Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

The Dingo Relocation project got off to an excellent start this weekend, thanks to everybody who came out and dug holes, pounded nails, set posts, mixed concrete, etc. Saturday, we had a veritable army of folks: zylch, saffronhare and her three kids, diermuid and his three kids, archway, kaymyth, popefelix and ruisseau, and ysathora and uberreiniger. I spent most of the day managing the care and feeding of the horde. Sunday we had a much smaller crowd: zylch, ysathora and uberreiniger returned, and matchgirl42 came out as well. We got all the post holes dug (with significant assistance from the power auger that saffronhare rented for us), and about half of the posts set. It rained Sunday night and Monday morning, so we weren't able to finish the posts, but it's supposed to dry out the end of this week, so hopefully we'll be able to finish the posts by Saturday. We also finished the reclamation of boards from the old fence, and built a ton of fence panels. zylch came back on Monday to inspect the water level along the post-hole row, and we built a ton more panels, until we ran out of boards. Another supply run in the works, I'm afraid. This project has become much more expensive than I thought it would be.

It's also a lot more involved and difficult than I thought it would be. As it turns out, there's at least one small spring on our property, and the water table at the house is higher than it should be. That means that some of the post-holes are filled with water, and will need a lot more concrete than we'd planned. That also gives some insight as to why there is frequently water in the basement. I think the next outdoor project at our house is going to involve planting some very thirsty plants along the sides of the house, and possibly along the fence line.

As usual, some things got left behind in the construction process. So far, I've got diermuid's sweatshirt (which I'm going to wash), popefelix's hammer, and matchgirl42's bag of tools. Additionally, I think I have half of zylch's worldly possessions, but I know she's coming back to work on it more. :)

We still hope to have the fence completed by 6/14, in time for Dingo Relocation Day, but it might be tough. Any local folks who want to donate a few hours' labor to the benefit of doggies are welcome to drop me a line and set up a time to come out. Also, if anybody's got a truck and is able to help us pick up additional lumber and concrete, that would be good too. :)

I know it's spring because:
- I have a persistent chest cough.
- The dog broke off his line and toured the neighborhood yesterday for the first time since last fall.
- It snowed yesterday, even though it was about 40 degrees out.
- I went clothes shopping the other day and discovered that there will be no full-length pants available for female-bodied people this year, either.
- The seasonal shipment of Peeps in spring colors arrived in the mail from Mom. (Along with two cards - one was from Grandma and Grandpa and contained a sermon. The other was from Mom and Dad and contained an infidelity joke.)
- I think 50 degrees is warm.
- I see people dressed in shorts and t-shirts and people dressed in long coats with scarf and earmuff, on the same day, in the same block.

In other news, since I was ill this weekend, I finished up the second season of Doctor Who. I can probably manage to watch season 3 by the time season 4 is finished... (But I may never catch up to Torchwood.)
Things I have learned from watching Doctor Who:
- Any plan is a good plan if it is communicated enthusiastically enough.
- Evil robots are part of the collective unconscious. Similarly, zombies exist in every civilization worthy of the name.
- If something is part of the problem, it's likely to be part of the solution.
- Nothing, no matter how horrible it seems, is irreversible.
- The quality that makes the human race worthy of protection is primarily a drive to mess with things we don't understand. This is also the quality that makes the human race most in need of protection.
- As a writer, you only get to use any given deus ex machina explanation once. After that, you have to think of a new one.
- The more likely you are to say something is impossible, the more likely it is to exist somewhere.
- If you are a female traveler, you should make an attempt to dress to blend in with the locals anywhere you go. If you are a male traveler, the same outfit works for you everywhere.

Today is brought to you by the Tibetan Mastiff. They're going to be in Westminster for the first time this year! I have no way to watch Westminster, of course. But no matter. I'm still cheering for the Tibetan Mastiff. When I read The Dresden Files, and he talks about Harry's dog Mouse, I always think of these guys. I know Mouse is supposed to be some sort of fictional temple dog, but this is where my brain goes.

Today is also brought to you by Aaron Fotheringham, who is my hero of the day. I was waiting to pick up lunch in the sports bar across the street, and the TV over the bar was showing mid-day ESPN (snooze), when they start talking about this kid. He's 14 years old. He has spina bifida, which prevents him from walking. The video at the other end of the link up there is him at the skate park. He does BMX-style tricks in his wheelchair. Kid can do a backflip in a wheelchair. I don't care who you are, that's pretty damned impressive. He calls this "Extreme Sitting". :)

And now, with all that good stuff out of the way, it's time for my Two Minutes Hate.
We have a new radio station in Kansas City called "The Boulevard". It's not a bad station, particularly. It's allegedly a rock station, but seems to keep to the lighter side of the old rock-n-roll business: Elton John, REM, U2, Jackson Browne, and so on. So the station is not bad, just dull. The advertising, however, is abomination. They run this ad that goes something like "Do you ever wonder why you never hear Peter Gabriel or Van Morrison or U2 on the radio? We do too. Now you can. The Boulevard. Quality rock."

Kids, if you live in Kansas City, you will immediately recognize the problem. If you don't, let me put it this way for you: It's like seeing a commercial on television that asks you, "Do you ever wonder why you don't see Law and Order or CSI on television?". Yeah. Every damned station in Kansas City that isn't country or sports talk pretty much already plays all this stuff all the time. Would it fucking kill someone to get us a radio station that offered something *different* from what we already have? Maybe so. Maybe I'm just spoiled from my brief exposure to XM radio. But seriously, could we get a Fungus 53 over here?

Fractal the Chaos Hound is bound for the V.E.T. this morning. He got in a fight with something that tore the bejeezus out of his ear, and he won't let it heal. It's The Cone for him, I'm afraid.

Also, he snapped his dropline off at the hook the other day, so we had to get him a new one. The new one is rated for dogs over 150 pounds. Fractal probably only weighs about 60 pounds, but he's got another 90 pounds of ideas, so the Giant Doggie line seemed appropriate. Of course, within a day of being on the new line, he's figured out how to detach it at the end which is not attached to him, so maybe he's actually got 100 pounds of ideas, and they don't make a dropline rated for that.

He doesn't go anywhere when he gets off the line anymore. He just sits there in the yard, as if to say "I am a free man, and with my freedom, I choose to stay here." That's probably not good enough for animal control, though. They fail to recognize my dog's innate nobility. Fence plans proceed apace.

In other doggie news, Want Doggie!.

Last night we came to the conclusion that virtually every element on the periodic table would make a good name for a cat. Boron, a russian blue. Strontium, a tabby tom. Ytterbium, a tuxedo cat. Plutonium, a tiny fluffy grey kitten. And so on. So I ask kittenpants about Neodymium. She responds, "Of course! Little black cat. You could call it Neo, and everyone would think you were a Matrix fan, but the truth would be so much dorkier."

In addition, the names of mathematicians and physicists seem to make fine names for dogs. Wronski (dachshund), Mandelbrot (great dane), Lorenz (schnauzer), Feynmann (wire-haired terrier), Gell-Mann (rottweiler), and so on. This string-theory guy, Swimme, he's probably out of the dog-name running, but mostly it seems to work out.

Discuss.

EDIT: We also decided that if we were going to re-name our cat after a chemical element, her name would be Lithium. Which is probably better than Parsnip, which was the last thing we thought we might want to re-name the cat.

FURTHER EDIT: Maybe Lorenz would be a better name for a chihuahua. They're much more sensitive to changes in conditions. (I should stop thinking about this.)

	Here's What Featherynscale Will Get for Christmas!
fred_smith will get you an eggplant ... buy why?.
darkrow will get you Frog Gonads.
adammaker will get you Charles Darwin in a Box.
zylch will get you your very own field of poppies.
awillowweeping will get you a do-it-yourself piercing kit.
'What Will you Get for Christmas?' at QuizGalaxy.com

In the three-dimensional world, The Boss brought me a pirate gift basket today. It's very cute, and contains rum! This is the best job I have ever had. I will not, however, be getting a puppy for Yule, even though Michelle came over last night and told me that there was a litter of Newfoundland pups at Wayside Waifs. Dammit. They are the best doggies ever and I just want to squoosh them and play with them... ahem. Now back to your regularly scheduled featherynscale.

EDIT: Michelle also told us about two shar-pei/coonhound mixes they had at the Grove that got transferred up to Wayside Waifs. She described them as if they were freakish monster dogs. You make the call: Dude and Darleen.

This cracks me up for no good reason at all. More kittay goodness here.

Sometimes not watching television can produce entertaining results. Last night, our ritual planning meeting took a tangent into cursing and the new Battlestar Galactica.

chaosdruid: So, I was watching, and (some character) goes, "Jesus!". He was using it like a swear word. And I was thinking, if they worship the 12 gods of (unintelligible, sounded like 'kobolds'), why do they swear with Jesus?
triadruid: Same reason we do.
agrnmn: They don't ever name all 12, maybe Jesus is one of them.
Me, trying to catch up: Twelve gods of Kobolds?
agrnmn: Cobol.
chaosdruid: C-O-B-O-L.
Me: And their names were IF, WHILE, NEXT, and...
triadruid: They defeated the Eight Gods of FORTRAN back in the day.
chaosdruid: Maybe K-O-B-O-L. Anyway, Apollo is one of the gods. It's like, "The arrows of Apollo are in the temple of Athena", and that sort of thing. And the far station that they go to is Ragnar."
Me: They have an excellent pub, I hear.
triadruid: Yep. Quark's bar has nothing on the pub at Ragnar. You do have to wear a beard in, though.

Following this fest of geekiness, we returned to EHQ to face the terrors of The Puppy. Reportedly, earlier in the day, The Puppy had climbed to the top of the woodpile, barked until he vomited, and then, barked until he vomited *again*. So when we came down to let the dogs out, The Puppy was making a sort of coughing, horking noise. "Did you bark yourself hoarse?", I inquired. But no. The cause of the sound was soon to be revealed, as he coughed up a big hunk of styrofoam. He'd gotten into the trash, and eaten some takeout containers. Not, you know, with takeout in them. Just the containers. Somebody had better come to claim him *soon*.

( Improbable dogs! )
And, Sudden Giant Nostril Gallery!

Spent most of the weekend in a geek-filled daze, jumping from one sci-fi based discussion to the next. Most of this centered around the Goodbye Chaos Cube party and subsequent Revenge of the Sith outing. All of this has been covered by other correspondents in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Still, niveus_tigris' assault on the Jedi kids (who were in full costume outside the theater promoting the film) armed only with his cereal box lightsaber spoons is worth another mention. There were a number of folks who whipped out their camera phones to capture this brilliant escapade, so I imagine that even now, if you google for "Darth Jackass" or "Lightsaber Spoon Guy" you might find footage on the internet. That's our Large Kitty, always keeping things exciting.
( More weekend to follow )