It's been a long and lonely 4 months since Partners-the-cat died. In some ways it might still be too soon to get a new cat, in others it is the perfect time.

A friend took in a pregnant cat recently and we're in line to get one of the kittens. A cute grey tabby female kitten, as soon as it is old enough to leave its mother, will be joining our family.

The thought of getting the kitten left us really excited to have feline energy around the place again; we figured that the kitten should have a friend.

This past Thursday, Rep John Conyers introduced HR 5994, which is almost exactly the same as HR 5417, the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006.

The idea of the bill is to ensure a level playing field on the internet and to tie that to existing anti-trust laws, providing a way to enforce net neutrality.

A brief rundown of my recent trip to Barcelona. I've also uploaded a set of photos taken during the trip by Rick Jungers.

day one:
after 8 hours on a plane we land in Barcelona; I run in and get a transit map while Rick smokes a post-flight cigarette; we're talking about which bus to take and trying to figure out where at the airport the bus stops and the bus pulls up and stops right next to where we are standing. We rush, putting out half smoked cigarettes, and run to the bus which takes 15 min to depart.

Customer service that's so bad it really is comical. Here's the most recent insanity from the "customer care" staff at hotels.com in regards to censorship of negative reviews:

I apologize for your continued frustration in regards to this issue.

Unfortunately, we do not have any control over which reviews get posted on the website. I can advise that since the process was redesigned there are several kinks still being worked out. I thank you for your patience during this process.

I have not posted in a while, but a lot has happened that I should have mentioned here if I had the time.

Here's a quick rundown:
most important is the news that all charges against Steve Kurtz have been dropped. If you don't know about his case, check out the the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund site.