Touchdown!

I'm finally back from a busy four weeks of traveling.  Five trips, two coasts, ten states, five hotels, New York four times in two weeks... I'm tired.  It's been rough but survivable, and I now have three weeks to spend with Alice until I leave for my next trip.  It's good to be home.

My camera is backed up with pictures-- 305 photos two trips ago.  We have Alice on two trips, Flat Alice on two, a story of our first trip without her, her first real 5K race, her visit to an 80's movie landmark, the coolest art installment any of us have ever seen, a visit to my favorite-named teahouse, Alice's new collar, and... well, Alice in Granny Panties.  Lots to write about once I dig out at work (funny how you can accumulate work while working more than normal).

In the meantime, I wanted to share something that The Human Male sent me yesterday.  Occasionally we have a middle of the day Cute War, where we send one another pictures of cute things (ducks, kittens, baby horses) trying to one-up each other on the "Awwwww!" scale (it's a unit of measure, I swear).  Yesterday he sent me an e-mail and a link to Andrew Sullivan's dail Mental Health Break, with the message that it was a good thing he didn't declare Cute War on me because he'd be the ultimate winner.

After seeing it, I'm compelled to agree.  And wondering if Alice is a pug-beagle-AT-AT mix.  

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

Radio Silence.

Hello, friends!


I'm amidst a crazy month of traveling.  In the past two weeks I've been to Pennsylvania and Oregon, and in the next two weeks I'll be in New York twice (both downstate and upstate) and Rhode Island. May and June are typically busy work conference months for me, plus it's a heavy wedding season this year.  I'm fending off a mild case of the plague on top of it, so I've come to terms with the fact that this month's going to be a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blur.  Hopefully I'll get back in action with blogging regularly in July.  Or even better, maybe we can get someone to fill in while I'm away.  I'm talking to you, The Human Male!


I'll have lots of pictures from my trips and will post them when things die down.  Until then, I read a terrific article on my flight to Portland last weekend about a Marine named Jacob who came back from Iraq with PTSD and received a dog from the fabulous Puppies Behind Bars program.  I will say that the plane got very dusty while I was reading it.  It did for other people, too-- a guy sitting in my row asked if I'd read the article, and we had a pretty lengthy discussion on the program and a buddy of his that came back from war with severe PTSD.  It was clear that this was a light bulb for the guy, and that he was going to go home and tell his friend about it.  It's pretty disheartening that only 20 percent of soldiers who apply end up with service dogs.  Hopefully this will change.


One thing I particularly liked about this article is how they focused on Laurie, the inmate who trained Jacob's dog Mya.  The writer portrayed her with so much respect, and I thought it was pretty cool that they didn't focus on what she did to get into prison, but her good qualities and how well she did in training Mya and documenting it.  Alice was probably only a little bit older than Mya was when we got her; it would mean the world to me to have puppy pictures of her and to learn how she became the dog I love.


If you'd like to read the article, it's located here.  I recommend not reading it in public, before you go out, or if you're wearing mascara.