Meet Aunt Angie and Uncle Doug!

By the Power of Greyskull...wait...aren't you supposed to become a mighty battle cat?

Dr. Duke and Doug came over to meet Spike...and rock Guitar Hero...

Doug isn't a cat person...but he finds it hard to resist the bald kitties.....

Hope: Day 218

We are 218 days into hoping Obama fixes everything. Am I hoping for too much?


Photo credit: Pete Souza/White House AP

Berry Pebbles: Friend to All

We know that Berry Pebbles is definitely Buffy's favorite...sometimes all Berry has to do is walk in the room and Buffy starts purring...and now Spike has decided she wants in on the love fest. It will be interesting to see how Berry and Buffy feel about this since Spike spent the first couple of weeks scared silly of Berry.

Too much?

I am resisting the ridiculous desire to take my kitties for a stroll in one of these.

To purchase: http://www.justpetstrollers.com/pet_strollers_under_25_pounds.html

The Birth of Science

Tito and I went to see the Galileo Galilei exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philly during our fake vacation. It was awesome. We saw one of only two telescopes known to have been made and used by Galileo...we went back to stare at it at least five times as we roamed around the exhibit. Too bad no photography was allowed. It mostly looked like a long, dark brown cardboard looking leather tube with his signature at one end. You can see an image of it here: http://www2.fi.edu/exhibits/traveling/galileo/image_telescope.html

Anyhow...we fantasized about turning into our alter egos...our Lego video game self-made characters of Dr. Anger and Stranger1138...and then breaking security into tiny lego pieces and taking the telescope home. But I digress...the telescope was only a small part of the exhibit...there were all sorts of mathematical and scientific instruments used at the time on display...the time of the birth of science! Here is another really cool artifact we saw:
http://www2.fi.edu/exhibits/traveling/galileo/image_mich.html

Galileo is one of my hero's because he clearly saw that observing the natural world around us would allow predictions to be made that could then be evaluated in order to improve the validity of subsequent predictions. This concept is essentially the backbone of modern science: replication to push scientific progress. He did this at a time when people "knew" the earth was flat and they "knew" the earth was the center of the universe. The cowardly catholics were very serious about no one claiming they might be wrong about any such thing. This is one tragic aspect of the complicated history of science and religion. It was the catholics who were funding all of the scientific and cultural progress of the time...but once it became clear that science was not going to confirm the catholics dogma about their world, well then science,and those associated with it, became the enemy. But I am babbling...Galileo must have had a serious belief in what would essentially become the scientific method, and in my estimation he most certainly would have required the ego in addition to his genius grasp of mathematics. Seriously. He spent the last 10 years of his life under house arrest (enforced by the aforementioned cowardly catholics) for endorsing the idea that the sun is the center of the universe. I like to imagine he had a wicked sense of humor. So I did get a shot of Tito and I exploring Sir Isaac Newton's World of Color and some shots of the also great (and also a hero) Ben Franklin at the entrance to the institute. We all know HE had a wicked sense of humor:

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.
-Benjamin Franklin

Cat and Puppy Tales

While we were cleaning the house and washing the dog bed and cat blankets, Buffy found herself with the sudden lack of a sleeping spot.....in addition to the stress of having a new sister follow her everywhere and constantly, yet playfully, attacking her. But, in then end, she just curled up with Berry Pebbles....her very favorite resident of Hamiltowne Castle.

Cat Tales

We think Buffy TVS may be experiencing some issues with the introduction of Spike to the family....Buffy is no longer the baby and she may be a bit pissed off about it. But...we understand and have tried to be extra attentive to Buffy. One place she loves to sleep is curled up in a ball on a red towel on top of BP's kennel (the towel was used to dry BP's feet on wet/muddy days before Buffy claimed it as her own). We decided to get an actual cat bed and place it on top of the red towel for Buffy to enjoy. This resulted in her no longer curling up on top of the kennel. So we moved the cat bed to behind the red towel and here is the result.....silly sphynx!

Piggy Tales

I was catching up on my blog viewing and came across these pictures and so I had to post them for Nicole and Linny and Gramma. Perhaps Linny and Gramma can get to work on chinnie and piggy hats?

They are almost funnier using a photo filter:

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chmurka/

More Cat Tales

We are working on establishing the kitty/chinnie boundry but this was too funny to not snap a quick shot:

Cat Tales

Despite spending an unknown amount of money on cat toys and gadgets over the last year and a half....a plain old box still wins as Buffy's favorite toy. We even have a "kitten mitten" and she could care less...but put a box on the floor and she is ecstatic.