is that the one you were approached about?

No idea. There wasn't a name for it when they spoke to me, but thanks for jogging my memory, because that call was hilarious.

"My boss could totally introduce you to JJ Abrams."

Okey dokey.

What kind of a crazy land is Spain, anyway?

One o' them furrin' places, with the craxy idealologists, and what not.

Beware the what not.

Before yesterday encounter with the heating pad, Amarna's OTP was with the microfiber blanket on my bed--she loves to stand on it and just knead it for what seems like hours before curling up and sleeping on it.

When my folks' cat, Chaika, got to be 16 or 17, my dad started leaving a heating pad on in the garage to sleep on. Needless to say, she loved it. She would sleep on it so much, her sweat would felt her fur into one great mass on her side that would have to be shorn off.

So beware, kitty cats! The seductive heating pad will lead you down a rocky road to lopsided furriness.

The raccoons were always trying to break into the house. I'd wake up with a freaked out cat trying to hide in my head and there would be these beady eyes peering through the screen, poking fingers into the rips. They'd moved a tree stump to the window for just that purpose. I'd usually just sit up and chatter at them for a little while before going back to sleep. They were pretty funny too. When they'd hear/see me, there would be this mad scramble of raccoons trying to get the best view, which meant a tower of raccoons that frequently tumbled. They were quite used to people up there.

Oh good lord. I freaked out in the best possible way the day I ran across a pair of them when on my way to work. I fear that, were this to have happened, I may have had to open the window for them and just invited them to take whatever they felt like. And then Bec would have been angry at me. (Actually, she likes raccoons more than I do. She might have got to the window first.)

What kind of a crazy land is Spain, anyway?

One word: siesta.

Ooh! And lemon gelato drumsticks! And fanta limon!

Puppycat's OTP is Puppycat/Heating pad. She sneaks onto it whenever I get up. She will also sleep on it when it is off, just hoping that the magic heat will come back. She's a heat ho

Cats? Desert creatures. Looooove the heat.

This is why they love little old ladies who keep the house at 90+ degrees. It's not that there aren't little old men keeping it that hot, it's just that they usually die off before the little old ladies do, and cats orchestrate to be with the ones that can give them the heat love longest...

It may be mind control.

Harvey is asleep on the heat grate right now, having been disturbed from draping over my chest and shoulders for quite a while today.

I have now escalated and have left messages for 3 of the people I need things from in addition to the emails. I leave tomorrow evening on a business trip, I really need answers on these things before I leave for work tomorrow.

My favorite raccoon encounter was when I was in Princeton for my brother's wedding back in 1988. We were at the campus for some pre-wedding deal (the ceremony itself was at the university chapel--awesome setting!), and we saw a family of two adult and two baby raccoons, just strolling down the sidewalk surrounded by students doing the same. They were so blase about being that close to humans that I was amazed.

I feel your pain, msbelle. I have left messages for several people. I need to hear back from them tomorrow. I fear it may not happen.

Timelies all!

Well, my folks have made it back ok from their trip to New Zealand and Australia.(guess they weren't on flight 815 :))