Fun with dogs

While they are no substitute for kids, and please forgive me if I ever compare my dogs to your kids... They are fun... And they are definitely taking up a large chunk of our time and offering boundless entertainment value.

I'm very proud to say that while this one isn't my favorite, because I didn't pick him out... He was inherited from grandma this fall, he's turning out to be a doll. He is now staying seated when we ask him to sit. He stays pretty close at hand when we go to the dog park. It's now only a rare occasion that he growls at dogs that are bigger than him. AND.... We took him to Petsmart last night and weighed him. He's lost 3 pounds since we acquired him last fall!!! Of course nobody noticed during the holidays because we've let his fur grow out. Grandma never walked him but she did do a good job of keeping him groomed. I think he's cuter with bushy fur, and so do all the little kids in the neighborhood. He's been a great little dog. He sleeps a lot and gets excited to go for walks, and as far as we can tell, he stays out of trouble.

Now there is another little gem that I can't help but adore. He was right there at my feet to greet me with all matter of "Good Mornings!!!!!" as I stretched and lazily got out of bed on this winter vacation morning. He really is a cute little guy... With boundless energy...

Unfortunately, he seems to think that we left him a scavenger hunt of Christmas presents around the house the last week and a half. Apparently it has been his sole duty to discover each and every one. Let's begin the list of food treasures he has discovered...

* Flipped the trash can twice... And left remainders all over the kitchen and living room floor. I thought it was pretty funny. My husband did not. (Can you guess who came home first?)

* Managed to get in a well sealed large cardboard box filled with several boxes of cereal mailed from my parents who are retired from Kellogg's. (Luckily, all the mess was contained in the box because he couldn't manage to pull anything from the 2 inch hole he chewed into the large box.)

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* The BEST one... Coming home from a day of shopping with in-laws in tow, only to discover eight large brown globs all over kitchen and living room floors... I was convinced some body's stomach had exploded and we would need new carpet immediately. As we began to clean up, I accidentally took a whiff of the brown stuff... It was brown... But it wasn't the brown stuff that I thought it was... It was sheer chocolate... Suddenly it wasn't as gross to clean up... But my husband went into a panic as he searched the internet and discovered how poisonous an entire 14 oz. box of fully gift wrapped chocolate truffles can be. I was convinced that the dog had self-pumped his stomach and would be fine. We called the vet and he concurred. The dog barfed four more times that night...

* Yesterday, the smart little guy finally figured out how to open the cabinet that we store our dog food in. Yep, we have no clue how much dog food he actually ate. But he did manage to eat every last dog treat in the cupboard. Needless to say, he had to go without dinner last night.

They are an adventure by the minute! At least he's only eating food that he finds. I've heard of dogs eating a lot worse things (like furniture, shoes and carpet!) We are blessed with almost 60 degree weather today. Looks like it's time to take Zeus on a run with me. Okay, okay... A run for me... A fast walk for him. Happy new year!

The year end review

Happy Holidays to any and all that might possibly be checking in on me!

It was a good year in our house. I sent the obnoxious letter with our photo card this year. It was funny. We didn't really do any triathlons this year, so I assumed I would skip the letter. Then I thought about it some more, and we had a fantastic year! So do you write the letter or not?

When you don't have kids, is it really applicable to send a letter with your Christmas card? I love getting the family letter from the Stucky family back in Michigan every year. They always have some good stories and I love hearing about them. I'm sure my grandma likes to get the letter. My husband wanted to send the letter to everybody. I wasn't so sure. I like getting letters from people. But does everybody else??? Do you sound like you're bragging in those letters?

Well, I sent the letter to most people. If it was a good friend that already knew everything, I skipped the letter. It was basically a condensed blog posting put in one letter anyway. Moab 3X. Italy. Wow. Dogs. :) Oh, and American Gladiators because that was kind of fun and Greg's alligator wrestling. Yep, a good year for us. Greg says we have good stories, so people will enjoy reading about us. I hope that's the way it comes off.

Now what's up for 2009? One of the phys. ed. teachers I work with is proposing a fitness challenge for any and all teachers at our school that our interested. He wanted to keep it a 10 week bodyfat challenge. I was all over it. Several teachers were more into losing pounds, so now he's made two challenges. It's been great because I haven't had any guilt while eating the mounds of chocolate in the teachers lounge this past week. Like half the United States population, I start my diet January 1.

So what to expect from the new year? Well, Greg wants to join me on the body fat challenge. We're going to attempt to follow Bill Phillips Body for Life diet where you eat six small meals a day. I'm debating about a spring half marathon. I'm also toying with the idea of signing up for the 5430 tri series: a sprint in June, Oly tri in July, and long course in August. I've never done the whole series in one year. It would be a great goal. We'll see!

Hopefully your holidays are grand!

Merry Christmas!