What a Relief, Asta is Staying

As most of you know, Asta was going to stop blogging. And for those who understand what happened, we can just picture her shock when she learned she'd lost 83% of the photos she's posted in the last 2 years. She posts beautiful photos, funny graphics, so her panic and discouragement was understandable.

We don't think her mom needed to apologize and she's not a dunce. She is a very caring, intelligent lady who lost hope for a moment but had the courage to return and try to help others learn from what happened to her. We all make mistakes! So this is a good opportunity for other Blogger users to learn something invaluable. You can read about what happened at Asta's blog.

On this subject, we received an email from Mom Robyn of HotMBC (House of the mostly black cats) today, reminding everyone to back up their blog. This is very good advice!!!! We tried but we couldn't install a necessary program so until we get a new computer (yeah, right -- when fat pigs fly!), we can't.

However, Asta's problem was not in losing her blog posts, but in being new to Picasa and not understanding that any photos deleted in Picasa online would be deleted in her blogs. Once the pictures are deleted, the links are gone and like Asta's mom said, she would have to go back and put in every single photo from her hard drive again. Readers can still pick up the humor, but they'll have to imagine the photos in the older posts.

Since we have never done a backup or an upload from a backup, we don't know enough about blog backups to understand whether backing up Asta's would have helped her in this situation. Our question is whether uploading a backup would have also uploaded the photos to Picasa, but if it would, it sure would be worth it. (Will fat pigs be flying any time soon? We'd sure like to backup ours.)

And Mom Robyn (of HotMBC), we apologize for responding to your email in a post but for some reason we were unable to reply to your email. The message just refuses to "leave home." But perhaps you can answer the question of whether a backup would replace your blog photos in Picasa.

For those of you that use blogger your pix are not stored with your Blogger posts, but they are stored in Picasa. You get about 1 gigabyte of free storage space. If you don't have the Picasa program on your computer, you don't need to download the program for blogger to store your photos there online.

If you haven't visited Picasa before, log onto your blog (ID and password). Blogger only! Then, either open another tab or window or use the same one, but type picasa.google.com in the bar. It should take you to picasa download, but what you want to do is to click on "and go to Picasa Web Albums to share and explore photos." It should open up your Picasa/blogger photo file for you. Anything you delete in there will be deleted from your blogger posts! So don't delete unless you intend to. But for anyone who is using blogger that didn't know that, you might want to check it out. Better to learn this now than when you receive a notice from Blogger that you are approaching your 1 gb storage and you panic.

Sorry we didn't do a 4th of July post. Jan was busy rearranging the furniture so she could use her new computer cart with the pull out for the keyboard (but no room for the mouse. Hehehe) See Friday's post. And then she took off and left us alone; didn't even bring us any leftovers from dinner.

This is Jan's new workspace. Sorry about the blue lines at the bottom of the screen but Jan said we can't post her scribbles. She scribbles a lot! And loses them a lot! So she tapes notes to her monitor.

So since Jan kept us offline most of yesterday, it serves her right that she worked up such a sweat today (really, she was dripping all over the electrical cords) trying to untangle all the cords behind the computer so she could move the monitor onto the cart. Guess that was our day's entertainment. We should have taped it.

And she says we're messy? She put the little dog there to guard the cords. (Really to keep us kitties away from the cords, but ....)

Hope you all had a fun 4th!

(s) Crystal, Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Sam

Project of the Day

You will never guess how Jan spent our time today -- watching her put together a "mobile laptop cart." Pretty strange considering Jan and tools don't mix and we don't have a laptop. All our time wasted because she wants a tray for her keyboard. She says it is too hard to have to stretch across the desk and type.

Percy: I don't know what her problem is. Maybe she should try standing on the typing chair and then she won't have a problem stretching. I stand on the chair and you all know how well I type. But Jan ... well, she's a human.

Buddy: We would have rather visited some of our friends or watched a video or something fun. But no, we got to watch Ms FumbleFingers drop the tools, put pieces together, take pieces apart, switch pieces, take out the screws and turn the bars over to put the screws in the correct side. And this is all she ended up with after all that frustration.

Sam: I didn't realize the cart has so many legs.

Cotton: Sam, some of those legs are yours.

Sam: Oh, so they are. Wonder how they got in the picture?


Cyndi: Anyway, this is the finished cart. If you think this is weird looking, you should have seen the tiny tools that came with it. Jan dropped the allen key so many times, she should get an award. And either the cart is a little lopsided or the floor slopes. We hope she's happy now. She has a place to put her keyboard.

Merci: Sam, you're looking in the wrong direction. The pullout for the keyboard is on the cart. Under the desktop.


Buddy: Guess he'll find it when he hits his head on it.

Crystal: Now she has to rearrange the living room or she can't use the cart. Wonder if she's thought of that yet?

Cameron: I don't know. But wait till she finds out she forgot to add the CPU shelf. Who wants to tell her?

Rusty: Not me, but that should just pop on. She can't set her computer down near the floor anyway. Some of you guys shed quite a bit, you know.

Chef Needed, Apply Now

The Funny Farm wants to hire a chef. We don't have any green papers, mind you, but working for the Funny Farm should look good on your resume.

Usually we don't mind that Jan is such a dunce in the kitchen. She has developed this habit of putting something on the stove and forgetting about it until the odor of burnt whatever fumigates the house. No, we don't mean permeates, we mean fumigates. But she has always been the one who has to eat what she's burned so it didn't bother us.

But because of Buddy's allergies and skin problems, Jan suddenly decided to cook for us dogs to give us something more than just dry kibble. She figured the recipe was so simple even she could make it.

She mixed the ingredients together in a large bowl according to directions. But how could all that fit in a loaf pan? A loaf of what? It must mean a dozen loaf pans. But never mind, she wasn't turning on the oven, it was too hot! So she dumped the whole mess in a 12" frypan. The lid just kind of sat on top of the mound like a too-small baseball cap.

And you guessed it, she walked off and forgot about it. But she didn't burn it, not this time.

A while later she went in to drain off the fat, but there wasn't any fat. Just a crisp crust on the buttom. She'd cooked off all the fat. But, hmmmm, it needed to be turned over. How? Well, isn't that what a pizza pan is for? Five minutes later, she successfully turned the huge mass over without breaking it and slid it back into the pan. Proud of herself, she glanced at the ingredient list: ground beef, tomatoes, corn meal, oats, 3 eggs --

Uh-oh, she forgot the eggs. And up to 2 cups water, as needed. Truthfully, she didn't forget the water. She just planned to add it after she drained off the fat. Oh, well, she cracked 3 eggs in a bowl and added water, beat them well and -- You guessed it. She poured it over the crisp crust (now on the top since she's flipped it over) and started mixing it in.

That's when we knew we need to hire a chef. Before she tries to cook anything else for us. We mean, just look at this .... this ..... what is it?



Percy started typing up an ad for a chef for us before the .... the .... finished cooking.

And then -- horrors -- she spooned some in our bowls and set them aside to cool. Oh, no, she was going to make us eat that .... that.... When it cooled, she tossed in some crunchies and set the bowls on the floor. We all turned our noses up and refused to eat!

Okay, we're pulling your paw. We ate every bite and licked our bowls clean.

So, we hope you'll forgive us, but we're rescinding our ad for a chef. We won't be hiring after all. We decided we'll keep Jan. At least until this .... this .... runs out.

Maybe she'll try cat food next. But the kitties are hoping she won't. Cats are finicky eaters.

(s) Buddy, Merci & Sam

Merci 's Model Prize

Merci's prize package for the Next Dog Model Contest arrived. Yesterday Percy tried to steal the edible contents and Crystal tried to stuff himself into the box. As small as he is now, he wouldn't have fit if the box had been empty. But he claimed it by rubbing his scent all over it. So this morning Jan got her act together and took some pictures for us.

Merci's prize package included an Our Pets Hers stuffed pink bone, one Endless Sky all natural Bullybell chew and a sample package of Grandma Lucy's frieze dried and baked pet treats.

Merci: Pssst, Sam, you and Buddy are in my publicity shot.

Sam and Buddy taking over the shoot to check out the contents.


Sam: Hey, Percy, you aren't even a dog. Why are you checking out the bullystick?


Merci: At least I get to taste the first treat. I think I'll go enjoy it elsewhere.


Buddy: For crying out loud, let go of it Jan!


Sam: Yeah, what Buddy said. Release the treat, Jan!


Merci: Coming outside is the only way to have a moment alone with my new toy. But, Jan, it's too hot to play. Can we go back inside? I'll play with it later, when it's cooler.

Merci: Thank you, Baby Patches, for holding the contest and choosing the neat prizes. My favorite prize is seeing my picture in your header. It's kind of neat to be a model. especially since I was always afraid of the camera flash. Of course, I'm not in Daisy the Curly Cat's class, but it was fun.