Gigantic Cat Tree

So, we got a cat. It's name is still to be determined, but we've gotten a few toys for it. Since it kept trying to get onto the mantle - cats like high places - we decided to get a cat tree. A cat tree higher than the mantle, in fact, so it fits here.

A trip to Petco later provided an awful lot of failures. For $120-250, you could have a sturdy plywood structure with carpet haphazardly stapled to it, and exposed plywood in various places. We were very much not impressed. For $300+, you could have something that looked solid, and had carpet well attached, but $300 is an *awful* lot to spend on a piece of furniture for a cat, in my book.

Enter the generic Petco brand cat tree. You have to assemble it yourself, but assembly was very easy, and instead of being 100% carpeted, it's hardwood birch with carpeting where the cat sits. It was $150ish, and sits the cat eye level with me, which the cat seems vaguely satisfied with. It's *furniture*, in my book, defined as "higher quality than Ikea produces". A+++. Would buy again. Ironically, the box was covered in about a 1/4" of dust, as the prebuilt carpeted things sell well, whereas the stuff you can't see pre-assembled doesn't seem to sell well at all.

Distractions and Motorcycles

I was distracted by a move across state lines, a new apartment, a new job, a used motorcycle, and a gently-used cat.

That said, the motorcycle gave me endless opportunities for trying out a few things. Specifically looking for a jacket to cover me if I fall off the bike, I'd really appreciate if the jacket came down to my hips, and roughly to my wrists. Normally, I buy outerwear a size or so too big, and the extra room in the torso helps to become extra room for my arms, but that doesn't work very well for motorcycle gear. The reason is that if you have an extra 2-4" of torso material in a jacket, it *really* flaps in the wind at 65 mph.

That said, Vanson Leathers will make you anything you want, but at a price. For textile jackets, Aerostich makes a semi-custom, but can only extend jackets by 2" and pants by 3", which isn't really enough for me. Firstgear came very recommended for reasonably priced textile gear, but their tall sizes required me sending back two jackets and giving up. Folks have recommended Motoport for full custom kevlar gear, and Gerbing's for heated gear.

Then someone said they were about my height and fit a Cortech jacket. Cortech is made by the same company as Tourmaster, and Tourmaster's stuff, I like. Which brought me to a Tourmaster Intake 2 mesh jacket, which is a hair short, and a hair too wide, but for $120, A++. Ordered a LT, then wound up ordering and keeping an XLT.

It's been amazing how many folks have had decent suggestions, and just how many people have had a friendly word to say. Motorcycle Superstore was great with selection, and price, and New Enough had the best return policy I've ever, ever seen, combined with lowest-on-the-internet prices.

More about choices on pants and gloves in another post. Heck, another post on the bike is also in order, as it was a bit of a headache to find something good on gas that I fit onto. For the not motorcycle inclined - especially as I'm posting about a bike in November - I'll try and focus on other things shortly, as well.