Toesies Tuesday

Mancat Monday

Life is good... when you're a mancat.

Super Sunday

Wowie! Today is a Super Sunday as Mr. Chen did his first full Monty last night - hooray! Also, we are working on our proverb because we're going to play along with the fun proverb meme finally. We never got tagged but Caesar and Princess opened it up to any kitty who wants to play along. We're working on our best proverbs now and will post them up here as soon as they're ready.

Happy Sunday to every kitty and their beans!

Photo Hunters #3 - Creative

This weeks photo hunters theme is creative. What a wonderful theme!

Here is Ollie being creative with his bag wearing.

And here is Mr. Chen getting poised to do his interpretative feather dancing.


Creativity is great! It keeps us kitties from getting bored and keeps our beans on their toes.

Happy Friday!

Here is me, Mr. Chen, with my long arms stretched out. I am still trying to work on my monty q. but I just can't seem to get my back legs stretched out far enough.

We hope everyone has a Happy Friday and super best weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Mommy's & Daddy's Goddog

Mommy and Daddy did it again. They went away and left us for a whole weekend! (We are so sorry we didn't get to visit everyone this past weekend. We sure hope to catch up this week.) They went to Sea Isle with their friends and here is their goddog, Sophie. Mommy says she is a very cute little indeed!

Mancat Monday

I'm such a mancat that I can be on the mantle, or the table - wherever I want actually!
- Ollie

(Nice try, Ollie...Though you are quite the handsome mancat!)
- Mommy

Happy Friday!

Hope all kitties have a wonderful weekend! Mr. Chen keeps working on his Monty Q. but he can't seem to get those back legs tucked unnder. Ollie has really been showing off his variations on the Full Monty though! Mr. Chen is just waaaayyyy too modest to do a Full Monty. Don't forget to submit your entries on Monty Q's website.

It's Dragonheart's Birthday!

It's finally here - the whole blogosphere is a twitter because today is Dragonheart's 1st Birthday! There will be a big party in Paris today hosted by Miss Peach. We can't wait to teleport over for the festivities. Hope you have a fabulous birthday today, DH and we'll see you and the other revelers soon at 18 Rue de Chat.

Tuesday with Mr. Chen

Mr. Chen has some funny poses sometimes. If you biggify the second photo you can see how long his claws are! Do you think he looks a little like a frootbat in that photo?

Bastille Day at the Eiffel Tower

We had a wonderful time hanging out with our friends, Zevo Calamari and Boo, at their Bastille Day party at the Eiffel Tower on Sat. We picniced on the Champ de Mars where we drank pastis and champagne and got to eat escargot and cured ham. It was such much fun and now, we've seen the Eiffel Tower, too! This photo is when it lights up and sparkles at night every hour on the hour for ten minutes. Gorgeous! Thanks for inviting us, Zevo and Boo! Great party!

Power of Schmooze Awardees!

Yippie!! We are so excited that our good buddy, Chairman Mao, has nominated us for a Blogger Community Involvement Award (aka "The Power of Schmooze")! We are so honored! We have never been nominated for anything so this is really something special - many thanks to you MaoMao for this very cool award!!

Here's some more info about the Power of Schmooze:

"As it goes, schmoozing is the natural ability 'to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.' Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship."

Each recipient is to post the badge on their site with a link to their post and bestow the award upon five other bloggers. We love to schmooze and to visit other kitties and meet new friends and learn about new kitties in the blogosphere. Now that we have been nominated, we get to pick some other kitties to nominate (this is just as fun as being nominated actually!) We nominate:

Monty Q. Kat from Survival of the Furriest because Monty always is very kind and has a good thing to say in his posts. He also pioneered the full monty (we think) so he is sort of legendary in the cat blogosphere.

Adan from Adan's Everyday because Adan is very community oriented and always is visiting his friends in the blogosphere and leaving kind words. Adan is also bridging international relations by posting in multiple languages and we think that's pretty cool!

Derby because Derby is a great guy and also always posts kind things and visits his buddies out in the blogosphere.

Zevo Calamari and Boo because Zevo and Boo are highly engaged in the community and are always exposing us kitties to important events and news. They're also always trying to help other kitties (like recently when they posted about kitties in San Diego who need a forever home).

Congrats to all our Power of Schmooze nominees! And, of course, thanks again to our budski Mao Mao for nominating us!!

It's Finally Friday

Time for all kitties and their beans to relax by napping, watching birdies, and generally having a great time. Oh wait, we kitties always do that, don't we? Well, it's more fun when our beans are relaxed, too.

Thursday Thirteen #9

Totally not fair!!

A vegetable stand at the Rue Mouffetard market in Paris.

View from Pont Neuf of the Eiffel Tower when it "sparkles" every hour on the hour.

Evening view of the Eiffel Tower.


Last week we posted 13 things we love about our hometown, Lansdowne. This week, we decided to let mommy and daddy post thirteen things they loved about France (even though we're still a little mad at them for leaving us!).

Mommy and Daddy went to France for two weeks. They were in Grenoble and Paris. Both places were wonderful. Here are thirteen things they loved about the beautiful country of France. (They may have to do this in installments because there were soooo many things they loved about France it's hard to pick just thirteen.)

1. The French people. People were so nice and the french hospitality was unsurpassed. Even in Paris where some folks think people are rude, the french people were very kind and welcoming. It was amazing how many english and american people were not even trying to speak even a little french. This is not a good idea. Learn a couple of key phrases and make an attempt to speak the language - it goes a huge way towards fostering relationships with the locals.

2. The Eiffel Tower. Really, it's amazing. Mommy and Daddy visited it twice while they were in Paris. They went to the second level and saw it both at night and day. It sparkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes at night. They say it's just magical. It's incredible to think that it was built as a temporary exhibition and was intended to be torn down.

3. Croissants. These are delicious little buttery pasteries that mommy and daddy ate every day. Sometimes twice a day!

4. Cheese. It's really true. The variety and quality of French cheese is spectacular. Even in the grocery store, the amount of different cheese you can buy is just amazing. Mommy and daddy tried several different kinds of cheese but some of their favorites were Livarot, Camembert, and St. Marcellin.

5. Wine. Mommy and daddy say that they "fell in love with Bordeauxs" whatever the heck that means. Sounds pretty snooty to us but according to them, they now have glimpsed into the mystique of delicious French wines.

6. Cafe Life. Again, sounds pretty snooty to us but they say that you can't beat the French way of life where you can go to a cafe and just sit for long periods of time drinking and eating and watching people. They went to cafes nearly every day. Some favorites in Paris were Le Buci, Cafe Marly, and Cafe Deux Magots.

7. Abbaye de Leffe. Ok, mommy and daddy feel pretty dumb about this but they didn't think there would be many great beers in France. They were wrong. There are many and they come from neighboring Belgium (mommy's favorite type of beer). One they feel in love with was called "Abbaye de Leffe." Beans should try it. It's good.

8. Champage. We never had this but Mr. Chen thinks he would like the bubbles in what mommy and daddy say is the kind of "sparkling wines" from the real Champagne region. Almost everywhere they went in France, they were served champagne to begin an evening. This is a very, very nice way to begin a night.

9. Baguettes. Done right, baguettes in France are amazing. Mommy and Daddy said they'd never had anything like it before. crunchy on the outside but not so crunchy like in the US where you can hurt your teeth. Soft on the inside but not chewey or gummy and with the most delicious flavor. Best bought daily of course!

10. Snails. Ok, now this is just not fair!! Ollie tries to eat a slug and gets in trouble and gets half of it yanked out of his mouth mid-bite. But mommy and daddy can eat snails from their shells in France and this is somehow acceptable???! Apparently, if you call them escargot it's ok to eat them. If you call them slugs or snails, it's not. That's a silly bean rule if you ask us.

11. Butter. French butter is just different. Must be the happy cows of Normandy!

12. Produce. The variety and amazing color and deliciousness of the produce is unbelievelable. Between the amazing things found in the supermarket to the wonderful open air markets, the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables in staggering.

13. Parisian architecture. So you don't think that this TT is completely food related, mommy and daddy wanted to tell you how beautiful the buildings and museums and churches in Paris were. The entire city is just wall to wall with gorgeous, eye-popping architecutre that is not to be missed. Maybe they'll post more about this in a future TT.

We hope you've enjoyed this TT about France!

Heatwave Tips for Kitties

Here in Lansdowne, as in much of the country, we have had quite a heatwave these last two days. Temperatures were in the hundreds and it was very tough on us kitties. Apparently, it was hard on beans too because mommy and daddy went out and got a very large and powerful air conditioner. Ollie is testing it out by seeing if he gets cooler when he sticks his feet on it.
Here are some other tips on beating heatwaves:
1. Sleep more. This conserves your energy and keeps you cooler. (Really who needs an exccuse to sleep more anyway?)
2. Drink lots and lots of water. Sometimes you can forget to do this in the heat but it's very important.
3. Find and lie on cool surfaces.
4. Air out your tummies. The breeze through your tummy hairs helps cool off your whole body.
And, here are some neat ideas from some nice news people in Florida. They suggest ice cubes in the bowl and also giving kitties ice packs. (We assume they mean packs filled with ice cubes and not the real ice packs since we could claw our way through and drink yuckie chemicals.)
Hope all kitties and their beans stay safe and cool in the heatwaves.

Big Secret is Out!

Hey, what's this big cat bed? It's nice and cozy with clothes for me to lay on.

What do you mean, "you're going away for a little while and you wish you could take us with you?"


Oh Pop Pop, you love us a lot, don't you?

We've been holding in a BIG SECRET for two weeks now - Mommy and Daddy were in France! They just got home and were gone for two weeks. Do you believe them? They had the nerve to leave us alone and not take us with them. They made us not tell you all until they got home because they didn't want bad folks out on the internets (not anybody on the cat blogosphere, of course) to know that we were alone in the house. But, we were not really alone. Our Pop Pop and DeeRee Stumpo came to take care of us two times a day and spent lots of time playing with us and talking to us and holding us. So, while we were mad that mommy and daddy would do such a thing, we actually got some quality time with our grandparents. If you want to see some photos of their trip, check out their flickr page. Also, we're sorry that we didn't have as much flexibility in checking out all your sites since our access over the last two weeks was very limited. Hope you understand now why we might not have been visiting everyone as regularly.

We're glad they're back and they said they're never going to go away again for two weeks because they missed us soooo much. Well, as our friend Jeter Harris would say, "Duhr" - that's what we told you!!

Wordless Saturday

Funky Friday

Remember a while ago we posted a true confession ("kitty style") that Mr. Chen sometimes came out of the litter box with litter on his nose? Well, here is a close-up to show you how he looks. This doesn't happen all the time, just every once in a while when he gets really into it, I guess...
It's ok, I love him anyway. - Ollie

Thursday Thirteen # 8

Thirteen things we love about Lansdowne, our forever hometown.

For this week's installment of Thursday Thirteen, we thought we'd share 13 things about our forever hometown, Lansdowne. We won't let Mommy and Daddy know where our original hometowns are but we love our new hometown a lot and wanted to tell all the kitties and beans about it.

1. It is very close to the city of Philadelphia but not so close that it's noisy or too cramped.
2. Because it is close, Mommy's commute to work is not so bad and she can get home and feed us stinky goodness quicker.
3. It has a coffee shop called Regency Cafe where daddy likes to get coffee everyday on his way to the train station. It also has a Mexican restaurant called Mission Burito and many other fun places. Recently, it started a weekly Farmers Market, too.
4. It has an annual Arts Festival. We haven't been to this yet but mommy and daddy say it is very nice. It also has its own Symphony Orchestra.
5. It has an annual Paws for Kindness Day sponsored by the Animal Friends of Lansdowne. We posted about this back in May and we're working on our leash and harness skills so we can walk in the big parade next year. (Leash and harness skills are hard though. We haven't gotten much past letting mommy put them on and then rolling around trying to bite them off yet. We're working on it, though.)
6. It has a small town feel even though it is very near a big city. Our neighbors are very nice and watch out for one another.
7. There are a lot of Victorian houses. A neighbor told mommy it has the largest number of Victorian era homes in one square mile in all of the US but we're not sure we believe that yet. Our house was built in 1890. That is a long time ago, we think.
8. It is only 1 square mile.
9. Our immediate next-door neighbors are very kind, especially the lady - Christine. She and her new husband are both singers in the Philadelphia Opera Company. Their woofie, Suzie, is pretty cool for a woofie, too. We don't know if she sings too, though.
10. There is an annual 4th of July parade and fireworks. This is nice but we wish the loud scary noises would not happen.
11. There are a lot of trees. This means more shade to keep us cool in the summer!
12. Because there are so many trees there are also many, many birdies and squirrels and other wildlife. This is very entertaining for us kitties.
13. It is where we live now with Mommy and Daddy!! Of course, this is the best reason, don't you agree?

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Today in America is Independence Day. We are happy to be able to celebrate this very important day in America. Mommy thought these scarves would be a good idea for us to wear (she had hats too as you can see in the first picture but there was no way we were wearing those!). But, since we don't do many fashion shows (not like Daisy or Skeezik) we weren't quite used to the whole idea and didn't love having things tied around our necks. Mommy remembered that Daisy always got lots of treats during her fashion shots so we have to admit that we did like all the Temptayshions lying around while we wore our scarves.

Anyway, hope all kitties and their beans have a nice relaxing 4th of July today!