Cats and dogs

While Babet is still hissing and growling every time she sees (or remembers the mere existance of) Haroen, Lotte is friendlier and trying to persuade Haroen to play with her. Haroen in his turn is also highly interested in Lotte and learning that we reprimand Lotte when she is too obtrusive (and abusing this fact). So these two are slowly getting friends...

Another movie of Haroen

Haroen has arrived

Yesterday I picked up Haroen at Clio's and he's doing great! The journey to our house in a travel basket was of course not appreciated too much, but he survived. First thing mr. H did after getting out of the basket was blessing the cat's litter box (and not the carpet, thank God).

Last night he was a bit shy and spent most of the time behind the couch, but now he seems to be completely relaxed and at ease. After a heavy session of playing, chasing mice, attacking balls, climbing couches and exploring the attick (which is Haroen's main domain the first few days), he's sleeping now. Completely exhausted.

Weekend without plans, loads of free time! Yeah, right.

So, after having worked really hard to prepare for our party last weekend, we thought to have a well-deserved duty and DIY-free weekend. Not. Since our house still needed some cleening-up from the party, Saturday morning was over before we knew it. Then Eise went over to Percy's to help him prepare for his birthday/cd presentation party later that day and I went to buy a grappa for Karlo (which is quite a challenge if you don't know a thing about grappa). Made a quick stop at Karlo's birthday party to congratulate him (on his 38th and his personally designed & crafted roof terrace lounge couch) to be picked up by Menw to rush to Percy's party as well. Quite a fun party, lots of music (two bands, two more singers, Percy and his partner presenting their new cd) and an exited horse.



Today we decided to go hiking, which finally enabled me to test my new backpack (which I bought quite a while ago already but never tried). We drove to Mechelen and made a 14 km. hike along the river Geul and through the woods of Epen. Nice area, lots of people walking along the Geul though. And great ice cream with fresh strawberries and raspberries!


And then a sad message when we got home. The little kitten Menw was supposed to take home in a few weeks (the sister of our kitten) died this afternoon. Apparently, she was hit by a car and her injuries were too bad to survive... We will pick up Haroen next Tuesday already, which means we will have to take some precautions to carefully guide the first encouter between Haroen and Babet...

Our new housemate

Meet Haroen, who will be our new housemate in a few weeks. A friend of Diana found a cat with two kittens in the forest. And after nine months we don't really believe that our old cat Max will return anymore. So we decided to take one of the kittens for Babet (who will be thrilled, I'm sure. Yeah right.). So here he is, Haroen, a little red & white cat. We think he is about 5 or 6 weeks old and he will stay with his mother (and his sister, who will go to Menw!) for a while before we will get him.

Sunny Sunday

Finally... Sun! Spring! Garden! No winter coat! Sunscreen (I burn easily)! In short, great weather today... Here's a visual impression of our Sunday, mostly consisting of breakfast and some reading in the garden (have reached part 4 of "Het Bureau", which I really recommend - mind the resemblance between our cat and the one on the book cover!), and a long walk through a lovely South Limburg landscape (lots of blossoms at the moment).

Another topic: my new job... Lots of people have asked me whether I like it, which is quite hard to answer after only a few weeks. But let's give it a try! So far, I like it. I like the projects we're working on (both applied and more fundamental stuff, cool project partners including cultural and arts centres, a senior home, other research institutions, etc., and nice techy topics), my colleagues are friendly and the city of Leuven is really charming. Driving back and forth is not too bad (it's about an hour and hardly any traffic jams), but in rainy weather traffic is lots heavier and because of road work I have to drive through lots of small villages (including traffic lights) before I can hit the highway on my way back. One slightly negative point is the fact that our office is located in the basement of a building and that our view consists of a concrete wall about one meter from the windows... One plus of this: weather-wise it's great, you don't have to watch depressing grey and rainy skies all day, while bright, sunny weather can't nag you while sitting inside!

Hairy clothes

For all of you who have been wondering why my clothes contain so many white hairs (the black ones don't seem to stand out so much), here's why! Our laundry simply isn't safe for Babet, even when we put the laundry basket on the kitchen table. Sorry for the high level of Animal Farm-ness on my blog the past few posts.

Not so many highlights this weekend, I'm affraid. Except for a new load of chocolate easter eggs (including the infamous "eiwijzer"), dragging down the first Christmas tree of the former owners of our house, which they pitiably put in the back yard 16 years ago (normally, Christmas trees have the decency to die pretty quick after being planted, not this one...), and the day on which sooo many people have their birthdays! In alphabetical order, Bas, Laurent, Martine and Timo, congratulations!

Adolf the camera cat

Couldn't resist posting this picture I found on the intriguing website CatsThatLook LikeHitler.com. Another fun site for cat people is Mr. Lee's catcam, showing pictures of a cat-mounted camera, which automatically takes a picture every few minutes. For everyone else who is wondering what their cat is doing all day...

Our cat seen from below

We have three clear skylights in our kitchen roof. Our cat Babet sitting on one of them results in funny pictures!