The evolution of a dining room

We finally have a put-together, grown-up dining room, mostly thanks to my awesome family and their generosity. But before I post pictures of that version, here's a look at the transformation of the dining room.









It's come a long way from that room with the chimney about to collapse to an interrogation room to a formal dining room. My favorite part is the china cabinet, where I am finally, after almost three years, able to display our wedding china.

(I don't usually have flowers on the table; I hosted a book club meeting this past week, and while shopping for the food at Trader Joe's, decided to buy some flowers for the get together, since they were $5.)

There's also another addition to the kitchen - it's a bookcase from IKEA that fits perfectly in one corner to store cook books and display some pottery (and keep the recycling bin accessible but out of the way).

Meet Elvis

We have a new addition to the family:

This is Elvis, and if you look closely, you'll see why we named her that:

Elvis was a stray(?) that started coming around occasionally, then we started to see her more and more often until it was a daily occurrence. She was extremely friendly, and so tiny, and so stinking cute. She had on a flea collar, but no tags, and looked pretty healthy, so we suspected she belonged to someone (so we also assumed she was already spayed). Then we noticed that she was either putting on weight (we were feeding her every day, so she was probably eating more) or she was pregnant. Then it became pretty obvious by the way she was carrying the weight that she was pregnant, so off to the vet we went. She was early in the pregnancy, and since she's so tiny anyway, the vet took care of that issue (which, while sad, was a also great relief, and honestly, Richmond does not need more kittens to find homes for). The vet also spayed her, gave her shots, etc. She's healthy, and now, after dropping almost $200 at the vet, she's ours. She seems to be OK with this:

Guess I'll have to add another stocking to the mantle this Christmas.

The fatties are not so OK with this new arrangement, however. Elvis quickly became the dominant cat, which is hilarious because she's half the size of the fatties. But we're all adjusting slowly and soon, I hope, things will settle down. In the meantime, I don't exactly hate the fact that she snuggles with me at night.