First things first: The 10th edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities is now available at Transcending Gender. Amazing stuff, as usual, and Jen Burke did an excellent job of hosting. Ron Hudson, founder of the ICP, is hosting the next edition but he's always looking for folks to host the Carnival. It's a good time, people, and Ron will guide you though the whole thing with his customary Southern hospitality! Contact Ron if you'd like to host and if you want to submit a post to the next edition of the Carnival, you can do that here.
In other exciting news, kinzin, the family networking software that Katr's been working on since August, launched this week! Check it out! Join up! Enjoy the peripatetic penguins! Such cute penguins . . .
When I got back from Toronto last week, Katr and the team were deep in the throes of launch preparation and and we kinzin widows (and, in some cases, orphans) tried to be supportive, loving and patient until the big day had come and gone and we could all get back to our normal routine of being paid attention to.
As we all know, I consider "paying attention to me" to be one of Katr's key functions.The thing is that when Katr's all stressed out and pulling long hours, she has a plan for the 30 earth seconds daily when she's not busy working. Her plan involves relaxing quietly, either with some computer-related escape or some other form of entertainment. You may find this hard to believe, but hearing me yap about nothing for hours on end isn't always a great tension release - for HER. Me, I can't really help it. I'm like a bat and talking is my sonar. I send it out across the room and when you give off subtle or overt signs of yap-fatigue, that's how I know I'm about to hit a wall.
So naturally, I was thrilled when kinzin launched this week but I quickly realized that even though the launch was delightful and well-received, the "constant work and stress" part was not over for young Katr. Despite all the testing and user feedback that happen before a product launches, there are still surprises to deal with and tweaks to make. It's kind of like when the historically accurate name you chose for a character in a play looks great on the page, but you discover at the reading that the name, spoken aloud by an actor, sounds like "Mrs. Crotch-tits". Goddamn Mrs. Crotch-tits.
So what am I doing to fill the lonely hours? Joining a knitting group? Getting out more? Calling the 5 people I know in Vancouver? Calling my friends back in Toronto? No, no - I'm looking at DOGS. (Dawn, this picture is for you.)
A big draw of this apartment was that we could have an outdoor grill and a dog. Because of a variety of travel plans, we decided that we wouldn't start the dog adoption process until the end of June. So why am I spending hours on Petfinder.com looking at pooches? Because I CAN'T HELP MYSELF. (Also, I"m jealous of Femiknit Mafia's adorable new addition.) Looking at dogs that will probably be adopted by the time we're ready for one is akin to the apartment porn I spent days surfing at back in November. In fact, I was going to refer to my search for dogs in the same way, but I don't want to get a lot of creepy people googling "dog pr0n". That's right, dog pr0n sickos - the dogs and I say "NO!"
As with the apartments, if there's no photo of the dog, I'm not interested and if the dog has red-eye, I want to e-mail the ad-poster and say "Your dog looks like hot evil. Maybe take another picture." Also, it seems like there are a lot of poor homeless pit bulls out there. Poor pit bulls.
After several days of pooch-gazing on a variety of animal rescue sites, I've graduated to Petfinder's classified ads, where I'm learning that alot of people are trying to get rid of their ferrets. I also found an ad which includes the phrase "No same sex dog adoptions". Does that mean you can't have two dogs of the same sex or that GAYS CAN'T HAVE YOUR DOG, Jen from Kentucky?? Either way, I am outraged. And then I remember that she's in Kentucky and am I really going to go adopt a pit bull from Kentucky? No.
And then today - just as I was wrapping up my daily dog pr0n hunt - I found Arthur:
This little gremlin of a Staffy Bull is about as hilarious as they come. With classic SBT moves, such as barking like a toad, snorting like a pig, and being a number one lap dog. About 9-10 years old, but don't tell him that- he knows that he is in the prime of his life. He will cover you in obnoxious kisses, and try to sleep on your face. He does not understand the meaning of personal space, but that makes us love him even more.
"Oh my god," I thought, as the tears welled up, "Arthur is ME IN DOG FORM!!" And I thought about running into the dining room to tell Katr about Arthur!! And then covering her in obnoxious kisses and trying to sleep on her face!! And then I thought "Hey . . . maybe she doesn't need TWO of us."
The search continues.
