SBG and I went to the vet this morning to pick up our little girl, Eleanor Rigby, who got spayed yesterday. Even though I know it is for the best, it hurts me that she has to go through the pain. Her incision is a little irritated, apparently she was licking it last night.

When I took Elly in, the vet raved about how beautiful she is. She is a very beautiful animal, for sure. But then the vet told me something later that I did not want to hear. She told me that Elly was OVERWEIGHT!!! We thought she was skinny. All of our cats are fat! We looked at her little tummy and discovered that unfortunately, it's not so little. Starting today, SBG and I are putting the whole family on a diet. Diet cat food. Measured portions, restricted access. No treats! I think I'll put SBG on a diet, too! His little tummy is not so little, either.

A couple of different people told me that the other cats would likely be standoffish when we brought her home because of the smells that she obtained at the vet. Wrong. Poor Jags and Theo came right up to her, started licking her and accepted her back into our home. They are two extraordinary cats.

I'm happy to report that Theo has started to warm up to us a little more lately. While Jags follows SBG around like a dog and Elly is pretty affectionate, our little Theo has for the most part, been totally aloof. This morning, however, he jumped up on the bed and was warming up to me. He really wanted me to pet him and was kneading. These are new developments.

Finally, SBG and I wanted to report on a couple of restaurants that we went to the last two weekends. Last Friday, we went to Enjoy! in Apple Valley. We didn't have a reservation and the inside of the restaurant was packed, so we took a table on the patio. Actually, they have two patios, one off of the bar (which allows smoking) and one off of the restaurant that doesn't. We were happy to take a table off of the restaurant. It was a beautiful evening. The view isn't too bad, there is a pond below the deck and you don't see a big traffic artery. I really liked the look of the restaurant. However, the food wasn't worth the price. SBG had a pasta dish with Salmon. I had a chicken entree. SBG said he didn't think the menu said that Salmon was smoked, but it was. Smoked and shredded. He was disappointed, except that he said the asparagus was tasty. My chicken wasn't bad and the vegetables were pretty good, but it was bland. I had to put a lot of salt and pepper on it.

In addition, when we sat down at our patio table, they brought us bread, but no plates! Not cool! We each had a salad of baby greens that was uninspiring. SBG ordered a bottle of wine off the list without a recommendation (Zevenwacht Shiraz), and it was very good. We both like a spicy wine and it was nice and spicy. Before our food even arrived, we saw our waiter come to the table next to us and ask "How is everything tasting?" As you probably know, this drives SBG just about nuts. Later on, while we both had food in our mouths, he came to us and said, "Excuse me for interrupting, but how is everything tasting?"

Overall, the restaurant has some nice qualities, but the menu was not very exciting and the food was really not great. We are not going back.

Last night, we went to Punch in St. Paul. Punch is a pizza restaurant. They serve Neopolitan Style Pizza. We each had a nice salad -- far better than that Enjoy! salad. We each had our own pizza. I had a Margharita pizza, Neopolitan style. SBG had a Tourino, I think it was called, also Neopolitan style. We had a bottle of wine, which was all right. Not as good as the one we had at Enjoy!, but not bad. The pizza was very good! Mine was better than SBG's. They use olive oil, lots of Roma Tomatoes and a generous amount of herbs. The pizza is baked in a wood fire oven, I believe. The crust had a hint of burn to it, but not so much to be a problem. It was a great meal, and we had a lot of fun. The restaurant is a simple little pizza shop, and it has a little deck that isn't great, it's in the parking lot of a strip mall, but the deck was full last night because the weather was great. Wine and Neopolitan pizza. That beats bland chicken and a much larger bill.

That's all for today. Sorry no pictures of the cats.

Love, Lucy