Note from the cats

I came home from work one day last week and saw this...



A closer view...



It reads:

Dear smaller human,

*roommate's name* put wet food in our bowls this morning, he's pretty cool for a human.

Also, our butts smell bad and you should punish us arbitrarily. In addition, we make ridiculous noises and smell each others' butts.

*paw prints*

Don't you love their correct use of apostrophes? Turns out that since I had run out of dry food I ran off without filling the autofeeder that I often use. Woops. I'm sure they were very vocal about needing fed when roommate was there though. This is only the 3rd time in the year that I've had the autofeeder that my cats have almost missed a meal...2 of those my roommate fed them.

Here are the purrfaces. They don't look like they are starving! This isn't a great picture of Snickers, but there is something about it that I like.

Of course, an open backpack is a prime cat bed! Usually he is in Batman's bags, I tend to leave mine zipped close so he can't shed in them!

reading update

I haven't done an update in a long time! Here is the last one. This one is kinda long. It is possible I forgot a book here and there since I do read a lot and it has been months!

Monster Planet by David Wellington.

The third in the series. Very good, but I couldn't remember who everyone was from the 1st two. Once I started figuring it out, there were some interesting twists in the story.

The Dubliners by James Joyce
A collection of Short Stories that I read on the flight home from Dublin. How appropriate. It was a quick and nice read. Kinda cool to read it right after seeing the place. I'm interested in reading some of his other stuff now!



What is the What by Dave Eggers.

About one of the Lost Boys from Sudan. His story of walking and walking across countries, living in refugee camps, and growing up without family and then in an adopted family. This is all intermixed with bits of his life since he came to America.


Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen.

I learned more about corn than I ever thought I would need to know. Parts of it were slow, parts I already knew, but there were lots of things that I learned about modern food and how it comes to be. Overall an interesting book.


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

A very quick and fun read. It is narrated by Death, which I liked. A fairly typical nazi germany story...young girl, hidden Jew, secrets, but with the added bonus of stolen books.


Short Stories by Roald Dahl

I don't remember the exact title, but it was a collection of short stories. It was very interesting. I read a lot of Dahl as a child, but it was in the form of The BFG, Matilda, and The Phantom Tollbooth and maybe some others. The short stories are definitely done for adults and were quite fun to read!


The Keep by Jennifer Egan
A story set in a castle! It starts out kinda slow, picks up in the middle and has a great ending. A guy that isn't really doing anything with his life goes to some castle in Europe to help his cousin turn it into a resort.


Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Set way back in the 1100s. A man (detective) and a woman (doctor) are sent to a town to find a killer. One of my favorite books I've read in a while. It combines many things that I like in a book and I could hardly put this one down until I finished it.


The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

I didn't like this book. I found it boring and sappy. It wasn't bad enough for me to not finish it (very few books are), but I would not recommend anyone else read it. It fits in some category with Little Children, I'm sure there are people who enjoy those books, I'm not one of them.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

This was a great book! A bit slow to start, but once I got into it I was reading anytime I got a chance. I actually finished it during lunch at work and I rarely read at work. It is about 2 boys (cousins) who become comic book authors/illustrators and their lives. One is from Europe and he gets sent to live with the one in NYC about the time WWII starts. It was very well written and a great read!

Dublin Ireland

A couple months late! I'm home today so I finally took the time to go through the rest of my photos.

Batman and I went to Ireland in January.  It was great.  My first time using my passport (I got it a year ago), and his first time to Ireland (he's travelled a lot more than me!).  We stayed in Dublin and were only there for 4 days.  We didn't have time to do everything that I wanted, mostly because nothing opened until 9 and then was closed again by 5!  We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral as well as some other old churches, Dublin Castle, some old bits of walls/arches/doorways from the 1200s, we actually saw most of Dublin I think!  It isn't very large and we did a lot of walking.  We took one day and went to Howth on the DART.  We hiked in the hills by the ocean and got a bit of the feel of being in the Irish countryside.

I was able to take knitting on the flight there but not on the flight coming home.  I didn't knit at all though, I read and slept a lot!  I kept a journal while we were there which is what kept me busy in the hotel when we were taking a break from everything.  It was actually very easy to eat vegan in Dublin.  I found places with soy milk and the skittles there are vegan!  I did have some Guinness...it isn't vegan and I don't drink it at home.  I loooove it so much though and it does taste better in Ireland.  I had to sample all the other beers and the cider.  It is great that you can order a pint or a glass of beer, so often I don't want a whole pint and the option for less isn't available in the US.

Here are a sampling of the pictures that I took.  You can see many more on my flickr!

                       

St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Of course Batman and I had to have a Guinness!

                      

The coach house at Dublin Castle.  I think this building was part of the Guinness Brewery

                     

View over the ocean from the hills by Howth.  The clouds above the ocean on the flight home.