Gregg Henson.com

Update on my dog Mouse.

Today the dog groomer came to the house to clean up and shave the ankle-biters and to give Mouse a bath. We started to discuss Mouse and how she was feeling and the groomer suggested I try taking her to the vet for one last exam.  I didn't think it was a bad idea, so, I called the Dr. and took Mouse in to have a look.

When the Dr. saw Mouse she was shocked, but not surprised.  Mouse at her robust best was about 40 lbs, today she weighed in at 21 lbs.  She's lost a lot of weight even though she eats all the time.  The Dr. took a look at her and warned me that Mouse was likely in the early stages of kidney failure.  We agree to do an initial blood test just to see where we stood.  Shockingly her kidney levels came back GREAT, it was the liver enzymes that were out of whack.  So, there is a course of treatment, she is now on liver medication and Rymadal for the arthritis.

I don't think Mouse is by any means out of the woods and her days are growing short, but I think we bought her some serious quality of life today, simply by taking her in for another exam.

There was a moment during the blood extraction that really stunned me, as we were holding her down (in the same position as we would to euthanize) and as the needle went in Mouse was fighting and she started to cry.  I couldn't believe it, she has NEVER done that before, she's always been fine having her blood drawn.  I honestly believe she thought I was putting her down and wasn't ready.  Why else would she let out a couple of yelps as we were trying to extract blood?  I told the vet, "wow, if that is what it is going to be like on D-day, I can't do it."  She replied, "don't worry, when's she ready there won't be a fight and she will be sedated."

It gave me a lot to think about, Mouse definitely isn't ready to make the trip to rainbow bridge.

Rest well Brother Jim

I got bad news today that my oldest brother Jim has passed away from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 58.

To our surprise, Jim was diagnosed a few years back at a very young age.  I saw him at Dad's funeral last winter and I honestly thought he looked good and seemed like he was stabilized.  He took dad's death hard and it seemed so real and genuine when we talked about the good old days.  We talked about some great times, I had a hard time believing he was even ill as he remembered some of our great family moments.

I can't leave the business to send him to his final rest, but Nicole and Cooper are in Michigan and will attend his service on Sunday or Monday to let him know how much he will be missed.

Jim was a fun guy who always looked out for us (the "step kids").  He made us feel welcome and loved when my mom married his dad. 

Funny story, my mom was 18 years younger than my step father, which made Jim only 5 years younger than my mom.  We would laugh so hard when he would call her "Mommy." 

I have so many great memories of sleepovers at his house as a kid.

Christmas won't be the same without Jim.

Godspeed Brother Jim.

Coming home for the weekend

I am excited, Noah and I are coming home to Detroit for 5 days.  My cousin Monica is getting hitched on Saturday so I figured I'd make it my weekend with Noah.  We are going to visit friends and go to the Michigan on Saturday.  Can't wait for some moderate weather, it is still really hot here in Austin.

Hope your memorial day weekend was as great as ours...

Nicole and I spent the whole weekend "playing" with our neighbors and wow did we manage to pack in a lot of activities into our long weekend.

On Friday night we went to an outdoor party in Walberg, Texas.  The whole neighborhood showed up and the kids had a great time while we cooled ourselves with buckets of beer and burgers.  The kids loved dancing to the live music, they collapsed when we got home and slept late Saturday morning.

Saturday was pretty laid back except for the evening block party on the street across from us, I stayed close to home to watch the Pistons and Red Wings, but Nikki went with Noah and Cooper and made some great new friends.

Sunday morning Nikki and I took the kids to the pool and I managed to get a nasty sunburn on my bald head and shoulders while playing with the kids.  I seriously have to be more diligent about sunscreen or I'm gonna fry my brain.  We got out the video projector and had movie night for the kids after dark.  We show the movie on Rachel and Brandon's house.  The Movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" kept the kids interested while we shot the breeze with friends.

Today we rented boats on Lake Travis, which was packed and did some serious tubing, Brandon tossed me pretty good, but I got him back.  When he tossed me I got air-born and nearly lost my swim trunks, I'm sure that would have been a treat for all.  Cooper got into the act, he got on the tube with Nikki and kept yelling "faster, faster."  The kid is three and he already has balls of steel.  Noah was his usual cautious self, he went on the boat and love it, but wasn't having any part of tubing because "there are fishies in the water."

We wrapped up the evening with a cook out, but I hunkered down and watched the Pistons and Red Wings.  It was a great weekend with out friends.

Tour of the Texas Hill Country

Today we took a tour of the Texas Hill Country.  The Hill country extends about 100 miles west of Austin.  We went to Luckenbach, Johnson City and then to historic Fredricksburg where we walked the street shopping and chatting with some nice folIf ks.  The kids had a blast as Fredricksburg has a lot of cool stuff for them to see while you walk around.  A bonus for mom and dad, numerous wine tasting shops line the streets.

We took some cool video of Fredricksberg and Luckenbach.  Luckenback was made famous by the Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson tune Luckenback (basics of life) song.  It is a funky little town that is about a block long and features a post office, a bar and a small amphitheater.  Waylon was right when he said "the guy who wrote that song has clearly never been to Luckenbach."

I'll post a video of the trip tomorrow.

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My favorite pictures of the boys...

Easily my favorite pictures

of Cooper 

and Noah.

Ten things I can't wait to do when we get home to Detroit....

As we get closer to returning home to Detroit, I started thinking about the cool things I want to do this summer when we get back.

1. Go to Athens and have a Greek salad and a coney.
2. See a Tiger game at Comerica Park.
3. Have lunch at Habana in Royal Oak
4. Listen to Stoney and Wojo
5. Take the kids to downtown Royal Oak on a Sunday afternoon.
6. Go to Caribou coffee at Normany and Woodward.
7. Play darts and drink beer with buds at Snookers in Royal Oak.
8. Take the kids to the Detroit Zoo.
9. See the Lansing Lugnuts play.
10. Have lunch with my sister, brother and kids.

These are in no particular order, but I can't wait to do them before the summer is over.

Memorial Day podcast and live show.

The Memorial Day live show is done.

Today on the show.

• Drew called to call "B.S." on pink bats in Major League baseball.  He has a suggestion to honor men.
• We talked about the firing of Imus and J.V. and Elvis as well as Mike Austerman's column in the Sunday Oakland Press.
• Shila's dad called to defend his daughter's job ob Free-FM in Detroit.

Brought to you by:

• Cliff's Pub Signs
• USSportspages.com
• South Lyon Watch & Jewelry Repair located at 8 mile and Pontiac Trail.  Call (248) 446-8727
• The professional family friendly magician Bill Hoffman
• Acres in Hell

Download the podcast here.

Stream it here.

Live Show Friday!!!

Live Show friday, May 25th at Noon.  You can download this bitch and take it up north for Memorial Day weekend in Michigan.

The Call in number is: (646) 478-4733

Click here to listen live tomorrow at Noon.

Sponsors:

• Cliff's Pub Signs
• USSportspages.com
• South Lyon Watch & Jewelry Repair located at 8 mile and Pontiac Trail.  Call (248) 446-8727
• The professional family friendly magician Bill Hoffman
• Acres in Hell

On a mission...

Saturday was one of my best days as a dad....

We woke up Saturday with no real plan....I was bored, Nikki was bored and the kids were driving us crazy.

I jumped on the Internet and decided we needed an activity....we spent far too much time around the house.

After a while I decided we were going to make it a "kid day."  We wanted the boys to have a day where they were in charge and would have all the fun.  All we wanted was two tired boys and a bunch of pictures to remember the day.

I decided that we would go to the Philadelphia Zoo and then to the Camden River Sharks minor league baseball game (very kid friendly).

The Philadelphia zoo is unbelievable.  We got the kids faces painted, saw the animals and actually saw our kids thrive instead of fight over toys...they we so busy watching the animals that there wasn't one fight all day long....

At the zoo we saw a HUGE tortoise up close, saw a lion actually ROAR and visited with a PUMA family up close, just a wonderful zoo with great exhibits.... I'd never seen a Puma, didn't know they were native to the states.

After we left the zoo we had some time to fill so we went to the Art Museum, while we were there we got pictures with Noah and Cooper at the Rocky statue.  Got great pictures for Grandma.

We are HUGE fans of minor league baseball so we went across the Delaware River to the Camden River Sharks game and it was tremendous....the kids got autographs, got foul balls, rode the carousel and ran the bases.....Saturday was amazing.

Needless to say, by the time we got home, the kids were sleeping and exhausted, we'd run them ragged and created memories for life.