Official spring break report for Tuesday, March 28:

Quote for the Day:

You don’t know my dog but he’s quite a distinctive individual. He’s brave, relentlessly optimistic, completely present and entirely without artifice. What you see is definitely what you get. He’s also a great listener.

--Mary Rosendale, Everything I Need to Know In Life I Learned From My Dog

Sleep: 7 hours, but ragged. I kept waking up to check on Ernie. (see “Dog,” below.)

Weather: Started sunny, and so warm that the boys next door were working on their cars in their driveway with shirts off. Erin likes it a lot when this happens.

Stupid Stories: A teacher-friend sent me the above math image, along with a quirky one-liner about how ‘no wonder our students' math scores are going down.’ (Sorry, The Jessica)

Fun: Has everyone heard about customizable M&Ms? Now you can order M&Ms in your choice of colors and with your own messages printed on them.

Chores: With Ernie at the vet for the day (see “Dog,” below), I took advantage of the time to start cleaning the family room. Lots to do there, but I made a good dent. It’s now potentially habitable for guests once again. (Hear that, Scott and Rebecca?)

The World: World? What world? Today’s world was condensed down to a cluttered basement and a pathetic dog (see “Dog,” below).

Dog: To the vet for his annual teeth cleaning under anesthesia. When you’re a 12-lb dog going on 18 years old, something like this is a real nail-biter. Thankfully he sailed through, with one exception. Lab tests showed the earliest stages of weakening kidneys, a common finding in old dogs. And let’s face it—Ernie is a really, really old dog.

The easiest treatment is to change the dog food to a lower protein version that doesn’t stress the kidneys so much. That, and he has to have repeat blood work next month. So, cross fingers. The vet (Dr. Stemper) said that this could end up being something very minor, or it could be something that will eventually take him out.

Anyway, I spent the evening being nurse to a very sweet, old doggie who mostly slept but who, when up and “about,” tottered alarmingly and almost fell down the stairs once. I fear he has a very sore throat as well—from being intubated. He tried to bark once and only managed a raw-sounding, airy whoop.