Month: December 2011

Following up on the kitties…

D'Arque Bishop

… so, the two have had their first vet appointment today. They’re in very good health and have gotten some of their needed shots. The vet also confirmed what we suspected: the mostly-white one (referred to as a “blue point” in coloring) is a boy, and the brown and white one (referred to as a “seal point” in coloring) is a girl.

So, along with another picture of them, I’m pleased to let you know their names. :-)

Meet Bennett and Sasha. :-)

Right now we’re in the slow process of getting them and the older cats used to one another. We’ve opened the spare bedroom door, but put a gate in the entrance to prevent cats from entering or leaving. Sophie and Darcy have already seen Bennett and Sasha; as we expected, Darcy welcomed them with open arms but Sophie is hissing and growling (like the prima donna she is). We’ll keep them separated for a while until they learn to tolerate one another’s presence, and then we’ll let the younger two roam the house freely. As it stands, for the near future all they’ll have access to is the spare bedroom and a short hallway.

They’re definitely getting better about being around us, though, and it’s great to see them playing and discovering their world. This should be a lot of fun. :-)

Introducing our Christmas presents to ourselves…

D'Arque Bishop

So, Jennifer and I decided this year to give each other a special Christmas present. We got ourselves two new kittens. :-)

We had been talking about getting a kitten for a while. Jennifer had been missing Lucy, her first cat, and we wanted to get a playmate for Sophie and Darcy (our current two). We decided on getting a ragdoll like the others, simply because of how great they have been for us. So, we contacted the person we got the others from, and finally got a response from her after a while. It turned out that she had stopped breeding ragdolls, but was taking care of some kittens for a colleague of hers who had cancer. Through her, we worked out the details. It turned out she would be in town anyway Christmas weekend, so we arranged to go and pick them up Christmas Eve.

It was also at about that time that we realized that it would be best if we got two kittens instead of just one. That way, they would have each other as playmates to relate to instead of being alone with two other older cats. We asked for two girls, but as it turns out, we ended up with a girl and a boy. We didn’t mind at all; that way it’s even amongst the sexes here. :-) We played with them a bit there, got the paperwork for them, and then made the trip home. Jennifer stayed in the back seat with them, while they cowered in the kitty carrier. (They had been through so many trips that week that they were very spooked.) Once home, we put them in the spare bedroom with their own food, water, litter box, and toys. That way they could get acclimatized without having to deal with the older cats.

When we got them, we were told the girl was the dominant one and that the boy was quiet and let the girl take charge. That seemed to be the case at first, but over the past 24 hours, the boy kitten became more assertive and playful, while the girl kitten stayed back and was more skittish. We don’t think they were socialized around humans, as they’re still very nervous around us. Still, we’ve been spending time with them, playing with them, and getting them used to us. They’ve gotten to the point where they will play with toys and such with us, but the instant they realize they might be getting too close, they back off a bit. We figure that they’ll be far more comfortable around us in time, but for now, we’re taking it slowly.

Before anyone asks, though, we don’t have names for either yet. We’ve been considering all manner of different names for them, but until we have them checked out by a vet (especially to confirm the genders!), we’re not setting anything in stone yet. We do have some finalist names for both, though; we should be ready to announce them in a few days.

I have to say, though, that they are far more adorable and playful than I was expecting. They’re WONDERFUL kittens, and are a delight to play with. I’m looking forward to spending a long time with them in our family. :-)

Of webs and androids…

D'Arque Bishop

It’s Saturday night, and I’m sitting in the living room watching Mythbusters while Jennifer dozes on the couch. All in all, it’s a good evening.

Up until recently, though, I would be found in my office at least part of the evening, as I’d have an urge to browse the net. I would use my phone, but I like to keep it in the kitchen where it charges. I also have a work laptop, but it’s a little unweildy sitting in my lap while I’m in the living room. That was taken care of recently by my mother-in-law, who managed to get us an HP TouchPad. For $150, it was extremely inexpensive yet very functional. Both Jennifer and I use the tablet, and it now comes with us on trips instead of the work laptop.

Also, as Jennifer puts it, “I now see a lot more of Scott in the evening.”

However, while we’ve been very happy with the TouchPad, we have come to realize that there’s one major problem with it. The TouchPad runs webOS, which is HP’s own mobile operating system (which they got when they acquired Palm). While webOS is a nice operating system, with the discontinuation of the TouchPad it is becoming seen as a dead OS. The app support has been slight, and there have been no real additions to the lineup. What I needed most was a remote access app for work purposes, and ended up jury-rigging a proprietary solution.

Obviously we needed something better. Fortunately, a solution presented itself Thursday.

My friend Rigo Cortes posted on Twitter that a new release of CyanogenMod had been released for the TouchPad. Intrigued, I looked into it. CyanogenMod is a community-written third party distribution of Android. The installation process for CyanogenMod looked simple, and kept the original webOS install in place. I asked Rigo, and he assured me that while it was labeled as alpha software, it was still very stable.

So, last night I downloaded the needed software, and I installed it this morning.

How did it go? It turned out to be as easy as I had read. It’s also as stable as Rigo had said. I’ve gotten all sorts of software downloaded that I couldn’t get for webOS, like Fruit Ninja, Netflix, Trillian, and others. I even have remote access software installed. I’ve only used it today, but it’s working great.

So, now I’ve got a much more useful tablet. It’s too bad webOS had to be replaced, as we liked using it. However, app support is much better on Android, and app support is what’s most important. Jennifer gets her Fruit Ninja, and I get my other apps.

We’re both happy campers. :-)