Very roller-coaster week. Trial prep is very much like that for me anyway; I need to get better at remaining on an even keel at work. The bench trial finished Friday. It was not nearly as good as I'd hoped, but also not nearly as bad as I'd feared—some consolation, at least, though I still found it a frustrating and disappointing experience.
And after trial we threw our stuff together and drove to Vermont for a friend's wedding (cleverly leaving their present in the upstairs hallway, because we were in a hurry). The next morning, Chad went golfing; I went with him and drove the car back on the theory that I might want to do something, but I really shouldn't have bothered, because I just went back to bed. The wedding was very nice, entirely characteristic of the couple and quite enjoyable. You could tell it was a completely different kind of Catholic church than our very old-school one: they wrote their own vows, used non-Scripture readings, and got to sit down through everything but the vows—none of this kneeling stuff.
The next morning we had an enormous group breakfast, drove a friend to the Albany airport, and then picked the dog up from the boarder's. She was thrilled to see us, of course, and was so hyper when we got home that she was orbiting the living room and dining room—running around so fast that she appeared to not be touching the ground. She settled down after a bit, though she was still pretty nudgy. And then she urinated blood on the carpet.
We, of course, went into panic mode: cancel the pizza order, gather everything up, rush over to the emergency animal clinic. She was completely unfazed, just like the other times she's been sick: produce unpleasant body fluid, then bop around the backyard like nothing's wrong. In a way, it's reassuring to know that we'll definitely know if she's ever life-threateningly ill . . .
So we spent several hours at the animal ER. The people were all extremely nice, and it was as pleasant an experience as it could be under the circumstances (though expensive. Note to self: remember to ask Mom and Dad what pet insurance they use.). She has a urinary tract infection and is on antibiotics; currently she's confined to the kitchen to protect the carpet, and perforce I type this sitting in the kitchen to keep her company. (We attempted the living room this evening, since she seemed to be better, but that was not successful. Tomorrow we'll try again. The problem is that she's so well housebroken that we hardly know what her needing-to-go-out signs are . . . )
Anyway, we got back quite late; I slept on the couch last night in case she got worse, and got up to let her out at 2:00 and 6:00. (As a further sign that dogs are smarter than people in some ways, I was just going to stay up after the 6:00 trip outside; after the second time she went into her crate and curled up, I agreed that it was indeed too early to be up and went back to sleep for an hour.) So today was very sleepy. I came home early because Chad had a late meeting, and she kept squirrel-vigil in the backyard while I read something undemanding. The antibiotics are definitely helping, though she's still got a ways to go. We think it was the stress of being boarded. It was a different place than we'd used for Chicago, and was recommended as someplace where dogs got more exercise and personal attention. The physical building turned out to be more like the shelter, however, so that couldn't have had good associations for her. I feel guilty for not checking out the place beforehand, but now we know and no permanent harm seems to have been done.
And in the meantime, my reading backlog grows ever larger. I've only read part of Endless Nights so far, and haven't even cracked Paladin of Souls yet. And the Lust Over Pendle sequel, Dissipation and Despair, comes out tomorrow, and very soon Amazon should be shipping the new books from Diane Duane, Robin McKinley, Diana Gabaldon, and Tamora Pierce. Lots of little things to catch up on this week at work; maybe this weekend I can catch up on sleep and get some reading done.