Friday Yard Cats

Well, the cat family next door has decided they REALLY like our yard. Well, can't blame them, their folks also have two pomeranians and a whole bunch of kids on skateboards. This is the little Mom, she's in what looks like a very unlikely place for a cat, but since it doesn't rain that much she likes to cool her underside laying on that screen. Aaaaah... ventilation...
All three of them spent the afternoon sleeping in a fuzzy pile under that shrub. Too darn cute... and those poor kittens are already scratching fleas.
These yard cats spotted while walking in a South Congress neighborhood have worse problems than a few fleas. The one on the far right had a non-working front leg, looked like an untended injury that didn't heal right. They look like they don't mind sharing their fare with a bunch of grackles, but would like for US to move along.


- Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Watermark - Cats - Catblogging -

Love Apples

It was supposedly on this day in 1820 when tomatoes were officially proven non-poisonous! Robert Gibbon Johnson stood in front of a large crowd in Salem NJ and ate two tomatoes -- followed by his not getting sick and dying. Why did people think they were poisonous? A theory is proposed on this page:

Rich people in that time used flatware made of pewter, which has a high-lead content. Foods high in acid, like tomatoes, would cause the lead to leech out into the food, resulting in lead poisoning and death. Poor people, who ate off of plates made of wood, did not have that problem, and hence did not have an aversion to tomatoes.

There is one tomato that somehow carried secret messages from God inside. They were written right there when she cut it open. Gives new meaning to the phrase, "It is written". There's another website with a decidedly different opinion: Tomatoes are evil. Maybe in Madagascar, this is considered camouflage... either that or tomatoes there are thought to be poisonous or evil.

- Tomato -

Am I not the smart little shopper?

Look at this fabulous find I got today at Goodwill!! Can you believe it was only $7.99? Now I simply MUST find a matching sofa!!

Yes... he's a big prick, but has the help of pharmaceuticals.

Link
Oh please!! Gasbag becomes an even bigger target.

Press Biter

Pastor Jim Rigby (of the St. Andrews Presbyterian Church) is a troublemaker... of the good kind*! He has brought heat down on his neck for blessing same-sex unions, ordaining an openly gay elder and general activism. I have heard him speak at the UU church a couple of times, and believe me, the promise of hearing a talk given by a Christian minister will make me groan, but each time I've heard him he received and deserved standing ovations for his comments on social causes and human rights.

What he's in trouble for this time is accepting an atheist into the congregation. Yes very confusing, I know. This requires a little background. It's UT professor Robert Jensen, a professor who professes his atheism among other things, notably controversial post-9/11, anti-war, and social commentary [Articles]. He explains this action in the Alternet article, "Why I am a Christian (sort of)." Here is Rigby's accompanying article called "Why we let an atheist join our church."

Religion is not about groveling before a savior, it's joining in the work of saving our world. -- Jim Rigby

Like a breath of fresh air from a Christian minister, huh? -- Blueberry

Well, people are pissed off and disgruntled. Not only the Presbyterians, but atheists as well. Both sides wonder "Why would you do this?"

OK, this is controversial, and here's my take. Jensen identifies with and supports the teachings of Jesus, the mortal man. Because of this, he considers himself to be Christian. Great! The problem comes in when he joins a Presbyterian Church. The church is a club of sorts (all churches are) that has particular rules as to who can be a member and who can't. Private clubs do not have to admit people who don't fit the criteria for admittance, you must qualify. There's nothing wrong with this in my thinking**. An atheist, who going to continue to continue to deny the existence of God and the divinity of Jesus is NOT a Presbyterian. He might be a Christian by his own definition, but shouldn't be allowed to join this particular church.

If avoiding controversy was the idea here, (and it isn't), Jensen could join the Unitarian Universalist Church (UU). I am a member of it, and there are several atheists who are members there. It's completely alright because the church is not Christian, it's all about finding your own way, and questioning your beliefs or lack thereof at every turn, being a heretic in other words. CHOOSE, don't FOLLOW. It would be considered wrong and inappropriate (not to mention disrespectful) to try and change another person's beliefs to match your own. At least that's way it's presented at our church. Unlike the Presbyterian Church, being creedless is the intent and goal.

It's actually helping me to come to terms with... well... terms. Terms like religion, prayer, spirit, gods, sacred. They are concepts that can mean many things... and they do, of course. The sermons are thought-provoking, and you are meant to have just that reaction, they are not attempts at controlling (brainwashing) you. The terms are becoming much less offensive to me the more open-minded I become about concepts, and the more I realize that tolerance takes work no matter who you are and where you're coming from.

Here are some of Davidson's sermons on the topic of atheism and there are more in the archives:

What if There Isn't a God?

Religion for Atheists

*If a teacher/pastor/leader doesn't stir the pot and get people thinking, what should their purpose be? (yes, I know teachers "teach" but isn't a lot of teaching just making people think for themselves? and if leaders and pastors are just turning people into sheep, then damn them and ban them)
**The issue of whether or not churches, or private clubs, should be given tax breaks or other government support is another matter and another issue.

- Check out The Carnival of the Godless, at Daylight Atheism on July 9 - Atheism - Christian -

Live music capital, ain't no joke.

We've had a week chock full of music shows! The Greencards were back in town for just one night at a packed show at Threadgill's. They've got some really good new songs that will probably be on the next CD. We won't see them again until the ACL Festival. [frown]. That was on Thursday and we were at Threadgill's until about 1:00 AM, then on Friday I was back at Threadgill's at 8:00 AM for the KGSR Fan Fare all-day charity show. Great lineup, and I have pics on the website, a few of The Greencards on the "various shows" link too. I knew I was going to miss The BoDeans when I left at 1:30, but was too hot, burnt, and tired to stick it out.

On Friday night, we went to a fantastic show at Ruta Maya. It was Warren Hood with Willie Pipkin and Marshall Hood. It was really a perfect little show and hardly advertised at all. In fact, I think practically everyone in the audience (about 30 people maybe?) was told by Warren himself about the show, or maybe found out through word of mouth. It's a great venue, good sound, good vibe, usually low profile and laid-back to the max. We got there 15 minutes before the show started and there were no signs of anything about to take place. Then at about 5 minutes to time, the band and the whole audience seemed to walk in together. Typical!

We are on our way out the door for Raul Malo at the Glenn. I won free tickets. They are general admission and will be behind reserved seats. You know I hate that. Well, the price was right.

Gotta run!

Friday Catertainment TV

Here's Jax enjoying a little TV watching. He likes to sit pretty close to the screen just in case there are birds on there...

Poor Jax needed a steroid injection for his skin allergies this week, he had a terrrrible case of the itchies. The day before I got him the shot, I tried giving him an oral antihistamine. It was every bit the total fiasco that those "giving a cat a pill" jokes are about. When I finally got the pill through those jaws, he started salivating like something rabid, running all over the room leaving a slime trail of spit and flinging it on us when we tried catching him. We calmed him down and gave him a snack (snacks are magical), and since the pill did go in he was fast asleep in about 10 minutes.

Here's a little bonus pic of one of the new kittens from next door (the one we call "Cheeta"). He jumped straight up when I took his picture. Kittens! What a cutie pie.

Alex is rockin' the Carnival of the Cats as banner catmodel again!! Alex is the man!



- Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival (118) is at Pets Garden Blog on Sunday - Cats - Catblogging -

Joss Whedon's Big Damn Birthday, June 23

Joss is the man behind Buffy, Angel, and Firefly as well as the upcoming Wonder Woman, and one of my favorite celebrity atheists! Here's one of the quotes from his page there:

On December 15, 1998 the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" official posting board, series creator Joss Whedon provided some background on an episode of the show which featured some religious themes:

[...] Was it God? Well, I'm an atheist, but it's hard to ignore the idea of a "christmas miracle" here (though the PRAY on the marquee was an unintentional coincidence). The fact is, the Christian mythos has a powerful fascination to me, and it bleeds into my storytelling. Redemption, hope, purpose, santa, these all are important to me, whether I believe in an afterlife or some universal structure or not. I certainly don't mind a strictly Christian interpretation being placed on this episode by those who believe that -- I just hope it's not limited to that.

I haven't yet gotten into Buffy or Angel, but Firefly (Serenity) is one of my favorite shows. Ever. Here comes the gush... GREAT characters, GREAT stories, screw FOX who cancelled this fantastic show. It's science fiction without the fantasy -- no gods, no supernatural beings (River is not supernatural, like the Reavers, she is UNnatural), no aliens. It's Gunsmoke in space, including Miss Kitty. Better than Star Trek, better than Star Wars, keep going.

Mal (the Captain) is like a Matt Dillon or Han Solo, if either of those made a big point of being godless (well, Solo maybe... but there was that "Force" thing that couldn't be denied), and is offset by two religious characters, Shepherd Book (a preacher), and Inara (a VERY high end prostitute and sexual priestess) They offset each other too, showing different aspects of "spirituality". The other characters don't seem to have a religious preference in particular, but I guess that's endlessly debatable. The plot of the movie "Serenity" centers on the dangers of true believers. That's all I'm giving away on that, but here's a bit of dialogue between Mal and Book from a Firefly TV ep:

Mal: "Well, what about you, Shepherd? How come you're flying about with us brigands? I mean, shouldn't you be off bringing religiosity to the Fuzzie-Wuzzies or some such?"

Book: "Oh, I got heathens aplenty right here."

Mal: "If I'm your mission, Shepherd, best give it up. You're welcome on my boat. God ain't."

Mal is not the only one who has a religious go-round with Book. Super-brain River also has some comical scenes with him where she’s trying to force the Bible to make sense by ripping out pages or rearranging them, it’s obviously never going to work of course, but Book is not a fundie or a wingnut. He’s very sane (unlike River, actually) and tolerant. He’s a good guy.

A local group called the Bedlam Bards (think Renaissance Festival) have put out a Firefly-themed CD called "On the Drift", here's a link to "The Ballad of Joss" MP3 postcard. It's a drinking song, based on a drinking song from the series, so here's to Joss!

- Check out The Carnival of the Godless, this week at Silly Humans - Whedon - Whedon - Firefly - Serenity -

The Survey

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:	Blueberry
Birthday:	August 24
Birthplace:	Air Force Base
Current Location:	Austin, Texas
Eye Color:	Dark blue
Hair Color:	Brown
Height:	average
Right Handed or Left Handed:	righty
Your Heritage:	Scotch Irish English German, etc.
The Shoes You Wore Today:	boring
Your Weakness:	sweets
Your Fears:	getting fat (see "Your Weakness")
Your Perfect Pizza:	Veggie! black olives, broccoli, artichoke hearts, load it up!
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	Get some rest
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	N/A, gave up IM
Thoughts First Waking Up:	Meow meow meow meow someone 's hungry
Your Best Physical Feature:	Eyes
Your Most Missed Memory:	don't have one
Pepsi or Coke:	DIET Coke
McDonalds or Burger King:	ugh!!
Single or Group Dates:	going out with husband and meeting friends
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	Neither. Crystal Lite or Hibiscus Mint.
Chocolate or Vanilla:	Vanilla. Am I crazy?
Cappuccino or Coffee:	Coffee, with Splenda and Coffee-Mate.
Do you Smoke:	Nope.
Do you Swear:	If I'm upset I do.
Do you Sing:	In the car usually.
Do you Shower Daily:	Sometimes twice. Baths are better.
Have you Been in Love:	Multiple times, yes.
Do you want to go to College:	College is forever. You'll always need more classes no matter what.
Do you want to get Married:	Not again! I'm already married.
Do you believe in yourself:	Not sure what that means.
Do you get Motion Sickness:	No.
Do you think you are Attractive:	Next question.
Are you a Health Freak:	Yes.
Do you get along with your Parents:	Don't have any. Next...
Do you like Thunderstorms:	I like them but they give me a headache. So yes and no.
Do you play an Instrument:	Air drums.
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	Yes. Is it 5:00 pm yet?
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	Nope.
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	Nope!
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	I don't eat fish. I won't turn down rice, soy sauce and wasabi though.
In the past month have you been on Stage:	Not performing.
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	Nope.
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	No.
Ever been Beaten up:	Yes.
Ever Shoplifted:	No.
How do you want to Die:	Natural causes. I hate surprises.
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	Retired.
What country would you most like to Visit:	Ireland/England/Scotland...
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Tongue Tide

—George W. Bush, asked if the tide was turning in Iraq, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

Midsummer

Happy solstice to all you sun-lovers! Enjoy the nice loooong day, and party on, but don't try this stunt at home. I found the pic on this page. Pretty good!

This really is the middle of summer here. It's 6 months long and goes from April to September. Calling this the first day of summer is one of my little pet peeves as you know if you read Texas Oasis regularly. Apparently, it's still set up "the olde way" in some countries such as Ireland, China and Japan. [wiki link], [Cecil from The Straight Dope]

- Solstice - Summer -

Rodriguez, our own Austin, Texas "Troublemaker"*

Happy Birthday today to local director and filmmaker phenom Robert Rodriquez! Born in 1968, he turns 38 (practically a baby). Here's a picture of him from the 2004 Bruce Willis/Del Castillo/Chingon show at Antone's where I hugged Willis around the waist when he jumped down in the crowd next to me and we all got pelted with Krispy Creme donuts. wheee! You never know what's going to happen at a Chingon show. I've actually met Rodriguez several times. He's very down-to-earth and approachable and it was always a situation where he was in a "meeting-people" event. According to IMDB, Angelina Jolie might be in the next Sin City, so there may be some Austin sightings. *Troublemaker is the name of RR's home film production company. It's in his garage. Not kidding.

- Robert Rodriguez - Austin -

Keeping Austin green

Busy week! Our yard has been awarded the "Green Garden Award" from the City of Austin! They are supposed to come out this afternoon and take pictures, and I'm sure they will ask me a bunch of questions I can't answer. The yard (garden) is really Mr. Blueberry's project, and he will be at work. I haven't done that much since I sketched out a diagram on where the rocks and path should go.

The "Green" part of the award has to do not with color, but with the environment. They are interested in water usage, wildlife support (birds, butterflies...), composting, xeriscape, stuff like that! I'm really proud of what he's done with it. Some neighbor kids knocked on the door awhile back and wanted to see the backyard. They were wide-eyed and fascinated. I had to keep an eye on them back there though. It's not kid-friendly. I have since cut the deadly points off the agaves, but there's still plenty of pointy stuff... not to mention the slag, which is just fancy naturally-formed broken glass.

I hope they don't mention the mosquitoes in their writeup. They are not our fault. No one has been able to find any standing water on our property. All we've done for them is provide a blood supply.

When I'm 64.... whooo!!

Well, I can hardly believe it! Pauly turns 64! This is not important to non-boomers (and surely not important to plenty of boomers), but it's hard to explain just how far into our very souls The Beatles resided, how many times we listened to their music, how many minutes a day were spent obsessing over them and their every little thing. I was still 10 when I saw them on Ed Sullivan, and was already pretty psyched up over them, but that was just one of those life-changing experiences. Actually John was my favorite, my first celebrity crush and all that, but they were all bigger than Jesus to me (and back then I was still a fan of Jesus). The Rolling Stones and others elevated to rival them soon after, along with a whole bunch of the British Invasion bands that I still love: Them (with Van Morrison), Zombies, Yardbirds, Searchers... so much water under the bridge... so many things from my childhood endure, so many do not.

The picture is my first oil painting, I was probably about 15 when I painted it. It's oil on watercolor paper, so I really didn't know what I was doing!

- Music - Beatles - Macca - McCartney -

The scariest movie you will see all year

We just saw "An Inconvenient Truth", the informational documentary put together by Al Gore. WOW! People are in such deep denial on environmental issues. Humans are affecting the prospects for life on Earth to a degree that most of us don't realize.

This movie is not about Al Gore. It's about people, global warming, science, and the future of life on earth. The website at the link above has information on what theatres are showing the film. It's worth seeing. We all need a shakeup. If I lived on the coast, I think I'd want to move inland a ways. I'm just sayin'... it's not as though any steps are being taken to prevent this scenario from playing itself out as predicted.

MaryAnn Johanson (my favorite movie critic), really is more articulate on the subject of this movie on FlickFilosopher and on her blog, GeekPhilosophy.

- Environment - Global warming - Gore -

Sad and sorry neighborhood

This story is really sad on many levels. The dog owners don't believe in leashes or fences apparently, so they let their dogs run loose in the country. This is very dangerous and scary, not only for what can happen to your dogs, but sometimes the dogs themselves are a danger. Their asshole neighbor warned them about letting their dog run loose, then when they didn't comply he shot their dog and burned it in someone's incinerator. Then he apparently made up some story about bunnies and grandkids but wouldn't swear to it later. Then someone else stepped forward and said the guy also shot their dog. (This guy REALLY needs to get a good fence. I wonder how many critters have earned a death sentence by crossing his property line?)

Probably the saddest part of all is that probably the only crime committed was the fact someone else's property was incinerated. Legal options are being explored, but I'll bet they're pretty thin. This story is from Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Found via fark.

Friday Cats - We belong together.

Duncan is a copy cat. He's so sociable, he just wants to do what everybody else is doing. He's really not happy here because his adopted brother Jax went inside, and he got left on the screened porch all by his lonesome!

Duncan also admires Jax's magnificent pear-shaped figure. You don't see one like that every day!!

- Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Mind of Mog on Sunday - Cats - Catblogging -

World's Tiniest Tomatoes

How about these home grown tomatoes? They are volunteers in the garden from some old seeds, we didn't plant them. They tasted good, even though they don't really count as 3 whole bites. Don't let them kid you about Texas tomatoes... they don't hold a candle to the midwestern kind, not even the best of the best of them. I don't care where Guy Clark is from! He must've been somewhere else when he wrote that song. Alex in the background there, couldn't care less about them. If you've got a green salad though, that's a different story. So two things for the record books: World's smallest tomatoes, and a cat who loves lettuce.

- tomatoes - food -

Nachos

We had free advance screening passes to see Nacho Libre, the new Jack Black movie from the same director as Napoleon Dynamite. Pretty funny!! Crude too, but you know what Steve Martin said, "Comedy is not pretty". Jack Black is back, and much better than he was in King Kong, in spite of Peter Jackson's best efforts. They loaded us down with swag too. We might use this shot for our holiday picture to send to the folks this December. Then again, maybe not.

- Nacho Libre - Jack Black -

I'll Leviticus YOU, you ignorant slut!

If I believed in a big guy in the sky, I would thank him that these incredible wackos are helping to nudge the ever-more-right-drifting moderates and conservatives a little bit back toward the center. They are sooooo disgusting that the average right-winger doesn’t want to be seen near them, either ideologically or physically.

This is a great verbal hairpulling catfight of the religious kind between FOX NEWS’ Julie Banderas and Shirley Phelps-Roper! Yeah, Julie smacks her down real good, but you know what? You can’t win a religious argument... not unless your god really CAN beat up the other person’s god. The namecalling!!

[LINK]

Found via Pink Dome, and happy (tickled pink, in fact!!) that someone else is there to watch Fox News so I don't have to.

- Westboro Baptist - Fox News - hate - religion -

Apeshit or Great Apes?

Here's a quiz to see if you can tell the difference between something painted by a famous artist that would be considered "great" and something painted by an ape. I got a 67%.

The site is called "reverent" and pokes fun at the reverence that people in society have for what is accepted to be great art, literature and music. In this particular case with non-objective art, I think the joke is on you. The emperor has no clothes and deep down you know that you've been hoaxed, but won't admit it for fear of not being hip.

The Arts are absolutely essential to our well-being as creatures (I am not excluding apes and other critters here), but beyond whether the art is a sincere expression of its creator, how can you qualify it as "good" or "bad"?
EDIT: I did blog another of these quizzes back in December 2005.

- Art - Apes -

Proof that I am not 100% evil

You Are 32% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

They should have included a question about whether you lied answering any of the questions, or gave yourself a break due to youthful indiscretion. [snort] Hey! I will admit the drunk part but not... that... other thing...hmmph.

Found via Silly Humans.

I wish you folks at home could see this!

Another really hot day mostly spent working in the AC or shopping for office furniture (and finding nothing suitable!).

This evening, though, the weather was absolutely perfect. A just-right temperature with no jacket needed (jackets in summer here are usually just needed for highly air-conditioned places). We went to a really nice outdoor birthday party with some great guitar music and an almost full moon overhead. When I see that, sometimes I think of Mike Shannon, one of the on-air announcers for the St. Louis Cardinals. Forget Joe Buck or whoever they have now (maybe it is still Shannon?) Mike has quite a personality, and was known for having a couple too many "ice cold Budweisers" and saying some unintentionally funny things to millions of people. Once he was at an away-game, he was commenting on the full moon and how great it looked. He says "I wish you folks back in St. Louis could see this". Shannon is one of the only things I miss about St. Louis.

June 10 is Jesus Day in Texas

Yes. Really. It's an actual proclaimed holiday, proclaimed by Dubya himself when he was the guv (I wish he still had that job. At least a dumb silly governor is not the ultimate power in the universe.) Here's the text and facsimile that was salvaged by PBS Frontline, and a little more on it from Snopes. Even if you are a Christian, a theocracy is still a fascist state where everyone must believe (or profess to believe) the same thing, and non-conformance is not an option. It's as un-American as you can get. Truly!

It would have been better just to set up a secular day where people try to love one another, not get mad on the highway, try not to kill anybody for a whole day, and help out some poor people.

- Bush - Jesus - Texas - Jesus Day - Dubya -

The heat is on

These tall Texans are sure loving this weather! We've been within a couple of degrees of 100 for a week or more, yesterday I think it went over. I haven't been able to figure out who "officially" decided that the upcoming solstice is the beginning of summer instead of midsummer like it was before that. Has to have something to do with power and politics. I am stubborn and refuse to call it the beginning of summer. Actually, here in Central Texas we hit 100 degrees in April before it cooled down to normal hot. Anyway, we've got a real jungle of sunflowers out there, the alley filled with tree-tall flowers looks like a faerieland -- albeit for sweaty sunburnt faeries.

I have been working like it's a marathon for a good 3 weeks! About 12 hours a day weekdays and 6-8 on weekends. The CD art design/production is a big part of it. I've done 3 of these for newly recorded music, and they never go smoothly. It's guaranteed. There's always a last-minute crisis or 2, it's par for the course. In this case, I dropped off the disk for printing yesterday afternoon, then in a few hours I find out that the song order on the master was supposed to be rearranged, but wasn't, so revised files are needed and will be delivered this morning. A job like this is not finished until it's shrink-wrapped. Meanwhile, I have developed sciatica from sitting too much [OUCH], and the cats don't allow us to sleep more than about 4 hours. Exhausted!!

I will leave you with this summer image, just add lots of bird chirping (hopefully some of the birds are Purple Martins), bunches of butterflies, bees, and baked air. I need to take a nice long walk.

Hang in there, Henry. It's Friday!

Poor Henry! He has just worked himself to the point of exhaustion this week! Just look at him. The stretching exercises (claw-sharpening and yawning, for example) and power-sleeping have gotten the better of him.

If Henry had the energy, he'd remind everyone that June is "Adopt a Shelter Cat Month". He would add to the reminder that it doesn't have to be a shelter cat. He knows that homeless stray cats want good homes... yours!!! He was out there on the street his own self before coming to the right door over 14 years ago. If street kitties can't get good homes, at least their lives can be improved.

I will end this post with something very sad, frightening, and infuriating. Having a home doesn't make it a good home, and it doesn't get worse than this. It's horrifying to think that people are capable of such things, and that they are hardly even punished. Here's another link for the horror story from a news source from that area.

According to the report, See believed his actions to be "a reflection of the values in a rural area rather than reckless and wanton behavior," Chase said.

The report also said See "didn't think his actions would upset people so much."

Well... I will never understand people. That's for sure. The whole Texas Oasis household is upset by this one.

- Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Gigolo Kitty - Cats - Catblogging -

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Apocalypse tomorrow! Are you ready? Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is the fear of the number 666. I'd say it's fairly common. My mother had a phobia of the number 444. Go figure that one out. I never will.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Slayer. I understand they were going to kick off a tour, but one of the members had a gall bladder problem so they postponed it until 06-14-06. Not the same impact as doing with the apocalypse coming down and all. Not a fan of Slayer myself, but party on. The Rapture Index is up to 157 (it's been up there for awhile, at "buckle your seat belt" level, and why are you buckling your seat belt if you are leaving your car behind... for me!!!), and one of of the factors is the decline of the sanctity of marraige -- demonstrated best by the fact that Elizabeth Taylor has been married 8 times. Hmmm. Yes, really.

Ann Coulter's book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" comes out tomorrow. [Yawn]

Thinking back, whatever happened on June 6, 1966? You don't remember either, huh? Too many sixes I guess. I do remember June 6, 1968. It's the day Bobby Kennedy was murdered.

Going back before my time, it was D-Day in 1944. And going back before that, it was the day my dad was born in 1923. He's been gone many years now, I blogged him back in August on his death anniversary.

- 666 -

New Cats on the Block Friday

Well, here's one!! It's one of the new kittens that was born next door. I don't know his name, or even if he's a boy, but I think his nickname for us will be "Cheeta". He sure didn't hesitate to climb up this tree and get comfy. I can just tell I am going to worry over these kits nearly as much as their mom. This picture turned out so cute, I sent it to Daily Kitten. Here's another one.


...and congratulations to Alex, who was the Carnival of the Cats Banner Catmodel!


- Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Tacjammer and features a Moody Blues theme!! Well. I'll be darned. I love those guys. - Cats - Catblogging -

Tall Texans

It's sunflower time again! We seem to get some of the tallest sunflowers around! Some of these must be 10 feet tall. It's not like last year when we let them grow into a jungle. Pretty though, even if lack of rain seems to have postponed a few blooms.
There was just enough rain to wet the lips of this poor parched land-carp.