Fluffah Wins

I know I haven't posted in forever, but I'll get to all of that stuff later.  For now, here's a video of a great event that happened recently in my town.  On March 29th, over 800 local volunteers planted 1,007 trees in one day across Olympia.  The planting event concluded with a big party at my library.  If you watch the whole thing, you'll see my boss Cheryl speaking towards the end.  I will admit that I get bored with the occasional sleepiness of life in Olympia, but events like the 1000 Trees in One Day project serve to remind me of how lucky I am to be a part of this community.  Enjoy...

• Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
  
• People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
  
• At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
  
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment on their blog and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to come back and read your blog for the whole story.

1. I usually only drink coffee in the morning.  No breakfast.  Bad.
2. I'm chronically late for everything.
3. This is related to the fact that I... ummm... don't know how to drive.  I started taking lessons about a month ago.  Things went pretty well, although I'm still terrified all the time.  I'm going to sign up for two more classes (two hours each) when I have a little more money, and go get my license during the second lesson.  It's pretty embarrassing to not know how to drive at my age, but there you have it.
4. I really like kitchen supplies.  I have a terrible kitchen that is fully stocked with great kitchen supplies.
5. I am very affectionate when I drink.
6. When I was little, I used to think that all of my dolls and stuffed animals were alive and had secret night time lives.  I'm probably not the only kid that used to think that, but I am probably the only adult that still thinks it's a possibility.
7. I often judge books by their covers.
8. I am very messy, but I need to have clean surfaces.  A clean table with piles of paper on it is acceptable, but a table that is devoid of piles but covered with crumbs is not.  My partner is the opposite of this, which leads to the occasional petty argument about these types of issues.

Let's see, I'm going to tag Christian (to make her post something), jmacc, kelsie, sixbucks, zola, christine, dave, and w.b. mook.  I'll link those fine folks later so I'm not late for work AGAIN.

So, to add insult to injury, I had to put my friendcat Randall to sleep last Monday.  His kidneys had been failing for months, and then he developed an abscessed tooth that started to spread very rapidly due to his general lack of health.  When we brought him to the Kitty Klinic (why with the K?), the vet gently confirmed my feelings that the best thing for Randall would be euthanasia.  I've never had to make that decision for any of my pets in the past, although I do remember when my mother had our cat Bandit put to sleep when I was in high school.  It was really hard, and I felt wretched afterwards.  Randall purred up until he fell asleep after the sedative, and passed so gently that I couldn't even tell exactly when it happened.  I had one day to cry and feel terrible before I had to pack up and go to Vancouver Washington for a library conference.  It's been a rough month.  I now have no cats in my house after sixteen plus years, which is really very strange.

Some things Randall and I have shared:

• 9 homes- 8 in Seattle and 1 in Olympia
• 6 cat roommates- some ours, some not
  
• 2 dog roommates
• 7 guinea pig roommates
  
• 1 child roommate (who changed everything)
  
• 14 adult roommates
• 4 boyfriends & 3 breakups
  
• 4 graduations- associate's, bachelor's, master's, elementary school (not me)
  
• 12 jobs (4 of them Kinko's, 3 at DSHS, 6 in Seattle, 6 in Olympia, 3 lasting less than 6 months, 1 that shitcanned me after a week)
• 7 couches
• 8 human beds
• 11 animal beds (7 for cats, 4 for dogs but hijacked by cat)
  

Anyhow, the big guy will certainly be missed.
So, tying this into web applications in a very stilted and inappropriate fashion, my Facebook friend and librarian Max just posted about this elegant little application called Muxtape that allows you to upload twelve songs to make a mixed tape of sorts on the internet.  I was in sad mode, so mine is leaning towards maudlin and perhaps nauseatingly nostalgic, but here it is if you'd like to check it out...
http://fluffah.muxtape.com/

If you make one yourself, post your link in the comments.  It made me feel a little bit better about life, so I hope it does the same for you.

This is my lazy way of telling everybody who's still paying attention that I've come back to Vox.  It's been a hard month, but for now I'll just listen to the calliope and chillax.

If you are thinking about digging up the yard and planting some stuff, you should be aware that there are many animals who are experiencing their eternal rest in our yard.  Here is a brief itemization:

• Fluffah the cat.  Right in front of the house, next to the rosebush, with the flowering quince on top.
• Silas the guinea pig.  In the current garden plot, front left corner.  Has tulips on top of him, along with a cement stone that may or may not still be there when you move in.  Silas was the sweetest guinea pig on earth.  He was black and white striped, with tufty fur.  He had terrible health issues, including circulation problems and bumblefoot, and died very young.  He loved to have his chin scritched.  Sworn enemies with Allball.
  
• Sweetums the guinea pig.   Right side yard.  Unmarked grave.  Sweetums was all black, slightly high strung, and very sweet.  He was best friends with Angel and tolerated Silas like an older brother.  He and Allball were sworn enemies.
  
• Angel the guinea pig.  To the right of Silas, towards the front of the garden.  Cement grave marker.  Angel was a really nice gigantic white guinea pig who was Sweetums' best bud.  Also sworn enemies with Allball.
  
• Mona and Allball the guinea pigs.  In the fenced area of our back yard.   Unmarked grave.  These two were buried together because they had an inordinate interest in one another, which could never be realized due to the potential for pregnancy.  Allball was sworn enemies with all of the boy guinea pigs.  He was a grouchy old brown and white man who lived a long life for a guinea pig.  Mona was the black and white female equivalent of Allball.  She was bossy and bitchy and liked to talk.  She lorded over the girl's cage in a reign of terror until her untimely and unexpected demise from what seemed to be a heart attack.  
  
• Sajak the cat.  In the back yard under the maple tree.  Unmarked grave, which is just as he would have wanted it.  He liked to keep a low profile.  He was a smiling cat, very timid, and the only cat we've ever had that would let you scritch his belly.   He disappeared when he wanted to die, and we found him in our neighbor's yard the next day.
  

You have been warned.

My cat Fluffah is dead.  After I got home from work last night, Dave and Cleo mentioned that they hadn't seen Fluffah all day.  I started looking for him, and ironically found him inside his covered litter box.  He was lying on his side and barely moving.  When I picked him up with a towel, he started having small seizures.  His eyes were shut, and his breathing was shallow, so I put him in his favorite cat bed in front of the fire and sat with him for a spell.  His buddy Randall (who's sixteen and not long for this world either) shared the bed with him for a while.  He never came out of it, never opened his eyes or made any sound again.  He had already left his  body by the time I found him, but it was agonizing that it took him so long to finally stop breathing.  It is fitting of Fluffah that he chose to die in the litter box on the same day as Charlton Heston.  Truthfully, he was never the nicest cat, but he was certainly memorable.  We had a special relationship with one another from the moment he moved in with me after being abandoned by a pair of pretentious art-fags that named him "Modigliani."  We've been through a lot together.  I will always have a pocket in my heart for him, even though he was spiteful and rebellious and very very expensive with his constant haircuts and his bizarre eye infection that resulted in his unique one-eyed look.  He inspired an entire art show with his physical manifestation.  He was loyal, and never failed to rush in and greet me in the bathroom.  His constant shrieks when he became senile were usually more amusing than annoying.  He was a shrewd judge of character, and always knew who the good humans were.  He was tenacious, and never backed down from a visiting dog.  He was resourceful, and knew which neighboring houses to hit up for food and attention.  He was transcendent.  He is a legend.

Rage on, Fluffah.   You'll be missed.

I love spring.  Of course, it hailed marble sized hailballs here on Monday, but let's pretend it's spring nonetheless.  I'll probably post more later as my favorite Barbara Manning song is refusing to upload on Vox and I've got to go to work ten minutes ago...

"For those forging ahead with the latest 2.0 innovations, singing hosannahs over this or that new widget that will allow the patrons better access the great User-Heaven Librarysphere, please remember that there are millions of library patrons who don't even know how to save a document.

And I'm not even going to start about how we help the ones who don't know how to use a mouse."

I love Refgrunt

http://faildogs.com/