There hasn't been an update in Flickr photos lately because we had hit our quota limit for the free account. Apparently, that's how Flickr gets ya: use their awesome site for free all you want, until you actually need it, and then break out the checkbook to go any further. I thought I would wage a battle of will against Flickr, to see who would break first; either I'd shell out the $25 for the paid account, or they'd cave under the weight of knowing there was a bookmark out there on someone's computer, pointing to their upgrade page, that would never be clicked. They won the battle, and in all likelihood when the robots running Web 2.0 turn against their human masters, FlickrBot9000 will see that they win the war.
These pics date as far back as early January. There was the time Baker used my forehead for a springboard in the middle of the night. Right after I took the picture (as evidence in my lawsuit against him), I turned around to see where he was. Out of fear. On the couch, he showed his might and I have since dropped the lawsuit. There some more of Baker and Biscuit both - bookends and cuddle puddles - and some of Biscuit enjoying the sun, which are the last pics of our little guy.
Except!...
We picked Biscuit's ashes up yesterday, and brought him home. We needed some kind of urn, as the branded tin supplied by the cremation service was pretty nondescript. So we moseyed over to our local thrift store and scoped out other people's disregards in hopes of finding something extraordinarily special, for $2.50. As Amber showed me an ornate candy dish that would have been a suitable home for all eternity, my eyes wandered down to an old-timey replica tin for Oreo. I began to speak, to point out it to my gal - "Hey, look, Oreos. Boy, they're delicious." - for no other reason than the tin's face value. But then the copy at the bottom caught my eye:
The entire tin has nothing to do with animals - cats or otherwise - and doesn't hold any particular meaning to either of us. But the damn thing says "Biscuit", on a tin representing a thing we love. It was right next to dog-eared copies of John Grisham novels, worn out leather shoes, and partly damaged Precious Memories. If he had started his own corporation, undoubtedly that would be it's name. So we picked it up for $7, and put Biscuit inside, with a chicken treat and a photo of him and his brother. We will keep him, and in 40 years, when Baker kicks, we will add him to the ashen collective.
And speaking of the future, Blondie and I signed a one year extension on our lease, so we will be staying at the current 123 Awesome Street location until at least June 30, 2009. It came up in discussion this week - Amber and I are trying to plan finances for the immediate future, and needed to sort out our living situation ahead of time - and our awesome landlord, who is awesome, was also keen on our staying put for another year, and at the same rate, which is, frankly, awesome. 123 Awesome Street is an absolutely amazing, perfect place for us, and I consider us extraordinarily lucky to live here. Having said that, and having now signed an extension, I'm sure either the family above with begin breeding Dobermans, or we'll get termites.
The blog will be going dark this week, as we have a trip to Ithaca on Wednesday. I'm sitting on the advisory council for my alma mater, in lieu of my giving money back to the school. For some reason, Dean Bitterman & Co. are under the impression I have some valuable contributions to make to the communications school, other than my typical drunken rants about inept politicians, the Yankees, and Rosie O'Donnell. I'll show them!
Reviews
Books
The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters:
Eric: "I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't get past the first 15 pages or so."
Movies
Sexy Beast: