A Birthday Surprise (by sarah)

Today is Alaric's birthday so he took the day off work to potter around tidying his workshop. Not all went to plan as there was a baby poo incident in the bath she was sharing with Jean and a lot of bath toys - it took both of us to shower children and clean both and toys ups.

He was just having a break and debating when to go our for lunch when there was a knock at the door. Three kids trying to rehome their kitten as they are having to downsize and have only just been told that it's no cats at the new place. Al explained we have too many cats already and that they should try and find someone else. Which they did - I was over at the neighbours and watched them try house after house.

Eventually they came back back to our house and Alaric took the kitten. I was still over at the neighbours when Jean appeared very excited - so excited she didn't want to stop for the chocolate the lady next door was offering her!

The kids mum appeared a bit later with all the kitten suplies. They were very sad and very desperate - we were first choice as we already have cats and kids. The kitten has been well looked after and loves kids!

So we now have a little kitten.

I may have gotten a little over excited over it - and indeed the first thing Alaric did was take a photo of me with a kitten sticking out of my jumper and post it on Twitter with the words 'Sarah in her natural element'.

I personally reckon that everybody should just call me Crazy Cat Lady from now on.

Broodiness issue solved for now!

Mary was so excited babbling about 'abee ca!'

Jean took her responsibility of kitten stroking very seriously.

She is so in love with the little thing - I've never seen anything like it. She loves the rabbit and things but this is a level up - I think it is because she's that bit older and it is smaller and more interactive. The baby bunny was still big enough you could see it looking after itself - Fluffy was a sub-adult when we rescued him were as this kitten is oly just old enough to be away from mum.

She automatically went into protection mode - worrying about it falling off of things and forgiving it if it bit her etc... (which is does a lot as it is a playful little thing unlike Hydrogen and Helium who have always kept their distance and would occasionally come over for snugs - this one loves being snugged with humans).

Once it as settled we went out for lunch were the girls both pretended they were She-Ra and then wizards with bread sticks. 🙂

The kitten had been called Kitty but we felt that as it was so young and that is more a description we could use our naming pattern we had started when we got the two girls. So the new cat was to be Lithium however Jean wanted to keep the kitty bit so we went through a few variations such as Hello Lith and so forth but in the end the poor things name is Lithium Hello Kitty.

We all wanted to get back to the kitten and even Jean shrugged at the suggestion of ice cream factory.

Jean, Mary and the kitten bounced around all afternoon whilst Alaric pottered in the workshop and I attempted to make him easter chicks for his birthday cake. When I checked all three were crashed out on the sofa!

Jean just kept saying how she hadn't realised how cute kittens were and how sweet it was that Mary was trying to look after the kitten 'it's a baby looking look after a baby!' with Jean supervising - almost made me cry with cuteness. Alaric didn't stop grinning.

So it looks like the Snell-Pym Zoo has a new member - also it turns out that Alaric shares his birthday with Grumpy cat 🙂 Lith is not grumpy at all! Though it's mews to be picked up heart Jean's heart she says so she just has to pick it up.

A Snowy Spring (by sarah)

I went out and took more photos of snow - mainly as the sun was now shining.

I have always loved sun beams 🙂

The sun seemed to exist in a strip highlighting some lovely buildings in the distance - I liked the contrast as it makes some of the buildings appear to glow.

I found a ruin at the side of the road - I think I was in Leckhampton.

Earlier on in another area I found pig stys that look almost apocolyptic.

I photoed snowy crags using max zoom.

And the best bit was I found woolly pigs! If anyone knows the bred I would be greatful if you would let me know!

Growing a Bitcoin Economy (by alaric)

Currently, there's lots of interest in Bitcoin as a speculative investment, driven by the meteoritic rise in its value this year.

However, to make Bitcoin actually do what it's capable of - working as an international Internet currency for free trade - we need to back that up with a vibrant economy in Bitcoin itself, rather than just trading it to and from ordinary currencies on exchanges.

This economy should be composed of many kinds of activity, all reinforcing each other and together making bitcoins more and more useful.

Read more »

Fooling Around With Poetry and What Not (by sarah)

April the 1st and the first thing that happened was Youtube suggested that they were closing down youtube as a five year competition was over to choose the best video in the world. I didn't watch very much of the video and quickly moved on.

Second thing to happen was I saw people lambasting others for pulling the 'I'm expecting/pregnant' joke on Facebook updates.

Third thing that happened was that I decided to hide until 12 when traditionally you stop the April Fool pranks otherwise they are said to back fire. Instead I have been preparing myself for more poetry madness!

NaPoWriMo 🙂

I am doing visual poetry books this time - 30 of them 🙂 And generally going to be spending 30 hrs this month on poetry (not that hard as I am going to be taking part in the Cheltenham Poetry Festival anyway!).

Anyway there will be more exercises and writing inspiration and how to on the WoPoWriMo site and here is the NaPoWriMo site for those interested.