For the smell of chocolate, nothing beats any part of Hershey, Pennsylvania. But it's the headquarters of Hershey chocolate, so there's a reason.

And Calli, a few more thoughts on cats from our experience. The big food dividing line is probably wet/dry. Rigatoni is a "dry guy" -- don't know why, but he doesn't care for the wet stuff. Max, on the other hand, gobbles down the wet as soon as it's served. (Then there's Seamus, who just likes food and doesn't really care whether it's wet or dry.)

There are a lot of places to find a cat. No need to rely entirely on your local pound. Your local vet may know of cats that need homes. There are adoption fairs at our local Petsmart every weekend -- local rescue groups run them.

A cat's personality matters as much as its appearance. Trust does grow as time passes, but there are limits. It's very hard, maybe even impossible, to train the aloof prince/ss to curl up in your lap as you watch TV.

This is a great sentence: ""The poor little buggers have copped such a hiding," Mr Marsh said. "Oddy is really protective of the chooks, so to her the penguins were only chooks in dinner suits."

To follow up on Fred's cat recommendations, I'd see if you could go to a place with a lot of cats and just sit there and see who comes up to you. That's what I did at the local shelter, and after having lots of cats come and go, for some reason when this black cat walked on top of my chest, curled up, and started to clean herself, I was struck by how much at home she seemed. She had claimed me for her own, and I obliged.

Sorry about your car ita. Could you maybe take the battery to an auto parts store that does free testing? A clicking noise is just very consistent with a battery that can't pump out enough juice to get things going.

Kat, I bet Jilli could identify a maple syrupy scent from BPAL or similar. I think some of the ones she passed along to me (Jilli, the solid perfume in Golden Oak that I have no idea the maker of) kind of have it.

There is some sort of crow battle royale going on in my backyard this morning. Not sure what they're squawking about.

Someone remind me that the house isn't going to tidy itself.

I think my favorite COMM ever was Cindy's, "Well, these cats aren't going to stack themselves..."

Kat, I've used the web site LJ Book to make a pdf of an LJ for archival purposes.

Kat, I've used the web site LJ Book to make a pdf of an LJ for archival purposes.

I was just going to recommend that one.

Anyone know of Mac based decent LJ archiving tools?

I use XJournal. I haven't tried to restore a journal from it, though. The data's just sitting on my harddrive. Somewhere.

Thanks guys for the car suggestions. I'm less panicky than I was yesterday, which is a great improvement. My default is to have it towed to the dealership because that's where I get all my work done (don't really have the know how to choose what's probably a cheaper place to go). Getting the battery to an auto parts place involves cabbing and complication.