starred up

— पांच हजार छह सौ चालीस — Last night was my first Action Movie Night in four weeks, having missed the last one as Shobhit and I were in Toronto on that day. Shobhit had also missed the previous one due to a work shift, so it was his first one in six weeks. It was Chris G's turn to choose. Tony made a comment about him having a good record of movie choices, so I went to the history to see whether I agreed. For me, he had about a 50% hit rate. Overall for this group, that wasn't that bad. His last choice was Violent Night, which was a much more fun movie to rewatch than it was to watch a first time. The film Chris chose this time was a 2013 movie from the UK called Starred Up Much to my genuine surprise, this was easily one of the best films we've watched at Action Movie Night. Okay, let's see if I can remember everyone who was there this week. Jake, who is usually the most reliable attendee, is out for a brief period due to, according to his email, "solo parenting." At first the overall group was a bit smaller than usual, largely because of that absence, as well as the absence of Ryan, who we were told is driving to South America(!). Chris B didn't make it either. Ben did, though, and he seems to make it about half the time. So there was Tony, Ben, Chris G, Derek, Sean, a new guy we were told had joined the group only once before named Eric, Shobhit, and me. That made eight, but maybe a quarter of the way into the movie, Gina from the East Building came in and joined us as well. That made nine. Had the other regulars who were missing actually made it, there would have been twelve. — पांच हजार छह सौ चालीस — — पांच हजार छह सौ चालीस — I made myself a slightly different cocktail than usual: my usual White Russian with Bailey's instead of Kahlua (well, and milk instead of cream . . . I guess technically it's not a White Russian at all), but also with half a shot of chocolate liqueur added. Shobhit made himself a dirty martini, just carrying the cocktail downstairs in his hand. As I noted yesterday we would do, I reheated the last 10 samosas Shobhit made, in the oven shortly before we went downstairs. Instead of putting the food in an insulated tote like I usually do when we make pasta, this time I lined a wicker basket with tin foil, and filled one side of it with the samosas; the other side with the "crackers" Shobhit made with the rest of the dough used for breading; and set the small bowl of tomatillo sauce (also made by Shobhit for the dinner we hosted last Friday) in the middle. It made for an unusually nice presentation. There wasn't as much food as usual last night, both because of fewer people and because fewer of them than usual brought food. But, two people brought medium pizzas, and the one Tony brought was vegetarian, a delicious one with artichokes and peppers on it. I had two slices of that, along with one of the samosas, and several of the crackers. The samosas were a big hit. Ben joked that they expect these every time now. I think I effectively shot that down by noting that Shobhit tends to make samosas, on average, about once a year. He generally only makes them for some level of special occasion. (Having my boss over for dinner for the first time qualified.) By and large Shobhit and I are the only ones who bring something we made at home. Every once in a while someone else does but it's rare. In any case, it was a nice evening. — पांच हजार छह सौ चालीस — Aside from that, an update on Guru: he's relatively stable, but still not eating enough. He still seems better than he did last weekend, but worse than, say, a month ago. I did get him to eat several treats only by shaking them out in front of him onto the floor, one at a time. I cleaned out one of the bowls and poured more of the treats in there, only for him then to finally start eating some of the canned food in the other bowl. There continues to be something odd about his eyes, and it has occurred to us that perhaps in his old age he is beginning to lose his eyesight. This, actually, could be the cause of his seeming disorientation on occasion, perhaps rather than the suspected "kitty dementia." I'm hoping we can perhaps get some clarity on this point at his vet appointment next week. In any case, his is both quite old (I know you regularly hear about cats living 20 years but 16 is still past 80 in cat years) and far too thin. Not yet quite as thin as Shanti was at the end, but he's getting there. I'm almost afraid to weigh him again, although I probably should. The weird thing is that he does eat, he just never eats very much. Shobhit wonders if he has a pain in his teeth, but he never shows physical discomfort while eating. He just doesn't seem to feel completely well overall these days. The worst thing is dealing with this so soon after Shanti's death. I had really hoped he would have more time than this. But, we'll hopefully have a better idea of where things stand next week. — पांच हजार छह सौ चालीस — [posted 12:30 pm]