Look, Ma, no hands!

Wow! Check out the little Flickr slideshow thingie over there in the right-hand column. Now I don’t even have to choose photos and think of things to write about them. Instead, I guess I can just write. Maybe that will be easier. Also new in the right-hand column is a list of Blogs. It’s not like the list of Blogs I had before, which was just a plain old list of links, but now contains the titles of recent posts. Neat-o!

So now I guess I can just blab about stuff that’s going on over here. Like we went to Jane’s for Sunday roast last week. Um... It’s really hot in London right now (poor Olive is slinking around the house looking for breezes to flop in)... Last night we went to see The Dark Knight, which was beautiful and fun and Heath Ledger’s performance was fantastic. We’re not going to Lisbon this week/end. And stuff like that.

We’ll see how this goes. I’m also in the process of setting up another Blog. It will either be called “spatialist” or “social designer” and it’s going to be for writing about urban-type stuff. So stay tuned. I might even get the first installment, about London’s council estate maps, written today!

Stay tuned...

Pardon the fromage...

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

I know it's cheezey, but I figure somebody might be interested in a couple recent snaps of the furry cuteness.

After Todd Hido

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

I hope you all know that if you click on one of these images you get whisked to my flickr site, which has pretty much every picture I take. Nobody has looked at this one, which I thought was kinda pretty, so I'm putting it on the blog. Click already.
In other news, Olive was stricken with a half-closed cloudy eye last Sunday. Googling was too scary, so I made an emergency trip to the vet on Monday morning. He did something with fluorescent dye that reminded me of Danceteria in the 80s. Then he recommended a FIV/FeLV test, which involved ten excruciating minutes in the examination room with Olive and a plastic thing waiting for blue dots not to appear. I couldn't watch and did the crossword instead (thank god it was Monday). The result was negative - whew! - and cipro eyedrops were prescribed. After a week of that and a follow-up visit to the vet, everything seems to be back to normal...

The indignity

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

This is Olive sporting her Danish head funnel. TEN DAYS she has to wear that thing. I actually had to go for a more BDSM/Gaultier arrangement since she kept kicking it off and gnawing at her stitches...

SNOW DAY

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

This is probably it for 2007. At least poor Olive got to experience a bit of winter magic before I trundled her off to the vet for her little snip-snip this morning.

Olive & Hazel

Originally uploaded by sf2london.


Originally uploaded by sf2london.


Originally uploaded by sf2london.

While Steven & I were away, Olive stayed at Auntie Kath's house and got to know couzin Hazel. I know, sick. But cute!

Merry Christmas!

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Love,
Mark, Steven & Olive

Kansas-Schmansas

Supposedly there are 30-some-odd tornadoes in the UK every year. Today’s was just a few blocks north of where we live, and was considered a “freak” occurrence because it actually caused serious damage. I didn’t see the funnel myself, but the sky did turn that weird shade of green, there was plenty of thunder & lightning, and our skylights & container garden were pelted with pea-sized hail stones, causing Olive much distress.

Introducing...

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Taxi!

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

That, apparently, is English for "get me out of here!" or "get out of my face!" depending on the situation. Anyhow, HELP! That's what Steven wants to name the kitten, so any appropriate suggestions would be most welcome. At this stage of the game, she's about the size of a large grapefruit and is super duper extra ultra mega totally cute. Very affectionate and sociable. And very smart, I think. My productivity has plummeted. Did I mention how cute she is?

Have kitten, no name

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Physically very Alice-esque (so will be tuxedo cat #3 for me, but Steven is having -- surmountable -- issues). In terms of temperament, I think very different from the old girl. But Alice was friendly and gregarious as a youth, so we'll just have to wait & see. Our acquisition of what seems to be a black market kitten was all very hush-hush and on the QT. You have NO IDEA what hoops you have to jump through to adopt ("re-home" here) from the RSPCA or one of the main shelters! So we paid cash and we're keeping quiet about our source. Considered naming her David Banda. Others on the list are Daisy, Mabel, Jade, Vanda -- I won't go on because the list is long. Any ideas would be welcome, though. So far her little life is play, sleep, eat, repeat. When awake doesn't stay still long enough for a photo (at least not one taken with my "multimedia computer")...