The other day when we took the cats outside, Björn got the idea to use his phone’s front camera to take some photos of Lorelai from a different angle.
Rory was standing on the rug frame, so Björn took photos of her from underneath.
I’ve got to admit…I never really thought about taking photos from below like this. Pretty brilliant, I think.
Rory seemed to like it, too.
Björn managed to get himself into a couple of the shots as well. I think they’re cute.
This is how I wake up most mornings. Izaak is usually involved, and then it’s either Alfred, Lorelai and/or Dashiell. I tried to take a selfie one morning…but it did not go well. The front camera, even on an iPhone 11 Pro, is really not that great.
So I had Björn take the photos with the back camera.
So, okay, not technically selfies…but credit for intent. And I absolutely adore the way Zak tries to hold my hand.
Isn’t that adorable?
Dashiell loves to pat my face and purr when I am in bed in the morning.
He pats my face with one paw, although I haven’t been able to capture it with my camera. Yet. (Please forgive my face…I just woke up, eh?)
But there’s more to it than that…
…here’s Angel on my pillow, leaning on my head. I have stereophonic purring between the pair of them! I just wish Dash wouldn’t drool when he purrs.
One of the best things about the show in Örebro this weekend was the photobooth.
Agria Djurförsäkring (Animal Insurance) is a pet health insurance company, and a regular supporter of FIFe shows in Sweden.
At this show, they upped their presence with a free photobooth.
Logan was benched right next to the photobooth, so Björn and I took quite a few photos with him in the photo booth. I mean, who doesn’t love a photo booth?
This is how selfies were done back in the day!
You remember when you were a little kid, and you would put on “shows” to entertain family and friends? Some of us did them live in the living room, others (like me) would record “radio shows” on tape, and today they’re making mp4 movies and loading them onto YouTube.
But I think we all did it at some point. And lately, in our nightly FaceTime sessions with Björn, I feel like Jacoby and I have been putting on the “Jake and Coco Show.”
“Come on, Jake…do you have anything to say to the nice people out there in FaceTime land?”
“…Hmmm?”
“No? Nothing? What, has the cat got your tongue?”
“How about a kiss, then?”
“No? Okay well I wouldn’t kiss me either after that joke.”
“Better now?”
Then I got up for some reason, and Jake didn’t want to be alone onscreen without his sidekick.
So he followed me.
But don’t think for a second that he doesn’t know where the camera is at all times.
Jacoby has been a very snuggly, cuddly boy lately.
He’s been sleeping with me almost every night.
Although, sometimes, he’ll settle in an…shall we say…awkward spot.
And then…boom!
Erm…Jake? You realise that…oh, I can’t even.
Jacoby loves to hang out with me while I FaceTime with Björn.
Sometimes I grab him and make him interact with us.
As you can see, he’s a big fan of that.
More often, though, he just meanders into the picture, asking for pettins.
“Oh, hey new dad. Didn’t see you there.”
Annnnddd…back to rubbing on mommy.
He does that a lot.
He also comes in for random headbutts.
Headbutt, rub, roll, repeat.
Last weekend at the Seacoast show, Jacoby and I hat a hotel room all to ourselves.
So of course we FaceTimed with Björn.
Because why wouldn’t we?
I tried to get Jake to wave to his dad.
Jake was not into waving.
I tried to convince him that it would be a cute thing to do.
He was having none of that.
Look at his face: “Mom…come on…seriously?”
And then later, after I was sound asleep, Björn captured this shot of Jake tromping around the room.
Sometimes, when the alarm goes off, this happens.
Jacoby comes and cuddles with me.
And by “cuddle,” I mean “he lies on top of me with his full weight.”
And you can’t tell from the photos, but Jake is purring like crazy.
Did I say, “like crazy”? Make that “diabolically.” He lies on me with his full weight and purrs like a diabolical madman.
He does not want me to get up and go to work. And let’s face it…I don’t disagree with him.
I have several tattoos, but I wanted to get one to symbolise and commemorate my marriage to Björn. Many years ago, he gave me a silver necklace based on Bronze Age rock art from Sweden with a design of a man and woman kissing. The couple is known as “the Lovers,” “the Bridal Couple” or “the Holy Wedding.” It’s become something of a talisman of ours.
So on 1 April, I went and got myself another tattoo of it!
I added a cat-like creature from other rock carvings to the pair…if you look closely, you’ll see that the cat has a darker stripe along its back and a darker tipped tail! Just like an Abyssinian!
While Björn was here for our wedding and honeymoon, he got a matching tattoo by the same artist, Deirdre at Redemption Tattoo in Cambridge – and she is awesome, by the way. If you need a tattoo and happen to be near Porter Square, look her up.
Here are both of our tattoos together. Björn’s is about 2/3 the size of mine (I needed to balance out with the octopus on my other shoulder) and is feline-free. We are already planning on a trip to see the original rock carvings, which are conveniently located in Western Sweden, not far from where we will live. If we can, we want to get a photo of our tattoos and the original art…we’ll see how that goes.
Björn was interviewed by the Göteborgs-Posten last Thursday bay a reporter doing a piece about Migrationsverket and the “love migration process” and people like us who either have a partner trying to move to be with them or who are that partner, and an article was published in last Saturday’s paper (that’s the big paper of the week there, Saturday instead of Sunday, so you have two days to read it all).
This was the main photo they used on the web version of the story and in the newspaper itself.
This is the front of the newspaper…
Look who made it to page 1!
This is the spread on pages 6 & 7 with sidebars about other aspects of Migrationsverket and Swedes waiting for their partners.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time someone I know has been featured on the front of a major publication.
Not only that…he also had a spread on pages 6 & 7! Björn and Jacoby…media superstars!
While Jacoby and I were FaceTiming with Björn on night, I impulsively swept him up into a hug.
Jake, not Björn, of course.
Hey, you gotta get your hugs when you can! Both of them are very huggable, though.
“No hugs, mom! I’m a boycat!”
When Björn and I Facetime, we aren’t always alone.
Jacoby often participates in our nightly conversations.
At least he’s not chewing on my laptop screen anymore…
But he is a bit of a third wheel!
Silly me, thinking I could eat a meal in peace.
I was sitting with Björn, trying to eat lamb and rice.
With Jacoby in the same room.
As if I could eat in peace with a glowing-eyed piranha trying to steal the food from my fork.
He’s still not as bad as Angel, though…
So the display on my MacbookPro was acting up…and, as any owner of an Apple product knows, this can mean only one thing…a trip to the Genius Bar!
Since it’s been crazy warm in Boston lately – especially for February! – I took my buddy Jacoby with me to reacquaint Boston with Strollercat.
Here we are on Boylston Street…in February…without even a jacket on!
Jacoby often drops by while I’m FaceTiming with Björn.
Just an ordinary lazy Sunday, spending time with my best boys…
…one of whom, frustratingly, is 5800km away…
…and the other who apparently can’t sit still.
Ow! Watch where you put those paws, Jake!
What is this I don’t even.
Not technically a selfie, per se, but definitely related.
I was messaging with Björn in the kitchen and set my phone down. Jacoby stepped on it, and typed:
olh lmnk m
And he sent it! I’m not sure how he managed to do that with his toepads, but…
…he seemed just way too proud of himself for it to have been completely accidental! Wonder what he was trying to say?
When Björn and I FaceTime, we try to keep our connection going as long as possible.
Usually either my wifi or his will crap out overnight, but we try to fall asleep “together” whenever we can. Since we’re six hours apart, we generally manage to do this most often on weekends.
Of course, Björn wakes up before me, and yesterday morning he captured these shots of Jacoby sleeping on me while I slept.
I have no idea why Jake likes to sleep perched on my back or shoulder instead of nestled up in the blankets behind my knees or along my side.
He purrs when he sleeps on me like that, though. It’s very comforting.
And even though he weighs 4.5kg and he’s lying on my ribs, it doesn’t seem to bother me at all.
Do you think Jake knew that Björn was taking his photo?
Oh, yeah. He knew.
Buh-bye.
I’ve been sleeping irregularly since Björn and I became a couple.
It’s bad every day; I wake up at least once a night. But it’s worse on weekends when I don’t need to wake up at a particular time.
I wake up randomly about once every three hours. And when I do, I wake up with cats.
Usually, it’s Jacoby and Tessie who sleep with/on me.And I have to say, it’s nice and very comforting to have them to wake up to.
What I was trying to capture in this photo – and what you probably can’t see – is that Jake was sleeping on my arm and wrist with his head pillowed in the palm of my hand…so adorable.
I have to go back to work tomorrow. So not ready. This was the longest vacation I’ve ever taken in almost ten years…
…and it doesn’t help that I’ve basically been living in pajamas, watching Law & Order and sleeping erratically since I got back on Wednesday. Luckily, I have my one-cat ruddy cheer-up brigade.
These are just some selfies I took of myself and Jacoby last night while Facetiming with Björn.
Jake is very hard-headed when it comes to snapping people out of funks. He was purring (and drooling) a lot while I was taking these.
“Come on, Mom! Cheer up and pet me!”
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 