Updates...

It's been awhile so I figured I should post some recent pictures. I finally made it home to hold my nephew- although he is growing so fast I feel like I'm missing it all! Slow down!

Also, we had an unexpected tragedy in our family as my Uncle Tim died suddenly on September 10, 2009. He was probably the most jovial man I ever met and will be greatly missed. Here is a pic of Tim, his wife Diane and his two boys Robert and Ryan. And pics of my family when I went home for the funeral...

Also, Noel and I have taken in a cat named Mr. Ernest Hemingway (soon to be changed if we decide to keep him!). He is a polydactyl cat- meaning he has more toes that normal. :) 22 in all. 6 on each front paw and 5 on each back paw.

Here is a little background info on Hemingway cats:

They were introduced into the U.S primarily via ships in Boston. Sailors valued polydactyls for their extraordinary climbing and hunting abilities and considered them to be extremely good luck when at sea. Polydactyly appears to improve the dexterity of the cat. The extra toes enable the cat to learn and perform feats of manual dexterity generally not observed in other cats, such as opening latches or catching objects with a single paw.

Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was one of the more famous lovers of polydactyl cats, after being first given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain. Upon Hemingway's death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl). Because of his love for these animals, Hemingway cat, or simply Hemingway, is a slang term which has come to describe polydactyls.