Happy whichever holiday(s) you celebrate this season. Here’s the card my family sent out this year – the card that almost wasn’t (because we just couldn’t get it together):
My deportation site is healing quite well. I even went back to the gym without fear that I’d burst my jugular or pull my incision stitches – though I did skip the chest press and fly this time around.
Urinator update:
For those of you who had not been following my CaringBridge blog, This summer, we ran into an issue with our beloved kitties destroying our living room and dining room carpets with their fragrant piss. They’d spent a few weeks down in the basement, and when we let them back up (with them on nightly transdermal happy gel), we’d blocked off the two front rooms, and all was well until a month later, when *someone* wanted to air out the rooms and replaced the solid (photog backgrounds) barriers with gates, thus setting free the scent of brotherly love and resulting in them peeing in the family room.
They’ve been down in the dungeon for the past 4 months, of course, not soiling the floor down there once. Something to be thankful for. But, visiting them was not really comfy or convenient. We have scant furniture down there (because, of course, the couch we had years ago was peed on). Sitting on a bench, petting cats is ok occasionally, but not multiple times a day. About a month ago, we replaced the carpet in the two front rooms with laminate that resembles hardwood. We’d like to redo the whole first floor in hardwood, but we’re not ready to put that in the budget yet. Anyway, last week, we finally replaced the carpet in the family room, and the kitties were set free (with strict supervision for the first couple of days) on Thursday. They were skittish at first, but once they were reminded of the joys of squirrel and bird watching, all was well.
So far, so good. No errant urination has been detected. Alex and George are back to their pre-dungeon. And I’m once again enjoying the middle-of-the night facials from Alex.
One more tidbit – I finally got to enjoy an Indian meal last night! I’ve wanted to give it a try for years, but was always afraid of not knowing the reputation of a restaurant and not knowing what to order. We went to Hema’s Kitchen on Devon, smack in the heart of Little India (Hema also has a Lincoln Park location), to celebrate my MIL’s birthday, and it was fantastic!
My BIL, Tony, pre-ordered for the group (there were 19 of us!). We had vegetable samosas, chicken tikka masala, tandoori chicken, lamb vindaloo, dal palak, murg makhani, (I think) sag chana, all with naan and basmati rice. We topped the meal with birthday cake and kheer. I have to say, I think I loved it all, but my favorites were the samosas, chicken tikka masala, and the sag chana.
The Girl even tried everything, but she wasn’t a fan. She thought even the mild dishes were too spicy (I think she isn’t quite on top of what that word means). After trying the tandoori chicken, she told me that it was “like a mini volcano exploding in my mouth.”
I may have some more holiday shenanigans to post, but I think this is long enough, so I’m signing off for now.