These are a few of my favorite critters

Besides studying hypnosis and such, what else has the Mad Science Writer been up to, besides not writing science enough lately to deserve the title?
` Well, for all the words that photos are worth, each one takes very little time to process, so I bring you once again some photos and videos of some interesting things, as well as Vada, my plant-predating feline:

Here's something I don't watch every day -- the road crew re-surfacing our street! Tar and gravel does not equal asphalt, but it is cheaper!

That was very early this August, but this post stretches on for longer than a whole week, and does deal with more than just my cats:


Nevertheless, Dilly really is that photogenic. She likes the windowsill so much that she sometimes stretches out there and only puts only one paw in her bed!

Here's a rather epic 'tunnel' sunset, thanks to the overgrown kiwi vines:

Dang-dongit Dilly, why do you have to be so darn cute? Myeeeewwrrr! Must chew tiny hummingbird wings!

Here she is under her favorite shrubbery -- the one where I can't reach her!

Prodding around in the raspberry patch, I found a bright yellow crab spider who said, "Get away!"

I really did spend a lot of time outside that day, during the time of the Stanley Steemer and other really loud machine noises, which kept me away from my writing headspace.
` But, what better activity could I spend this time doing than ganging up on Vada? You gotta get that puss off your face, baby! *Woof!*

It's so horrible, I know, to have noises so loud that you can't think and thus must play with cats. Thanks, single pane aluminum windows! (The pillows that I stuffed in front of them didn't really help, either.)
` In this video, the outdoors are finally quiet enough that I can grab Squeaky Dilly and bring her back inside -- "Do not want!"

Cut to... a bus, where we can see Mount Rainier looming in the distance:

Ah, anything to remind me of Ben Radford. (STILL LOVE YOU, BENNN!!!)

This was when I was hanging out at the beach with hypnotist Rob and he was helping me get started with my science fiction story -- although we had to get away from the noise of the team kayaking crowds first!

We sat in the shade of some little pavilion-type thing, brainstorming like maniacs, until someone kicked us out because they had reserved a birthday party. D'oh! We really did get a lot accomplished, though -- I helped him with his goals as well.

And now for something completely different!

Can you believe the Aquasox gift shop sells little tanks of frogs and snails that die quickly? The neighbor girl totally got ripped off. Poor frogs...

Oh well -- her pet dog, who is still going strong, is a much better singer, anyway:

She's going to be an actress someday, I just know it!

Later, I invited them over to see the chicken coop that Lou Ryan had half-finished.

It has a solid particleboard foundation on top of concrete pads (that sounds like an oxymoron if I ever heard one), and old couch cushions stashed inside the roof! It's really a top-notch chicken coop. Unfortunately, the landlords, who we're buying the house from, stopped by to complain about how they don't like it.
` Too bad -- everyone else who has seen it likes it, including this one guy who says he'll buy us chickens and feed in exchange for eggs! Good deal, no? And besides, the landlords are selling us this house, which we've already put $26,000 into, so why would they care?

At last!! I have finally proven, with the miracle of video, that Dilly is a BackflipCat! She flops a lot, too, and just sits there in the middle of the video, but then gets up for more:

She also really enjoys stalking Vada:

And Vada really enjoys stalking Dilly whenever she climbs a tree:

Vada climbed up into the tree with Dilly, but found her to be too squishy to eat, unlike delicious plants!

Dilly, unable to figure out how to get down herself, wound up clinging to a low-hanging branch, which bounced up and down, until -- flop! She landed in a soft patch of grass right next to Vada, who was stretched out on the lawn and watching with amusement.
` Immediately, Dilly pulled herself up and streaked off, and then Vada looked up at me as though to say, "What is wrong with that kid?"

Dilly and Va-da sittin' in a tree... and now here's a fuz-zy bee:

Little does the fuzzy bee know, there's a yellowjacket competing for sweet, sweet nectar...

Some time after the tree incident, I decided that Dilly is such a little adventurous little cat that Brianade and I decided that it was time to show her the woods. We tried to get Vada to come, too, but Vada was terrified of the scary poodles barking from the balcony up the hill.
` Once we were deep into the ravine, Dilly ate a bunch of RavinePlants, just like Vada would if she wasn't such a scaredy-cat. That being said, even Dilly managed to scare herself several times.

Then, at one point, she almost got away from us, wandering underneath a huge dead tree, into the branches and vines, and I had to follow her and grab her by the scruff of the neck. At least she was stalking birds that time, like a normal cat...

I admit, that wasn't the most spectacular photo post, but my next one will be much better -- plus, it will include Rebecca Watson, the only co-host of SGU that I didn't meet at TAM, so that may or may not be an incentive for you to check it out.