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How creative are you? Reader Liz says:
We are knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, and any other crafty things one can do for an Albany, NY Homeless shelter and a separate Women’s domestic shelter. We welcome anything so long as it’s (drum roll please) made by hand. So far we have scarves, blankets, an amazing quilt, hats, gloves, shawls, scrunchies, and wood toys. The site is desperately out of date and I will be working to make a few updates soon, but I would really like to pull in over 200 pieces and I know with your help that could possibly be done.
Check it out here (there’s an email address in the sidebar on that site). I KNOW that a bunch of you out there are the crafty types, what will all the knitting and crocheting and other crafty things. They’re taking donations ’til Halloween (October 31st), so get to knitting! And sewing! And crocheting! And crafting!
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So yes, I have a new redesign. I really like it – I’ve been wanting to do something with two sidebars for quite some time now, but couldn’t find anything I liked in the colors I wanted, so I ended up taking the design Fred uses and making the changes I want. Of course, I started working on it months and months ago, in fact I think we were still living in the old house when I started working on it. Sitting my ass down and working on a redesign is something that doesn’t come easily to me, because I hate all the damn fiddling around – changing something, saving it, going to see how it looks, a thousand million times to get the look I want. It’s worth it, though. I think the new look is very “me.”
I think my favorite thing about the whole redesign is that “Flickr” box over there to the left. Every time you refresh the page, you get a different random picture, and I like seeing what pictures pop up.
Surprisingly, it appears that I take a lot of cat pictures.
I know that some of you don’t like/ are having issues with the redesign. Some of you aren’t seeing the logo the way it should be seen, but if I set it to a fixed size, it intrudes into the right sidebar for a bunch of you, so I went back to a percentage-based sizing thingy (I’m sorry to be so technical), and I’ll always link directly to the logo on the first post of each month, so you can always see how it’s supposed to look.
Not everyone liked the previous design, either – it didn’t work for them – but I’ve checked the design in my Firefox and Internet Explorer and it looks okay to me, so how it is now is how it’ll be for at least a while. I’d hate to lose any readers over this, of course, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
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Is it just me, or in this picture:
doesn’t Joss Stone look strikingly like
Juliette Lewis?
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Sugarbutt had to go to the vet Tuesday to have that spot on his neck biopsied. Since he’s one of the cats I can actually get into the carrier (Spot and Spanky are the two I absolutely cannot wrestle into the carrier) I was sure I’d have no problem getting him in the carrier, but just to be safe I put it in the middle of the computer room floor the night before so the cats would be used to its presence and not get all freaked out.
When it was time to leave for the vet, I took the bandage off of Sugarbutt’s neck (we’ve been calling it his “ascot” because we’re dorks and it amuses us), then started rubbing his neck where it seems to be itchiest and bothers him the most. He purred and purred and purred and threw his head back in ecstasy, and before he knew what was going on I was lowering him into the carrier. He made one desperate attempt to save himself, doing his starfish imitation, but it was too late, and I closed the lid to the carrier, and we were on our way.
I made him listen to
Keith and the Girl with me, my favorite episode, #517,
Justice. He gave me dirty looks, but when they were talking about the girl who’d
pulled off the ball (just one of them) of a man who’d rejected her and the astonished-sounding Patrice said “That’s some gorilla strength she’s got!”, I’m pretty sure I heard Sugarbutt chortle, though when I looked at him he just gave me that wounded
why you hate me, Momma? look.
I dropped him off with no problems (except for the big German Shepherd who stuck his face right up against the carrier, sniffed mightily and then barked, to which Sugarbutt responded by hissing very loudly. Which scared the German Shepherd into peeing on the floor. It was a fucking river of urine stretching across the floor; I gave thanks that I didn’t have to clean it up.) and they told me I could pick him up between 5 and 6.
When I picked him up that evening, he was a bit out of it (they had to knock him out to do the biopsy), and on the ride home he lay in the carrier with his back to me and dozed.
Then when we got home, he did what he ALWAYS does after a trip to the vet. He turned into a total love slut. He followed me from room to room, rubbing against my legs if I stopped moving for a moment. When I went into the kitchen, he jumped up on the counter and rubbed against any part of me he could reach (which made slicing okra a whole lot of fun). When he was on the floor and I bent to scratch behind his ears, he flopped over on his back and purred loudly.
It continued into Wednesday, but today he’s a little calmer. I don’t know for sure why a trip to the vet is followed by two days of desperate love-seeking, but my theory is that Sugarbutt – having a tiny little cat brain – doesn’t remember that I took him TO the vet, but does remember that I rescued him FROM the vet, so he’s desperate to thank me so that I’ll continue to rescue him in the future.
Speaking of Sugarbutt and lurve, I have to take a moment to let y’all know – because I know you were JUST saying to yourself, “Self, I wonder if this still goes on?” – that since we moved into this house, Sugarbutt does not approach me in the dark, dark night to knead upon whatever part of my person he can reach while simultaneously licking my neck. Literally, the night before the cats and I moved into this house, he kneaded (kned?) and licked for all he was worth, and since we’ve lived here, he’s half-heartedly attempted it only once.
It was annoying sometimes, but I kind of miss it a little.
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Really, here at Crooked Acres, it’s sometimes best to just look the other way, and not ask aaaaaaany questions.
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Word came down from upon high yesterday that there’s room for Spanky and Gilligan at the pet store. They don’t do adoptions on Wednesday or Thursday, so I’m waiting until mid-morning on Friday to take them down. No need to have them there, in a cage, when I can sneak in one more day of petting and sweet-talking them, right?
I’m very interested to see if there are any changes in the personality of the pretty, pretty Maryanne without her two brothers around to run interference between her and the humans who only want to pet and snuggle with her.
“Hellew.”
He’s so cute, I just want to squeeze him.
::thlurrrp::
I put the carrier in the kitten room so they’d get used to it, and they thought it was the COOLEST THING EVER.
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::gag:: “That’s not liquid candy, it’s DISH SOAP!”
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Previously
2006: No entry. Sorry!
2005: I wanted to lay in bed and sniff my hair all day long.
2004: me: “Brian, I sure do love you, but I’m glad we’ll never have to sit this close to each other ever again.” Brian: “I feel the same.”
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: $1200 for one single washer. What the fuck’s up with that?
2000: can you say “Bring a book”?]]>