so much has been going on, it's hard to know where to start. first of all, i'll tell you that arsenal and barcelona are playing in the champions league final in paris tomorrow. if you happen to be in paris, and you happen to get tickets for 75,000 euro or whatever they are going for, then you are a lucky person. i, however, will be watching it on a little sylvania mini tv at work. of course, i will tivo it and watch it later as well, so i can admire frame by frame the stunning beauty of thierry henry as he scores goal after goal against barcelona.
and then, on thursday, i take the granule to her 5 week follow-up appointment. for what, you ask? well, for her cataract surgery, of course! what you don't know is that while you were toiling away in the fields, without even a tinyengine entry to sustain you in your darkest hours, i was (with loads of help from my habitat for husbandry of all habitat for husbands) helping franule the granule convalesce. she is diabetic, as you well know if you are an avid tinyengine reader. and while most dogs lose their sight from cataracts within 6 months to a year of becoming diabetic, frances managed to see clearly for 3 years. it was great. in fact, it was the only break the dog has gotten in 11 years. and we were grateful for it while it lasted. but then, old mr. cataract caught up with her and she lost her sight around fall of last year. we were out at the little park and she ran right into a light post. that's when we knew that she could no longer see. the light post broke too. she has a strong head.
so, in mid-april, just in time for her birthday, she underwent surgery. through the miracle of phaecoemulsification, they were able to dissolve her cataracts, suck them out of there, and then put new lenses into her eyes. the minute she got out of surgery, she could see again! i imagined it would have been like an old movie, where someone wakes up and with a look of wonder, gazes upon the vase of flowers on the bedside table and says tearily, "i can see!" but apparently, frances didn't react that way. also, i don't think they had flowers in the dog recovery room. but they did say that her eyes ping-ed back and forth like cartoon eyes because her brain was unable to process all the images coming in. then, they took her for a walk and she stared at everything. the grass, the flowers, the concrete blocks in the parking lot. everything.
there were soaring violins and everyone was cheering.
anyway, then we brought her home and she had to have 2 sets of eyedrops 4 times a day and 3 kinds of pills 3 times a day and she had to wear a big plastic cone helmet for a month. if you have a dog, i don't have to tell you how annoying it is for the dog and how terrible it is for the people who have to witness the poor beast walking into everything with the plastic cone helmet.
during the month, she fell down the stairs a few times (her legs had become weak) and she tried to scratch her eye with the sharp edge of a wicker basket and she also got a corneal ulcer (unrelated to the wicker basket)--in fact, we had to pick up the wicker basket of toys and bones and put it on what will eventually be the baby's changing table, and frances could only sit and stare at it longingly. and cry. there were some wrenching emotional moments during her convalescence. but now, she has totally recovered and we only need visit the kind eye doctor on thursday who will give us an all clear so she can go running and jump up to catch things in midair. good days are ahead. also, she can see her chewies again. and that means fun for everyone. by the way, we got a babygate and put in at the top of the stairs so she wouldn't fall down anymore. the second time she fell, it was while she was actually walking down the stairs for a walk. i don't want anyone calling dog protective services on us. we are very careful. and we won't wait for the baby to fall down the stairs twice either. i promise, we'll be very good.
meanwhile, i have a gargantuan child living inside of my stomach. the good news is that he will likely be on the world cup team in 2030, as he has been kicking about 23 out of 24 hours every day. he will also probably win the boston marathon. it's just a gut feeling. i could be wrong. no pressure. even if he doesn't make the world cup team, he might just end up playing for arsenal when they go for the champions league cup 25 years hence.
so that's how the dog days of spring are going around here. it is getting increasingly difficult to sleep, unless your idea of sleeping is putting a soccer ball under your shirt and then trying to get comfortable.
we are all really just waiting for world cup to start. then not much else will matter. and the best part is that frances will get to see wiltord or trezeguet or our old friend zizou score the winning goal for france. it's going to be fun.
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