Hili dialogue: Monday (my birthday) and extras

December 30, 2013 • 1:27 am

Big celebrations in Dobrzyn! Hili is celebrating by eating from one of the presents I brought her: a special cat bowl emblazoned with her name, pictures of me (so she doesn’t forget Uncle Jerry), and pictures of me holding Hili (s0 she doesn’t forget our special relationship):

Hili: Oh Jerry! What a beautiful present you gave me for your birthday! And it’s not too small at all.
Jerry: I’m glad that you like it.
Hili: I’m going to sing “Happy birthday” for you as soon as I finished eating.
1555537_10202420923471719_951868978_n
In Polish:
Hili: O, Jerry, jaki piękny prezent mi dałeś na twoje urodziny i wcale nie jest za mały.
Jerry: Cieszę się, że ci się podoba.
Hili: Zaśpiewam Ci Happy birthday jak tylko zjem.
Extras: When I woke up this morning, I found this as the Google Doodle:
Screen shot 2013-12-30 at 5.13.14 AM
I can’t find any information about why this is there, so I’m forced to conclude that Google is celebrating my birthday. [UPDATE: Google does indeed know it’s my birthday, as a commenter indicated, and I’ve added the picture with the wish you get when you move the cursor over the image. It’s a bit scary.]
And my presents: A cat calendar and two tins of my favorite “boiled sweeties” from the UK (mint humbugs and blackcurrent with licorice) from Grania, and two jars of homemade cherry jam from Andrzej, Malgorzata, and Hili, all with cards:
Presents
This card was from Hili:
Hilicard1
which contained the inscription:
Hilicard 2
Finally, a portrait of the Queen I took yesterday:
Hili
I don’t have to ask, on this day, “Will you still feed me?”, as we’re going out to a restaurant for a big Polish feed tonight.

62 thoughts on “Hili dialogue: Monday (my birthday) and extras”

  11. “I’m forced to conclude that Google is celebrating my birthday.”

    You are correct. Google runs a special doodle just for you on your birthday. Move the cursor over the image and you should see “Happy Birthday Jerry”

    Info from

    http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2013/05/03/todays-google-doodle-my-birthday/

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Runs-a-Special-Doodle-Just-for-You-on-Your-Birthday-286465.shtml

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/advice/9949627/How-does-Google-know-my-birthday.html

    Reply

  13. Hili: I’m going to sing “Happy birthday” for you as soon as I finished eating.

    MP3 or it didn’t happen.
    (And a happy birthday, Jerry. I spotted something that had “Jerry’s Coynezaaa #3 present for next year” written on it in large metaphorical letters, but the wife, not knowing you, vetoed it as just being another piece of Aidan-whimsy. So I’ll have to find another edition in the next year in time to get it into the post.)

    Reply

  15. Happy Birthday, Jerry! I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate it than with Hili and staff. Oughta become a tradition! 🙂

    Reply

  16. Happy Birthday Jerry! That is really neat that Google has a doodle for you on your Birthday. I just clicked another one off myself this weekend, but as it happens I did not go online at all on my birthday and so missed my moment of fame.

    Reply

  20. Jerry, I would like to wish you the best and happiest of Birthdays. I would also like to clarify, for my own satisfaction, a pressing need to fully understand the correct pronunciation of your loving cats name. The question may seem foolish but inquiring minds need to know.
    Is it pronounced…Hill..ee or High..Lie ?

    Reply

    1. No, it’s not foolish at all, and I should have made that clear from the beginning.

      It’s “Hee-Lee”, with long e’s. And it’s Hebrew for “she’s mine.” She’s named after the daughter of friends of Andrzej and Malgorzata.

      Reply

    2. If you pronounce most languages with long e’s you’ll probably get it right most of the time. English seems to be in the minority with its “i” options. 🙂 Yeah I know there are exceptions. 🙂 I have an Indian friend who has an i in her name and people get it wrong even when she tells them her name. It drives her crazy.

      Reply

      1. I don’t know, some people are sensitive to variations in pronunciation that seem subtle, at best, to others. My name, Darrell, is not particularly uncommon but my “people” pronounce it in what is apparently an uncommon way for that name.

        If I think about it I notice that nobody, not even my wife, pronounces it “correctly.” But that has never bothered me. My sister, however, is another story. On the rare occasion that we are together (we haven’t lived close in decades) she never fails to correct people when they (mis)speak my name. Which is pretty much anytime someone speaks my name.

        Reply

        1. …and I meant that to read most I’s in languages. Many non English speakers pronounce my name Deeana because they are used to the “ee” sound of “i”. I swear English is the only indo-european language with an “i” like that but who knows….I haven’t studied all of them.

          Reply

  25. Joyeux anniversaire, mon grand!

    Let me suggest the best present is the one you are giving yourself, that is, this wonderful holiday with friends, both furry and human, you are now enjoying. And we won’t mention the fabulous noms. 🙂

    Reply

  29. I don’t have to ask, on this day, “Will you still feed me?”, as we’re going out to a restaurant for a big Polish feed tonight.

    Ah — a nice round number. Happy 0100 0000! Here’s hoping you make it to 1000 0000!

    Cheers,

    b&

    Reply

  30. Pounce!
    Happy Birthday, Prof. Ceiling Cat!

    Thanks for sharing a little of your B-day with us.
    May you have a gazillion good nomming days.
    Wishing you all the best, good health and the joys of life.
    Stay the classy and endearing man and the cool cat that you are.

    Reply

  33. Since you are in Poland –

    Sto lat, sto lat,
    Niech żyje, żyje nam.
    Sto lat, sto lat,
    Niech żyje, żyje nam,
    Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz,
    Niech żyje, żyje nam,
    Niech żyje nam!

    In English –
    A hundred years, a hundred years,
    Let him/her live, live for us.
    A hundred years, a hundred years,
    Let him/her live, live for us.
    Once again, once again,
    Let him/her live, live for us,
    Let him/her live for us!

    Reply

  35. A very merry birthday to you, Jerry!
    And a very happy Everyday, the set of which contains UnBirthdays (being, as Humpty Dumpty demonstrated to Alice, vastly more important than Birthdays), Quarter-Birthdays, Half-Birthdays, and Birthdays proper.

    Extending the Everyday set into ℝ, fractal Birthdays may be obtained, time and again. The use? Yummy almond bread.
    Adding a few imaginary ingredients, a complex biscuit emerges. Bon appétit!

    Reply

    1. If it’s fractal cooking you’re looking for, I believe the current go-to source is Vi Hart. I’d link to her, but that would likely entail going to her site myself, and that would be the end of my productivity for the day. Indeed, it’s a good thing that the chances of her ever marrying my are nil, because that would likely be the end of my productivity for the rest of my life….

      Cheers,

      b&

      Reply

        1. If you’d like to do a bit of Googling and post the results, by all means, do so!

          …but, be forewarned…if you do, you’ll come to your senses many hours from now, having mysteriously become an expert on Sierpinski triangles and Pythagorean beans and how to make Tau Pi and…

          …oh, shit, there I go. See what you’ve done to me?

          b&

          Reply

          1. Now you have me scared. But, with an endorsement like that I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself.

          3. At first blush looks like a great site. But, man, does it ever rub my nose in how much I have yet to learn, and how much it will never be possible for me to learn because there simply is not enough time.

          4. Oh, don’t worry…she’ll get you up to speed right quick. In all seriousness, she’s one of the best math teachers, ever — and in large part not just because of her passion for the subject but because of her extremely creative and entertaining perspective on the subject.

            b&

          5. Nice work, Ben!
            Now that you’ve succeeded in jeopardising my marital bliss with your enthusiastic advocacy of Vi Hart, be a man, go ahead and propose.
            I’m a cripple with little control over my limbs, less than 10% of the productivity I had before (not that it was much to begin with), and then you make me spend every waking minute watching every Vi Hart video within clicking reach? And still yearn for more? I even forgot my medicines.
            Nice work, Ben!

  38. Happy Birthday Jerry!
    I hope your next year is healthy, productive, and filled with love from humans and kittehs!

    Purrs and headbumps from my cat Ararat (black Oriental shorthair mix), who will celebrate his 14th birthday on January 1. So he’s about your age in cat years.

    And that’s a lovely portrait of Hili.

    Reply

  40. Max the Magnificent says Happy Birthday to Jerry and Why don’t you come up to my place and see my itchings? to Hili.

    Reply

  41. I just had a B-day last week and was also a bit weirded out by the fact that Google was almost the first person to congratulate me. It was very Brave New World/1984. But on the nice side, FB let me hear from alot of old friends who I normally don’t correspond with too often (I just joined FB last year so this was my first FB xmas.)

    Happy Birthday Jerry. Your blog…I mean “website” is truly one of the best out there and always gives me something interesting/challenging/appetizing or cute-overloading to help me get through my day. Cheers–

    Reply

  42. Nice cat nom dish! I was wondering what you would give Hili for your birthday!
    Warmest birthday greetings,
    Carol
    P.S. Thanks for the ear worm, I’m going to be humming that all day now…

    Reply

  43. Grattis på Födelsedagen, Jerry!

    [And since I don’t know when Hili has her barf-day, I’ll add “LOLcats!” to her too.]

    Reply

  44. “My grandpa, he’s 95
    And he keeps on dancin’
    He’s still alive

    My grandma, she’s 92
    She loves to dance
    And sing some, too

    I don’t know
    But I’ve been told
    If you keep on dancing
    You’ll never grow old”

    — lyrics picked to “Dance, Dance, Dance”
    by Mr Steve Miller of his band

    Put on those dancin’ B.O.O.T.S for tonight !

    H.a.p.p.y Birthday, Dr Coyne !
    Blue

    Reply

  46. Hope you had a great birthday. Mine is today (Tuesday)and my present was not waking up ’till 2:30pm. Happy hoping for the New Year!

    Reply

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