[QUOTE=only_human;307239]I took Wookie, my largest cat, to the vet today. He weighed in at exactly 23 pounds. So, almost 2 stone (if I am using that unit correctly); strange that unit is not pluralized. He is the largest housecat I have ever personally seen, except for (maybe) his father.

Someone there speculated that he might have a Maine Coon cat antecedent. Linda and I thought that might be what his father was. Anyway, Wookie is about 14 years old and has never left the house, excepting visits to the vet.

I once posted a picture online of Linda holding him while she was standing in front of a flag. The picture was blurry (cheap webcam). I wish I still had that image. One person said it looked like a bear in front of a flag.

He cries so much when he is outside of the house. A doctor offered to give up some of her lunch time to work on his teeth today. I gratefully accepted.[/QUOTE]One stone is 14 pounds, so 23 pounds is indeed almost two stone.

Our tom cat Genghis is a Subsidiarye Coon (half Maine Coon, half Heinz) and although he's big-framed he's quite slim, probably because he's only 14 months old.
Our other tom, Freddy, hasn't been seen for 6 weeks or so. He has been going walkabout for quite a time now.

Brni (after whom my company Brnikat Ltd is named) is well over 14 years old now. She's going grey but is otherwise fine.

The remaining cat in the household is the (at least half-) sister of Freddy and somewhat over 4 years old. Same litter, perhaps the same father, perhaps not.

Here's wishing your Wookie several more years of contented life.

Someday, we will get a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphynx_%28cat%29"]hairless[/URL] cat. They look so cool but we hear they "run hot".

[QUOTE=xilman;307241]Here's wishing your Wookie several more years of contented life.[/QUOTE]Thank you. Wookie used to weigh 28 pounds. At first I was glad that he was losing weight. Every previous vet visit was led to stern lectures of calorie restriction. Over the years, Wookie has eaten holes in a hard plastic food container and in one of those giant dry catfood bags. He used to close doors by leaping up and pushing with his forepaws. He lopes like a rabbit when he moves sometimes (both front legs, then both back legs). It might look normal on a quickly moving smaller cat but it looks very strange when he does it. He had a few teeth removed today and (lab tests say that I now need to protect his kidneys with lower protein food and more moist food.

Three cats here -- Wookie the giant, Mommy the mommy, and Ollie (Oliver Twist). They are taking a long to calm down again. The are hissing at each other and timidly slinking around. They normally groom each other and will flop on their backs for a belly rubs.

When Ollie was young he used to fetch the toy mice I threw so that I could throw them again. Wookie used to gather several cat toys outside the bedroom door at night and cry for us to come out and play. For the longest time Linda refused to believe that he did this; she thought I was gathering the toys and trying to mess with her mind.

If anyone wants some smoke from this [URL="http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3151/"]fire[/URL] (or any of [URL="http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3052/"]these[/URL] [URL="http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3112/"]others[/URL]), let me know and I can go out and collect some in an empty bottle and mail it to you..... Visibility the last few days has been limited during daylight hours, sometimes getting as low as 2 miles.

Tonight the first one burned over the ridge across the lake from me, so the fire line is visible from my front yard. Too bad I don't have a low-light camera....

Luckily enough, today my power stayed on. The transmission [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/84437500@N05/7749697930/in/photostream"]lines[/URL]* serving our valley are in the path of the second fire and were turned off yesterday due to to arcing brought on by smoke and ash; both local utilities that obtain power from that corridor were out for around 4 hours yesterday. Today the other utility has been out for 8 hours already......

Smoked a 580 last night. MSI Twin Frozr II/OC blew C101! Found out because system was off when I woke up - and wouldn't turn back on. Systems runs fine with the replacement GT 430 :yucky:
Looks like it's time to find a new one...

[QUOTE=flashjh;308471]Smoked a 580 last night. MSI Twin Frozr II/OC blew C101! Found out because system was off when I woke up - and wouldn't turn back on. Systems runs fine with the replacement GT 430 :yucky:
Looks like it's time to find a new one...[/QUOTE]

My Twin Frozr II 460 [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=308298#post308298"]broke a fan[/URL] bearing a few days ago. Now I have to RMA it :rant:

[QUOTE=Dubslow;308473]My Twin Frozr II 460 [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=308298#post308298"]broke a fan[/URL] bearing a few days ago. Now I have to RMA it :rant:[/QUOTE]
Long story short, that's what my 580 did, also. I just ordered the replacement fan from Newegg last night - ironic that I won't have a use for it now.

[QUOTE=flashjh;308474]Long story short, that's what my 580 did, also. I just ordered the replacement fan from Newegg last night - ironic that I won't have a use for it now.[/QUOTE]

The 580's not still in warranty?

[QUOTE=Dubslow;308475]The 580's not still in warranty?[/QUOTE]

I'm waiting to hear back from MSI.

What you really, really don't want to see....
 

...when the local electric grid is being supplied by the biomass [URL="http://www.greenleaf-power.com/facilities/honey-lake.html"]plant[/URL] in the foreground!

[SIZE="1"](Pic is from Tuesday; since then ground crews cut breaks and got the fire turned away from the plant...)[/SIZE]

You know how that coiled up lead to your telephone eventually takes uo a life of its own.
How the **** do you disentangle it when it starts to mate with your headphone lead???

D