Where's Kitty?

Where's Kitty?
Originally uploaded by skippytpe.

The author Douglas Adams once said that he absolutely loved deadlines, “I love the wooshing sound they make as the go by.” My return from my all too short holiday vacation (most of which was spent in a Land Without Internet), was greeted with a series of twelve hour work days brought on by just such a deadline. In honor of my being just about fed up with work, however, I’m forcing a break into my morning so that I can write a little:

• This year marked the first time we’ve hosted my in-laws (or any family for that matter) at our house for the holidays. The experience was a good one, though (or perhaps because) we couldn’t talk them into actually staying with us; they insisted on renting a room. They did so ostensibly for privacy, but I began to suspect it’s because one of them has a cat allergy and just didn’t want to say anything. We really don’t get to see enough of them, especially now that they are scattered all over the Southeastern US because of Katrina.
  



• We had to cut our post Christmas trip to Vicksburg short to come back and feed our animals. Our return was fortuitous in one regard, in that we got to meet up with Tim, Liz, and Brooke for a little pre-New Years dinner shindig. I didn’t ask them about their actual New Years plans (and probably should have) but since we had nothing else happening, Amber and I headed back to the Land Without Internet again to stock up on fireworks and make entirely too much noise for that time of night.
  



• One of my ropefish committed suicide two nights ago. We’re not sure exactly why he jumped (though the species is known for it), but sometime between 2 in the afternoon and 8 at night, Flotsam made a break for it. A good friend of mine consoled me with the notion that surely it couldn’t have been that bad being one of my fish and I hope she’s right; I’ve resigned myself to the idea that he was just trying to evolve. His tank-mate (the predictably named Jetsam) spent all of yesterday moping near the back of the tank.
  



• Warning Geekpost: I updated the Memphis OPML while waiting on my computer to do something else in the background the other day. A few notable additions include Friends for our Riverfront and the Playhouse on the Square. There was a good post on the need for RSS over on Gates of Memphis the other day that’s worth checking out if you’re not already a regular reader (and you should be… good stuff that). He also points out that Live From Memphis finally has an RSS feed (though it’s apparently not quite ready for prime time). As a technology, RSS itself may not be particularly whiz-bang-sexy, but I have to sound a small note of solidarity with the Gates on this: Memphis could definitely use more of it.

After work tonight I’m headed back to Mississippi to take care of some stuff. I’m going to try to swing by the Twin show at DLG before I bail, but we’ll have to see how I feel after getting home and loading up the truck.