What's Up Doc?

Well, tons of things are up as you might well imagine. And some things are down as well. Ah, the ups and the downs. The most important stuff we'll let Mom tell you by telephone. Here on the blog we just basically have fun, right? So what fun have we had lately?

We played Rummikub which I - Henry that is - won! That's always an UP.

Jerry wanted to play too.

The shelves in the closet fell (that'd be a DOWN) and we had to empty it all out. But then Mom let us...

...sleep in it for one night before she redid them. That was an UP. I hung up my lizard lantern and Malcolm...

...set up his blue ghost lamp (both UPs of course as the preposition indicates) ...

...but Malcolm also enjoyed playing with his green laser pointer. It makes really cool light patterns (up and down the walls...). We didn't sleep very well but it was fun any how.

The next day Mom put up the new shelves and then...

...Jerry wanted to sleep there too!

For about half a second Mom thought maybe our life might look and feel like an Ikea ad...

Ah, bliss!

...at least for a while...

...but then reality set in again. That would be both an UP and a DOWN as reality always is, right? The rod is UP but the clothes are hanging DOWN (which is actually an UP)...

With the extra wood Mom and I sawed off the boards for the shelves I invented a new game...

...I chose a simple name for it. In all modesty I call it HENRY BALL!

El Andy's UP!

The CEO of the one person enterprise Sunshine Cleaning...

...almost mooned us!

(Another definite UP even if he was DOWN on all fours.

A definite DOWN is the fact that Malcolm and I spilled sweet coffee on the keyboard of Max's computer two days ago. The u, y and h keys reallyyyyyyyy, reallyyyyyyyyyyyy stick now. Big, big DOWN. Especially for this post, huh?)

Here's a little phenonomon that Mom and I found DOWNright fascinating:



Did you all get that? Here, watch again :



Did YOU know that water would stand still in a funnel like that? We sure didn't expect that to happen! It was veryyyyyyyy exciting! A definite UP! Life's sure full of surprises, huh?

And here's one last surprise folks :

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyikes!

I came DOWN The dreaded Black Tongue disease! Don't worry ! It's not contagious even if blogging is! At least in our familyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

The Birthday Gift

Happy Birthday Omi! The first day of your 80th year has dawned and set and we've decided that to honor this special year we pirates here in Paris will give you a weekly post at least. They might be short but we'll try to be faithful to the rythmn.

So here's number one!

Cheers to you from all of us.

So, what's new around here, you might ask?

Well, I - Malcolm that is - did catch a weird illness...

... Fluorescent Green Monster Mouth the doctor said it was. Very frightening to look at but innocuous enough from a medical point of view. Needless to say, I did not die of it.

Jerry didn't die either...

...but he did use up another of his lives, falling out the window AGAIN on January first. He must have wanted to say "Happy New Year" to the sidewalk downstairs... Um, not a good plan. The vet came - yes, there are emergency vets in Paris who work on Jan 1. They don't work for free, but then who does? - and gave him a bunch of shots and he was all better until...ten days later he began vomiting incoercibly and no matter what we did he would not eat or drink anything without vomiting until he was finally hospitalized for 48 hours with x-rays, and ultrasounds, IV drip and blood work,they even wanted to do a CAT scan - of course! - but Mom drew the line at that. and then he came home...

...and found his favorite spot on the dryer and we are all very happy! Mom and Papa are especially happy he has finished his antibiotics because they were making him finicky!

To teach him some manners...

...they considered feeding him from our lovely new plates...

...but they thought better of it...

...they figured all this refinement might just make the problem worse...

...or intimidate him...

...Yikes! This guy's something else, isn't he? We love our new plates and

we luv Omi!

Just one problem with the plates: No Beagle! To remedy that : a haiku.

Nos assiettes sont
Belles, mais Katie Le Beagle
Manque à l'appel!


Still, the biggest news of all remains the birth of our new baby cousin - once - removed on the 17th of November, 2010...

...Meet Clement!

He's got the makings of a fine pirate, wouldn't you say?

We sure think so!

Happy Birthday Mama

Is that really you?

That is sort of fun that you had pictures taken at school each year so you could see just how much you changed from year to year. Of course, way back then, you didn't have blogs...

We hope the next year will be a good one, full of new advenuters, worthy of many happy memories.

Kisses!

By Popular Demand (Part TWO)

HeeeeeeeeeeRES Jerry!!

If there's an open bag lying about...

...Jerry will soon be in it.

(In that picture up there, Jerry has just climbed into Mom's new back pack. You know, the one she bought to bike in Canada with? The minute she opened it to take out presents the day we got back, Jerry immediately climbed in to see if there were any for him. We think he was after the sardines we got at Rocky's.)

And what do you figure Henry - whom Mom figured should probably also appear in this blog since he hasn't been in the last three... - has in his bag?

If you said "JERRY!"...

...then you figured right!

Wherever we are...

...Jerry will usually be somewhere close at hand, like here, curled up in a dirty frying pan or...

...here, helping to empty the dishwasher.

But sometimes he gets tuckered out from all that housework and then, unlike some haiku-worthy beagles we know, Jerry will...

...go to sleep in his cage.

Ain't he sweet?

We like him.

By Popular Demand

Stella and her amazing pet rat...

EL ANDY!!!!!

Without the slightest warning...

...he attempts to leap from unmade beds...

...play guitar...

...even dance while playing!

Be warned...

EL ANDY WANTS YOU!

We don't know what for, we just know he does!

And Some Things Never Change...

In case anyone is worried there's too much nouveaute here in Paris...

...don't. The Eiffle tower still shines at sunset...

...and the clouds still roll wildly over La Defense...

...and the sun also rises.

...are back after three months' break for summer vacation!

Well, almost three months. During that time, some of us did actually drum up the energy necessary to wish happy birthday to Stella and just to say hello. Once. But now we're back! Back for a new school year! Which only starts tomorrow, thank Zeus, so for now, let's quickly tell you what's new around here!

Max has a new keffié and a few new bracelets which he brought back from Israel (Jaffa, maybe...)(He still likes his old Starbucks mug for his morning coffee though.).

He didn't mind sharing his new headgear with Papa who looks remarkably like Yasser Arafat, we think.

Stella has a new rat. Well, new to the blog at least :

This is not a very good picture but it's the best you're going to get because Mom is boycotting the rat so El Andy - that's his name - doesn't get many photo ops.

Malcolm has a new earring!!! We even have an entire video of Stella piercing his ear but we won't be able to post that tonight. Here's a small taste of Malcolm's incredible courage though :

And last but not least...



...Mom and Papa have a new stove!!!! It's so shiny we can take pictures of ourselves in it even after having made grilled cheese sandwiches on it for the very first time ever!

Mom especially likes the oven door. She finds those quite handy for checking out if your hair is still looking alright after a long day of cooking.

Here's wishing you all many long days of whatever!