November Bloom

Our mini-rose has decided that, since it's November, it's going to go ahead and bloom again.

First snow of the season

Today Ames got its first snow.
Nothing too impressive in accumulation, but it was COLD and WINDY and was that nasty WET snow that soaks through everything and makes your socks and coat all cold and damp.

This little mum is still blooming despite the fact that it's frosted at least twice and is now snowing on it. 

Looking out from the porch, we got a maybe a 1/4" of accumulation - light but slippery

Another mum slowly being covered in snow

Rollo and a TP Tube

Today we learned Rollo likes to stick his head in toilet paper tubes.
It was hilarious!
He just jams his face in and stumbles around. He got mad when I pulled it off and then went right back to wearing the tp tube.

Rollo, in all his cuteness

Rollo stuffs his head in a tp tube

He looks like he's marching in the tube here, but he was really more stumbling. He's not very coordinated with that huge thing on his face.

Rollo peers out at me from his new toy

 And of course, because I now know I can upload video to this blog.
Rollo in a tube!

He's so funny!
Rick and I couldn't stop laughing.

Hello Rollo Video!

Today I learned I could upload a video to the blog! A whole world of possibilities has opened! 

But for starters, here is a video of Rollo investigating my camera.

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

Rick got us tickets to go see the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at Stephen's Auditorium tonight!
It was amazing!
The star cellist was a 25 year old Armenian who's parents were also musicians (his father was a violinist and his mother was a pianist) and he's been just about everywhere to play and has won all kinds of awards. He was very impressive but my favorites were the bass players. It's such a gorgeously huge instrument, and the bass player on the end was a fairly little guy, probably not much taller than me, and super fun to watch.

I'm a little geographically challenged, I was pretty sure Estonia was somewhere in northeastern Europe, but I wasn't positive. So for anyone who's like me, here's Estonia. 

It was a cold, rainy night in Ames, so I think that kept a lot of a people in, but Rick and I both thought the performance was worth braving the weather.

Tea Cup Rollo!

Before he gets too big (and he's growing like a spiky mutant weed) I wanted to get a picture of Rollo in one of our pretty tea cups.
He was not thrilled. He doesn't seem to mind camera flash, but he doesn't like being stuck. So he was not terribly cooperative when I put his little butt in a tea cup. (He fit in it a lot better two weeks ago, but I didn't take a picture then.)

Here he looks content enough to be a little ball in a tiny Chinese tea cup

.5 seconds later he started to wiggle and I got a couple of these foot in the face shots before I had to put the camera down and grab him as he tipped himself over

We also learned last night that Rollo likes Meal Worms! He's very aggressive with them. It was great. So far he's been pretty nonchalant about baby food, he'll eat it, but he definitely prefers the cat food.
He completely snubbed the apple and cucumber we offered him, but he tore the wiggling meal worm out of my fingers to chomp on it.
Rick and I are really excited to have finally found a "treat" he likes.

Fluffy Kittens!

Rick and I made it to his folks for the first time since Labor Day!
I had to work Sunday, but we got to spend Friday and Saturday at home and visit with Grandma and Grandpa.
Rollo seemed to like Grandma's lap, but he wasn't a fan of Ted.

Ted wasn't a fan of Rollo either, he stalked Rollo a bit, but when he got close and Rollo huffed at him, Ted went flying into the bedroom.

For any who haven't met him, this is Ted engaged in his favorite 'activity'
Rollo is about the size of his head.

 While we were home we also got to see Puff's kittens!

So Fluffy!

They're a little skittish, so I couldn't get too close, but there's five of them snuggling on the bales here