Guinea Pig? The Family Discussion

Over at the latest Open Thread on Making Light, there's been a fair amount of discussion about having a guinea pig as a pet.  So I thought I'd sound out the household about the idea of having one.

That's right; I asked the cats!:

Me: "Hey, cats, how would you feel about having a guinea pig in the house?"

Sethra (long-haired prima donna): "No. And get rid of all the other cats, too. And feed me tuna. Only tuna."

Aliera (pre-confused shorthair): "Huh? What?" [long gaze into space] "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Bastet (stodgy old overweight black cat): "Would its food be something I'd enjoy stealing?"

Cassie (professional lapcat): "Only one fluffy, adorable, sweet-tempered animal at a time, please."

Tyr (the new 6-month old Siamese): "A smaller fluffy animal that runs around on its own, without batteries? Wow! Great! Yeah! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! GUINEA PIG! GET ME A GUINEA PIG, RIGHT NOW-W-W-W-W-W!!!!"

Me: "That settles it. No guinea pigs."

More Changes

Now that I'm officially unemployed, part of the job-hunting experience is worrying about your personal appearance. I was due for a haircut anyway. But I looked at how far my hairline has receded as I've gotten older, and how thin the hair's getting, and decided "Maybe it's time to go really short."

So:

The last time I had a crewcut like this, I was about eight years old. That's half a century, plus a bit. So I expect people will be fairly surprised. Especially those who know that for most of my life I've worn my hair long and in a DFH ponytail.

posted from Bloggeroid

Living In The Grand Canyon/Copper/Valentine State

The "Copper Chopper", built for the Arizona Centennial.

"Happy Arizona Centennial Day!" is probably not the best thing to say to your wife on Valentine's Day morning.  Just sayin'.

My family moved to Arizona when I was about three years old, around 1955, and -- except for my 3-year stint in the Army -- I've lived here ever since.  So I've seen both the 50-year and now the 100-year anniversary of Arizona's statehood.  It may be simply because I've never known anything better, but I've always thought it's a pretty cool place to live.  (I do admit, though, that sometimes the attitudes and politics of the place lead me to think that -- after "The Valentine State"and "The Grand Canyon State" and "The Copper State" -- a good nickname for the place might be "WhatTheFuckizona".  Evan Mecham?  Really?  Jan Brewer?  Really?)

While I was in the Army, I spent some spare time embroidering the Arizona flag on a denim jacket.  Old-time fans might remember seeing it at some conventions.  I dragged it out of the back of the closet this morning for some photos:

close-up

Some grumpy old guy takes a break
 from chasing kids off the lawn to model the jacket.

The inside.  Back then I didn't know you were supposed to subdivide embroidery skeins
 into smaller, more manageable groups of threads, so the embroidery was done
 with the thread-bundles as they came off the skein. 
Getting that bunch of threads thru a needle was a bitch!

The "Copper Chopper" at the top of the post is something I saw on display during that fill-in shift at Cityscape I did a few months ago, so this is a dandy excuse to post a photo of it.  It was won in a raffle a few days ago by some young woman who's never had or ridden a motorcycle before.  Bikers everywhere are gnashing their bug-spattered teeth in frustration.