men vs. cats

now if this isn't mad swag, i don't know what is.

Goodbye, Charlie.

If you saw my Facebook status two days ago, you knew that Charlie was sick. Well, the worst turned out to be true. She had Feline Infectious Peritonitis, a fatal cat disease. There is no cure, and it's contagious among cats. The vet thinks she probably contracted it at the shelter before she got the vaccination for it, as the disease usually takes a while to manifest itself. The best course of action was to put her down so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore, and so Chloe wasn't exposed to it any longer. She was the sweetest, and we miss her. A lot. My only consolation at the moment is that she spent the last few months of her life living happily in a comfortable home instead of the cage she was living in when we got her from the shelter.

she cuddled with us all night and this morning until it was time to go to the vet. 
such a sweetheart.

a favorite moment:

Angel - Alone at last.

Collins - He'll be back - I guarantee.

Angel - I've been hearing violins all night.

Collins - Anything to do with me? Are we a thing?

Angel - Darling - we're everything.

bikes. lots of bikes.

Perhaps I've been slightly MIA for the past few days. I've just been so caught up watching Le Tour. It's fantastic, phenomenal, and altogether a joy to watch. Just take a look at these pictures.

 all photos via Tour de France All-Access on Versus.com

one - riding through the beautiful countryside
two - spectators. yes, the Tour has the best of all.
three - moo cows are adorable. end of.
four - pure magic. brittany welcomes the Tour with balloons.

vive le tour!

books

Spencer bought me three books this week from a little bookstore in Tampa that sells old, rare, out of print books, etc. One of those books is The Complete Concordance of Shakespeare by John Bartlett. (+20 points to Gryffindor if you already know what it is). Ever want to know where all of Shakespeare's references to cheese are? This is the book you need. Bartlett's Concordance contains every reference from the Bard's plays that exist. Just look up a word to find all of the references of that word in Shakespeare's works. It's a pretty impressive thing that someone took all of the time to compile something like this. He must have really loved Shakespeare. And, having a little soft spot (and my own pet name) for Shakie myself, this is the perfect item to add to my collection. (Here comes the fun part.) The book is really old. The publication date inside is 1894 with no previous editions listed. After a bit of research, I discovered that the Concordance was, in fact, originally published in 1894. Looks like we might have a first edition on our hands. Even if it's not, it's still an amazing text. Feel free to call me a book nerd now. It's okay. I've already accepted it.

beautiful book, no?