ProfessorTomoe

Loudmouth has retreated to his cubicle—the lowest one on the cubicle tree—while Baker is going hyperactive again. Baker's not trying to involve Loudmouth: he's just jumping and running all over the place. Seems like he had a two coffee cup morning as well.

It's bigger than that ... Check out this article from the Houston Chronicle for some eye-popping statistics about distances in Texas.

Coffee. I'm wishing for more of that SToK stuff, because I keep fading out and back in. This may be a two-cup day. EDIT: yep, it's a two-cup day.

I think my right ear biopsy site is finally scabbing over. Still not fun to lie on.

I'm the one up at 6am today. No cat carnage at the moment. I think Mrs. Prof wore them out late last night, since she was up until almost midnight playing with both of them with the laser. ... and, as I type this, Loudmouth comes skidding into the living room, followed by Baker in full chase. Sigh. Had to intervene and pet Loudmouth on his spot on the smaller tree. It's the end of the first quarter at the moment. Last night, we'd decided to try something else in the hairball food, since they hadn't really eaten the Chicken Soup for the Soul food. I got on Chewy.com and ordered a couple of 3.5 pound bags of Purina Pro Plan Focus. One was Adult Hairball Management Chicken & Rice Formula Dry Cat Food. The other was Adult Indoor Care Salmon & Rice Formula Dry Cat Food, since they seem to like fish formula wet food. Just our luck, I wake up this morning and find that both cats have eaten from the Chicken Soup for the Soul Hairball Formula. Sigh. At least they were only 3.5 pound bags. We may still try them, especially the indoor salmon formula one.

Believe it or not, with all of the flooding in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey, it has not affected North Texas weather one whit. We've had a normal-to-slightly-warmer-than-normal summer. We're also in a mild drought up here, despite the hurricane down south.

Well, those aren't on the wish list, but they do combine to make a smashing song.

Nightly update: the kitty is still meowing at $100. Come on, folks, this is for a person who really deserves what we're saving up for! Any amount appreciated, no matter how small. http://PayPal.me/Leejacksonaudio/

We're supposed to get a similar drop this week, but not as wild. Sunday starts off in the 90s, with the end of the week in the 70s.

Oh, for the more morbid of you, I've got the infamous Gastric Bypasses and Other Disasters blog hosted on Wordpress. I haven't needed to update it in quite a while, but it tells the tale of how I broke my ankles in 2009—complete with pictures!

Good thing to see that the Wordpress-hosted blogs are https-secured by default now. I had to set up Let's Encrypt on my self-hosted Wordpress blog. Fortunately, my host has a script that sets it up automatically.

Those peacock feathers would get stuck between your teeth, I believe.

I called Mrs. Prof. No steam from the ears. She had a few confusing moments trying to find someone to help her get the truck back, but there were no, "Oh, and we found this, too," moments. Must have been tax, because she sounded pleasant enough. Phew!

Hoo boy. Mrs. Prof is going to come home with steam coming out of her ears. My Honda dealership sends me a digital receipt. That receipt doesn't show what services were done, but it does show what the charges were: $1467.10. No idea how much of this is tax. Regardless, I have a picture in my mind of Mrs. Prof arguing with the service manager over repairs that weren't quoted on the sheet when she took it in. It's not a pretty picture.

Loudmouth jumped up onto the castle again today. He got a good brushing from Mrs. Prof and then went back to the master bedroom. I followed him and gave him a brief petting session. Shortly after that, Baker assumed his rightful position as King of the Castle and got his own good brushing. At least there's been no late morning strife, although I'm told that Mrs. Prof had to deal with some around 6:00 a.m. this morning.

If any of you went and read my blog, thank you for taking the time to look at it! Feel free to leave a comment or to use the Contact page if you wish. Much obliged! Do any of the rest of you have blogs? If so, please post links to them here!

An era has passed. I am ingesting Costa Rican Tarrazu coffee with the very last of the SToK caffeine booster shots. I think the original box was 50 or 100, something like that, all shelf-stable. They're all shelf-gone now. BTW, I've gone a bit mad over transparent double-walled insulated glass coffee and tea mugs/cups lately. I've been buying them from the ApexCreations storefront on Amazon. So far I've bought a 16oz coffee mug (tall w/no handle) and a pair of 13.5oz tea cups (standard height, w/handles). They keep giving me coupons for doing reviews. Mrs. Prof is getting pissed off at me, saying we've got too many coffee/tea cups already. My reply is that they're cups that we never use. Also, I've decided that I want to see what I'm drinking, especially with the Lapsang Souchong. She said she doesn't want to see what she's drinking. Stalemate. Oh well. At least I can see my jasmine tea now—nice, golden color. The Lapsang Souchong was a kick to see as well. Too bad I only had two servings of it.

Mrs. Prof says that what I posted above is accurate, so go with it.

Confession time here, too. After reading about the Japanese practice of "mimi-kaki," I found a pack of sterile cotton disposable ear cleaners on J-list. They're like the ones found here: http://www.sa-n-yo.co.jp/en/ippan/eisei/-1001-1.html One end is a regular generic Q-tip and meant for cleaning the outside of the ear. The other end is a small, soft hook (almost a curette) that scrapes away the wax instead of rubbing or compacting it. It's also made of a cotton material, just like the stick part, and is wrapped individually to keep it clean. Here's a picture: You can feel how far you're inserting them, so as long as you don't go too far and as long as you don't have small children or large pets running throughout the house, they could be considered relatively safe. Speaking of ears, my right ear biopsy site is still bleeding. And hurting.

Final score: Richmond 103, GWS Giants 67. Richmond plays Adelaide next week in the AFL Grand Final. Gonna be a great game.

Aussie Rules Football - 2nd Preliminary Final. Seven minutes left. Richmond Tigers lead Greater Western Sydney Giants, 90-61. Richmond hasn't been to the Grand Final since 1983. GWS has only been in existence for 6 years. The winner takes on the Adelaide Crows next week in the Grand Final.

Your vet is being conservative. Here's an excerpt from a post by the ASPCA: Take the ASPCA as a rather reliable source. I've also heard two pounds as a minimum. Let me check when Mrs. Prof wakes up. I'll get back to you with the Garland T-N-R guidelines.

A friend of mine once owned a Ford Probe. Yes, the jokes were made.

I have still officially received $100 for the kitty at the moment. Please, use the https://PayPal.me/Leejacksonaudio/ link to help us!