On Saturday, flattie and I did Mutt Strut in Centennial Park and she got her picture in the N-G.

http://www.news-gazette.com/scene/gallery/367/?photoID=55

That night, she got really sick - she was throwing up so badly that she couldn't even keep down fluids. We ended up going to the emergency vet in the wee hours of the morning where she got some subcutaneous fluids and shots to stop the vomiting. She spent most of Sunday sleeping and was still pretty lethargic on Monday. She also had some bloody diarrhea, so we went to her regular vet. They seemed to think that it was a nasty case of gastroenteritis and remembered that she'd had a problem with clostridium before. So they prescribed some metronidazole and other stuff to calm her GI tract. By that point, she was able to keep some water and Pedialyte down, but she still hadn't eaten. My neighbor, who's an animal science grad student, suggested cooking some white rice and lean meat. It seemed like a good sign when Aoife got very interested while it was cooking, and when I put a little down in front of her, it disappeared quickly. She perked up yesterday, and the diarrhea seems to be (hopefully) gone today.

Happiness is a healthy puppy.

A few days ago, there was an earthquake in Southern IL along the New Madrid fault line, and we felt it up here a little. It wasn't that surprising, since experts have been predicting earthquakes in Southern Illinois for a while. There was some property damage at the epicenter, but nobody was hurt. I remember waking up somewhere around 4:30, and flattie was already wide awake and wanting to go out. A neighbor was apparently up too - we saw a door opening and closing. Update: Someone corrected me and pointed out that it happened on the Wabash Valley fault line, rather than the New Madrid one.

Today ended up being surprisingly nice, despite forecasts of rain. flattie seemed to really enjoy retrieving her bumper in the water. (Quite a contrast from the late great PJ, who made a point of stepping around puddles.)

flattie turned nine months old on Sunday. She's now up to about 62 lbs.

One of the guys associated with UCIMC got in some trouble last year when police found some pot plants in his home. He recently got first offender's probation, which sounds reasonable enough - it's not like his horticultual talents were causing problems for other people. So what does he do next? Runs for County Board, of course. He'll get some votes, but I don't think that he has much chance of defeating the incumbent. Oh well, I've been proved wrong before and we'll see what happens in November.

The Rezko trial has been covered extensively, and there are some online audio recordings of phone conversations between Stuart Levine and Bill Cellini.

http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/MP3/levinecellini040208a.wav
http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/MP3/levinecellini040208b.wav
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-080403-levine-cellini-mp3,1,6158322.mp3file

It's fascinating to listen to them - I went to high school in Springfield with Cellini's son (who was a nice guy). There's a pronounced contrast between the two - Cellini's polite and restrained, and Levine seems crude in comparison. I wonder if they illustrate the contrast between Springfield and Chicago - Springfield is quite political, but it's smaller and fairly conservative. Our previous GOP governors had their own patronage, but Blago goes even further and he's a lot more blatant about it.

Jon White was sentenced to 48 years in Champaign County last week. White is a former second grade teacher who plea-bargained to eight counts of aggravated sexual abuse after originally being charged with sexual assault (which could have meant natural life). After White was arrested, it emerged that there had also been some problems in McLean County (Unit 5) where he'd taught before. Unit 5 had made a deal with him where he resigned and they wrote him a positive recommendation letter. When they finally investigated White's conduct over there, McLean County pressed its own charges and he plea-bargained there too. Today, there was an editorial in the Pantagraph about how Unit 5 shouldn't pass along 'bad apples.' You think?

The trial ended today and Brian Chesley was convicted on both (misdemeanor) counts. There's a longer account with some links at

http://www.illinipundit.com/2008/03/28/defendant-park-arrest-convicted

(And yes, I'm pissed, but probably for different reasons than some other people I saw there.)

There was a wonderful retired man who'd been a WWII vet and then an outspoken peace activist. His health recently declined and he moved to a rest home in Danville. I thought about visiting him last weekend, but decided to go Saturday since I also had to go to Kennekuk to volunteer at a dog tracking test. Today, we just found out that he died.

Current Mood: sad

There may be a subpoena headed my way, but if so, I'm hoping that it doesn't find me. Brian Chesley, the kid who got pepper-sprayed last year turned down diversion (possibly with the encouragement of some other folks). So not too surprisingly, he got charged, and the minor misdemeanor case turned into a full-blown trial. It sounds like even jury selection is taking a while, and I heard that a bunch of people who were called to testify today have been sitting around for quite a while. What a mess.

Ironically, I didn't even witness anything that's likely to be useful to either side. All I saw was the aftermath, when the kid was treated by paramedics and there was already a large crowd gathered. Given that the trial is related to what happened before I got there, it doesn't make much sense to call me. It also seemed odd that the defense was encouraging me to testify, but they haven't even met with me to discuss what I might have to say. Oh well, hopefully it will continue to be not my problem.

Sunday, flattie, her friend Hiliute, and I went to the wetlands and walked around. We had a pretty good time until we tried to leave. I'd pulled off the road to avoid blocking the drive, and I went a few feet too far to the right and got caught in the mud. The people who lived there were extremely nice and refused to take any money for pulling me out. But it turned into a bigger production when they tried to pull me out with a four-wheel drive and that got stuck too. Then a tractor finally got both of us out, which unfortunately involved some deep ruts in the earth. I was mortified, though very grateful for their kindness, and they said it would be OK to just park in their lot area next time.

A well-respected flatcoat owner and tracking judge who lives north of Champaign had already heard about my mishap, and we agreed that getting them a gift might work. I think I'll get some detangler/burr remover for them, since it sounds like they get to spend time picking and cutting burrs out of their dogs' coats, and maybe some really good bread from Mirabelle.

Current Mood: embarrassed