Cats, dwarves, and emergencies
Been a while, but I have some time now so figured I'd post something. Irregular updates are better than none at all I'd guess. This past week has been very eventful. Mad and I (though mostly Mad) have been cat sitting for a friend in Amherst while she and her family flee summer heat up in Canada. The house has three cats, each with their own quirks. Mishu is a white cat and can be fairly greedy with food and doesn't like to exercise, though she isn't terribly fat. She's also the only one who'll let Mad pick her up and pet, though has the unfortunate ability to shed twice her volume in fur each day. Deodat is a black cat and is very shy. She also doesn't eat unless you pet her to reassure her that this is a good thing. Mr. B is the male of the group and black and white. He tries to escape outside frequently and is the most playful of the cats. He also lets me pick him up (grudgingly) and put him in my lap to be pet.
Anyways, we'd been invited to make full use of the house and had originally planned to stay there Mon - Wed, however Tues morning we both felt a bit awkward having spent a night in the house. We're fairly certain it was the hard bed we slept on, but regardless, we decided that Tues night would be spent back in our apt after we fed the cats their evening meal. Around dinner time, I noticed the sky going dark and some distant thunder. A storm passed over us, with very little obvious effect except that the house lost power for about 5 or so seconds. So we waited a bit after the storm passed as it was heading south towards Chicopee. When we finally did head out, we decided to swing into Amherst for bubble tea. En route we notice a few trees down including one laying across a road and a telephone pole snapped in half. After some detouring, we got our bubble tea and proceeded home. A few blocks from our apt, the road was closed for other downed trees. I noticed that traffic lights were out and thus assumed we were without power, which ended up being correct. Fortunately the weather was nice and we'd left our windows open, so the apt was fresh smelling and cool. We eventually got power back around 11 that night, but our post-storm woes were only beginning. Because of the plan of camping out, we actually didn't have much food spoil, and the freezer kept things cold.
The next day, after lunch time Mad went to wash her hands, but nothing came out aside from the suction sound of the difference in pressure in the pipes. Fortunately we have random bottles of water around (and a full thing of brita) for just such occasions, well actually because when we visit my brother he gives us far more bottled water than we use. About an hour later, I tested the faucets and much to my expectation, the water burbled, bubbled, gurgled, and splurged its way out. It was also slightly brown at first, so I figure it was most likely a water pipe break somewhere. The hot water stayed brown and/or cloudy for a bit longer, prolly just because it had more to work through with whatever heating elements were used. Thinking the storm had mostly finished with us at this point, we went up to NoHo for knitting coven (which was weird as we didn't have our fearless leader there). Shortly after another knitter arrived, I got a call from Pat.
Apparently, his apt got flooded when a defective water gasket broke. Fortunately it was at most a couple inches of standing water in their apt and not much was ruined. But the building was deemed not livable (at least when the sun goes down) until it could be inspected again and the bottom apts needed to be renovated. So Pat and Chrissy were permanently moved up two floors and wanted to get as much of their stuff up there as possible before the sun went down. So I went over to help and helped them mostly moved before nightfall and then ended up camping at our place for a night.
But on a happier note, I'm excited about the recent (in a geological timescale) release of the dwarf pictures from The Hobbit. Being declared by friends, first meets, and others as dwarf-like, I'm putting down my analysis of these, some of which may be spurred on by Mad:
So first the group as a whole: a bearded bunch of blunt burly bludgeoners. It looks like dwarves ready to go. A wide variety without much attention to detail (that comes later in the individual pictures)
Thorin Oakenshield: He looks to have the spirit of a dwarf, but his face is a bit too narrow for my liking. It makes me think, human raised by dwarves. Of course, though the details in the clothing, jewelry, and weapon make me squee like a nerd at a convention...which well I've done before.
Dwalin and Balin: Dwalin's beard is simple yet incorporates a distinguished look to it. At first, his baldness looked unnatural until I got a closer look at it and saw they were tattoos giving it the unnatural look as few people (even dwarves) are born with tattoos. Nice, large hammer, I expect him to be the older women's favorite. When I look at Balin, I can see the family nose. His white beard, red coat and pointed shoes, give a slight impression of Santa Claus, but then again, I've always had a place in my heart that Santa Claus was just a permanently enlarged dwarf.
Bombur, Bofur, Bifur: Bombur definitely fits the bill as counting for two. The ladle in his hand helps to complete the look of a gregarious dwarf. His beard reminds me of a British Empire regular, and the "necklace" effect seems like it is very useful for avoiding the "flavor saver" effect beards can have. Bofur has a touch of wild to him that I like, the grizzled veteran that says, "in my day we had to kill 3,872 orcs on our own before we could eat breakfast." The black and grey stripping effect in his braided beard is amazing. Bifur seems at first glance to be a kid pretending to be a dwarf. It's his slim figure and oversized hat, that makes him a bit outcast. Though granted his size could be comparison to Bombur who's right next to him. The more I look at him though, he looks like he belongs there, hammer at the ready, and ready to adventure!
Kili and Fili: As Mad says, "They bring the smolder." Your guess is as good as mine, but seems to fit as these are likely to be teen girl fans (they got a surprise coming in the sequel then). Let's start with Fili, he looks like the lovechild of Gimli and Legolas. Yeah that's all that can be said to describe him, just look at that smirk. Kili suffers from a similar problem as Thorin, but because his beard is more of a 5 o'clock shadow, the look fails. These two look more like elves than dwarves.
Dori, Ori, Nori: First let me premise by saying I won't make SG-1 jokes, but I find it too hard to avoid another geek-culture reference. These look like WoW gnomes, rather than dwarves. I mean left to right, I see gnome mage, gnome rogue, gnome warrior. I mean I understand they're trying to give the dwarves looks differences and personalities, but my former addiction adds an unexpected bias. After some hard rehab, I reviewed them again and the dwarves started to emerge. Slowly. But damn it, why did Nori's hair have to be triangular...LF2m LBRS heals and dps.
Gloin and Oin: Yay! We're saved! Dwarvish looking dwarves! Both of them have no ambiguity, no elvish features, These are broad shouldered, axe and hammer wielding, magnificent bearded, stout dwarves! These two win my favorite for best dwarves. Though I do reserve the right to change my opinion due to acting.