No Strings Attached

An unexpectedly eventful day that all started early this morning when I noticed one of my two cats walking across the living room dragging a string behind her.

"How odd," I thought.

To spare those with delicate constitutions, I'll sum it up this way: eveidently the cat had ingested a long string the other day which was now working its way out of her system. Ingesting strings can be deadly for animals as they tend to create blockages in their intestines which leads to all sorts of unpleasantries. As the string had obviously not quite cleared, I gathered up cat, coat, and keys and headed off to the local vet who recommended I go to the Tidewater Vetinary Emergency and Critical Care Center out in Virginia Beach where I left her for X-rays and overnight observation. The string was removed (I really didn't want to know the details) and other than being a little dehydrated, the cat looks fine. They are going to run another set of X rays in the morning just to be sure before releasing her. This is good news and much preferrable to the surgery option which would have set me back about $1,200.

Upon my return home this afternoon late, I scoured the apartment for string sources. I've always been extremely careful of such things, as my cats will readily attempt to eat any string, dental floss, or assorted small plastic things they can find. Ultimately I found the source of string: during my vacation, the cats had ripped open the bottom cover of the box springs on my bed and there the strings were hidden from view (my view, obviously not the cats' view). So a few minutes with a pair of scissors and the offending strings have been removed and safely discarded.

Since I was already way out in Virginia Beach, I then visited one of the better Oriental grocery stores in the Tidewater area. This was fun. Aisle after aisle of fish sauce, vegetables, noodles of every conceivable kind, and sundy other things, some of which I saw in Thailand, and many more I had never before seen. I simply couldn't resist, so I grabbed a basket and started loading it with the essentials needed for most Thai recipes, plus some other things I just had to buy. I also picked up a Thai cookbook filled with familiar dishes I encountered during my travels there. I think I may have hit the proverbial "goldmine" with this book as it appears to be geared towards authentic Thai cuisine, not the Americanized version one finds with similiar cookbooks at the typical book retailers.

So tomorrow I will attempt a few of these recipes as a trial for the dinner gathering I've now planned for next weekend.