Thursday, May 29, 2014

Well, well, that seemed to have worked

Yesterday, I brought out the "Snuggee" blanket. Ziggy was on the cat tower and immediately stood up.

I put it on the sofa, and in less than 10 seconds she had gone under it, curled up and started snoring.

Last night, neither Ziggy or Trance were sequestered in a closed room.  And there was no fight or dust up between them.

I guess being warm under her favorite "Blankie" is a larger priority for Ziggy. :)

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Ziggy got schooled by Loki... again

Loki has a history of putting up with Ziggy's bad behaviors just so long, before he decides to take her down a peg or two. 

Examples: he was sleeping in a box, and she kept jumping on and off it to annoy him, and he pounced and pinned her down. She kept slapping at his tail, he cornered her behind a door.

This morning, Loki, fed up with Ziggy's attacks on Trance, took matters into his own paws, as he did when she would pester him. He waited until her attention was elsewhere and POUNCED on her. She, of course, screamed as if she was being torn limb from limb.

The big question is this:  will she learn from it?

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Meet Trance, 5 yr old Brown Marble Bengal

Trance came to live with us about 2 weeks ago. There were some dust-ups with Ziggy, resident Queen Bengal (queen as in royalty, not breeding).  Thinks have settled down, although there are still a few growls from Ziggy every once in a while. Keito and Loki could care less.

 

Hanging out on the windowsill.

 

Enjoying some late afternoon sun on the Cat Tower

Trance spent the night out of the bathroom

Seeing as after the entire day, no growling at all. Dirty looks are ok, but no fighting.

Wing said there was a big of growling back and forth last night, but he put a stop to it right away.

This morning, I get up, Ziggy is on the floor,  standing next to the altar table, and Trance is perched on my sewing machine cabinet. They're just staring at each other.

No noise, no growling, just staring. I broke it up by feeding them.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Trance is asserting herself

This morning, instead of waiting inside her cubby cube in the bathroom for one of us to come in, she was pounding on the door demanding to be let out.  I shooed Ziggy away from the door, and let Trance out.

Trance cautiously came out, remembering how Ziggy behaved yesterday, but come out she did.  I immediately started getting the food dishes ready. Keito and Loki were meowing and stopping my shin and ankles.  Ziggy was looking for Trance. I put a stop to that right away.

I also woke Wing  up, as he is going to help with this.  Oh, and this morning (rolling eyes) he said he is going to not interact with Trance too much, as it 'might be making Ziggy jealous and setting her off."  *insert facepalm here* Both Alison and I have been telling him that for the past week, and now it's suddenly his idea?  Oy! Grateful, though, he has at least joined the conversation.  heh

Thursday, May 15, 2014

I just read the most repugnant Repub comment about minimum wage

I was going to link to the page, but I'm not going to give this asshole any net traffic. Minimum wage, had it kept pace with inflation, would and should be about $15 an hour if not more.

Here's my thought. A US Army Sergeant, with 4 years military service makes $30,661.20 in annual salary. That's $14.74 an hour if they ONLY worked as much as a standard 40 hour employee. My opinion: Shut your damned mouth and fix my friggin milkshake!

1: Being in the military, if you are given a clothing allowance, have all health care covered, even have housing. If you live on base, you can even go to a messhall for your meals. And if you live off base, you get a housing allowance.

Actually, after 1 there is no other reason. If any Fast Food Worker didn't have to pay for food, clothing shelter, and medical expenses or need, $30k a year would be fine.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Well, that could have gone a bit better

We let Trance out of "solitary confinement", and it seemed to be going ok.  But I think it was a case of too much open space, not knowing her way around (our bad, we should have shown her where the sand trays were immediately) and it just overloaded her. She 'panic toileted' on an old bag.  All cleaned up, but she was majorly stressed out.

She's back in the bathroom, fresh food and water, her cubby cube (aka her sanctuary).  Tomorrow, when we let her out again,  we will bring her to one room, close the door and let her get accustomed to the area. 

It was just a case of too much too soon.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Woo hoo!

I managed to get the Blu Ray player working! *does happy dance*.  And I didn't have to cave into ' My Computer Mate's' blackmail.

Re-seated some plugs/pins.  And that mofo would have charged me $110 for re-seating what he didn't plug in properly.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Just for giggles

I made a full disc copy of one of my blu ray movies to a hd.  Started up Blu Ray program, and voila, the full disc folder rip plays without a hitch.

so, that just means the idiot from "My Computer Mate" didn't put something together right (you know, the moron that made my computer worse, then had the audacity to blackmail me if I wanted him to fix HIS fuck up, I had to pay him more.) If it was just the drive, I wouldn't have been able to make a full disc copy, or play regular DVDs.

The only problem with ripping the blu-ray to a drive is that they're 43gbs.  Even with a large capacity drive, ripping my blu-rays to the drive is out of the question.  I guess I could just rip the main movie file, HD mp4 or mkv.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Tweaks and adjustments

New monitor set up as primary, as it needs to be.  Managed to get the touch screen working on the proper screen (it was active on the NON touch screen). 

The fun part is getting the desktop icons to stay put on the secondary monitor (done) and then the tedious opening of programs, they open on primary, shifting them to the secondary, closing them, then re-opening them to make sure the setting has 'stuck'.

There are a few programs that seem to not want to 'conform'.  I will beat it into submission.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

New External HDMI monitor arrived

And it turns out that the idiot from "My Computer Mate" did something to that prevents Blu-Ray discs from playing.  (and before anyone trying to be 'helpful', don't. Been there, done it, over and over, no joy).   The drives read the discs, info all there, but when I hit play, nothing. I can play DVDs without a problem, but not blu-ray discs.  All I can think of is I need to hook it up via the DVI-I rather than HDMI, and that would entail cracking open the back of the computer again.

Easier solution for me is to rip videos from the blu-ray discs and play them.

Having the larger monitor.. well, my eyes are already thanking me for it.

So, what I will do is just use this computer until it caks it, and then do hat Alan did. have one built to order instead. Give said person a full system back up, and even though it will have fits for a while for not having the correct drivers, that is easily remedied. Just let it auto update them all.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Why does doing the right thing feel so terrible?

This morning, we took Yin, almost 19 yrs old, to the vet for her final sleep.  We had tried some pain medication and other things to improve her quality of life, but it wasn't working.  We knew this was the final trip, as Yin, who was quite vocal the last time, didn't utter a single sound. The vet was shocked to see how much more weight Yin lost after just one week. "There's almost nothing left of her." Out of <a href="http://Aikidomayland.livejournal.com/"><b>Wing</b></a>  and his mothers' hearing, the vet said Yin had days, if not just hours left, but would be in extreme discomfort and pain. Yin was ready, she was tired, it was time.

Vet took her to the back room to put in the injection cuff, and brought her back to us.  I didn't want to leave her wrapped up in a towel, on a table for her last moments.  I gently picked her up, and cuddled her close yet gently as to not cause any pain. I spoke gently in her ear, Wing and his mother said goodbye.   The vet inserted the first injection via the cuff, and she fell asleep. 2nd injection, and I could feel her breathing and heart beat slowing.  I whispered in her ear "good journey". 3rd injection, and Yin let out a shuddering sigh, all the tension in her body went away, and I felt when she left us.  I told then vet "I think she's gone now."  Vet checked, and I was right.


Yin has crossed "The Rainbow Bridge"