Saturday will be Julie’s mom’s birthday, so I made her a little card. She has four cats: Söcki, Larsette, Justin, and Cajou. Nicole never intended to have cats, certainly not so many. But that is exactly how it turned out. Each of the cats was found abandoned, or is the offspring of a cat that Nicole rescued. Söcki is the oldest, and is actually Julie’s cat. She moved in with Nicole when Julie came to Dresden, but as it turns out, she is much more happy living at a home with a large garden rather than a Parisian apartment. She said as much. Justin, or Shere Khan, was named by Julie’s brother, is the second oldest. He is also five, but was fixed only last fall. He is very laid back for a cat but never got along with Söck. He is the son of Grisette, who was run over last year. His grandfather, Marco Polo, has not been seen in years but is very possibly still alive. He lived up to his name.
Larsette, Justin’s half-sister, was originally called Lars until they found out that he is a she. She has very pretty blue eyes but is no one’s favorite cat. You could say she was the Jan Brady of the litter.
The youngest cat is Cajou, with two years. He was found as a week-old kitten abandoned in a box on the street. Nicole didn’t want yet another cat after already just having Söcki move in, but he meowed so much that she gave in. He has a very handsome coat and looks like a musketeer. He is also a romantic type and when you pick him up he puts his paw on your cheek. He and Söck are good friends, and he likes me the best of all the people. But he can be a selfish little bitch sometimes too.
Minichat was a fifth cat, also abandoned as a kitten. It was always hoped someone would answer the ad at the grocery store to give her a new home, so she was never properly named, thus “minichat”. Cajou was very fond of the tiny kitten and we didn’t mind too much that she wasn’t house broken and had the kittyrhea. We were all sad when finally after a month somebody answered the ad and took her with them. But we didn’t mention the housebroken thing, either.

I had been meaning to post this last fall, but then things got busy. Nonetheless, with Clinton still in the race til the bitter end, I thought I might as well get it in anyway.

Last Fall, I received a chain letter from someone and it read like this:

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When they first hatched, they were covered in yellow fuzz. A few days later they started to grow quills. Looked pretty gross. Now the feathers are starting to really develop and the little guys look a lot cuddlier.

When the parents land in the box, they both go “peep peep peep!” and struggle violently to drink from the parent’s mouth.

Whenever the little chicks see me, they click their beaks to warn me to keep my distance.

from May 15

Today

The Egg – a set on Flickr

I can’t say enough about this animated short. It’s probably my favorite Betty film, and pretty much highlights everything that was terrific in those old rubber hose cartoons.
It doesn’t really do much of a job in telling the actual fairy tale, it’s more of just a backdrop for the films zaniness.
There is a stream of utterly hallucenogenic gags, and suddenly a little Cab Calloway feature — rotoscoped right into the film as Koko — full of hot jazz and cool dance moves.

You can watch it below:

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Filmography: Betty Boop in Snow White

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”

The subletter came to inspect the flowerboxes on Saturday, and had to be physically restrained from discarding the eggs. She is of the belief that they won’t hatch, because –she claims– the city use chemicals to make all pigeons sterile. How about that?

Just the same, around noon today, Julie noticed tiny cracks forming on both eggs, as if pecked at from the inside. According to sources on the internet, pigeon eggs need 24 hours to hatch. We were unable to monitor the eggs after the first hour, because the mother came home to roost and has remained there since. What surprises with the warm sunlit morn bestow?

The eggs are expected to hatch any day now.
We are very excited.