This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

We are grateful for the award from Poppy Q, but feel unworthy because we have not been good kitteh blogging friends of late. Perhaps we should explainify why we haven’t been visiting as often as we would like.

About a year ago, Mommy began taking on some new responsibilities where she works, including training a new bean. At about the same time, Mommy’s sister (Aunt Patty) was getting married. Shortly after Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris got married, they moved to Missouri. You may remember that we blogged about their wedding, reception, and move. Mommy and Daddy helped Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris, and our cousins Rainbow, Muse, Cinnamon, Toast, and Bruiser move to Missouri.

When Mommy got back to work, she had to hire another two new beans, for a total of three newbeans in five months. So Mommy was busy all day training and then spent most evenings and weekends doing her own work. Which did not leave enough time for us, Daddy, or blogging! Now, the three new beans are just about through with training, so now Mommy can do more of her own work in the daytime, and spend more time with us on the weekends!

So we have been trying to get caught up reading blogs and finding out what all we missed in the Cat Blogosphere. We really appreciate those of you who have continued to follow our blog, and to leave us comments, without our doing much to reciprocate. You make us laugh and smile and cry and be grateful to be part of this wondrous network known as the Cat Blogosphere.

We Furry Bambinos welcomed Aunt Deb, and kept her entertained during her visits, as you can tell by the toys all over the place.

I was affectionate, and purred, and let Aunt Deb give me a lot of scritches. Meerkat was playful and a little sneaky. Panda Bear was a little shy at first, but then he started a very emotional and philosophical conversation with Aunt Deb. Aunt Deb got a good photo of Panda Bear giving her the Stink Eye when she photographed him eating.

As the senior Furry Bambino, I believe it is my responsibility to report that although we were well-behaved MOST of the time, we did get into, ahem, a little trouble Thursday night (July 17). We were bored after napping in our hammicks, watching birdies through the window, and playing with our toys all day long, so we decided to invite a few of our furry feline friends over to keep us company. One thing led to the next and soon the fur was flying!

Panda Bear admitted that “just a few good friends came over — Tammy Faye, Onyx, Oreo, and well, maaaaybe some others dropped by, but I don’t want them to get in trouble by naming names. Pretty soon the catnip was flowing freely. You already know that Tammy Faye is one big flirt with the guys, so you can just imagine what went on. It wasn’t my fault! I tried to tell doze guys that they were acting like wild animals. Meerkat is a little sneak, too!”

After we ate on Friday (July 18), Aunt Deb noticed that someone had VOMITED! No one would confess, but she saw greyish hairballs in the area. Meerkat admitted that “I can be a little sneaky sometimes, but I wasn’t the one who pukied on the carpet”.

A Big Bambino Thank You to Aunt Deb!

This is a picture of Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris’s wedding cake:

The oversized cupcake as the top layer is because Aunt Patty LOVES cupcakes!

The “M” and the tiger on the next layer from the top are for the University of Missouri. Uncle Chris will start work there soon, and Aunt Patty will go back to school there. The tiger is the university’s mascot.

The Sticky Little People (and they really are Sticky and Little People) represent the children where Aunt Patty used to work. Aunt Patty was the director of the children’s art studio at the Carnegie Museum of Art. She recently quit her job because she and Uncle Chris are moving to Missouri.

The cats represent our feline cousins: Muse (tuxedo girl), Rainbow (calico girl), Cinnamon (orange tabby male), and Toast (orange and white girl). The woofie on the bottom layer is our new woofie cousin, Bruiser. He is a beagle / basset hound mix, from a Pittsburgh rescue organization where Uncle Chris and Aunt Patty volunteer. Rainbow, Muse, and Bruiser live with Aunt Patty, and Cinnamon and Toast live with Uncle Chris.

The bicycle is because Uncle Chris likes to bicycle.

This is a picture of Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris cutting the wedding cake:

Grampa (Mom’s Dad) gave the blessing at the start of the wild party wedding reception:

Aunt Patty is holding her “gong” which makes sounds like a drum. She used it to get everyone’s attention. Aunt Patty was thanking everyone who came to their wedding and wild party reception. She was also telling all the Sticky Little People that there was an arts activity table where they could have fun, instead of being bored listening to grown-ups talking about boring stupid stuff:

Uncle Chris has two younger brothers, Steve (left) and Peter (right). Peter was called the “Best Man”. The lady is Andrea, Steve’s wife. They are having fun blowing bubbles.

Dad’s parents were also invited to Aunt Patty’s wedding. This is a picture of Mommy and Daddy posing with our other Gramma and Grampa:

Check out all the loot Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris got! I wonder if they got any catnip? Mom says I have to mention that the “card box” was made by Mom, Dad, and Gramma (Mom’s Mom). It’s the thing that looks like a cake. Whatever.

Mom said that she had fun dancing to music that she and Aunt Patty used to go out dancing to: Yaz, Erasure, Nitzer Ebb, Prince. And Mom said that a few people at the wild party reception had too many niptinis and acted silly.

Next time we will tell you all about the fun we had with Aunt Deb, who visited us and took care of us Furry Bambinos while Mom and Dad were at Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris’s wedding!

Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris got married last friday in a very large, very special church called a cathedral: St. Paul Cathedral. it is in pittsburgh, pennsylvanicat, which is where mom’s fambly lives, and where mom, Aunt Patty, and Uncle Jim grew up. This is a photo of the outside of St. Paul Cathedral:

this is a photo taken inside the church. note the beeyootiful stained glass windows:

mommy had a funny title: matron of honor. she wore a scooped neck, sleeveless, knee-length, sable (brown or taupe depending on the light) dress. the dress has a petal pink bow around the waist.

Aunt Patty was escorted down the aisle from the back of the church by Uncle Jim. midway down the aisle, Grampa joined Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim, and the three of them continued up the aisle to the altar. Jim removed Patty’s blusher veil, Jim and Grampa gave Patty kisses, and then Patty joined Uncle Chris.

this is the part where the priest says, you may now smootch you may now kiss the bride. you can see Patty’s bouquet of calla lilies very well in this photo.

this is right after the priest introduced Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris as a married couple for the first time. Patty is looking toward the camera, and you can see how very happy she looks. you can get a good view of Patty’s gown and headpiece in this photo. Patty’s gown is a deep ivory strapless a-line gown with rouching around the waist. Patty wore a matching Juliet cap with a veil that Gramma sewed on just hours before the wedding! Doesn’t Aunt Patty look just beeyootiful?

this is a photo of Gramma and Grampa with Aunt Patty in the church after the wedding ceremony was over. Gramma and Grampa look very sweet posing with their younger daughter. Aunt Patty is wearing Gramma’s borrowed pearls from her own wedding, 42 years ago!

some of the photos were taken outside the church. this is the wedding party, including mom, Patty, Chris, and Peter, the Best Man. Peter is Uncle Chris’s youngest brother.

Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris planned to walk from the church to the reception, about five city blocks away. so they got started walking. mommy said that Uncle Chris’s outfit was called “a three piece tuxedo with tails”. funny, he doesn’t look anything like panda bear or any of the other tuxedo kitties i know! where are his tails? and why would he have more than one tail?

however, it was sunny and about 90 degrees F (about 32 degrees C) on their wedding day. after they walked about a block, Uncle Chris said he was too hot, and Aunt Patty said that her feeties hurted. so they were escorted from the church to the reception in mommy and daddy’s white room that moves. mommy and daddy call it a “honda civic” (whatever that means).

ok, that’s all for now! next time, panda bear will tell you about their wedding reception! be sure to come back to see photos of the best wedding cake ever!

Mommy’s fambly lives in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanicat vicinity, so Aunt Patty’s wedding was held there. The bad news is that Mommy and Daddy had to leave us all alone while they were away. The good news is that Miss Deb, our favorite taker-carer visited and took great care of us!

Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris came to visit us in December, so we got to meet them personally! Both Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris are animal lovers, so we enjoyed their visit very much!

Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris’s wedding was on Friday, so there was a practice on Thursday. This is a picture of Mommy from the practice. Mommy had a funny title: Matron of Honor.

This is a picture of Aunt Patty and Mommy pantomiming in the Church. You can see the priest (or padre, as I always say), Uncle Chris, and Peter, the Best Man (another funny title). Peter is Uncle Chris’s brother. Peter likes cats too!

This is a picture of Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris pretending to be just married. They are not really married yet in this picture. The trick to knowing this is that they are not all super dressed up in their fancy wedding clothes.

After the practice at the Church, there was a “practice dinner” at a restaurant. I guess they must have needed practice eating, because there was going to be formal eating after the wedding on Friday.

There was a problem with the practice dinner. The original restaurant where the dinner was supposed to be held went out of business two days before the practice dinner. So Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris said lots of words on our bad words list. Then they found another place to hold the dinner instead, and it was even nicer! The new restaurant was on top of a mountain, so there was a great view! This is a picture of the view from inside the practice dinner restaurant. That is downtown Pittsburgh in the background.

And this is a picture of the view from the overlook next to the restaurant:

OK, that’s all for now! Meerkat will tell you more next time!