Yay, parental visit! Boo, allergies!

I went to see my parents today. Dropped off Christmas gifts, picked up Christmas gifts. Scott has a cold-flu thing going, so he didn't come with me...but he laughed out loud when he saw the shirt he got, and liked mine as well, so I'd say it's decent. We got truffles, too!

I was out there for a while. I wasn't sure how long it would be but, despite my antihistamine, my allergies eventually hit. My eye's still itchy. I may have to yield and take a shower at some point. (My parents live in the country, and have cats. And I always cuddle up with the cats and play with them, despite my allergies. So this is really my fault.)

I think my parents liked what I brought, though I imagine their cats will like it more (half the gift contents, roughly, were cat food and cat toys). Even found a cat treat that Basta likes! She's a venerable old black cat - I can only guess her age, but we got her as a kitten during a time period relatively limited by my age and who I knew. So she's got to be 15-17. And just looking at her, I wouldn't guess more than 7-8. She's sturdy, solid, healthy, and very much herself. A sweet (and very drippy; she drools) lady, indeed.

Tips, Babe, and Spot on the other hand...well, Tips is merely shy. Babe and Spot are little hellions. Of course, the three new catnip toys I brought them had nothing to do with that, I'm sure.

I commented to Dad that the Wilsonville road was now 45 mph along its whole length. Apparently it has been for 2-3 years and I either didn't notice, or forgot. I don't drive that way often - I take 99W as much as or more than, when visiting - and Scott often drives when we both go to visit, so.... Ooops. (By the way, Dad: they do have the guardrail up on both sides there now. I remembered to look.)

It's beautiful out today. Rainy and gray and soft and pretty. I stopped here and there for pictures (and took a few at - slow - speed), plus I got some pics of the cats while visiting my parents. I haven't gotten them onto the computer yet, but if any came out well enough, they'll probably get posted later today.

Meh. Allergies. But it was so nice to see my parents. And torment the cats. And pet the cats. I told Scott when I got home, I hoped he wanted to have a cat, because I was pretty sure I was wearing most of one on my shirt. ;) They are shedding...!

Kitties!!

Okay, the pictures came out. :)

This is Basta, the venerable old lady cat (second shot shows Basta with the very shy Tips, who didn't know what to make of this strange person with the flashing thing...):

    

This next one is Spot (that's a burlap bag o' catnip he has there - and I'm amazed how quickly something as sturdy as that can get shredded):



And then we have Babe. Babe thought I was just wonderful for showing up. I came with catnip, and everyone was paying attention to her, and I was paying attention to her and.... Babe was a very happy cat. Babe loves the camera, too, as far as I can tell. She was definitely my most cooperative subject. First, Babe not under the (strong) influence of catnip:



And then we have Babe under the influence of catnip. Scary kitty! The first two pics, my dad is holding her; the second two are me:

   

   

And then you have the truly Weird. My mother had a potato (not a real one, a display one) that she got from someone. She had no idea what to do with it (I think the goal was to get it to leave with me, but I haven't got much use for real potatoes, never mind fake ones, so that didn't quite work...). So she crushed a fresh catnip leaf to it and supplied to Babe. Fortunately, Babe was halfway to stupor stage by this point, so no unspeakable scenes of destruction - but I thought this was just too cute:

Yet more pictures from today....

...this time not of cats. This is a picture from my parents' living room window - I just liked the way the rain looked on the bush:



The other two pics, I just thought they looked cool. Sorry for the rain in the second one - while I was at a corner on the first and could roll down the window, short of parking and getting out, the best I could do on the second was come to a complete stop and take the shot right after the wipers ran. As you can see, the rain was faster than I could ever hope to be....