Often Get To Mention Zeus

PZ Myers (Pharyngula) has a link to a poll regarding some atheist signage in Vienna -- similar to the bus signs we've seen before in other places

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life"

"There is no God. [To] do good is human. What we ourselves do is what matters"

and my personal favorite

"God is with a probability bordering on certainty a Czech folk singer. Relax. He will do nothing to you,"

are the posters in question. The link is to an Austrian site, and the text is in German, but the three options are (in order):

Ich finde sie sehr gut. ("I find it very good" -- or, "I like it")
Sie stört mich. ("It bothers me")
Sie ist mir egal. ("It does not matter to me")

in case you would like to go and vote.

But that's not why I'm posting this. I'm posting it because of the following comment, found at Pharyngula:

Here in Italy the UUAR (italian acronym for Atheists and Agnostic Rationalists union) tried to put the same message on a bus in Genoa, but the advertisement society refused. In a more recent episode, the UUAR put up signs with the same message (The bad news is that god doesn't exists...) and the signs were taken down by police because it offended religious sentiment. In a funny aftermath, the UUAR choose a substitute message: "The bad news is that Zeus doesn't exists. The good news is you can say that about Zeus".

Funny and very sad at the same time.

At The Movies

We saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today, and it was excellent. It may be the best one so far.

Yeah, it was very good and very dark -- not at all surprising considering the story.

A Cat Post -- Because She Deserves One

She deserves one A) because Jen Said So and, B) because we took her to the vet today to have the stictches removed from her spaying. She DID. NOT. LIKE. having that done, but once the very moment of stitch removal stopped she was all tranquil and sweet again. She's gonna be a very good kitteh, I do believe.

Also, she's cute as can be:

Raxi on the couch, snoozing behind Jen.

Close shot of her snoozing on the back of the couch.

Being all cute and stuff in Jen's lap.

And That's The Way It Is

I was going to post this in a couple of days, on the 40th anniversary of the actual event, but the news tonight caused me to push up the date.

I was only a few months old when President Kennedy was assassinated, and I don't remember it (I do know where I was, though... in my playpen).

But I most certainly remember the clip below, and all the rest of the Apollo 11 mission.



Good night, Uncle Walter.

From The Department of "You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours"

We have neighbors who are out of town this weekend, so we're keeping an eye on their house. Result is, I'll be in and out all weekend.

Keep me updated, and all that.

:)

Quote of the Day

This entire post, by Chris Clarke.