Family

...and with it, the Era of Great Hamsters has ended.

Hannibal was the last hamster I had in a long series of midget hamsters, named after emporers and kings. He and his twin-brother arrived some 2 and a half years ago to live in the castle of Amersfoort; the bigest house ever for one of my hamster to live in. Yet they probably lived the most confined life of all.

He and his brother were twins - I couldn't come up with a good name for them both (can you name a famous royal twin?) , so I called them Hamster 1 and Hamster 2. Hamster 1 never liked to be confined to his cage; on several occasions he escaped his cage to join his brother (Hamster 2), or play with the cats. Because of these daring achievements, and because the land he thus concurred (against all odds I might say), his posthumous assigned name will be Hannibal Little-one.

Gezellig, een weblog voor met z'n hussies. Die hussies bestaan dus tot nu toe uit twee personen (als ik naar de entries kijk)terwijl er meer zijn... sorry, het kwam er niet zo van. En ik heb niet zo veel te bloggen. Wat heb je als onderzoeker nou te bloggen??? Maar na een eerste berichtje volgens er vast wel meer. Niet te veel,want zoals Maarten al aanhaalde, er is een negatief verband tussen regelmatig bloggen en gezondheid.

Enne Wopke, stoer dat je op de aftiteling van netwerk stond!

I just got off the phone with my mother. She's been getting computer lessons from my sister Wopke. My mother used to do some computer work for my father's practice, but this "Windows" thing is totally new for her. Webbrowsing, emailing and MSN, she's learning it all (one step at a time). Anyway. she called me.

Apparently, my mother wanted to show my aunt Riet the panoramic photography I do. Riet is a "real", analog photographer, or at least I have always regarded her to be one.

"I'm on your site. Can I see the photos any bigger?"
- "Sure, you just click on the small thumbnail image I and the browser will show an image you can look around in."
"Yes, we did that, but all we got was this big bar that filled up really slowly. It also said something with Shockwave."

One of the reasons I'm not being an active blogger, besides the fact this blogging is new to me and I'm just a busy guy, is that Tessa and I are in the process of buying a house. Exciting stuff!

Problem is we can not move into the house untill the current owners move out. We agreed on a date no later than december 1st. We're hoping we'll move before our current house collapses...

In the mean time, since I'm too much of a nervous wreck to do any decent work, I have been working on some improvements on the hoeben.net website.

Recently, #1 of the twin hamsters died... Sad, but such is life.

In the meantime, #2 (which has now become #1) is alive and kicking. He even found the courage to escape and take on Hobbes the cat. After chasing Hobbes and #1 through the kitchen, I managed to convince Hobbes that it wasn't a toy but actually a brother and that he should be nice, so Hobbes dropped him on the floor. In true fighting spirit, #1 bit me like hell, so I dropped him to the floor (it wasn't really a drop; more a flight - I tried to run it to its cage). #1 looked as if he finally gave up (all dizzy on the floor, ready to join #2 - used to be #1), and I was ready to give Hobbes another go at it. Then he stoodup and started approaching Hobbes with renewed vigour. This time I caught #1 and managed to bring him to his cage. I thought he would die now for sure, sustaining heart failure or something, but #1 thought otherwise; a good breakfest would do him good so he seemed to think. 2 weeks on, #1 is still as active as before...