The other day I posted a picture of Kitten Thunder working on my computer on the business Facebook page. I titled it “KnowSocial’s IT department.” Little did I know today I would be doing real IT work and that Kitten Thunder would prove to be less than helpful.
I bought a laptop in December that is awesome, except one thing: it doesn’t work with the wireless in my house. So I’m stuck, every day all day, sitting in the corner of my office at my sad little corner desk. I could go elsewhere, I suppose, because my laptop works fine with the internet in cafes. But then I’d have to buy coffee.
Anywho, today I decided to tackle the wireless issue. First, I traded in my ancient modem for a new modem. This meant crawling under The Boy’s desk to unhook the power and untangle wires. Obi was all about that. He identified EVERY wire as the one I wanted to put through the hole in the desk. EVERY wire. Oliver sat on top of the desk and tried to step down onto my back whenever it was flat.
The easy part was driving to the cable/internet company and convincing them to replace a perfectly good modem.
Home again. Of course the plug was a different shape than the last one so Obi and I rearranged the power strip. Each time a plug came loose Obi was bumped in the nose by my hand. Eight times. Eight. Times.
Then began the process of turning on my laptop – sitting on the floor in The Boy’s office. There were twenty updates. Oliver scratched his chin on the corner of the monitor. Obi joined in and scratched his chin on the other corner. I held the keyboard down to keep my laptop from tipping over.
The wireless seemed to be working. I took the computer to the dining room. Kitten Thunder declared that, if the computer was on their table, they should be allowed to type. And to kill the portable mouse. KILL! Steal? KILL!
I turned on smell-o-vision to distract them.
A while later, just as I was finally getting some work done because Oli left and Obi was supervising from the new cat tree, the wireless abandoned me. We spent the rest of the afternoon at The Boy’s desk, computer plugged into the modem so I could download a new driver. Obi showed me all the places he likes to be while The Boy is working: behind the monitor, on top of the cupboards, on the scanner, in the printer nook…
What Kitten Thunder lacks in IT skills, they more than make up for in support.
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It’s Thunder Thursday! Today we bring you Mr. Peaches. My friends from high school, Jack and Robbie, are the lucky owners of this gentleman. Robbie has been lucky enough to have cats most of her life. Jack is a recent convert, thanks in no small part to the charms of this little guy.
And no wonder, Mr. Peaches is one heck of a salesman. Here he is, blatantly plugging Jack’s newspaper.
I haven’t asked him, but I’m sure Mr. Peaches would insist that I also blatantly plug Robbie’s jewelry biz.
Good kitty.
Kitten Thunder: Life lessons and cat tales 
Mr. Peaches was born to be a PR master. I hope that he remains involved with the newspaper in a very visible form. He’s so cute– they might want to consider printing his picture alongside the title.
Look at him, earnestly looking into our eyes. You can trust him.
Why do they make electrical plugs in those weird shapes, anyway? I always feel kind of cheated when I run out of space in the power strip when there are still some empty outlets.
And just to make this one super confusing, it doesn’t go all the way down to the power strip. It has a little buffer so you can put it next to a normal plug and they won’t interfere with each other. Handy…once I stopped trying to get it to go further in.