[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is curled up on the warmy spot; Major Tom, a big grey tabby, is sitting next to him. Both have their eyes half-closed, and are looking rather sleepy. ]
It’s napping cats pictures season, so here’s some pictures of napping cats.
Loiosh has been ESPECIALLY photogenic lately.
[ Loiosh is curled up at the front corner of the cat bed, tail draped leisurely over the edge, one forepaw with claws dug into the pretty knitted fabric that covers the heating pad. All of his other paws are gathered up against his belly, and his eyes are mostly closed. ]
It’s dark enough in that corner that I need to turn on the light to get decent pictures, even during the day. Loiosh isn’t always thrilled with this.
[ Loiosh is in the same spot, but meatloafed up, with a cranky look on his face. ]
Some days, though, I manage it just fine.
[ Loiosh is sleeping with his chin resting on my hand; his tail is curled up between the camera and his eyes, but his freckled nose is visible. ]
Anyway I’m really glad the boys are, occasionally, willing to share the warmy spot.
[ Both boys are meatloafed. Tom has his eyes open, but doesn’t look very awake. Loiosh has meatloafed his front half almost off of the warmy spot entirely, with his head hanging over the edge. ]
Alas, there’s still more slapfights than snuggles.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a blue bow tie, is tucked under a black folding chair. He’s hunkered down, ears tilted out to the side, looking generally unhappy. ]
Loiosh has had Strong Opinions about the vet office since the time, a bunch of years back, when someone poked a nerve while giving him a shot. I can’t blame him, that HURTS.
I’ve had no luck getting him reconciled to going since then, either. I guess the memory of pain is harder to overcome than the memory of fear. Ahh well; maybe the monthly visits from now on will help.
The January visit did NOT help. He spent a bunch of time at the door, but not with the desire to cause problems on purpose like SOME PEOPLE I COULD MENTION; he just wanted OUT. The blep was simply good luck on my part.
[ Loiosh is standing at the door to the exam room, looking very impatient, except for the part where he’s in the middle of licking his nose and his tongue is all curled. ]
But this visit was worse than most.
Why is that, you ask?
[ Loiosh is laying in the cat stroller, facing the back, ears stuck out to the side. Most of the shot is taken up by his hinder parts. ]
What horrible fate awaited him on this day?
[ A closer view of Loiosh’s head, He’s stubbornly turned his face away from the camera. His ears are angry. ]
He hadda get his EARS CLEANED.
[ Loiosh has finally turned to face the camera, with the most pitiful look on his face. Both ears are still flat but at this angle the damp fur around each one is especially noticeable. This has NOT been a good day. ]
& then the next day when he realized I was gonna KEEP cleaning his ears EVERY DAY?
ANG ER EY (up until he realized how much it was helping & nagged me to do it the couple times I forgot)
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A table, roughly but sturdily built from 2×4 lumber and plywood, sits outside, in front of a number of cardboard boxes and a set of wooden shelves that have fallen over. A gallon jug of water and two boxes of tissues sit on it. There’s a shelf underneath, about a foot up from the ground; it runs the full width of the table, and most of the depth. ]
I’ve been trying to figure out ways to rearrange the house so there’s more space, or at least so the space that exists can be used more efficiently. I keep running into problems, though, mostly because the two folding tables I have to work with are just too wide to fit anywhere. I’ve been stuck in couches spinning in infinity mode for several months now, & it’s been really frustrating.
Until a couple-three days ago, when I realized that I could MAKE MY OWN TABLE THAT WAS THE PRECISE RIGHT SIZE TO FIT.
… please, hold your applause, I know, it’s a true breakthrough.
Anyway it took me about four hours, from measuring the intended space to hauling it (with help from CJ) over to sit across from the front door. I’m pretty pleased with it; rough as it is, it sits flat & square, it’s more than sturdy enough to hold me & Morgyn both (the only reason we couldn’t dance the Horse’s Bransle is there isn’t enough room), it fits PRECISELY in the space I’d measured it for (slightly to my surprise, mind you), & it works REALLY WELL.
It also means that my comfy chair is UPSTAIRS, which means I sit there pretty often to read, which means Loiosh is the happiest cat in the UNIVERSE because the chair puts me at the right angle for cuddles.
Now, to make a zillionty soap!
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Major Tom, a big grey tabby, is flopped on the exam table at the vet. His ears are back but other than that he’s visibly at ease, one forepaw stretched out in front of himself. ]
I was pretty concerned the first time I took Tom to the vet; he’d only been inside for a couple months, & his only car ride up until then had taken him away from everything he knew to an entirely new place.
… as it turns out, he was entirely comfortable with it all. I guess he decided that car rides meant he was going with, & as long as he was with his person, all was well. Even with the poking. He took his turn on the table with complete equanimity, & then, when he was done & it was Hades’ turn, he prowled the exam room, curious & not at all concerned, even pausing to give the vet tech a friendly leg rub.
He was even okay with the visit after that, which is when he got fixed. I was concerned he’d be mad — he had reason to be! — but he was so calm I set aside the cat carrier I’d been talked into bringing, & walked him, leash & all, past every critter in the waiting room & out to the car.
So these days, when we go to the vet & Tom is entirely serene, I’m not surprised. But it’s still pretty cool.
We were sitting in there for a while, so h got bored & decided to explore.
[ Tom’s hinder end, caught midleap from exam table to counter; his forepaws have just touched down, his tail is up and to the left, and yep, his balls ARE furred in black. ]
He wandered the counter, sniffing at various bottles, dislodging some pretty shells someone had left there, & accidentally weighing himself (about 16 pounds, but he was moving pretty quick). Then he decided it was time to show his appreciation for being allowed to come with, which he expressed, as he always does, by kneading while standing up, or, as a former roommate of mine put it, ‘prancing like a Lipizzaner’.
[ Tom’s sitting on the counter, looking nearly straight up. One forepaw is planted; the other is up in the air and curled tight. ]
Then it was exam time, which went quickly, though he did take a few moments to give various vet personnel headbonks.
& then it was time for Loiosh to have blood taken, which they do elsewhere in the office, which means opening the door, which Tom tried to sneak out of.
Not with any sort of thoughts of escape. No, Tom wanted to be able to 1) explore, & also 2) cause problems on purpose.
After about his fifth attempt he was declared ‘naughty’. I distracted him for a while.
[ Tom’s back on the exam table. He’s facing in the general direction of the camera, getting a good chin scritch. His head is a bit blurry. ]
But then it was apparently naptime, cos he hopped back over to the counter & found himself a good spot.
[ He’s flopped on the counter, visibly at his ease. Part of his vast pale belly is showing, his hindpaws are stretched out, and one forepaw is tucked underneath his chest. He’s looking almost, but not quite, directly at the camera. ]
Now Loiosh wasn’t near so dignified about it all, but that’s a tale for next week.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A necklace display, shaped as many of them are with a rounded neck and unrealistically narrow shoulders and waist, and cut out of what’s obviously cheap OSB plywood, sits propped up on a wooden book stand. A purple and white necklace is displayed on it. ]
I admit I spent longer than I really needed to before finally deciding that YES I could just make my own necklace display thing for taking product pictures, instead of buying one. In my defense, it was gonna involve cutting a lot of complex curves, & even with a nice jigsaw & a narrow blade I’m just not GOOD at that. On top of which, the pattern I found was too big to fit on one sheet of paper, which meant that whole process was gonna be a Thing, too.
… look, sometimes it just takes a lot to get started, okay?
In any case, I wound up taking the pics for the first two necklaces I posted earlier this month on the same book stand I’ve been using for pictures of the rest of the jewelry, & it … was very clear that it was NOT designed for that, & it was NOT going to do a good job of it, either. I got some not-too-terrible pictures, but I also got the smitch of executive function I needed to actually, you know, DO THE THING.
Which wasn’t TOO hard. I hadda mess around in Inkscape for a minute to trace the pattern into a lovely vector format & then break it into four sections, then print each one & tape em together, & then I hadda take really quite a few minutes to have at with the jigsaw & get the thing cut out of a handy spare hunk of OSB plywood in a semi-reasonable fashion. & then I stared at it for FAR too long trying to figure out how to build something to hold it up without 1) buying anything, which I was trying to avoid in the first place; 2) having to tear apart any more pallets than I’ve already torn apart, which was already too many; 3) having to do Highly Complex Geometrical Math Calculations; or 3) screaming before realizing that the book stand that’s been doing double duty as a jewelry display item would also do a perfectly good job of, you know, holding up a mediumish slab of plywood.
(I do have most of a plan-like object for making a proper stand now, which is good, cos eventually I’m going to want to use the display board to actually display necklaces in a place where people might like to buy some, & they don’t work well for that if they’re laying flat. But that also means that I’m gonna need to cut more complex round shapes with the jigsaw, cos chances are preeeetty good I’ll want to display more than one necklace at a time, so I’m not thinking about that yet, because of the screaming.)
In the meantime, it works JUST fine, & I’ve taken new pictures of those first couple necklaces, & they all look pretty good. It’ll do.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is laying on a jewelry design board. His head is resting on one paw and his ears are tilted slightly to the side. One forepaw is draped possessively over a necklace made from brown, grey, and turquoise-colored beads. ]
Apparently my HORRIBLE BOY has decided that I’m not allowed to make jewelry. I don’t know what his reasoning is; possibly he just thinks I need a break, which is fair, I DO, but as I’ve explained to him a BUNCH of times, I really enjoy making jewelry, so perhaps he could try interrupting me while I’m doing something a lot less fun? Which, of course, he doesn’t consider a good argument at ALL, because he’s a JERK.
Anyway he spent probably twenty minutes after he jumped up onto the workbench shoving his head into my hands for LOVE, & turning around repeatedly, & hunkering down in various spots, before he actually laid down properly, so I did manage to get that entire necklace strung. But that’s all I was allowed to do — other than take a bunch of pictures, because of COURSE.
[ A closer view of Loiosh in the same spot, focusing on his nose and on the paw that’s denying me the ability to work on things. ]
After a couple minutes, & some annoyed wiggling, he settled down & fell asleep, apparently satisfied that I’d given up. TBH he wasn’t wrong.
[ Loiosh has turned his head to the side so it’s resting on one foreleg, & tucked the other under himself. His ears are relaxed, and his eyes are entirely closed. ]
I did a couple things outside, started the fire, brought Remy in, chatted with Jasper; a half hour, maybe forty minutes went by, & then Loiosh stood up …
… turned himself around and laid back down.
*siiiiiiiiiiiigh*
[ He’s sprawled over even more of the design board now, one hindleg tucked up against his belly, the other stretched out over the edge of the board. His head is resting on a forepaw, which is, in turn, resting on a pair of jewelry pliers. ]
He’s a BIG JERK.
Adorable, though.
[ A closer view of his sweet lil face. ]
I gave up & went upstairs to work on something I was ALLOWED to do.
Bout forty-five minutes later CJ, who’s been itching to make a necklace & decided he was done waiting, sent me this picture:
[ Loiosh is still flopped in the same spot, but he’s picked up his head, and one eye is open. The other is still firmly shut. His ears are perked forward, alert, but he’s definitely glaring at the camera. ]
… what?
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh’s face, skilfully rendered in a digital painting. He’s looking directly at the viewer, one ear tilted slightly back, whiskers on the same side perked forwards. The background is a starfield against a teal, blue and purple nebula; his eyes are starlit blue. ]
A while back a discord friend was bored & asking for suggestions of something to paint, so of course I hauled out a pic of Loiosh. A funny one — remember when I was still taking jewelry pictures outside, & he came over to help? One of the ones where there was a piece of straw on his forehead & I kept giggling about it? Yeah.
& what I got back a couple-three days later was THAT. My HEART, it’s just so beautiful, that’s my BOY. He’s the handsomest, & that’s his beautiful soul shining through.
So very many thanks to Ethemreal, who got bored one day & captured Loiosh’s inner essence in pixel form. Want to see more of its work? (Yes, Ethemreal uses it/its pronouns!) Have a look over here! It does really gorgeous stuff.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, is sitting underneath a metal picnic table, glaring up at the camera. ]
Once I’d separated out the leafpile pictures from the park, what I was left with was … pretty much Loiosh glaring at the camera.
Or looking at it, that’s fairly possible too, but he DOES have his opinions & he’s NOT shy about them, so I’m gonna go with glaring. Anyway that’s funnier.
But … judge for yourself. Look or glare?
[ Loiosh is in the back of the van, sitting next to the open side door. Bright sun is shining on his fur. One ear is tilted just slightly back. He’s looking at the camera. ]
What do you think?
[ He’s sitting on the front passenger seat, facing the driver’s seat. His head’s tilted down a bit but his gaze is still aimed right at the camera. That same ear is tilted just about the same amount. ]
Glare? Look?
[ Loiosh is in the exact same spot, though the camera’s pulled back a bit to show his entire body. He’s sitting up, forepaws neatly collected in front of him, left hindleg stuck just a bit out to the side. His whiskers and ears are both relaxed, and his eyes are closed; he is asleep. ]
To be fair it WAS a lot of walking. I was pretty wiped out too.
Also? Yeah, I giggled at him.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A short bit of concrete wall and a post, sitting on the left side of the entrance to a pedestrian bridge; both have been painted with a star quilt pattern in blue and white, with red highlights. Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and trailing a green leash, is sniffing at the base of the post. ]
I was SO pleased to see this as we wandered the park; municipal art makes me happy, and especially stuff like this, in bright colors, designed by a pair of local artists & painted by local volunteers. Here’s the other side:
[ The wall and pillar on the right side of the bridge is painted with a grid of small quilt squares in blue, white, gold, and red, many with patterns painted on in contrasting colors. ]
It’s cheerful & I love it.
Loiosh, of course, would have a hard time caring less about art, & simply buggered off towards the other side of the bridge.
[ The pedestrian bridge is paved in smooth concrete; the pillars on each side are just visible at the sides of the shot. Loiosh is walking down the left side of the bridge, right up against the metal railing, leash trailing behind him. ]
He went all the way across & then wanted to wander the steep slope down towards the river, which I prevented him from doing, because ONE of us knows not to walk on a possibly-frozen river & it ain’t him.
Then there were leaves.
[ My grey leggings, from about the knee down. They’re slightly covered in fragments of pale brown autumn leaves. ]
Is it art? I mean, probably not, but look, headlines are hard.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green halter, is caught in the middle of turning around in a pile of autumn leaves that’s been blown into the corner of a chain link fence. The leaves are only up to around his belly. They go with his fur very well. It’s a bright beautiful Colorado day, with glorious amounts of sunshine. ]
A week or two back Loiosh had his annual exam, during which it was discovered that one of his kidney values was slightly high. (All of his other numbers are GREAT, which I keep reminding myself of every time I remember he’s FIFTEEN WTF.) Since his current painkiller can have the side effect of causing kidney troubles, it was clearly time to change his arthritis treatment to something else.
‘Something else’ is a monthly shot, which is VASTLY easier than getting liquid meds into his face every three days, if significantly more expensive ($70/month; buy more soap!). It is, also, it turns out, a LOT more effective. He’s feeling SO MUCH better. (He’s being SUCH an asshole.)
… which means I gotta get him out of the house more. I need to get ME out of the house more, so that’s fine, I’ll just take him to the park once a week or so.
He found a leafpile. & then he found the BEST SPOT.
[ Loiosh, seen side-on to the camera, has his ENTIRE FACE shoved into the leaves. His ears are VERY intent. His whiskers are down there somewhere. ]
I don’t know what smelled so awesome, but it was, apparently. AWESOME. I think I took ten or fifteen pictures while he had his face shoved in there.
But then! Wait! What is that he sees?
[ He’s lifted his head and is looking directly forward. His ears are perked, his whiskers intent. ]
It’s a TREE.
[ He’s looking up the trunk of a grey-barked tree that’s pressing its way into a chain link fence. ]
I offered to help him climb, but he turned me down. There were, it seemed, more leaves to sniff.
[ He’s laying down in the leaves, showing off his blue bow tie. He’s looking just to the left of the camera, eyes squinted just slightly shut, ears and whiskers both relaxed. He looks extremely happy. ]
… what?
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is laying on my footstool, his front half draped possessively over Jasper’s box of fancy cereal. One hindleg is draped casually over the edge of the footstool. ]
Occasionally he’s horrible, but I don’t get pictures of that near as often as I do of him on the warmy spot. That’s because of the shrieking. Which I’m doing. When he’s being horrible. Look, he’s fifteen years old & STILL exhausting.
Jasper did get his cereal back, but it took a while.
ANYWAY peaceful sleeping cat, let’s gooooooo
[ Loiosh is absolutely flopped on the warmy spot, which is now on a pillow, underneath a lovely crocheted fabric in purple, blue, teal, and green, perfect mermaidy colors. One forepaw is curled as if he fell asleep while kneading. Both hind legs trail off the pillow. ]
So. Asleep. He didn’t twitch a whisker when I came in for the closeup.
[ A closeup. He’s got the side of his face smushed into the nice soft fabric. His one visible eye is just barely open, but not like he’s waking up, more like he’s so asleep he forgot to entirely close it. ]
I really do need to get another warmy spot — there are frequent slapfights — but that’s waiting til we have the last four solar panels up. In the meantime, sometimes Loiosh winds up on my pillow. Usually within two(2) inches of my face.
[ A pretty close view of Loiosh’s face, clearly taken with the flash on. He looks mostly asleep but his ears are just slightly tilted to the side. ]
I had to lean WAY BACK to even GET that one, & I only managed one shot before he wiggled his face RIGHT ON TOP OF MINE AGAIN. He’s the WORST.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A tall set of shelves with three drawers set into the bottom. The inside has been painted pale lavender, the shelves and drawer fronts are slightly darker, and the outsides have been painted dark purple with repeated simple geometric shapes painted on in lavender. The shelves are mostly occupied by a variety of baskets. ]
Yes, there’s still uncovered insulation in my room (I’m working on THAT this week) BUT having my sweet purple shelves in here? HELL YEAH, they make it look SO MUCH better. Plus storage; what’s not to love?
This was a plain set of pressboard shelves finished in We’re Not Even Trying To Pretend This Is Wood veneer, until I got my hands on it. It is, of course, the same colors I use on display boxes in the booth, the same ones I used on Tyrava a couple years later.
The decor is extra-geeky! I dug around online for images of Corded Ware pottery & saved a bunch of pics until I had enough patterns to go all the way around the edges. What, me, only use one pattern? AHAHAHAHA no, I am extra at all times it is possible to be extra.
… okay, I think this is gonna be one of the few short takes posts with more than one picture, because the patterns aren’t very visible in the wide shot.
[ A close view of the top drawer and the bottom shelf. The border between the drawer and the shelf, and the vertical side border next to it, both have repeating geometric patterns painted on in pale lavender paint. One is parallel zigzags between two parallel straight lines, another is a straight line between two rows of dots, a third is a straight line with short lines of varying length sticking out on either side, and another is diamond shapes between parallel lines, with dots in the middle of each. ]
It needs some touching up — this thing has been moved SEVERAL more times than most furniture these days is built to stand up to — but that’s easy enough. & I just LOVE how it looks, & how it adds color & interest to the room.
(the extra storage space ain’t bad either tbh)
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A view of the corner of my room; one wall is vertical, the other slants in as it goes up, following the roof line. Three pieces of plywood, each painted medium lavender, cover part of the slanted wall. Much of the rest of the photo is taken up by the mess that is my room. ]
Y’ALL IT LOOKS SO GOOD
I can lay in bed & look across the room at A WALL. That is PAINTED A PRETTY COLOR. Instead of plain OSB, or insulation. This is INCREDIBLY pleasing to me.
I mean I’m ALSO all about covering that fecking insulation, DO NOT WANT, I am SO tired of random hunks of it showing up basically everywhere, because the cats have pulled some off or just because of entropy. It’s also blocking a few tiny drafts, which is very good.
But mostly it LOOKS NICE & it’s a very good reminder that even though I’m poor AF I deserve nice things.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A spindly dead plant. Much of it is covered in tiny ice crystals, so small the overall effect is white. A single branchlet, sticking straight up, is more-or-less in focus; the crystals have built up along it such that they look like white flowers. ]
I can’t resist taking pictures of plants covered in ice or icy snow. It’s like cats in the warmy spot, I just gotta stop & take thirty-seven pictures. Every time.
But I mean come ON, even a hunk of beat-up rope looks awesome with snowy ice bits on it!
[ A weathered yellow rope bears more of the ice growths, Many of them are in the same broadly conical flower shape, but some are more cylindrical. ]
I took SO many pictures, trying to get a few that got SOMETHING in focus; my phone camera (no, I still haven’t figured out the DSLR) insists on focusing on the furthest thing in the shot, even if I tell it to focus on the thing in the middle. (Hmm, note to self, check for macro apps for this phone …)
ANYWAY I did manage a few, at least, & I’m pretty pleased with em.
[ A confusion of branches, some in focus, some not; but plenty of the ice flowers are crisp and clear. ]
Not like I won’t get more practice. I really can’t resist this stuff.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A spindly dead plant. Much of it is covered in tiny ice crystals, so small the overall effect is white. A single branchlet, sticking straight up, is more-or-less in focus; the crystals have built up along it such that they look like white flowers. ]
I can’t resist taking pictures of plants covered in ice or icy snow. It’s like cats in the warmy spot, I just gotta stop & take thirty-seven pictures. Every time.
But I mean come ON, even a hunk of beat-up rope looks awesome with snowy ice bits on it!
[ A weathered yellow rope bears more of the ice growths, Many of them are in the same broadly conical flower shape, but some are more cylindrical. ]
I took SO many pictures, trying to get a few that got SOMETHING in focus; my phone camera (no, I still haven’t figured out the DSLR) insists on focusing on the furthest thing in the shot, even if I tell it to focus on the thing in the middle. (Hmm, note to self, check for macro apps for this phone …)
ANYWAY I did manage a few, at least, & I’m pretty pleased with em.
[ A confusion of branches, some in focus, some not; but plenty of the ice flowers are crisp and clear. ]
Not like I won’t get more practice. I really can’t resist this stuff.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
Just told this story on discord & realized that, while I probably told it here at the time, it's been a hot minute, & I really like how I wrote it this time, so here 'tis:
Loiosh, as so often happens as cats age, needed his teeth cleaned. I'd driven the boys two hours each way to Albuquerque to my old vet for their checkups & shots, & I drove back for Loiosh's dental surgery, because anesthesia scares me & they're GOOD. (Future experience with the local vet confirmed that this was a VERY GOOD choice.) This decision, however, involved shoving all three cats in the van & heading to Albuquerque the night before, because Loiosh hadda be there at 8am & that's the ONLY way that was happening. I'd've left the other two home with Inoru, except for the other complication: they were off visiting family. In fact, I was scheduled to pick them up at the airport the next evening, after fetching Loiosh back from the vet.
I picked Loiosh up after his surgery. He was pleasantly drowsy, which was pleasantly simple to deal with. If I'd been able to head home right away ... but that's not how this story goes. I had to wait a couple-three hours for Inoru to arrive at the Sunport. Not a problem; the van has a bed, I have no shame, I napped.
Except that I did NOT, because Loiosh, who, having just got a couple teeth pulled, was on some HEAVY DUTY painkillers, decided that he needed to eat RIGHT NOW DAD. I offered him some kibble, but he couldn't ... remember ... how to eat it? So he just kinda hovered with his face in the bowl & huffed it. Then he'd get frustrated & poke me. DAD. DAD FIX IT. Repeat, ad infinitum, until Inoru arrives.
I pick up Inoru at the Sunport. They shove their suitcase into the van & clamber into front seat. Loiosh, the bastard, passes out on the bed. I drive two hours west. We arrive home, & haul in a variety of things, mostly cats.
With the inevitable result that by the time we were settled back in, Loiosh, having had a LOVELY nap, was FULL. OF. BEANS. Which he expressed by tearing around the house at high velocity. For probably most of an hour, more-or-less continuously. Frequently while burbling.
He spent far more time going sideways than foreward. His aim was variable, his steering inexact. Several times his back half crossed the finish line before his front half. This did not concern him in any manner; nor did the fact that sometimes the finish line was, apparently, on the other side of whatever wall he'd just bounced off of. Major Tom snuck into Inoru's room & hid under the covers with them. Hades retreated to the REALLY high cat bed & fell asleep, albeit with one eye still open, JUST IN CASE.
I eventually dumped an entire can of gooshyfud into a bowl, caught Loiosh, rubbed a bit of it on his nose, & put the bowl right under his face. Hey! That's food! He shoved his face in the bowl with kittenesque vigor & no finesse whatsoever, but did manage to eat at least a plurality, if not a majority, of the contents. Which was, THANK BAST, enough to knock him out for the night.
SOMEONE must've risked emerging from safety that night to finish off the scattered crumbs, but I ain't betting on who. I am, however, DAMNED grateful.
I hope you've enjoyed this little tale (& PLEASE don't tell Loiosh I told y'all), & may all your st0ned cats be LESS EXCITING THAN THAT.
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, sits in a bright yellow toddler swing. It’s not moving. He’s staring straight ahead, off to the left of the shot, ears and whiskers perked forward. ]
Loiosh is seriously the most patient. I couldn’t do this with Tom. Neither Chocolate nor Hades would have put up with it. He usually doesn’t even jump out, though he’s done it once or twice. He just … makes that face.
[ He’s looking down, as if he’s considering jumping out. His ears are just barely tilted out to the side, and his whiskers are tucked downwards. ]
Yep, that face.
I offered to lift him out a couple times, but he just sat there, to all appearances perfectly happy to watch the kids. For ten minutes. I almost sat down to wait for him. But then, welp.
[ He’s looking straight into the camera. Meaningfully. ]
The Look.
Once he deploys The Look, it’s time to go. Specifically, to go walking like halfway around the park, I got tired before he did, APPARENTLY I need to go walkies more often but we did have fun.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A Nikon D S L R sits on my bed, the case behind it. It’s obviously been through some stuff, but it looks like it’s still in good shape. ]
Not even a Giftmas gift — it’s a ‘I’m not using it so what the hell’ gift, from a friend who knows how vital good product pictures are to anyone who sells things online.
Not that I’m using it yet, I still need to get an SD card reader, & then figure out the bells & whistles — there are a LOT of bells & whistles, & the last time I used a camera anywhere NEAR this complicated, they hadn’t invented digital cameras yet.
I’ll get there, though. Thank you, Larisa, you ROCK!
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A Nikon D S L R sits on my bed, the case behind it. It’s obviously been through some stuff, but it looks like it’s still in good shape. ]
Not even a Giftmas gift — it’s a ‘I’m not using it so what the hell’ gift, from a friend who knows how vital good product pictures are to anyone who sells things online.
Not that I’m using it yet, I still need to get an SD card reader, & then figure out the bells & whistles — there are a LOT of bells & whistles, & the last time I used a camera anywhere NEAR this complicated, they hadn’t invented digital cameras yet.
I’ll get there, though. Thank you, Larisa, you ROCK!
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
I was in the middle of leaving a LONG comment on Ysabetwordsmith's post Shoulder Face Fist, musing on the concept of 'a face badly in need of a fist', which felt like the sort of phrase a Mando'ad might want to use ...
... which, of course, led to translation funsies, which I'm just gonna put here:
There's a Mando'a phrase -- Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod? -- which can usefully be translated as "Are you looking for a smack in the face, mate?" & I can totally see something like that being used as a descriptor, too. "He has a face that just needs smacking!"
Hm, which I'd put something like "Kaysh liniba mirshmure'cye" if we're translating "mirshmure'cya" as "smack in the face" BUT literally it translates as "brain kiss", which means both "headbutt" & a gentle, affectionate forehead touch. So it's pretty possible that a headbutt fills much the same place in Mandalorian culture as a backhand does in a lot of Earth cultures. Which is interesting to me, since it's also a really common greeting! Just not quite so hard. Usually. There's a lot of warrior culture stuff going on, I guess sometimes the headbutts get vigorous.
(what's this 'I guess', I've fought heavy in the SCA, I've watched hockey players lay on the congratulatory headbutts, this is how it goes)
For an actual "smack in the face" I'd probably go with "troan'nyn", or something like that, troan being face, but here's another fascinating thing about Mando'a culture: troan is both your literal face, & also the mask you wear, or the visor of your helmet. So one might say in English that you never get to see Boba Fett's face in the original trilogy, but it's harder to say in Mando'a; you might say that you never see his "agol troan", "flesh face", but I don't know NEAR enough to know if that'd be appropriate. "Meat suit" is certainly a phrase people use in English, but it's neither complementary nor formal correct usage. Then again, Mandalorians tend to have a ... raucous ... sense of humor. So it might be fine! Who knows!
THAT SAID with the equivalency drawn between one's "flesh face" & one's mask or visor, I don't think needing to differentiate like we do in English would be at all necessary, so let us carry on with what we've got. (I will also note here, because I can't find a really good place to put it, that Mando'a tends to be very terse, & in fact skips articles such as 'a' & 'an' altogether.)
So "Kaysh liniba troan'nyn" seems like a reasonable way to say "he/she/they need(s) a smack in the face" (Mando'a pronouns are ungendered, which I find delightful). But "a face badly in need of a fist" ... "troan liniba marev", literally "face needs fist", isn't far off, but how to translate "BADLY needs"?
Mando'a often uses double negatives for emphasis, or so it's claimed in the available written material, though the only place I can find that usage is in the phrase "Nu draar", "not never". Which more-or-less could be translated as "that thing is extremely the fuck not going to happen"' or, well, "really never", I guess we could say. But I'm really not sure how to apply that to the phrase at hand. I wish we had more examples of the double negative in use, but, well, Mando'a is nothing like a complete language.
I will probably poke at this later, but I'm already half an hour late getting dinner ready for the cats, & I don't wanna get et.
(the which I did, & then came back to reread this prior to posting it, & then I got hung up trying to figure the thing out again, which should surprise nobody, & as such:)
As such, I have been reminded of a thing! Which is that the prefix "ori-" or "or-" is pretty much "very". So! "Troan or'liniba marev" is, I think, about as close as we're usefully gonna get to "a face badly in need of a fist".
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