Strings, Rings, and Other Things

After two years, I've finally managed to download photos from my phone's camera. So here are a handful of random images that seemed interesting:

A few years back, Harvey Mudd advertized the upcoming reunion weekend by sending us a set of word magnets for the refrigerator. We haven't had a set of our own (maybe we should), so there were only so many sentences we could form with them. Here's the one that's been on our fridge for the past couple of years:

For a few months, Kim and I saw this billboard every time we drove to Lansing, and it always made us laugh: we thought it would work much better if we snuck out one night and changed the "L" to an "R".

( And a few more... )

Maybe I'll eventually track down some new baby pictures, too. :)

It's Kim's birthday today, and in lieu of a cake she asked me to make her the decadent Quiche Lorraine recipe that we got from Cooks Illustrated a few years ago. It's absolutely delicious, with multiple yummy cheeses (some in the crust) and home-cooked bacon bits and a custard made with more half & half and sour cream than egg. It comes out looking pretty, too:


Meanwhile, we've been mostly focused on our pregnancy recently, so we haven't said much about our cats lately. They continue to be adorable, and they're growing up quite nicely. Here are a couple of pictures of the three of them lounging on the radiator together:


(From left to right, that's Nia, Callie, and Polly. Little Callie is almost as big as her sisters now!)
The cats' latest achievement around the house is the discovery that various cupboard and closet doors around the house can be opened if you maneuver your nose and claws just right. Kim woke up this morning to find the linen closet door open (a first!) and the three catnip toys that we keep there scattered around the hallway, all completely soaked with kitty drool.

Oh, and in case you've wondered, we did finally get rid of that fallen tree in our yard. The neighbor called a friend with a chainsaw, and we took the thing apart and left it on the curb for the city's yard waste pickup. (Though in fact, someone randomly drove by later and picked up a lot of it for firewood.) It came out pretty thoroughly, too: the split in the trunk went low enough to break through the main roots, so we don't even have a stump!

In my last post, I shared a picture of the cat who was visiting our porch:

He's still been around today, and Kim made a surprising connection. Waaaaaay back when, we posted pictures that we'd taken of the house when we were still deciding whether to buy it, including these:

Those pictures include Gilbert, the cat who belonged to the previous owners of the house. It's pretty convincing that this is him, but I have absolutely no idea how he made his way here. (Maybe he came with the house after all!)

In fact, Kim just called our neighbors, who have now peered out their window and confirmed that it is indeed Gilbert. They're going to see if they can get in touch with the previous owners' daughter, who lives not far away. Meanwhile, we've put out some water: it's hot today!

We got a new chair a few weeks ago (we brought it home from my mother's house in Nebraska), and I've been meaning to post a note about how much our cats seem to like it (especially Polly):

But my goodness, it's been a while since I've posted anything about them. ( And I'll put this behind a cut for the sake of those who'd rather keep it that way. )

It has been called to my attention by multiple people that "There has been remarkably little recent catblogging!" and that I should "Post more kitty pictures!!" Part of the difficulty can be seen here:

More to the point, we've been pretty busy, and if I'm thinking about cats it's more fun to play with them than to talk about them. But they're napping right now, so perhaps it's time to share some of the pictures we've taken over the past month.

( Only cat fans need continue... )

Well, we seem to have done it:

Kim and I went over to make a decision on buying cats from our local cat rescue folks earlier this evening. Our original plan was to wait to bring them home until Kim got back from DragonCon next week, but we seem to have changed our minds. Happily, it looks like the kittens are enjoying their new home:

We figure we'll give them a day or two to get used to the basement (where their food and litter boxes will live) before opening up the rest of the house.

I'm liking this. :)