It took several trips to the Humane Society before we found the perfect puss. Her name was not good enough so we renamed her Patch because she has an orangey patch, a bit like a saddle, on her back.

Tas is no longer bored. He loves his new girlfriend but is definitely more pooped at the end of the day. He is very protective of her and looks very concerned if we seem to be taking chances with her safety.

Patch thinks Tas is the very best and occasionally even stops moving long enough to be photographed. These snaps are culled from literally hundreds that are mostly of the “here is where a kitten was” variety.

Welcome Patch! (Click on the picture to see more…)

They are all separated by different galleries for each visit or activity.

Please click on this link or the sample picture on the right to view all the pictures that have been uploaded. There are more. You will be taken to a page called detayls.smugmug.com, which is where all of the pictures live. You will see a list of albums in reverse order by time with the newest gallery shown first.

You may click on the picture for each gallery to see the rest. To return to the top just click “detayls” in the top left or go to detayls.smugmug.com again.

Above the galleries is a slide show of the most popular shots. You can vote for any picture to add it to the slide show by hovering your mouse over the picture that you like and clicking the green “thumbs up” when it appears.

Enjoy!

The weather in Novato was still a little chilly so the participants ended up eating dinner in the garage, which was beautifully decorated for the occasion.

The party theme was the ’70’s and a lot of people wore their best disco clobber. Scott and Mike really stood out and Don and his “disco belly” were a big hit. Vicky has a “thing” about bellies so she was teased mercilessly.

Here he is playing with his absolutely favorite toy, the stringy thingy. He loves to chase it in ever decreasing circles and when he catches it, he growls like a mountain lion. Be afraid, be very afraid.

If you have been paying attention this far, there is a treat. A short video. It should be the last one in the gallery on Smugmug, which you get to by clicking on the picture…

It was a misty moisty day and the quiet was very comforting.

Click on the picture to see all the other images in Smugmug.

For some reason the kids needed to have contest to see who could make the weirdest looking face. Who do you think won?

Once again we played the familiar Secret Santa game and had lots of fun. These folk were so gentile with the gifts that it was all over very quickly.

This is a particularly good set of pictures. First click the image here to get to the gallery in Smugmug and then be sure to click “Slide Show” at the top right for best viewing.

Happy New Year 2010, everyone!

The food was astounding. We’re all getting a little complacent about it though. In 2010 it’s cheese sandwiches and diet soda!

This year David Latour graced us with a tuxedo and Melanie wore her best shoes. The tuxedo earned David some pickled eggs. We still don’t know how well the shoes worked out. Melanie?

The “secret Santa” game was fairly tame this year. In 2010 you will be required to sign a “cutthroat affidavit” to play. Much more stealing will be required.

There were at least fourteen dogs at the event. Six of them were called Tucker. We are thinking of allowing “canine participation” in the game in future. They have two secret weapons: they can tell what is inside the wrapping by smell alone and can employ “droolage” if a gift is too desirable to be stolen. Staff are encouraged to apply as canines if the cutthroat requirement is too manly. (David Latour is automatically considered “cutthroat-ready” unless he tries to recycle the eggs!)

Lisa had spent the previous four months on an epic trip around the world starting from England in July by flying to India and gradually inched nearer to California via Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. There are some contributed pictures from her trip in a previous album here.

One of her requests was a quick trip to Wildcare in San Rafael and she virtually demanded some Dim Sum in San Francisco. Eleven years is just too long!

She had fond memories of a trip to the Harbor Village restaurant at the Embarcadero with us for Dim Sum in 1998. Sadly the Harbor Village is no more. David and JoLynn recruited Jeanni and Grier to take us to a favorite restaurant and we all had a lovely meal.

Afterward we visited the Legion of Honor to absorb a little culture before heading home to Marin

Robyn had run in the New York marathon the previous weekend with a time of 4 hours and 27 minutes. This was only her second major marathon. Her previous was in New Zealand. Her sisters Moira and Alison and her brother Alec went with her for support. Alison and Alec then returned to where they are living. Alison is working in Indonesia and Alec in northern Canada.

We took the sisters to the top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco to get good views of the bay and then took them for a Chinese meal in Chinatown. We traveled on a Cable Car for a few blocks on the way.

On Sunday we all went out to Tony’s for oysters and seafood in Marshall followed by a visit to Point Reyes Station.