St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Finally the big day has arrived. And guess what - it is also Stanley's Gotcha Day!!!! Happy Gotcha Day Stanley!!! We gave him a surprise party at the little cottage he and Asta had rented:

picture by Asta and Sassy

Then we all dressed up and went to the famous Temple Bar to get in the right mood for the parade!

Here we are at the parade. Oh it was fun!

picture by Asta and Sassy

picture by Momo, some additions by Karl

After the parade we went back to the Dublin castle for a dance. First we visited the Red Room:

picture by Sassy, Designer Clothes by Karl

And for the Grand Finale of our great Ireland trip for St. Patrick's Day we will be dancing in the Dance Hall at Dublin Castle!

DO NOT MISS tomorrow's post - our trip back home is as adventurous as our "vacation" in Ireland was!

The participants: Asta, Charlie, Charybdis, Scylla and Socks, Momo the cat, Momo the dog and Pinot, Opus and Roscoe, Ruis, Sassy, Stanley, Mrs. OZ, Emil and Karl

Finally: We Visit A Brewery!

And how about this for a little culture shock! The maid sent us this picture today (good thing Ruis took his laptop!) of her at the Aloha Festival in Phoenix! By the way: the maid is holding her Ipu Heke. We will show you more of it when we are back from Ireland!



As for us: on our third day in Ireland we finally visit a brewery! Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it is still the largest brewer of stout in the world.

picture by Sassy

The beer was great! We drank a lot. We had to go and air our heads a little. And then we saw strange , very very strange things..... And all the leprechauns had Charlie's face... Very, very strange....

picture by Karl, leprechaun by Charlie

In the afternoon we visited Dublin Castle, there is sooooo much too see here....

picture by Momo, fashion by Sassy

With all these activities and sightseeing and beer sampling we decided we needed to cool off a little at the hotel pool:

And then on the evening news on TV we saw this and we think we might be off the hook now! We wonder if Cheysuli had a hand in covering for us? After all - she IS the prime minister of Italy...


The participants: Asta, Charlie, Charybdis, Scylla and Socks, Momo the cat, Momo the dog and Pinot, Opus and Roscoe, Ruis, Sassy, Stanley, Mrs. OZ, Emil and Karl

Picnic - Sightseeing - Another Performance

Today we started the day with a wonderful outdoor picnic in the beautiful Irish countryside. I tell you - those Irish know how to live good! And we learned fast!

picture by Asta, food by Sassy

The we went to see Ashford Castle, a place Charlie really wanted to visit. It was built in the 13th century and is now a five star hotel. Charlie is the girl in the right front corner - she chose this outfit so she could hide the ham she brought along under that checkered vest....

Charlie proudly leads the way into Ashford Castle:

In the evening we gave another performance: Does this Furry Irish Bagpipe Band look familiar to you? Hahahahahahahhaha - what a fun trip this is!

picture by Opus and Roscoe, edited by Sassy

The participants: Asta, Charlie, Charybdis, Scylla and Socks, Momo the cat, Momo the dog and Pinot, Opus and Roscoe, Ruis, Sassy, Stanley, Mrs. OZ, Emil and Karl

Having Fun In Ireland

It is all over the Italian news! "The Leaning Tower of Pisa has tipped and is broken! Local officials aren't speaking public about the case, which is under investigation, but eye witnesses say that a strange band of international house pets wearing St. Patrick's day hats are to blame."

We hoped they wouldn't find us here in Ireland and decided to keep a low profile today. We went to visit Blarney Castle.

picture by Sassy

Sassy insisted on showing Ruis and me the Blarney Castle Stone. She took a picture of Ruis kissing it, while I am holding him. I am wearing a hooded sweatshirt - just in case the Carabinieri would come looking for us....

Then we went to an Irish pub! Now that was an enormous amount of fun!

picture by Asta and Sassy

And in the evening Michael Flatley invited us to perform with Lord of the Dance!
Roscoe couldn't help himself and took center stage with both, the girls and the boys!!!
Here are the girls:

picture by Opus and Roscoe with some addition by cat Momo

And here are the boys:

picture by Opus and Roscoe with some addition by cat Momo

The participants: Asta, Charlie, Charybdis, Scylla and Socks, Momo the cat, Momo the dog and Pinot, Opus and Roscoe, Ruis, Sassy, Stanley, Mrs. OZ, Emil and Karl

Europe In Two Days, Hahahahahahahahahahaha

A whole bunch of us decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day together this year.
We are (picture by Sassy):

Asta
Charlie
Charybdis, Scylla and Socks
Momo the cat
Momo the dog and Pinot
Opus and Roscoe
Ruis
Sassy
Stanley
Mrs. OZ, Emil and I, Karl

And what better way to start this adventure than with a visit to Italy to pick up Opus and Roscoe!
We start with a picnic of course at the Field of Dreams.

picture by Asta

Then we all are visiting the leaning tower of Pisa. It was leaning a bit more than usual we thought, there were 16 of us up there and we had all eaten like pigs at the picnic..... hahahahahahahahaha.....

picture by Opus and Roscoe

Then it was time to head over to Ireland - we took the "Magic Bus"...

picture by Opus and Roscoe

After arrival we checked into our hotel, the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel in Dublin. They have a very nice and big foyer!

Asta and Stanley had rented a little cottage for some "romantic privacy" and the rest of us checked out our rooms at the hotel:

Then we hit the town! At least The Cat Realm and Ruis did. We went to O'Donoghue's Pub.

And had a jolly good time! Emil danced on the barrels, Mrs.OZ got so drunk that she started smoking and Ruis and I sang so loud - and off key - that they eventually kicked us out, hahahahahahahahahaha.

I did bring back a pint of Guinness for Sassy. She had asked me to!!!

Back in our room we turned on the TV for just a moment and saw some very disturbing news...

Tomorrow we will visit Blarney Castle, go to another pub and have an exciting surprise for you in the evening!

Getting Ready For St. Patrick's Day

Skeezix sent us a St. Patrick's Day card! Mrs. OZ thought that was so wonderful of him, she wanted her picture taken with the card - and then she couldn't decide which one to post so I told her to post both.

He also sent two little buttons with his St. Patrick Day picture on them but the maid and the butler took those for themselves. We didn't mind. But I think I have to clarify to Mrs. OZ that Skeezix is taken!!!

Starting tomorrow a bunch of us will go on a St. Patrick's Day Adventure with fun stuff happening every day until St. Patrick's Day itself!

The participants: Asta, Charlie, Charybdis, Scylla and Socks, Momo the cat, Momo the dog and Pinot, Opus and Roscoe, Ruis, Sassy, Stanley, Mrs. OZ, Emil and Karl

More Awarding....

The Meaouwy Troops were nice enough to give us the Golden Paw Award, thank you so much! We think this is one of the most wonderful awards and we are very very honored to receive it again.

I am contemplating of taking up Sassy's recommendation and awarding myself the "I Left My Head At The Spa Award" for being the forgetful cat I am..... We will see.

Please be so kind and keep on sending purrs to Maxime, she is still not doing great!

Award Monday

I am back from the spa - but not my brain!!! I am pretty sure we got this award but I do not remember who gave it to us.
I can understand if we never get an award again - we must come off as awfully non-appreciative.... But believe me: we are NOT! We treasure all our awards A LOT - if we could just remember which ones we got and from whom, of course, hahahahahahahaha. Sorry...
+++Breaking news: Ruis just told me that Momo gave me the award....Thank you, Momo!+++
If you have given us an award and we have not acknowledged it - or for that matter tagged us or asked us something and haven't gotten a response - be so kind to tell us and I, Karl, will make it up to you!

We all did get an award that we remember getting and from whom we got it! Gretchen was nice enough to give us and Brody and Dicky Duck the "You Are Toadally Awesome Award"! Thank you so much, Gretchen!

Now I want to hand out the Golden Paw Award again!
"It is given to cats, dogs or any animal or human bean that have lent a special helping paw/hand to another cat, dog, animal or human bean.
You may give this award to as many individuals as you want, to thank them for lending you a helping paw/hand. If you don't need it now, save it, and you can give it when needed."
We had a pretty scary weekend here at The Cat Realm because Saturday evening our post was hijacked by pop-up advertisements - we couldn't even get to it anymore!!!
My fiance Ruis came to the help right away, looking through all the script on my blog, trying to find the flaw! The Cat Blogopshere posted it and Robyn from Hot(m)BC and ML from Missy, KC and Bear rushed to the rescue also. I was overwhelmed by their immediate and fast reaction and help offering! And yes, they fixed the problem, it was some ranking gadgets from a site "rankwidget dot com" - so do not use any of their stuff!
For their efforts I want to give them all the Golden Paw Award, the least I can do! It was created by Ruis - but there is no law that says you can not be awarded your own award!!!!

Thank You my friends, I will not forget this!!!!

Fashion Friday - Still At The Spa

This is the new look!

Believe us: First we saw the cucumber look at Asta's place. Then Daisy promoted it with turban, twice actually! Then we encountered it at Canyon Ranch - so we are making it official now as THE NEW LOOK FOR SPRING and to make it easy for everybody to be fashionable we created some new, stylish "Cucumber Glasses" to go with the new, stylish "Spa Turban".
Take them and wear them!

We did send them home and Mrs.OZ thinks the glasses are best worn in the vegetable garden...

Whereas Emil insists on taking a more practical approach...

P.S.:
Maxime is doing a bit better but still needs your purrs. She is very weak and needs to gain some strength and eat more! But the staff is hopeful!
So we decided to stay a bit longer at Canyon Ranch, it's just too good to leave!
Thank you Ruis for letting me use your laptop to post this.

Wordless Wednesday - Amendment

As some - and admittedly a very few - visitors yesterday were wondering if that was a real bird I decided to clarify the issue:

Wordless Wednesday

P.S. Proud qualified (see above) member of
Ramses Stork Hunting Squad!

Canyon Ranch

+++Breaking news+++
Mike is on the road again!
He is visiting Skeeter, LC and Ayla!

Another contest is over and the winners are posted.
Thank you everybody for participating - we hope you all had as much fun as we did.

We will do it again next year!

I am so sorry that I have not mentioned this earlier:
Full credit for creating these beautiful Red Carpet Buzz badges goes to our most talented Opus and Roscoe!

And after all the excitement of the past days - Trip to Venice, Red Carpet Buzz, aCATemy Awards, Mikes visit, Ruis' typist surgery (Friday) - Ruis and I decided to take the weekend off and spend it at a Spa. Good thing we have a world class one right here in Tucson, so Ruis teleported over...

After arrival we went to our room and slept and slept and slept for a while.
No, I have NO idea why Ruis brought that much luggage...

Then we went to get the whole spa treatment - hot baths, facials, massages, complimentary champagne...

After all this Ruis insisted on trying out the outdoor pool - I did not go in....

And back to the room for more napping! But before we start sleeping more we will watch the two CCSI episodes again - one sign of a first class Spa is the availability of CCSI!

We might just relax here for a while and not touch a computer at all, hahahahahahahahahahahaha!