Matt and Amy

Meet Matt and Amy, new friends who moved here from Texas but are originally from New Mexico. They are much closer in age to our children, but ya know, there are just some people you feel in synch with and you can't let the generation gap get in the way! Matt is a new prof at Winthrop and Amy is working on getting a produce/farm coop started here. They're vegetarian and philosophically similar to our way of thinking on virtually all issues.

The true test is will they freak when Obi and Chappu jump on the table (after dinner) as they always do? Nope. Matt makes friends with Obi immediately.

I'm not sure what Obi's facial expression is (you know testy he can be) but Matt and Amy clearly are enjoying Obi's presence.

Shirin referred to Saeed's love and admiration for our toaster (on her blog) but he clearly has some left for Obis Obis.

For dinner we had Greek "chicken", Greek rice, Greek salad (with homemade Greek salad dressing), and Persian mast chiar. Mast chiar, for those of you who don't know, is yogurt, cucumber, and mint; it fits in very well with the Greek palate of flavors.

When we retired to the living room Matt naturally assumed that Obi would be just as friendly on the couch as he was in the kitchen, but after Obi lunged at Matt's hand ...

... he wisely sat back and showed Obi the correct "I'm not going to mess with you" body language and Obi settled in for his nap.

Chappu is the only one who can safely plop down right next to Obi; she provides a buffer between him and Matt...

...which seems to make everyone happy.

Meanwhile Amy makes friends with Frosty, but you know Frosty...

... he doesn't stick around long and before you know it he's snuggling with a booty on the floor or holding onto his rear foot for a good licking.

At some point Chappu takes off and Tippy comes over to get some lovin' too.

Matt is definitely a cat magnet. Even Calvin was happy about Amy and Matt; he often hides in the closet when people come over but he was happily and fearlessly walking around and sitting on the other couch with Saeed and me.

We talked a lot last night but by the end of the evening after Matt had interacted with all the kitties he decided he wanted to take Chappu home with him. Here they are holding hands.

Well, Chappu decided to stay with us, not so much for our sake but she would miss Obi and Tippy too much. And anyway, Amy and Matt have a dog, so Matt had to go home without her.