This weekend

[elaby]

Our date yesterday was successful ^_^ We found nice seats at Panera's (they NEED to install outlets in the booths, sheesh) and stayed there for about four hours, having various parts of lunch and goodies. I did no actual plot planning, per se, but now I have names for all of my characters (first and last, even the marginal ones!) and I know how they're all related to each other (complete with family trees!), which is important for a succession story.

We went and walked around downtown a little bit afterwards, and went to a couple of toy stores n_n But it was windy, so we hurried back home after an hour or so.

We had enchiladas for dinner and then we turned off all the lights and all of the appliances we could intelligently turn off (like, not the refrigerator ^_^) and lighted several candles. Caitirin wrote for a little while and I worked with my Brian Froud Faerie Oracle deck, both with a plateful of tea lights. Of course since I was sitting on the floor, Freija couldn't keep away, and we think she singed some of her whiskers o.o She's been walking a tad loopily. We noticed it when we had her harness on so we could try taking her out into the hallway (of COURSE she wanted nothing to do with it! Only when we actually want to leave!) but after we took it off she was still a bit unsteady, and we've read that cats whose whiskers get shortened somehow can be a bit off-kilter. *quiet snerk*

Haha, and we went to the supermarket this morning and Radio Disney was there, and the Disney people were singing along and dancing to all the songs XD It totally made our day.

Comments

[poelaramont.livejournal.com]

Here's some interesting info on cat whiskers (from Wikipedia entry on "Cat Senses"):

A cat has about twenty-four movable vibrissae ("whiskers"), in four rows on each upper lip on each side of its nose (some cats may have more), in addition to a few on each cheek, tufts over the eyes, bristles on the chin, the cat's inner "wrists", and at the back of the legs.[8] The Sphynx (a nearly hairless breed) may have full length, short, or no whiskers at all.

Vibrissae aid navigation and sensation. The upper two rows of whiskers can move independently from the lower two rows for even more precise measuring. Whiskers are more than twice as thick as ordinary hairs, and their roots are set three times deeper than hairs in a cat's tissue. Richly supplied with nerve endings at their base, whiskers give cats extraordinarily detailed information about air movements, air pressure and anything they touch. Vibrissae possess exquisite sensitivity to vibrations in air currents. As air swirls and eddies around objects, whiskers vibrate too. Whiskers may detect very small shifts in air currents, enabling a cat to know it is near obstructions without actually seeing them. Cats use messages in these vibrations to sense the presence, size, and shape of obstacles without seeing or touching them.

Whiskers are also good hunting tools. The structure of the brain region which receives information from the vibrissae is similar to that found in the visual cortex, suggesting that the nature of the cat's perception through its whiskers is similar to that via its vision.[9][10][11][12] Stop motion photography reveals that at the moment a cat's prey is so close to its mouth to be too near for accurate vision, its whiskers move so as to form a basket shape around its muzzle in order to precisely detect the prey's location.[13][14] A cat whose whiskers have been damaged may bite the wrong part of a mouse it's attacking, indicating that signals from these delicate structures provide cats with vital information about the shape and activity of its prey — interestingly, whiskers also help cats detect scents.

It is thought that a cat may choose to rely on the whiskers in dim light where fully dilating the pupils would reduce its ability to focus on close objects. The whiskers also spread out roughly as wide as the cat's body making it able to judge if it can fit through an opening.

Whiskers are also an indication of the cat's attitude. Whiskers point forward when the cat is inquisitive and friendly, and lie flat on the face when the cat is being defensive or aggressive.

Whiskers can also be a bother to a cat, especially when the cat tries to eat food out of a bowl. The end of the whiskers touching the side of the bowl transfer irritating sensations to its brain, making it hard for it to continue eating.

That would explain the odd walk.

[redatt.livejournal.com]

I completely ignored this post in favour of reading your marvellous u-pic!

Hee, poor cat. I'm almost tempted to trim Kitty's whiskers to see what happens ...

[elaby.livejournal.com]

It would indeed! It would also explain why she flinched when she was still a foot away from the candle. Thanks for the info :)

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's how you can tell it's a good u-pic ^_^

Yeah, Freija's kind of a doofus.

[poelaramont.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I knew that the whiskers were about as wide as the cat's body, but I didn't realize how important they were until I checked out that article.

Learning rocks.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Chipper is a great word for it! ^_^ It was a very nice date :)

[saraphyx.livejournal.com]

Hi, thanks for responding to my post in the nonwiccans community. I just added you to my friends list.

I also have a new community for the discussion of spirit communication (it involves both romantic and platonic connections to spirits), and if you'd like to join, I'd love to have you.

The username for the community is: spirit_lovers

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It sounds interesting :)

[saraphyx.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

I had to leave the nonwiccan community; I got slammed for talking about my fairy guardian and my Chevalomancy. If it's okay, I'd like for us to keep in touch.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Sure. I mostly read the nonwiccan community, I don't normally get involved in discussions, but I'm sorry you got slammed.

[saraphyx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for understanding. I was taking a risk when I posted about my personal life, anyway. It just proves I need to be more careful.