FRIDAY OPEN THREAD: Let’s Warm This House Up

Welcome to Open Thread! Thank gin it’s Friday!

I don’t even drink gin anymore because back in college I decided gin and tonic was my favorite drink, being the first cocktail that I ever bought legally, and you know how that goes.

If you’re saying, “No Faith, I don’t know how it goes, please stop wasting my time and clarify before I click back over to Crashpad,” it went the same way junior high went when I decided that Butterfinger was my favorite candy in the galaxy — I ate one every day for two months; I bought them with money I made hustling kids at Pogs. God I was a Pog beast. A Pog master. A pastor. No, that’s definitely the wrong word. What was your favorite game as a kid?

By the way, who the hell thought that a vending machine on the playground was a great idea for children? Bring that person out of retirement and give them their dream job and then fire them from it. Anyway, I burned the fuck out on those crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery sumbitches and realized that Bart Simpson was a terrible role model in more ways than one, but mostly for convincing me that Butterfingers were an acceptable form of daily sustenance.

Have you ever ruined your favorite food by having way too much of it? How long did it take to get over it? Longer than it took me to get over eating that stupid Lincoln Log Cabin I made from pretzels in 4th grade that had way too much glue on it? I still can’t eat pretzels unless they’re hidden in chocolate. I’m starting to think I have issues with food.

What I mean to say is now I’m more of a dry white wine person because I get headaches from red wine. Allegedly it’s the nitrates in California reds and I don’t make “gimme that good shit from Spain all day erry day” money.

My point is, I just finished moving and I’m a little delirious. I’m short on sleep and high on life. Life is what the dispensary calls it. I never wanna see or touch another box again for as long as I live. Okay, that’s a lie. We all know that’s a big lie, but the next time I do this I’m definitely paying a small army of muscly humans to do it for me, even if I have to resurrect Pog tournaments to be able to afford it. That’s my career goal at the moment. What’s one piece of winning advice/toolbox item you wish someone would have given you the last time you moved?

I’m very sore. And not in a fun sexy way. More like, if my cat Ninja walks on my chest to get from here to there right now I will die and oh what she acknowledges my pain and is doing it anyway? Okay, I guess I’m dead now. And why is the shortest distance between 2 points always across my body? Why are cats bad at math? Do you have any fur kids? What are their names? How did they come into your life? What are their vices? Do they treat your body like a trampoline to get from point A to point B? Are they so fucking cute that you forgive them every time anyway?

I await your answers and pet pics with bated breath. And by “bated breath” I mean “hands soaking in warm coconut oil to soften these cardboard-induced callouses.”

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Kai

Kai Choyce is a writer, comedian, and cat whisperer.

Kai has written 13 articles for us.

111 Comments

  1. I have no fur kids, but the wife and I wanted to get a kitten. Then we realized we don’t have time for a fur baby at the moment.

    My week… month… I have no idea when the last time I posted was…. anyways. Life is hectic. Things are changing in good ways…maybe so bad ways. My friend and I are fighting a lot now but it’s cool. I’m learning things about myself in the process because she forces me to look inward and stuff. Most of our arguments are about how we don’t talk to each other about how we are really doing and how we shut each other out. My wife got really jealous even though they are friends too. She thinks we talk too much. I cut back talking to my friend and that’s actually when the arguments started. idk. That’s my life in friendship.

    Taking an entrance exam tomorrow. I’ve been studying for it for two weeks now. It’s exhausting and this the last day I can study. At the same time I just want to nap for a few days.

    And I would like to thank @gunna-see-the-light for cheering me up in small but significant ways. You are awesome gurl!!!!

    Happy friday peeps.

  2. Is the coconut oil working? I’m moving next week so I’ll need some remedies…

    I drove 5 hrs to see LP in Atlanta on Tuesday. She was so worth it!

    Tomorrow I’m doing some dramatic stuff with my hair as part of the big-move-fresh-start thing. Bleach and clippers will be involved, so I’m super excited. Then I have to start packing up books and clothes and get ready for my cross-country drive. I’m feeling basically every emotion about all of this – excited, sad, confident, and like I could be sick at any moment. :) I’ll let you all know how it goes!

    • Ahhh, cool! I love LP! Such an amazing voice! And a 10/10 rad chest tattoo.

      Gonna listen to her right now and be wistfully jealous of you. :p

    • It’s kinda magical, not gonna lie.

      Good luck on the move & fresh cut! Where are you moving to?

    • You know you can’t write about an exciting new hairdo on a queer women’s forum without pics, right? That’s just cruel.

  3. I have five animals in my house, there were six until last week when my little baby cat Elsa got run over :-(

    The others are:
    Fluffy, a tuxedo cat and Elsa’s litter mate, who is a lazy little cuddle bum
    Freddy and Audrey, two rabbits who live outside in their little enclosure, digging holes and being adorable
    Sammy, a West highland terrier who is very energetic and enthusiastic about EVERYTHING.
    Mabel, a yellow budgie who thinks she can fly but really, really can’t.

    • R.I.P. Elsa. ?

      XO to the rest of the menagerie. Westies are too cute for their own good!

  4. I can’t pass up an opportunity to share a photo of my furbaby! It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded an image, so hopefully it shows up below. My cat, Callie (short for Callisto) is the best. She is a Highlander and I found her at one of Petsmart’s kitten adoption days. I never planned on getting a cat that day, but when you find the one, you just know :) She’s weird and playful and follows me around like a dog. She loves chewing up cardboard (hence the teeth marks in that box) and mimes a “meow.” She doesn’t let me sleep in on weekends but the cuddles are worth it. She knows the names of her toys and will play fetch. My cupboards all have baby locks because she figured out how to get inside of them and she recently figured out how to open the pocket doors in the bathroom and my closet. I’ve never had a cat like Callie. She’s simply amazing.

    • Also, shameless plug for Callie’s instagram (it was intended to be mine, but when you have an adorable cat, you just can’t help it!) @identitytokens

    • You went to a kitten adoption day and only got one, that’s self restraint! I have to be kept away from such events for fear of returning with a small herd.

      • Believe me, if I ever won the lotto there is a serious chance I would buy a farm and fill it full of cats…

    • Adorable! One of my cats chews on any loud plastic thing that happens to be lying around when she thinks I’ve been sleeping too long.

      • Callie sometimes brings a jingle toy into my room to keep herself occupied and/or wake me up.

      • Thank you! She can be kind of a devil child, but mostly she’s adorable and sweet :) And I love your kittie’s little mustache and bright blue eyes!

  5. Ah I’m so happy it’s Friday! Sunday my girlfriend and I welcomed a new kitty into our home. He’s a tiny gray fluffy firecracker named Wasabi. Now we have two kitty kats, Noodles and Wasabi, and life is good. My body is still fibro flaring which is very ouch BUT tomorrow is my birthday and my mom and gf and brother and I are going to a zoo! Where you can feed animals! Then we’re coming back to eat so much pasta and dairy free cake!! And tonight my gf and I are going to see Kill Bill at a local theater and I’m going to ring in 23 years on this unpredictable funky spinning planet in the arms of my lady getting all the cat cuddles and lovin. Here’s to a good year ❤

  6. I definitely have small beasts that run my home.

    One is a crotchety old lady cat that picks and chooses when she will fully climb into the litter box to pee, and when she will just give up and pee on the pads outside it. And she doesn’t meow so much as she SCREAMS for food, water, love and affection. And she rubs her face so hard against things that it gives her a little brown bruise on her little pink nose, and when she started doing this, I swore she had nose cancer and took her to the vet for $100 for them to tell me that she’s just kinda dumb and rubs too hard. And she also does not, under any circumstances, want to have fun or play.

    The other cat narrates each of his actions with nervous meow-moaning and wants, under every circumstance, to play with the other cat (who actively hates mirth) via cornering her and biting her on the ass while she hisses and spits at him. You know: fun!

    Squirrelly bitey boy also likes to find plastic and chew on it. And sometimes eat it. And sometimes barf it onto the carpet at 4am like a true gentleman. We try to de-plastic our domecile to not give him a chance to do any of this nonsense. But when he isn’t doing that, or jumping at things and missing, or bumping his head into door jambs as he tears through the house yowling his head off, he is putting his whole face into water glasses to get a drink and ruining your water. You’re welcome.

    They are both special star babies in frustrating ways, but also hilarious and snuggly and cute, and I forgive them each and every time they are dicks to me.

  7. I’ve got two fur children! Ruby and Macey. We adopted them both this spring. Ruby (the bigger one) had just had a litter of pups in January and her owners dumped her off at a shelter when they realized she was pregnant :/
    Image credit goes to my partner, the keeper of Ruby’s IG profile :)

    • Uhh… the link magic trick didn’t work. That’s what happens when you’re technologically illiterate. You can check out my fur babies on instagram, though! @rubythefurrypitbull

  8. I’ve sort of burned myself out on candy, or maybe I’m turning into an “everything is too sweet” adult. Either way make it stop.

    I don’t have any fur babies yet but I’m planning to start training a service dog (preferably a greyhound) for my anxiety/PTSD sometime soon, probably when I finish law school, and I’ve been looking at adoptable greyhounds in the Boston area and they’re all SO CUTE and I want ALL OF THEM.

    (Also I finished a cross-stitch project for my friend and it is by far the prettiest daintiest use of the f-bomb I have ever seen.)

    • Can you still eat cheesecake? That would make a candy burnout okay in my book. My favorite Greyhounds are the Italian ones. NSFW cross stitch is the best cross stitch.

      • i’m lactose intolerant so cheesecake, while delicious, is always a game of “will i regret this later” (and the answer is usually “yes”)
        i’m probably going to end up training an Italian greyhound cause they’re smaller and have a lower prey drive (and so are calmer and easier to train)

    • I’m also starting to look at pups as prospects for service dogs and ahhhh I want them all bc they are adorbs and I really miss having a dog in the house. Still hoping to find a LOCAL responsible breeder so I can hopefully see the pups more than once in person to get a good idea of their temperaments bc I’m looking at Chesapeake Bay Retrievers but they can be stubborn and wired and I’m hoping to get a little bit more chill pup than my previous doggo bc she was a goddamn handful and a half as a young dog and would have been a horrendous service dog as a young un (but as a middle aged and old dog she was the chillest dog ever unless she was playing with her rocks).

      I hope your search for a good SD goes well!

  9. I have a parrot but I don’t really feel like talking about it

    I broke my headphone jack at camp and it’s just, like, a lot

    • Does the parrot talk? If he wants to talk about being a parrot he can be your surrogate. Sorry for your hpj loss but it sounds like it died doing what it loved.

    • I’m so sorry about your headphones jack. I get it, truly, I do. I want you to know that I’ve been there and everything was okay. <3

      • I don’t think I was clear

        The headphone part of my phone broke along with the speakers

    • sorry to hear about your phone; that blows.

      i really enjoyed hearing you talk about birds at camp, tho! (i was the one chilling with maggie on the night of the dance)

  10. Found the first fur child while walking home from the farmer’s market in Philadelphia. Scrappy little thing politely followed us home and asked for food. Wise soul picked her mark well.

    A few months later she delivered the second fur child, along with three other kittens. Second fur child is fat and happy and has her own Instagram at @bluecatbam.

    Third fur child was found screaming his head off on the side of the Washington DC beltway. He was such a little baby he could fit in my palm. Now he is all grown up and has adorable fangs that hang out of his mouth. :)

  11. So that was the best mish mash of questions and information I’ve read in awhile, I feel like I just ran through your mind full tilt and gathered up random facts hah.
    I’m moving at the end of June and already I am having anxiety about it. Tools/advice for moving? Write shit on the boxes. You throw in a random thing last minute? WRITE THAT ON THE BOX. I don’t know how many things I replaced because they went into a box that ended up in a closet. Also, purge like a monster before you have to pack. Why do I have 4 pots in all the same size? Why do I have this wine glass with a broken stem? Wait, more like why do I have stemmed wine glasses anymore anyway?
    Cats man, they’re lucky they’re cute. My friend’s sister’s cat had kittens and he was hustling them at everyone, and I flat out said I wouldn’t take one unless he was orange and I named him Simon. I ended up with a tiny orange farm cat named Simon. Now he is a big fat apartment lout named Simon or whatever name I have called him that day (who doesn’t have 1000 names for their cat? It can’t just be me). When he was a year I joined a sports team and was away in the evenings more, so clearly my cat needed a kitten. Emma was listed on the kijiji as a Siamese kitten, she is so not a Siamese kitten. I showed up to this weird whirlwind house where they were moving mid month and they kept trying to get me to take their 2 adult cats and a chihuahua. What madness descended upon them to result in a mass exodus of pets? The ghetto is a weird place, and even after growing up in it I still find it weird.
    Longest post ever.. whoops.

    • Hahah thanks! Glad you enjoyed the trip.

      Another tip: Wrap the nuts/bolts/screws used to put together beds, chairs, etc. in a crapload of packing tape then affix it securely to part of that furniture with another crapload of packing tape.

      I know another orange cat named Simon! He lives in L.A. and is a giant baby.

    • cats with multiple names is such a real thing. my roommate and i adopted a cat this winter that our other roommate named steve, but lately i’ve mostly been calling her little boo, and my roommate has mostly been calling her little potato. haha.

  12. My cat is currently trying to eat the corners off the books on my bed. She likes to eat paper, fine, but books? I am so disappointed in her as my animal-child.

  13. I’m sitting on my couch, summer has hit town and is flooding my living room with evening light while I’m listening to “The English Patient” soundtrack.
    Did I mention how a British Airways plane once did an emergency landing near my old hospital because someone was unwell?
    During shift change that night I put on the theme from the movie while reporting on the patients while my co-worker only shot me weird looks.
    “Get it?” I said, ” The English Patient! We have an English Patient!” he just kept staring blankly at me.
    “I’ve never seen the movie.” is what he said.
    Oh well.

    On another note, I figured some of you might be able to appreciate this street sign someone stealthily tampered with:

    Have a good week and weekend everyone!

  14. i’m currently subletting, waiting to find a place i can actually move into. for the time being, the pets and i are really enjoying the sun that comes into the apartment!

    this is my puppadrup:

    this is my kitteh:

    • Your dog looks very majestic, like they know some secrets to living the good life.
      Your cat looks like they’re judging me and I am found unworthy, and all I want to do is make them believe in me and have them say I did a good job.

      • Ramón does a good job of looking majestic, and an equally good job of looking absolutely pathetic. As a result, every time I look at him my heart swells, even if he did eat my moosehide slippers last night.

        Juana is definitely judging you, probably for the best angle to come at you so she can optimise the petting she gets. It was actually difficult to get a good picture because she kept coming up and floostering my camera.

    • I’m not gonna say you should get paintings commissioned where these two are wearing suits but I am thinking it.

  15. Hey folks! Welcome back Camp-goers! Hope you all had a lovely time.

    So fur buds, I personally have two fur balls. They’re names are Riley and Conner, and they are brothers. Both cats are, my partner and I believe, Maine Coons. In addition to that they’re both fuzzy, gross monsters that should clean themselves more often or at least get jobs. Freeloaders.

    Here’s Riley. He’s a chubby one, but he’s my bud.

    I pick on both cats, but Riley is definitely more tolerant of my whimsical behaviors.

    I think that’s because he likes to wake me up at 5 am for breakfast. Opposed to his brother, Conner, who tends to flee at the first sight of me. This is Conner, my other bud.

    I often find him photosynthesizing. I suspect he’s recharging to deal with me. He’s sort of my wildcat. He likes to play and hunt a lot, but not be touched so much. Fortunately, My partner is very good at making sure he gets the exercise he desires.

    On occasion, they will spend time together like this.

    At which point we take lots of pictures, because they are adorable.

    As for how they entered my life, well, it’s a long complicated story. Without getting into it, let’s just say during a past breakup, I won the war. To the victor goes the spoils?

  16. The furry kid is recovering and doing well, just dealing with fallout from being sick for so long. Poor dear was on bedrest for weeks and is a growing kid, so there’s some behavioral problems now. Still just glad she’s alive.

  17. No pets here, my family had to say goodbye to our 24 year old cat back in September and it’s still a little sad, so no further pets for the time being.

    I have my potatoes though they’re a little furry and I have named them (is this wrong?). They are going great, I think soon they will flower, it’s like a potato jungle out in the garden.

    Tomorrow I’m abseiling down the maternity block of my local hospital, the tallest building in town, to raise money for the hospital charity. Ive never abseiled before and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been trying to decide whether to shamelessly put a link to my just giving page but have decided against it, (I’m super bad at asking for money so sponsorship has not been great).

    I leave you instead with a picture of my potatoes, or maybe a link to a picture of my potatoes or maybe just a link that doesn’t work and you can imagine the potatoes, we’ll see how it goes…

    https://i.imgur.com/BW0VVJy.jpg

    • It’s only wrong if you’re like me & feel guilty eating anything w a name/face.
      (seriously, I struggle eating chocolate bunnies & reindeer & gingerbread men…)

  18. I have three furkids, but I’m not writing their names because they are very unique my mother literally found out I was planning a secret wedding by Googling my dog’s name, clicking some photos and reading all my posts on a dog forum.

    This is also one of the reasons I use expiring photos anywhere I don’t control the content.

    Either way, here they are!

    The dogs came into my life the usual way. Money was exchanged.

    Miss Kitty Fantastico, however, just showed up as a 5-6 week old wet, limping and hungry stray, back in December… which is something I’ve chronicled in the Friday Open Thread.

    She was spayed last week, and just had her stitches removed the other day. She’s a crazy climber (literally climbs the walls to get onto the attic, which is where she likes to sleep) and wasn’t slowed down for even 30 minutes coming home from surgery. We turned the entire kitchen into an obstacle course trying to avoid her pulling her stitches and dragging her belly against the stone walls, but she just tore down the obstacles, so we had to remove them so that she wouldn’t hurt herself on them.

    The other furkids have had a boring week with short very early and very late walks, to avoid the midday sun. The pointer (brown and white) has epilepsy and the heat triggers it, so warm days involve a lot of lounging indoors.

    • Your animals have excellent headshots and should have their own tv show. When Ninja got spayed I had to lock her in the bathroom to sleep because she wasn’t letting stitches slow her down either.

  19. Life kind of sucks, but I can’t help but see the good. I meditate and I finally found an indigenous language program I would like to participate in. I’m going to learn Lakota! I might be bisexual?? And I’m just working on content for zines, decolonization, and plant sex things. Started growing way more crap in my room. Rainbow carrots yall. Rainbow carrots. That’s my life right now.

    • I grew purple carrots in Alaska one time… Who knew? I grew one onetime that was so dark it looked black. I wish someone could grow chocolate carrots…

      • Those are BEAUTIFUL. I have a bowl filled with water and rainbow carrot tops that are regrowing their leaves and rooting. Plants are fun!

  20. I am struggling with feelings this week and would appreciate any good self-care/reflection/contemplation resources y’all have-books, essays, activities, writing prompts, checklists, etc. Thanks! <3

    • I like to plant seeds. I think of the whole process as a ritual. Sometimes I eat an avocado and I like to prepare the pit to be planted. I always feel like the plant pit is talking to me telling me that my problems are valid but not significant in the long run. Sometimes I water my plants or look through seed catalogs because there are only so many new plants I can keep in my house lol.
      Meditation is always nice. I also like indulging in the weird, I turn into Fox Mulder lol “creepy mulder.” I watch/read stories about UFOs and stuff. It’s nostalgic, I like to sit in the dark, read about aliens, and be my true self. That’s the greatest form of self care for me.

  21. I still have my pogs in my room somewhere still. I remember when the local news came to my elementary school to talk about the trend of pogs and if the school considered it a form of gambling(I think they did once the game was getting out of style). I had the stacked in the order of how cool I thought they were. The top ones included a dog doing a kickflip over a trash can, an 8 ball, and shark surfing a big wave. At the bottom I had 3 colorful slammers and coins that my father got me from the casino floor in Las Vegas with the hotel’s name(one of them being Treasure Island) that I used as super slammers. I may have to take a picture and share it here when I get home.

    I’ve never really gotten tired of a food like that. My problem is I don’t know when to hold myself back. Anyone else sat down watching tv and by the end of an episode had a pound of snacks(think legumes or nuts) or a block of cheese and then wished there was more? I know I’ve proudly have. I did for a few years did not eat mushrooms because of some movie I saw while having mushroom pizza. Now I have large grilled mushrooms(with bbq sauce and daiya) for an appetizers at home almost weekly.

    How’s everyones week going? I’m having more tinder/okc blues. Had another person match with me telling me something transphobic/misogynistic and then un-match me. Like was matching with me an error, or did you just want to hurl some negative comments at me? On the positive side, I hung out with a lovely queer person and do have plans to hang out with them more. I just wish there was a way to filter out the negative and find all the trans woman positive and/or people who are accepting of me.

    Last Sunday was Long Beach pride I could not make as I had prior commitments and instead spent the morning having a relaxing time at the beach.Something about the waves hitting me is just relaxing and enjoyable. Speaking of which, any suggestions on lipstick that I can wear in the ocean or pool and it doesn’t easily come off? Maybe something in a mermaid(merqueer) related color.

    Thank you for viewing & reading my post. Have a positive weekend!

  22. I don’t have any pets at the moment, unfortunately the place I live doesn’t allow them. I am moving though, and I feel your pain. One thing that I like is having more than a day or two to move. My last move was really hectic, getting everything moved in a day. This time we’re taking more than a week which is fantastic. So the longer you can have to move the better. Also sharpies.

  23. Things are mostly good. I’m not getting a lot of hours at my job and I can’t figure out if I can buy a transit pass for work next month because it costs about 15% of what I earned this month and I just can’t afford it if they don’t give me enough hours- but if they do I’ll wind up spending even more money on transit. My roommate wants to have a house meeting this weekend and I am hoping it is going to have something to do with the houseguest who’s been here for two months leaving but I am terrified it won’t.

    I’m going to a friend’s book launch today and my partner and I are going to plant our seedlings out this weekend and my cat is the best and the fluffiest.

    Here is a photo I took near my work for another Friday, but didn’t get a chance to post then, of a sign I see every day and find both hilarious and depressing.

    • I don’t know why that’s so funny. Like I really don’t want a banana with water. Maybe banana with cashew milk…

  24. Life is kind of rough right now, but I just adopted a kitten (Princess Leia) after a couple months of quiet enabling from friends and family who’ve been watching my messy break-up soap opera 2k17. She’s 7-weeks-old and a little troublemaker – already tried to leap out a second story window – but also chatty and cuddly and curious. Spent my week acquiring a sleeve of kitten scratches and reading everything by Michelle Tea I can get my hands on. There are 100% worse coping mechanisms, I’m sure.

    • I LOVE Michelle Tea, I’ve never finished any one of her books though UGH. As an English major I don’t feel like reading recreationally lol. I’m like this book is so good *falls asleep*
      I’m sorry about your breakup. Break ups suck.
      I’m so allergic to cats, if I wasn’t I would have like 7. If I had the money I think I would buy a hairless cat.

  25. Hey there, open thread.? Wish camp were a thing I could bottle and swig throughout the withdrawal weeks.

    To whomever the kind soul was who danced with me in my over the top 80’s glory, thank you.

    I danced my butt off y’all and have no regrets even though my feet still hurt from those 4″ heels.

  26. I came back from camp with wicked case of strep and a wicked crush. Lucky for me, I’ve had this little face to make me feel better.

    His name is Alfred Fraggle and he was so happy when I got home that he followed me around and cried.

    I have moves several times in the past two years, and my most solid advice after this last move is PAY SOMEONE IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT. Pack your own stuff, but pay a human to move those boxes from your one place to your next place. Especially if, like me, you have been in one place for MANY years followed by another place for three more so you’ve got an unreasonably obscene amount of stuff (i.e. 45 boxes of books).



  27. *I screeeam, does this mean you’ll give me snacks?*

    Happy Friday!
    The above little cartoony looking fluffbundle isn’t mine, she’s my sister’s, but I was helping to cat-sit while she was away for a few days. Free cat therapy!

    This Friday I’m contemplating the void and keep refreshing my university portal page, as I’m waiting for my results to come in to let me know whether five years of law has been worth it and if I’m graduating (!!) this June.
    If so, and if I get the classification I’m hoping for, I’ll be taking what bits of brain goo I’ve got left and heading for a MA in Gender Studies – a natural follow on after rubbing my queer lil’ hands all over the law department via my dissertation on discrimination! (Say that five times fast :/ )

    I know it’s a little image heavy, but I’ve been bored as anything lately – after submitting my dissertation baby, I stacked it down stairs due to being tired, and I’ve been off work with ligament problems since! Coffee with a mate today helped.

    What do you guys do to kill boredom / anxiety / anxiety due to waiting? I would love anyone forever if they had some book or film recommendations. For now I’m just scrolling through the cute fluffy pictures here.

    Enjoy your weekend, guys xx

  28. Oh boy, I am exhausted but how could I pass up an opportunity to brag about at least two of my pets!!! Gf and I have two dogs and four cats. Imho our dogs are The Greatest. Bowser is 4, he’s a Great Dane, and he is very dependent on Mom and acts like he’s ninety. Arthas just turned one, he’s a Saint Bernard, and he’s sort of a shitlord but I’m also obsessed with him. Here is a picture of the two of them on Arthas’ birthday.

  29. My apartment is still haunted by moving boxes (also a ghost named Georges, but that’s a different story). I moved 5 months ago. I did get rid of 2 more today, though, so… progress?

    Moving tips: sell what you can and make sure everything has a home in your new place. Are you going to be losing/gaining shelving space in the move? What about your closet situation – what’s the storage like in your old/new closets? Don’t wait to figure out where to put stuff when you get there; that’s how you end up with moving boxes on the living room floor 5 months after your move.

    As for pets, I know a lot of you are already familiar with my 3. But I never need prompting to share dog pictures, so.

    Oscar

    Reid (the chewer) and Penny (the oh-so-patient chewee)


    (No dogs were harmed in the taking of this photograph – Reid just has a thing for chewing on Penny’s ears. Penny doesn’t seem to mind and is more than willing to tell him to eff off if he gets annoying, so we just let him do his thing.)

  30. If there is a way to enjoy foods I’ve become tired of eating, let me know because a part of me misses teacakes. And Mars bars. And Victoria sponges. And nutri-grain bars. Less so kit Kat.

    As for the moving thing I am the least qualified person to advise anyone because the last time I moved, I forgot my BEDDING and had to get it from a roommate I barely liked months later.

    Also pets. There’s a story in my house about a rabbit called Peace my parents bought when I was one and my sister was 3 who had to be returned to the pet shop because he chewed everything. We have 2 dogs in our house in Ghana. Are they pets if you rarely see them and you’re not the one taking care of them?

    Today was busy. I went out to eat with my best friend. The food was good but the service was poor and the whole thing would have been poo if we didn’t have each others company. But we didn’t have to pay for our starters because of that so *shrugs*

    In the evening I went to the comic launch and met a friend/mentor from twitter, so that was fun. It was years since I went to a comic shop,and now I vow to go there more often. Bought ‘my brother’s husband’ (recommend in an article on this very website) and ‘Fiona and Cake: Card Wars’.

    I also saw the most STUNNING person at the train station, but they jumped on a train before I gained even a fraction of the courage needed to talk to them. My heart breaks a little every time I think about how it’s doubtful I’ll see them again. T_T

  31. I loved/love dolls and the like. Not just for playing parent with but for creating stories around. Apparently this is normal into adulthood w aspies.

    Anyone remember Oregon trail? We liked that as a family but were cursed. Whenever we named ourselves our own names/after nice ppl, we died. Whenever it was nasty ppl, we lived. Dunno why we didn’t just pick random names.

    Pets. ATM, we have four & my favourite one who’s my very own. A black Maine coon who everyone thought was horrible til I took time to tune into her & listen. Now she doesn’t growl at humans & rarely at other cats. We also have a ‘French’ ragdoll (his breeders called him lumiere and his mother is belle) and a stray I wished for whose a tux. He’s called heathcliff by me as he’s a foundling & his adopted dog mum (rip) was called cathy. I don’t like/fear dogs but I loved her, incredibly gentle. Her doggy trait was that she loved to sniff. My mum has a barky dog now. When I was a kid, my granddad had a dog called Kim. I renamed her kimmy in my head, I loved famous five at the time.

    I read ‘where I am now’ by Mara Wilson. Wow. Had a lot in common, she even looked like me in one of her pictures. It moved me quite a bit as she lost her mum at same age I might have. I mean my mum had an illness that’s fatal if untreated & the operation you could get back then was very risky. I feel like I did the pre-grief but was lucky enough not to have to do the grief/lose my mother as she did. I even did the picture thing. My photographer was great about me being a trans masc kid. I had to come in w shirt on & hair cut & do all these poses holding her.

    My birthday was yesterday :) My dad annoyed me. He assumed I’d be in at noon on my birthday so now I have to go to a horrible post office for my gift.

    We went for like Latin American shared food which was vegan & delicious.

    I got pastels from my aunt which are totally diff to what I’m used to, like chalk ones & a spray thing to set pastels. Very interesting. I feel like I have to draw a new style w them though or subject matter.

    Butches who are less insecure than me/femmes, if you want to make your partner’s birthday, make a card full of little hearts :)

    Mum got me Handmaids Tale. I feel it would prob be better if I hadn’t just stopped reading Mara Wilson. It’s a keeper anyway but I’m not in love w it yet.

    I got diary which I can keep my thoughts in. Not in a conventional way, more a writer’s notepad way.

    I got complimented 4 times on my football shirt on special day/my birthday. One by a woman around my age who tried to flirt w me but I’m crap at flirting. Going on Sunday too :) so nice to get compliments but it sums this place up. I’ve gone from ukipland to this artsy hippy relatively cosmopolitan one. Very me. Not like what I’m used to.

  32. Today I signed up for a retirement investment portfolio situation and I felt absurdly adult, so then I immediately followed it with a boozy brunch in tiaras with my bestie. Then we went to her place and brainstormed ideas for a zine about how our final fucks have flown away. I left my last one on the bus on the way to camp and I’m pretty okay with never finding it again. I wore my denim vest to make me feel like I hadn’t left camp and she listened while I talked about camp and laughed about camp and cried about no longer being at camp and then we talked about feelings. She would be such a good queer girl, y’all, it’s really a shame she’s so straight. But I appreciate her being there for my post-camp blues because it is REAL.
    Also real is the wicked post camp cold that is ruining my plans to go out with a hottie I recently met upon my return, but what are ya gonna do.

    Moving advice: I echo all the Pay Someone To Move It For You people because that shit is life changing. Not only are you not sore, they do it so fast!! You have a whole day after the moving part is done! It’s amazing.

    Fur Baby: I have one cat, Gabby, so named because she talks all. the. time. And makes this chirping noise I have never heard another cat make. She apparently stooped to sleeping on my roommate’s bed while I was gone, but in that cat-like “I am not pleased about this but I will make do you annoying human” kind of way and she’s super glad I’m back. She is a total diva and does not play well with other cats which is basically the only thing keeping me from taking home every cat from the shelter all the time.
    Since I’ve gotten home she’s basically been doing this:

    And this is her looking generally adorable
    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/Xemef0u.jpg&quot;

  33. I’m looking for the team’s recs for books on intro and history of philosophy. I read Logicomix and Wittgenstein’s Poker and “The Monk and the Philosopher”. Right now I’m reading “From Socrates to Sartre: the Philosopher’s Quest” by TZ Lavine. I like surveys or anthologies better than a whole book about one particular viewpoint.

  34. Yes, I hate moving. With the fiery burning passion of a thousand suns. My piece of advice for dealing with moving? Only do it when you have to, and it’s totally worth it to pay people to do it for you. Moving just once was enough to convince me never to do it again without professional help.

    My fur baby is a sweet black and white cat named Shadow. He’s wonderful, and lying on top of me this very moment. He totally enjoys lying and/or walking across me at the most inconvenient times. He also loves to lay on my keyboard at the worst moment. He’s secretly part dog- he follows me around, runs to greet me at the door, chases his tail and drinks out of the toilet.

    This week was pretty good. On Saturday I joined a local queer women group, and the first get-together was great. Even better, I started talking to one of the others about her Goddess necklace, and learned she’s interested in starting a local pagan/witchcraft group, which I’m super excited about. I was part of a coven when I lived in a larger city, and I’ve really missed having that community.

    In not as great news, it’s close to the end of the school year and I am so burned out. I forgot a meeting, an announcement and another meeting this week because my brain is fried. I can’t wait for summer vacation!

  35. What a coincidence! I also just finished moving. Well, not really.

    I am sitting here in my new apartment, with many boxes and much trash around me because, on the day that my bed arrived last week (Thursday), I came down with a virus of extreme nastiness. My throat was sore through Tuesday of this week, and my voice was completely gone, plus cold chills, congestion, and fatigue. I croaked my way through the DMV at 9 AM yesterday, which is doubly fun if you’re trans, let me tell you.

    I still have the fatigue and congestion. This is why when I glanced at my computer clock a moment ago that’s still on EDT and thus shows it’s about midnight, I thought, “That totally makes sense, I feel like I could crash right now.” Unfortunately, back in reality, it’s only 9 PM PDT. I start work next Tuesday, which in its own way will be a blessing because I won’t have to decide what to have for lunch.

    Here’s hoping everyone else has had a better week than I have.

  36. my family has two fur babies, a black lab/cattle dog mutt named Lily and a fat tabby named Minerva. Lily eats the fuzz off of tennis balls and Minerva refuses to crap in our own backyard — he jumps over the fence, craps in the neighbors’ yard, and comes home. it’s kind of a dick move on his part but also hilarious because i hate our neighbors. we also have a non-fur baby, a ball python named Basil. she sleeps under a heat lamp for like 20 hours a day and doesn’t like men, so needless to say she’s my idol.



    ALSO I GOT THE BIG PROMOTION AT WORK, Y’ALL! starting next week i will be the managing editor — the number two in command after the editor-in-chief — at The California Aggie newspaper!

  37. wow i accidentally clicked “submit your comment” way too early and i have more things to share!
    my little sister just graduated high school! she went through some rough shit and did not have the best time in high school but she made it through, got chosen as class speaker, and gave a kickass speech that honestly blew the valedictorian’s and principal’s speeches out of the water.
    she also gave me the toolbox she built and woodburned *by hand* in her woodshop class and i’m so over the moon about it:

    isn’t that beautiful?? it’s almost too pretty to put dirty tools in. seriously, is there a better form of bisexual-lesbian solidarity than gifting hand-crafted woodworking projects? i didn’t think so.
    also, last week i got a grade back on my English essay about lesbians and my professor wrote that my discussion was “very well-informed” and i haven’t stopped laughing about it since. it’s official, folks: i’m very well-informed about lesbians.

  38. Also inspired by this thread (fur babies) and the armpit hair one.
    Does anyone else have scars from flea bites that they don’t make an attempt to cover up?

  39. So I missed Friday technically bc it was not up before I left for the Land of No Service but I had to come into town for breakfast coffee from a poor night’s sleep and also to see what I should do about a likely pinched nerve in my shoulder. I am really bummed bc my body was being SO COOPERATIVE (okay not super cooperative but better than it’s been but the dizzy spells and difficulty eating more than a small amount persists but for how things have been going it’s super cooperative) but I think unloading boats yesterday from my friends’ van is what did it. Or my horrific sleeping posture in my car bc of the worst migraine I’ve ever had and could barely get my sleeping bag set up in my car so no chance of getting my hammock or tent up (esp bc both would require light since it was night and light was a BIG NO). Or both of those thing combined with a not-great high brace on the river. Idk my neck/shoulder hurts and I’ve got some tingling pins and needles going on in my thumb and arm so probably pinched nerve.

    So I’m not boating today but maybe tomorrow or Monday if things are feeling better and the tingling in my hand goes away and depending on what either my friend the vet or my friend the PA says re: boating. But I brought my camera so I’ll just be taking photos which I actually love doing so no big loss and I was already planning on helping organize/corral racers and not racing so it’s all good there too.

    Both my cats came into my life via someone my mom knew (in one case the office secretary, the other a patient) had found a young cat around their farms and had no need of a barn cat so wanted the kitty to go to a good home.
    Here is the younger one who I belong to and thinks she’s somewhere between a model and a queen

    The grouchy old man I’ve posted pics of before but with being on mobile and have VERY slow upload times I can’t share a pic of him but he is a gorgeous orange tabby who is kinda like the blob bc he wants to absorb you/latch onto you but lacks the ability to do so and so is just the Ultimate Seat Stealer bc hell ooze underneath you then complain you’re sitting on him.

  40. So, I missed this whole Friday thing. I was home sick. Well, technically not “sick” sick. But, that’s what I told work. Explaining to them that I just got the 3rd “period” of my life and that it is the most excruciating pain and misery I’ve ever experienced? No, I think I’ll pass.

    In other news, the ramen shop here just opened up. A friend invited me out to lunch today. I like to pretend it wasn’t a date. But me spending the morning upping the cute meter before arriving says otherwise. I dunno. We’ve gone out to several movies now, a couple of dinners and now this. I mean, I enjoy his company. And he’s an old friend. And he knows that I am pansexual and about my transition. It’s just… argh! I want to scream into my pillow and cry.

    Going on dates in the opposite gender role is really confusing. I feel kinda like I missed out on all those awkward teenage years, and am now having to go through that now… at 30. When we left lunch, he leaned in and tried to hug me. But I stepped back. I feel awful. Then he sent me a text asking if he should treat me like a “cis woman on a date” or as a friend and that he was confused.

    God, if he’s confused, then I’m REALLY confused. I don’t get any of this. I really have a lot to learn, and even more to unlearn. That was my week in a nutshell. Now, time for sushi ^__^

  41. It’s Sunday so I’m late, but just wanted to say I’m loving all the animals pics! If I could figure out how to post photos (I know, there are directions listed and everything. Don’t judge), I would post one of the kitty I adopted while living in Senegal and shipped home to Boston to live with my mom, and the stray kitten I just rescued and gave to my dad here in Greece, who incidentally gave me ringworm, ON MY FACE, but it’s all good, global kitten saving missions come with a price.

  43. I have had the worst week ever! My mom outed me to my grandmother and work really sucked. Cue buckets of tears and my girlfriend wanting to do bad things on my behalf.
    I will tell you that the thing that has comforted me most this week (other than aforementioned protective girlfriend) is my baby boy, Smudge. He is a four month old white kitten with a black tail who is alternately psychotic and bites asses with no provocation and cuddles and purrs like a chainsaw. My sweetie got him for me and he is the best present I ever received!

    • That’s awful :( I hope your family learn to be not homophobic & work improves. But the kitten & gf sound amazing :)

  44. I just had the most amazing day w loads of (good) attention & saw legends. I think I walked through a time warp lol.

    It’s all so amazing ATM.

    I do wish certain ppl would butt out though. We were joking & teasing when he took it to another level. He didn’t realise he was being personal but he was. I know it’s just envy made him go there and I raised the tone back up again. His mate dealt w it too and told him to shut up. But it’s bugging me.

    This sort of thing belongs in private diary and not online. But I’m too tired/drunk/immature to get it.

    What a time. I mean that in a good way. 99% of today was amazing. 99.9% of right now is. That kind of dirty trick can’t stop it. That’s all guys like that have left. I just wish I had better coping strategies.

    Oh btw I saw corbyn (he was on a normal train not first class, it was a really manky carriage too). So I know it’s not actually 2002, it just feels that way today.

  48. It was an abnormal inclination at the outset when patients called me Dr Kong, it caused me to feel twenty years more established and for the most part awkward.
    F2 (the second Establishment year) is better, by and large since I’m as of now not the ward monkey and there is some insight behind me. Beginning in the kids’ ward was terrifying however, as I was so familiar with seeing grown-up patients who might promptly give me the data I request though with youngsters I need to figure out how to go about my business while messing around with them. Basic techniques like taking blood become more troublesome and unfortunate when it is finished on a kid.

  49. It can, of course, be prepared as a shot, or you can double it for a few shots, make a cocktail out of it, or prepare a pitcher of it for a party.

    WHAT TASTE DOES IT HAVE?
    White tea features floral aromas, including white peony and earthy undertones with sweet honey notes. Without using actual white tea, White Tea Shots with vodka have a lovely floral taste. These shots have a sweet flavor with citrus and peach fruit flavors as well as a little sour punch. It contains two types of alcohol: peach schnapps and vodka. Although there is a faint alcohol taste, the sweetness is balanced by the citrus and simple syrup.

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