So, going through an old PC and all it’s ancient files, I came across a very short .avi file of the game KOTOR2. In case you don’t know, I loved that game to death and was completely obsessed with it for a while. The video bit shows Atton, Disciple and my main character all swinging their lightsabers at the same time. Don’t ask me how I managed that, I’m sure it was extensive use of the pause key and at a lot of luck and timing.

Anyway, it amuses me, it’s very short & small (500kb), and I placed in my random-junkyard media gallery here.

These are a couple of pics from when hubby and I went up to San Francisco to spend some time with his sister and brother. Pier 39 has the one area for seals to hang out in, and there were a lot of them that day. The other photo is a random shot of a man and his daughter near a bit of beach, close to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Orb weaver spiders have been taking over our backyard. Yesterday one created their signature oval web between the house and a bush, blocking sideyard access. We left it alone all day, and this morning it was broken and he was gone. Such is the life of a spider.

The photo is actually of another one that’s made its home near our garbage cans. He’s been there a while now. What amuses me is that the spider is actually positioned with it’s head pointed towards the ground…but if you flip the image (which I did), his mandibles etc. look like a face. Arms raised, he’s coming to get you! Hahaha

The other thing I like about the photo is the spinnerets on its behind are very noticeable. Lastly, don’t forget this is a macro crop, they are nowhere near giant sized or anything. ;)

I love cats and always have. So don’t take this the wrong way:

If you live in a city/suburb and have multiple outdoor cats (more than 2 per household) and don’t care that they turn your neighbors yards into stinky, messy litterboxes, I don’t like you.

To be fair, here’s another gripe:

To whomever used 200pounds of small tanbark as decorative yard mulching for this house that we bought, I don’t like you, either.

The front yard has too many dirt areas near the front door and the windows, and the last month I’ve noticed the smell whenever I have the doors/windows open. It stinks and it permeates the house worse than my own cat’s indoor litterbox. I am not happy.

The entire area under front bedroom window was a litterbox, with the tanbark scrunched up in visible little piles of kitty-burying-activity. So I’ve spent some considerable time the past couple weeks trying to turn the front yard into an area that cats will not, generally speaking, want to pee and poop in.

Rocks as a groundcover in one spot. Shoveling most of the befouled tanbark into garbage bags and then more rocks and cheap cement pavers. That will do for a start. But after that, there’s the backyard, with more dirt strips under the back bedroom windows and all around the backyard fencing that need to be dealt with. Perhaps some chicken wire on the ground for those areas, because the backyard would equal at least a few tons of river rocks, and that’s a bit much to deal with. A long and tiring project. I know about the motion-sensor water deterrent thingies, but they might also keep the squirrels away - as well as humans - and while I’m currently really PO’d at neighbor cats, I still love squirrels. Same thing with the ‘get a dog’ ideas. :P

The occasional cat turd/spray is no problem…that’s life in the suburbs. But apparently our yard has become the claimed super-bathroom territory of the (one) neighbor’s 4 or 5 cats, and I’ve had enough. I shouldn’t have to clean up after YOUR pets simply because YOU don’t want to clean litter boxes in your own home and dump your cats outside. And you better believe if I see a cat in the yard, I’m chasing it away with a hose. And maybe a tossed shoe.