Field Day of the Past, with a Cat Update

Well, the cat tree still isn't done. It is almost done though.  All that's left to do is to carpet the base. Butter Bean is still mostly uninterested in the tree, I think because she's so small. When she's feeling especially feisty, she'll scramble up one of the legs and then scramble back down. A couple times, I've come in the apartment to find her sleeping on top of the tube platform, but she doesnt play on it in front of me.

She is looking and feeling a lot better. She's back to being an active and happy kitten, following the dog around and batting at his tail relentlessly. There is still plenty of ringworm on her, but it is healing.

See the bald spots on her toes? They were really bald, but there's fur growing back now. And the dark spots on her nose and head are also ringworm rashes, but they look much better than they did.

So what did we do this weekend if we didn't finish the cat tree? We filled our weekend with classic Virginia redneck events, including a Kiwanis fundraiser BBQ/car show in Ashland (so lame I am not going to elaborate) and a visit to Field Day of the Past in Goochland. I hadn't been to Field Day of the Past since I was a teenager, but Boyfriend got free tickets from a work acquaintance. It was fun! It was like the state fair, but with a more local, less creepy feeling to it. There were funnel cakes and roasted corn, and lots of interesting historical exhibits. I had a good time. We watched tractor pulls and saw lots of old-time machines and thingamajigs like these:

 

But more importantly, there were chickens, mules, donkeys (and miniature donkeys), horses (and miniature horses), cows (and miniature cows), ducks, pigs, and alpacas: 

Boyfriend's Birthday Tinged with Ringworm Blues

Well, last week was a difficult one for work reasons, and this one has been rough for personal reasons. It's a good time to remind myself that the Swiss adventure is a mere 3 weeks away.

Boyfriend's birthday weekend was nice. His parents took us to dinner at Farmer Johnson's Country Kitchen on Saturday.  We had never been there, but we found a flyer/menu at Farm to Family Market, and we were interested in giving it a try. It was a bit disappointing to walk in and discover that Farmer Johnson's is a self-service restaurant, where you order at the counter and pour your own drinks at a fountain. We were quite looking forward to having a nice sit-down type meal. The food was good though. Fries are shoe-string. My chicken sandwich was unsurprising but good.

After dinner, I took Boyfriend out for cocktails and dessert at The Roosevelt, a new neighborhood place that is every bit as lovely as we expected it to be. I should have taken pictures! I forgot. Oh well. We had fancy $9 cocktails (what a splurge), and I ordered the Buttermilk Panna Cotta and Boyfriend had Peanut Butter Pie. Mine was super delicious, but I totally was jealous of the Peanut Butter Pie. My Panna Cotta was served in a small Mason Jar, topped with fresh blueberries, served with a small spoon for easy scooping. Such a creamy treat. But that pie was phenomenal. We can't wait to try the Roosevelt for dinner. We went at 8:30 on a Saturday and had to wait to even get a spot at the bar, so I imagine we'll be going on a weekday once we recover financially from the upcoming vacation. 

We had a bonfire on Sunday night, which was fun but my description of it would be uninteresting to most people. S'mores replaced birthday cake. People shared good beer with us. I made a nice grilled cabbage. What I did was this. Use these ingredients:

A little more than half a cabbage, chopped to desired size for eating
Several pats of butter
A couple squirts of soy sauce

Put the ingredients in an aluminum foil packet (I actually made two packets), and put them on a hot grill for about 25 minutes. I cooked mine on a metal structure above an open fire. Good cabbage!

Boyfriend's birthday week was tainted, unfortunately, by the illness of dear kitten Butter Bean. The vet diagnosed her with ringworm. She had several bald rashes that spread and multiplied, so I took her to the vet, and we found out after cuddling and kissing her for two weeks that she was covered in fungus. I am now also infected, and I've got a few tiny ringworm rashes the size of a dime. I've been able to treat the infections right away so it hasn't been a big deal, but it has required a lot of energy. The vet told me to quarantine the kitten. Where am I supposed to put her? I have a one bedroom apartment! Well, I kept her in the bathroom for two days and she meowed constantly and got all worked up over the ringworm treatment so she got the shits, of course. Then she peed on the floor and there was blood in her urine, which scared me tremendously, so we were back at the vet right away. Ugh. Butter Bean has had a seriously rough week. If it's been stressing me out, imagine how she must feel.

So she has a bladder infection and she's on an antibiotic now. Several of the ringworm rashes are improving. I failed at keeping her in quarantine because it simply wasn't worth it. I'm worried that having to give her medicine, dip her in a stinky sulfur bath, and pour stinging anti-fungal meds on her skin is harming our bond. I want to be able to cuddle her and let her crawl all over the place. I can't wait for her to be better.

We are going to finish the cat tree tomorrow. I will post about it soon, really! We have borrowed a big suitcase from Boyfriend's parents. Looking at it standing in the living room makes me feel so excited for our trip.