The outlook is grim, while we don’t have much hope, we are trying what we can.

I’m randomly breaking out into tears over this and while I may risk shorting out the keyboard, I want to write down the things I’m going to miss.

Presto, as expressed by the person at the Humane Society, is a “spitfire”.

Constantly getting into trouble, picking at stuff, Presto generates strong emotions. But when he snuggles, is playful, you can’t help but love him.

So I want to make a list of every little thing I’m going to miss about Mr. Presto so that I’ll never be able to forget.

• The thick feel of his fur.
• The way that he comes when I whistle.
• The rolling purr he makes when it’s time for his wet food.
• The way he likes to drink from a running faucet.
• He follows you everywhere you go.
• The way he lies against you by practically shoulder charging in to you.
• He lies on my legs when I go to sleep.
• In the summer time he’ll lie on my legs and rub his head on my heels. It feels like velvet. Better then velvet.
• How much he loves to chase his puff.
• He’ll play fetch with his puff.
• The way he sits at the window like a little boy.
• You can’t pull your hand away from him without him grabbing at it.
• The way he holds your fingers gently with his teeth.
• The way he grooms magic.
• The way he will be at the front window pawing at it when we get home.
• How he will run from anywhere to beat you to the top or bottom of the stairs.
• He sometimes misses his jumps.
• The strangest things will scare him and he’ll jump about two feet up.
• The way he sits in the corner of a chair like an old man.
• The little white patch on his throat.
• How he’ll nap by his water dish.
• He’ll climb on top of the cabinets and nap.
• He’ll look out the window with Magic and have no idea what she’s looking at.
• He’s just so damn lovable.
• If you brush his fur back he looks like a little lion.
• The way he knows exactly which wires to chew on to get a reaction out of us.
• How he made “Damn it, Presto!” a thing.
• He digs for China in the laundry basket.
• He’ll scratch the headboard on the bed next to me to wake me up.
• He won’t go down to the food dish in the middle of the night without me, I have to walk with him down.
• Bowling for Presto
• He helps in everything you do. “Presto’s helping!”
• You can touch his paws all you want, but you can’t touch his belly.
• He’ll chew, but not eat, cardboard boxes. Leaving little bits everywhere.
• He likes to get in large paper bags from The Works.
• We bought a house because of him.
• He’ll steal balled up socks from the laundry bin as we’re folding.
• I can pretty much voice what he’s thinking.
• He doesn’t do anything half way. What he does he does full blast.
• He’s Anita’s “Special Little Guy.”
• He’ll knock the toilet roll off the holder with his tail and not even notice.
• He often goes by “Pesto” or “Señor Fluffybutt”.
• He will walk in the room, drop his puff and cry until you throw it. But sometimes he’ll look at you like “Why did you throw that, I just brought it in!”

I plan to keep adding to this. I may be adding to it for the rest of my life.

You will soon be honored by someone you respect.

Wait, is this someone I really respect, or just pretend to?  ‘Cause there’s a lot more of the second.

You don’t know me at all, do you?

Ease on down the road, King of Pop.

Why?  Is my zipper down???

Your heart will skip a beat.

This wouldn’t have anything to do with Swine Flu, would it?

It’s not the end of the world, I keep all the actual music files on a Drobo connected to a server in the basement.  So those are relatively safe.  But all the intangible stuff, like the meta data for ratings and playlists are gone.  With over 18,000 tracks they’re not easy to get back.

But what to do now?  I’m taking this as a sign to do something better.  I’d prefer not to have a laptop just sitting in the living room any more.  In the realm of Network Music Player there are only a few real choices:

• Logitech Squeezebox
• Roku Soundbridge
• Apple Airport Express

And they all have their problems.  (And the Sonos is too expensive to even bother talking about.)

The Squeezebox hardware is pretty pricey and I don’t have an audio system on the main floor that could take advantage of the fidelity that they put out.  Only one package has anything other then a text based screen with an IR remote.  Ug.  It also requires a service running on a computer somewhere.  I tried installing it on the PowerMac I’m using as a server but it refuses to start.  Not even an error message in the console to explain why.  I’ve been able to get it running on other PC’s and the service interface is UGLY.  The only playlist management is through reading an iTunes database.  Ouch.

The Roku seems to be very tied to iTunes as well and the Firefly media server feels really bare-bones.  After their new video player, I think this is being forgotten about.

The Airport Express is a nifty little device, but it’s specifically designed for iTunes.  And if you want a controller for it, you need at least an iPod Touch.

I’m a very committed fan of Songbird, but I’m not left with many options for it.  There’s a Songbird Remote for the iPod Touch, but Songbird still can’t “speak” through the Airport Express.  Unless I get Airfoil as well – which will allow any app to pipe it’s sound through the Express.

Sounds good, right?  Well then there’s the issue of Songbird not having a PowerPC build anymore.  There was someone who was producing their own PowerPC package, but I don’t know if it’s still being maintained.  Then there’s the question if all the extensions and addons will work with it as well.

I picked up a Airport Express to try out and so I’d be able to play something on the main floor.  It’s streaming from iTunes on a everyday laptop for now, but it is working.  And it gives me Wireless-N to boot.  But it’s still not Songbird and all the flexibility that comes with it.

So, to get everything working just right I need a PowerPC version of Songbird, an iPod Touch, Airfoil, Songbird Remote iPod app and Songbird Extention.

What could possibly go wrong with that?

*sigh*