cat antics

Yesterday I was potting some plants for my patio - petunias, imPatiens, herbs. As I was playing in the dirt, I could hear Shindy cat's plaintive cries. As you know, I don't let her outside, so when I'm on the patio, she is deprived of my scintillating company. Feeling magnanimous and/or vaguely guilty, I thought it would be a good opportunity to let her come outdoors on a leash.

Step 1: find a harness and leash. Not too difficult because I used these 2 months ago when flying the kitties out here. I packed the guest room closet with stereo boxes and suitcases and the cat carriers, so I knew where to look.

Step 2: catch her. This isn't too difficult because she has a favorite toy she will chase to the ends of the earth: a piece of plastic strapping. (Does anyone remember her string?)

Step 3: put harness on her, attach leash. This also went smoothly.

Step 4: bring her down to the patio and find something to anchor leash.

Shindy started squirming as soon as I walked out the front door with her in my arms. I thought she would settle down as soon as I put her down on the patio. Wrong! She made a beeline for the the apartment door and was so eager to get inside I couldn't even grab the leash. I only saw the end of the leash as she booked it to my bedroom. I managed to grab it before she got under the bed so I could unhook her and take off the harness.

My Shindy cat! Hiding under the bed! What a terrible thing to take such an outgoing cat and keep her indoors so long that she's afraid of being outside. Alas. At least she's healthy and safe and gets loving.

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I got the cats a much deserved new cat tree -- the old blue one was so gross looking that I threw it out before I left Fort Collins. The new one is the perfect height so they can lie on the top and see out the window. The sills are about 4-5 inches wide and tough to perch on because I have the blinds lowered to about 3 inches above the sill.

Two days ago, I looked up and Shindy had crouch walked from the cat perch to the far end of the window sill. Finding nothing interesting enough to stay there, she decided to go back ... but she didn't have room to turn around. So I watched her crab walk backwards the 5 feet to her perch. Highly entertaining.

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Delilah is fine, sweet as every. More willing to stand her ground and whack Shindy ... but still retreating before it gets too rough.

say what????

Today I sent this email to a discussion list about the SOLR software:

"I'm experienced with Lucene, less so with SOLR. I am looking at two systems built on top of SOLR for a library discovery service: blacklight and vufind.

I checked the raw lucene index using Luke and noticed that both of these indexes have single character terms in the index, such as "d" or "f". I asked about this on the vufind list, and was told I didn't understand SOLR and why it would need these.

So I'm now asking: why would SOLR want single character terms? "a" is usually a stopword. I know the Library MARC data from which the index is derived has a lot of these characters because they denote subfields in the data. But why would we want them to be searchable?"

I got a personal email in response:

"Here is a trick: do not use a feminine name on the Internet :) The way you described this sounds very patronizing."

Huh????

Happily, a respected and knowledgeable poster answered my question on the list.

More: six word memoirs are addictive

these from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/26/earlyshow/leisure/books/main3876944.shtml

Joan Rivers: "Liars: hysterectomy didn't improve sex life."

Stephen Colbert: 'Well, I thought it was funny."

celebrity chef Mario Batali: "Brought it to a boil, often."

and more from: http://www.smithmag.net/2007/01/04/and-the-winner-of-the-six-word-memoir-contest-is/

Never really finished anything, except cake. —C. Perkins
Not quite what I was planning… —S. Grimes
Jew-born. Yeshiva-educated. Date goyim. -A. Ellin
Savior complex makes for many disappointments. —A. Schubach
Found true love, married someone else. -B. Stromberg
Mistakenly kills kitten. Fears anything delicate. —S. Henderson
Bad brakes discovered at high speed. —J. Baumeister
After Harvard, had baby with crackhead. —R. Templeton
Caring for parents. Life is circular. —T. McGrath
Nerdy girl smutmonger. Now, baby fever. —R.K. Bussel
Scarred by 911; helped by penguins. —A. Blackburn
Ex-wife and contractor now have house. —D. Peck
Nose broken, beauty queen changes profession. —D. Rubin
Being a monk stunk. Better gay. —B. Redman
School geek married a luscious cheerleader. —C. Clukey
Married for money. Divorced for love. —R. Abraham
Wealthy woman escapes with handsome mailman. —A. Shewan
One tooth, one cavity, life’s cruel. —J. Bettencourt
Life behind a microphone gets lonely. —C. Kash
Mormon economist marries feminist. World’s collide. —M. McBride
I still make coffee for two. —Z. Nelson

six word memoirs are the thing

six word memoirs: great bathroom reading!

"should have used condom that time" - Rob Bigelow
"my family did not kill me" - David Sampliner
"Got a pony, broke my arm" - Layne Bell

Six word blog post

Furniture size: I'm NOT average male.

(See http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

This was also an NPR Story .)

first CA haircut

I'm getting my hair cut in CA for the first time today. Shockingly, given my wardrobe choices, I'm picky about my haircuts. I only wash it and brush it; no blow dry, no "product." I like it short, but not dyke short. This makes me an unusual haircut consumer. I would go to a barber, but there's rarely any good "styling" in men's cuts, so that seems a poor solution. Prod me and I might post a picture with the results.

five minute post

Gericke poked me, so here's a quickie update:

Went to a rehearsal for the "Silicon Valley Symphony" in Los Gatos (typed Lost Gators first time) last night. About 40 mins away. Playing The Planets, 5th horn. Group is okay; heard about it from the Stanford music librarian who plays 2nd clarinet. Now I'm committed to four more rehearsal and a concert on Sat June 7.

Am subbing at a Redwood City Symphony rehearsal on Wed. They're doing a Messian piece, which is ridiculously hard. The call to do this prodded me to start playing again.

I practiced Sat and Sun ... and that's it since January ... and I hadn't practiced much in January before I dropped out of the Loveland Symphony. Oy.

Practicing definitely takes up evening time and some weekend time.

Conference in Pittsburgh June 16-20; going to Syracuse/Ithaca before or after.

Missed the Maikers Faire this year. Didn't know what it was. Don't want to miss it next year!

Went on a breakfast date on Sat morning. No go.

Enjoying work.

Need to have a housewarming party. (Need to finish unpacking, including hanging art!)

Need to get rid of a sinus infection - last effect of the california crud.

Farmers markets are awesome. This Sunday's take: (didn't need oranges or lemons), fresh tomatos, bunch of basil (tomato - mozz salad -- Trader Joes is right next to farmers market), green beans, a few snap peas (end of this round), all colors of bell peppers, broccolini, gorgeous bunch of asparagus.

random ideas:
I was thinking about posting everything I eat here so I would be too embarrassed to pig out or eat junk.
I was thinking about posting dating progress here ... but that might not be fair to the dat-ees.