August 9, 2008: The Mathis/Nabors/Tarradell Birthday Bash
	July 8-16, 2008: A Trip to Fort Lauderdale
	Return to Index for 2008

Every couple of years, our friend, Rudolf Lowenstein, comes to the United States from England on one of his peripatetic visits to anyone and everyone on this side of the Atlantic. We have come to expect these biennial visits, and this is the year.

As a priest, Rudolf has taken a vow of poverty, and coming to the United States and traveling around (even if you assume that your hosts will always pick up your expenses, as Rudolf seems to do) isn't cheap. It is fortunate, then, that Rudolf's father is (or was, until his very recent retirement) the business manager for the Rolling Stones and a European prince (Wittelstein) to boot, and thus quite wealthy. It is his dad's airline miles that allow Rudolf to travel as much as he does. I can only imagine how many it must have taken for the trans-Atlantic flight and all the segments he has flown and is flying within the US.

But, anyway, Rudolf arrived in Dallas on Friday the 25th, and stayed into Monday the 28th. Fred and I picked him up at the airport and spent the weekend doing stuff with him. It was a pleasant visit, although a little of Rudolf can go a long way, with three or four days being just about the right amount of time every couple of years to catch up without reaching overload.

Saturday, July 26th
An Evening with Ron and Jay

Before Rudolf's arrival, I'd asked Ron and Jay up in Plano if we could bring Rudolf up there on Saturday evening and then take all of them out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and those plans were made before Rudolf's arrival. As it turned out, there was an additional reason for us to visit them, that reason being that after their unfortunate need to have their cat, Coco, put to sleep (cancer), Jay and I paid a visit to the animal shelter downtown and Jay found a couple (later expanded to three) of Russian Blue kittens (the same breed as Coco) to adopt in Coco's stead.

Jay took those cats home the day before Rudolf arrived, and so we would get to see them in their new home when we brought Rudolf up for the visit.

We arrived to find the new kitties already well-adapted to their new home, and we must have spent the first hour or so playing with them and hearing from Ron and Jay about how they were doing. Rudolf, like Fred and I, loves cats, and this was a treat for him. The kittens, currently named Enya and Poe, were fun to watch and hold.

We took quite a few pictures of the kittens, and you can click on the thumbnails below to see some of them:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Ron and Jay were quite taken with their new additions, as Jay explains in a movie.

One of the funniest things the kitties did they did when Ron uncovered the pool table and allowed the kittens to jump up onto it. There, we had a good deal of fun rolling pool balls around and into them, or using their little cat balls for the same purpose. When one or the other of the balls went into a pocket, you could count on one of the kittens sticking her head in after it. Scratching the bottom of the mesh pocket to further attract them worked well too, as you can see in the two good movies that I took of this playful action. You can watch those movies using the movie players below:

Kittens at Play

Kittens at Play

Kittens at Play

The kitties actions on the pool table were so funny and interesting that both Fred and I took a large number of pictures while they were playing with the pool balls and toys.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Almost every picture that was technically good was also funny for one reason or another, and so I have chosen a dozen of these pictures to include here. To make it easier for you to have a look at them, they are in a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

We ended up going out to the Cheesecake Factory for a late supper, and returned to play some more with the kitties. Before we left Ron and Jay's, we got a couple of pictures of Rudolf with the two of them, and you can see those pictures here and here.

Rudolf's Departure

The rest of our visit was really pleasant. We did movies and dinner on Sunday with our friends Mario and Steve, and I think Rudolf (and everyone else) thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

On Monday morning, Rudolf had to leave for his retreat in Wisconsin, but before we took him to the airport, Fred got out his tripod and we took a number of pictures in my living room of the three of us and of Bobby Lee Maxine, Fred's cat that he had brought down for the weekend so that Rudolf could meet her. I've put thumbnails for six of these pictures below, and you can see the full-size images by clicking on those thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	August 9, 2008: The Mathis/Nabors/Tarradell Birthday Bash
	July 8-16, 2008: A Trip to Fort Lauderdale
	Return to Index for 2008