The Borks Invade Canada

Mom and Dad Bork just got back from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and they had a wonderful time. Mom made another new friend (remember Honest Abe a few months ago? This guy's even better!)



They saw Hamlet (wonderful!), Cabaret (excellent!), and an adaptation of Moby Dick (interesting...) that turned out to be a ballet (hmph. now that's just odd.). But the trip was an overall success, which is the most important part. The plays, the shopping, and the food were all great.

It's also PAULA BORK'S BIRTHDAY today, and she's celebrating tonight with a dinner. We couldn't make it because of the Henry Tail situation (we've been invited to hang out on a boat tomorrow afternoon for the Air and Water show, and we had to miss that, too). He'll finally get his stitches out on Thursday evening, so we'll be in the clear of our 24-hours-of-every-day-for-two-weeks-with-Henry vacation. I love him, but sometimes we just want to go to the movies. Or dinner. Or on a boat. So in the meantime, he's posed for us to make us remember how ridiculously adorable he is.

Henry Goes to College

He didn't take a class, or anything, but he's the first family member (and probably the last) to see my new office at MCC. I went to school to turn in my final grades for the summer session, and I started the office "nesting" process: general dusting, putting books on my new bookshelves, moving my desk, chair, and computer. Because of Henry's bandaged tail and stapled stomach, we can't leave him alone just yet, so he made the road trip with me and then helped me in my office (as long as "helping" translates to drinking some water, spilling some water on the floor, and staring out of the office window into the hall to smile at passers-by). He got to meet my new mentor, Robert, and the three lovely secretary ladies, Linnea, Cheryl, and Missy. They all loved him, and he loved them, too, showing his affection through his trademark leaping licks. I can't wait to go back next week to continue organizing books and files. Even though I've only just finished with class, I'm super jazzed to get back to Fall semester now that I'll have a permanent place to work. I've already been looking at office supplies on-line, and Monday I'm going to take a trip to The Container Store and Office Depot to stock up on totally, absolutely, quantifiably necessary office supplies. Paper-clips, here I come!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on my handsome summer students (this first picture is of my last College of Lake County class, who [don't tell anyone] were my favorite class of all time, in any school, ever, although it's missing one of my super-favorite students, Will, so picture a tough looking football player in here somewhere.)


These are my two MCC classes--the big one is a Comp 2 class (my oral history exploration, such a fun class), and the little one is a Comp 1 class)



Next week I'll have a picture of my office, so you can all picture me grading papers and planning lessons. Really, it's such an exciting life I lead!

A Much Shorter Happy Tail

After two years of spraying blood around our clothes, our condo, our building, and our neighborhood due to the cut-that-wouldn't-heal, Henry's 'happy tail' is gone.



Yesterday we took Henry in for surgery to dock his tail and remove a little fatty 'growth' from his belly. He's recovering well, although the medication made him a bit loopy all night. I've finished with the summer semester, so he and I are hanging out for the next week so that he can heal up quietly and I can make sure he doesn't lick out his stitches (we considered asking the vet to take off a bit of his twelve-inch tongue, but decided against it, so his licking powers are still in full force). Now, mind you, he's still wagging like crazy, but because his tail's so short, it won't be a hazard to anyone or anything, including himself. Tomorrow we'll go back to the vet so they can change his nubbin bandage and make sure he's healing up okay, and then next week he'll get the stitches taken out of his tail and the staples taken out of his belly from the growth removal (As Trevor said, Henry lost one nubbin and gained another).

Once he's completely healed up, we'll add more pictures of his new nubbin. I'm sure you're all just dying to see it!

A Belated Father's Day Celebration

This past Sunday, 3/4 of the Power kids and their significant others went out with John and Fran Power for a post-Father's Day celebration. All 4 Power kids treated their pop to a day at Soldier Field to watch the Barcelona Football Club beat Chivas Guadelahara 5 goals to 2. We all ate before the game at the Eleven City Diner, where the food was good, though the ambiance left a bit to be desired (see Trevor's first ever Yelp review for the details--an addition to his review, they didn't have macaroni salad, which added a dent on its own to my opinion of the place. What 'traditional' deli doesn't have macaroni salad?!). We had a great time, and Trevor snapped a bunch of pictures to show it. It really brought us back to our honeymoon in December, and for that alone we enjoyed the outing.







(In this picture of Trevor and me, can anyone spot a fellow Manchester United fan in the crowd? Angi took this picture, and she made the comment that it was quite a good shot. I certainly agree with her!)

Lollapaolooza!

Friday night, Trevor got to go to Lollapalooza with Sean. Sean had been invited by Perry Ferrell himself at a party at the MCA. Sean had a VIP pass, so those two stinkers got to see Radiohead from a velvet-roped area while sipping free beer and snacking on cookies. I was jealous mostly about the cookies. Trevor also just informed me that there was some sort of a family night at Soldier Field, and half-way through the Radiohead show, fireworks went off behind the stage from Soldier Field's festivities. It sounded perfect, really. Especially because of the cookies.

I had fun, too, on Friday night. My friend Rebecca and I had dinner at Jerry's on Division, then headed to the Rainbo for beers. We'd been there for about an hour when Jack White and a friend--both festooned with fedoras--came in and sat next to us for a bit. Of course the bar was buzzing with excitement. I recognized him right away because of my own experience with meeting him years ago backstage at a White Stripes concert with my friend Krista (she was the one who got us backstage--I was the hanger-onner). We stayed a while longer to see if anything more exciting would happen. Nothing more exciting happened, so we left and I came home to Trevor, who told me all about his cookie-filled evening.

Today, we're celebrating a belated Father's Day at Soldier Field with John and Fran Power, Sean and Angi, and Neill and Fran at the Barcelona football game! They're playing Chivas Mexico, and it's looking to be an exciting game, though Trevor told me this morning that Lionel Messi has been released from Barca to play for Argentina in the Olympics. Twice now we'll have seen them, and neither times we'll have seen Messi play. He's only one of the best players in the game. Bologna. Trevor's already sporting his Eto'o jersey, and I've got to figure out a cool (literally--it's in the 80s today) way to wear my Barca socks. The eight of us are going to eat before the game, and then we'll wander over to Soldier Field. Our seats are in the 16th row, first section off of mid-field. We're already spazzing out with excitement.

I've got two more days of school before I'll have almost a week off. I just have to collect some final projects and give one final exam--and then grade all of these things and turn in the final grades. Lots of 'finals.' But by Tuesday night, all I'll have to look forward to is the final wag of Henry's tale before he gets it docked. More on that later. Until then, kick, kick, kick, Barcelona! Goooo, Barca!