Caturday Post: Scaramouche, Still the Master of Concealment

Tamerlane is not the master of concealment.

The Mad Person-Who-Stitches: Cat Basket Hood

The cats inherited two heated cat baskets in the fall.  One came with a hood, one did not:

The hooded basket appears to be superior: Tamerlane kept looking enviously at Scaramouche's basket, and would occasionally try to sit in his brother's basket.  Scaramouche would then whap his little brother about the head until Tamerlane gave up and left.  So I made a hood for Tamerlane's basket:

This is a quick hack job.  I sewed together scraps of fleece left from another project, folded the fleece around two layers of flexible foam furniture padding, inserted a piece of coathanger wire for the arched side and whipped on a zipper for the basket edge side.  In the above photo you can see where I still need to add a couple of snaps to the hood, as the zipper wasn't quite long enough.  My sewing machine had no problem stitching through fleece plus foam (I did use the longest straight stitch and a 100/16 needle). Since fleece ravels negligibly, I did zero finishing on the edges.

the patched-together inside surface

the outside

The hardest part was cutting the coat hanger.  My little crafting wire snips were not really up to a coat hanger.  The coat hanger was brittle, though, so once I started a cut I just bent the wire back and forth until it snapped at the weakened point.  A heavy-duty wire cutter would be nice.

There wasn't enough fleece to completely cover the plastic: you can see the plastic lining on the back side.  It's not a pretty job.  But Tamerlane seems okay with it, so I'm calling it good enough. 

"I Am A Hero, and I Am A Librarian!": Baldur's Gate Finch NPC Remarks and Hints

Finch Bloomwhiffler  is a neutral good gnome cleric of Deneir for Baldur's Gate 1:

She wears glasses!  (Yes!!!  I am so tired of the "take off your glasses to be a true hero" trope!  Glasses rock!  Also good for identifying items.)   Finch also carries a bookbag for scrolls and tomes, and, while she has never had an adventure outside of a book before you meet, will conduct herself admirably in your roving up and down the Sword Coast.

If you love Imoen, Aerie, or Alora, I highly recommend Finch.  Her spell set is comparable to Aerie's cleric spells, and her fighting skills are not shabby for a cleric, although not suitable for charging into the center of a battle.  Her dialog is well voiced, she has interactions with other NPCs, and she has one quest for any book-loving player.    

She is a hero, and she is a librarian!  Find her mod here.


I needed a hint for the last part of Finch's quest, and found it remarkably difficult to dig up any on the internet.  So I'm writing mine here for future players.  Spoilers below:

Caturday Post: Looking for Trouble

Science Tidbit: Reusable Sugar-Based Polymer for Water Purification

from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2016/01/reusable-sugar-based-polymer-purifies-water-fast/

The title says most of it.  Check it out!

Caturday Post: Blanket Weather

Caturday Post: Hereby Resolved

For edification and moral elevation (their own), the cats have resolved upon the following for the new year:

1. kill a squirrel (Tamerlane)
2. kill a bird (Tamerlane)
3. sit upon all of the things (all of them) (Scaramouche)
4. eat more green things (Scaramouche)
5. throw up more (and in more inconvenient places) (Scaramouche)
6. sit in big brother's cat basket (Tamerlane)
7. hit little brother whenever he sits in my cat basket (Scaramouche)
8. win against big brother (Tamerlane)
9. not come when called (Scaramouche)