Jake is so not bothered by most anything. Especially when it comes to the litter box. I have one downstairs in the hall closet and another upstairs in my bathroom. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the bathroom and Jake will come in and do his business without giving it another thought.

Jenny couldn't be more different.

She is bothered by just about everything. Especially when it comes to using the litter box.

I woke up early in the morning, stumbled to the bathroom, turned on the light... and... bedlam.

Jenny was in the litter box and went tearing out of it. Since I was in the doorway, she ran to the shower. I felt bad for disturbing her and got out of the doorway so she could run out. Which she did at top speed. Fortunately, she didn't stay mad at me long. An hour later and she was waking me up to be petted and have her feet held (don't worry, I wash my hands after because I know where those feet have been). But she wouldn't look at me...

Or she was bothered by the light out the window that was keeping her awake. Maybe that.

A couple weeks ago I ran down stairs while Jake was in the Litter-Robot (which is near the bottom the the stairs). Didn't phase him a bit. But afterwards, he did climb up on the cat tree and stare at me, like he was saying "What was that about? I WAS ON THE TOILET!"...

Though he did take the time to cover his waste first. That's something.

I have been ignoring the recycling that I keep in a bag on the back of the front door all week. After work I went to put a soda can in it and a bunch of stuff precariously stacked there fell on the floor. So I figured it must be time to take it out to the bin. On the way back inside, I saw a small fuzzy spider on the door. I was going to relocate him to a shrub, but decided it was the perfect Halloween decoration and left him there.

I have been feeling rough all week, eating mostly saltines and 7-Up. Which is fun for a day or two, but grinds on you eventually. But tonight I felt well enough to have something more substantial.

Sounds like a job for my bomb-ass tater salad!

Which was delicious.

Except my Instant Pot needs to be cleaned.

Not a big deal for the actual pot inside because that just goes into the dishwasher... but the lid is such a pain. Not necessarily the inside, because a brush with soapy water will fix that. It's the outside that's such a pain. So many nooks and crannies...

I swear, I'd rather throw my Instant Pot Duo Crisp in the dumpster and buy a new one than grab a rag and try to get it sparkly clean.

At which point I was like "Wait a minute. This lid is design for moisture, high heat, and pressure. Why CAN'T I put it in the dishwasher?"

So I Googled that shit and, sure enough, if you remve the sealing ring and the pressure relief valve cover!

To think I was this close to throwing out my Instant Pot.

If you don't hear from me after the next time I make my bomb-ass tater salad, it's because the lid got ruined in the dishwasher and exploded... killing me instantly.

Or I forgot to put the sealing ring back in.

I have no idea where the days are going. The weekend passes so quickly it scarcely feels like it existed... then it's back to work where it's an exhausting blur until it's the weekend again. Months feel like weeks. I swear it was just July and here it is October. I can barely remember any of it. At this rate It will be New Years when I wake up tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, there's the here and now.

So there I was... scrolling through Facebook tonight and trying to avoid all the AI slop that is plaguing social media, when I see this...

A little scrolling later and I saw this...

Then I scrolled a little further and saw this, with both cosmic events in the same graphic...

Both of the maps showing that my neck of the woods had good visibility!

Except... it's Fall, which is to say that my odds of having "good visibility" here is not great.

And, sure enough, the night sky was completely obscured.

Oh well. There's always old reruns of Columbo to occupy my Thursday evening.

The stupid. It burns.

"Don't take THAT acetaminophen, take THIS acetaminophen!"

This is what happens when you have morons in charge of everything and morons following them blindly in the most idiotic way possible...

And let's remember how this all started...

Lord. I feel like the entire world is going fucking insane. When did we start listening to people who have no fucking clue what in the hell they're talking about?

Diane Keaton, D'Angelo, and Drew Struzan have passed. All of them a punch to the gut.

But the one that hits the hardest is Struzan. His movie posters are iconic, and I have bought some of them over the years to hang up (including Back to the Future II and Blade Runner: The Final Cut)...

I've also got a couple of his books somewhere that I need to dig out.

Struzan's style is unmistakable, and it's no wonder that so many artists have tried to imitate it over the years. Some of the most famous films ever made were advertised with posters he created, And trying to cash in on that only makes sense.

You will be missed, sir.

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day, everybody!

An episode of Will & Grace popped up while I was working tonight and it guest-starred Bruno Campos, who many people will remember as Quentin Costa on Nip/Tuck, but who most people will know as the voice of Prince Naveen in Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

"I wonder what he's been up to?" I thought. "I don't remember seeing him in anything recently."

A brief internet search revealed that the last thing he did was voice Prince Naveen for the Tiana's Bayou Adventure ride pre-show in 2024. Then I ran by his IMDB page to find out that he stopped acting in 2010, and the only work he's done past that was an occasional job for Disney when they needed Naveen's voice for something.

Turns out the guy quit acting to go to law school and works at a law firm in Washington, D.C.

Turns out that not only is he a native speaker of Portuguese and English, but he also speaks Spanish and Italian. Which might come in handy as a D.C. lawyer, I'd imagine.

Interestingly enough... his Italian also came in handy for playing Prince Naveen. The character is from the fictional country of Maldonia, where the language is based on Italian.

Isn't it great how you can learn random strange facts on a Monday evening?

Instead of going outside in the cool Fall air to get things done in my yard, I'm inside on the couch because my tummy hurty. But I'm not entirely dying, just partly dying... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• A Hero in the Stands! I fell down a hockey rabbit hole while watching Shoresy for the hundredth time today. And came across this story that I hadn't heard before. And it's a good one...

The fact that she was wearing a Tanev jersey already made her a hero to me. I remain gutted that he was traded from Seattle.

   
• dO yoUr OwN ResUrCh! Lord. This. All this...

On a daily basis I wonder how the fuck we ended up in this anti-science bullshit era after science has given us so much.

   
• Twenty? BWAH HA HA HAAAA!

In all honesty, I hope Jared Leto is planning on a Thirty Seconds To Mars followup album to It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day. I loved it, and still listen to Seasons almost every day. One of my favorite songs of all time.

   
• Wood! When your girlfriend, one of the most famous musicians on earth, writes a song about your dick... well, you're going to be asked questions. But when it's your brother doing the asking?

Oh, Trav. Don't ever change.

   
• Scallop Festival! The longer this goes on, the better it gets...

I wouldn't have thought that otters were potty trainable, which is good because I'd probably have looked into that. Now I have my mom's cats, so I guess it's too late.

   
• Academy? Yikes does the new Star Trek series look like crap. And not just because there's a Tilly cameo in it...

If not for the fact that Holly Hunter and Tig Notaro are in it, I'd be taking a huge pass. But they are, so I'm willing to give it a shot for a few episodes and see if it's worth my valuable time.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Spokane's notorious 'South Hill rapist' Kevin Coe released, now living in Auburn. — RELEASED? How the fuck did this happen? I remember very well when his reign of terror was happening. Very well. These were violent, horrific assaults above and beyond an already horrific assault. How is releasing him in any way justice? This is absurd. His health is "bad?" WHAT ABOUT HIS VICTIMS?!? Let him die in prison. He should have never, ever been able to breathe free ever again. "State officials" can fuck right the fuck off. What message is this sending to women who have survived assault? If the person who assaulted you has a health issue, they'll be released? Get fucked. Who are these "state officials?" Why are they officiating ANYTHING if this is what they think is best for our communities? Where is Patty Murray? Where is Maria Cantwell? Any statement at all? This is how you're "protecting women?" It doesn't fucking matter that he's physically unable to assault anybody again. What matters is that women know that the people convicted of preying on them WILL GO AWAY FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES AND THE PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME. But nope. Survivors have to live with his actions for the rest of their lives... but Kevin Coe doesn't. Sounds about right.

   
Now off to an early bedtime in the hopes I'm feeling better tomorrow.

There are many things frustrating about owning cats. But at the top of the list would be giving them a new food to try... having them absolutely love it... then, once you buy a case of it, they no longer want it. Second most frustrating is when they will eat a certain food for three years then all of a sudden decide they don't want it any more. A could go on. Most of my frustration with my cats are food-related.

Recently I ordered some of the #1 cat food as voted by veterinarians... Smalls

It arrived yesterday, so I served it for dinner.

Jake wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. I sprinkled some stinky dried fish flakes on top... he just licked it off and left the Smalls untouched.

Jenny was excited by the smell and started licking it up immediately. Except she couldn't lick it up because the strange grainy, dry texture just got flattened to the bottom of the bowl.

This morning I knew better than to force it on Jake, so I didn't even bother. I gave him something else. To help Jenny be able to get it into her mouth I mixed it with water so she could actually eat it. And eat it she did. I left them to their breakfast and went back to bed to read some emails.

After a bit I came back downstairs to the living room only to find puke all over the coffee table, the floor, on the side of the couch, and splashed on the side of the entertainment center. The color of the vomit made it very clear that Jenny was the culprit (victim?), because watered-down Smalls was everywhere.

Not that I cared about puke everywhere, that's just part of having cats. But I cared very much that poor Jenny had vomited repeatedly (or one long puke in five locations)...

And so... guess I'll be giving their Smalls to the neighbor cats and see if they handle it better.

I could say that I'd really like for the Mariners to take the Series. They're not the Red Sox, but they are my local team.

Except all I really care about is that the Yankee's are eliminated.

Sad? Petty? Pathetic? Yes, yes, and yes. But I do loathe me the Yankees, so I'll cling to that...

Thanks, Jays.

I always have such grand ambitions for dinner.

In the morning.

But by the time I get home from work (especially with the wildfires raging) I am done. There's nothing left in the tank for me to even consider cooking something interesting.

So I rotate through the following list...

• My bomb-ass homemade potato salad
• A frozen El Monterey Bean & Cheese burrito (or three)
• A bowl (or three) of Captain Crunch Peanut Butter cereal
• Eggo waffels
• A peanut butter sandwich
• A cheese & potato chip sandwich
• A package of Premium saltine crackers
• A can of veggetarian chili
• Momofuku noodles
• Garlic bread & pizza sauce

But what was really speaking to me tonight was corn tortillas.

Now, I need to preface what I'm going to say next by telling you that the last time I had corn tortillas, they were handmade by my friend's mother-in-law who is originally from Mexico. They were amazing. The stuff of dreams. It's just masa harina, water, and salt... but somehow tastes... more.

But the tortillas I had tonight?

Store-bought that expired on September 12th (relax, they were refrigerated) that I sprinkled with a little bit of pre-shredded cheddar cheese that expired on September 24th.

Which is to say... not great.

But it was less effort than making a spinach salad, so I'm calling it a win.