Our complex appears to have adopted two kitties! These two fellas have been roaming around the neighborhood the past week, no doubt getting well fed by the kind residents of White Oak.

We first noticed this white & black kitty who actually managed to run into our apartment and hide from us for a while. He is rather adorable with his cow prints, but I am a little allergic to him (his fur is too long, and causes her eyes to itch and gives her the sneezles), but enjoys playing with him. The fur on his belly has a slight orange tint -- odd. He's cute when he pounces on the bugs outside and tries to catch them. I've decided to call him Moo.

The gray tabby came by the day after our first sighting of Moo. Moo was also there and growled at Grey for trying to drink its milk. Grey backed away and was happy when I gave him his own little bowl. Grey's more mellow is probably older and is chubbier. Yesterday we saw Grey on top of our car, just sitting there checking out the neighborhood from a higher perspective.

It's interesting that suddenly there are two new kitties in the neighborhood. They tend to ignore and avoid each other. We aren't sure if they belong to someone in the complex, since they both don't have tags. However, they are quite well behaved, and decently groomed which makes us think that they must. It is unclear. Anyway, it would be nice for us to get a kitty in the future, but for now, these little balls of distraction will have to do.

We heard this morning about the fellowship Marc interviewed for. Sounds like they had a tough time deciding because while they offered a full fellowship to someone else, they also managed to find money somewhere and offered Marc the 2nd year portion of the fellowship in order to have him teach his "Water Conflict and Cooperation" course through International Studies in AY 2008-2009. While this is not the best news, it is still good news and it is likely that Marc can be funded by the World Bank for the research part anyway. He really wants to teach, so this works out well. CONGRATS to Marc!

I leave early tomorrow AM for New York City for a conference. Will be right on Time Square! Hope to have time to check out the city and perhaps do a little shopping.

~ Shuwen