Stretching the Parental Radius

Last week, I went to Pittsburgh for the International ASABE conference for four days and gave a talk-which went well. It was the first time I had left Henry for longer than 10 hours. I think I had a worse night's sleep without Henry than I have with Henry. I did take a few runs in Pittsburgh, I was surprised by the city's beauty, cleanliness, and activity. The downtown is surrounded by rivers flowing with activity; barges, kayaks, paddle wheel boats...there are freight trains traveling through. I liked it more than San Francisco. With me out of the way, Max and Henry did some real male bonding. Max introduced Henry to soccer by watching the World Cup games, Henry keeps saying "soca-ball." Max is can't stop talking about how he hopes Henry will play soccer. Henry apparently fell asleep by Max on the couch watching Sports Center. And a development that is likely not related to soccer, since I have returned Henry has been eating meat like a Viking...odd.

And of course while I was gone Isabelle had to go to the vet. She was bitten by some insect and had a systemic response. Poor girl, she did not eat for days-and if you know Isabelle-that means it is serious. She is doing much better-she even got a hold of some diapers yesterday.

Since my return Max and I have been staying up late watching "True Blood" Season 2. HBO, really, has the best programming. Fantastic. You almost need a minor in classics to comprehend some of the super natural story lines though. I do not want to give away anything meaningful, but I was really excited about Eric's Maker, Godric, a 2000 year old vampire, coming into the story but as soon as I started to want to see more of Godric, a wise, peaceful, beautifully Grecian looking, vampire- he goes and "meets the sun." I am still recovering from the wound; the sting is not as deep as the end of "The Wire."

It is still hot here in Auburn. On Saturday we went to Kiesel Park and Henry had a crazy amount of fun playing fetch with Isabelle and two other dogs. Henry was also very amused by the doggie pool, which of course Isabelle was monopolizing-he was tempted to jump into the muddy water but I kept ruining his chances.