I finally added a gallery to my photo site for my Humane Society photos, both the ones from Guelph and the ones I took last weekend at the Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca. Now you can all see the cute kitties and puppies.

The month's nearly over, and I've made progress on 26 Things but not as much as I'd have liked. I'll make a valiant effort to finish, though! Here's the list so far:

Direction
Used
Carry
Falling
Permanent
Connection
Unfamiliar
Silence
Pile
In/Out
Amazing
Sometimes
Everyday
Can't Live Without
On the Move
Holding Back
Out of Control
Awe Inspiring
Just a Sample
On the Edge
Do You See What I See?
All Grown Up
What The ?
Making It Official
In Two's
Unfinished Business

Photos up on my pbase page as usual.

Not much to report right now, since I just got back from another trip to Ithaca where much business was conducted successfully. I'll be heading down there one more time before I move, so Ian can see the place and we can have a nice weekend away. Gotta love long weekends off from work.

Oh yes, and I'm typing this from my brand new laptop. God, it's nice to edit photos on a machine that doesn't have the screen die every five minutes! It's a 12-inch PowerBook G4, 1.5 gigahertz processor, 60 gig hard drive and 512 megs of RAM. Plus, it's nice and silver and sleek-looking. It makes me happy.

A really good article at salon.com on the impact the new Pope Benedict XVI has had on US politics. It's refreshing to see an article that actually acknowledges that the Founding Fathers generally weren't religious.

Want a laugh? Listen to this audio recording of a guy who's leaving his boss a voicemail when he happens to witness an incident of road rage involving assault with a deadly weapon. Just don't listen to it at work, because you'll be laughing too hard.

Stolen shamelessly from Ian:

1) You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to burn?
I've never read a book I really hated, but this one godawful romance novel I read in London comes pretty close. I can't even remember the name, I disliked it so much.

2) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Ford Prefect.

3) What are you currently reading?
I'm almost finished with The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem. Pretty good so far, and very evocative language.

4) The last book you bought was:
It's been so long, I actually can't remember! How sad is that? I wish books were cheaper.

5) The last book you read was:
The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule. I have a weakness for true crime.

6) Five books you would take to a desert island:
1. My one-volume edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
3. Something by Terry Pratchett
4. Whenever they come out with a single-volume edition of Harry Potter (an e-book, maybe?), that'll be on the list
5. The Lord of the Rings trilogy in one volume

Please note that these aren't necessarily very representative of my general reading habits, they're just the ones I can reread over and over again and still love. My ideal desert-island situation would be one where a speedboat would come every month or so and take me back to civilization where I could stock up on groceries and hit the library. In fact, that's sort of my ideal life situation.

7) Who are you going to pass this stick to, and why?
Everyone who reads my blog, because most of the people I'd tell about it in person have already done it.

And here's one I'm adding...
8. What haven't you read yet that you really want to?
So many I can't list them all, but I just read this article about Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires and I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

So here's my progress on 26 Things so far:

Direction
Used
Carry
Falling
Permanent
Connection
Unfamiliar
Silence
Pile
In/Out
Amazing
Sometimes
Everyday
Can't Live Without
On the Move
Holding Back
Out of Control
Awe Inspiring
Just a Sample
On the Edge
Do You See What I See?
All Grown Up
What The ?
Making It Official
In Two's
Unfinished Business

Hee hee hee. I bathed the cats today, and I'm still laughing. I am officially the Worst Cat Mom in the Whole World, not only for bathing them in the first place but for taking their pictures and posting them on the Internet.

In other news, this article also cracked me up. Way to give a backhanded compliment, Cornell!

Interesting article today at the Washington Post about Wal-Mart and the Maryland state legislature (if it asks you for a login, Bugmenot is a good place to get one).

I can't say I'm sorry that Wal-Mart's going to be forced to give up a measly 8% of their payroll to health care, but man, they're going to hate doing that.

This article is a good companion piece, and brings up some interesting points about American public policy legislation in general.

I was feeling guilty today about never having finished my self-imposed 26 Things for February-March, when I went to the official website and noticed that there's an April contest! As it happens, the two photos I did end up doing on my own fit perfectly into this month's contest, so "ice" is now "awe inspiring" and "change" is now "unfinished business." Here's the official list:

Direction
Used
Carry
Falling
Permanent
Connection
Unfamiliar
Silence
Pile
In/Out
Amazing
Sometimes
Everyday
Can't Live Without
On the Move
Holding Back
Out of Control
Awe Inspiring
Just a Sample
On the Edge
Do You See What I See?
All Grown Up
What The ?
Making It Official
In Two's
Unfinished Business

I finally finished editing and posting photos from graduation, so if you want to see them, take a look here. Ian's mom took most of them, and I have to admit I look pretty decent in them (even though I normally much prefer to be around the back end of the camera rather than in front of it). So thanks, Sam!

Still working away, and I'm back to doing some photos for the Humane Society, which should be up right about now. We also have a Jersey cow up for adoption, if anyone's interested! I don't think she's housebroken, though.

I've been keeping up on my celebrity snark during quiet times at work, and the recent royal wedding (it's about time, Charlie!) and the announcement of Britney's impending spawn have kept me entertained quite nicely, thank you. No, I don't have anything better to do, why do you ask?

Wow, nearly a month since I last updated! I'm sorry about that. I'll try to be better, including taking and posting more photos. I haven't done any GHS photo shoots in quite a while due to scheduling issues, but I'm heading over there next Monday now that we've got more photographers on staff and I can free up some afternoon time to do it.

My visit to Ithaca last month was great, and very informative. It confirmed my decision that Ithaca is a great place to live and that Cornell is definitely the right school for me, so it was well worth the two days off work. I'm going back down there in a couple of weeks to take care of a few administrative details before I move at the beginning of August.

Other than that, I really haven't been doing anything except working and sleeping (as you can tell by the lack of blog and photo updates). I've run across a few interesting links lately, though, so I'll post some of those when I get home from work tonight.

Happy belated Easter, too! Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter chocolates.