Poor Homey

Homer is a pretty rough and tumble dog.  He will, without thought to how he is going to land, leap several feet in the air to catch a frisbee. He will also leap from our porch over our side fence to go after a squirrel, and climb several feet up one of the trees in our side yard in hot pursuit.  He is energetic, and loves to play, and has had his fair share of minor scrapes, slight sprains and bitten tongues. But this Saturday, a seemingly minor injury, has knocked the wind out of his sails.

Tom noticed him limping during a game of fetch on Saturday, and so cut the game short.  A short while later he seemed good as new. We didnt notice anything else was awry until Sunday morning when Tom and Homer were rough housing in the office and Homer reacted as if in pain after Tom brushed his right paw with his foot. Upon closer inspection, we saw that one of his little claws was cracked up above the point where the quick was, near where the nail leaves his paw.  There was no blood but we could tell he was in pain. A quick call to the vet confirmed that we would need to have him checked out the next day.

The vet checked it out and said that he needed to remove the damaged piece of claw in order for it to heal. That meant cutting it off through the nerve endings and blood vessels in the nail. Homer was as good of a sport as he could be, but even with anesthetic drops, it was obvious the removal still hurt him quite a bit. The vet put some ointment on the nail end, wrapped it up good, and sent us on our way with aftercare instructions to reapply ointment (antibiotic and anesthetic) and watch for infection.

Homer was pretty happy by the time we got home as is evidence by the photo below...

Home-Slice on the mend.

Unfortunately, the anesthetic wore off later in the evening, and he now has a pretty pronounced limp. It's clear that it is hurting him but unfortunately all we can do is keep applying the ointment and wait as the nail heals. I hate to see him limping around and slowed down so dramatically, and I hope he is doing okay at home today by himself. Keep my little guy in your thoughts as he heals!

What I Learned (v9)

Pardon me while I cram 3 weeks worth of lessons into one post...


Everything is better on a boat! The week following the september play performance one of Tom's collaborators rented a pontoon boat and took us all out for an afternoon on Lake Travis. The lake was around 40' below normal levels, and and it was quite a shocking sight to see so much of the bank and cliffs exposed. Rest assured there were still plenty of deep spots to swim in, and swim we did since it was in the 90's that day. While most of you (in places that are not Texas) were enjoying your first taste of autumn, we were hanging out in our swimming suits on a mother freaking boat. It was awesome. And yes, we did drink champagne.

The Millionaire and his Wife.

My heart belongs to Chicago. Tom and I were back in the Windy City two weekends ago for a friends wedding, and it was so great.  We crammed a ton of stuff into just over 50 hours, and I loved every minute of it.  I just felt such a sense of energy and excitement when we were driving into the city from O'Hare. And my love only grew as I saw got a chance to catch up with so many of my friends (including my bestie Camilla who lives in Spain, and who I haven't seen since my wedding.) Did I mention I got to meet Cam's boyfriend too? And speaking of...


Cultural differences are a bottomless well of entertainment. Duncan, Camilla's BF, is Scottish. Given the fact that we speak the same language, I didn't think the cultural differences thing would really be able to entertain us the whole weekend, but it did. Duncan got to eat his first southern style biscuit (not a cookie), and more than once I found myself laughing so hard I was crying. There is something so wonderful about seeing someone you love in a relationship with another amazing person. Cam and Duncan are awesome together, and it hurts my heart that they live so far away.

Weddings are even better when you are married. I may have already proclaimed this at some point, but it is so true, and I have always loved weddings! Now that I really understand what it means to pledge your life to the person you love, nothing can compare to seeing friends and family get to have that experience. This time, the person getting married was Libby Ford, my wonderful friend from college, and the esteemed officiant at our wedding last year. There was no way I was going to miss seeing Libby marry the love of her life on a little farm in Pekin, IL. It was so fantastic. Not only was there a definite snap of autum in the air, but there were hay bales, a miniature horse, a big bonfire, and dinner in a barn. Libby married Josef, who will always have a place in my heart as he willingly and enthusiastically helped us load our moving truck on our last night in Chicago, just days after his first date with Libby. I knew then he was a keeper!

I am experiencing football withdrawal! I have obviously been feeling the love for the past few weeks, and have managed to keep quite busy despite the fact that we  have had 3 weeks in a row now with out a UT Football home game. The quarterback situation has been settled, and the freshmen are looking awesome. I don't think anyone could have envisioned the team would start the year 4-0. It has been so much fun to watch it happen (we've caught the aways games on TV), but I can't wait for the next home game.  But before they come home, the Longhorns have what may be the biggest game of our season to play, Red River Rivalry happens tomorrow night at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas against OU. And with UT leaping ahead in the rankings over the past 5 weeks, and Oklahoma slipping ever so slightly, we might just be able to pull this one out.  Hook 'em horns!