Laura Peebles

I couldn't get the "buy now" button to work so I gave up. I'm so used to Charlie and Dave anyway . . .

Two orange tabby cats on a grey couch. Both cats are in loaf position, staring intently at the camera, alert, whiskers forward. The one on the left (Lucy) is slightly smaller and lighter colored than the one on the right (Clancy).

Clancy and Lucy would like to endorse the catnip pickle and catnips balls. I would like to endorse them because they are quiet when the catnip takes effect and they (C & L) bat the toys down the hallway. They are not under the influence in this photo.

Somehow every college town seems to have a bar called The Library!

Do you have a favorite Olympic sport to watch (so far)? I know cats are very fond of fast-moving people (i.e., luge, downhill), but I suspect you might have different taste.

At least 14 hyacinth bulbs poking their little green heads up from the soil in a rectangular 1 x 3 foot beige plastic planter. None are more than an inch tall, but all have broken through the soil.

A bit of good news: my hyacinths appear to have survived spending 2 weeks under the Arlington Virginia snowcrete. Also good--enough ice melted that I could go out on the terrace to check on them without slipping on said snowcrete.

Thank you. And I have a passport.

Swedish GG-Grandfather had a store in Jamtland. Died, church declared his estate bankrupt because they didn't count receivables as assets. His young 3 daughters traveled with his brothers to America (Minnesota--no surprise there). Scotland: 5G Scots Protestant ran off with Irish Catholic girl to PA.

Groundhog? Crocus? Nope.
“Pitchers and Catchers Report”
Is my sign of Spring!

Colonial era equivalent: fart-catcher.

Mark, thanks for all the years of great reporting! If you decide to do a GoFundMe to cover Spring Training, I'm in!

Maybe you can upgrade to a printed sign instead of the cardboard one from your first self-funded trip!

Totally agree about the public safety issue--I'm not saying they should be unconstrained (and I'm not sure they're ready for prime time even yet). Thinking of my friend, transit then walking 3-4 blocks with a guide dog and carrying a cat carrier to the vet in bad weather is tough.

Actually, my blind friend with a guide dog wants driverless taxis because the ones with drivers won't stop for her (US). Maybe that's not an issue outside the US. And unfortunately, although she rides transit when possible, sometimes it just doesn't go where she needs to be.

Put a few more digits and a comma on that price tag and I might. Oh, and I want the check on the way in--you can take it back if I leave early, but I'm not trusting these folks to pay up!

Isn't that illegal? Crime against nature or something like that?

Do they have a project or two on Donors Choose? I don't buy stuff but I do donate to Donors Choose projects.

Not recent books, but enjoyed: The B@stard Brigade (WWII, the men and women who kept the Nazis from getting atomic weapons), and Dismal Freedom (about the slaves who escaped and built a society in the Great Dismal Swamp).

a black and white photo of a woman holding a bottle and saying `` that 's good stuff '' . Alt: a black and white photo of a Lucille Ball holding a bottle and saying `` that 's good stuff '' while weaving back and forth (she's drunk on the vitamin mix)

Yep, she's named for Lucille Ball. And can be just as goofy.

Do you know why one of yesterday's game was protested? Ineligible player in game?

He would say thank you except he's passed out on the bed! So I'll thank you on his behalf!

A large orange tabby cat has his front feet in a large plastic bowl containing freshly served catnip. He's licking his lips. There are catnip toys in front of the catnip bowl--two bananas, a catnip cigar and a cloth-covered spring. The floor is hardwood.

Please wish Clancy a happy 12th birthday. As you can see, he's celebrating by digging in the catnip bowl (notice he's licking his chops) so I'm thinking a very happy birthday is underway!

Didn’t SABR publish a study disproving “clutch as a repeatable skill?” Sorry I can’t look it up at the moment.

My Siamese would eat Zapp’s Cajun potato chips even though they made him cry.

It seemed weird when I first moved to New Orleans, but once you learn the back story it makes sense.

The original Knickerbocker rules of baseball. Because that's the only way I'll be able to get my hands on it! (But The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is probably more practical).

Good choice!

Large orange tabby cat, sitting up, on a hardwood floor surrounded by six catnip toys that he's pulled out of a blue bowl that contains another dozen or so catnip toys including a blue fish and a pineapple. He has a catnip banana at his feet. He is staring at the camera with a "who, me?" look. Catnip toys in the background include a carrot, a crayon, another banana, two soft balls, and a catnip joint. A cat toy rolling track with balls is visible in the upper left corner.

Large orange tabby cat has stuffed his head into a soft house slipper and is pushing the slipper off an oriental rug and across the hardwood floor. The other slipper is visible next to the cat.

Good news to finish the year--12-year-old Clancy got a "stable" evaluation from his kitty cardiologist! (despite having spit up this morning's medication along with a hairball). "Stable" refers to his heart, not necessarily his mental state!

He retired from major league baseball in 2019 but continued pitching in the Dominican Winter League through the 2023-24 season. Since his professional career started in 1999, he pitched professionally (and effectively) in four decades!

Want some cheerful off-season baseball reading? Read about Zim's walk-offs in this SABR article, complete with links to game stories about each game. Why, yes, I did write seven of those stories--my offseason project a few years back.

sabr.org/journal/arti...

Great-grandfather was a baker. Grandpa thought leftover pie for breakfast was standard fare. Every year, we find someone finishing leftover pie for day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast, mumbling something about "tradition" while looking for the whipped cream in the fridge.

I watched Volpone at the Barns at Wolf Trap sitting next to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A polite hello was all we exchanged, but I noticed she laughed at all the lawyer jokes.