Wednesday, October 12, 2005

No Scratch doesn't prevent sitting on a Network Hub

We have a little kitten. Jaron "got her" for his 2nd birthday about a month and a half ago. We went to the shelter and let our kids look at all the cats, and we picked out "Cookie". She looks like she is some kind of suger cookie with butterscotch and chocolate, so I guess it is a good name.

Working out of a home office is nice! I really love the commute, and I find I have less distractions here. The only main distraction the last week or two has been Cookie. She scratches at the carpet outside my door to come in. It got to the point that the carpet is starting to look bad in the corner. I tried spraying her with water, which apparently is the way you are supposed to discipline cats now-days. I tried putting citrus by the spot and she seemed to ignore it. We bought a scratching toy and some other play toys for her, but really the issue is just that she wants to come in with me.

I enjoy it when she behaves. She can sit on my lap and sleep while I program. No problems there. I also got her to realize that she can sleep in her bed in my office as well, occasionally even with sun pouring through the window. She must love it.

The problem comes because I have two areas behind and between my desk that is covered with power cords and cables. I've got three networked computers and all of the accompanying cords. I don't have good cable management yet because I haven't found a desk that will work with how tall I am that will support two retractable keyboards. I want my two monitors positioned in certain places, and the keyboards to be directly in front of them. I want the keyboards to be a certain height from the ground and at a certain angle to each other so that I can swivel my chair a tiny bit and be directly in front of one or the other. I could probably use a keyboard switch for this, but that would mean that I would need to have a moveable keyboard to allow it to be directly in front of both monitors. I have drawn up precide desk plans to make my own, and can get the materials for around $100, but I'll have to spend the time to build it. As if I have Time!

So anyway, I haven't finalized my desk arrangement. That leaves me with at least two spots that I cannot allow a cat to go in my office: she can't go and play with my network hub or network cables, and she cannot go behind my tower where all the connections and power are.
I don't want her to get hurt or my computer.

So my wife went and bought "No Scratch". I think it is working for not scratching, but that doesn't do anything about wanting to sit on a network hub. (I suppose that it is warm and confortable.) I'm going to have to reorganize my office cords soon if I don't want to be driven crazy by one Crazy Cookie! Maybe I'll spend 15 minutes on it this morning.

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