Sunday, June 28, 2009

Puppy Patience

Cute devil, huh?

It's been a few weeks with Estes now and life is still a carnival around the house. We are loving our puppy, but having a tag team seems to be essential. Tiff has been fantastic. Here's some pic's from the first couple weeks.



I truly miss sleeping past 7am though. It seems a great lesson in patience though. I am finding puppy patience is a little tougher than people patience first thing in the morning. She doesn't give a damn if I have coffee or not whereas most folks urge me to have some before I speak. I am getting better though.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

When did all these toys go in the attic?

Ah... So I have never posted the Detroit pics. I also have not been able to get caught up on the happenings here in Chicago since returning. I would love to say this is the comprehensive catch up episode, but let's be honest. If you read this, you probably already know what's been going on.

If not, call me. I am probably standing on my street somewhere with a puppy determined to go the opposite direction next to me. No seriously. I'm there right now.

Since getting back from back to back tours, I have been busy getting settled in the apt. we moved to while I was away. I got to put together our office, my first day off and now it looks like a massive puppy landing pad. Work has picked up, but I am still less fond of dealing with people where I have to be nice to be paid. It's OK though. Tiff and I are slowly getting adjusted to puppy life. She's illogical, unpredictable and stubborn as hell so naturally she fits in with us well.



I also abandoned the original training program I was using from Nike+ for the Chicago marathon. After I got back to Chicago, I tried to run my first long run of 14 miles. It was a breeze but also only on week 6 of my training. I finished it with ease in 2hrs and 15 min and felt great till I went to go down the stair after getting home. That's when dual injuries began starting with my ITB and a strain on the opposite foot from the limp and 2 consecutive doubles. I was out of commission for 2 weeks and am just starting back up as of yesterday with a more reasonable plan.

In honest disclosure, I also broke down on the smoking on the last week of tour. I have a sincere desire to quit again soon, but am honest enough to know I am not there just yet. It would be a true fight. It's frustrating and humbling to be back to square one, but I suppose they wouldn't say success comes from keeping after it if it was easy to drop.

That's it in a nutshell. If you were wondering, that is Ed Norton with us at the Tigers game. He just wanted to sit with us. I am still out with the puppy if you want to call.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Introducing Estes!







It's only fair that after trumping Tiff's last birthday by proposing, my birthday this year should have an equal distraction. We picked up our new puppy yesterday. That definitely worked. Tiff and I drove out to Hammond, IN to pick up our rescued Westie puppy from a foster home there. She is about 4 months old and cute as can be. She is all head and tail right now, but very social already. In keeping with a family tradition, we have named her Estes. It was a friggin great birthday!













By the by, if you have the chance to swing by Highland, IN (neighbors Hammond), drop into Les Brothers for some choclate chip pancakes. Awesome!