THANK YOU...

...311 for an amazing run last night.  You really know how to make a guy feel good.

A STEP BACK

This weekend made me feel like I was in high school again...in a really, really good way.  From the outside looking in I could see how it might look like I was being selfish.  I did exactly what I wanted for the entire weekend and it was great. 

Friday watched my little cousin's football game (they won and he played great), Saturday went for a long run and napped before going out on the town.  Sunday played golf with an old buddy then ate dinner at the 'laws.  Even got in a little cleaning which made me really happy. 

It's weird how life has a way of giving you a break right when you need it...

Happy Monday.

LONG. HOT. SLOW.

just ran 14 miles. The title pretty Mich sums it up...but I'm pumped I finished.

GOT CHANGE

Today I was waiting for classes to start and I thought I would treat myself to an ice cold beverage of the diet variety.  Sadly, this thirst quenching  treat never reached my lips.  Not because I dropped it, or something silly like I all of a sudden decided a water would be healthier.  Nope, I simply didn't have the change in my bag like I thought I did.  Strike 1.

No biggie I said to myself, I've got a buck in my wallet and I'll just use that.  No dollar bill, but a 10.  Don't get me wrong, I love finding 9 extra dollars, but talk about winning to lose.  Strike 2.
 
For a split second I thought, "Sweet!  I'll ask someone if they can break my ten and I'll be able to get my drink and maybe even toss in a candy bar for my trouble. WINNING"  Bam, I snapped to my senses, who under the age of 45 would have 10 bucks in their pocket, especially the correct amount to be able to break my 10?  Toss that fact on top of the fact that I'm on a college campus.  Strike 3.

I didn't even ask anyone.  I ended up slowly and begrudgingly walking to the water fountain, a beaten man. 

REALLY?!?!?

The end of some runs are greeted with happiness, some with exhaustion, and others with a great sense of accomplishment.  Yesterday, the end of my run was marked in an odd way...A bee stung me.  


I'm sure you're thinking, "Well yeah, that sucks, but is it really that strange?  You run outside after all."  You've got a point, if I got stung on the shoulder, on the leg, back, arm, or any other easily accessible place it wouldn't be that weird.  I probably wouldn't even write about it (yes I would, who am I kidding?)  You know where I got stung, on my foot...right below my ankle to be exact.

Take a minute to look at your shoe-clad foot.  I mean, look at the amount of space between the side of your foot and your shoe...no, seriously, take 4 seconds to look at that small space.  Now factor in the fact I was running, so it was a moving target non-the-less.  Somehow a bee manged to get himself into my moving shoe and give me a present of a stinger in my foot.  Stupid bee didn't even ask if I liked stingers, he just assumed.  We all know what assuming does.  So that I was, on the path at forest park, running along on minute and the next ripping my shoe and sock off hopping around one foot.  Great way to end a run.

THE STREAK LIVES

Lucky for me, I like traditions.  Like, always ending up in the river via a tipped canoe or having it rain every single time I go camping.  Some glass-is-half-empty kinda people would say these things are negative.  Me, well, I'm a glass-is-half-full kinda guy...I call those two events "strong traditions".  Everyone knows traditions are the ingredients which give seemingly pointless activities meaning.  Let me tell you, this camping/float had plenty of meaning.

The weekend couldn't have been better.  The float and camping were amazing, the river wasn't too crowded, the weather not too hot, the camp ground not too muddy.  I've said it before, and I'm gonna say it again, floating might be my favorite summer time activity.

Hopefully everyone out there had a nice weekend too.  Only 4.5 (work time calculated only, assuming you work a 40 hour, M-F kinda week) more days until we get to do it again...the weekend that is, not the floating.

PADDLE ON

Have a good weekend. 
I'll be on the river if you need me.

BRUNCH

I hate it...messes up my food cycle for the entire day.
I also am not a fan of crowds.

HALF WAY

Well google-machine friends, it's Wednesday.  So, if you work a "normal" work week, you're almost half way to the weekend.

Lame week = Lack of postings. 

I'm sure you're thinking that not much of what I write about is "blog worthy", well sir, you are correct.  What can I say, I don't live an exciting life.

More later.

FUN-FILLED

How many of you can say you visited 3 different cities in the past three days?  Well, this guy can.  Friday we left the Lou to pay a visit to my sis and her finance up in the Windy City.  Had a blast.  I had forgotten how much I liked the city.  It has a totally different vibe and energy than STL. 

Saturday headed south to another friends house in Bloomington-Normal...home of the Red Birds.  Again, a lovely time was had.  We got there at the perfect time of year, the weather was nice and the college bars (see cheap beer) weren't packed with obnoxious college kids yet.  It was really the making for a perfect storm. 

Sunday was the much anticipated engagement party...complete with a tent.  It was a nice opp for both families to get together and mingle in a low stress and chilled out environment.  The combination of great company, amazing food and cooperative weather made for an excellent party. 

Now back to the grind.  Happy Monday all.

 

FOR PAM

HOLA

ADIOS...FOR NOW

CLICK CLICK GOOD GOOD

Last night was Bludog's first night at puppy kindergarten and the lil' guy did great.  This particular class uses clickers in addition to food to show praise.  The clickers are cool, and the dogs seem to respond positively to them.

At first he was really timid and just wanted to hang out by JP and eat treats (told you he was smart).  But soon enough he was mingling with the other puppies and having a grand ol' time. 

I think this class benefited me more than the dog.  It might be possible that I'm expecting too much out of this 9-week old dog.  Is it too much to ask that he never have an accident inside, gets me the morning paper, and has dinner cooked, or at least started, by the time I get home??? Yeah, I didn't think so either. 

The instructors said he was doing really good, and that he was a very well behaved puppy.  That made me happy.

RUN

Last night I went on a group run with a local running store yesterday.   The run was great and everyone I met was super friendly.  I'm definitely going to go back next week.

Here is where I ran.

RANDOM SLIGHT ANNOYANCES

Typically I'm a glass is half full kinda guy, but there are some things that slightly annoy me.  I'm sure you're all like, "Whoa, look at this guy...who does he think he is?  Everyone has stuff that annoys them."  Well good sir or madam, you're correct...but just so happens that I'm the one writing the blog and you're the one reading it, so...

In the words of Peter Griffith, here are a few things that "Grind my gears"

• When you're walking on a public sidewalk in a park, there is no need for you and your three other friends to walk shoulder to shoulder.  If this terrible mistake is made, how about you at least attempt to get out of the way when someone is running towards you.  There is no reason to make a single runner get off of the path so you and your fat friends can continue walking 4-across.
• People who suck using the self checkout in the grocery store.  This suck group can be broken down into a few categories. 
•  Category 1:  The person who tries to check out a full cart of stuff.  Don't they see there are only three bags in the "loading area"?  You know if you take any bags off the area before you pay an alarm goes off, causing a confused look, some incoherent mumblings, and the employee to come to the aid of the distressed shopper.  All of which prolong my checking out.
• The people who struggle to scan every item.  Really?  Have we never watched someone scan groceries before?  The machine can't read the label no matter how quickly or slowly you pass it in front of the laser.  Use the bar code...its the black and white things with lines and numbers.

 Well good readers, this is all for now in the annoyance department.

Try not to suck today.

NOM NOM NOM

Food makes everybody friends...at least for a minute.

GREAT-WAY

You know the best way to start a Wednesday?  No, well, you just keep on readin' this and you'll find out.  OK, to start any Wednesday off great, you need:

• Temps in the 70s
• One of your favorite shirts clean
• QT coffee
• O.A.R. caressing your ear drums on your drive to work

There you have it folks, the peferct start to your Wednesday.  If you're already off to a bad start because you didn't have the above this morning...don't worry.  There is always next week.

WEEKEND FUN

• 2 wedding receptions
• 1 all day birthday bash
• 1 family birthday party
• 1 clean house
• 1 new bar visited
• 1 birthday cake baked

That is a down and dirty look at my weekend.  How was yours?

POOPY

Guess who doesn’t like having to clean a poopy dog crate at 2:30 in the morning? 

Me. 

Luckily, I had the help of the dog and two kittens.  Since they lack opposable thumbs, they weren’t as much help as you might think.  But what they lacked in doing actual work, they more than made up for by meowing, whining, and collectively trying to eat the dirty paper towel...basically just being supportive. 

Thanks guys, couldn’t have gotten the job done without you.

OPERATION CRATE

Tonight's goal:  Make the best and most inviting dog crate this side of of the Mississippi. 

If my mission is a success, maybe Bludog will love it so much he wants to sleep instead of whine during the night.  This will benefit both man and beast.

That is all for now, carry on.

BUILDING STUFF

A while back I mentioned that we had been busy building things at the house.  These "things" consisted of installing a cat door (this isn't "technically" building, but it did require power tools), a table, and a cat mega-tower-o-fun.  The pictures of the cat door and table will be posted a little bit later.

Feast your peepers on this hunk of fun.  Chunk is on the ledge and Jack is on the ground.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I forgot my music-listening device today, so I only had the sound of my feet hitting the pavement and my thoughts to keep me occupied.  Even though most of my morning runs happen at the same time in the same neighborhood, I noticed a few “new” things this morning.

1.  There is a church on my route that has service at 6 a.m.  In the past, I've seen a person or two walk up to the front of the church before...I'd always assumed they were going to the church to pray before work.  But today I happened to be running past when services got out.  A sea of people flooded out of the church.  While watching the people scatter, noticed, and questioned, a few things. 

• No one in the bunch was under 76. 
• Old people move slowly. 
• Many within this demographic drive very similar vehicles.
• Did people go to church on weekday mornings back “in the olden days”? 
• What are these old timers going to do with the rest of their days?

 2.  There were three houses in a row that were losing their leaves...seriously, if you just looked out the window you would think that it was 68 degrees and fall.  Maybe the trees were like, "We'll make a deal with you Mr. Heatnhumidity, we'll give you our leaves and you give us a break from this heat."  Too bad the trees don't know that Mr. Heatnhumidity is a jerk.  Now they've lost their leaves for nothing.

So, there you have it.  These were some of the random thoughts bouncing around my noggin as my feet pounded the pavement.  Now the question is, run tomorrow without the music or with it?  Research says people can exercise longer when listening to music...but I kinda enjoyed the peace and quiet.  I’ll keep you posted.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

Well, from the looks of the extra food dishes on my floor and the kittens new found skittishness, I'd say we adopted a puppy.  Internet friends, meet Bluedog. 

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be hearing plenty about him and his quest to befriend the kittens.