We found out today that our cat is diabetic.  How strange is that?  Apparently it’s pretty rare for cats to get diabetes, and only about 20% of those are female.  My inlaws have a cat (female) with diabetes as well.  The vet was shocked that we knew anybody with a cat that had diabetes.

This just adds to our luck with cats:

Cat #1 - Death by foot
Cat #2 - Feline Leukemia
Cat #3 - (this one) Diabetes
Cat #4 - Satan in feline form.  We gave him away.

Diabetes is better than death by foot.  I’ll admit that.

For the record, I tried putting this evening into limerick form, but it just didn’t work. There was too much fun to cram into 5 lines.

It’s 1:00 a.m. in Nashville as I’m typing this. That means it’s 2:00 a.m. in Atlanta where I have to be at work soon. I’m crashing with Sir Eric Peters and his dear wife Danielle tonight. I came to Nashville tonight to see The Square Peg Alliance pack out the Radio Cafe. They were amazing. I’d try to describe it more, but I wouldn’t do it justice.

Before the show, I got to hang out and catch up with some fine folks like Sandra McCracken, Katy Bowser, Chris Mason, Billy Cerveny, Matthew Perryman Jones, and Andy Osenga. We did a little huddle interview where the Pegs updated us a little about what’s going on with their group. Hopefully Geof will have that online sometime soon.

The show was a blast. The Square Pegs I just mentioned played an “in the round” show, with special appearances by Derek Webb, Katy (who actually didn’t sing in the round), and Andy Peterson. It’s fun watching these guys sing on each others songs and get excited about what’s happening around them. Everybody sounded great, and Billy Cerveny successfully offended most people in there with a song about a cow that predicts Presidential elections. I literally have not laughed so hard in a very long time.

After the show was done, and most people had left, we came back to Eric’s place where two fine gentlemen, Andy Peterson and Ben Shive, joined us. Conversation centered around Canon printer driver installation, certain medical procedures, and amazingly disformed (though quite tasty) chocolate chip cookies. We watched an episode of the old PBS Sherlock Holmes series, and then talked a little bit before Ben and Andy left.

I’m not really looking forward to the drive home tomorrow, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. I’ve got some C.S. Lewis audio that needs to be heard, so I might get into some of that. I’ll be headed straight to work, hopefully getting there before it’s too late. Speaking of too late…I should get some sleep before that alarm goes off.  I think I’ve got almost 4 hours of sleep coming my way before I hit the road again.  Is it worth it?  Totally.

Yahoo News is reporting that the U.S. Marines in charge of guarding Saddam Hussein are forcing him to watch the South Park movie (that showed him and Satan trying to take over the world together) “repeatedly.” Link here.

I love the Marines.

Sasha commented about limerick contests in the Saturday Evening Post, and though I haven’t (yet) entered one, I decided to get practiced up.

If I ever got chosen to paint
The cover of The Post, I would faint.
My pictures don’t tell
A story themselves;
For a Rockwell I certainly ain’t.

You wonder if this new style will stay,
And I really don’t know what to say.
The messages here
Make it very clear
That my web site is better this way.

Sasha mentioned a limerick contest about Norman Rockwell, and it reminded me of the only poetry contest I have ever entered.

I few years ago, I entered (and won) a poetry contest in the Red Hat email newsletter “Under the Brim.” The challenge was to write a poem that used our name, where we lived, the flavor of Linux used, the reasons we use Linux, and the results of using Linux.

This was my winning entry:

There once was an Atlantan named Ron
Whose servers always had to be on.
For maximum uptime,
He found Red Hat sublime;
And soon all the Windows were gone.

All I won was a Red Hat t-shirt and bragging rights among geeks. I still wear the shirt, and with this post, I’m still bragging in geekland.

In the past 2 weeks I’ve had about 5 people tell me I’m a good writer, and 3 of them weren’t even related to me.  That, of course, means that the people who read my blog have no clue what they’re talking about. Nevertheless, I got inspired from all of the comments, so I decided to get a little creative for those times that I’ve got a busy day but still want to post something.

I am trying to find a new way
To update my blog every day.
A quick limerick
May just do the trick
When I’m booked but have something to say.

I am posting a limerick on
My web site because I am gone.
I am busy with things
for a Goodgame who sings.
Though I’m busy, you’ll still get more Ron.

I’m back, after an unexplained 36-hour absense.

Always backup your files, because hard drives never die at a convenient time.