Giant Sucking Sound

That is the sound of Gatsby's kitty acne reaching ridiculous proportions. Topical ointments, oral antibiotics, special soap, food trials, and a particular accoutrement have all been applied. If it doesn't go away, the vet wants to sedate him and get a biopsy. It's ACNE, for crying out loud! Granted, he's scratched away the fur & skin...
That blue thing is a version of the e-collar, traditionally known as the Elizabethan Collar. For Mr. G, it also doubles as a poncho, parachute, and if flipped up in traditional E-C fashion, a food trough. Anyway, that was our Saturday. When we weren't preoccupied with re-shuffling our finances and calming our traumatized cat, Paul & I spent a lot of time outside -- more specifically, enjoying ourselves and each others' company outside. I think that spot under the Pergola is my new favorite room. Last summer, the idea of sitting on the fmr. deck in the exact same spot just wasn't of interest to us. This past Saturday we sat out until the streetlights came on, about 9:30. Paul smoked a cigar, for no reason this time, and I sipped a Margarita.
The location is still a work in progress. We'd like to add a table, Paul would like a petite smoker/grill, and maybe a couple nice lawn chairs - for company -- and I really like the idea of hanging lights of some sort, maybe like this, this, or this. "When's the party," you ask? Soon, soon.Saturday after lunch, we also did a Home Depot trip where we got an axe, push-broom, a couple plants, and some paint (I know, exciting). Then, out we went. Paul seeded & watered the lawn, and I planted the flowers, pulled weeds, turned the sod pile - which is actually composing, hallelujah. Then our neighbor's daughter brought over some garden-raised rhubarb cake (just the rhubarb, smart-asses). I felt like we were living in a Norman Rockwell home, other than the kitty.

In other news, Friday was my last official data gathering appointment for my thesis. It took just over a month, but now I'm done with that! I was aiming for approx. (I love that word right now) 25 subjects, managed to schedule 28, of which 22 actually showed up to completed the workouts.
Pictured below is part of the contraption that was used to gather Oxygen uptake data. The Hans Rudolph one-way ventilation mask, complete with a 'saliva collector' (beneath my thumb), hooks up to a tube that connects to a gas exchange box. That thingamabob tells me how much of the oxygen that the person breathed in (21 %) is used, and exits as CO2 instead of O2. The fitter you are, the less O2 comes back out. It's an efficiency thing. Anyway, I digress. I like to describe the contraption below as a scuba mask/orthodontia headgear combo; and no, you won't suffocate.

AND Finally, Friday our Sodium Chloride Containment Unit arrived from Alton Brown himself. (Well, I guess his signature could have been printed.) We have been looking for something like the SCCU it in cooking stores for literally years! I guess it never occurred to either of us to check with the guy who originally tipped us off to its existence. Anyway, even though it's a little bigger than we anticipated, we are very satisfied with it (see the picture on the left-hand side; that's a glass dish in a stainless frame, with a little thumb lever lid lifter) - anything beats that darn tupperware box. Don't forget to toss some over your left shoulder.
Parenthetically speaking,
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