Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

I’ve known a lot of cats in my life, but Max the Kitten is the first one I’ve met who likes to eat popcorn. He grabbed a piece, ran off into the fireplace to eat it, and is growling and snarling at the dogs who want to share.

Greetings from 2003: the year that the United States takes huge leaps backwards.

“Parents: White Teacher Should Not Teach Black History” – guess this means we should keep black people from teaching European or early American history. Right? Right?

“New York to Open First U.S. Public School for Gays” – super, so now gays and straights will have even less of an idea what the other side is like and will begin to fear and hate each other even more. I guess this means it’s ok to open a school just for straights, too. Note this is a public school, not private.

Inquest into hanging death opens in Belle Glade – Then let’s insist that someone was lynched for dating the white sheriff’s daughter, then look surprised to find out that he was hung with his own sheet, there was cocaine in his system, and his blood alcohol level was .334. Way to be reactionary, folks!

On a lighter note – when Bob Hope’s daughter asked him, just before he died, where he wanted to be buried, he responded, Surprise me”.

A brief flurry of comments and emails about MUDding made me decide I should come clean as to how this blog even started.

Back in 1994 was when I got net access for the first time. I think it was also around that time that I got my first CDROM drive and 14.4 modem. How times have changed. Anyway, there wasn’t really a web to speak of at that time. Main protocols were email, telnet, usenet, and gopher. Having cut my teeth on the Infocom games such as Zork, and being a devotee of Moria, I got excited when I found that there were online RPGs, also known as MUDs (Multi User Dimensions). I found a list of them somewhere and tried a few, then noticed that one was being hosted at UT, where I was sporadically attending school. It was called StrangeMUD.

So I logged on and created a character and the local Austin people (notably Questor saw that I was logging in locally and started chatting with me. A couple of weeks later I hit a death trap by typing “ea” for “eat”, which the parser took to mean “east” instead and I went off a cliff. I bitched loudly and heartily and Questor outfitted me with a set of equipment that was slightly better than the newbie stuff I had, but to my eyes it looked like pure gold and I told him I wanted to buy him a pack of smokes in thanks. He and Aeia used to hang out at one of the UT computer labs and he said to come on over anytime, and I did, and started hanging out there with a motley crew of characters and having a jolly old time. School? What school?

One day, Caila came for a visit and said she wanted to eat at Popeye’s, the closest one being east of the highway in what was considered a Very Bad Neighborhood Indeed, but we went anyway and I grew an extra pair of eyes to see who was sneaking up behind me. Caila and I got to be very friendly too, and she ended up moving to Austin, and we would have endless Spades and Hearts marathons with Questor and Wiilf and hang out constantly and have a lot of fun. School? What school?

The next spring, another person from the mud hosted a party in Houston and Caila convinced me to go, since she had met the hostess and said she was a hoot. We went, and had a fabulous time, and I met quite a few other mudders, including DrTongue (a.k.a. “Hub”).

Years later Caila told me she was starting a blog and I said that’s it, I will too since all the damned cool kids have them.

So you see, if it were not for StrangeMUD (and Caila!) I would not have this blog today. You may either thank the mud or curse it. It still exists, after having been through some plot twists that would put the soap opera “Passions” to shame. You should check it out sometime.

I think we finally have a kitten name:

Maximus Purrimus Alottus

a.k.a. Max

He just isn’t a Pyewackett.

The other day I made some Crystal Light. Hub walked up and saw the pitcher and asked what it was. And noted there was a dog hair floating in it. Oh, that’s because it’s my hairbal tea, I said. BaHA! BaHAhaha!

Well, here he is. Pretty cute, huh? Poor guy has a cold so he’s feeling pretty miserable right now. He’s been in my lap for the past 4 hours or so, and every time I get up he follows me around until I sit down again and hops back up.

After 9 hours in the car today (1.5 in a traffic jam in Pleak, TX of all places) we now have a cute little kitten. We ended up having to meet in a gas station parking lot to buy him, and it felt a little like a drug deal going down, but the end result is good. Hub got pulled over for speeding by DPS and apparently the trooper was a cat lover and he let us off with a warning (after asking if the kitty was a rat, poor little guy, 2 hours with us and already getting a hard time). Maddie’s not reacting nearly as violently as I thought she would. Kids didn’t sleep last night so I’m completely wasted. Bed now. Pics later.

We’re going to look at kittens tomorrow night. We have to go to Houston because apparently the Central Texas area a) doesn’t have a lot of Siamese breeders to begin with and b) none of them have bluepoints.

Yes, I know, we should adopt a pet from the shelter. I did adopt a pet from the shelter once. A sweet little puppy who had horrible health problems, including bordatella, suspected parvo, and eventually ended up being so allergic to something in our house that I had to give her away before she died. A $2000 pound puppy whom I kept for something like 5 months and didn’t get a wink of sleep during all that time because the poor thing was up all night coughing and gasping for air and I had to keep her close by in a crate with a humidifier and listen to make sure she was breathing because there were a couple of nights that she could hardly get a breath and we had to go to the emergency clinic at 3 in the morning.

So anyway, that got me soured on pets that I couldn’t see where they came from and look at their parents and get a health guarantee.

Uh, I had something else to say. Oh yeah, so anyway we’re going to Houston, a 3 hour drive, tomorrow night to look at kittens and I talked to the breeder this afternoon and asked her to send me a picture. She agreed, and said she’d email road directions too. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see the pictures of the kittens. I’m getting excited about a kitten. I haven’t had one for 12 years. But she never sent pictures, so now I can’t go to sleep envisioning my future kitty.

Names I’m considering:

Pyewackett (current favorite, kids like it too)
Maximus
Claudius
Nero
KoKo

Recent weird kid quote… I laid down on the floor. Jo laid next to me. Caroline got indignant in wiggled between us.

Me: We’re making a sandwich!
Jo: Yup. There’s cheese on the left.
(Caroline sits up)
Jo: Uh-oh, the ham’s getting up!