bERthday weekend

The weekend was kicked off with a nice, relaxing dinner with Liza, Amy, and David at Pi. I am going to make a very controversial statement here, because this blog is all about controversy. I am one of the only people in St. Louis that is not in love with the pizza restaurant Pi. I would much rather huddle up in Blackthorn for some super cheesy goodness. That was, until I had the specialty "Fire" pizza, which was a game changer. I had this pizza on the brain and rounded up a group to go back so I could get my fix. It was great.

We came home and were ready to hit the sack early, because that's how the Erwins roll. Rick woke me up around midnight to say that Bear/Bexar was acting funny and I came down to check it out (Rick was at what is now his customary post on the couch). Sure enough, he couldn't hardly walk, his eyes were all wonky, and he just looked bad. After pretty much zero discussion, we took him to the ER vet, where it went downhill pretty quickly. They kept him overnight for observation and again reiterated that they thought the problem was something neurological. Thanks.

I attended James Dolley's fabulous Star Wars birthday party on Saturday afternoon (post to come on this, it deserves its own day) and then that evening we headed back to the vet for visitation. Our boy could walk, but he looked like he'd blow about a 0.2 if he were pulled over. Lots of weaving and stumbling, and he could hardly get through his ABCs. The vet requested another night to see if he got any better or worse and then we would reconvene on Sunday.

Side piece of advice here: do not EVER listen to the conversations of the other visitors of the emergency vet regarding their pet's situation (feel free to listen to their personal arguments and discussions, those are quite interesting). It is the most depressing place in the world. I imagine part of B's ailments were related to the death vibe that permeated that place. So sad.

B still rocking the "wink", though his "third eyelid" was no longer visible. Thank God. And if you don't know about the third lid, consider yourself lucky. I think it's the last layer of skin before you get to their skull/brain.

B got to walk the yard with us on Saturday's visitation.

Which was followed up by a lengthy lap session.

Sunday was Ms. Parker Hagemann's 9th birthday. As part of her birthday present, I did not assault her with my camera. You are welcome P. Instead, I got a picture of Chloe singing the "birthday rap". You could have the option of a "normal" or "crazy" performance, with the crazy option including the tutu on the head. Why anyone would choose normal is beyond me.

The birthday rap was a huge hit that involved lots of booty shakin' and jumping, which resulted in Chloe proclaiming at the end that "This rap is killing the warts on my feet!" Sweet fancy Moses she makes me laugh.

We played kickball in Blackburn park and ate pizza to celebrate Parker's big day.

Shisha lining up at "bat".

Amy even came out and delivered some love to B-boy, who is under constant surveillance until we get this figured out.

All in all, it was an action-packed weekend. Let me tell you, action is overrated. I will take lazy kickball birthday party weekends over "ER action" any day of the week.