With the Edmonds-Krall family in town, Ethan enjoyed the spotlight at a TGI Friday birthday dinner.

Ethan, turning seven, received a number of good books and a circuit kit. "Bluey" the class bear looks on.

The Goodmans visited from Paris, and we met up with them at the park in Woking, where all the kids had a fine time in the leaves.

Our new kittens have been with us for almost two weeks now, and they're beginning to settle down and make themselves at home. Niger will still find the smallest place available in which to hide, but she is seen in public more often, and has reportedly purred!

Ethan's class is studying the great fire of London (1666), so this Sunday we went down to The City and visited the Monument. Monument is one of the few London sites that Karen and I have never visited, and it was fun to climb the stairs with Ethan and enjoy a new view.

After our local bonfire, Ethan got some sparklers. They produced some fascinating night shots.

We decided our jack-o-lantern was not too late for Guy Fawkes night.

Today was the big day: we drove down to Portsmouth, took the ferry to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight, and went to pick up our kittens from Donna. The weather as typical English autumn, but the ferries were running, and we eventually arrived home with our charges. The Siamese is "Mrs. Chippy" after McNish's cat on Shackleton's Endurance expedition. The Oriental is "Niger," after the cat on Scott's Terra Nova expedition (bowdlerized). Of course, there is an Internet page of Antarctic Pets. Ethan is insisting upon calling them after some Pokemon, Nidoqueen and Nidoran, respectively. We have agreed to disagree.

Here are slides from the trip. Spare a moment, too, for their well-loved, ill-starred predecessors.