Wait, Gar, your mom's not Hillary Clinton, right? Just checking.

My horoscope says starting last Friday and for the next year, everything should be amazing for me professionally. Which is nice to hear, even though I don't technically believe in horoscopes.

Ah, I'm at the stage of the cold where my throat is on fire. I hate this stage.

I'm a member of the Facebook group of my home county back in Pennsylvania, I like seeing what's going on (and remembering why I left). There's a call for help with setting up an MIA display at the town hospital. "We're still in need of a round white plate made in the USA."

My first thought was "Are we gathering spell components for D&D?" Then I was sad because apparently the cooties from foreign dishware manufacturers will taint a memorial for missing soldiers. And I bet the locals reading that post will nod knowingly about the requirement that the plate be American made and feel a warm glow of patriotism that the table won't have a plate made by Those People.

When I was a kid, there was a man who believed to the depths of his soul that he would die if he ever left the boundaries of the county. Some kids offered him a ride one day, then headed straight for the nearest border. He nearly crashed the car fighting them, which is only reasonable because to his mind they were trying to kill him. But to never leave even the county . . .

I've barely ever left the country. Just an afternoon in Mexico right across from the border, and a week or so basically spent entirely inside the Corel offices in Ottawa.

Not that I'm against leaving the country, I've just lacked the money and opportunity to do so.

Mr. Headlee wasn't afraid of leaving the country, just the county where he was born and grew up in. The southern border of the county was 7 miles away.

Maru's owner is an evil genius.

[link]

Wow! Neither of my cats would come close to trying that.

Maru is a smart persistent kitty!

The dignity of that cat is glorious.