Critter and Human Updates.

The cat is still with us, and has again rallied - if you saw him sleeping on the foot of the bed and then waking up to annoy me 15 minutes before the alarm went off, you'd totally think I was crazy to even suggest he was at the end of the road. He is fine. He is a happy, purring, alert, sociable cat. What magical cure revived him this time?

My daughter was browsing on Urban Spoon, and happened to look up a place near us - a nearly unnoticeable, extremely tiny restaurant in a very unglamorous shopping strip. (It's between a tattoo parlor and a cell phone store, if that gives you any idea.) And she discovered that this teeny little place called Fish and Chips had a really high score on Urban Spoon, and wanted to try it.

So on Saturday, after we found our mutual dream house (except for the location which didn't thrill either of us, oh, and we'd have to win the lottery to afford it), we tried the restaurant.

It is as unassumingly great as the reviews say - friendly service, personal attention, delicious food.

We went with the fish and chips and opted for the cod (there are a few fish selections just for the fish and chips, and an extensive menu of other seafood choices) and it was just delicious - the batter was as light as air, the fish was cooked to perfection. It was also more fish than I could eat, so I brought home the leftovers.

At this point Higgins had not eaten a full meal in days. He'd lick the gravy off his former favorite flavor of cat food and leave the rest, and slept a lot and looked emaciated and sickly, and I figured he was at the door to the Perpetually Clean Litterbox in the Sky. And then, dammit, I fed him the leftover cod (after picking off the light batter, of course). He fell upon it like a starving tiger and nearly cleaned the plate - and it was a big hunk of fish.

So the frigging cat rose from his deathbed again. He became affectionate and sociable, even curling up on my lap to sleep on Sunday afternoon.

Sophie wondered WTF this was about, and did not approve. I had to explain to him that I cannot afford to cater his meals from Fish and Chips, though I do want to go back and get the grilled curried shrimp FOR ME one of these days, if he thinks I'm going to do takeout for HIM he can go to hell. He is now back to rejecting the Friskies flavors that had turned him around a few weeks ago, and moping around like he's starving and I'm abusing him. He figured out that I've been holding out on him and now wants his meals catered.

Human Update: Miss D went for her nearly 7 month checkup and was pronounced the biggest baby in the U.S. by her always complimentary Dr. C. At nearly 7 months, she is 28 inches long and 19.5 lbs. We are planning her future - Grandma is voting for volleyball and a modeling contract. I know her Daddy will want her to play basketball, but seriously, the Olympic beach volleyball team will tie in better with her modeling gigs and if she goes that path she won't incur any student loans for her undergrad studies and then med school.