Kitties!

Luckily Titchou and Brea have forgiven us for abandoning them for the year at "Grandma's."

Titchou is mesmerized by the camera.

Brea is such a glamour girl.

Three Things I Like

1) The neighbors cat. I still don't know its name, but we are quite good friends. The kitty is often lying on the sidewalk in front of its owner's house, and whenever I walk past the area, I always look for it. As the cat is so calm and amenable to petting, I gather it's not young. We've had a bit of sun recently, I've found it dozing in a patch of light quite frequently. Sometimes I let the kitty sleep, and other times I can't resist scratching behind the ears, on the neck and under the chin. Since it will roll on its back and give me its belly, I think the cat likes me. Such activities help temporarily assuage the longing for our cats.

2) Sancerre Rosé 2006 Les Baronnes, Henri Bourgeois. "This refreshing, very fruity rosé will seduce you with its bouquet of ripe red fruits. It's easy to drink, fresh and particularly well-balanced in structure and aromas."

I'm so happy that a trip to Provence last summer brought on a rosé epiphany—these lovely, tasty wines are perfect for summer and bare no resemblance to U.S., boxed wines of the 1980s.





3) Rome—HBO/BBC
Thanks to a friend, we were able to watch the complete first and second (also the final) season of Rome, a joint HBO and BBC production. Having not had a television since last August, we couldn't stop ourselves from plowing through the 22 episodes in two weeks. Season one just blew us away, and we were a bit disappointed to find season two put less emphasis on historical and political issues and more on soap opera style intrigue. Still, the entire series is captivating viewing. It also came in handy to temporarily distract us from the facts that we now have less than a month in Cambridge and we still don't know our future plans. After back-to-back episode viewing, M* and I would withdraw to our laptops and Google characters, battles and trivia that had just been presented to learn what was fact, fiction or a blend of the two. It's nice that we can geek-out together over such things.

Pretty Kitty

I was unlocking my bike yesterday when I felt a pair of eyes watching me. Turned out to be an adorable black kitty. It made me miss our cats even more.

Kitty Washing Machine

Another way NOT to wash your cat. Click here to watch on YouTube.

Brea and Titchou

Spent three weeks visiting family/friends in the DC area in October. I also got to spend time with our friendly, beautiful cats that we cannot bring over to the UK. We thought that we could bring them over in February - as we went through the DEFRA Pet Passport protocol. However, our furnished flat - no furnished flat we looked at- would allow pets. After 6 1/2 years of being greeted by them as soon as I walk in the door, coming home is a lonely experience. Luckily my mom graciously stepped up and is happily looking after them. They have more room, more sunlit window perches at her place than back in LA. They've adjusted better than we have to the switch. They did sleep with me every night in DC, and they were happy to pose for a few photos.