Three till Seven

This cracks me up: inhabitants of the island Lesbos are annoyed that gay women everywhere call themselves lesbians, since all people on Lesbos are the real Lesbians. They had it first, and they’re trying to take it back! I knew the etymology of the word ‘lesbian’, but I never really thought about what happened to that little Grecian island. Apparently, it’s still very much populated today. So, if lesbians aren’t Lesbians but are, in fact, merely gay women, what should they call themselves? My vote is for something related to Sappho, since she was the poet from Lesbos that wrote about loving other women in the first place. Sapphoens, sapphians, etc. As far as I know, there isn’t some island called Sappho or Sapphos, so hopefully no poor non-gay island inhabitant somewhere will get upset.

Brent informed me at lunch today that Nine Inch Nails is giving away a new album entirely free (and legal) on their web site; it’s called The Slip. I’m about to download it now, and am so excited because I loved Year Zero. I thought it was a much better album than With Teeth, and even its remix album is awesome.

Also, my dad took some photos of a turtle that my brother found while mowing their field. It’s a heck of a turtle, as you’ll see if you scroll down to this photo of my mom holding it.

I returned from a visit to my parents’ house two days ago and I bring wonderful news: the “tomcat” that miraculously had kittens brought them out the first night I was home. Mom came in to tell me and Dad that she heard meowing near the attic of the shed where they were kept and, sure enough, when Dad and I came out there were little babies scattered across the ground by the shed, mewing. We rounded them up and put them in a box with some clean rags, but there was still one missing. We heard him mewing from the attic but any time we tried to reach in, he’d hide again. Finally, as we loved on the others, he came out and commenced to yowling because he was stranded on a board propped against the side of the shed. Dad lifted him down and all four kittens were reunited. We left them in the box next to the shed for the mom to do with as she pleased, even though it worried me to leave them.

Next morning, the mama was on the porch and one baby was under the porch, but the others were nowhere in sight. I carried around the one baby, loving on him, and eventually put him with his mother on the porch. I looked around the shed but couldn’t find any of the others, so I worried that they were gone. I went in to watch a movie, trying to distract myself from the idea that all the other babies were gone for good, but Mom came and got me later: the three other kitties were now by the porch! I s’pose the mama led them over in her own time. I went out and rounded up two of them to put with the other on the porch, but the elusive fourth kitten was still gone. Mom and I heard him calling every so often but couldn’t locate him. Mom said our golden retriever, Goldy (I’m so creative), had came ’round and scattered the three on the ground. I doubt she meant any harm; she’s mostly just inquisitive and sniffy with new animals that we take a shine to.

Dad joined the hunt for the fourth kitten later and we eventually determined that he was hiding under the foot of the wooden ramp leading up to the porch. He was so far underneath it that we couldn’t reach back there and grab him, so Dad started to take up one of the ramp’s boards. The drill scared the kitten forward, further out from under the ramp. I suggested he just do something to scare the kitten completely out, and give up the board removal. I had my head buried under the ramp, watching the kitten’s progress, when suddenly green light started flaring along with smoke and hissing. The kitten high-tailed it out from under the ramp, I ran and scooped him up, and that’s when I noticed Dad had lit a firework at the base of the ramp. That’s one way of inspiring a kitten to move…

So, the happy family was reunited amongst some rags on the porch. They’re sheltered behind a large aquarium and some plant shelves so the other animals can’t easily get to them. The rest of my visit home, I would periodically go outside and cuddle a few kittens. They’re incredibly soft, though of course all kittens are, but these are extra soft; even their mother, a fully grown cat, is still downy feeling. They’re all dark gray with lighter stripes. Some are blacker than others, and one has brown spots on him. They each have stripes in the shape of an ‘M’ on the forehead. I took lots of photos but all with my dad’s camera, since I didn’t bring mine home, so I’m waiting on him to send them to me before I can post them online. Don’t worry, though, I’ll post them as soon as I get them. Everyone has to see the fuzzballs!

My dad sent me photos of our new kittens! See all of them in My Pets on Flickr; this is my favorite:

I just bought Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and I’m already tickled I did. Here’s why I love Terry Pratchett^*:

Two shadowy figures, one hunched and squat, the other lean and menacing, both of them Olympic-grade lurkers. If Bruce Springsteen had ever recorded “Born to Lurk,” these two would have been on the album cover. They had been lurking in the fog for an hour now, but they had been pacing themselves and could lurk for the rest of the night if necessary, with still enough sullen menace left for a final burst of lurking around dawn.

I have been pretty surprised by an instance of “wouldn’t of” instead of “wouldn’t have” (page 114) and “could of” earlier on in the book instead of “could have.” Honestly, I wouldn’t expect that from two excellent writers.

* Even though what I’ve read of Neil Gaiman’s is good, too, this quotation is very Pratchett-esque; I just know he was responsible for it.

This past weekend I spent in New York and Ontario, Canada. I was in New York for Kelly and Eric’s wedding and in Canada to see Niagara Falls. Ha, customs frowns when three carloads of people try to get into Canada and not a one of them has a passport, but they let us through nevertheless. You can see photos of the whole trip on my Flickr account.