PEE-CHURS! (pictures for those of you who don't speak 'squee')
Ooooo! Aaaaah! Delight and awe! AND it's not the kind of ring that slowly consumes your eternal soul while calling out to its Dark Lord and bringing all the creatures of the foul abyss down on your head like a thunderous horde of Baltimore City Pigeons.
It's just shiny!
There's gonna be more pictures. Some dull, some pretty, some kinda gross. You take your chances if you read below.
EDIT: Plant is Aucuba Japonica and according to at least one website, it has some mild medicinal properties. It can be made into a poultice for burns, swelling, and chillblains. It can also be cooked and eaten. Nothing about eating it raw. Sally? Does your mother need a plant? end EDIT
There's a new plant in the house that my Aunt got as a cutting from one of her patients. It looks like this...
Here's a close up of a leaf:
I'm showing you these because it is the only new item in this house since Christmas Day--THAT I KNOW OF--and no one I have asked locally knows what the hell it IS. If kitty got into it, it may be the root of his problem.
However, there's a two year old who comes in and has more toys, candies, and accessories than Gwen Stefani. He could have brought anything in at all. Then there's the fact that my Aunt had guests for several holiday parties. AND my Aunt and my Grandparents are both prone to "giving kitty treats." There's a Sweet Pea plant (which has been so over-watered it's more of a soggy 'sweet pea if it were kelp' deal). And there's a Christmas Cactus that drops dead blossoms from where it hangs off the ceiling. There are any number of 'weird bugs' that the cat could have eaten. It's been a mild winter here.
The internet tells me that sweet pea's SEEDS are poisonous, but that plant is so miserable and flat, it will never bloom let alone seed. And the net tells me fuck-all about Christmas Cactus.
I do not know what my cat could have gotten into. This is a problem because today he looks like this:
I try not to be a control-freak. Really. But things like this make the Kitty-Mommy in me scream. If any of you recognize the plant? Lemme know. The only thing the vet could do was take some X-rays (no blockages) and some blood samples (I'll know more tomorrow.) He gave me some meds to help kitty pass whatever he may or may not have eaten. He told me to keep an eye on how much kitty eats/drinks/vomits/etc.
So far, kitty is normal except for the puddles forming beneath his little head. Grand.
In older news, Sally and I stayed here for a week:
Like the composite? Heh. Me either. But that's our room in the Hotel Coolidge wherein LOTS of yarn work was completed and many phone calls, want-ad scans, and weather-channel consultations were completed. "Hello? I'm so and so, and I'm calling to ask about the availability of apartments? Or Jobs?" Some success with the living arrangements, MUCH success with learning about the area, and not a lot of ground gained on employment. Two out of three ain't bad. :D
Then I came home to this guy:
Ain't he the cutest? He's funny and clever and thoughtful and cute and he's not drooling uncontrollably! It's wonderful! It's Kevin!
And b/c you clearly haven't seen enough of the ring... here's that again.
And a fat puppy on Christmas Morning. His name is Mordred.
There will be another post fairly soon detailing all the stuff i've suddenly realized MUST HAPPEN before i go back to school on Jan 17th. But that's gonna be a list post. One of those 'Oh-My-Eyes-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!' lists of everything and anything i can possibly think to stress about. Mostly b/c i haven't done that recently enough and i'm kinda feeling relaxed. And we can't have that. ;)