Kris and her Happy Face balloon

We went to see Alice Cooper and Motley Crüe at the Barclays Center last night with some good friends, neighbors and family members. (Alice Cooper was fantastic!)

On the arena floor the crowd was batting around large balloons (as they annoyingly tend to do at large concerts). The yellow ones had a Happy Face, which were probably left over from the previous night's YES concert. Kris really wanted one and said "I'm going down there to get a balloon." I replied with characteristic optimism: "you'll never get one." See the priceless photo.

To prevent drunk heavy metal concertgoers from popping it, or sending it sailing back to the arena floor, she opened the knot, took the air out, flattened it and took it home. Now she wants me to do internet research on the best way to store a used balloon.

Meet Billy the Kitten, 8 weeks old

A few weeks ago, Kris' sister's husband Steve found a new litter of five tiny kittens in an abandoned truck and took them home. Karin and Steve were fostering them until they could be adopted. Last Sunday we went to a family barbecue at their house. I should have known something was up when Kris packed an empty cat carrier in the car. I assumed she was planning to donate our extra carrier to BARKS, an animal rescue organization which Aunt Carol works with.

Soon after arriving Kris introduced me to a tiny, grey & white, 8-week-old kitten named Billy. If you know mid-1960s rock group trivia, and that our two black cats at home are named Dino and Desi, you already know the end of the story. We are currently slowly introducing the increasingly rambunctious Billy into the menagerie. We are all adjusting to the tiny, hyperactive family addition. Murray the dog, who has been somewhat standoffish is very patient when Billy plays with and nips his ears; while Dino and Desi are still undecided but curious, expressing their feelings with an occasional hiss or growl. In the end, Karin kept two of the kittens and Aunt Carol took the remaining two for future adoption. Karin now has 6 cats, a dog Madeline, and a parrot. On Friday, Billy had his first trip to our Brooklyn vet for treatment for an eye infection.