Caturday Supplement: Welp, That Happened

Posted on September 2, 2017 by Adam Lang

Yesterday’s post, you may have noticed, was somewhat abbreviated. In fact, it didn’t happen at all. This is because the high in San Francisco was 107 yesterday, and I was trying to fight off a sinus infection and was home from work, and I died. Nobody in San Francisco has air conditioning. It got up well above 110 in my apartment, and didn’t cool down past 85 until after 3 AM.

Today I elected to spend my day in the basement of Macy’s Union Square. Air conditioning, plenty of seating (some of which for some reason nobody ever uses). Food, drinks. There’s even one electrical outlet, although since I forgot my damn laptop charger that turns out to be of limited usefulness.

Anyway, today was a lot more pleasant than yesterday, even with the folks doing construction fifteen feet away and sawing through concrete.

So yeah. That happened.

Here, have a cat. Specifically, and I knew this song LONG before Big Bang Theory ever used it, a ‘Warm kitty, soft kitty, little ball of fur.’

Marmie Cat Sunning Herself In The Window

Sleepy kitty…

Marmie Cat Sunning Herself In The Window

Happy kitty. (No, really. Ears mostly forward, eyes mostly closed. This is a relaxed smile for a cat.)

Marmalade Cat Looking Very Relaxed

Purr purr purr.

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Dog of the Day: Mole the Peruvian Herding Dog

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Adam Lang

Pronounced like the Mexican dish, not the burrowing animal. Mole is getting close to two years old now. She’s an unknown mix, but probably border collie and maybe some Aussie. What we do know is that she was a herding dog on a farm in Peru, but she kind of flunked out of that for barking too much. According to my correspondent, this was probably because she was not getting enough love and cuddles and kisses. She gets plenty now, and she hardly barks any more. Except when she gets all excited, like she did when she met me. (So adorable.)

Brown And White Border Collie Mix Looking Alert

Fully convertible ears. Mostly, though, they just hang out to the sides.

Brown And White Border Collie Mix With Her Leash In Her Mouth

One of her signature moves: she loves playing tug-of-war with the leash.

Woman Holding Brown And White Border Collie Mix

Seems to me she and her mom (and their friends) go on a lot of adventures together. Which is awesome.

Brown And White Border Collie Mix Peering Into The Camera

A little blurry but I love the expression. And the ears.

Brown And White Border Collie Mix Rolling Around On Her Back And Playing With Her Leash

Mole is a dog who knows how to amuse herself.

Brown And White Border Collie Mix Rolling Around On Her Back And Playing With Her Leash

Although I’m pretty sure she was even happier when I joined in the game.

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Dog of the Day: Louie the Bernese Mountain Dog Poodle Mix Puppy

Posted on August 30, 2017 by Adam Lang

Louie the bernadoodle (no, no burning doodles!) is four months old in this picture. Just think how big he’s going to get!

Bernadoodle Puppy Smiling

Giant puppy smiles for everybody.

Bernadoodle Puppy Scratching Himself

Caught mid-itch.

Little Girl Petting Bernadoodle Puppy

This was love at first sight. She must have sat there for ten minutes petting that dog. So adorable.

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Dog of the Day: More Mushu the German Shepherd Puppy

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Adam Lang

Remember how I told you that more pictures of Mushu (the 6-month-old German shepherd puppy) were coming? How could you ever have doubted me?

German Shepherd Puppy Standing Halfway In A Flower Bed

I find it hard to express how much of a ham Mushu is.

German Shepherd Puppy Making Ridiculously Goofy Face

Goofy face or goofiest face? Discuss.

German Shepherd Puppy Sticking His Tongue Out At His Dad

A ‘blep’, just for Autumn.

Man Trying To Get German Shepherd Puppy To Look At Camera And Failing

The dialog, at least as intuited by me, really was roughly what the hovertext says.

German Shepherd Puppy Smiling At Camera

All day, Mushu. All day.

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Double Dog Day: Two Irish Water Spaniels

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Adam Lang

Wow, another new breed! I had heard of these before, but I think this was the first time I met any. And there were at least four at the festival, and they all looked like perfect twins. Well, I guess it’s much harder to see the difference between dogs when they’re under a long coat of floofy sproingy fur.

Irish Water Spaniel Looking Happy

There are eyes under there, I promise.

Irish Water Spaniel Looking Happy

They actually look a lot like curly-coat retrievers… not a comparison that is terribly helpful for most people, I’ll grant you.

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Sunday Switchup: Total Eclipse Fiasco

Posted on August 27, 2017 by Adam Lang

I promised some people some eclipse pictures today, taken from a rather nice spot in the Shaw Nature Reserve, Gray Summit, MO. So… here they are. Unfortunately they’re not quite all I’d hoped.

It seems that there was something that the gentleman who sold me this lens didn’t tell me when he sold it to me. It’s possible he didn’t know: certainly neither he nor I had the appropriate camera to test it with, nor the appropriate adaptor to use with our cameras. It’s a Nikon F-mount lens, which more or less went out with the dodo, the Charleston, and most of my hair.

I only got the adaptor on Friday, shipped to me at my hotel, and I didn’t even have a single hour to test it with before I got down to where I was going to watch the eclipse. Not that it would have mattered: it’s not like I could have easily bought another one of these.

You’ll see the problem immediately: I appear to have gotten two lenses for the price of one, which is much more useful when they aren’t in the same casing and offset from one another by about a tenth of a millimeter. It’s easiest to see in the last picture, where there is actually a line of darkness between the two bits of sun peeking around the rim of the moon. I assure you, that effect wasn’t visible in person. But at least that one looks kind of neat… the one of the total eclipse, with corona, is just horrible. And all the rest that I took during totality were even worse.

All the lens needs is alignment, but since it’s a lens from 1991 I’m not even sure there’s anyone still in business who knows how to.

Welp. Anyway. That’s all I’ve got. Next time I go to see an eclipse, I am going to have a nice long lens well tested beforehand, probably by taking lots of adorable pictures of sea otters. And next Sunday I will have some rather pretty pictures of the grounds of the reserve, which I took with a different and less inebriated lens.

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Caturday Supplement: FLOOF

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Adam Lang

This cat would not do well in our apartment. It tends to get kind of dusty…

Cat With Giant Fluffy Tail Sitting In Small Cat House

I would not have guessed you could get a tail to look like that without sticking the other end into an electrical socket.

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Dog of National Dog Day: Charles the Cavalier King Charles Poodle Puppy

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Adam Lang

You get a bonus post today… not only is it Caturday, but it’s also National Dog Day! I wanted to post a picture I took today, but I didn’t run into any dogs today… not a one! So here’s Charles, who I ran into yesterday. He is four months old and indistinguishable from a golden-doodle in appearance and temperament… which is in no way a negative thing!

Photographer Scratching Under The Chin Of Cavapoo Puppy

It is next to impossible to get Charles to look into the camera.

Cavapoo Peering Into The Camera

Combine that with the fact that his mom is much more interested in looking at him than she is in showing off for the camera, and it explains why, though I took almost two dozen pictures of the two of them together, there was not a single one where both of them were facing the camera.

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Dog of the Day: Irish Wolfhound And Friend

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Adam Lang

Another dog from my vacation.

Boy Admiring Irish Wolfhound

Pretty sure this dog could knock this boy over with his tongue.

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Dog of the Day: Irish Red-and-White Setter

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Adam Lang

And lo, there was another new breed for our blog: our first Irish red-and-white setter. I have actually met one of these before, also at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, but this time I got a couple of usable pictures.

Very distinctive dogs. Very pretty, don’t you think?

Irish Red And White Setter Leaning Against Man's Legs

The camera’s not tilted: he’s a leaner.

Man With Irish Red And White Setter

Proud dad showing off his ‘Celtic Canine’.

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