Kitty Calash is still wearing a mask

Ah the magical time in the semester when *everybody* is tired enough to cry. Now on two campuses!

The aggro bus driving this morning slightly marred by the Little Tykes-style horn noise. I maintain most driving is a Richard Scarry enterprise and if they could drive pickles & bananas up buildings they would.

Those are sweet potatoes?? And marshmallows?? I thought those were saltines.

A fluffy black and white cat reclines next to a laptop, her back to the camera. She lies on papers, printouts of the document the human must write 1540 more words about by Monday.

She is actively and purposefully blocking the paragraph I need to write about. 40 words from halfway done.

Sweet zombie Jesus I’m grateful to have been given (along with my colleagues) tomorrow off as a little treat. There aren’t a lot of those lately.

Awake for 16 minutes and the cat throws up.

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a barf.

That feeling is mild despair with a dash of panic.

TFW the sole microfilm reader on campus is down, the paper is due next week, the Library is closed Wednesday and IT is out on vacation.

A fuzzy black and white cat lies in her back on a length of pink silk. Her very fluffy white tummy is exposed, distracting attention from the two open books sitting in front of her. One is a photocopy of “letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania” written by John Dickinson in the 1760s.

So helpful.

I am now the person who gets microfilm via ILL. God help me with those 18th century documents.

Have just written a sentence that has me telling myself, “badly done, Emma.” It’s not mean, it’s murky.

Plywood boarding up a shop window of an art supply store, with the spray painted information “It was a car We are still open 10 am-6pm” seen on a corner in Baltimore.

Cars +1 under the Anxiety billboard in Baltimore. (North Ave & Howard.) But the art supply store is still open!

A brown tabby cat with a creamy round tummy sits with one back foot up. He is watching a fly in an iPad game for cats. He cheats.

Montague J. Cat, Esq. one of the best bois ever. His only flaw was cheating at iPad cat games. We lost him October 6 after 14 (15?) wonderful, furry years.

It’s reminiscent of old netmaking and lacemaking as well. Really fascinating.

Hands down best map of Baltimore.

And I’m sad I will not be riding the bus with the retriever but I do recognize this driver from last year.

Okay that WAS someone in a retriever costume, not just a schlubby undergrad. It’s dark at my bus stop.

Noplace private to have an existential crisis? Try the bus! All you need is one KN95 and a pair of sunglasses. Save time and multi-task on your commute!

This offer not available in locations without public transit.

A fluffy black and white cat sits with her back to the camera; in front of her sits an iPad playing Heather Cox Richardson’s YouTube channel. A cat’s gotta get her history lesson somewhere.

She watches the history lady with me. @hcrichardson.bsky.social is how we start our day.

MONUMENTS Established in 1979, we are the only artist-founded museum in Los Angeles. We are dedicated to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art.

I might just make it. It’s up until May! www.moca.org/exhibition/m...

These are wonderful. So glad Roger Taney isn’t here in B’more anymore and very glad he’s part of this show. And a co-curator is from here, too! A lot to love.

I know I’m pedantic but … wearing 1770s clothes in a 1786 house to talk about an 1803 death makes me crazy.

1770s in a 1786 house is just oh well. Accessories make things work.

But I sure as heck wonder what goes through some folks’ heads. And my own, for sure.

At the MVA and they’re playing Band on the Run. “If I ever get out here” feels mighty on the nose.

Schroedinger’s bus.

It’s shutdown day, so RIP my focus and look out paper due tomorrow.
Hateful. We survived the 35 day shutdown. Today I brought up “indefinite.” Tomorrow we might talk “repercussions.” (Hubs is a federal contractor so we’ve had a year.)
Anyway, PHEW let’s see what French POWs read in 1812 Scotland.

Maybe the rapture was just for Baltimore city buses.

It’s also ice cold.

The free bus that goes by Camden Yards smells like beer. The Yankees are playing the O’s— my take on this as a New Englander is mixed.

A fluffy black and white cat with no shame lies on a handwritten paper draft on a desk. She is full of judgement and purrs.

I had to work yesterday, but managed a hand-written paper draft. Herself was mad I had to work. And now she is lying on the draft.

I found this birding book along the side of the road on the Tamiami trail in the Everglades on 8/25/25. It is so well loved with sightings going back decades. If you're a birder (I am not) please spread the word and hep me find the owner so they can be reunited