halloween and the kittens

 

here's the pumpkin pie we made last night. i thought we'd have some before heading out, but that never happened. morgan and i planned on leaving about 9:30 to meet chanda by her school in order to pick up the cat carrier (with pluto out of the apartment i don't have many pet supplies around . . such as the cat carrier and a kitty litter scooper) (lisa-lou left after us to visit south street seaport) . .

 

so we left on time but managed to walk further than we intended and had to retrace our steps . . maybe we were just a wee bit excited?

destination . . 

josé and alice were at the cafe and helped us get the kittens into the carrier. josé kept checking fern to make sure we had the correct cat as there was a new one who looked very similar.

and scary the cat made sure all was well too . . (there were three cats named spooky, scary and skeleton).

they were very content and didn't meow through the whole walk home.

we acclimated slowly as suggested by the cafe staff, and settled in the bathroom with beds and water while they sniffed about.

 

but they were investigating the living room in no time . .

watching out for the vacuum cleaner . .

intrigued by the birds on the fire escape . . 

greeting chanda . . 

getting comfortable on the cat tree perch . .

and on the bed by the window . . 

nap time.

 

 

ready for halloween night . .
 

 

lisa-lou got stuck in traffic on the bus due to the halloween parade and then walked quite a ways looking for an open cross street to get past the crowd and so arrived late for dinner. it had also started to rain . . it was a tiring end to her visit, but also fun to see everyone in costume and to see the puppets along the parade route.

early tomorrow morning she flies south to florida for a relaxing beach visit with a friend. it's a well deserved rest after all the sightseeing she's been doing here.

 

it felt strange going to sleep with cats in the house . . 

----

neighborhood halloween photos taken by morgan:

a poem for sunday, getting ready for kittens, and pics from ellis island

the wind and the leaves

(traditional)

come, little leaves, said the wind one day,

come over the meadows with me and play.

put on your dresses of red and gold,

for summer is gone and the days grow cold.

soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call

down they came fluttering, one and all.

over the fields they danced and flew,

singing the soft little songs they knew.

 

dancing and whirling the little leaves went,

winter had called them, and they were content

soon fast asleep on their earthly beds,

the snow laid a coverlet on their heads.

----

tomorrow morgan and i will pick up our kittens that we adopted from meow parlour. surprise! yes, we decided to adopt cricket and fern . . they are both very friendly and my hope is that they will be welcoming to any foster kittens or cats that we bring home. (the team at meow parlour thinks that they will be terrific foster mentors.) so, today i decided to not visit ellis island with greg, morgan and lisa-lou as i was still very achy from the terrible cold i've had, and also because i wanted to prepare the apartment for the newcomers. i cleared the nature table from the piano . . 

and moved it to a cubby hole on the book shelf . . 

cleared off most of the figures, stones and shells from the windowsills and replaced two bins by the dining room window so they can nap together in the sunshine. 

more photos tomorrow!

----

but first here are some ellis island photos from today's adventurers:

 

heading out . .  (all photos by lisa-lou unless indicated)

immigrants disembarking on ellis island? no, simply tourists . . 

in the great hall . .

(photo by greg)

 

(italian immigrant family departing from central railroad station, milan, 1889)

(i'm not sure what this photo is of, but i thought it was interesting to see the layout of the exhibit.)

 

greg in the hall of records looking up my grandparents . . (photo by morgan)

i think he found entries for the four of them . . i have to check in the morning the names of the ships and the exact dates they arrived. they came over between 1895 and 1921. my mom's parents sailed from bremen and hamburg, and my father's parents sailed from palermo . . both couples came separately and met in nyc. (photo by morgan.)

 

looking for my grandparents' names on the outdoor wall panels (my parents paid to have the names inscribed in the early 90's when the idea for the panels was first introduced - i have a warm memory of all of us together standing in front of them when they were first installed . . so long ago before the children were born . . it's too shocking and funny that we haven't been until now . . and now i need to get chanda and korrina out next).
 

found: giorgio from catania, sicilia.

it was a beautiful day for the trip . . 

heading back to manhattan . . (photo by morgan)

bellissima!

----

and in the evening . . 

morgan carved a pumpkin . . 

and lisa-lou helped me bake the pie . . (of course morgan pinched a beautiful crust for it).

 

we also played another round of may-i and this time lisa-lou went out at the end. so, morgana still leads with greg second, lisa-lou third and me . . last (oh well).

cat care

 

at the center today . .wednesday (eight weeks), max and moana (both six months) . .

flats and cats

morgana, lisa-lou and i visited the tenement museum today, and then meow parlour to spend time with the cats.

 

we hadn't been to the museum in several years and they have restructured their tours to include a walk outside which i thought gave a more encompassing perspective of what life was like in the early 20th century. for the tour we were on that meant 1933, and the story of the baldizzi family who came from palermo. you can read the full story on the museum's website.

 

rosaria baldizzi married her husband adolfo when she was 16 years old through an arranged marriage in sicily. he came over first in 1923 before the passage of the immigration act of 1924 which made it difficult for non-nordic peoples to immigrate. subsequently, adolfo came over with legal documents as himself, but rosaria entered the country under an assumed name and wasn't able to legalize her status until twenty two years later. the couple had two children here, and the story is told through the memories of the oldest child, josephine.

they lived on the third floor in a three room apartment (kitchen, living room/parent's room and small children's bedroom) with two toilets in the hallway shared with the other families on the floor.

other tour participants with our wonderful guide, shirley, peeking out from behind.

daughter josephine with her family in 1992 when the story was established at the museum.

----

afterwards, we walked along orchard street towards hester where we would turn left for the cat cafe. we happened to pass a restaurant called sticky rice, which i recognized from a visit quite a number of years ago. we were hungry so stopped for lunch . . 

vegetable pad thai with dumplings (morgana and i had the same and lisa-lou had massaman curry with chicken).

 

on our way to meow parlour . .
 

 lightning jack fast asleep in a window bed . . 

 

this is little skeleton (his litter mates are called spooky and scary - litters tend to have themed names).

this is either little azul or rojo, who were waiting to be picked up by their adopter. they were quite young and very cute.

playing with cricket and little rojo or azul . .

playing with cute little ollie . . 

cricket and fern, who were very friendly with us on our last visit. they're up for adoption together as they are a bonded pair.

---- 

in the evening i helped kendall with aurélien, as she had her port out today and was feeling woozy from the sedative. i hadn't helped with bedtime in awhile, so it was nice to be together again. lisa-lou walked to second avenue to get a ticket for the musical stomp, which she said was very very very good!

----

(it was quite warm and humid today, about 69 degrees . . and very drizzly. )