A decade of Pabs

Is there a better way to celebrate one's tenth birthday than with a snooze on one's favourite chair?

Today is the day that we celebrate my birthday and my gotcha day, which fall roughly around the same time of year.

It's my EIGHTH gotchaversary and my TENTH birthday.

Yes, a whole DECADE of me.

Awesome.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Awards season

Catchin' some early morning rays in my garden...

A few weeks ago, my mate Yoggi gave me the Superior Scribbler Award.
These are the particulars for this award:

Each superior scribbler must pass on the AWARD to 5 friends who are also SS.

Each SS must link the author and name of the blog from whom he receives the award.

Each SS must display the award on his/her blog and link to the post which explains the award.
(For more info, visit: http://nollsnip.blogspot.com/)

You know what? I'm so late with posting about this, most of my buddies have it already. So if YOU don't have it yet, it's yours! ALL my friends are superior scribblers!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Superbowl Monday?

That's right, Americats. We're so far into the future here in Australia that Superbowl Sunday is Superbowl Monday.

I'm just having an early morning roll in the sun before settling down in front of the TV for the big game.

I haven't followed the NFL this year at all, so I just have to pick a team to support based on the team names. So I'm supporting the New Orleans Saints today, because Nick's Australian Football League Team is the Saint Kilda Saints, and they just missed out on last season's championship. Here's hoping that the New Orleans Saints can go all the way!

Really, I'm most excited about seeing The Who rock out at half time.

Have a fun day, everycat!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Pablo no-show

My friend Heidi came to visit me today.

Heidi was one of the people who adopted me when I was a kitten. (I only came to live with Kate when I was two.)

You could say Heidi's been like a mother to me.

Heidi now lives on the island of Yap in Micronesia.

In the middle of the Pacific.

She hasn't visited Hobart for, like, five years or something.

So what did I do when she came to visit me today?

I hid in the next door neighbour's garden.

There aren't any photos of today.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Once I had a Secret Paw...

I know it's awfully late of me to be posting this... turns out that having a new babybean plays havoc with one's blogging life. Anyway, my Secret Paw for 2009 came from my Wisconsin, USA buddies Victor and Nina. My package was filled with awesome goodies:

Lovely Lucy - an awesome furry mousie toy (not to be confused with Miss Lucy, my kitty friend who turned 22 this week), a nip pouch, some cool squishy straw thingies and a beautiful Christmas decoration with my name on it!

Yessir, that's some quality nip!

Oh, and I scored a coupla cool cards this season, too. The one on the left's from my buddy Trip (although his brothers are on the card... maybe next year, huh, Trip?), and the one on the right's from Victor and Nina.

I had a great first Christmas as a big brother, with a little help from my awesome kitty blogging friends. Here's hoping that my next Christmas won't be ruined by a certain tail-pulling stickybean!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Happy birthday, Miss Lucy

Today, my very good friend and fellow West Hobart resident Miss Lucy celebrates her twenty-second birthday.

Yes, that's 22 human years!

Awesome.

Happy birthday, Miss Lucy! May you have many more birthdays and continuing good health.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Fun with (near) Alex

Hi everycat,

It's been WAY too long since I last blogged. Sorry. A belated merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all.

We've had a very low-key Christmas. The weather's been warm and we've all been busy adjusting to life with a babybean in the house. As far as I can tell, this has mostly involved hanging out in the living room and watching the cricket (the sport, not the insect) live from Melbourne, Huffle, Gypsy and Tasha's hometown. I've been surprisingly chilled out, and spend a lot of time in my favourite chair:
Kate is 'very proud' of how I'm coping with the arrival of baby Alex. I'm not a big fan of the crying, but I'm not freaked out either. I don't even mind being reasonably close to the action:
... but not too close!


Hope everyone's doing okay. I'll try and visit you all soon, I promise!
Cheers,
--Pabs

Goodbye, sweet friend

You've probably heard the news that my dear friend Monica, founding co-chairfeline of the Pablo Fan Club and dear sister of Phoebe and Joey, had to be helped to the Bridge on Friday. You can read more of the details at their blog. Please stop by and send Monica's family your bestest purrs.

It's a shock to have such a sad thing happen after the excitement of welcoming my babybean brother Alex into the world last week. I guess that's life, huh.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Oh, brother!

Remember how in my last post (like, a month ago) I was worried about having to wear that red suit?

Well, I've got some news. It was actually for this little guy:

Baby Alexander Cosmo came into the world last Friday (4 December) at 3.36am, three weeks before his due date. He weighed 6 lbs 8.5 oz (2.965 kg).

Kate and Nick and Alex are all doing well, even I'm coping ok, joining Kate and Alex in front of the heater in the living room for the mid-night feeds.

He is the noisiest creature I've ever come across. Hendrix, you didn't tell me that they scream like that!

He looks a whole lot better in that suit than I would, anyway.

So sorry we haven't been blogging much, things are a little crazy around here. Hope everycat's doing well, we'll try to keep in touch!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Fashion Friday

Lately, I've noticed that some small fashions have been appearing around the house. Like this one:

There's NO WAY they're getting me into that!
NO WAY.

Cheers,

--Pabs

Dona nobis pacem

Peace in our time, everycat! Imagine that.

(FYI, more about the blogblast for peace here.)

Cheers,
--Pabs

The opposite of cooperation

Some of us were trying to get a photo that captured how well the quilt cover matched my lovely greenyellow eyes...

... but some of us were just trying to get some sleep!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Um...

...it wasn't me?

Man. Looks like I've got some 'splaining to do.

Happy weekend everycat... keep your paws clean!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Still here

You may have noticed that I haven't updated my blog recently.

You may have also noticed that I haven't been leaving many comments on othercats' blogs recently.

That's because recently, Kate has been REALLY slack at helping me blog.

So what that she's still got three weeks' full-time work left before she goes on maternity leave?

So what that she's been 'too tired to help' when she gets home from work?

So what that she keeps forgetting to buy new batteries for the camera?

This blurpy thing hasn't even come out yet and it's ruining my life already.

Sorry, everycat. I'm still here and I still want to hang out with y'all, but my visits might be a bit sporadic until Kate finishes work, at least. I hope you understand.

By the way, Wally, Ernie and Zoey, the fabulous Island Cats, were the winners of the 2009 AWESOME Footy Finals Fever Competition. They predicted that the Geelong Cats would win by 21 points, and the mighty Cats won by 12 points; their second premiership in three years. It was a very close, exciting match. Anyway, we made a $40 donation to the Hobart Cat Centre on behalf of the Island Cats and I'm planning to send a little present their way... but who knows when Kate will get around to helping me with that?

Honestly.

Cheers,
--Pabs

It's on again!

That's right, everycat!

Tomorrow is the Australian Football League's Grand Final for 2009.

This year's top two teams, the Saint Kilda Saints and the Geelong Cats, will face off to see who will be this year's champion.

And YOU can be a winner too! Just join in my AWESOME Footy Finals Fever Competition.

From now until game time, 2pm Australian Eastern Standard Time tomorrow (26 September), every blogging animal of the non-human variety can enter their tip for who will win the game, and predict the winning points margin. To enter, just post your prediction, with your name, in the comments of this post. Like this:

Pablo, Geelong Cats by 999 points (an exaggeration).

Feel free to add a little cheer for your team, but these will not affect the outcome of the contest. The winner will be the blogger who guesses the winning team with the closest points margin to the actual final points margin of the game. In the event of a tie, the blogger who posted their tip first will win. One entry per blogging household. And I can change these rules whenever I want (but I'm not likely to).

A $40 (Australian dollars) donation to the Hobart Cat Centre (my local) will also be made in the winner's name... and I might even send you a little something!

A hint from Pablo: in general, most AFL matches are decided by under 30 points, but it's not unheard of to have a points margin of 100 points or more. In last year's Grand Final, the the Hawthorn Hawks beat the Geelong Cats by 26 points. If you're interested in studying the teams' form, or keeping up with the score during game time, you can visit the AFL's website. Otherwise, just make your bestest guess!

Start tipping... NOW!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Tweet week

Many of you would know that Fin has been celebrating Tweet Week all this week. It's been awesome. I thought I'd contribute by showing you all some tasty Tasmanian tweets. Kate took these photos of parrots when she was home visiting her parents at Easter. Like Fin's parents, Kate isn't so hot on her bird names. The first one is a Rosella parrot; the second one could be too, it just looks a bit different. Oh well, they both look tasty!

We've had a bit of disturbing news on the tweet front in Hobart this week, actually. It turns out that lotsa sparrows in the area are dying from a strain of salmonella (who knew that sparrows ate salmon? But how do they catch them?), and a local cat may have caught it. So Kate's told me to lay off the sparrows for now. Here's hoping I can stay on the wagon!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Loving my recharge pad

Happy Monday, everycat!

Spring has finally sprung down here in Tasmania. Even though we still have some cold days and some dismal days, the sun is now a regular visitor to my domain.

On sunny mornings, when Kate is making breakfast and pottering around in the kitchen before work, I sit just outside the backdoor on what I call my 'recharge pad'. It's the bestest place to catch some early morning rays to charge me up for the day. Mmmmmm.Ok, now I'm all charged up, it's off to cause some trouble, Pablo-style!

Cheers,
--Pabs

The winter of my discontent

A photo from happier times, when the sun actually shone and the grass wasn't a freezing bog.

Hi everycat.

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Kate is so tired from brewing a baby bean that she just collapses in front of the TV when she gets home from work. And she has to sit some kind of exam in a few weeks. I think it's a work thing. So she hasn't been available for much blogging help.

Besides, I haven't been up to much lately. The weather is so, so dismal down here, endless days of freezing weather and wind and rain and snow on our mountain*. This morning, I meowed to be let outside about 150 times in the hope that the next time someone opened the door for me, the windy rain would have disappeared. But no. One time, I got so angry that I bit Kate on the foot (well, on the purple fluffy slipper). I was kind of trying to punish her for all this bad weather.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of spring down here. I'll believe it when I see it.

But tomorrow is the first day of September, which can only mean one thing... the Australian Football League finals series! Y'all would know that I usually run an AWESOME Footy Finals Competition each year. I'm currently in negotiations to see if I can run it again this year. Watch this space!

Cheers,
--Pabs


* This is a link to a live webcam of our city, hosted by a local school. We live on the far side of the bridge, on one of those hills in the distance with all the houses on it. Usually this webcam gives you a lovely view of the city and our mountain, Mount Wellington. But the weather is so dismal that when you look at it, the clouds will probably be covering it :(

Blogoversary blossoms

Guess what, everycat? Today is my THIRD blogoversary!

The weather decided to hold an early celebration for my blogoversary yesterday. Poppy Q has been asking me if spring has sprung here in Tasmania yet. Well, until yesterday, it hadn't. We've had dismal, rainy, cold weather for weeks and weeks. But yesterday...

...I could have my first roll of the season! Woo hoo!

Aaaaah. Feeeels gooood.

Check out the lovely blossoms in my backyard! And the blue, blue sky! We haven't seen that in weeks:

And you know what else? All the blossoms in the street decided to have a pink party in honour of my blogoversary:

It's very kind of them. I can't bring myself to tell them that pink is not my favourite colour. It's certainly a great colour for blossoms.

But today, on my actual blogoversary, the weather got it a bit wrong:

Back to dismal winter weather. Kate took this photo at around 9.30am, and you can see from the reflection in the window that it was so dark she had to have the light on.

Oh well. Yesterday was a great reminder that spring is on its way... sometime.

Cheers,
--Pabs

One whisker less Wednesday

Some context:
In order to promote more harmonious sleeping arrangements now that she's got a baby bump to contend with, Kate has put this comfy sweater at the foot of the bed to encourage me to sleep there. (Actually, she put a comfy fleecy old bath robe there, but I barfed on it and so it's going through the wash a few times.)

I like my special spot. But I hafta say I do miss snuggling a little closer on these chilly winter nights.

Cheers,
--Pabs

(P.S. Grammatically, Kate's aware that it should be 'One whisker fewer Wednesday', but went with the more poetic, less correct, version.)