Little Triangle-head Cat

Ups and Downs of the Week

GoDaddy – I switched my personal email account from a POP3 account to a hosted Exchange account today. As always, the GoDaddy tech knew exactly what she was doing and made the switch a piece of cake. No one does tech support better than GoDaddy.

Cancer – Our brave old cat Mary lost the battle with cancer today. She put up the good fight, having battled the disease since last Spring. Poor girl.

xkcd – I love this comic strip sometimes.

Put your hand near and you risk having her teeth perforate it.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Barn Fire – While it’s sad that these folks lost their pole barn, an RV, a ’73 Mustang, and some other equipment, it’s very good that it wasn’t their house and no one was hurt. The temps here today were hovering around zero, so props to the firefighters for dealing with this in such nasty conditions. Hell, in *any* conditions. Firefighters are my heroes, mostly because fires are my greatest fear. Anyone who braves a fire for a living is a better person than I.

Red Sox – Paps and Ells are signed. All the pieces are in place. I cannot wait for this season to start. I may switch to DIRECTV and get the MLB Extra Innings package this season so I don’t have to deal with MLB.TV’s lousy service.

New England Patriots – One and done again. What is it about this team that makes them forget how to dominate when it *really* counts? They used to be able to win the big game. But since the Super Bowl debacle with the Giants, they seem more concerned about not losing than they do about winning (to paraphrase Patton).

Gabby Giffords – Moved to a rehab hospital already. Simply amazing. While the element of luck can’t be overlooked here, there is no doubt a good deal of courage and determination are also evident. The entire country is hoping for a full recovery for her, I’m sure. Politics be damned.

Motorola Citrus – I picked up a new phone this week. It’s a Motorola Citrus. I wanted something that would cost me nothing (got it as an upgrade), would do email push from Exchange (had to buy a $20 app called Touchdown), and work with the BMW Bluetooth hands-free setup in my cars. This phone pretty much fits the bill. There have been few snafus, though, so the jury is still out. I may still need to move up to a Droid2 or DroidX, which I was trying to avoid. The one thing this phone has over those other two is size. It’s no bigger than my old RAZR. Easy to slip into a pocket.

Veterinarians – We’ve been battling cancer with a cat of ours for months now. She’s really gone downhill the past week and we thought she was near death, so Sarah brought her to the vet with the idea that we may put her down and end her suffering. But the vet said we could try some steroids and some hydration by injection. Lo-and-behold, the cat is doing better and actually ate something tonight, which she hasn’t done in days. She’s still not long for this world, but she’s going to be with us a bit longer thanks to the knowledge and dedication of people who choose to practice medicine for animals.

Some recent pics.

Ups and Downs of 2010

Family – Although we’ve been through some illnesses and injuries, we’re all still healthy and doing ok. There’s a lot to be said for that. Our own family here has grown with the addition of some new cats and kittens. They’re a lot of work, but they’re worth it.

Economy – Despite some positive (and I use that term lightly) indicators, the economy is still in the dumpster and shows few signs of recovering soon. I’m halfway through the third year of a pay freeze, although I am very glad I still have a job. The oil companies and speculators are in the act of committing wholesale robbery again, but the rest of us won’t be seeing an increase in income in the near future.

Red Sox – Another roller coaster season. They did very well considering injuries and such, but they faded badly at the end, mostly due to really poor pitching performances. On the bright side, they’ve picked up Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Bobby Jenks, so 2011 is looking pretty sweet right now. Can’t wait for April.

Patriots – Talk about a surprising season. Most folks had predicted they’d be lucky to have a winning season. Instead they’re leading the NFL. Amazing coaching by Belichick and another banner year for Brady have lifted them to home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Amazing.

Miracles – Or maybe just really good planning. Either way, it was the year’s bright spot to see the Chilean miners make it out of that hell hole alive.

Airline Travel – It gets worse and worse. Between the nightmare of getting through TSA’s gauntlet and the continued mismanagement of the airlines themselves, there is no shortage of really pissed off fliers out there.

Technology – Some really cool stuff appeared on the scene this year. Apple and Android led the way with a quantum leap in mobile computing. My personal tech inventory got a boost this year from a very nice 42″ HDTV and new Canon T1i DSLR. Plus I saw most Red Sox games on the new HDTV thanks to my Roku box (although a mini-thumbs down to MLB.TV’s poor service, which almost made the whole deal worthless).

Education – Mine is done. At least the formal part of it. I completed my degree program and was awarded my Master of Science degree on Dec. 20th. So glad that’s behind me.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Chicken 65 – The name is a mystery but this South Indian appetizer is awesome.

Political Ads – One more week of them to suffer through. What a waste of time and money.

Wally – Willie’s brother joined the party this week. Getting a bit crowded in the house.

Photoshop – When you can take a simple picture of flowers and turn it into something like this, the possibilities become endless.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Texas Rangers – Did I say it would take a miracle? Well, miracles happen. They sent the Yankmees packin’ and they did it at home in Arlington. I’m glad the fans there got to enjoy it. Looked like a great party.

Dosas – My new favorite Indian meal. Very tasty indeed.

Bozo drivers – I’ve seen way more than my share this week. How people can drive in such a clueless state of mind and survive is a mystery.

Willie – We rescued a little male kitten from starving this week. Now he’s quite happy and lots of fun to watch.

Filter Forge Freepacks – Very cool freeware for creating image variations through outstanding filters. This is a modern picture of Rothenburg, Germany made to look like it was taken in the 1930’s.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Roku HD Player – This thing is great. It streams Netflix movies and MLB.TV, so now I can watch the Sox on the big screen. Bit of a Thumbs Down to Amazon.com, though. A day or two after I ordered mine, they dropped the price $20. They had to know the price was going to drop.

Red Sox – Papelbon blew yet another game Thursday afternoon, this time a 5-3 lead against the Blue Jays. Tonight they blew an 8-2 lead and ended up losing against the Rangers. Second walk-off loss in two days. Plus they burned through the entire bullpen tonight, although Wakefield only threw one pitch. That one went into the stands for the game winner.

Writer’s Block – All I need to do to finish my degree program is to write this final paper. Yet I’m having the hardest time devoting energy to it. I’m sick of school.

Here we go again –  Another batch of kittens have found their way into our home. We need to find other homes for these guys.

They’re getting bigger, but they’re still kittens.