thankful thursday

I am glad mom has friends. she has been driving us nuts with the holding and pettin, and she has even taken to smooching the top of our heads. So, we are very glad when she can talk to Auntie Dee and her BlogPaw friends and her professor friends.

These fine humans have given her the strength to talk to her director about rearranging the department so she no longer reports to the Man of Torture. So, things will become moe interesting for her, and maybe she won't mope around the house so much.

Thank you, Mom's Human Friends! It took all of Twitter to give her strentgh.

Auction 2&3 - TomCat's Figures

TomCatSamurai has sculpted two incredible fires for our auction! To add to the mystique, we are keeping the exact figures a secret. The figures will look like one of these two. Tom says at least one is a cat and the other might be a dog! All I can say is that this is exciting!

How it works:
Bids open at $10.
Increments are $1.
Leave a comment with your name and bid.
Bidding will close at 8 pm ET Sunday January 15.
I am actioning both figures at the same time.
Your bid is for ONE of the figures.
The top 2 bids win the figures.

LATE BREAKING NEWS!
This auction will end Sunday January 22 at 8 pm ET! More time to bid, and I hope to post pictures of the figures!

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Auction 1 - Framed Signed Print from Boho Pets

OMC OMC! We will have excitement tonight! The first item up for bid is a signed and framed print from the Boho Pet collection, @CokietheCat's mom, Kristin Dewey. *cheers rise from the stands* These prints capture our dear anipal friends and I know I would love to have one hanging in my house. You will be able to choose which print once you win the auction.

Retail value of the prize is $100.

How it works:
Bids open at $20.
Increments are $1.
Leave a comment with your name and bid.
Bidding will close at 8 pm ET Saturday January 14.

Please thank Cokie whenever you see him for donating this prize. Let's make some money! Get those Paws Ready!

Auctions for @TomCatSamurai

I am so excited! I am holding my very first auction on my blog. I have taken lessons from @CheshireK, so I hope that I can remember everything he taught me.

This is the Aloha Auction benefiting @TomCatSamurai. You can read all about Tom and his situation on @PepiSmartDog's blog. We have 3 items; 1 cat and 1 dog figures made by TomCat himself and a Framed, Numbered & Signed Portrait Print by @CokietheCat, BohoPet Portaits . A cat made by Tom and an example of Cokie's portaits (Smokey8) are just fantastic!

Here’s how it works:
1. The items will be up for auction for one day. Description of the item by the artist will be posted along with pictures.
2. Bid using the comment section of the blog. It is sort of like a silent auction.
3. The highest bid before the cutoff time wins the item.
4. The winner will be notified the next day by me. Monies will be directed to my paypal account. I will transfer funds after all the auctions are over.
5. The first auction starts Friday night, Jan 13 during the pawty at 9 pm ET.

I will be monitoring comments, so tweet me or leave a comment if you have a question.

Thankful Thursday - Salt

Yes, we are thankful for salt today. Of course, the geekiness will be specific - Sodium chloride, NaCl, sodium and chloride held together by an ionic bond. It is everywhere whether as aqueous solutions or a hard substance. In solution you will find it in the ocean and in our very cells.

Today's topic is crystalline NaCl.

Today it is the first real snow this season. St. Louis doesn't get a lot of snow, so folks don't always remember how to drive in snow. The first snow is THE worst.

Mom said there were folks driving 20 mph on the interstate. Now, it was maybe an inch of snow? What's up with the creepy crawly thing? That speed is dangerous, folks. Go drive surface roads if you are going to crawl.

Then there is the class of idiots comprised of SUVs, pickemup trucks, and sporty cars. These folks drive the same speed as they always do. Can we say FISHTAIL? Throw road slush which freezes all over the windshield? There was a truck weaving in and out of traffic, an accident waiting to happen. He didn't have the front end plow rigging so there probably weren't bags of sand (weight) over the wheelswhich would make the ass end of the truck even lighter and prone to sliding. Idiot.

Anyway, I digress from my topic.

The City of St. Louis does a great job on I44 in the mornings. It is with a sigh of relief once mom hits the city limits. (The County sucks at keeping I44 clean at that hour.) The interstate was clear, plowed, and it was SALTED!!!! Ah! sigh of relief.

We have had so little snow this year that MDOT is using the extra money allocated for snow removal and SALT to fix roads. Now, that is something I can get behind!

Please watch this great video about how sodium and chloride find each other! Yes, it is geekiness at it is finest!

(semi) Wordless Wednesday

Everyone knows Mom is a geek, and she has passed that geek thing on to me. So, here is our post for today. (As a reminder, Au is the chemical symbol for gold.)