this page intentionally left blank

I’ve been aloof. I know. A couple of nights ago, Henry started acting unusual. By the next morning, he was not himself at all… lethargic, coughing, reverse sneezing, displayed trouble eating, etc. I thought he was having an allergic reaction to something… perhaps a plant in the yard he decided to taste? I drive him to CVS and picked up some Benadryl and administered with hopes he would come around. By the evening, he was still looking miserable and we were off to the vet. Happy that he could see us on short notice and so late in the day, I just wanted him to say everything was going to be ok, but he couldn’t find the problem. Since all the procedures to dig further into a diagnosis at this point were not only complicated, but also slightly dangerous, we opted to treat the symptoms first and then see if things changed. Soooo, $120 in three types of meds later, we started drawing our calendar to help daddy remember what was given, at what time, on what day. Fast forward a couple of days into treatment and he seems to be in better spirits, but still not 100% himself. I’m going to just keep an eye on his behavior as we finish out the pills over the next week. I don’t want any unnecessary poking and prodding going on that can be avoided. I try to think about what Erin would do and not what I would do. It’s easy for me to see another person’s child with blood squirting out of a severed artery and just say, “squirt some Windex on it”, but when it’s your own baby, my natural tendency is to the be the knee jerk reacting parent flying in the specialist from Helsinki. Other than snuggling my mending little man, I’ve pretty much still been busy with work. I hit 100% of my annual quota just before the third quarter ended, so I’m on the gravy train with biscuit wheels the rest of the calendar year. Anything above plan is bittersweet as far as I’m concerned… short term earning potential, but long term quota stick in the pooper come January 1. I’m just happy to have hit my goal early. My eyes are doing great… better than I would have expected for having laser beams shot into my eyeballs and vaporizing flesh. I have a small hematoma on my left eye (in the white part) that looks like I got in a fight and someone popped me with a hook. It seems to be slowly shrinking, but maybe I just want it to and am seeing what I want. I know, logically, that it is healing, but it is taking a long time. It helps strangers know I got LASIK… because everyone I meet says, “ewe… what happened there?”. Hehe. Conversation piece that hurt less than a Great White taking 15 pounds of flesh from my abdomen and leaving a huge scar (of course, the love handles wouldn’t be missed and the popular cliché is ”chicks dig scars”).