Sunday, November 09, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
A blog for Meg and Dan by: Jack
Dear Mom and Dad,
I just want you to know that even though you abandoned me, I'm doing OK. While you are flitting around the world, I am having to suffer through not being fed whenever I want to be fed, hardly ever getting table scraps and having to watch Finchley get to go outside while I have to stay in. That last part REALLY makes me mad, so I usually jump him as soon as he comes back in again.
Despite these hardships, there are some positives to being left behind. For instance, there is a new afghan, upon which I enjoy spending my days. With Finchley outside most of the day, I get all the attention from the people. I also have been spending a lot of time sitting on the heaters. Additionally, it turns out that I actually really LIKE those organic aloe vera teeth cleaning treats that you got me, so every day I have a couple of those. Plus, I have learned that if I don't want to starve, I have to stay focused on eating my food so even though I feel like it's very dog-like behavior, I have started wolfing down my breakfast and dinner. If I don't then my sumo-wrestler of a roommate eats it for me.
So, even though I would prefer to live with you, life is pretty good around here.
Love, Jack
PS Here are some pictures of me from last night. Claire would like you to know that her butt is not really as big as it appears in the second picture. I don't know the difference between a big butt and a small butt, but I know a warm butt when I see one!
I just want you to know that even though you abandoned me, I'm doing OK. While you are flitting around the world, I am having to suffer through not being fed whenever I want to be fed, hardly ever getting table scraps and having to watch Finchley get to go outside while I have to stay in. That last part REALLY makes me mad, so I usually jump him as soon as he comes back in again.
Despite these hardships, there are some positives to being left behind. For instance, there is a new afghan, upon which I enjoy spending my days. With Finchley outside most of the day, I get all the attention from the people. I also have been spending a lot of time sitting on the heaters. Additionally, it turns out that I actually really LIKE those organic aloe vera teeth cleaning treats that you got me, so every day I have a couple of those. Plus, I have learned that if I don't want to starve, I have to stay focused on eating my food so even though I feel like it's very dog-like behavior, I have started wolfing down my breakfast and dinner. If I don't then my sumo-wrestler of a roommate eats it for me.
So, even though I would prefer to live with you, life is pretty good around here.
Love, Jack
PS Here are some pictures of me from last night. Claire would like you to know that her butt is not really as big as it appears in the second picture. I don't know the difference between a big butt and a small butt, but I know a warm butt when I see one!
Now this is how Halloween is SUPPOSED to look
Hopefully Kate doesn't mind that I have stolen a few pictures from her most recent Picasa album to share, because she and Andy had AWESOME Halloween costumes that NEED to be shown to as many people as possible. They were Gonzo (from The Muppets) and Camilla the Chicken (his chicken girlfriend). Kate made their costumes and we are seriously impressed! First the quilt and now this! I can't believe that someone with so much artistic talent is related to me. Here they are in all their Halloween glory:
Camilla the Chicken attacks the woman from "The Birds":
I'm going to fly Kate over to London for Halloween next year so that she can make us glorious costumes and sprinkle some Halloween spirit dust over the city.
Camilla the Chicken attacks the woman from "The Birds":
I'm going to fly Kate over to London for Halloween next year so that she can make us glorious costumes and sprinkle some Halloween spirit dust over the city.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Halloween in London is kind of rubbish
As those of us who are American know, Halloween is pretty much a major holiday in our country (I've always thought we should have the day off of work on Halloween, actually). For me, it's my favorite holiday, closely followed by Christmas. I love to get dressed up and I love to have Halloween parties and to carve pumpkins, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, England doesn't embrace Halloween in the same way. Yesterday one of our neighbors disdainfully called it an "American import" (although, according to research I did last year when trying to get my class excited about Halloween, it actually started in Ireland and Scotland...but I didn't feel like getting into that discussion)and warned us that if we didn't turn our lights off and pull in our pumpkin by 7pm, we would have gangs of un-costumed teenagers on our door step. We were going to force a festive Halloween, by having a Halloween party, but that didn't work out either for a number of reasons attributed to our potential guests (illnesses, funerals, out of town, half term break, etc.) so we thought that the least we could do was buy some candy and carve a pumpkin.
Jim had planned to come home early to help me with carving the pumpkin, but since it gets dark these days around 4pm, I took on the challenge by myself. Admittedly, a pumpkin carved by me is inferior to a pumpkin carved by Jim. I lack his patience and artistic talent, but it turned out ok. For the record, Jack the Cat was VERY freaked out by my pumpkin carving. I think he thought I was butchering some animal on the dining room table or something.
Our first trick or treater looked very familiar to me. He said his costume was "Crazy Newspaper Head Bamboo Mustache Man":
We tried to get the cats involved in the festivities (They were to be "Super Cats"). Jack wasn't very keen on wearing his costume:
But eventually I got him to fly:
Finchley will tolerate any humiliating experience, as long as food is involved:
We DID get some real trick-or-treaters--cute kids in little witch and devil costumes with their parents. And, in memory of Buster's hot dog costume, we also met a dog who was dressed as a skeleton. He didn't seem to mind it as much as Buster minded being a hot dog. And we're going to reschedule our Halloween Party. It will be an "In Memory of Halloween" party (because Halloween as we have known it prior to living in England is actually becoming a distant memory.)
Happy Halloween!
Unfortunately, England doesn't embrace Halloween in the same way. Yesterday one of our neighbors disdainfully called it an "American import" (although, according to research I did last year when trying to get my class excited about Halloween, it actually started in Ireland and Scotland...but I didn't feel like getting into that discussion)and warned us that if we didn't turn our lights off and pull in our pumpkin by 7pm, we would have gangs of un-costumed teenagers on our door step. We were going to force a festive Halloween, by having a Halloween party, but that didn't work out either for a number of reasons attributed to our potential guests (illnesses, funerals, out of town, half term break, etc.) so we thought that the least we could do was buy some candy and carve a pumpkin.
Jim had planned to come home early to help me with carving the pumpkin, but since it gets dark these days around 4pm, I took on the challenge by myself. Admittedly, a pumpkin carved by me is inferior to a pumpkin carved by Jim. I lack his patience and artistic talent, but it turned out ok. For the record, Jack the Cat was VERY freaked out by my pumpkin carving. I think he thought I was butchering some animal on the dining room table or something.
Our first trick or treater looked very familiar to me. He said his costume was "Crazy Newspaper Head Bamboo Mustache Man":
We tried to get the cats involved in the festivities (They were to be "Super Cats"). Jack wasn't very keen on wearing his costume:
But eventually I got him to fly:
Finchley will tolerate any humiliating experience, as long as food is involved:
We DID get some real trick-or-treaters--cute kids in little witch and devil costumes with their parents. And, in memory of Buster's hot dog costume, we also met a dog who was dressed as a skeleton. He didn't seem to mind it as much as Buster minded being a hot dog. And we're going to reschedule our Halloween Party. It will be an "In Memory of Halloween" party (because Halloween as we have known it prior to living in England is actually becoming a distant memory.)
Happy Halloween!
Jealous Heart
Jim has always had my heart, but lately I've noticed that he might be a little worried about the baby and how it is going to affect him. I'm a little concerned about how he's going to share once the baby gets here. He really got a kick out of the floor gym:
And he's not the only one who likes the blanket we got from Kate and Andy:
But luckily, I got him his very own Baby Bjorn, which has made him very happy. Now if I could just get him to give that frog back....
And he's not the only one who likes the blanket we got from Kate and Andy:
But luckily, I got him his very own Baby Bjorn, which has made him very happy. Now if I could just get him to give that frog back....
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
In the future...
I will be holding my own baby. But for now, I enjoy holding other people's babies (the amazing Nelly!). I stole this picture from Meg and Dan's blog: http://www.meganddanieltravel.blogspot.com/.
The cats and the shredder
While you wait patiently for me to finish my blog about Wales, I give you a small video for your entertainment. We got a shredder recently and it really freaked the cats out. I wasn't able to shred and get really good video footage of them jumping three feet in the air, but this video captures their general reactions to the shredder pretty well. Let's just say they keep their distance!
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