Jim has more of the Kitty's story and several adorable (and sad) pictures up at Right Thoughts.

The catÂ’s name is Tagitha. So named because her former owners got her as a baby kitten at a tag sale, ten years ago. And raised her. how she turned out so sweet with these jerks in beyond meÂ…but anyway back to the neck thing. They had a collar on her for years. The same one. She grew. The collar stayed. She grew and gained weight. THEY NEVER LOOSENED THE COLLAR. It had to be cut off it was on so tight. Her fur grew around the damned collar.

Grr. Some people should not be allowed to have pets.

What a (expletive deleted) I can't even say the words that come to my mind. What kind of sick fucks do this? This must be the nicest cat ever, since she's a Siamese and was mistreated so badly and she still likes to snuggle.

Anyway, if you're within driving distance to New Haven, CT and would like a friendly, snuggly female older cat with all her shots, spayed, and with a clean bill of health, email Jim.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 04:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is a simple, yummy curry that you can make with just ingredients that most of us keep in the kitchen. A flavorful, healthful change of pace. As written, it's mild enough that most kids will eat it. Of course you can use margarine, lo-fat or skim milk, and lo-fat, lo-salt chicken broth to make this better for you! This recipe increases and decreases easily. More variations found below the directions. Originally found here.

3 tablespoons butter
2 small onion, chopped
2 apples - peeled, cored and
finely chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon curry powder
8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup hot chicken broth
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2 Saute apple and onion in butter or margarine until
tender. Add curry powder and saute 1 minute more. Add flour
and continue to cook 1 minute longer. Add stock or broth
and milk; stir well.
3 Salt and pepper chicken breasts to taste and lay in a
single layer in a 9x13 inch (or larger) baking dish. Pour
sauce mixture over chicken breasts and bake in preheated
oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until chicken is done.

Serves 4-8 depending on the size of the chicken pieces and who you're feeding. Serve over basmati rice or bulgur (my favorite) or with naan bread (yum!)

Other variations: Use half and half, coconut milk, or yogurt instead of milk, depending on your taste and what's in your pantry. Also, if you're a heavy curry fan, you'll probably want to add more and/or some garam masala to your taste. Also good over turkey breast or pork tenderloin.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 03:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 287 words, total size 2 kb.

So as you are well aware, the primary laptop (because it was running XP, this POS is running 98 and I'm afraid to upgrade....it runs pretty well) crashed and burned. So I have been catching up on making this little one as user friendly as the other was. First I upgraded Sage and added as many feeds as I could remember. Today was Firefox plugin day. I upgraded to the newest version of FF and then I added the Gmail delete button (YAY!!!), ForecastFox, FoxyTunes, FlashGot, IE Viewer, Translate, and my personal new favorite, ReminderFox, which is a handy lite calendar/to do list that pops up at the bottom of the screen. I hate outlook and all other full calendar programs, and I forget to use them. This one highlights at the bottom of the window when you have a current reminder, and you can just mouse over to see what you needed to remember. All in one window. Excellent.

Now I need to go get Gmail notifier since GoogleTalk doesn't run on Win 98...

Love me some Firefox. What are your favorite extensions and plugins?

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:35 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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JimK over at Right Thoughts needs your help finding a home for a beautiful kitty in the New Haven, CT area.

I don't usually do this, but her story is pretty compelling. She definitely used up one of her 9 lives, but not in the way you might think.

Jim says:

HereÂ’s her story: SheÂ’s a ten year-old very healthy, VERY friendly Siamese, sheÂ’s mostly dark chocolate with darker points and pale blue eyesÂ…sheÂ’s fat and happy. Her previous owner brought her to my vet to be euthanized. Why? Because the new poodles the woman got donÂ’t like her. SheÂ’s had the cat for ten years. TEN YEARS. And she wanted this perfectly healthy animal put down because she didnÂ’t want to be bothered having to keep them separate all the time.

My vet said no way. TheyÂ’re keeping her and looking for a home. If I didnÂ’t already have five cats, sheÂ’d be with me now. SheÂ’s so sweet I canÂ’t stand it. Just a big fluffy sweetheart of a cat. And sheÂ’s beautiful in person, my crappy phone pic did not do her justice. SheÂ’s had all her bloodwork done, shots, sheÂ’s fixedÂ…sheÂ’s as ready to go as any cat could be.

If you are within driving distance of New Haven, CT and youÂ’d like to meet herÂ…let me know via email, stark23x at gmail dot com and IÂ’ll get you the contact info.

Can you imagine the gall of that woman? Just because she doesn't want the cat anymore, she thinks she can throw it away like an old toy. Folks, owning a pet means that you are responsible for them for their whole life, or at least until you can find them a more suitable owner, it doesn't give you the right to end their lives on a whim. Would you do that to your kids? Thank goodness for people like Jim and his vet, who aren't willing to let a selfish woman have her way.

(h/t Lair, whose kitties are getting extra treats tonight)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 355 words, total size 2 kb.

1 People really piss me off. I would absolutely help out, only the kitty would face a 6 month quarantine to come over here. In the meantime, I'm going to ignore karma and think bad things about the poodle owner.

Posted by: Helen at September 29, 2005 11:43 PM (Fpvv4)

2 I believe it. A coworker begged me to take in his neighbours dog, Maggie. The woman had had her for eight years, and she was 'just tired of her'. Co worker had been keeping an eye on the dog becasue the woman would leave for the weekend, just leave her outside with no food, and not enough water. So Jim would feed her and keep her company. So I caved. She was an Old English Sheepdog, and once we had her we spent a small fortune on vet bills due to a variety of conditions caused mostly by neglect. We called her our Lemon Dog We had her five years until a spine ailment forced us to have her put to sleep. She was a wonderful, loving dog despite her treatment. Whenever we'd drive anywhere near where she was from, she'd literally make herself sick. I think she was afraid we were taking her back.

Posted by: Ith at September 30, 2005 12:17 PM (LCvAk)

3 Forgot a bit in my novel She was tired of her and was taking her to the pound. At her age and with her health issues, she would have been put down.

Posted by: Ith at September 30, 2005 12:21 PM (LCvAk)

4 That is SUCH A CUTE KITTY. *sniffle* I'm too far away or she'd be fighting for lap space (which is getting smaller and smaller) with my Purrl Girl. I think some OWNERS should be euthanized.

Posted by: Margi at October 02, 2005 11:48 AM (nwEQH)

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John Roberts was confirmed today as the nation's youngest Chief Justice in 200 years by a vote of 78-22.

Now we move on to the next nominee.... This ought to be interesting...

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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as of 11:15 am:

1700 acres burned
1 home destroyed
1 commercial building destroyed (Rocketdyne)
1 injury (concussion from falling rock)
over 3000 firefighters from LA and Ventura counties, joined by crews from as far away as Tulare and Fresno counties.
Full fleet of fire airships making drops of water and Phoscheck (a fire retardant)
Today's weather: highs to the 100s, low humidity, and low winds from the west. Firefighters expect the onshore flow will help by bringing in moisture.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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To two very special people in the b'sphere, Jay and Deb's very precious and precocious Sadie Rose, who is celebrating her very first birthday, and the lovely Mrs. Smash, who isn't.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been sitting on this until I got confirmation....

My job starts October 16th!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:56 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

1 YAYYYYYY!!!

Posted by: Ith at September 28, 2005 07:20 PM (P/TlQ)

2 AWESOME!!

Posted by: Amanda at September 28, 2005 08:03 PM (4M3PB)

3 Congrats!! I'll celebrate your first day and my birthday on that day.

Posted by: Jim - PRS at September 28, 2005 08:10 PM (BjDAE)

4 yeah!!!!!!

Posted by: Sissy at September 28, 2005 08:10 PM (uXS+O)

5 CONGRATULATIONS!

Posted by: Margi at September 28, 2005 11:36 PM (nwEQH)

6 Hooray for you!! Well done!

Posted by: Amanda at September 28, 2005 11:55 PM (cqrWD)

7 Hooray!!! Congrats CTG!!!

Posted by: Marie at September 29, 2005 05:31 AM (410kz)

8 Congratulations! The first round is on you!

Posted by: Contagion at September 29, 2005 05:48 AM (Q5WxB)

9 Woohoo!! Congratulations!!!

Posted by: Paul Burgess at September 29, 2005 05:49 AM (7EVyU)

10 Excellent news, Congrats!

Posted by: Bill at September 29, 2005 06:23 AM (X6vFd)

11 Dancing Dancing Dancing... Yipeee!

Posted by: vw bug at September 30, 2005 02:49 PM (J3xJ9)

12 Congrats!

Posted by: Pam at October 01, 2005 07:01 PM (VYF5e)

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here's how pathetic I am: Since the other laptop died, I have been without a complete feedlist in my Sage RSS reader, so I took 2 hours this afternoon to go through and attempt to reconstruct the list from my blogroll and others (thanks Ith, Jay and Deb) since I have some blogs on my reading list that hadn't made it into my blogroll yet.

If I drop by your blog frequently, and you don't see me in the next few days, remind me to add you to the feed reader again

Posted by: caltechgirl at 04:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

You are HOBBES! My personal favorite. You like to
eat, sleep, and live a good life. Me too.


Which CALVIN & HOBBES character YOU?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yay! Hobbes!
(h/t VW)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 53 words, total size 1 kb.

Click on the box to give him treats. Double click to drop them!

(h/t Gir)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:52 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Well it turns out that it's about $30 difference between them doing it and me doing it, and if they do it, it gets recertified as working and all ok and they'll put a 90 day warranty on parts and labor, which is not bad.

So I just took the HD in to get the data migrated (dumb me didn't have a recent backup, although I do have an external drive that I use as a backup drive), and it's going out as soon as Dell ships me the box.

Here's something I learned today: If you use a Visa, MC, or Amex to buy the computer, it frequently gives you double the initial standard warranty via the credit card company. Discover does not (fuckers). So even if you have the cash, purchase your major electronics on credit and pay it off when you get the bill so that you're covered. Of course, check with your credit card company to be sure beforehand.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 171 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Suckass. Yeah, I think a good rule of thumb is to make most mid-sized to large purchases via credit card (Discover doesn't count). The protections far outweigh the potential risks. Now I sit and wait for my own Dell to spontaneously combust or something similiar. From now on, on major purchases, I go to Technorati, enter "(product name)" sucks, and see what comes up. Good luck.

Posted by: Ben at September 27, 2005 05:33 PM (NIpoo)

2 computers suck! Didn't know that about credit card purchases... interesting!

Posted by: Marie at September 28, 2005 05:21 AM (410kz)

3 You might want to check today's Greystone Inn.

Posted by: Doug McKay at September 28, 2005 09:32 AM (KEkhY)

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We did try all of the battery tricks. That was the first thing we tried. My laptop (that I'm using at the moment) pulled the battery/power cord trick last year. The battery is hosed and won't run the computer, and then the power cord got surged during a particularly nasty T-storm. $21 and I was up and running.

This is different. It died while running from wall power. Reseating the battery didn't do it. Running it with the AC power without the battery in didn't do it. Running it off the (full) battery without the AC power in didn't do it.

The really ominous thing is that it never attempted to spin the drive or turn on the fans......

Anyway, Dell support got back to me, and they say that the mother (f'ing) board is toast and that I'll need to replace it.

Other than taking the computer apart, how hard is that to do? Is it something that someone who is relatively ok with popping open the case is going to be ok doing? Or should I call a techie friend? Or should I send to Dell? I've put in cards etc. before, memory and all that, but in a tower, and I know how to take the case apart of the laptop to get to the motherboard, but I'm not sure whether I want to try it myself....

Any advice on that subject would be much appreciated.
Or on whether there's a way to troubleshoot the board and fix just whatever blew up.....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:53 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 1 kb.

ok, so my husband's year old Dell Inspiron 9100 just out of the warranty period laptop just DIED. He was working on some grading and it just went off and then it would not power up. Doesn't power up with either the power cord or the battery (which is full). Ran through the whole diagnostic thing online, and it says "contact Dell support".

Totally not in the mood to pay Dell to talk to them. Anyone have any ideas or know someone else who is reasonably reliable?

Or should I just say fuck it and get a new one and swap out the hard drives? Because clearly the hard drive is good. It won't even get through the self-test at start up to get to the hard drive.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:26 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 132 words, total size 1 kb.

For Jay and Deb, and a little sister for Sadie!

and she's sucking her thumb too.....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 01:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

The Princess and I just want to give some Kudos to Beth Johnston of Beauty Meets the Beast, who is the best dog groomer in Chapel Hill, NC and Carrboro, NC (where the shop is located).

Beth was our groomer for 5 years before we moved, and she never once gave my girl a bad cut or an ouchie. We started with her because she works with our vet, The Animal Hospital of Carrboro (also an EXCELLENT place), but we never had any reason to look elsewhere.

And she has the best customer service in town. I needed to get her notes for the Princess's next haircut, so she gets the right cut, and she called me from Chapel Hill to make sure I got the right instructions for the groomer and to chat and check up on how the Boo is doing.

So if any of you lurkers are in Chapel Hill (or anywhere else in the Triangle) and need a dog groomer, you couldn't do better than Beth. But beware, it's HARD to get an appointment. A sweeter person and a better groomer you just can't find anywhere.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, bookmark this page, because it's the answer to your prayers. Courtesy of fellow MuNuvian Physics Geek, this site has the instructions for how to get to a REAL HUMAN BEING when you call in, from credit companies to airlines.

Kudos to Amazon for directly connecting you to a human every time you call!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There are few things worse than having a cold.

Or if you heard me say that, it would be more like this: There are few thigs wurz thad habbig a code.

Every year when school starts all the new germs go around. Well, Mr. DH got them all and of course, brought them home. He was sick all weekend, and is better today. I woke up at 3:30 am sick, and well, you can guess the rest.

So no brilliance from me today. Instead, I offer you some links worth reading.

First up, this moving letter from George Moneo posting at Babalu about the castro regime, and the US' policy regarding Cuban refugees.

Next, Val at Babalu and Michelle Malkin both point us to this story. I hate Notre Dame football with a passion, but their coach is a good guy.

Patterico finds an interesting LA Times story that the Left would rather stay buried. Turns out whites make up the majority of casualties and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, not blacks and hispanics, as Charlie Rangel would have you believe.

Practigal Marie shares her thoughts on beggars who ARE choosers.

Bill has the lowdown on the 13 most corrupt members of Congress. Not surprisingly the list hits both Houses and members on both sides of the aisle.

VW of One Happy Dog Speaks has more cute pictures of Tater and Tot.

Phin wages the War of Lateral (Barbecue) Aggression.

Jay Tea at Wizbang! brings us an amusing tale of what happens when you commit TMI online.

Lair Simon is up and running (and back to work) after Rita, and he brings you the newest Foamy the Squirrel cartoon: Tech Support II.

triticale has this week's Carnival of the Recipes.

and finally, last but not least, Two Dogs of Mean Ol' Meany has some thoughts about the difference between Mississippi and Louisiana in terms of response to Katrina.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:45 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 326 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Ugh!!! Hope you feel better soon, CTG! Colds suck!

Posted by: Marie at September 26, 2005 08:47 AM (410kz)

2 Sopa de pollo y un par de aspirinas cada 4 horas.

Posted by: Val Prieto at September 26, 2005 08:49 AM (S5/9T)

3 What Val said. Trust me, it works. Feel better soon!

Posted by: Amanda at September 26, 2005 09:50 AM (ay+rD)

4 Feel better soon. I've always found that bourbon and honey help me feel better when I have a cold.

Posted by: phin at September 26, 2005 10:26 AM (Xvpen)

5 Delayed Get Well Wish. (So, that must mean you are well, now?) I hope

Posted by: mensa B at September 27, 2005 04:15 PM (TOHVc)

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From SarahK:

You are Proverbs.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by: caltechgirl at 07:46 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Formerly "Feisty" Christina is asking for your help. Her mom lives between Lake Charles, LA and Houston, and may be without power for quite a while. Chrissy may need to go get her and needs some specific information about the availability of gas and clearness of roads. If you've been in that area recently, or are in contact with someone who is or has been, please leave Chrissy a comment here.

In the mean time, please keep this family in your prayers and thoughts.

Thanks.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 06:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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