Too cute for words...

...they are. They're to the pounce-and-bite stage. I, on the other hand, am at the zombie stage. But then so was everyone else at school today, so it wasn't just me. Must be a function of gravity or the earth's tilt or the great suck of political oxygen or the burden of bureaucracy.

(They all have ridiculously clever names, too.)

I'm trying to figure out...

...why my motivation to communicate has taken a leave of absence. It couldn't possibly be that I need more time to marinate and for intake -- that's all I've done for the past several decades. How does one develop regularity, discipline, balance? I've let many things slip by without comment -- the anniversary of Madeleine's death, my own first blogiversary, the start of a new school year, my wonderful new students and their quirks and stories, POM's sister and her health saga, the missed opportunity for a blogger meet-up (hard when you're not being much of a blogger), the reappearance of some old friends (circa high school), this crazy-daisy election, progress on these adorable kittens. Guess I won't want for topics in the year to come.

I've missed it. I've missed you all.

Madame X and LittleKitty (who hates the kittens, btw), grading, of course

The whole gang

Looking for escape (and being cruelly outsmarted by the basket!)

Hey! We're hungry in here! Mamahhhhhhhhhhh!

Sheesh

How was that for a hiatus? Sorry to all, and I will do some sort of update soon -- bullet points, most likely, but at least it'll be something! I've got to get my discipline back!

In any case, we are kitten mommies and I just had to share to photo with you! BoldKitty has had five little sweeties! Yay! More later, I promise! I hope everyone on teh nets is doing fine. I've missed y'all.

Bonus post:

From Son of Childmecca, an excursion with Lomagirl and her two ridiculously cute kids! Hadn't seen them since just after Christmas, so this was fun! (I'll post more on Flickr.)

Colorful "jellyfish"

Dinosaur who sells sunglasses

A newly made bug, who seems to be getting into the part just fine

A newly made bug who is still wrestling with his identity

[The 3D show from It's a Bug's Life is terribly cute. We hadn't seen it before. It's cleverly done, and at one point, it's downright scary. It's always fun to go to places like this with little people! We get to see things we don't normally go see. These two were troopers, and I think they had fun.]

What flew in.

For scale, I include my hand, which is only slightly closer to the camera than the moth is. This was about 5-6" across, from wingtip to wingtip. I don't know if it's a small atlas moth or what. (I won't take the time to look it up now, as I have a paper to write that I've studiously been avoiding. If anyone knows, though....)

Academic Excursion, Part 2

The second leg of our trip took us to the Huntington. I could not take photos of the Ellesmere Chaucer or the Gutenberg Bible, naturally, but I did take some of various art pieces that caught my eye.

So delicate and detailed.

A detail from a tile piece about Cinderella. Quite unusual, rustic, and utterly enchanting.

Detail from stained glass piece.

A crazy European family played in the sprinklers, fully clothed, from children to mother (pictured here) to grandmother. It was hot, in all fairness. They made a fun spectacle.

Stone gazebo (or whatever it's called) and roses

Nice ass!

Nice, uh, triton!

From the Japanese garden

Walkway detail from the new Chinese garden. Love the intricate stone work.

Bridge from the Chinese garden. Overexposed, but it seemed unthinkable to exclude it.

Design from Chinese garden.

Design from Chinese garden.

The giant greenhouse, with surprisingly visible mountains behind. (It was a quite a clear day.)

Lovely.

Lovely.

Academic Excursion

Over the doorway at the Clark Library.

The painted Steinway in the great room.

People in the great room. (For scale, the two middle persons are both over six feet tall. This is a large room)

I just finished writing and submitting a paper on this poem. We got to touch this 1730s first edition. Way cool.

Heaven will look a little something like this (with an added comfy sofa and/or window seat).

The exterior of the Clark.

(I'll post more from the series on Flickr.)