Anyone Still Here?

Well, it looks like March was the month I ended up taking a bit of a blogging break. I've had some stuff on my mind that took up a lot of my thoughts. And blogging's a rather thought-heavy activity so the old blog suffered a bit. For that I apologize. I will try to be more reliantly entertaining going forward.

Speaking of entertaining, my parents have a new dog. He's a 10-12 month old Shih Tzu. He kept wondering up to their yard at the house in Rockwall. Dad spends a lot of time outside working on the house so he kept running into the little guy. They've spent a few days together on and off over the last three weeks. The dog didn't have a collar or tags, and they kept feeding him a bit here and there so last Wednesday Mom and Dad decided to adopt him for real.

Mom took him to the vet at PetSmart on Friday and found out he had a micro chip. Oh no! She cried and cried at the store. She was already totally attached. The vet was very sad for her, but there wasn't much he could do. Wrigley had another home, and his real name was Charlie. So he sent him home with Mom, and told her he'd give her number to the original owner.

Brian and I went out to spend Friday night with Mom and Dad to meet Wrigley and see Nana since she'd just come home from the hospital after her neck surgery. All the micro chip drama went down that evening as we were heading to Rockwall with Fenway ready to meet his new dog cousin.

What to do? Wrigley's first owner called and left a message saying that he'd heard we had Charlie, but that was it. No, "oh my goodness! you found my dog! I'm so grateful! I'll be right there!" which would have totally been my reaction had we lost Fenway.

So we debated: call and tell him we love his dog and want to keep him and give him a good home and hope he's okay with that, or tell the owner the dog ran away again and keep him secretly hidden away?

Mom and Dad decided to take Wrigley to Tulsa with them since they were planning to go on Sunday anyway, and call the owner from there. She figured she'd do better if there was some distance between them, and he couldn't run over and take Wrigley away in five minutes.

Well, it all worked out. The guy called this morning, and he had really been hoping Charlie/Wrigley would find a loving home with people who wanted him. Of course they totally fit that bill. Yay! Mom thinks he's just a little gift from God.

He's the cutest little guy. I swear he's half cat. Fenway kept chasing him all over the house on Saturday, and he'd just fly up on the back of the couch where Fenway couldn't catch him for anything in the world. Mom took a few pictures of them together that I'll post if she can send them to me.

Mom's so excited. She's going back to PetSmart today so she can finally get all the dog stuff they need that she was planning to get before she found out she might not get to keep him. He really needs a good bath and a haircut so they'll get that taken care of. And the original owner is going to come bring all his papers and records over this week. I really wonder what kind of person just turns their dog out if they don't want him anymore. Couldn't you take him to a shelter instead of just hoping nice people took him in? He was on his own for days, poor guy.

But thank goodness it all worked out. Now I just need to work on Fenway. He wasn't so sure about this new little dog in his grandparents' house. They played and played, but it got a little rough at times. Any of my dog loving readers have any tips on getting them to be friends?

How Fenway Celebrated St. Paddy's Day

It was rainy and gray in Dallas today. This made me all the more appreciative of our beautiful, sunny 75 degree day last Saturday. Saturday was Dallas' annual Greenville Ave. St. Patrick's Day parade and block party. We live down in the Greenville Ave. area which means we had a perfect excuse to sit in our front yards, hang out with friends, drink a few beers and people watch.

There were something like 85,000 people in our neighborhood Saturday and it seems like the majority of them walked by Matt and Kelsey's house. We started the day with the Dash Down Greenville 5K, grabbed Fenway and walked to a few parties before we settled in at Matt and Kelsey's to celebrate all that is St. Patrick's Day in Dallas.

Fenway loved getting to spend the day with everyone out in the front yard. He was the hit of the party. We took him to the groomer on Sunday. He desperately needed a bath and a haircut. We'd been putting it off because the last time we took him to the groomer he bit the lady (No blood was shed, thank goodness.) while she was trying to cut his face hair. He has some personal space issues that we're working on.

The nice people at PetSmart frown on this behavior, so I was afraid they would look up his file and tell me he couldn't come back. But, lo and behold, they let him right in. And they didn't even ask me to sedate him beforehand or anything. He did so well! The groomer thought he was a model client. I was so proud!

We have a busy week with the Mavs playing the Celtics on Thursday and Brian's family coming into town for Easter weekend. It's a good thing to dog is company ready, because I still have a lot of work to do!

Running Month

We woke up super early on Saturday morning and immediately checked the outside temperature - 26 degrees. Well, it was going to be a chilly run!

Brian and I got all bundled up in layers and hats and gloves and headed to White Rock Lake with Matt and Kelsey. We got there just in time to pick up our t-shirts and Team Corona (Kelsey was in charge of our name; I thought it was great!) badges.

I asked to take the first leg thinking it would be better to not have to just stand around waiting in the cold weather. I still think that was a good idea, but I was half way finished with my 3.6 miles before I could really feel my feet hit the pavement.

Brian took the next leg of 5.5 miles, Kels did another 3.6 and Matt finished it off for Team Corona with the last 5.5.

Unfortunately, the guy with the timing chips was stuck at the airport in Cleveland and we have no idea what our final time was. I think it might have been somewhere around 2 hours and 35 minutes, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Afterward, we went to Ozona's for brunch and Bloody Marys with our friends Morgan and Kevin who were on their own team. That means they ran a little over 9 miles each, and they didn't even seem tired!

I was worried I'd be grouchy what with almost freezing to death and all, but I really had a great time. It was a fantastic way to start the weekend. Kelsey's now trying to talk us into the Dash Down Greenville next weekend. Matt said, "What am I? A runner?" Kelsey assured him that it was all good - March is Running Month. So it is perfectly fine to do a race two weekends in a row.

Just as long as it's a little warmer next Saturday morning.

March, Really?

Wow, y'all, it's been a long time!

My nana fell and broke a vertebrae in her neck again(!) last week. (Yes, that's right, she did it in 2006, too. But that time she broke bones in her face as well as in her neck. She looks much better this time.) She's doing amazingly well now, praise the Lord!

She had to have surgery last Thursday to put a giant screw into her vertebrae to hold it together. Even her surgeon was impressed with how well she did. She's a superstar! So is my mom who has been at the hospital in Tyler with her everyday since the fall. Nana is very lucky to have such a wonderful daughter.

Moving on to a lighter topic: it snowed in Dallas on Tuesday. I had just gotten a pedicure over the weekend in anticipation of Spring since it was 80 degrees on Saturday. But my pretty toes were quickly hidden away with the freezing temperatures. That's actually one of the things I like most about Dallas. Just when you think our bit of Winter is gone, it comes right back.

Because we're crazy, Brian and I are planning to run in an 18 mile relay race with Matt and Kelsey this weekend. I thought it would be nice and warm, but I'm afraid we're going to have to run in 40 degree temps, and I'm just not so sure how I feel about that. I'll keep you posted on whether we go through with it or not.