I realized that I haven't updated my Deviant Art journal since April 27, 2008, which was a few days after my tabby cat, Maus, passed away of liver failure at age 9. Well, he didn't "pass away". He had to be euthanized. At the emergency vet on a Saturday afternoon, no less. Poor little thing. In the end, euthanasia was quick. The vet injected the drugs while I cuddled him, and he went.

A couple of months later, we went and found ourselves a replacement tabby. Another ginger boy, just like Maus. Actually, he's so much like Maus, we've caught ourselves calling him Maus. *blush* We got him at eight weeks old, when he was this cute and adorable little striped furry thing.

Of course, he didn't stay that cute little stripey thing, though. No, he's grown into what my friend and riding coach Laura calls a "Grade A Large Kitty". She should know, most of her barn cats are Grade A Large Kitties! He's now this big ol' tomcat. (Never mind the sweater, that was our holiday photo.)

My riding coach bought the sweetest little perlino stallion a couple of weeks ago. He is just so pretty with the blue eyes and his soft pink nose. She got promptly bucked off the first time she tried to ride him and got a concussion in the process. He is gorgeous, though. I can't wait for a day with nice weather so I can get some photos of him. The last couple of times I've been, it was either raining or starting to get dark, and I haven't had a chance to take photos.

So I've gone and signed up to be an official Deviant Art beta tester, just like the other half a million official Deviant Art beta testers that are out there. Just like them, I mostly did it so I could get a first-hand look at the spiffy new user pages they're introducing, and I'm not disappointed.

You've probably noticed already that there are some extra things on my user page, like several features. And that things aren't quite in the same places where they used to be. That's because the new user page layouts let you do a whole lot of customizing. You can move things around, feature more than one piece, and preview more than just the last four images submitted to your gallery. And that's just to name a couple of things. I lurrrv it. And it's sleek and shiny.

The new user pages make me happy.

The following links are completely random links from my great big file of links. I am going to add new random links with each blog entry, and maybe you guys will find some of them interesting or useful. There's no rhyme or reason to them, so just check them out and expect the unexpected.

• How
  to wear a Sari


• Instructables


• Letterboxing North America


• Jam Paper


• 
  
  The Story of Dogs In Elk

This week's feature is all about using something you wouldn't traditionally think of as paint used to create amazing artwork: coffee. Yup, that's right. All of the featured images have been painted using coffee in various dilutions.