Actual new pointless photos

The problem with Dad having a cat named Bob (the tabby that you sometimes see on the blog) is that I sometimes think that Tom here should have been named Jesus. Then the other cat could be Jesus' Brother Bob...

Everybody needs a bit more Arrogant Worms in their lives, I figure.

One thing to note about the picture, by the way. It's hard to see here, but this cat is on a leash and wearing a harness. We used to let our cats roam free during the day when I was a kid, but I'm very much against it now. Free range cats kill millions (no, I'm not exaggerating) of birds, and often have much shorter lives themselves because of fights, illness, and injuries. Check out Cats and Birds for some good reasons to either keep your cat indoors or only let it out tethered and supervised.

On another note, Tom's a handsome dude, isn't he?

I'm going to do a couple of quick scheduled posts after this of a couple of things in the yard (once again, I didn't keep too many of the photos that I took yesterday. Thank Whomever for digital when it comes to bad photography), but here's one to start off with.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what this is and I'm too lazy to find out, but I thought that the speckled pattern was kind of cool. On the photography side, I love the bokeh I get from this lens. Cameraphones just can't do that.

Yet.

I'm sure that they will at some point.

Anyway, scheduled posts and then lunch. Type at you later.

The dawn of a new age

The pointless photo is not exactly picturesque, but then it's also slightly -- just slightly -- not pointless. Not enough to turn the blog orange (old, old joke, so never mind), but there is somewhat of a point to it.

This is my Dad's new modem.

Because of weirdness in his line, he's had to use an external modem since he first got internet service. A while ago an electrical storm fried it (which also managed to screw up his phone service, of course), so he had to call a serviceman in. The guy's reaction? "Wow. That's an old one". Cue forward to just about every phone-related switch and box connected to the line being checked and replaced where necessary, and everything works again. And, as I said, this is the new modem.

Note the antennae. Yep, built-in WiFi.

My Dad has WiFi for the first time, and he's found out that it causes what most of us have known for a while: constantly fiddling with your phone. Now, personally I don't even have internet at home (I don't have a computer, so it would be kind of silly), so I usually save most of my phone-fiddling for when I'm at work, but it's nice that now when I visit here I don't have to burn through my phone data. It's also nice that I can use my tablet for something other than saving things for later (when I can find WiFi). For Dad, though, it's been the revelation of doing his e-mailing and whatever else without having to come downstairs.

Like it says above, the dawn of a new age.

Good thing or bad thing, do you think? I'm of two minds, I suppose. None of us needs to be sitting more than we already are, really, but at the same time it's the way our world operates these days. I think that rather than good or bad I'll just say inevitable, and get back to the phone alert that rang while I was typing this.

After all, I don't have to feel guilty for checking them anymore. Dad's probably doing the same...

Congratulations?

Just a quick post (as usual) in "celebration" of the Turkey Brothers officially making it to Cat Shaming on Instagram.

Yep, Tom sitting on Bob because there wasn't enough room in the laundry basket was post-worthy.

And no wonder...

Pointless cat photo of last month or whenever

Looking out on September? Not at the time I took the picture, no, but I guess you can look at it that way.

Tom, who isn't allowed out unless he's on harness, has apparently decided that he needs to be out ALL THE TIME. Winter will cure that for a while, but I don't think that any of us are in a hurry for that kind of cure.



Anyway, there's a quick post. Bet you thought that I'd forgotten how to do it, right?

Around the yard

And now it's time for this week's leftover pictures. Not too many this time, since I did way more deleting than keeping. Here we go:

Apparently happy begoinas

Sunflower in evening light

Willow herb seed pods

That'll do me. Catch you next time.

Tea!

Considering that I didn't have the right lens on the camera to take a non-close-up shot, this photo didn't turn out too badly, I think.

Anyway, tea. I haven't done a tea post in a while, and I'm sure that you missed it.

Oh, shush.

I can't remember what I have and haven't discussed by now, so give me a bit of a break if there's some doubles here. Also, I recently got in on the summer sale, so including the boxed sets I bought there's nine new teas in my life. Well, not all new, come to think of it. Either way, I'll try to keep the reruns to a minimum.

First, the teas that aren't the most recent ones. In fact, I've had one long enough to have since got a refill.

For whatever reason, the last time I went for yerba maté  (I mean the last time before this most recent last time. Bear with me here) I veered away from my beloved Chocolate Rocket and went Electric Lemonade instead. That's weird for me, because I'm usually dissatisfied with fruity teas (that's right; I'm a spicy gal). This one's not bad at all, though, and I'll admit that my one exception to fruit teas is lemon. It'd be nice to not see "flavouring" in the ingredients list when there are so many things that can brew a lemon flavour, though. That'll be a recurring theme of this post, by the way.

On the same trip (I must have been in a weird headspace that day) I picked up Pistachio Ice Cream and Lemon Pound Cake, both of which were, I think, limited time flavours. Pistachio Ice Cream tasted like pistachio ice cream. Lemon Pound Cake tasted like lemon pound cake. Both, obviously, needed "flavouring" help to taste that way. Neither should have been called a tea. Note to self: no more novelty flavours, Dee. It's not what you're looking for.

Also on that same trip, I tried out Dark Chocolate Delight. That's the one I've since bought more of. 'Nuff said there, I think.

Ok, on to what I've tried so far of the new stuff.

If I can remember, that is.

The maté I went for this time around was Cinnamint. I'm of two minds for this one. On the one hand, it's fine. And on the other hand, it's fine. Not unpleasant, but doesn't exactly blow me away. I'll likely be going back to Chocolate Rocket for my caffeine, or maybe even that Electric Lemonade.

I also picked up a sale pouch of Live Wire Lemon, which contains yaupon rather than maté. Not bad at all, but I see it's on its way out as well. Maybe something to do with its scientific name (look it up...).

This is where it get a little hazy, just because I can't remember what I've tried and what I haven't. Monk's Blend is very pleasant (and no longer listed), The Spice Is Right is sort of have a little tea with your cinnamon, the licorice hit in Chai & Mighty is a bit weird to me but drinkable, and as much as I'm not really an Earl Grey person this morning's Cream of Earl Grey with the added vanilla was nice.

I think that's got it.

There are still more to go, believe it or not. I've sure you're all waiting with baited breath...

Random stuff, aka I have no idea what I'm about to type.

Today's photo: a bad shot of a Goat's Beard seed head that I made "better" by editing the bejeebers out of it. That counts as art, right?

Today's annoyance: not one, but four different media outlets that seem incapable of figuring out the whole its versus it's thing. If it's on twitter, fine (well, not fine. I wish people would learn this stuff in elementary school like they're supposed to). If it's coming from a professional journalist working for a professional media organisation, then not fine.

Today's pointless puzzlement: people have been listing their seven favourite movies and seven favourite television shows on twitter (#7FavMovies and #7FavTVShows). I...don't think I can. Not that I'm ashamed of anything I watch; more like I can't really think of seven favourites in either category. People who know me wouldn't be surprised at the movie part since "I haven't seen it" seems to be a recurrent in my life, but even as far as TV goes it's a puzzle. My TV is on most of the time, true, but it's mainly producing white noise to mask the sounds from neighbouring apartments.

Today's weather: Sunny. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. Wind south 20 km/h. High 29. Humidex 32. UV index 7 or high.

Today's comment on the weather: Fan-effing-tastic. By the time I get back into town my apartment will be a sauna.

And on that happy note I'll end this truly pointless post and do a couple of scheduled ones. It seems to be the only way I can remember to blog at this point.





Actual point that time. See you in virtual tomorrow.