Sloth Day

Sloth Day

I spent the day relaxing, taking naps, and finishing the ARC of Tammie Painter's Scales of Justice (book 6 of the Circus of Unusual Creatures series). Spoiler: the book is a lot of fun and I enjoyed it.

Having "sloth days" is an important thing to build into my schedule. I mean, sure, it's not like I'm all that busy anyhow, but I need days where I just sit around and do nothing and (crucially) don't see people at all. Is this a neurodivergence thing? Ha, I'm a 57-year-old woman, so there is zero chance I would have been diagnosed with anything in grade school so we'll never know!

Important Poop Info

We have preliminary results back on the kittens' fecal examination, and at the very least, they have Cystoisospora, which is a protozoan. It certainly fits with their symptoms, so it's probably not just an incidental finding. The version that cats get isn't transmissible to humans, but I probably should bleach my office this weekend to keep the Snack Pack from reinfecting themselves.

And who knows? Maybe the final report will have more fun things to treat. These are the kittens that had roundworms even after they'd been twice treated with antiparasitics that should have taken care of that. I think these kittens just started off with a very high parasitic load.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

Frito says hello.

(I interrupted her in the middle of grooming. That's why she looks so furtive.)

Glamorous

Fellow foster-mom Jennifer and I often end conversations with "Fostering is so glamorous!" (She's the one that made me dig the 7" tapeworm from the trash and photograph it.)

Today was another of those glamorous days. I spent the morning waiting for Cheese Puff and company to poop so I could get a fresh sample to send off to the lab so we could find out why half of the Snack Pack have had diarrhea for three weeks. Glamorous!

More Fun with Gouache

The problem is that I see short instructional videos on YouTube, and I remember about 20% of the information when I go to recreate it later. (And also that I never wait for things to dry.)

Here are some penguins that are wide. Very wide. I finished this page and then actually looked at it and started laughing. I still like it, though.

Then there's the turn-off-your-brain thing that was fun to make.

And finally, I was trying to shade oranges by using the opposite color on the color wheel. In theory, it should have worked. But I failed to let it dry (shocking, I know), so it didn't quite turn out. But I added a penguin, so the page is a win anyhow.

Will I ever be competent at painting? Very likely not. But I'm having fun with my almost-daily practice.

Obligatory kitten picture

The new girl has a name: Yorkshire Pudding. Her eyes are still pretty inflamed, but she's eating and playing, so I think we're on the right track.

She'll be gorgeous when she's healthy.

Stoned

Stoned

Wednesdays are the day for breakfast and writing at Crepeville with some buddies. I was packing up my things at noon when the foster coordinator called and asked if I could possibly bring the Snack Pack to the shelter for surgery by 1pm. There was a mixup in the mobile surgery bus appointments, and they suddenly had an extra 20 slots to fill.

So I hoofed it back to the parking garage, drove home, grabbed all five kittens, and drove to the shelter with ten minutes to spare. No problem.

They don't actually have room for the kittens to stay in the adoption center (and these guys still have diarrhea), so I picked them up again four hours later and they are back in my office.

They were kinda stoned when I brought them home. It's now 7:30pm and you would never know four of the kittens had major abdominal surgery today. Theoretically, I should be trying to keep them from running, jumping, and climbing, but I'd like someone to explain to me how to get kittens to slow down. It's just not possible.

So Professional

In between ferrying kittens, I found out I had to send an author headshot somewhere. I don't really have an author headshot, so I spent a while trying to make that happen. I am not a person who ever takes pictures of myself. It would never occur to me to go to a photography studio. The idea of doing so makes me want to flee the country. I compromised by taking some selfies outside. They will have to do.

At least our two-weeks-so-far ongoing overcast skies were good for something today.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

As you can see, Frito and Cheese Puff are wrestling resting quietly.

Foster Math

It's day 9 of Holidailies!

Foster Math

There's a phenomenon in the rescue community known as "foster math" and it works like this:

This morning I had 11 foster kittens (5 in the Snack Pack, and 6 Vampires).

I took 4 of the Vampires to the shelter for surgery and adoption.

Now I have 8 kittens.

That's foster math.

Meet the new girl

To be fair, I had 7 kittens for most of the day, but then I got this text: "Hi Theresa! Might you have a spot for this sick girl? She just came in with a fairly severe uri. She’s sweet but snotty and our cat building is full at the moment."

This is her intake photo. Hopefully she'll look a little better after I spend some time soaking off the crusts this evening.

Graduation!

Here are the four Vampires that went back to the shelter and their info:

Bianca is the most independent kitten of her litter. She's friendly, but she's more likely to be off playing with a toy mouse than sitting on your lap — until it's naptime. Then she's all about the cuddles.

Bianca

Marius is the bold adventurer of the litter, though he enjoys snuggling and playing with his siblings. He is obsessed with the feather wand toy.

Marius

Armand is a wonderful himbo of a kitten — just generally happy to be wherever he is. Though he currently resembles a fluffy potato on legs, his glow up is going to be epic.

Armand

Rowan can be a little shy at first, but once she bonds with someone, she will follow them around asking for attention. She's adorable and will purr constantly.

Rowan

My kitten biographies are getting funnier as the year progresses, because I don't think people read them on the shelter website — I no longer feel constrained to keep it professional.

Still Not Dry

During the summer, I forget about how depressing prolonged gray skies can be. (Yes, I live in California. I'm a wimp. I'm amazed I survived an entire year in northern Germany.) Blech. In a perfect world, I would travel to the southern hemisphere every winter.

Anyhow, I played around with gouache again today. The image is totally cheating, by the way. I traced a photo of former foster Gidget on my computer monitor onto a plastic bag with water-based markers, then got the paper wet to transfer the image. It's a technique I picked up from YouTube — perfect for those of us who suck at drawing.

Anyhow, it's a good technique. I'll add that to my arsenal. My attempts at a background failed miserably because I was trying to do it without waiting for the cat to dry. It would have been far better to thin the paints down on the background, but then I would have run the risk of smearing them into the cat. Yep, my impatience caused problems.

Obligatory Kitten Photo

Once again, Frito is highlighting her horrible living conditions. (Cue Sarah McLachlan...) Her only shelter is a cardboard box! For only five dollars a month, you could rescue this poor girl from a life of hardship...

No, It's Not Dry Yet

It's day 7 of Holidailies! (And I heard from Mary/Bozoette, whose Red Nose blog disappeared when Typepad went away. She is on Substack now.)

I've been playing with gouache lately. If you're not familiar with it, it's a paint that you can thin down so it acts like watercolor, but you can also have it be more opaque, so it's a little like acrylics. Either way, I'm pretty terrible at it. (It's a hobby! I'm allowed to be terrible at hobbies!)

One of my main problems is that you really need to have a layer completely dry before adding something new... unless you're trying to mix the layers together, in which case, rock on. I'm usually not trying to mix the layers, but I'm not patient. The combination of those two things means I end up with a lot of muddy messes.

(I dried the base layer today only because I got up to check on something and then completely forgot I had been painting. By the time I remembered, it was three hours later and the base layer was dry. I'm taking it as a win and a sign of my newfound maturity.)

Typical Sunday

The rest of my day was absorbed by kittens and writing. Elisabeth came over to socialize kittens, so the little gremlins slept most of the afternoon. That gave me a chance to clean up my office, which the Snack Pack had toilet papered overnight. That's what I get for leaving a roll of toilet paper on my desk when the kittens are getting big enough to jump up there. (It was leftover from the last group of bottle babies.)

Anyhow, I finished the first of two Patreon digital bonuses for the month — this is another Reddit r/AITA post for the world of Theoretical Magic. It's fun to write those. If I ever start an author YouTube channel, I would read those and make up some comments. Reading AITA posts on YouTube is a thing.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

The Snack Pack steals my chair any time I leave the room. They look so innocent, don't they? Not at all like kittens who spent the night tearing toilet paper into teeny tiny pieces.

Turn on the Tunes

Yesterday was Bandcamp Friday, when musicians who sell their music on Bandcamp keep a higher percentage of the proceeds, so I spent a few minutes browsing and bought a couple albums by (previously unknown to me) Jill Tracy. One is piano-only, and the other has vocals and other instruments. I'll put links in case you're interested.

(Side note: I just previewed this page to see if the pictures were playing nicely together, and the mobile version of this layout is kind of terrible. Does anyone read this blog on their phone? Should I make the effort to fix it?)

I don't listen to music as much as I used to. There was a time I almost always had something playing, and for a long time I often had instrumental music in the background while I was writing. These days it never occurs to me to listen to anything. Is that because there are too many other distractions that I'd need to mute my music for? I don't know. But I think I'd like to get back to listening to more music.

Rant of the Day

It looks like there won't be a third season of Annika, which absolutely sucks. To put it in perspective, Annika is probably the first show since Elementary that really caught my full attention. Why can't we have nice things?

Foster Kitten Picture

This is Frito, one of the snack pack. She only has one little rag to sleep on... (Cue Sarah McLachlan tune) Won't you donate to help poor little Frito?

(There's not supposed to be a rag on the floor. That was one of the pile I keep on my desk for emergency uses. But I walked out of the room and left my chair too close to the desk, so the entire Snack Pack got up there to explore. Frito also wrote this message on my writing-group Slack: "7787777flo'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''+")

The Forbidden Closet

In my house, there is an ongoing war between kittens and boundaries. I don't let my foster kittens run free in the house because:

1. There are just way too many places for a kitten to hide,
2. It's hard enough to clean/disinfect one room when it turns out a kitten has !surprise! ringworm,
3. It's hard enough to clean/disinfect one room in general,
4. I don't want to worry about my fosters darting outside,
5. When I have multiple groups of kittens, I don't want them to swap diseases,
6. There is stuff in my house I don't want kittens messing with.

This means that I am constant climbing over barriers and blocking kittens who are trying to escape. Getting around in my house is a challenge.

I don't have many breakable items — everything fragile already been broken — but I do have a few things, including the audiobook recording equipment...

... which is in my office closet.

I have five kittens running around in my office right now. Yesterday, Cheese Puff figured out that pushing on the closet doors swings them enough that a kitten can get through the gap. (There's supposed to be a piece of hardware on the floor that keeps the doors from swinging in/out, but I lost it when I refinished the floors a couple decades ago.)

So now we are locked in battle over the closet. See Exhibit A:

Yeah, the kittens spent most of today trying to break into the closet.

Send reinforcements.

Good News

Pepper, the kitten I took back to the shelter yesterday, disappeared from the website this afternoon, which means he has already been adopted. I'm not surprised, since he was gorgeous and very sweet.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

Cool Ranch again. He likes to nap.

Skill Issue

It's day 4 of Holidailies!

Slow Knitter

I started this knitted dragon over a decade ago, got through part of one wing and stopped. I picked it up again recently and finished the other wing a couple weeks ago.

Note: I am not a great knitter. I'm not even a good knitter.

Today I started on a foot. It's supposed to end up looking like this:

Photo pulled from Kim Harrison's blog

It requires three needles at a time and I have never knitted in the round (or whatever that's called). This is not really the project for someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

Mine does not look anything like that picture. I still need to attach the last toe, but I'm fairly certain that's not going to help. Does a dragon need toes? This may be an important question.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

Pepper went back to the shelter for adoption today! Woohoo!

To understand why this is so exciting, you have to know Pepper's story. If you're squeamish, skip over the next paragraph.

MEDICAL DETAILS

He came to me about a month ago with a prolapsed rectum (ie, his insides were hanging out through his butt). The usual cause is parasites causing the kittens to strain too much, but in most cases you can just sort of push it back in and things are fine. Pepper's was so bad that it needed surgery — they had to open his abdomen, pull everything back inside, and tack it down.

END MEDICAL DETAILS

Anyhow, the foster coordinator asked me to take him on Saturday (surgery was scheduled for Monday) because she knows stuff like that doesn't bother me. Understandably, he wasn't eating and didn't want to do anything, but he purred loudly every time I came in the room. The poor little guy was skeletal and smaller than the usual weight limit for surgery.

Surgery went well and he came back that evening to recover. For the first day, everything looked great. Then he started having horrific diarrhea and stopped eating. We started him on antibiotics and fluids. It didn't help. He lost more weight and looked really pale. I thought we were going to lose him after all, but about a week after surgery, we finally got him on the right combination of antibiotics, probiotics, fluids, anti-nausea meds, and appetite stimulants. He started eating and all his problems resolved over the next few days.

He's been off all his meds for the last week, and everything is looking great. Plus, he's still the sweetest boy. I'm so happy he made it!

The Best Laid Plans...

Today was mostly a "deal with the foster kittens" type of day, but at least I got some writing done at the weekly Crepeville meetup with my Wednesday writing buddies.

Update on the Articulated Skeleton Thing From Yesterday

Maria and I both found this wiktionary entry that claims that paleontologists use "articulated skeleton" to mean "a fossil skeleton found all in one piece with the bones still arranged in the proper order." So I guess it sort of makes sense in the context of the book. (Not really, though, because they know the bones were moved after all the soft tissue had disappeared, so I don't know how they would have been transferred without everything getting rearranged. But at least I'm not imagining bones wired together.)

News on the Mysterious Murders Contest

My story made the short list! Final winners will be announced on Dec 20th. I'm amazed to have gotten so far.

Foster Kitten Stuff

This is where you should just imagine me looking like that guy from The Scream by Edvard Munch. Four of the five kittens in The Snack Pack have had horrible diarrhea for the last week and a half. They were supposed to go back to the shelter for surgery and adoption next Wednesday, but now they've been bumped at least another week.

Meanwhile, all six of The Vampires were supposed to also be going back for surgery and adoption next Wednesday, but two got bumped to the future because they're still a little congested and they're just barely big enough.

So I thought I was sending off all eleven kittens next week, but instead only four will be going. Yes, four is better than none, but things will get tricky if I still have fosters at Christmas because I'll be traveling. (It's not a real problem for me — the shelter will find a vacation foster — but I'd hoped to avoid the problem.)

Obligatory Kitten Photo

Cool Ranch found a great place to hang out this morning — on the headrest of my office chair. He looked extremely comfortable.

Suspension of Disbelief

Stirring

Last Thursday (Thanksgiving), I had intended to make this fancy mac & cheese (French Onion Soup Mac and Cheese), but by the time I'd finished the 10k and come home and cleaned up, I didn't have 2 1/2 hours before I needed to get in my car. So I just brought the vegetarian gravy I'd already made, and that was fine because there was already too much food.

Today I finally got around to making the fancy mac and cheese. (Meh. It was fine, and my kitchen smells divine, but I feel like the cheese overpowered the caramelized onions that I spent over an hour stirring so I wouldn't bother making it again.)

While I was stirring onions and bechamel, I listened to the first couple hours of The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. It's a British police procedural (-ish, because the main character is actually an archeologist but she has a child with a detective chief inspector and POV changes to him in some chapters). The characters are interesting — I haven't really gotten far enough to find out if the mystery part holds up overall.

Suspension Failure

Here's the start of it: a body is found behind a wall in a very old building. Multiple times, the remains are referred to as an "articulated skeleton". We know there's no soft tissue because the archeologist can clearly see a surgical plate on one of the bones. (I'm not entirely sure why the archeologist is getting it out from the space behind the wall instead of the police, but we'll pretend that makes sense because otherwise our main character doesn't have a reason to get involved.)

Here's the problem: an articulated skeleton is a set of bones held in place by pins and wires to approximate the location of the bones in a living body. But as far as I can tell, there are no pins or wires on the skeleton removed from behind this wall. Unless I've missed something, the author is picturing a skeleton that hasn't fallen apart. But if the soft tissues are gone, there's nothing to hold it together.

I really feel like I must have missed something somewhere. Or maybe there's another meaning of "articulated skeleton" that I haven't been able to find?

This book is traditionally published. (I wouldn't have named the title and author if it hadn't been.) There had to have been multiple editors — familiar with the genre — who looked at this. How did nobody stop and say, "hey, that's not what an articulated skeleton is"?

So now I'm thinking more about how this skeleton is held together (a trivial thing that has no bearing on the mystery) than the actual plot of the book. My suspension of disbelief is dragging on the ground.

Ugh. I still feel like I must be missing something.

Obligatory Cat Picture

This is Akasha, mother of vampires. Or at least, mother of the six kittens in my spare room who are named after vampires. The kittens are weaned and Akasha kept trying to get out, so she went back to the shelter today so she can be spayed and adopted.

She's a super sweet cat. Hopefully she'll find a good home soon!

Welcome Back!

Oh hey, it's December already. That means it's time for Holidailies, the daily blog challenge!

Quick introduction

Hi! I'm Theresa. I write SF/F books as T.M. Baumgartner and cozy mysteries as Tess Baytree, but much of my time and energy goes toward fostering kittens for the Yolo County Animal Services Shelter.

My current (10+ year) knitting project is The Dragon Who Has Seen Some Stuff — so far I've finished the wings, which are not even approaching identical. If I ever finish it, this thing will have loads of character, which is the polite way of saying I can't be bothered to go back and fix mistakes.

10k Turkey Trot 2025

A few months ago, I decided signing up for my town's Turkey Trot would be a good idea despite being in my 50s and not having run for at least five years. I had to modify my training schedule from three times weekly to twice in order to keep my knees and shins happy, but I finished the 10k last Thursday with a blistering pace of 14:06 minutes/mile. And I didn't come in last place, though I'm pretty sure everyone who finished after me was walking.

What to expect for Holidailies 2025

That's a really good question. About a week ago, I decided I should come up with a list of topics so I wasn't desperately casting about for something at 11:30pm every night in December, but there was zero follow through, so... Expect kitten pictures, random anecdotes, and probably some feedback on my attempts to learn Affinity.

(Affinity 3 just came out. I've been using Affinity 2 for the typography on my covers, but going back to GIMP when I need to manipulate the image. Will Affinity 3 inspire me to do everything in one place? We shall see.)

Kitten picture of the day

This is Cool Ranch, one of the Snack Pack litter. He has discovered the best way to get through a gloomy December morning.

Happy Halloween!

That's it for October and Horrordailies! We're ending the series on an image with a lot of saturation and it's not particularly spooky, but yesterday we had a pentagram, so take the average and it works out.

Once again, I like it.

Foster Kitten Updates

Bailey Potato had a vaccine appointment/recheck today and she is 1.48 pounds. This girl is planning to stay with me as long as possible before reaching that surgery weight goal. She is currently sleeping in my lap.

The snack pack kittens had their first containment breach this morning. Due to the size of my bedroom and the need to have a large dog crate to hold their feral mom, the playpen around the crate is squished between the foot of my bed and the wall. One of my blankets had partially fallen into the playpen, so three of the snacks climbed onto the bed to freedom. Frito wandered into the hall; Taki and Pringles stayed on the bed. (Cheese Puff and Cool Ranch were still in the playpen.)

Then, 20 minutes after I returned everyone to the playpen and removed the escape route, I went back into the room and only found four of them asleep on the heating pad. Cool Ranch had climbed to the top of the dog crate and fallen asleep.

The other mom & kittens group is hanging in there. I'm tube-feeding three of the kittens and we're on an every 3-4 hour schedule (including overnight). Yes, I will be happy when they either wean or go back to nursing.

One of those babies is chompy. She (or possibly he, because I keep forgetting to look) lunges forward when I least expect it and clamps down hard on whatever body part she's chosen. There has been a lot of swearing and laughter in that room recently.

Okay, speaking of the babies, I need to go tube feed. I hope you've enjoyed Horrordailies and I'll see you soon!

Summoning

 Horrordailies is over tomorrow, and we can't let it go without summoning a demon, right?

I like it.

Foster Kitten Updates

I have pretty much taken over the feeding of four of the six new babies, including tube-feeding three of them. I'd like to believe this will resolve as soon as they all get over their colds, but who knows. They're old enough to be weaned in the next week or so anyhow, so the end is in sight.

Other than that, everyone is doing well. Bailey has a vaccine appointment tomorrow and we'll probably reschedule her surgery. Maybe next week?

Boo!

October is almost over, which means I only need to come up with two more spooky things for Horrordailies. Luckily, this one is so scary that it will make up for everything!

I'm enjoying drawing backgrounds and other things with a variable pen hooked up to a gradient and then giving the photo element a waterpixel filter to make it fit in better. I probably could have done more with the kitten here (lovely Sabot), but it's late and I'm tired.

Foster Kitten Updates

"Friendly" mom sometimes hisses at me when I enter the room, but then she comes over to get all up in my business so that I can accidentally pet her while I'm trying to do other things. It makes it harder to deal with getting eye meds into squirming babies when mom is shoving her head under my hand. Thankfully, she was busy eating when I tubefed the smallest baby, who isn't doing great. Fingers crossed that's enough to get him on the right track.

("Feral" mom (aka, Popcorn) hisses at me whenever she thinks I've looked at her funny, but that's to be expected since she really is feral.)

Bailey is currently the only office kitten and she cries, loudly, when I'm not sitting at my desk. Poor kiddo. She will be part of the feral mom's kitten group when they're weaned and that should make her feel better.

Pumpkin Cat

Just a few more days of Horrordailies, but I think I've finally found my calling. Absolutely nothing to do with horror, but these are fun!

Also, I still can't draw a pumpkin. Why is it so hard? The ivy brush is my salvation.

Let's move on to the more important things...

Foster Kitten Updates

I took Bagheeri, Spanner, Sabot, Sir Humphrey Grumpybutt, and Harrison Ford the Explorer back to the shelter for surgery and adoption.

Spanner

Harrison

Sabot

Bagheeri

Sir Humphrey

In an illustration of foster kitten math, I had 12 fosters, I took five back to the shelter, and now I have 14 fosters.

This mom is not feral, so that should make some things easier. The whole group has an upper respiratory infection, so I'll be watching the babies' weights carefully.

Cauldron

Sure, it's Horrordailies, but how about we just go with Halloween-inspired images instead?

I'm getting a little better at creating new objects from scratch, but that's not saying much.

Foster Kitten Updates

Poor baby Frito is still snotty. The shelter's foster coordinator is back tomorrow, so we'll probably get the kitten started on meds.

Bailey Potato is 600 grams today. She was 600 grams two weeks ago. In between, she went up to 640 and then dropped to 585 for a bit. There's no way she'll be 680 grams (1.5 pounds, the cutoff for surgery) by tomorrow, so she'll be staying. But I need to take five graduation photos tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Back to Nature

Did you know that there are only five more days of Horrordailies? I'm having a good time messing around with this stuff, though I seem to have left the horror intent behind at some point.

Anyhow, Taylor was a little dog that I transported from my local shelter to another shelter that had more room and resources. (I do more transports like this during the winter when I don't have a zillion kittens.) She was a cute little dog and I forgive her for all the bodily fluids that came out during our ninety minute drive. (Note to self: puppies need to go for a potty walk if they've just been fed. Also, bring towels in case they get car sick.)

All the textures I added are from photos I've taken in my neighborhood.

Here's the original:

I've been accused of going full Lisa Frank in my backgrounds and I don't deny anything.

Foster Kitten Update

Baby Frito is still snotty, but seems okay otherwise. Elisabeth came over today to help socialize kittens and even Sir Humphrey Grumpybutt played with her.

Other Stuff

I went to the vet hospital open house and won the raffle for a cat cave bed and some toys! Pictures tomorrow when I pick everything up.

Crystal Ball

It's not quite what I envisioned, but it's fun. I think the foster here is Big Chungus, but I'm really bad at labeling photos so...

I'm actually kind of impressed with my attempt at a wooden base. Sure, it's way larger than it should be, but it looks like it has wood grain. Go me.

Foster Kitten Updates

Frito, the orange baby, is sneezing and congested. I don't think it's a big deal because he's still eating and playing, but this whole "oh, fostering a group of kittens along with their feral mom is low stress!" thing is wishful thinking.

I warned the foster coordinator that Bailey might not be big enough for surgery on Wednesday, and she confirmed that the other three kittens in the group can still go. With most fosters I'd try hard to keep them as a group, but Bailey is mostly fixated on me, so I can integrate her into another group without her feeling left out.

Other stuff

During my 40-minute run-walk last night, I actually lost track of time and was surprised when it chimed at the end. So that's good. I may end up doing the 10k as a run-walk, which would be okay because it's just as fast as jogging the whole way.

I took a nap this afternoon. It was nice.

Witch's Hat

It's day 24 of Horrordailies and yes, I have given up on horror and being spooky. It's just not me. I'm more of a cute kitten sort of person and that's absolutely fine.

I will say, it's harder to draw a hat than I thought it would be. Who knew?

I like it.

Foster Kitten Updates

Nothing new, which is a good thing.

Oh wait! There is something new: Sir Humphrey Grumpybutt purred for me today! He has been here over two weeks and this is the first time he's purred for me.

Kahlua Foliage

I saw a book cover with the silhouette of a woman's profile formed from a tree. That's beyond my skill level, but I thought I might be able to create something similar.

This is from a picture of Kahlua, an older foster cat who stayed with me for a few months early in the year. He was a favorite on the kitten cam because there's something relaxing about watching a cat sleep the entire day.

I kinda like how it turned out.

Foster Kitten Updates

Everybody is fine, though I'm starting to have doubts that Spanner and Bailey Potato will be big enough for surgery next week. They seem healthy and active, but they both need to gain fifty grams. That should be no problem, and yet...

Other Stuff

I worked on the knitted dragon again today, and I may be almost done with that last stupid wing panel. But I've thought that before, so who knows?

Barrier

Yesterday I stuck to the theme in an obvious way with a spiderweb. Today, the 22nd day of Horrordailies, I am being less literal, but I promise the theme applies.

That black band in the middle started out as a fingerprint. And then I added ivy on a glowing ball and it reminded me of a virus. So all the stuff on the bottom are pathogens trying to get through your fingers into your body. That's the stuff of horror, right there.

Don't forget to wash your hands after you come home.

Foster Kitten Updates

The five baby snacks (Frito, Cheese Puff, and three other names I can't remember at the moment) had their first big kid shots today. Sir Humphrey Grumpybutt and Harrison Ford the Explorer also had the next round of vaccines. The shelter vet checked out Humphrey's eye and I get to continue debriding his cornea with a cotton swab twice daily, which thrills us both.

The foster coordinator asked if I'd be willing to take home two additional kittens who needed nutritional support if they didn't find another foster by the end of the day — because 12 fosters isn't enough — so I tackled the long-delayed task of cleaning and disinfecting the front bathroom. Luckily, the shelter found another foster, so I'm off the hook and the bathroom is ready for the next batch.

A funny thing: I checked the shelter adoption site to see if Herbie Lovebug was there yet, and Herbie was there, but the photo was different. Turned out to be a different (slightly older) orange tabby. But that one was adopted this afternoon, so there's no more confusion.

Web

Look at me, 21 days into Horrordailies and I'm back to something that is seasonally appropriate!

I wanted to get better at using the path tool. Hence, the spiderweb. By the time I got to the end, I had figured out how to do multiple segments of the path without it smoothing everything in weird ways. I also added some wind blurring to give it that jagged effect, and then brought back some bokeh with the lights.

As a composition, it fails because there's nothing to draw the eye, but as a technical challenge, I'm happy with it.

There's still something not right about the web blurring, but it's fine for now.

Foster Kitten Updates

Herbie Lovebug has gone back to the shelter for neuter and adoption. He is a very social cat — with me, when there weren't other cats around, and with the other fosters when he was allowed. I'm sure he'll have no trouble finding a home.

Couldn't pick the best graduation photo, so here are two:

Gross info ahead: Spanner and Sabot had tapeworm segments show up in their poop this morning, which explains why those two sisters have diarrhea and the other two in the room (who are unrelated) don't. Fingers crossed it all clears up quickly now!

Other Stuff

Finally updated my author website with the book that came out last week. Sure, I'm totally on top of things!

Patterns

It's day 20 of Horrordailies and I'm pretty much tapped out. After much screwing around and deleting things, I have come up with this, which seemed like a vaguely horror-ish background.

It's even less impressive at a small size. Oh well. Some results are just like that.

Foster Kitten Updates

Herbie Lovebug is returning to the shelter tomorrow for neuter & adoption. That means I need to take a graduation picture — except my usual picture spot is my bed, and the feral mom (Popcorn) and the babies are in there. I guess I'll throw the blue sheets around in the spare room and try to get a few pictures of Herbie without the other two in the frame.

The babies are doing well. I saw one climb onto the carrier where Popcorn was taking a break from them — poor mom can't get away.

Other Stuff

I think the outline for the next Penelope Standing book is ready to go. Sort of. I'm really bad at outlining before I write. Maybe it will all come to me during my run tonight.

Kitten in the Smoke

It's day 19 of Horrordailies. I've run out of spooky tutorials. Today I was going to practice using my Huion pen tablet, but I haven't been able to get it to work since I upgraded my operating system a few major releases ago. Theoretically, they support this version, but... I tried reinstalling the drivers and rebooting, but I can't get it to connect. Oh well.

So I just screwed around and made this. This former foster kitten is Sabrett.

I was having a hard time isolating the cat from the background cleanly, but I think having the extra cruft around the edges actually helps bring out the cat image. It's a feature, not a bug.

Foster Kitten Updates

Nothing new. I'm trying to figure out the best way to prop open the dog crate door such that the kittens can walk through but the feral mom can't force it open AND I can easily open it so I can clean the litter box. Maybe inspiration will strike tomorrow.

Other Stuff

I'm watching Maigret on PBS and I wish they wouldn't start/end the episodes with scenes that are in the next installment. But the show itself is okay, though it's right on the edge of my ability to put up with a moody male main character. What I'm saying is: I'd rather have another season of Annika.

Bokeh

It is day 18 of Horrordailies and I learned a new term: bokeh, which, according to Wikipedia, "is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image, whether foreground or background or both. It is created by using a wide aperture lens."

I was sort of following this tutorial, but I used bats instead of spheres, so... I probably could have placed the bats in a better pattern. But the whole thing was kind of interesting so I'm leaving it.

Foster Kitten Update

Spanner and Sabot have poop that is no longer the platonic ideal (callback to something I said while cleaning the litter boxes a few weeks ago), but I think it can wait until Monday. I have a full bag of LRS if they seem dehydrated. Everybody else seems fine.

Other Stuff

Random notes from the day: Even in my fairly small town, we had a rainbow unicorn at our protest. It was a hit. I think I managed not to get sunburned. There have been a lot of old people at these protests, and today was no exception. The cybertruck that drove by had a No Kings sign, which is exceedingly weird but people are full on contradictions...

Oh, and I sent out my author newsletter this morning. If you're someone who hates signing up for stuff, you can still see the October newsletter here.

Boo(p)

It's day 17 of Horrordailies, and today I did something that could have been scary under other circumstances!

Trying to learn more about channels, I made an attempt to follow this tutorial, which was created 14 years ago. It's hard to believe, but videos are actually holding up better than still screenshots — why do we have full-screen shots of a stylized control key? I'm pretty sure that's an html remnant that has moved along in the past decade.

But anyhow, I had a picture of a kitten that was doing the ghost pose, so I used that. I like the effect of using the intersection of RGB channels to create the image.

It would have been better if I'd had a haunted house background, but I was feeling cheap, so I made do with what I had.

It's ridiculous, but it was mostly an exercise in using channels.

Foster Kitten Updates

I let the three boys in the spare bedroom hang out together today, which means nobody in there is confined to a wire crate. They are all very happy about that and seem to be getting along okay. (They've had a 10-day quarantine. It should be fine.)

The five babies are doing great (knock on wood). Their mom used to be able to get some alone time by lying behind the box, but lately the babies have been climbing out and climbing on top of her, so I took the box out. That way I'm not blindly reaching over to grab a baby when I need to weigh them.

Other Stuff

The newsletter is all ready to go out tomorrow morning. We shall see if my attempt to entice people to click on something in order to improve my sendability every works. Probably I should follow the advice to clean my list, but that sounds like work.

It's 6pm and I still haven't decided what to put on a sign for tomorrow. Every time I'm at a rally, I wish I had come up with a better sign, but every time I fail to prepare any better. Oh well.

Falling

This is possibly the funniest of the series. The kitten is Elmer, a former foster.

Mostly I was playing around with the different blurring abilities, though it's not really obvious in the finished picture. 

I should probably invest in some pictures of cliffs and water if I'm going to make things like this.

(In case you're worried about Elmer, he was just sitting in my lap yelling, as he often did. I have a whole series of pictures like this.)

Foster Kitten Updates

Everyone seems stable, I think. One of the (gray) kittens was perched on top of the (gray) mom, behind a box, and I reached back to grab the kitten and accidentally grabbed mom. There was much hissing, but that was as far as it went.

We have surgery dates for 5 of my current 13 fosters. Progress!