30th Birthday

Today was my 30th birthday.  Yep, I'm getting old.  Asher wanted to give me a special birthday present but he needed a little help so he called upon Jeff to help him.  Jeff made him a sign that said "Happy Birthday Mom" and put it on his running jacket.  Well Asher gets a little excited when you put his jacket on him so getting him to control himself and sit still was a little tricky.  Below are pictures that are very much Asher and how he rolls.  He's a happy kid.

"Sweet, I got my running jacket on.  Whoa, super excited, better get my ball (because that's what I always get when I'm excited)."

"I love my ball.  And I still got my jacket on so I'm still super excited."

"Jeff is trying to take a picture of me, maybe I should run over to him so he can pet me."

"That ball looks awesome, so awesome I am drooling, better lick my lips.....wait, I don't have lips....."

"Oh, you wanted me to lay nice so I could say 'Happy Birthday Mom', simple, no prob."

Long time....no update

I haven't written on here in a long time, sorry about that to my couple of readers.  Things have been going on I just haven't had a spare chance to write about them.  So I'll do my best to update you and keep you updated in the future.  First and foremost I have a new address and even a new time zone.  On October 24th Jeff, Asher and I packed up our vehicles and moved to Buffalo, NY.  I had a job transfer that I have known about since the first part of the year and this was finally the weekend to do it.  The moving truck came on Thursday and Friday, packed up all of my belongings and loaded them into this huge truck.  The guys were awesome.  Very friendly and helpful.  And best part is they packed everything and had to carry it and put it on and take it off the truck.  That's one of the worst parts of moving, in my opinion.  Jeff and I each drove our cars, Asher with me, to Cleveland on the 24th and the rest of the way to Buffalo on the 25th.  We lived on very minimal items until our stuff came on Thursday, the 28th.  I have never been so happy to see my stuff!  The movers moved everything into the apartment and storage unit in a matter of about 5 hours.  It was crazy and there was stuff everywhere!!  It was tricky getting everything put away and cleaned up.  I downsized from a house, with essentially 3 floors and a 2 car garage to a two bedroom apartment with no basement and a one stall garage.  Thank goodness for the storage unit!  It took almost two weeks but we finally got almost everything put away.  It was nice to be able to use the living room, workout room and kitchen again.  Now that we have everything moved in we have spent our time exploring the area and all there is to do here.  We don't know how long we will be here so we plan to live like tourists and see and do as much as we can.  I plan to write about as many of these as I can.  The weather has been mild so far, so that has allowed us to get in some outside activities which has been fun.  Asher and I have been having a blast finding new running routes around our apartment.  I have been biking on my trainer in our workout room and I found a great pool that is super quiet downtown that I have been swimming at.  The Y pool was hot and had too many floaters for me.  I miss my friends back home but am trying to stay in touch with them as much as possible.  I hope to get involved in some groups here to meet some people, not to replace, just in addition to the great people I have already met on my life's journey.  Apartment life is going okay so far.  I was very worried about how Asher would do with the move but he's doing great.  We have actually worn him out so much he's snoring by 9 at night.  Lots of dogs in the complex for him to check out too so we'll have to get out and meet them.  So I guess......let the journey begin....

Rain

Last Friday night, August 20th, 2010 we got some of the craziest weather I have seen in a long time.  It was warm and humid so a perfect recipe for storms.  Some storms started brewing and moving across the state.  About 3:30 things started to get pretty dark.  Right around 4:00 it started raining and hailing the hardest I have possibly ever seen in rain.  It rained for about 30 minutes and caused some major travel issues.  Most roads were blocked because the storm sewers couldn't keep up.  Here are a couple pictures of the water on my street and a couple streets near me.  Overall in about 30 minutes we got just under 3 inches of rain and there were over 13,000 lightening strikes. 

Ash St.

Ash St.

Ash St.

8th St.

Spruce St.

(yes, that car is stopped in the middle of the lake in the middle of the road)

Movin' On

My friend Brad is one of my most consistent readers of this blog, perhaps one of the only readers of this blog, and he has pointed out that I have been MIA lately on my posts (I have a ton of posts just have been running out of time to post them so they will all be late, just so you know) and has requested a new post, so I figured it fitting that my next post be about him.  As of today Brad is about to embark on the next chapter in his life.  He leaves De Pere, WI today for a short stay with his parents in the Montello/Princeton area and then on to his new home in Colorado Springs, CO.  I'm very sad to see him go but am excited about the opportunity and challenges that lay ahead for him.

Brad and I have been friends for about 6 years, meeting in the running club.  We have lived 0.60 miles away for almost exactly 5 years.  We have gone on vacations together, run marathon together (and I use the term together loosely as he is usually waiting for at least an hour for me to finish), he's let Asher out and watched my house, I've watched his house (he doesn't have an Asher to let out), lifted weights together and just hung out.  He used to be the shy boy trying to qualify to run his first Boston Marathon to the fast not quite as shy boy setting new unbelievably fast marathon PR's and having a blast doing it. 

Brad is off to run in the mountain in Colorado and start the next chapter in his life.  Hopefully he doesn't forget the last chapter and stays in touch.  Brad....you better call, email and learn how to text.  And let me visit once in a while, even though we will soon be 24 driving hours apart.  Asher and I wish you the best of luck and maybe again we will live 0.60 miles away......

Busy

Sorry, no blogging lately.  It's been a busy couple of weeks.  To start from the beginning, June 19th was the High Cliff Half Ironman.  Then Sunday, Jeff, Asher and I packed up our rented mini-van and started our trek to New York state.  Sunday night we drove to Cleveland, Ohio, which is about 10 hours from De Pere.  Monday we drove from Cleveland to Buffalo.  Monday night we went to Niagara Falls and took Asher and walked across the Peace Bridge into Niagara Falls, Canada.  Tuesday thru Friday I worked in our Buffalo office and Jeff and Asher hung out.  Friday we drove to Ithaca, NY and the Finger Lakes region.  We stayed in Ithaca until Tuesday morning and saw some very awesome things nature has created.  We saw about a million water falls and some of the hilliest roads this side of the Rockies.  Tuesday we started to head for home with a stop at Letchworth State Park, about an hour east of Buffalo.  It's coined as "The Grand Canyon of the East".  After Letchworth we headed to South Bend for our layover.  Wednesday we headed for home.  Wednesday night and Thursday morning I met with my new coach.  And today we ran in the third annual Fox Firecracker 5K.  It's been a very busy last two weeks.  2500 miles on the road and millions of dollars deposited in tolls but we made it safe and sound.  Lots of good stuff and lots to be thankful for.  I will post in more detail with pictures from High Cliff and our NY trip in more posts.  Hope all is well with everyone and Happy Independence Day!!

I felt it!!!

I am in Buffalo, NY this week and had the craziest thing happened yesterday.  I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business when my computer monitor on my lap top started shaking and it felt like someone was shaking my chair...only no one was behind me.  It was the tremors from this.  Pretty crazy stuff!!!

In need of a lawn mower

Does anyone in blogger land have a used lawn mower they would like to sell or know of a used lawn mower for sale?  My lawn mower is on life -1 of 9 and is dying a slow painful death.  I'm going to have to hire sheep soon, or have my friends' kids' come over with scissors and cut the grass by hand.  Let me know if you do please.....for the kids' sake.  Thanks!

Swimming at Frank Murphy Park

Sunday I had an open house at my house so Asher and I headed out of town to go swimming.  It was almost 90 degrees at home.  Asher was in need of a hair cut and just looking outside made him pant so we headed to a cooler place...the water.  Asher loves to swim and I usually have to drag him out of the water when it's time to leave, full of sand and water and all.  It's tough to find beaches that are dog approved around here so we headed to Frank Murphy Park in Door County on the bay side. 

The Bay from the beach

The Bay from the beach

They allow dogs and they have a very nice beach.  This is where the Door County Triathlon is held.  When we got there it turned out to be about 15 degrees cooler than at home because of a strong East wind.  It was okay though, definitely still warm enough to swim.  So Asher played fetch and swam for over an hour and a half.  He had a blast and was exhausted for 2 days after wards.  Oh yeah, this is after he ran 12 miles in the morning in 90% humidity heat.  As most know, he can jump about 8 feet in the air, from a stand still.  He loves to display his incredible jumping abilities while fetching his ball in the water.  Here's a few pictures of him swimming and running and jumping. 

Birthday Party

Last night we went to a Birthday Party at Zesty's for Maggie (my friends Mark and Sue's lab).  She turned 9.  We had 5 dogs and 6 adults.  It was crazy but lots of fun.  The dogs had a pup cup of ice cream (no pictures, it was devoured too quickly).  Asher loved his.  He kept sliding the cup around so I was going to hold it, he thought I was going to take it away so he ate the whole rest of the scoop in one bite.  Talk about an ice cream headache.  Then he had ice cream all over his face so I tried to wipe his face off with a napkin but he was just interested in shredding and eating the napkins so that didn't work.  Maggie was nice and shared her ice cream with her sister Ruby and her niece Abby.  We then went for a walk on the trail, 5 dogs 6 adults.  It was quite a circus.  It's so great that summer has finally decided to arrive.  Summer....we missed you.  Here are some pictures of the kids (the birthday girl was being snotty so I only got her back side.....possibly because she had to share her ice cream, not sure though).  It proves to be very difficult to get 5 sugar hyped up dogs to sit nice for a picture.  Especially when one is just a pup.  I think if you combine all of these together you get one with all 5 of them in it. 

Maggie (on the left), part of Abby (next to Maggie), Asher, Ruby (in the cart), Zeke (on the right)

Asher's head, Abby and Maggie

Asher, Ruby and Abby

Asher's head, Ruby, Abby and Zeke

Can I Get A....

Hostess Cupcake?  Got behind this car at lunch....

In case you can't see, the back hatchback and back seat are filled to the top with boxes of Hostess Cupcakes.  I assume from the Hostess wholesale store.  RAZTOO had a little trouble with the pick up getting on the interstate with all those cupcakes in the back seat, but when I left them they were well on their way to a clean get away, with a whole ton (literally) of cupcakes.  The guy driving had the wrap around Ray Ban sunglasses on too.  He definitely thought he was a catch.....