I can't believe it but the interminable fabulous kitty cross stitch project is DONE. Check him out - isn't he just awesome? I knew he would be!

I'm already working on another project and I've got something special planned for it that I hope works out.

Apparently May was the month of household things dying. My 30+ year old oven is broken and my 15 year old air conditioning unit needs $4,000 in repairs, which is just about half the cost of a new unit. The element in the oven went out (which I discovered while trying to cook dinner one night) and it's so old there are no identifying marks as to what model it is so I can't really look for a replacement element. Since it is so old and has some other issues, I thought I should just go ahead and replace it. I've been mulling over my options and planning Instant Pot meals instead of using the oven for now. I think I know what I'm going to get but right when I decided on that, I got the news about the air conditioner.

I was hoping the air conditioner would last a while longer and I could just replace parts as needed but there are several major things that need attention like right now. I don't really have the money for a whole new system but my other option is to keep putting money into an old unit and I've been down that route before with an old car. Eventually you realize that even though you can't afford to replace something, you've spent what a replacement would cost trying to keep the old one going. So on Tuesday I will be getting a new unit installed.

I'm on Bluesky and a lot of the accounts I follow are cat accounts. No, not accounts about people's cats - accounts run by the cats themselves (although I also follow the other kind). Apparently this was a whole thing on Twitter that I somehow missed when I was there. The cats have since migrated over to Bluesky.

In the cat posts, the spellings are very wrong (because they're CATS and they're typing - allegedly) and they talk among each other and also with whoever chooses to politely talk with them. I think this is so imaginative and delightful! I just love it. Of course, the internet being what it is, some people can't wait to tell the "cats" what they think of this game and usually the "cats" are pretty quick to tell those people to fuck off.

One of the cats, a tortie named Toes who lives in England, turns 20 today! All weekend long, the cats have been planning a big bash for Toes' special day. Of course, the cats are all over the world so there have been several travel groups gathering up all the cats and bringing them over. I realize some of you might not be interested in this so go along to the next section. However, if you are intrigued by cat partying, then

carry on!

Bertie, a Siamese kitty in the States, acquired a swank floating pirate ship and as he flew towards England, he stopped to pick up passengers. Check out the ship and its rooms. As cats were picked up, they were photoshopped into the pictures.

Even Toes has been busy in her Lear jet, picking up party goers.

Bertie and the others on the pirate ship made sure they "plundered" the Atlantic in order to bring tuna fish to the party.

Before the party started, some of the cats hung out and had fun at Brighton.

Cats gathered in the ball room. There was a dress code! The theme of the party was "The Great Catsby".

Later, after the party, there will be some raving!

Like I said, I'm just tickled at the creativity and FUN that was going on this weekend. Best Son thinks I'm crazy but whatever.

Listening

Some podcasts I listened to this week:

Reading

I finished The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn and it gets a most enthusiastic two thumbs up. This was an excellent space opera. I was eager to check out the next one in the series but the library's copies were checked out. No problem, I thought, I'll go back to the Amelia Peabody mystery series. But the next book in that series was also checked out!

Since I clearly wasn't meant to check out a library book, I chose something from my Kobo. I've had a book sitting on my e-reader forever, Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell. I think I picked it up after reading about it on r/PrintSF. I've just started it and it has me intrigued. I think it can best be described as Caribbean steam-punk. With Aztec gods.

Watching

I'm still making my way through Babylon 5, albeit slowly. This past week I watched season 1, episode 6 "Mind War" where a rogue telepath gifts Talia with something special and weird shit happens around Sigma 957. I think I might watch another episode tonight, after I get this blog post done.

I was so thrilled with Tales from Green Valley that I tried watching the next series this group did, Victorian Farm. This is not a period of time that really interests me and I absolutely lost interest in the creation of rag rugs and the making of literal tons of lime. I don't know if I'll keep on with this or just move on to one of their other series, Wartime Farm or Tudor Monastery Farm.

I watched a super cool episode of Real Science on Nebula TV all about Nudibranchs. This was an almost hour long episode where the host interviewed Dr. Terry Gosliner, an expert in nudibranchs. Man, these little critters are so cool! I had no idea! I highly recommend giving it a watch if you have Nebula TV (or if it shows up on YouTube).

Inside Archaeology on YouTube presents a monthly rundown of recent archaeological discoveries. It's pretty interesting and definitely worth a watch if archaeology is your thing. They just had the May roundup. Stories this month were about the earliest humans in Skye, Mongolian pottery, tomb of an Alanian horse lord, Herculaneum scroll and author identified, Maya Cave of Blood Sacrifices, Silla crown decorated with jeweled beetle wings, Vietnamese wooden twin-hulled boats, Costa Rican slave shipwrecks and a Myanmar royal complex. There were also some quick news items.

Best Son and I went to the movies and saw Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning. It was ... ok. It did NOT need to be almost 3 hours long. I felt like there were a lot of flashbacks. If you go see it in a theater and realize too late you shouldn't have had that large drink, a good time to run to the bathroom would be during the submarine scene. Also, there's an app to help you figure out bathroom breaks during movies called RunPee.

Until next week!