The lyf so short

Assorted random pictures, mostly from our shiny new garden.

( Cut for long list )

Because how better to wrap the year up than with cute kittens?

But first, some randomness.

Across the parking place at work...
Ready for the feast.
The sauteed onions and spicy pumpkins were an experiment. It went really really well.
YUM, I tell you.

Now, the kittens.

King of the Hill
Two of my men ;)
I have found the light!
Me too.
You buy them expensive toys, and then they go and have more fun with paperbags.
I can seeee you!
Bag attack!
Náro strikes back
Kittens love ladyelleth.
Kittens love backpacks.
Kittens love boxes. Note my shiny new midi tower in the background.
Go away, I'm sleeping.

And now - assuming that his will really be the last entry for the year - I wish all of you all the best for the New Year; health, happiness and lots of other good stuff. May the best of the old be the worst of the new, may at least some of your dreams come true, and may the Force be with you. Coincidentally, this rhymes, although it doesn't scan. Thank you for hanging around and being there; I'm looking forward to seeing you again on the other side of 2006.
*hugs one and all*

Because here be kittenspam.

Not now. I have a headache.
Ooooh, something's moving in there!
Does this position make me look fat?
*slurp*
Forced perspective is fun!
Not listening.
I don't have a short attention spa--- oooh, shiny!
Yes, this is comfortable, actually.
*streeeetch*
Yes, this is comfortable, too.
My secret hide-out.
Brotherly love.
Unless we fight.
What do you mean, your bed?
You're comfy, you may stay.
Phantom?
You're not travelling anywhere without me.

Nos 3,4,5 and 6 by ladyelleth, who came to visit for the weekend to go to the game fair in Essen with me. It was fun; she got a drawing of Ner and Fëa meeting and a Fëa-chibi by Jenny Dolfen (which I'll totally post when I get her permission [EDIT: There we go!]), and I got a signed comic book by various inunfamous German artists and a t-shirt that says "Make LARP, not war", plus the obligatory new dice. AND there'll be a Drachenfest in 2007! ^_____^
Elleth's on her way back home now, which is why you got the kittenspam above.

In other news, what do Lyras do when they have to finish an art project and a writing project for Ring*Con, two assignments for university and the autumn clean-up?

She makes faily jewellery, that's what.
(Actually, I just wanted whether it was possible without any professional tools. The answer is Yes, if you don't mind it looking kinda crooked.)

There is, however, kittenspam.

(Somewhat doubtful) pasha!Darcy
'náro built a tunnel!
... oops, they found me.
Cutting fabric + kittens = war
Smug!Darcy (+ random Portuguese football player)
Sleepy!Darcy
They call me laser-eye.
'náro is chillin'.
Yet another kittenfight
Shove off!
I'll kill you dea--- ooooh, shiny!
Sometimes they fight, sometimes they cuddle.
Almost-tricolour with kitten
Ew, it's water.
Don't you try taking that shoe from me. That's my shoe.
Yo, I'm watching YOU.
What do you mean, you want to get up?
:þ
You can't see me!

Poor dears were at the vet's yesterday for their vaccinations. They hated the drive, of course - that is, 'náro did, Mr. Darcy didn't seem to mind the drive so much as his brother stomping around on him in his panic - but they actually calmed down a lot once we had arrived and were waiting. They took everything (including some rather large dogs) in with wide-eyed curiosity and hunted whatever fly was stupid enough to fly into their basket. Now they can theoretically safely go outside - except for the part where the cats currently can't go out at all due to our house being isolated from outside, which is why there is a deep pit between wall and garden, which we couldn't yet bridge in any way. Shakira is restless...

On Saturday I met up with ladyelleth and her mother to haunt the Spectaculum in Dortmund (the Spectaculum is roughly comparable to a RenFaire, only less serious). I picked them up at the main station (driving there, I already had the chance to notice that the directions I had were total crap). After a few circles around the station - remember, the directions were crap - I just turned right at random, which turned out to be a street that actually led to where we were headed. We found a parking space from which there were already arrows towards the market. Yay!

Except that it was a walk of about 20 minutes from there to the Spectaculum. Oh well. We eventually reached it in the sweltering heat - and it was yet getting warmer.
It was, if I remember correctly, larger than the one in Gelsenkirchen around Easter - the camps of the non-selling folks, at any rate, took a lot more space. They had lovely tents (and lovely decoration) and were cooking their suppers over open fires. And there were bands and fools, and a tournament... (for which we didn't want to pay the admission, though, so we watched from the adjacent playground *cough*)

We tried our hand at archery (I managed to hit the black once in my five tries, which won me a red jasper) and were tempted with wonderful fruit wines and excellent sheep's cheese and wild boar salami and venison salami (yes, of course we succumbed both times). I was also tempted by a very beautiful dress (which I didn't buy after all) and jewellery cut out of coins (which I didn't buy either). After the football game (Germany vs. Sweden), the market grew a lot fuller, but it was never overcrowded.

The dream spectacle in the evening was wonderful again (though, again, I didn't care much for the Iron Heinrich), especially the firedancers of the formation Spiral Fire.

It was past midnight when we made our way back to the car, heavily laden with bottles of berry wine, and made our way back to Solingen. Back home, ladyelleth and her mom admired the kittens properly. Darcy especially seemed to have taken a liking to Elleth's mother. They were their usual adorable selves and at once turned to conquer the makeshift bed for the visitors...

We had a small bottle of cranberry wine and then gave in to tiredness. We slept well into the next day, had a lazy hobbity breakfast (including the above-mentioned sheep's cheese and deer salami), went through the photos and the (highly embarassing) film material Elleth's mother had shot. After that, alas, it was already time for them to catch their train home...

Later on, I picked my parents up, who were just returning from their two-week vacation. The bastards expressed their astonishment at the sun setting at 9 pm (and they'd missed the thunderstorm earlier on, during which it was dark as night in the early evening) and had a lot of stories to tell from their trip to make me nice and jealous. They brought me a CD of nifty Finnish music, Moomin troll cookies and a seat cover made of reindeer fur (which was originally meant for my brother, but as he at first expressed no interest in it, I managed to snatch it *shifty eyes*)... of course, I had to look at half their photos right away.

You, however, will now not be shown their photos, but ours. (wow, wasn't that a smooth transition?)

( Spectaculum Picspam! (And there will be kittenspam further down, so stay tuned ;)) )

all courtesy of ladyelleth.

- - -
( And the kittenspam. )

--- how cruel. The Italian team just won in the 94th minute against Australia. 94th minute! That shouldn't even count! *cries for Australia*

So I thought, "You've tortured your friendslist with kittenspam for long enough. You've shown them kittens from every possible angle in every possible situation. Stop it already. Nobody wants to see it anymore."

And then I thought, "Wait a moment, it's kittens. There cannot be too many cute little kittens. Everybody loves kittens, right? So, post the kittenspam already."

I'll leave it to you which of the two voices was right.

Yesterday, the kittens had their first visit to the vet for vaccination. (Wait, can we make an alliterative poem out of that? "They for the first time left | the flat that is their fastness/ and visited the vet | for vaccination's sake"... hah!) Turns out Mulan is a Mr. Darcy after all. Afterwards, both of them lay around lethargically, especially 'náro. He usually purrs like mad as soon as someone touches him, and then he didn't react at all, just looked at me impassively and sickly. But they recovered over the evening and returned to their newest hobby, which is climbing into the waste-paper basket, fetch a bit of paper, and hunt it through the flat.

And now, for the picspam.

This was something they discovered early last week: Climbing behind the kitchen curtain.
That's what it looks like on the outside.
I'm so relaxed.
Let us sleep.
Mine? Mine!
Tiger in the fern
It's cute, but forbidden.
More curtain kittens
Hey, that's mean!
End of fern.
Are we pretty?
See? They stole that from the trash.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Yes, we are pretty!
Get tuned for Kittenspam: The Movie.

Sooo.

We have really ugly bedclothes, but really pretty kittens.
And don't they look innocent.
But see that scar on her face? Yes, that was done by overenthusiastic mini-hunters.
But she loves them anyway.
Very conscientiously.
... well, he seems to like the ugly blanket.
Gock shomeshing shtuck bekweeng mah teesh.
Ah, peace.
Layers
That is MY brother, that is.
... this is not what it looks like!
She just has really tasty feet.
I AM FIERCE!
... I am blurry.
Look what we conquered!
This spells W-A-R.
Kittenbattle I
Gathering Strength
Kittenbattle II
Kittenbattle III (and look how huge the kittens are. In comparison to their mother, I mean.)
Kittenbattle IV
Family idyll
Can we come aloooong?
My bookshelf is no longer safe.
*snuggle*
*yawn*
I'm not here. Go away.
... this actually has nothing to do with the kittens. It's just that the Japan Day was cancelled due to the rain and storm, so I had to make my own Japanese edibles. But the kittens are well! I swear!
See? They're alive and well!
... uh-oh.

They're six weeks old now and incredibly playful. Anything that's on ground level or can be reached from ground level - including legs, tablecloths, shoes and random furniture - is an invitation to play, climb or bite. They're also incredibly pretty. Fëanáro already has brown eyes, whereas Mulan's are still mostly blue. Her nose is more reddish-brown than black now. I wonder whether it'll end up pink as her brother's and mother's.
Both of them have the amazing talent to curl up on my or Jörg's lap just when we have to get up and leave.

And we begin the picspam with yet another kittenfight.
Oh look, there's mom!
You can't get up! Your lap is now the property of the Fëanorian Freedom Front. (There, I bite your trousers!)
Resistance is futile. Like you could ever resist us.
Did you understand that?
We can stay here for eeeever.
... even if we fall asleep.
Fooood!
Kitten smiley
The playground
Whee, fun!
Must be the reason why I'm king in my castle.
And here we go again. ('náro is a thumbsucker!)
You still can't get up.
Or you could, but we'd be really sad.
Whereas, if you leave us be, we'll look THIS happy!
(I think we won.)
A sleepy family
Help, help, my brother is killing me!
Obligatory cleaning photo
... or is she kissing her paws?
The can opener said it's not a toy, but it sure looks like one.
As do these.
Conspiracy? I know of no stinking conspiracy.
I'm so going to be a beauty queen.
And I'm... a curious kitten.
Also, the king of the hill.
Hello world! (photographed through the curtain, which explains the lousy quality)
Uh, dust!
Cross-legged
Hello waste-basket. Are you my friend?
... or you, hand?
I'm all grown-up. No, really!
*sigh* I don't know how the kids get that dirty all the time.

And that's all for this week; the rest is repetitive.

The kittens are good for a surprise every day.

Yesterday, #2 fell asleep on my shoulder. Also, both of them showed that they now can pee on their own (and on the floor. ...)

Today, I enter and wonder what has happened to #1. - oh, by the way, it looks now as though our first intuitive assessment was right. #2's itty bits look like those of her mother, #1's don't, so it's fair to assume that #1's a boy and #2's a girl. So they'll be Fëanáro and either Mulan or Darcy now - Mr Darcy has apparently grown on Jörg so much that he can't let go of it, and without the Mr, it's more like a girl's name anyway.
Anyway, I wondered what had happened to Fëanáro. His fur seems to have grown like mad over night, because now he looks like a fluffy little scruffball.
And #2 is practicing to climb or jump off things controlledly now - so far, she loved climbing, but for the way back down, she just rolled over the edge and let gravity do the rest, resulting in more or less awkward landings. Today she found out that she'll land safer when she jumps, or glides down as far as possible and lets go then. Even though she lands a bit tottery, it's a lot more controlled now...
And they've discovered my backpack as mat, mountain and treasure cave in one. They seem to prefer it to their nest, in fact, and have curled up (or, alternatively, fought) on it several times today.

Náro has also acquired the habit of peeing on the floor and then climbing into the litterbox. I assume that means that he understood the principle, but he should definitely work out the correct order of these things...
Darcy/Mulan has curled up in my sleeve while I type these lines. When my sinews move to much, she bites me.

No need for that, really; I'm sore enough as it is. Yesterday, I accompanied Jörg to jûdô practice, and now I have a few (visible and invisible) bruises as well as evilly sore shoulders, calves and buttocks. Also, I seem to have muscles in my stomach after all. They hurt. And my stupid finger is stiff again, while the finger next to it has a blister from the taping.

Otherwise, though, training was fun - for jûdô, anyway. It feels good to finally have done something again, because my motivation to get off my ass is much too low currently. But next week, when the Easter vacations are over and the gyms open again, I'll hopefully take up kendô and karate again. And I'm getting good running-shoes for my birthday from my mom, so that should help with the motivation to go running with Jörg. - yes.

Yesterday's AMC made me go into mad fangirl mode again, which resulted in this. Because no matter how often I tell me I should just stop trying, we all know that I can't...

---
Und wieder mal zu faul zum Übersetzen. Außerdem muss ich jetzt erstmal versuchen, die kleine Katze aus dem Ärmel zu pulen, bevor sie mir keine Haut mehr am Arm lässt. Aughs.

Firstly: Happy birthday, malicedl and faelkchen!

Secondly, the kittens are three weeks old today, which #2 celebrated by walking around my chair. As I am now posting the kittenspam of a full week (*gasp!*), it's... a lot. Sorry 'bout that.

Take him, not me.
Right, right. 'm coming.
Ok, so here's the plan. I distract, you attack.
Homewards bound
A rare moment of peace
Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?
... the hell?
Help!
Let my people go.
I want to get away!
Good-bye, everybody, I've got to go...
I knew you wouldn't leave for real.
Bah, now I will!
Mit dem Zweiten sieht man besser.
Let's just ignore her.
Oooh shiny!
I'm on my way...
Where does this lead?
Jugend forscht
Nothing happened and we didn't do it.
So, what's supposed to be so great about this?
... "I'm staying at home." - "Bah, coward.">
Even mothers have to play occasionally.
Just so you don't doubt we're adorable.
And tired.
And almost as long as mom!
And thirsty.
And adventurous.
You're - in - my - way!
Chocolate? I didn't see any chocolate.
... damn gravity.
Ah, this is better.
We did mention cute and fluffy, yes?
Firecats
So what's this camera thing here?
I can walk!
Mooom, that means I can walk alone.
Ooooh, something new!
Close-up.
I shall fight the evil litterbox and WIN!
No, you shall go home.
I may be a coward, but I do know where my towel is! (This was pic #42. I couldn't help it.)
But I have found this funny smelly box.
Yesh! They're finally sleeping!
Look, I found a chair!
Damn, Mommy found me.
Gotcha.
... wait, wait, you're taking photos of this?
... wow, someone's protective.
That's why I wanna stay home.

... yeah, well. You try coming up with 50 funny taglines.