Cherokee's Thought of the Day

If you stare really hard, sometimes they'll give you a french fry.

If they won't give you a french fry, laser eyes are also helpful.

The Car With No Name

My first car, a 97 VW Golf.  This picture, however, was taken in 2003 right before we traded it in for Murray (a Mini of some renown).

As the title says, this car didn't have a name.  Not sure why, really; it wasn't on purpose.  It just never seemed to have one.  It did shuttle me back and forth to school for four long years, through every type of weather imaginable, and performed admirably in situations where I did something stupid.  Like drive myself home with a 103 fever, or convince myself that if I didn't blink all the way home, I wouldn't fall asleep.  Or when I took the corner leaving our street too quickly and spun all the way around on the ice.  The woman two doors down looked at me pretty strangely when I drove by in different directions within the space of 30 seconds, I tell ya.

It was a good car, with a variety of growing problems.  By the time we decided to get something new it was pretty clear we had to either move on trading it in soon, or drive it until it fell apart (which I suspect it was getting ready to do in the next couple of years - arbitrary things like the muffler were falling off out of the blue).

It was still in good enough shape that the Mini dealership gave us more than their initial estimate for it, which is probably pretty unusual for car dealerships, I think.  I was sad to see it go, but driving Murray home washed a lot of that away.  It's a shame the car and situation that replaced Murray didn't go the same way.  Maybe next time.

(Also, that's the same bag I carry now.  And I still love those shoes, but they're more hole than shoe now.  Sigh.)

(Also also, yes, there was no Sunday post for Sunday.  So we've officially missed one for the year.  I'll keep track.)

A less than great picture

One that I actually took with  my cellphone in 2008 sometime.  This was one of the first polymer clay foods I made - poppyseed bagel with cream cheese.  Mmm.

Random Friday Cute Doggie Picture

From last summer, when I was working on my Tinker Bell wings during a thunderstorm.  This was before Cherokee decided the small bathroom was a good safe place to hide and tried to hide under other available things.  Like me.

Whoops...

I was so tired last night I forgot all about posting this.  What a horrible night.  Anyway... let's cheer up a with a little belated Disney Thursday.



I think this shot was from 2004.  Judging by the angle, I suspect it was taken from the Peoplemover.

I like it.

Did I mention I was really tired?

Going places on Wednesday (slightly on Thursday)

Among the reasons I regret leaving The Biggest City in the Country(TM) for The Poorest Excuse for a Large City On Earth(TM).  T.O. gets cool traveling exhibits that only go to a handful of cities in the world.  Atlanta gets Sinbad on tour.

This was the second exhibit that came through for LotR, for Two Towers.  The first one was at Casa Loma and this was at the planetarium (which is completely dead now, I suppose - sad).  The first one was a little more sedate with displays of props and costumes that you were, sadly, not supposed to take pictures of.  It wasn't as well attended, though, and you could wander around as you liked.  This one was a big, elaborate affair with sets rebuilt and stuff - like the Dead Marshes (complete with bodies under the water).  It still had the props and costumes, but you had to move through in an orderly procession with all the other people.

Still, Atlanta doesn't rate when it comes to things like this, unless you're looking for a Yankee to torch the place.  That they qualify for.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

Persistence is key.  With persistence, you can turn any chew-proof item into a scratched up shell of its former self.  Or, you know, some non-chewing-related activity.  Case in point:





I'm going to add to Cherokee's thought for today by saying persistence is great, but the biting power of a great white shark doesn't hurt, either.

For the record, this is Cherokee's nylabone.  The blurb on the website claims "Made of X-tra tough nylon and designed to stand up to the most POWERFUL CHEWER!"  Hers is in 'wolf' size.

When we dropped her off at dog camp last time we went away, the guy checking her in - who works with dogs all day, every day - looked at her bone and made a face.  "That's not supposed to happen..." was his assessment.

Indeed.

King of Thieves

Many ferrets are 'fetishy', where they'll get abnormally attached to some item and be distressed if someone else handles it.  Some more so than others.  Some about one item in particular and some about a variety of things.  Orson's particular fetish was for my pencil case.  His first order of business when he got into my room was to retrieve said pencil case from my schoolbag and haul it into his hiding spot in the closet.  If I needed something from it, I'd have to go and fish it out with him climbing all over me the whole time trying to pull it back again.  I'm not sure what it was about the pencil case but if you ever want to see an accusatory look from an animal, man, did he ever have a good one.

In any case, his affection for hauling the pencil case around gave him pretty good technique when it came to carrying things bigger than he was.  He'd kind of grab the item in his mouth, tip is head way back and feel his away along the ground in a sort of prance.

He was also fond of raisins and a master of seized opportunity.

Ferrety ambition knows no bounds!

Me, Bob Ross style

I even added a little cabin in there.

Speaking of which

Remember I said we (well, mostly I) liked taking pictures off our balcony?  I present for your viewing enjoyment snow off our balcony.  Probably winter 2004/2005, but maybe earlier.  Actually that looks a bit like Scarlett Rd. at the bottom (see the street lights?) so I suspect this was more like 2002/2003.

Still snow off the balcony, though.

Deluxe apartment in the sky

When we lived up on the 30th floor (like real apartment/condo buildings have, not what they have here), we had quite a view.  You could actually look down from our balcony and windows onto the roof of one of the neighboring buildings - that building in the foreground was about 25 stories tall.  It was good stuff.  I would like to go back there...

Anyway, good view made for good picture opportunities a lot of the time.  Snow, rain and sunsets were particular favorites.  Makes me wish we'd had a more sophisticated camera at the time because these pictures never really did them justice.

Still waiting on this one

This remains on the perpetual list of things I'd like from Walt Disney World.  We took this picture in 2004, I believe, and it was still there last December.  I think the first time I looked at it it was $20,000, but last time I looked, it was up to 25.  Can't wait much longer to get it, obviously.

Going places in the pre-digital camera era

From NCAR (the National Center for Atmospheric Research) in Boulder, CO in December 2003.  I don't have easy access to the scanner at the moment, so today it's a picture of a picture.  The actual facility isn't quite this grainy (nor is the original picture, to be fair to the old camera).

You'd think they'd have a lot of interesting exhibits in the lobby area since they get a lot of visitors, but they really only have this one.  Fortunately it's a pretty interesting exhibit.  The rest of the tour they took us on was pretty dull - lots of 'here are our banks of Crays' and such.  And all of our paunchy scientists in their denim shirts and brightly colored ties.

The facility is up onto the side of the Front Range, though, so going up the stairs out front was an adventure when you consider that Boulder itself is already 5400 feet and we drove up a winding mountain road (covered in ice, no less) to get there.  You never miss oxygen is until there isn't any.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

It requires a significant amount of cuteness to get away with sleeping right beside the stain you  made in the carpet when you tore through the garbage and spread sweet and sour sauce all over the place.

I recommend making it look like you're prancing like a deer if you can.  I find it suitably distracting.  It also helps if you can look like you're smiling.  Of course, I am a professional at this so you may want to get some practice in before you go for the red food coloring stain yourself.

Soon they will let us in for sushi

Dragoncon 2007, waiting for the Benihana to open.

I can't find the camera

So the camera in the laptop will have to do.  This is actually from my birthday, completely with wee pokemon from Jennifer. :)

It was tasty, too.

That is a really big onion ring.  Deliciously Southern.

Taken a greasy spoon on the way back from Savannah in 2009.  This was the place that was still serving "Freedom Fries".

In 2009.

Whoops...

Opened this when I got to work and forgot to do anything with it.

For this random Friday image... I present...



a toucan.  From the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC.  He was a pretty bird, but we had no crackers on us.

Comes with a side of insulin

December 2004, the Kona Cafe, the famed Tonga Toast.

It's basically sugar-encrusted fried sourdough french toast stuffed with bananas (or, in this case, apples because that's what Scott asked for).  When they serve it, they warn you to not put on any syrup until you taste it first.  It's pretty much offensively sweet and rich.  Good for a few bites, though.

Me and my friend. And CJ. ;)

From when we went to Celebration 3 in Indianapolis in 2005.  Poor CJ was still underage at that point, and I was clearly unsympathetic.