That's right, after checking numerous stores that don't sell kittens, visiting pet events that have no kittens, dealing with insulting adoption agents, checking all over online, and a couple of trips to the pound.... we found our little guy at the one store we failed to check - the one right next to Home Depot by our house. Hahaha.

Yet to be christened with a real name, our new charge is 8 weeks old and a smart kitten! After a scary ride home with me in which he jumped out of his take-home box at least 10 times (on a half-mile stretch of road) and I kept putting him back while trying not to get us killed on the road, he was a bit shaken. But after exploring the downstairs level of his new digs and falling asleep on each of us, he has decided he likes us. After just one night of socializing, he purrs whenever we're around and meows whenever we leave him alone downstairs.

He has already gotten accustomed to his new bed, has successfully used the litter box (he's a thorough cover-upper!), and discovered his food and water. Thankfully, he's a good communicator and meows at us when nature calls, since he hasn't figured out the path from the living room to the bathroom.

So yeah - FINALLY!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Sufjan Stevens is releasing The Avalanche, a collection of 21 unreleased songs he recorded when working on Illinois. Remember that the epic Illinois itself featured 22 tracks.

He has also recorded a full album with Rosie Thomas, his girlfriend and expectant mother of his child.

It hasn't even been a year since Illinois was released. Sufjan Stevens has to be the writingest musician I've ever seen. He's releasing music more frequently than Ani Difranco.

Update: Sufjan's website gives a few more details about the Illinois outtakes and says that Rosie Thomas is NOT carrying his baby. I guess the moral of the story is that you should never trust Pitchfork, especially when they say, "Serious! For once, Pitchfork is not joking."

After months of trying to get Dreamhost to have a decent way for more than one ftp/shell user to control the same file, I found this:

If you need to open files in another user's home directory (assuming both are under you account, of course!) contact TS and they will happily make an exception for you.

I had asked for this several times, but once I found it on their wiki and quoted it to them, they finally agreed to do it. That means, that if you're a brendoman.com author and you've been wanting to have more control over how your blog looks, I can now create an ftp/shell account for you and you can have total control over your blog's skin.

I know this is something that Dave wanted and I tried to get it set up, but it just wasn't working. I guess it's too late for that now. But if any other authors want something set up, leave a comment or email me. It doesn't have to be just your blog skin. I can also set up some normal webspace for you to play around in.