Winged Death
August 24, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
1 comment so far Categories: Izzy, Squirrels, gnash-teeth
Tags: bats, i love my cat, near death
Last night a flying rodent, batamus-flyingaroundamus was discovered fluttering about the dining room. WeeWee was on the table taking the high ground, Izzy poised on the ground to pick up where and when WeeWee would surely fail.
As I entered the melee, WeeWee bolted, the coward. Izzy and I girded our loins for the battle. A skirmish really, which would only last 10 minutes, but felt like an eternity.
Looking about for a method to capture the bastard in, I noticed an empty Tupperware container. The problem with this approach was that the creature flew at high speed in an erratic and unpredictable manner. The container was rather small which meant I would have to be quick and make sure to protect my face. Visions of it flying into my mouth or eating my eyeballs while I screamed had to be pushed down.
It took several attempts including a scary bit when the bat crawled under the china hutch and made angry chirping noises at me. Fortunately Sub-Commander Izzy had no qualms about reaching under there. (She received the medal of valor for this.)
I wanted to take a picture of the fangs, which despite the creature only being about 2
inches long with a 6 inch wing span, had fangs at least a foot long, that were stained with human blood and had bits of flesh stuck to them. (Shudder.) Alas, I only had my iPhone on me and due to safety precautions of me and my men I could only indulge in photography after the beast was contained.
After capturing it in the Tupperware, I very carefully slid a paper plate underneath. Izzy was close at hand to shut down any escape attempts. We then proceeded outside and lifted the lid, as the bat took flight, Izzy managed to get a good smack in to remind the little bastard not to ever come back.
reading frenzy
April 23, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Izzy, Reads
In the last few months I’ve been on a reading kick, reaching out into literature I wouldn’t normally devour. NY Times best sellers and those kinds of books that make you relate to the feeeeelinnngs, wants and desires of characters. Characters that at no point in the story are doing anything with political intrigue, nano tehcnology, super-viruses, secret societies, or variations of the space-time continuum. Lets just come out and say it. I’m reading chick books.
I’ve dabbled before in this area, always something lent to me, nothing I’d pick off a shelf and purchase willingly. Except now, with some suggestions from my friends, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
In fact, I’ve recently finished The Life of Pi. Boy was that a rough start. Slow, uninteresting dialog and only a few religious observations that made me chuckle. The middle of the book got more interesting. It was survival against a superior killing machine, granted not a Kzin, but a tiger nonetheless. This I can relate to. Since as most of you know I often battle Izzy in a fight to the play death. The last third of the novel was exciting, I had trouble putting it down, and with an ending that left me wondering.
In case you’ve stayed up late at night, staring into the blackness, fantasizing about what my book reports were like as a child. Well now you’ve seen one.
This month I think I’ve spent almost $200 on books. A few computer programming, a couple older Frank Herbert sci-fi genre I’ve been looking out for, and a few of these “others”.
Now I have this huge stack of books on my desk and frankly it’s a bit overwhelming. All of them call to be thumbed through and started. I think I should put them away on the bookshelf except for the one I’m actually going to read now. Yes. Yes, that would make things easier.
For my fellow book worms, regardless of genre preference, may I suggest setting up a free account on Shelfari. It’s really a great site from some local Seattlites. Perhaps my favorite feature is the ability to export your library in full to a spreadsheet. Unlike most sites, whether they are social media or not, the information you provide for your accounts/profiles isn’t generally exportable to take with you. In this case, you own your own information and I think that’s worth supporting.
Project LOL Izzy: Purrito Party
March 7, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Izzy, Picture of the Day, Squirrels, TimeWaster
Ugh. I’ve been sick for awhile, I’ve been sleepless and feeling worse. Izzy who’s been avoiding me for the most part during this last week of illness must be trying to cheer me up. She’s been feisty, biting my toes, nuzzling and trying to drink my juice.
So we decided it was time for another purrito party. I think she had even more fun this time.
Izzy doing her Keanu Reeves impersonation.
Izzy all snuggly
Izzy tries to do a little worm type slithering.
She looks upset, but she’s really not.
Izzy doing her, ‘keeping it real’ look.
Project LOL Izzy
February 19, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
7comments Categories: Friends, Izzy, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
I love this Eye-Fi SD card. While I took pictures it automatically uploaded them to my compooter via wifi. So sweet.
Anyways so my friend Pithy (aka The Bitter Bean) sent me this hilarious picture of a Purrito which has been sitting in the back of my brain for a few days.
As I come in from a smoke break, I drop my hoodie on the floor, directly onto my beloved Izzy. Well, it was bound to happen. I ended up unceremoniously stuffing her into the sleeve. The first few seconds before her confusion wore off it was perfect, but I couldn’t hold the camera still from crying and laughing so hard. By the time I was able to regain enough composure, she’d already managed to squirm onto her feet.
Aside from looking pissed, the results are far from being purrito-rific.
Maybe if I fashioned a tiny belt I could get her to look more like a Jawa from Star Wars.
I wanted to try again, but she ran off somewhere.
…a little while later, I came up with this…..
