Meet the new roomies.

Rocio brought four hamsters home yesterday evening. Four brothers. Two dark, two light — otherwise indistinguishable. So. The dark hamsters are now both Miguel and the light ones are both Carlos (in honor of fellow ITPer Charles who gave Rocio moral support, apparently, on the hamster issue). Now they live on the desk in our living room. They’re just a month old.

They have three modes:

1. Sleeping. They huddle like cotton puffs in their little house on the second floor of their cage to sleep. In a fit of rowdiness they knocked the roof off of their plastic home, so now they remain exposed to the world. I like this because they’re awfully damned cute snuggled together like that.

2. Eating. At the moment they’re in this mode. Chowing down. Drinking from their little water spout. They have a wide assortment of seeds to keep themselves fed and they enjoy making a mess of seeds and little poopies all over the desk surrounding the cage during the day.

3. The World’s Worst Gymnasts. And then they get excited. So I sit and work and watch a ceaseless rotation of varmints climbing the sides of the cage, trying to get to the roof. Sometimes the fall right off the cage side. Sometimes one makes it to the top only to dangle for a few seconds before slipping and dropping to the bottom like a small sandbag. This doesn’t appear to hurt them…

So that’s about it. This evening I had them out for a while (one at a time) to play with while I watched a bit of television. They charge around, up and down arms, along the backs of chairs, around tables and desks. Fairly well-behaved, too, despite the occasional urination accident. The Carloses seem a bit more mellow, the Miguels a bit more spastic (although a Carlos bit me today — on accident, I think).

Okay. Hamsters!

Because I am an internet dork, I must now link here. Thank you for understanding.

Monaco-Ville, as seen from the Jardin Exotiques.

A few more photographs for you. I hope to get a chance to write up a few more highlights soon. Yes, I’m back in New York, now.

Grotte Exotique.

Looking down into Fontvieille harbor.

20-foot foosball table at the Nokia Games Summit party.

Mediterranean rock lobster.

Wining and dining (not pictured) at the Nokia Games Summit.

I don’t have much time to make an actual post, but here are a handful of photos from the in-progress excursion to Monaco for the Nokia Games Summit. I am part of a team running a game called “Vélocité.”

Hotels and condos of Fontvieille, Monaco.

We spent last night in Fontvieille, a newer part of Monaco that has been reclaimed from the sea and now features a cluster of new hotels and development. The Summit is way on the far end of the country. About a 40-minute walk…

Monaco may be the most three-dimensional town I’ve experienced. Meaning: It’s built (mostly) on land sloping into the sea at about a 30 degree angle. And developers have tried to maximize the small amount of territory available to them. So everything’s kind of stacked up and overlapped and tangled around. Makes it feel very cozy in some places. Claustrophobic in others.

Wednesday morning from my hotel room balcony.

A mosaic of Fernand Léger’s Les Trois Musiciens.

Our hotel, Le Meridien.

Busy, busy. More soon.

Wikipedia knows more about Monaco, too.