So the voting is over, and the counting is over, and bloody FF got in again^[1] Friday morning was not a good time to be around de mudder as the meeja were all saying that FF would get in with an overall majority.

Luckily that turned out to be not the case, they’ll still need someone’s help, maybe Labour, maybe the Greens. Who knows.

B #1 voted FF. But everyone else in de family went for the others, and wasn’t there much rejoicing^[2] when Michael McDowell wasn’t elected.

Remember when I may possibly have aided and abetted a mouse murder?^[3] Well on Sunday I may have done enough to redress the balance. Whiney cat came racing towards the house, pursued by two thrushes and carrying a third in his mouth. We’d've ignored the drama outside but then spotted that thrush #3 was still alive. A wee baby bird. Well, not too much of a baby, it had feathers and could flutter a little. So I nabbed the cat and brought him inside while we waited to see if the parents would return. Whiney cat was not at all impressed by this development, and he wanted everyone in the world to know. Whiney doesn’t even come into it, he moaned and demanded to be let out for half an hour, running from one window to the the next and then to the door.

Eventually, as we couldn’t spot the bird we let him out. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah, he caught it again, and once more dragged it towards the house, again being chased by the parentals. So we said we’d give it one more chance. And put up with the non-stop griping from the cat. It may have worked this second time as there was no sign of the bird after that, and on his next trip outside there was plenty of searching but no finding.

Course, one of the neighbouring cats could have got the bird either. But you know, I think we deserve marks for effort.

The cat has now also been collared and belled. Though what difference that’ll make is hard to say.

Oh, and I’ve also installed a plugin thingy that’ll publish these posts across on the livejournal as well. Because, sure I might as well.

Related posts

• You’re a liar and a thief…. Murderer! (11)
• Twit (0)
• Minister McDowell (0)
• Let the boasting and hubris commence (4)
• In this country of the cute hoor, misleading the Dáil or Seanad is considered little more than a minor stroke (0)

Well, obviously enough, with the weekend just gone my first topic of this post has to be… the role of the Catholic Church in the political life of Ireland.

Or maybe not.

I’d much prefer to ramble on about the rugby. I didn’t catch any of the England-Scotland match, though I hear Wilko was fabtastic, but his try wasn’t one. I am a fan of Wilkinson, and in one way I do hope his road to recovery is straightforward, but then again, we play England fairly soon and I really want to win.

I didn’t see much of the France-Italy game either. Was at the aunt’s having lunch. But I’m very disappointed in Italy. This was to be their year to win a game, but they played horrendous rugby^[1] and it’ll be the Wooden Spoon if they continue on like that.

And so on to our match, and could you get much more intense than that?
And yes Ireland were lucky not to have O’Callaghan penalised, but there were more than a few occasions when I saw Wales not releasing the ball when tackled. Turns and roundabouts. Three tries to nil means we finished better on the day. And on a day when O’Gara had a horrible first 40 minutes that says a lot.

Injuries now are the big worry for Sunday against France. Darcy is supposed to be fine, O’Driscoll may make it. Although that might just be talk to keep the French guessing. The big worry is Stringer, who has a hairline fracture in his hand.

We’ll see what happens.

In today’s weather update it looks like winter has finally arrived now that it is spring. Bloody freezing out this morning so it it. And the last half an hour or so on the drive home on Saturday was through freezing fog so dense that you couldn’t see nuttin’.

Still the trip home meant I was finally able to stick all the music on the mp3 player. Only around 2,500 songs or so, but while I was adding them I also spent a few hours^[2] deleting all the duplicates from the PC. I’m not really sure why we needed ten copies of some songs on the hard drive, though I’m sure there was a very good reason for it.

And you’ll all be pleased to know that the newest cat is still alive. And as stupid as any cat. Put out by the mutt leaping about the sitting room chasing a ball she decided to leave the room, but as she jumped down from the chair she slipped on the wooden floor and smashed into the ironing board, but instead of realising that she was the cause of her collision she promptly turned and blamed the innocent hound. Spitting at him until he nosed her out of the way.

The gasúr had his birthday while I was away. He is a whole year old now^[3] and taking a few steps, though he prefers to crawl.

How was everyone’s weekend?

Related posts

• You are my sunshine - Redux (5)
• Story rory? (0)
• Gutted (6)
• Week 213 (9)
• Just hush! (4)

Hola muchachos y muchachas, and welcome to 2007.

How did everyone get over the holiday season? I hope you went along with Budweiser’s wishes and had a good one.

Mine was the usual. Although I did manage to discover “living things” inhabiting the mutt, which meant he had to take a shower, which he doesn’t really like. You’d think he’d be delighra over having a warm shower instead of a freezing cold hosing, but he never shows any gratitude. I also got to meet the new cat, she^[1] is a tabby, silver white with black stripes. And for a stray she is ultra tame. Even gets on well with the mutt; he isn’t so fond of her chasing his tail. He also has a case of that green eyed monster, and anytime anyone shows herself a bit of attention he has to come over to investigate. Then again, he was always sorta like that, just a little more so now.

As for the new year resolutions, well many years ago I made one to never make any more, and I’m sticking to that one.

Anyone catch Celebrity Big Brother?
I know, I moan about the stupidness of the regular one, and that last celeb version was unwatchable, but you just gotta tune in to see who they manage to get on.

And this year we have a whathisface Jackson, Michael’s brother, who looked very very uncomfortable and out of place. Leo Sayers, who seemed to know everyone from some party or other. Teddy Sherringham’s girlfriend who got booed coming in, but she seems like just a nice young wan.

Biggest idiot of the night award goes to the no-name from whatever that band is called. The fella who tried to impress everyone with his cursing and giving the crowd the finger. Loved their reply, chants of “Who Are Ya?” Honestly, giving people the finger, if you are over 15 or 16 then it just makes you look like an arsehole.

My favourite celeb, obviously was Face from A-Team.

Don’t know if I’ll watch anymore, but sure that was an entertaining evening watching all the celebs and non-celebs arrive.

I’ve also started watching that Medium thingy, I’m not to sure if I like the stories and plots, but sure yer man from American Gothic is reason to watch. Not that he is fanciable^[2] or anything, but I like him as an actor. It’s also nice to see a married couple on telly without them being in a soap.

Speaking of telly, which i was, I also watched the first episode of Heroes, despite the fact that it doesn’t start until February, and not through any illegal file-sharing activity, but through the wonders of free internet telly, okay, so the quality of the picture aint that great. But you know what? Yup, that’s right, it is FREE! It also seems to have Veronica Mars season three, so I may actually watch it without waiting for the dvd.

As you are probably aware, I’ve missed a few Unconscios Muttering Sunday/Mondays, what with the Christmas and the not being online, but look, it is week 204 and Luna Nina says:

1. Resolution ::
2. Happy ::
3. Bubbly ::
4. Kiss ::
5. Leather ::
6. Fancy ::
7. Pages ::
8. Stupid ::
9. Apologize ::
10. Secrets ::

Read the rest of this entry »

Related posts

• Week 191 (8)
• Expect Fox to cancel it after 3 episodes (11)
• Week 205 (0)
• TT#6 (7)
• TT #25 (19)

It’s a little on the wet side today. And after I opened up the library this morning I noticed a little kitten sheltering from the rain. One of the feral cats that live round the back. As young as it was it had already decided that people were bad, so I left it alone. And every few minutes I’d see the mother cat appear, try to pick up the kitten only to notice people moving about in the library and, agreeing with the kitten that people were bad, leg it. And then return to do the whole thing al over again a few minutes later. In the end I decided to close the door so mammy cat couldn’t see us, and when I reopened the door, mammy and kitten were nowhere to be be found.

But if anything the rain has gotten worse. Its like that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace turns up looking for whatsherface-what-gets-her-throat-slashed-later^[1] and says to her father that it’s a grand soft day. Well, that wasn’t a soft rain, but never mind. That’s the sort of falling straight down rain we have at the moment, so it isn’t too bad. It means umbrellas are actually useful. Usually the rain falls at an angle, or doesn’t so much fall as move horizontally across the face of the earth rendering umbrellas useless.

Anywas, Braveheart, was on last night. I dinnae watch it. Mainly cause I’ve seen it umpteen times^[2] and to be honest all of Mel Gibson’s anti-English propaganda is wearing a little thin at this stage. What I did watch was Dr. Bashir on an elephant. Also known as Hannibal. This was a made for tv film thing on BBC1 last night, and it wasn’t terrible. Wasn’t great either though. What I have noticed about these ancient war type films is that they can never really show proper cavalry battles, on account of their being no such thing as stunt hosses. And the beeb obviously didn’t have the sfx budget of a big action film. Still they did quite a good job, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Vin Diesel film compares, if that ever gets made. The writer, David Franzoni doesn’t inspire much confidence from me, as he was responsible for King Arthur which is a lot better without the sound and Amistad which was a crap film over-rated because of the subject material. I suppose he deserves credit for Gladiator, so we’ll reserve judgement till we see the film.

And seeing as there are only five days left till the rugby I’ll direct you over to The Limerick Blogger’s round-up of the weekend newspapers.

Related posts

• You know another really good business? Teeny tiny baby coffins. You can get them in frog green or fire engine red. Really. (24)
• I see said the blindman (5)
• A collection of odments (8)
• You’re a liar and a thief…. Murderer! (11)
• You think that I could muster up a little soft, shoop devil sway (7)

A cat came to the library today. Hesitant and silent as only a big-bellied pregnant cat can be. I told this tabby that we had no smell-o-books, so she left. For a weekend of feline debauchery, no doubt, as the college has quite a population of semi-feral cats.

It has been a strange sort of a week, or maybe I’m merely suffering withdrawel symptons from not being online so much. My contribution to the b’verse have been, for the most part, confined to the mornings at work. But it isn’t really my fault. You can blame Tim Minear.

Or, maybe you can blame Channel Six, as they were the ones who showed the promos for his show The Inside, but haven’t actually scheduled it yet. And they’ve ignored my emailing asking if they know when they might be airing it. But an idle comment on Whedonesque prompted me to look online, again. And lo and behold I found some episodes, that weren’t dead. So, since Monday evening Pavlov^[1] has been occupied downloading a folder containt 7 episodes of The Inside, hopefully it’ll be finished some time this evening.

And, while I can go online and do other stuff while the torrents do their thing, it does tend to slow everything down. And given that Pavlov is a whole two years old I decided to just leave him to it.

This, of course, also means that I’ll be waiting till alter to nab the most recent Veronica Mars episode. I’m prepared to wait though, especialy given the fact that at the moment it doesn’t look like there will ever be a dvd release of The Inside, while there will be one of VM.

And of course, there is also the fact that we are blessed with an abundance of wathcable weekly tv at the moment. Another factor keeping me from messing about online.

• Monday
  • Lost which has improved from the “oh god, let something happen before I die of boredom
  • Podge & Rodge - the terrible twosome.
• Tuesday
  • BSG where poor old Apollo was suffering last episiode
  • Desperate Housewives - which gets more and more surreal with every episode
  • Our second helping of Podge & Rodge though I do think they have eased back from the attacks on their guests. They were positively nice to Fr. Brian Darcy. And wasn’t he odd, with his fake-laughter?
• Wednesday is a bit of dead loss. Apart from soaps, which I didn’t actually watch this week, instead I went to see V for Vendetta for a second time>
• Thursday
  • House - bearing in mind that I’ve only seen two episodes of this show I have to say that all the reports of it have not been exagerations. It is funny and gross. It does have interesting storylines, and characters, and technobabble, because you can’t have a medical show without the technobabbale, and it has interesting directors like Bryan Singer.
  • Bones is also really enjoyable light-hearted^[2] entertainment.

So, that is a week filled with much tv-goodness and I haven’t even mentioned the shows on dvd that are waiting for me.

But it does pose a bit of a problem. My reading is suffering, as well as my blogging. Used to be I’d read a book every day or two. Now it is usually at least a week.

And also, what is the deal with the increasing use of maudlin songs over the final few shots in American TV shows? Cold Case is of course the worst offender. It spends the final half and hour recapping all the scenes we’ve already seen with people filing boxes away while some angst-filled emotional songs provides the only sound. But Bones seems to be spending longer and longer grave-side with the music, and House did the same thing. I don’t mind a bit of music at the end, but do we really need to be hit over the head with the “look how sad/resolved/emotional/important the ending is?

Related posts

• That’s not even a plot (21)
• Lost - All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issue (0)
• The budget was a packet of crisps and half a pint of lager (13)
• Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn’it, ay? Beautiful plumage! (8)
• Lost - Special (0)

ETA: pix added

*disclaimer* Peoples, by reading this post you all agree to not prosecute^[1] and never breathe a word to The Law.

It seems I am an accessory to a crime. Not just any crime, but murder! Although possibly I’m worse than an accessory. I may be an accomplice. Shocking I know.

Sunday afternoon the sister mentioned that the cat(Missy) had been sitting on the freezer in the utility room, staring for about an hour. A little while later Missy wandered into the kitchen, gave one of her “I want, I want, I want” meows and turned around and wandered out. I did what any good cat-owner would do. Ignored her.

A little while later while putting stuff in the dishwashers I noticed her staring between two boxes on a shelf above the aforementioned dishwasher. I made several trips between the kitchen and the dishwasher. The cat remained motionless, apart from a swishing tail.

Eventually, cup of tea in one hand, I decided to investigate. I moved a box to the side. Saw nothing, but Missy shuffled forward a little. Head tilting from one side to the other^[2] I took a swig of tea and moved the box again.

There in the gap between the two cardboard boxes hung a tail. Or was it a lace? I wasn’t sure, but figured the cat would make her move now. She didn’t. I went back into the kitchen, topped up my cup of tea^[3] and asked the sister if she thought it was a tail or a lace. She didn’t know. Lot of use.

So I took the box down off the shelf, and waited for the cat to leap. She remained motionless, again, apart from her own tail.

At this stage brother #4 made his way towards the dishwasher. Now that the box was gone the mouse could clearly be identified as such. Hiding in a half empty packet of peanuts^[4] unmoving, hoping that the cat would go away.

So I gave the cat a little push. Afterall, you can’t let these home invaders get away with it. No joy. Missy remained, crouched, about to attack, but not. So, taking yet another mouthful of tea I pondered what my next move should be. In the past we have caught mice in plastic bags and released them into the wild, but this mouse was in far too awkward a positition for that. So I took a deep breath and with a little puff made the mouse move its tail.

Just what the cat had wanted; confirmation that it was alive.

She half-leapt forward, carefully, because this was a rickety shelf only used for holding washing powder and cleaning products, and… no she didn’t catch the mouse. She knocked it down. Then crouched back down again, staring. Before making another half jump and catching the mouse.

And what wonderful thing happened then?
Of course, she brought it straight into the kitchen and promptly let it go.

Free. As Free as The Wind Blows, As Free as the Grass Grows

At least until the dog came in wanting to know what all our shouts of “No” “Missy! No. Don’t bring that in here.” “Out, damn spot” and suchlike.

So, seeing the dog coming the cat decided to recapture the poor lil’ mouse, but looked like she was going to jump up on the work surfaces with it still in her mouth. Luckily my foot got in her way, and with yet another “NO” I gently pushed her towards the open door, calmly asking the sister to make sure the back door was open. The sister grabbed herself a brush. A big yard brush and shooed the cat into the wilds of our backgarden, where she once more released the mouse. Released and recaptured.

Then the dog wanted to join in this game of cat and mouse, but a jealous cat is our Missy, so she legged it for one of the trees down the back of the garden and the hound had to be satisfied with killing a plastic ball.

So as you can see, this mousicide was not really my fault at all. Not to mention the fact that I would have been well within my rights to blow said mouse away with a double-barrelled shotgun as he^[5] was, as I’ve previously stated, a home invader.

Oh, and then Brother #1 arrived with the new gasur^[6] for us all to coo over.

Related posts

• Voting cats. Maybe not. (2)
• Did I happen to mention (1)
• Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function (4)
• A collection of odments (8)
• Zodiac (0)