Cutest.Thing.Ever.

This YouTube video is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Get it, Snoopy!

(Thanks to Kat & Rob for the find!)

Christmas in Wilmore

For the past two years, my early December weekends have not included Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, or Christmas partying. No, the early winter nights for the past two years have included a never ending playlist of Johnny Mathis, Sesame Street, Celtic Woman, Elvis, Bob the Builder, Andre Rieu, and Wayne Dyer. Winter time means pledge time at most public television stations, and such was my life at KET. For the past two years, December has meant 70 hour work weeks, unbelievable stress, and sky-rocketing blood pressure. Last year, I literally thought that I had experienced a stress-induced stroke (if those are even possible).

However, as Charles Wesley so eloquently wrote in his hymn And Can it Be - "my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and left KET*". Since I am no longer at KET, I have the great joy of experiencing all that our community has to offer during the Christmas season.

One thing that the city of Wilmore offers each year is an "Old Fashioned Musical Christmas". It is always held the 1st weekend of December and provides the community with well, an old fashioned musical Christmas. I was able to find a link to all of the festivities: http://wilmore.org/events/2008_Christmas.htm. This will be the 20th year for this festival, which I think is pretty impressive.

Growing up, my parents would always take us to "Dickens on the Strand" in Galveston, TX, which is also always held on the 1st weekend in December. I am really happy to see that they will be holding the event this weekend, despite the recent devestation from Hurricane Ike. I absolutley loved Dickens on the Strand and the festive atmosphere, and I am looking forward to being able to experience that tomorrow, even if only in a small way. I hope to bring our camera, and/or convince a friend who has a really nice camera (hint, hint one of you Strebecks) to take some photos of the evening. Hopefully I can then post them here!

I want to apologize for the lack of posting on the blog lateley. Life has been hectic and busy this fall and I have let several things slide, mainly blogging and running. Oddly enough, these are two of the things that I enjoy most! So I am going to try and get back on track with both. I will let that statement serve as an early New Year's resolution.

To quote Paula Deen, I wish you love and best dishes throughout this Christmas season.

*I made a slight edit to the lyrics. I know this is probably sacreligous, and for that I apolgize.

The Dog Days of November

For the past week we have been watching Daisy, a 2 year old, 50 pound "Goldendoodle" (Golden Retriever, Poodle mix). She is a sweetheart of a dog, a gentle giant if you will. I've loved having her here with us, but I think little Emma is absolutely worn out. It will be sad to see Daisy go, but I know she will be ecstatic to her mama and daddy tonight.

The first few days were pretty interesting, - establishing boundaries and such - i.e. "Daisy, don't sit on Emma's head!" and "Daisy, did you just swallow Emma's toy lobster??" and/or "Daisy, did you just swallow EMMA??"

Yes, it has been interesting to reorient ourselves to having a large dog in the house with us. I took them on walks together every morning, and they did really well. They kept pace with one another and walked neatly side by side. It was cold and rainy on Friday evening and Saturday morning, so I took Daisy out for some solo walks. I was absolutely amazed at the ground we covered in the amount of time we were out walking. The distance I can go with Emma in 30 minutes is about 1/4 of the distance I can go with Daisy. But to be fair, Daisy's legs are about 9x longer than Emma's. I've taken them out to the dog park every day so that they can be free to do their own thing. Wrangling two wiggling and excited dogs into the car, out of the car, putting them on their leashes, taking off their leashes, making sure they aren't mauling or being mauled by other dogs in their respective sides of the dog park (big dog side and little dog side) - whew! It has been a workout for me, but I've loved it. Chad, who has been sleeping on the couch all week while Daisy has been snoozing with me, I'm not so sure that he's loved it. But he has been a really good sport, and is glad that we could help out some of our friends by watching Daisy.

Here are some pictures of Goofus and Gallant from the week (from my cell phone, may be a little grainy): Daisy says "Hi!"

"Do we have to get up?"

Snack time, Saturday morning

Nap time, Saturday afternoon

Dacshund Tails and Possum Trails

After coming face to face with a possum at 4:30am last Wednesday morning, I've decided to write a children's book about a friendship that blossoms between a dachshund and a possum.

We have had quite the critter problem lately - mice, opossums, and snakes (...Mom, Dad and Mimi - pretend that you didn't read that last part...and you might not want to read the rest of this post.) You would think the three groups would cancel each other out, but no such luck. Short of capturing some Indian mongooses in Southeast Asia, we are not really sure what to do. Over the past two years we have had chance encounters with a few garden snakes, but this summer the action really picked up. Last Thursday, I killed a scary looking snake (about 1 foot in length) while it was striking at Emma - yikes! It had tiny little fangs, but it was still pretty scary.

A pitching wedge has become my weapon of choice against the snakes. I gave the creature a good whack in the mid-section, and then scooped it up so it was hanging from the golf club. This was my first mistake, as it was still alive and it struck back at me as it was dangling from the club. I freaked out and accidentally slung the snake off the club and onto the roof of our garage. It slid back down to the ground and I finished it off with a blow to the head. This all happened on my lunch hour, so I returned to the office sweaty and shaky. We have recently had really cool weather, so I'm hoping this will keep the snakes away. I'll continue to kill all of the ones I see. If a snake hurt Emma, I'm pretty sure I would rip it in half with my own two hands.

The possum is pretty cute so he doesn't bother me, but boy does he rile up Emma. She always flies out of the back door, barking at the top of her lungs, in search of him. Unfortunately, this usually occurs between 3:30 and 4:30am.

The mice issue isn't terrible, but it does bother me. We have been dealing with mice since we moved in. Our house is really, really old - so I guess the mice come with the territory. We have put out traps in the past, but I really hate to kill them. I am going to look for some humane traps, if something like that even exists.

I'm getting ready this evening to head to Columbus, OH in the morning for the Columbus Nationwide Half-Marathon. Two of my friends will be running the full marathon, while me and another friend run the half. I've never been to Columbus, so I'm looking forward to seeing some new sites and hanging out with friends over the weekend. I hope to post a race report sometime next week.

Lack of Posting, but No Lack of Excitement

I do apologize for not posting more lately. Things have been hectic in all aspects of life - at home, at school (for Chad) and at work. I am getting more and comfortable with my responsibilites at my new job, so that is good. Things have been so busy that I feel like I have been there for a long time, but I've only been there a couple of months.

One thing that I am really, really, really excited about is this little thing that came in the mail on Thursday...A Specialized Allez road bike. My super generous, loving, sweet kind, beautiful (we are identical twins after all) and did I say generous sister Megan mailed her bike all the way to Kentucky. She bought it a few years ago and did several duathlons and road races, but when she moved out to L.A., she realized that she wasn't using it and that I would probably love to use it for triathlons and duathlons. And by "realized," I mean that I hinted at this fact for years. But to make a long story short, I ended up paying her peanuts for this really nice road bike that I am so grateful to have.

On Friday, Chad and I ventured into Lexington to a local bike shop to pick up some road bike shoes. I ended up buying a pair of Shimano SH-RO85's. Walking out with those shoes made me feel like a real road biker, but let's be honest - I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to cycling.

So this afternoon, Chad talked me into taking the bike outside for some street experience. I was pretty terrified, because I imagined that I would be able to practice clipping in and unclipping the shoes from the pedals for at least a good week before ever actually riding the bike. But Chad (who also got a new bike this week) wanted to take a quick ride through the neighborhood. So I got out into our driveway and clipped into one pedal and headed for the street...right as a car turned the corner onto our street and headed in my direction. So I slammed on the front brake and fell to one side - of course it was the side I was clipped into. So, down I went and somehow my free foot/leg got stuck in the spokes of the back tire - so Chad had to free me from the contorted, tangled mess that I had created. I got back up, made sure the coast was clear, clipped into one side and headed down the street. It took me a good three blocks before I got the courage to attempt to clip into the other pedal, which I was able to do with surprising ease. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but really really fun. Now, if I could just figure out how to shift the gears...

Now that I have the sweet ride, I am looking forward to training for some triathlons and duathlons in the Spring.

Photo Shoot

A few months ago, I was approached by The Doxie Digest, a quarterly publication for and by dachshund owners. They asked me if I would be interested in writing a short column each issue, through Emma's perspective. A chance to be part of a 72+ page publication about dachshunds? Um, yes - count me in. I submitted my first piece to them on Monday, and they asked me to also include a head shot of the both of us. So, my good buddy Justin Delatte was kind enough to indulge me and Emma in an impromptu photo shoot on Sunday evening. I thought I would post some of the contenders here. The winning shot will be at the end. Thank you, Justin!Cannibalism.

My personal favorite.

My little cuddlebug.

"Mom! Not in front of the neighbors!"


The winner!

Why I Love John Grisham

I have no excuses for my lack of posting on here lately. Except maybe one. I have been seduced by John Grisham. Yes, that's right. I have been reading John Grisham books like a mad woman. I've always loved to read, and I don't know how I went through my young adult life never reading one of his books. Well, that's not entirely true - I did read A Painted House when I was in high school. But somehow I bypassed reading his legal thrillers. This is probably a good thing, because I think if I had read his books in high school I would probably have turned out to be a hard-hitting mass tort lawyer on the mean streets of D.C. (I'm really glad my life didn't take that turn, things did not turn out too well for old Clay in The King of Torts.)

A few weeks ago when I was in Houston, my mom let me borrow a paperback copy of The Rainmaker. Mom - you don't know what you started! In the past three weeks I have read The Rainmaker, The Brethren, The Chamber, The King of Torts, The Broker, and The Partner. That's an average of two books per week - so you can see how I've had little time to think of blog posts. A few weeks ago Chad asked what a perfect Friday night would look like for me, and I said "Renting The Rainmaker and shopping for office supplies." It's official, I'm an old woman.

The good thing about jumping on the John Grisham boat so late in the game is that he has so many books published. There are still plenty for me to read - The Summons, The Last Juror, The Runaway Jury, The Innocent Man, Playing for Pizza, The Appeal, Bleachers, The Testament, The Street Lawyer, and the one that started it all - A Time to Kill.