Shifty Nifflers

We used our latest free scavenger hunt card this weekend to do the "Wizard School" (e.g., Harry Potter) themed scavenger hunt at the Museum of Fine Arts.

DH had not read the books, so he took charge of the navigation, which was invaluable (especially since some of us don't really have a sense of direction!).  After he got us to the correct room, we'd read the clue, then would translate the creatures and character names for him.  Then we all just had to figure out where they were in the works of art!

For the most part, we managed to do that pretty well, although there were a few questions that were perplexing or just plain unclear.   Happily we ended up with extra time so we could revisit those stumpers.

One of them involved counting the instances of a particular facial feature on some Japanese demons pictured on an accessory smaller than the palm of your hand.  This was above our line of sight, so the guys dutifully boosted (hauled?) the girls up so we could get a closer look.  Oof!  A magnifying glass sure would have come in handy!  But after conferring, we reached consensus on a number, and came out of that room feeling better about our answer.

Another one was a "which one of these items is NOT depicted somewhere in the room" question, which required all our eyeballs to scan everything in the room over and over.  Ultimately, we could not find two of the things exactly as described, but deciding that, although a type of animal and receptacle were slightly different than in the description, we had to regard them as close enough given that we couldn't even find the approximation of the other thing.

(I am being kind of general and vague here so I don't ruin the hunt for others if they happen to sign up!)

Finally there was a massive carved fireplace that supposedly had a particular mythical creature in its vicinity.  We spent forever staring at it, and just could not find this particular beast, although there were plenty of others (including lots of mashup monsters).  The question specifically asked the construction material of said beastie, so we just went with the material that appeared in the greatest quantity.  ;)

That was because we needed to start heading back to the entrance so we wouldn't be late - museums are big!  We debated team names on the way back and settled on with DH's variant of my suggestion: the Shifty, Nifty Nifflers.  

We ended up winning - and the guys thought that they heard that we won best team name also (although I wasn't sure.  I did hear the hunt host mention the name, but wasn't sure what she had said about it).  The people who came in second were two cute little kids with their parents, so we figured that, since we'd won before (plus the kids were small and had done really a great job), it'd be nice to share.  So we passed the prizes down to them.   :)

It was a fun afternoon.  (And I think we will probably go back - to linger over the art, this time, instead of the questions - to check out the new wing of the museum soon :))  

Happy Tolly days

We took kitty pics this afternoon so we could include photos when we send holiday cards to our vets, animal rescue orgs, etc. 

Tolly posed like a champ! 

I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

The crew prepares before the flight

After the balloon is partially inflated, the pilot turns on the flame

The balloon expands

Now inflated, the balloon is ready for lift-off; we climb in the basket and marvel at what we see

Up, up, and away!

We look out over a misty forest to a newly frozen lake

Drifting down over the lake, our balloon's reflection is visible in the ice

We gently tap the surface, breaking the thin shell of ice that has formed

Rippling water and cracked panes of ice are visible in our wake

We drift on through new, grassier terrain now

All too soon it is time to land.  Hovering ever lower in a clearing, we throw a rope down to the crew member on the ground, and he hauls us in

Back on the ground, we pause for a few moments to bid goodbye to our balloon before enjoying celebratory mimosas

Mine!

I had the laptop on the floor. Tolly came over to see what I was doing, so I played his fetching video for him. He had no idea it was him on the screen (of course; cats have no idea what they look like) but he absolutely recognized that toy: he pawed the screen every time he saw the mousie go by in the mouth of that "other" cat.

A gift from Eisa

When little Eisa was suffering from kidney failure, our vet shared Eisa's kidney panel numbers with us over email, and we were able to update her over email as well. We learned a lot that way.

Because I was (somewhat) familiar with some of the names of things, I took notice when I saw that one of these values was elevated on Tolly's allergies blood test.

The vet who ran these tests wasn't too worried. But because of Eisa, I asked Tolly's new vet to run a kidney panel and urinalysis on him, just to see.

From there, we progressed to an ultrasound today. Where we got the diagnosis of kidney disease: chronic renal failure, just like Eisa's.

Because we have the diagnosis now, we can start him on the kidney diet now, and keep him in peak shape for longer. And from personal experience, we know what symptoms to look for, what to do, and what measures we'll probably end up taking.

Because of what Eisa taught us, I am more sure than ever that we are the right parents for Tolly, and that here absolutely is the best place for him to be.