So... they're back! :D

In other news, the little kittens reappeared today!  The kits -- either three or four, we aren't sure yet -- are still blue-eyed.

We both watched them for a while.  :D

They don't walk as much as they wobble.  Fall over easily.  Adorable as all heck.

Apparently I was right, Shadowcat IS the mother.  Skinny as a rake, that poor cat, and she was surprised to see that I saw her kits today.  Well, I was pretty surprised myself.  The little darlings.

Briefly: More kittens!

Our kittens just had kittens.  Or so we think.

(I shall have to call the black kittens kitlings then, to differentiate them from the baby kittens.)

Yesterday our housemate had watered the front yard, and therefore moved the lean-to.  I.e., boxes I'd set up over the winter to help protect the kittens/kitlings if they chose to stay by the house for its warmth.  Last night I noticed that he hadn't put it back, so I went to do that.

I found little black and white kittens, who looked like they were a week old, perhaps less.  They didn't try to run away -- just squirmed, as if trying to nurse.

I set the lean-to back up as best I could, and let them be.

Having several humans make noises around the kittens was not reassuring to the kittens' mother, I'm sure.  Even though I still don't know who the mother is.

"I don't understand..."

~ Authoritarians and being susceptible ~

I'm reading a fascinating article that's somewhat scary.  It's about people who are afraid, who let themselves be ruled by fear.

Fear that the world will change, that the status quo will change, that The Other will triumph.

The article is about the authoritarian desire to feel safe by "destroying" the threat[s] with a strongman leader, or who claims to be, who promises to do drastic things to "solve" the problems.

Even when they are foolish impossible things offered as solutions.

Cats, stairs, and family.

For years, I saw my aunt and Granny most weekends.

Thus I knew from a young age that people were different.  I could see it in my relatives, to start with.  Mom's parents lived together, Dad's parents did not.

My grandmother lived with her descendants instead:  Granny, her daughter, and her daughter's daughters, plus one of her grandsons.  Grandpa Zanoni had had many strokes, so by the time I knew him, he lived in a nursing home.

Dad's sister, who passed away a month ago, lived for much of my life in Granny's house.  At least that was how it appeared to me.  After Granny died [when I was almost sixteen], it became my aunt's house.

We all learn more layers as we grow up, eh?


I shall divert to two weeks ago, on Sunday, when I'd planned to attend the Readercon Skype.  Instead, there was Project Stairs.  My folks came over, we demolished the back steps, then assembled the new steps.

I'd made a list of ideal steps and current steps, and Dad went with the first.  This means we have 2/3 of the previous stairs, since I thought having steps just under the sliding door would be optimal.

Kittens, Cryoburn, death.

I've been rereading Cryoburn lately, my first reread of it.  It is far easier to read this time around.

The first time, I kept being afraid that the next moment, Miles would get the call.  About Aral.

As Allen pointed out to me last night, the way Miles does get the call is foreshadowed in the book that falls -- in the Vorkosigan Saga timeline -- directly before Cryoburn.

{ Warning:  sadness from death follows.  }

Another January death--STOP IT!!!

One of my editors died today (from Making Light and BoingBoing, respectively).

Astronomicon 12

Except I never edited with David Hartwell, at least not directly.  He was unfailing kind to me.  David knew I was part of NYRSF staff and was very enthusiastic about my work there -- so yes, in a way he was "my" editor.

Con season returns!

This month's ConFusion... back in Novi.

Where the cons haven't been for some time -- at the Sheraton, where both Fusion and Penguicon have been before.  I think 2005 was the last time P-con used the Sheraton.

Trying to recall when Fusion was there... 2003?  I know Fusion moved to Troy in '04 or maybe '05.

Yeah, some of us trace the years by where the cons were held.  What cities, what hotels.  8)


Life, the Universe, and ConFusion.  Hee.  Part of me wonders why so many cons switched from the Back to the Future theme of 2015 (hey, Marty!) to the answer is 42.

But I may just let it go.

I know where my towel is -- and that's the important thing.  Right?

Right!