New Dog Park & Other Stuff

I found another dog park during my run yesterday & decided that because Sugar spent most of the day indoors yesterday, I'd take her this morning. SHE. LOVED. IT. Primarily, I think, because there weren't a lot of dogs, and she made a friend, Toulouse. Sugar and Toulouse had a blast chasing each other around the park. It's flat, open, and provides endless room for playing.

Toulouse's parent also had a handy water bottle that Sugar liked. She doesn't like to drink if I pour water in her travel bowl, or directly from a water bottle, but she drank readily from this:

We just got home, and I gave Sugar her frozen dog treat. She devoured it & is now napping.

Last week I took a few days of vacation and went to Manhattan, KS to visit family & attend my brother's wedding. The weather was perfect - got in my 12-mile run while I was there. I just had to take advantage of the cooler temps. Also went by the old house we lived in when I was a tot.


Got to spend some quality time with my niece, Victoria. She's 7 and a real firecraker! She took her role as the flower girl very seriously, but at rehearsal she just wanted to play the bride.

And I rode to the wedding with my Dad in his 1963 MG, which he has restored.

It was a great few days visiting family that I don't see that often, and it was a much needed break from the status quo.

My orthotics (orthoses), I think, are working. I have run up to 14 miles in them & while I feel a bit like I'm hobbling toward the end, my feet don't actually hurt as bad (or at least, not in the same "on-fire-I-can't-walk-at-all" sort of way). I'm sore in different places now, too, so I can tell the orthotics are at least doing something.

After all the bad luck I had last week (losing my car key while walking the dog, corrupting a driver on my work laptop, un-fixable iPhone update to 3.0 & having to get a new phone, losing all my iTunes because you can only download once, trying to meet friends for dinner but not being able to find them, no phone/computer meant no way to get in touch with them) I am ready for a week of good luck. I think all the bad luck is due to the fact that I accidentally ended up at home with some bananas that I didn't pay for (they were in the bottom of my cloth bag). But how do you go back to the grocery store and try to pay for bananas that you essentially "stole?"

The fact that I won a decent prize at the Jack & Adam's Tour de France watch party last night is probably a good sign I'm headed in the right direction. I also met a nice boy last week and volunteered at Barton Springs, so things are looking up!