Come Sail Away With Me...

Well Hamsterfans, get ready! Here We begin Our account of the trip to the great northwest! First, let Us give you a little tour of the Imperial Rodentine Barge.

First, a general view on Our Amusements Deck, preparing to depart Our good city of Seattle.

Lots of room to scutter amongst the shavings! The lotus-plant light fixtures and shiny decor are meant to recall Cleopatra's famous golden barge.

Here is a view of the Great Hall. Behind in the center you see the stairs and balcony where We make official appearances to adoring assembled multitudes.

Like so...

Sometimes I assemble the subjects in Our floating Opera House for a morale-building HamsterHarangue:

Here is the entrance hall to Our Private Deck. No photography is allowed as We do not want visitors mucking about smushing down the exotic aromatic shavings...

We will, however, give you a peek at the hot and cold running Jacuzzis.

If WC or Sq sail with Us sometime, We'll have them changed to ale and lager.

Of course, We take very good care of Our trusty crew. Here's the Crew's Mess.

Up these stairs is the entrance to Our Private Dining Deck. Again, no photography allowed, but note the entrance to Our Wine Cellar on this deck.

More soon!

Shake your booty

We have returned! What a wonderful time, and what a wonderful reception We were given by Our imperial officials! There will be much to post. But for now, there is much sorting and stuff to do. As you can see, the pile of tribute We collected - not to mention a couple of new friends - will itself take some time to sift through.

Hamster just LOVES tribute!!! Since it was put in the imperial larder right away, the tribute of Our good city of Seattle was not included in the previous photo. So I post it below so as: 1) not to offend our good subjects in that city, and 2) to show Meritt We thought of her along the way (though not enough to prevent Us from joining the Rogue Nation, of course).

More soon!

On Vacation...

Please tyrannize yourselves
till I get back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

To Our Right-Trusty
and Much-Beloved
Imperial Consort!!!

"Hello. . .

Bert! You still in there? Hello! You haven't posted since July 17th. Yoohoo! Hello..."

Sir Nils Olav Penguin

Video with reading of the Royal Proclamation here.

Military penguin becomes a 'Sir'

A penguin who was previously made a Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Army has been knighted at Edinburgh Zoo. Penguin Nils Olav has been an honorary member and mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard since the 1972. Over the years, he has been promoted through the ranks after being adopted by Royal Guard who visited the zoo. British Major General Euan Loudon officiated at the ceremony.

During the ceremony, Nils had a sword dubbed on each side of his head, where his shoulders should be, to confirm his regimental knighthood. A crowd of several hundred people joined the 130 guardsmen at the zoo. A citation from King Harald the Fifth of Norway was read out, which described Nils as "a penguin in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood".

The proud penguin was on his best behaviour throughout most of the ceremony, but shortly before the ritual was concluded and possibly suffering a bout of nerves he was seen to deposit a discrete white puddle on the ground.

Drawing a polite veil over that, Darren McGarry, animal collection manager at the zoo, said afterwards: "It went extremely well and we are delighted that the Norwegian Guard honoured Nils Olav with a knighthood. We all enjoyed the occasion and Nils was a perfect penguin throughout." The guardsmen come to see Nils every few years while they are in Edinburgh performing at the city's Military Tattoo. Mr McGarry, added: "Nils always recognises the Norwegian guardsmen when they come to visit him.He loves the attention he receives at the ceremony and takes his time inspecting the troops." Nils has also received medals for long service and had a 4ft bronze statue built in his honour.

Guardsman Captain Rune Wiik said: "We are extremely proud of Nils Olav and pleased that an enduring part of the Royal Guard is resident in Scotland helping to further strengthen ties between our two countries."

However, the penguin honoured on Friday is unfortunately not the original Nils Olav.He died in the 1980s and was replaced by a two-year-old penguin at the Zoo. Norway presented the zoo with its first king penguin in 1913, the year of its opening.

David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the charity that owns Edinburgh Zoo, said: "We have a long-standing history with the Norwegian King's Guard and it is something we are extremely proud of."

Published: 2008/08/15 14:11:44 GMT
© BBC MMVIII

Good Times @ Castelgandolfo

"And this week's winner for snappiest hat in the summer papal court, non-clerical category, goes to. . ."

Birds Gone Wild!

Lots of people wonder: Do penguins go on vacation? If so, what do they do? (Well, OK, no one asks those questions, but humor me - or the birds will be angry....) As many in our little circle of cybernetic acquaintances know, penguins do, in fact, love to travel. So vacations are important to them.

Not surprisingly, the beach remains a favorite for the modern penguin. Going off to a nice surf spot is popular.
Some even get blond dye-jobs to get the California Dude look.For those who prefer something less exerting, penguin spas are popping up all over the place these days.
Of course, some prefer to just crash at home. Given their frequent preoccupation with things nautical and piscatory, whereas we call this "vegging out" they call it "floundering."Some like traveling to exotic places and investigating foreign peoples and cultures.
Many consult a travel professional to find the right vacation to suit them...
and avoid getting stuck in cheap hotel rooms.Of course, being such popular fowl, sometimes the natives get overly exuberant in their welcome. It's worse than the paparazzi some times.
And, sadly, some have ideas about "getting away from it all" that are just plain unhealthy!

Lazy, Hazy Days

Kel's perspicacity (see her comment on previous post) has shown itself keenly astute once again. Rolling into August does bring on a season of doldrums. It's gotten humid, and they keep threatening close to triple-digit heat, though they've been mostly way off on that, due to highly unstable weather patterns coming in from the heartland. Likely the result of all the hail that silly Squirrel had to go and stir up in the Dakotas. Anywho, We've mainly just been laying about the Summer Palace, showing Ourselves to the public on the balcony every now and then to receive the adoring accolades of Our subjects. . .
reading, doing some crosswords, figuring out whether Uruguay is worth conquering, watching the new season of "Project Runway." You know, the usual Imperial Hamster Summer stuff.

They're at it again!

from DailyRecord.co.uk:
Penguin Picked Up After 999 Alert

Jul 24 2008

RESCUERS hunting for the site of a plane crash at sea called off their search - after the casualties turned out to be two inflatable penguins.

Coastguard and lifeboat teams, along with a helicopter, were scrambled after an elderly man reported a light plane had ditched near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. He was convinced he saw wreckage glinting in the sun. But rescuers discovered that what he had spotted were two massive balloons shaped like penguins.

Victor Sutherland, coxswain of Fraserburgh Lifeboat, said: "When we got there, all we found were the penguins. They were pretty large and could easily be seen from the shore. I can understand why he thought they were debris."

The man raised the alarm on Wednesday afternoon when a microlight he had been watching off the coast vanished from view. But the search was called off after the 4ft penguins, which were semiinflated, were discovered. The two penguins - whose source remains a mystery - have now been "adopted" by the lifeboat team.

Mr Sutherland says he does not want the false alarm to put people off calling the Coastguard. He said: "It would have been a costly exercise. But the man did the right thing."

Olympic excitement!

The Antarctic rugby team scrums, getting ready for the Beijing games. Go Black & Whites!!!

Ah Summer!

Now that school is out and all, Kel and the girls can enjoy some mother-daughter bonding and maybe even go out on the town every now and then.

Grooming Behavior

If you think getting the kids up and ready in the morning is tough at your house, you should see what we have to do around here!

Bovine Blimps

Not to be outdone, and inspired by the penguins' unremitting efforts, the cows are now conducting dangerously imprudent experiments with dirigibles. Look out belooooooow!!!

Brave Penguin Test Pilot...

prepares to launch in experimental remote-control flight assistance gear. God's speed, little fella!

Ho hum... (part II)

Another day at work. Pontificates can get a little boring at times. (And no comments about my hat!)

Ho hum...

Another day at work. Sabbaticals can get a little boring at times...

High gas prices...

have finally hit the Vatican, resulting in drastic action.

The Perils of Penguinity

Ya know, living with TR and nearly 100 of his closest relatives has given me a whole new perspective on penguin life. It's not all that easy...

The paparazzi follow you everywhere.

There are all those endless (and largely futile) hours spent in flight school.

Loosing a contact lens is sheer hell.

People give you funny looks when you do interpretive dance.

And there are those periodic bouts with the great existential questions.

Continued. . .

The principles applaud the papal chef for the exceptional weenies.

After-dinner entertainment.: "Hey, watch this! I can do an eclipse!"

A good time was had by all.

Despotic Entertaining Tip #42

During the summer months, a simple relaxed picnic can be just the thing to ease diplomatic tensions. Here, President Bush prepares to chow down at the Pontifical Weenie-Roast.

It's not just us, ya know!

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Tim Clark of South Africa pulls his penguin head cover off a club during the first round of the Stanford St. Jude Championship golf tournament in Memphis, Tenn., Thursday, June 5, 2008. Clark finished the day at 2-over par 72.

Look Out Cougs!

In one of the stranger coincidences in my life recently, the dean of arts & sciences at my beloved and mighty place of employ - i.e., my "boss" in a way - has just been named provost at, of all places, Washington State Univ., alma mater of our Good and Right-Trusty Squirrel! Let's just say better you than us. One friend and colleague, possessed of strongish feelings toward our dean, threw a big party at the news. She herself was born and spent early years in beauteous Pullman (check out the National Lentil Festival) and threw an eastern WA themed party, complete with cheeses shipped in from the WSU dairy! (impressive, no?)Be assured we will keep Sq.'s alma mater in our thoughts and prayers here. Happily, the new provost comes after Squirrel and will depart before the Little Rodent hits campus, so no personal harm will be effected. Go Cougs!

Resistance is futile!

On our little jaunt through Indiana, it struck me that the place might make a good target for conquest. This for several reasons:

TR rather liked the place.

They do take good care of their cows. Here they are enjoying a sleek, industrial style merry-go-round at one of their bovine amusement parks.

Certainly, it doesn't seem there'll be much resistance on the horizon.
But they do have the oddest looking dogs I've ever seen...