Cats, Nephew James And More

It was a busy weekend around here.  Well, for some of us.  Not the cats.

Hamish, top, and Basil still seem to be growing at just over 10 months old.  Bigger and as naughty as ever!

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We had the pleasure of having my nephew James spend some time with us on Saturday.  My sister was in town for a play (I think it was called Spank... probably inappropriate for a 10 year old, you can look it up on your own) with my mother, aunt, cousin and more.  An interesting group to see such a play maybe?  I wonder how many 'uncomfortable' moments they may have had.  Heh, heh, in my imagination it is hilarious!  Okay that was for them, share if you wish, Mom and Sis!

Anyway, the afternoon got off to a bad start, we went to an event I found on the internet that was not at all what I expected.  But after we got back home we were able to go through some of my old Piers Anthony books.  He's been interested in the Xanth series so I gave him all those books that were in good enough shape and threw out the old and damaged ones.  I also gave him the Adept series that I remember really enjoying.  After that I went through my Kiss CDs - he's a fan - and managed to give him several that he can enjoy until I can give him the rest of them.  I never did get the complete Kiss catalog on CD, like I managed to collect every album on vinyl (still have them!).  Digital is everything now and CD's are not as big of a priority for me anymore for most music.  I think he only has a couple so I'm happy to give him some new-to-him Kiss to listen to.

For dinner, we took him out to a nearby landmark, a place called Ella's Deli.  Unmistakable along one of the city's main arteries, especially in Summer when the carousel outside is uncovered and all lit up!  Inside it is full of all sorts of moving, flying, spinning everything.  You can see some of the hundreds of displays here, but photos are still and the whole place is actually in mesmerizing motion.  I hadn't been inside there for at least 15 years, so I think I had as much fun as he did!

Love ya, James!  Thanks for hanging out with us! (We missed you, Lindsey!)

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Sunday was a pretty fun day.  I had a pretty casual morning, my wife did a lot of housework.  As usual she wins that battle, I realize it and do feel guilty.  We went out to brunch with our friend Bridget along with Zubin and several of her friends for her birthday - Happy Birthday, Bridget!  It was a nice place and even though the service was a bit slow the food was good and we had a very good time.  It was actually a very nice day out - sunny with no wind and above freezing, a nice day to be out and about.

Afterwords we stopped for a few drinks at another local watering hole before going home and relaxing for an hour or so.  Then, the neighbors a few houses up the street were having a gathering for all their neighbors and friends, including our local alderperson, so we went up and socialized for another hour and a half or so.  I like our part of town, there are many like-minded people here and who wouldn't be comfortable with that?  Many are youngish couples, some with children, and relatively recent to the neighborhood, as we are.  All in all a nice day and an unusually busy weekend for us, yet I showed up for work this morning with a great big smile!