Monthly Archives: November 2007

…and his name is Onyx! 😮

Last Wednesday my parents’ neighbor came by to see the kittens, and she has experience with puppies & kittens and how difficult it can be to tell the difference when they’re young…lo & behold Onyx had little extra “parts” appearing that were not there when I took him home the week earlier! He was as smooth underneath as Ebony back then! Well, there’s a surprise! Onyx still works as a boy name at least, but I feel bad about calling him “little girl” for a whole week, plus the rhinestone collar he’s wearing. He’s growing faster than Ebony and he was larger in the first place, but that also explains the size difference and his more rowdy tendencies, including climbing straight up the flagstone gossamer walls Monday night! He is still the Purr Machine you can hear across the room, and he’s still more cuddly than Ebony, even though Ebony has her very sweet moments, often concerning licking my hair or staring intently into my eyes, and usually follows suit with the cuddling once Onyx settles in.

New photos are here! If I ever get the chance to edit, I’ve taken about 2 hours of funny video per my mom’s request to save their kittenhood for posterity, so I might post those on YouTube later.

Photo shoot attempt with silly paper cars from Mel’s Diner as Onyx attacks Ebony from below

P.S. Tivo status is that everything is working now with the replacement unit except it can’t negotiate the phone call regardless of any forum post ideas I have tried. Next step I guess is to see if I can use the ethernet cable and make the daily schedule call via my home network…which would require running a cable from my living room to my office which is no small hassle right now. I think I’ll be thankful the writers strike is taking new shows off the air for awhile! heh…

My Tivo abruptly decided tonight to stop the video and go audio only. I have no idea if the video is still recording or not since I cannot see anything. I have thoroughly troubleshooted my entire system in the past 2 hours and the DVD signal to TV works fine, so it’s not the internal video bus of the receiver nor the connection from the receiver to the ancient TV I keep expecting to break any day now. So, I pulled out my friends’ old DirecTivo from my garage, hoping at least I had a backup, which seems to work fine video, audio & full signal from both satellite channels, even triple the recording space as mine, plus it’s been hacked with an ethernet cable sticking out of the bottom, but putting my access card into it didn’t give me any service so I called.

In March DirecTV had no issue activating a friend’s old equipment as an additional receiver with the access card already in the equipment, but tonight they refuse to activate previously-owned access cards and insist on sending me a new one that may or may not work in the old equipment, which I must wait even to order until after 6am from another department…and that will take 5-10 days to receive. Once things get working again, I will bitch for a refund for the time my service was completely unusable to me since I CANNOT SEE IT.

Before anyone volunteers purchasing assistance, no, I don’t want to spend the money on upgrading right now since I would need to get new everything. I won’t be buying a new DVR without investing in HD which would also require me getting a new TV for sure. After the October from Hell Visa bill I just paid, I am nowhere near ready for that kind of luxury expense right now. I have also been hoping that by the time I am forced to go HD, DirecTV will have reconciled with Tivo, even though I hear that’s a long shot. I’ve had first hand experience this weekend with my parents new DirecTV DVR and it totally sucks compared to real Tivo.

At least the weekend went well and I had watched all the main shows I had recorded from last week. No Chuck or Heroes for me tomorrow since I’m at choir rehearsal, and I don’t even know what else was going to be new this week for the rest of my shows. Extra irony is that I saved a bunch of living room Christmas decorating like putting lights on my tree & ironing new curtains & tablecloths for later in the week when I could be watching TV at the same time… *sigh*

Edit: The daytime people know more obviously, since after finally getting through and getting transferred to the access card department, they say I should be able to link my access card to the replacement equipment by model# & serial#, which I asked last night and was denied. So they put notes in my account and I will call & try that after rehearsal tonight. Still no Chuck or Heroes for me since I’ll get home too late, but hopefully I’ll be okay the rest of the week…wish me luck!

According to this quiz, I am 62% addicted to Apple…haha…

62%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

How addicted are you?

I’ve tried edit more before posting cute kitty photos, so here’s *only* 35 more since Thursday evening…including kitty toys on tile their first night in the main house, my first lap cuddles on Friday night, both kitties contently listening to me play the piano Saturday night, and even Ebony walking along the keys, standing on the low register (for artistic effect?) before she continued along the keyboard! The first I heard her play was the highest “F, A, A” on her climb up to the top, but she doesn’t stay long enough for any soundfiles though…darn! 😉

Ahhh…first kitty cuddles…even if it was mostly on my neck! 😉

Ebony “plays” the VISIBLE piano

Ebony, Onyx & I will be driving later tonight to my parents’ house, where except for the traditional BBQ turkey that is my dad’s job, I will be doing the cooking this year, since my mom finally came home from the hospital on Sunday after her heart procedure last Tuesday, but she isn’t allowed to lift anything for awhile yet.

I am thankful for family & friends who supported me through a bad October, having a much better November, with new loving & fun kitties who allow me to enjoy my fond memories of Kylie without getting so sad that she’s now gone, my whiplash almost gone, my Briata staying fixed, and my mom doing well after surgery! Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

wins!

It’s even funnier knowing this is Ebony, named after the traditional wood for black piano keys…

Happy Friday!