Updatey Updates (Manuh Manuh)

[kaasirpent]

Cats

Because you know you love it. Lucy and Matt both learned some very, very bad habits from Granddaddy's other cat, Tiny. Matt claws furniture to get attention, and both Lucy and Matt are fond of raking their unsheathed claws over my bare flesh, also to get attention. This must end. But they're 16, and I don't want to get them de-clawed. Any suggestions? Right now I'm using negative reinforcement with an unpleasant sound.

I said before that neither of them were "players." I think one of my superpowers is manifesting itself in a new way. Whenever I make a claim like this, the universe has a way of making a liar out of me. To be fair, I haven't actually witnessed any playing, but one of Gremlin's catnip toys mysteriously found its way under my bed, and another of Gremlin's and Taz's toys wound up in a place where it normally is not, and broken, probably to get at the catnip within. So I'm thinking one or both of the cats are up to something when I'm not there or when I'm asleep. Involving catnip.

Matt lets me pet him at will, now. But only if I'm sitting down. If I stand up, I become an evil, cat-eating...thing that is evil.

I used to brag that my cats—and we're talking Gremlin and Taz, here—never used to wake me up to be fed. Taz would occasionally rake his claws across my face, but it was because he wanted to play or be petted. (I shall leave as an exercise for the reader to decide whether his tactic was ever successful.)

Lucy has now awakened me several mornings, quite frantic, and when I dutifully followed her as she hopped to where Timmy was in the well her food bowl, it was empty. After I had to have Taz put to sleep, I got rid of anything the cats had eaten or drunk out of, just in case it was something catching and I got another cat. I can see, now, that a trip to PetSmart is looming large for me. One of those perpetual dry-food dispensers and a water bowl are a necessity.

MANGO

A while back I mentioned a new "local" restaurant called Fuego Mundo. I swore then that I would have to go back and try basically everything on the menu, including the mango pie. Well, I've been back several times, and it's been really good each time. I've been for dinner a few times, but today I decided to try lunch. I had the grilled turkey breast fillet, which is basically a boneless, skinless slab o' turkey breast, marinated and then grilled over their wood fire; The Latin side combo, which consists of rice, black beans, and sweet fried plantains (heaven); a beef empanada with their vinegary "pico de gallo"-like sauce; and for dessert, the mango pie.

The turkey breast came out perfect: moist, tender, and flavorful. The Latin was good, as always, as was the empanada. I think I could live on their empanadas alone. I mean, it's got meat and bread, and the sauce kinda counts as vegetables. Hmmm. The mango pie provides dairy....

The mango pie (are you listening, slymongoose?) was creamy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, rich, and very mango-y cheesecake in a graham-cracker-crumb pie crust. A tasty and not over-filling end to a nice lunch.

I'd also like once more to point out that on rainy days—or potentially rainy ones, like today—Fuego Mundo has a back entrance from inside a parking deck. You could go there during a monsoon downpour and not even get damp.

I probably don't need to say it at this point, but I'll be back. And back and back and back. It's only a 20-minute drive from my office. Both ways. And besides, everyone takes an hour-and-a-half lunch, occasionally, right? Right?

Babylon 5

It's no secret (because I tell anyone and everyone who will listen) that I'm a big-ol' geek. And one of my biggest geek-ons is for Babylon 5. I think it was about two weeks ago, now, that geek_72 mentioned on FaceBook that Claudia Christian—who played Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5—was selling her personal scripts on her web site.

I contacted her (really someone like her agent or assistant) and purchased two of my favorite episode scripts of the ones remaining. When I received them a few days later, they were autographed to me (squee!) and included some other collectibles from Ms. Christian, also autographed (squee!). The scripts join my small-but-growing collection of B5 stuff. I may have to create a Wall of Squee™.

Gaming

Had an especially fun session this past weekend with our usual group minus the out-of-towners who come from Alabama to join us. We solved a murder mystery! :) One of our party (the magic-user) was seen by three eye-witnesses stabbing a guy in cold blood. And they weren't lying. So, in typical D&D fashion, we solved the crime: we resurrected the corpse so there was no longer a murder, then used a combination of past vision and teleportation to see who really did it, and eliminated him with extreme prejudice. And in the course of this, we discovered that the Egyptian god Set is really, really pissed off at the party member who was framed. And we can expect more little incidents like the frame-job. Joy. But at least my cleric and the magic-user discovered a fantastic one-two punch of spells guaranteed to turn any bad guy into a puddle of sticky goo. Mmm, Minions-of-Set-goo. Now in Bear Flavor!™

So because we can't kill a god (yet), we decided to go after our big bad enemy, Bob, one more time. Bob has kicked our ass so many times it's not even funny. But hey. Better than Set, right? :)

(Have I mentioned I'm a geek? Because I am one. And a big one, at that.)

Writing

Had the first chapter of one of my works in progress critiqued by a second local group that only meets once per month, but they give harder-hitting, deeper critiques than my Tuesday Night Writers Group, because we read them ahead of time, critique them before the meeting, and the limit is 10,000 words instead of 1200. :)

I was tickled pink that they all liked it, but found that they all kind of picked up on the same problems. Which tells me that 1) I'm not telling the story right if no one picked up something I thought was obvious; 2) the ending, as planned, will suck; and 3) my main character isn't fleshed out enough. There were others as well, but those are the main three points. I think I'll need to rethink this story a little. Which means I'll be working on my novel for a bit. :)

Birthdays

Attended totallysirius's 30th birthday dinner at Cowtippers. Was fun. Got to see some folks I don't see often enough and consume mass quantities of good food.

In other news, ladyimp's and monkeypocket's daughter is the cutest thing ever. Just so you know. And she knows the most important thing for a two-year-old to know: the best way to eat macaroni and cheese is with both fists. Spoon? There is no spoon! I'd do it, too, if I could get away with it.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

http://www.softclaws.com/

you can often find a local vet who will even help you put them on if you need a little help the first time or two.

[slymongoose.livejournal.com]

*perks up* Mango?
Yes, I heard you from over on facebook and rushed right over to drooOOooOoooOoooOoooOOl on your review.
I.Must.Have.Mango.Pah!

There's also SoftPaws...

[ddreslough.livejournal.com]

Same thing as SoftClaws, just different company.
http://www.softpaws.com
But I haven't tried them. We just bolted scratching posts to the ends of each couch,and when Mojo uses us as a scratching post, we...bleed, basically. She scratches because she LOOOOOVVVVES, you see.