Thursday, May 31, 2007, 10:26
Section: Virginia Tech
Normally, Virginia Tech Magazine is light on content I’m very interested in — glance at the articles and flip to the alumni notes section is the rule for me — but the newest issue is a keeper.
It’s the April 16, 2007 memorial issue and has full transcripts of the convocation speeches, a photo gallery of memorials around campus and elsewhere in the world, and full write-ups on the victims.
OK, let me try and make up for the Avril Lavigne thing: I’ve also been listening to Australian party band The Cat Empire non-stop for about six weeks, in particular “The Car Song” and “Sly.” Here they both are, courtesy of YouTube:
If those lyrics are too Australian to understand for some of you — I think the accents are a big part of the charm, just like the Scots accent is a big part of the charm of Sons and Daughters — here’s the lyrics to “Sly”:
Ellis Truss has two yard cats to keep mice away — apparently sawdust is like a magnet for mice — Patch and Penny. Penny has gone walkabout, as cats are wont to do, and has been gone several weeks. She’s always had a habit of staying out overnight or longer at a stretch and often just coming back to tag in, grab a bite to eat, and head out again. Motley, who was a total homebody much of her 20 years, once spent a month living in a national forest when I had an apartment in Blacksburg before showing up one day on the back porch, waiting to be let in for dinner and acting as though nothing had happened.
In any case, the Ellises have decided to get two more kittens to fill the void and when their cousins’ cat had kittens, Britt drove off to pick them up and bring them back. They’re both right at six weeks old, tiny as can be, but fearless. Both are tabby mixes (the brownish tabby has an orange stripe on her head) and, as they jump and race around like kittens their age will, getting a good photograph of them is as tricky as getting a good shot of Bigfoot.
Here the two as-yet-unnamed kittens are, during a nighttime visit to see if they were doing OK and if Patch was still hissing at them and avoiding them. (She was.) They’re playing with Kasey’s toy cars in the plans room.
The camera on my Treo is also partially to blame, of course.
Shameful admission of the week: I really like Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend.” There may be more chicks rocking nowadays — which is great, and I love it — but so many of them are so damn dour. This song is catchy, fun and full of attitude and there’s that whole Toni Basil thing she does near the end.
I know: I’m like a 12 year old girl. I don’t know how the hell that happened.
Normally, Virginia Tech Magazine is light on content I’m very interested in — glance at the articles and flip to the alumni notes section is the rule for me — but the newest issue is a keeper.
In any case, the Ellises have decided to get two more kittens to fill the void and when their cousins’ cat had kittens, Britt drove off to pick them up and bring them back. They’re both right at six weeks old, tiny as can be, but fearless. Both are tabby mixes (the brownish tabby has an orange stripe on her head) and, as they jump and race around like kittens their age will, getting a good photograph of them is as tricky as getting a good shot of 
