Happy Birthday to Me*! How old am I again?

Yes, today is my birthday! I turned 38 37. Definitely 37. If my older sister is turning 40 this year, and I am almost three years younger, then I can't be turning 38 right?

At some point in the past year or so, I seemed to have aged myself a year in my head. I'm fairly sure that I've thought of myself as being 37 all this past year, and so until I did the math about a month ago, I was sure that I was turning 38.

I'm still having a hard time remembering that I'm only 37 now. The notion was that firmly entrenched. Maybe by next year, it will have sunk in.

In other news, my little sister is visiting, and she arrived today! I can't remember the last time I spent my actual birthday with friends (come July, most leave on holiday), not to mention family.

We walked around the city a bit, and climbed up all 387 steps of the Scott Monument for fabulous views of the city, as well as some disturbing gothic architecture.

The Scott Monument. We climbed to the very top! All 287 steps!

Little Sis and me* on the Scott Monument.

In some spots on the climb up the spiral stair (which is twisting the WRONG way), it gets to be a bit of a squeeze.

View of Edinburgh Castle from the Scott Monument.

Arthur's Seat view from the top of the Scott Monument

Ok, dog faces aren't too bad.

But then there's also lots of gargoyles.

And these creepy faces stuck all over the place!

In the evening we went for a run around the neighborhood. We ran a literary version of the Horrible Hill Route, running by the homes of Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, and J.K. Rowlings. Running Partner E. was the tour guide.

Aside: My younger sister totally mocked the difficulty of the Horrible Hill. Some day, Horrible Hill, I will no longer be lame and I will be able to run up and conquer you!

To end the day, we enjoyed a pint of Caledonian 80 at the Morning Glory pub down the road. (Sorry, CMS, we didn't ask around for Billy and Alex.)

On tap for tomorrow: A bit of work during the day and then hopefully a Literary Pub Crawl in the evening.

Birthdays and Kittens

Dear Bob, did I really not post anything in June?! Apparently so.

So today is my birthday!



It was fairly low key, as most of my birthdays are, but all in all not a bad Monday. I had a nice chat with my mom. And I got to play with kittens! Ok, at a little over 2 weeks, they're not quite at the playing stage. But getting to pet and cuddle four little kittens. Nope, doesn't get much better than that!

As of Friday evening, I got to be custodian to mamma kitty, Mango, and her four babies, while their family goes off for a two-week holiday. I get to baby sit
kittens for two weeks!!!! In case you can't tell, I'm a tad excited. :+)

Here are the kittens all in a pile shortly after they arrived.



I thought a corner in the kitchen would be nice, but Mango just wouldn't settle. She kept going in and out of the kitchen. When Mango started to try to move the kittens, I realized that she had other ideas of what constituted a good spot. The next time I followed her when she left the kitchen. She went straight to my bedroom to a narrow spot between the hamper and a chair, and then looked up to me with an expression that clearly said, "I want them here, you idiot person." So I moved the box, and Mango climbed right in and started nursing.

And here is Mango, who looks so much like my first cat, Tiptoes, it makes me just a little bit sad.



Today, I took a few more pictures of the kittens.







There are three boys and a girl. The girl is the black and white one with a narrower white slash on her forehead and a black smudge on her chin. The little tabby boy is going to look just like his mum when he grows up.

The kittens are walking but very wobbly. Even in the two days since they arrived, they are moving more. Right now they still spend nealy all their time sleeping and eating, but I just bet they'll be trying to climb out of the box by next weekend.