Tag Archives: dogs

A New Season

23 Dec

I am very excited for the beginning of a new season: training for a marathon. I spent the majority of 2011 training for triathlons, culminating in my first Olympic distance. While I love the variety of multisport, there’s something about getting out on the road and slogging out a bunch of miles in preparation for a long distance running-only event.

And I was just thinking this morning that if I used my two cross-training workouts a week for biking and swimming,  I could even be in triathlon shape by the time the marathon is over!’

I saw this little “Best of 2011” on RunToTheFinish and liked it so much I’m going to do it:

What I’m looking forward to in the season of marathon training:

  • Mapping out new routes on mapmyrun.com
  • Exploring new areas of Denver on foot
  • Buying cute new running shoes
  • Feeling the good hurt in my legs of running many miles

  • Visualizing myself finishing my first marathon
  • Calling myself a marathoner
  • Eating like a horse and not gaining a pound
  • Developing runner’s leg muscles

  • Listening to books on tape and sermons while I run
  • Seeing my pace get faster (hopefully!)
  • Exercising mental endurance and positive thinking (You got this!)
  • Spending my Saturdays running a crapton of miles and then taking a nap

I tried to take the dogs on a walk this morning and it was more than a little difficult, what with traffic, a foot of snow and a temperature of 15 degrees. I ended up turning around early because Charlie started limping, showing that her paws had gotten cold. Maybe she could wear the Frankenbooties we bought Katy? If we put them on one of them again, I’ll record a video – that is, if I’m not dying laughing.

Our favorite thing to do lately to joke around with our sweet little pooches is this: if we’re watching TV and a commercial or show has a doorbell ringing in it, Charlie thinks it’s real. So she’ll get all excited, bark and even jump up to see who’s at the door. To prolong the hilarity of the situation, we’ll rewind the DVR to replay the doorbell noise. By the time we do that 4 or 5 more times, I’m seriously crying because I’m laughing so hard. Dogs are an endless source of amusement.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I took a picture of this car on our street:

 

That car is totally plowed in by 3 foot snow banks on both sides. Our neighbor plows our street (since the city never does it, by law – isn’t that ridiculous?!?!) and I think he plowed that car in because it’s been sitting there (in front of our house, mind you) for weeks now. Both Travis and I had a good chuckle over that.

What do you look forward to when starting a new training plan?

Have you ever been plowed in? I haven’t, but there was one time when I wasn’t able to get out of our driveway in college.

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A White Christmas in Denver!

22 Dec

Well, it definitely snowed! Last night, when I got home from my women’s group, I told Travis that we should go on a walk in the snow. So we did.

I love going for walks in the snow.

So do the pooches.

We were very snowy by the time we got back. It’s still snowing this afternoon and so far, we’ve gotten about a foot. It was a little hairy driving to work today (because CDOT only has 75 plows for the entire Denver metro area!) but we made it! I was sooo tempted to call in because there’s hardly anyone here today (and there will be even fewer tomorrow!) but our VP ordered in lunch from Qdoba for us, which was nice and fun. Tomorrow is going to draaaaggg by though.

…………………………………..

On a brighter note, this weekend is Christmas!

I am so ready for some time to relax, hang out with Travis and friends, and eat delicious food! This is what we have planned so far:

  • Dinner and a movie with friends Friday night (Christmas Eve Eve)
  • Dinner with friends and their family on Christmas Eve
  • Special breakfast and dinner on Christmas day, just the two of us
  • Church on Christmas morning
  • Relaxing on the day after Christmas, before we go back to work

We haven’t decided when we’re going to open presents yet, but my vote is Christmas Eve morning – then we don’t have to wait!

Other than going grocery shopping tonight after work, I’m all ready for Christmas, which has meant a very relaxing, enjoyable week. It’s been so nice to drive home, knowing that I can go lay on the couch the minute I walk in the door, instead of running around doing errands or workouts.

I was just thinking yesterday as I drove home, that taking this week off from training was probably the best decision I could’ve made. Instead of stressing out over how to fit all my workouts in and wondering how I’ll ever manage with marathon training, I’ve been building up excitement and anticipation and will start marathon training ready to tackle the beast of 26.2.

The slower pace has also allowed me time to reflect on the amazing-ness of Christmas and quiet my heart, which is what I’ve been wanting! Come, Lord Jesus!

What are your plans for Christmas? Are you done with preparations?

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How to Run with Your Dog (or Dogs)

16 Nov

Disclaimer: I wouldn’t consider myself a dog expert by any stretch of the imagination. Our dogs are mostly well-behaved not because I know what I’m doing as a dog owner/trainer but because I’ve learned through trial and error, as well as sheer stubbornness. 

So as I offer advice about how to run with your dog, keep all of that in mind.

When we got Katy back in August of 2009, it was a completely new thing to me. I had never owned a dog before, or even been around one for an extended period of time. I really felt like I was shooting from the hip and had no idea what was normal, right or good. {Yes, having dogs has been good preparation for being parents.} It helped, though, that Katy was a very well-behaved dog from the beginning (but has somehow gotten more mischievous as the years go by…).

Back then, I worked less than 10 minutes from home so I went home everyday at lunch to walk Katy. For several weeks, I tried to train her to “heel” but eventually gave up on that. I didn’t have the time or the muse for it and she didn’t pull on the leash, even though she walked in front of me. If that makes me a bad dog owner, sue me.

Since I took her on a walk at lunch, I didn’t feel the pressure to take her on runs as often as I do now but I like to combine my run with a dog walk whenever possible to conserve time, so I would usually still take her out for the first 1.5 miles, drop her at home and then finish the rest of the run. The longest run I ever did with her was 5 miles. She actually did really well.

Then we got Charlie. It was tricky just mastering how to walk 2 dogs, let alone run with them. (It helped that they were only 80 lbs combined, though.) Once Charlie was doing fairly well on the leash and I wasn’t getting tangled up very often, I started running intervals with her (and Katy) to build her endurance up. But who am I kidding? Charlie could outrun me – speed and distance – any day! Although she does have ADD – she makes it about 1.5 miles before she’s done moving in a straight line and wants to sniff everything and anything.

Around the same time we got Charlie, I started working full-time 30 minutes away from home. So now, since my post-work run is the only time the dogs get walked, I take them out for part of my run about 99% of the time.

So this is what I’ve learned from running these beastly little dogs:

1. Teach them to run on a certain side.

My dogs know to stay on the side of the road opposite traffic, or on the grassy side of the bike trail. I can’t tell you how many owners I see who let their dogs walk right down the middle of the bike path. That is very dangerous, for both the dog and the bikers. So keep your dog either in front of you, or to the opposite side.

It didn’t take my dogs very long to learn this. Dogs are smart and they learn fast. A few different methods I used were pulling them (gently) to the side when they were running in the wrong spot, or shortening their leash so that they had to run by my side (this is one reason why I think it’s best to avoid using retractable leashes). Every time they did something right, I praised them. I’ve also used intimidation – instead of actually touching them, I get up alongside them and use my body space to steer them in the direction I want them to go. I’ve done this on a busy street with Charlie, who used to always want to walk on the street. I get up alongside her now and she moves over automatically.

This is how excited they are to go on a run – they can’t stay still.

2. Bring poop bags with you.

If you think running makes humans have bowel movements, multiply that by 100 and you’ve got dogs’ bowel movements. You never know when the urge is going to hit and the last thing you want to do is to stop your run to look around for a bag. I like to tie our bags on their leashes. Easy access and if they magically don’t do #2 on our run, the bags are there for next time.

See the bag tied to the leash?

3. Figure out where the garbage cans are. 

The greenway I run on the most often has a few different garbage cans, each about a mile apart. When my dogs poo, I estimate which garbage can I’m closer to. If it’s the one I’m running toward, I’ll take the bag with me to throw away. If it’s the one I just passed (and will pass again on my way back), I put the bag on the other side of the trail and get it on the way back. That way, I’m carrying the poo bag for the least amount of time possible.

4. Expect to stop.

Katy, and especially Charlie, will stop to go to the bathroom or sniff something with no warning. There have been times I’ve yanked Katy as she squatting to pee but I try to keep one eye on the dogs so that I know when they’re going to do something. This is easier with Katy because she has a very predictable routine – she’ll move over to run in the grass with her head down, sniffing everything. After 15-20 feet, she’ll find her spot and do her thing. Charlie, on the other hand, is an enigma. Completely unpredictable. I swear she doesn’t even know she’s pooping until a turd is coming out and landing on the sidewalk (like last night). But still, I almost always stop at least once during a run for them.

5. Pay attention to your dogs.

Things to watch for are if your dogs slow down, get a burr stuck in the pad of their paw, or get tangled up in their leash somehow (Travis did this once and Katy was somehow so tangled up she had to stop running – I honestly don’t know how they do that).

If it’s really hot outside, they get overheated really fast (remember, they can’t sweat like humans do). Two leashes is enough for me to deal with without involving water and dishes, so I keep their runs short if we’re out when it’s hot. If I think they need more exercise, I take them to the dog park where there are water dishes galore. Even on short runs in the heat, though, I pay attention to them – if they’re slowing down and seem to be having a hard time, I slow down or walk with them. Completing a run is never more important than your dog’s health.

If it’s really cold and snowy outside, their paws can get really sensitive. I took Katy running a couple years ago during a 5 degree cold spell in Denver and even before we reached a mile, she was hobbling with one paw up because her paw had gotten too cold. I didn’t know what was wrong at the time so I actually ended up carrying her home the last .5 mile! I bought little booties for her but when we put them on, she walked around like Frankenstein. It was hilarious to watch but we knew she couldn’t run like that. I’d recommend either waiting until the temperature warms up or run somewhere without snow (that’s the coldest part for them).

6. Pay attention to people around you.

Dogs like to socialize and sniff strangers. This doesn’t change when you’re running. Whenever I see other dogs or other people coming, I choke up on my dogs’ leashes to keep them near me until the dogs or person have passed by. This prevents me from having to stop if when they run over to the other dogs and it prevents the person from getting freaked out by my dogs.

I was once riding my bike on the greenway and came up on a dog and owner. The owner was not paying attention and the dog was walking right down the middle of the bike path. As I passed by, the dog bit me. It must’ve gotten scared and thought I was too close but still. I wanted to ride back and give the owner a piece of my mind. But I didn’t – I kept going because the dog hadn’t actually hurt me, just ruined my favorite capri pants.

………………………………..

To sum it up, running with my dogs has generally been a positive experience for me. It’s not exactly relaxing and sometimes it’s hard to settle into a rhythm when they’re stopping every 5  minutes. But it’s worth it because I love my dogs and they LOVE going on runs. And how can I say no to those faces?

Do you run with your dog(s)?

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Treadmills are the enemy.

10 Nov

So last night didn’t go quite according to plan but I did get my 4-mile run in. My plan was to get home at 4:30, feed the dogs and quickly change into my running clothes, run 4 miles, change out of my running clothes, grab salad stuff and leave for care group by 5:45.

I got home around 4:50, let the dogs out, and then fed them. While they were eating, I started to change into my running clothes. Charlie came into the bedroom after she was finished eating and jumped on the bed. Not even 30 seconds later, she jumped down and started to head out to the living room but I didn’t want her to pee on the carpet and figured she’d be able to wait the 3 minutes it would take me to finish dressing. So I called her back in and she jumped back up on the bed. Then I noticed that the bedspread was a weird color – were her paws dirty from being outside?

Charlie moved out of the way and I realized that it wasn’t dirt – it was pee. She had just peed on our bed. A lot. And as I yelled, “Charlie, no!” she got scared and jumped to another section of the bed and peed there too.

Just great.

“Charlie, I don’t have time for this!”

I put the dogs outside, pulled the comforter, sheets, and mattress cover off the bed and then thought about what to do. I couldn’t wash the comforter in our washing machine. I couldn’t put a different comforter on our bed because that one was also dirty (Charlie also peed on that one and we disgustingly didn’t notice for a while). So I had to scrap my run for a trip to the laundromat.

{source}

I had been planning to go there this weekend anyway, to wash our sleeping bags and rugs from elk hunting, and the comforter and duvet cover that was already dirty. Now I just had more to wash. I still wanted to try to make it to care group, which started at 7 (we eat dinner together at 6 and I already let the leader know I wasn’t coming for that), so I hastily loaded everything into the car, put the dogs in the laundry room and headed to the gas station across from the laundromat for some cash.

I got the cash, drove across the street to the laundromat, and made 4 trips to bring in all the stuff I had. As I looked around for the quarter machine, I realized I had forgotten soap and this ghetto laundromat didn’t sell any. So I loaded the washers with the stuff I was pretty sure no one would steal (I mean, who wants bed comforters riddled with pee or extremely dirty rugs?), put the sleeping bags and linens back into the car, drove the mile back home, got laundry detergent and went back.

After all of the washers were started, I realized I would need more cash to start the dryers (is it just me or do laundromats rob you blind?), so I went back home to drop off the soap and grab dryer sheets and a laundry basket, brought the dogs with me, and went back to the gas station another time to get gas and more cash. Then I went back across the street to the laundromat, transferred what was done washing to the dryers, then brought the dogs back home. I don’t know why I brought them in the first place – I guess because I felt bad that they had been locked in the laundry room all day and they hadn’t gotten to go on their run? (Although I told Charlie that she really did it to herself.)

Travis called then so I asked him to pick up Subway on his way home while I went back to the laundromat to finish putting stuff in the dryers. So he did that while I went back, yet again. With everything in the dryers, I hung out for a bit reading my book until the comforters and rugs were dry and Travis was home with the subs. I put that stuff in the car, drove home, ate, unloaded the car, then Travis and I both went back to the laundromat to get the sleeping bags and linens.

By the time we had everything in the car, it was already 7:05. All of the linens and one sleeping bag were crammed into the laundry basket and some of them weren’t quite dry (I should never dry the duvet covers with sheets, but I always do because I’m too lazy – and in this case, cheap – to do two loads). So we just decided to not go to care group. It took us about an hour to get everything unloaded, dry, and folded or on the bed. Finally, around 8:15, I decided to go to the rec to run, since I wasn’t going to care group.

I was actually kind of looking forward to running on the treadmill, because somehow, when I read about other people running on the treadmill, it sounds nice. Just a nice little run on the treadmill. But I got on the treadmill and before I even hit .5 mile, I was bored. And staring at myself in the mirror, since I can’t handle looking at stationary things when running – my mind just can’t handle the conflicting signals. Running. means. moving. forward. Can. not. stare. at. a. wall.

I managed to make it to 2 miles, but then I just couldn’t take it anymore. Treadmills just make me hate running. I don’t understand how people run on them consistently and for so many miles. I realized that I would much rather run 100 circles around a 1/10 mile track than do 10 miles on a treadmill. And I swear that my legs/shins/knees felt achier from running on the treadmill than they do normally. AND I was running at a 10:30 pace at 1.0 incline on the treadmill and thought I was going to DIE. I got on the track and ran the same pace comfortably.

So moral of the story: Treadmills are the enemy.

But I digress…

I finished my 4 mile run in 43:21, stretched, went home and crawled into my nice, clean bed.

Do you like running on the treadmill? 

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What I picked up…

31 Oct

Saturday morning, I made a very necessary run to Walgreen’s for coffee and then spent a long time in the morning researching in the Bible what I wrote in my recent post on grace. I think this is going to be the hypothesis or main focus of the book I’m slowly attempting to write.

After getting dressed, I decided what to make for dinner (usually I choose 3 recipes, but this time, I chose 4 because of the little butternut squash from our garden I want to use up):

Minted Rice with Garbanzo Curry

Chicken and Dumplings

Tomato Tortellini Soup

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Then I made my shopping list, and went to my favorite grocery stores: Sunflower Farmer’s Market and Safeway.

Here’s my haul:

Pantry Items: 2 loaves of bread, instant brown rice, condensed tomato soup, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, garbanzo beans, raisin bran granola, Multi-Grain Cheerios, Hint of Salt Triscuits, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, sun-dried tomatoes, butternut squash puree, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom condensed soup, dried apricots, walnuts, chocolate chips (which I realized after I took this pic should have been included with the baking stuff)

Baking Goods: 2 cake mixes (bought to make these easy pumpkin cupcakes and they were Buy 1, Get 1 Free), Bisquick, brown sugar, white and semi-sweet chocolate chips (also B1G1)

Produce: baby carrots, Honeycrisp apples, bananas (usually I buy more than this but we have quite a few vegetables left over from last week)

Perishables: shredded Parmesan, shredded mozzarella, half & half, pepperjack cheese, roasted red pepper hummus, mint leaves

In case you’re curious, I spent a little less than $100 on all of that (plus sandwich bags and Febreze, unpictured).

Then I checked out more books from the library than I could possibly read before their due date (thank goodness for online renewal!):

I started reading Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge and LOVE it so far.

I also set out our green tomatoes in the sun to ripen.

{Notice Katy in the window – that’s how she alerts us she wants to come in.}

Instead of diving right into the books though, I went on a 3 mile tempo run with the dogs (32:43) and then did the first 30 minutes of YogaX.

Saturday night, we babysat a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old for some friends. It was so much fun! As I sat by the 1-year-old’s crib waiting for her to fall asleep, she rolled over and I was struck by how much they are little people, with little quirks and personalities. And I realized, if I can be so fond of someone else’s kids, how much am I going to love my own kids someday, whether they are biological or adopted! I am still praying for the grace to wait patiently until the time is right for us to try. Soon…

Sunday, we went to church, ate lunch (leftover Tortellini Soup, which was delicious but very rich – would be good as a small appetizer instead of the main course, or with less cream), and after starting laundry and cleaning the bathrooms, did Travis’ favorite thing – shopping. Like a lot of men, he is very hard on his clothes and has one by one destroyed his good work jeans by either getting them irreversibly dirty or wearing  holes in the knees, until he was down to one pair of jeans. So shopping it was. I was also on the hunt for a pair of skinny jeans to wear under my new boots.

We looked at the thrift store first because I have been able to find a lot of good deals there for myself, but there wasn’t a good selection. So we headed over to the Eddie Bauer outlet at Denver West. Travis has had luck there in the past with finding jeans that don’t have holes or any weird washing technique. Often, men’s jeans are very “trendy” and Travis is not. So he sticks to brands like Wrangler, Carhartt, and Eddie Bauer.

We found a couple of great pairs of jeans on the $19.99 rack – it was such a good deal, I was worried that they had been misplaced there (having worked in retail myself and seen that happen many a time). And I was right. They rang up at $49.99 each. But when we said that we had found them on the clearance rack, the clerk was amazingly nice and gave us the sale price. I was floored. He saved us $60!

After that, I asked Travis if I could take a quick detour into a store called Papaya. It looked a lot like Forever 21 and I found that the prices were similar as well. I found a pair of skinny jeans for $24 that fit me well. They’re just a little bit long, so they bunch up around my ankles like this, but since other people wear them that way, I guess it’s ok… Sometimes I feel like such a poser wearing fashions like that! I even felt like the girl manning the dressing room at Papaya gave me a look like “What are you doing shopping here?” I guess I am almost 30… And when I shop at stores like that, I have to get over any hangups I have ever had about pants sizes because the reality is, when a size 6 adult woman shops at a store for juniors, she’s going to be more like a size 11. (Is it just me or have juniors pants gotten smaller since I was a teen? I mean, who can possibly wear those size 1 pants?)

I told Travis as we were leaving that I’m going to be sad when I can no longer shop in stores like that, either because I’m too old or because I can’t fit into anything, because those stores are so cheap! Shopping in adult stores meaning paying adult prices. Ugh… I don’t want to grow up. 

After our shopping trip, I called my mom, finished laundry, cleaned the rest of the house and then went on a 4 mile run (43:30) with Travis and the dogs. The pooches were still exhausted this morning!

Have you read any good books lately? Do you ever feel weird wearing trends?

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I got tagged!

28 Oct

Lisa over at Cow Spots and Tales recently tagged me with two awards: The Versatile Blogger and I Dig Your Blog Award. I feel honored! Thanks Lisa!

What follows now is that I tell you 10 fun facts about myself. I may have used them all up for my birthday post, but here goes:

1. My favorite TV show of all time is Bones. If DVD sets of television shows didn’t cost me the arm I use for the TV remote, I would totally own every season. The season premiere this year is November 3rd. Can. not. wait.

2. It never even crossed my mind to move to Colorado until I got engaged to Travis and that was one of the grad schools he looked at. I always thought I’d move somewhere like NYC or Chicago, since that is where a lot of magazines and publishing houses are. Colorado has treated us well!

3. My favorite season is fall. I love being outside on a sunny fall day, the leaves changing and falling into big piles, wearing a thick wool sweater and doing “fall” stuff – like picking out pumpkins, drinking apple cider, sitting on hay, going to football games, etc. I’ve been too busy to any of that this year! (Boo on busyness.)

4. I used to hate dogs. Like “Don’t come near me, you slobbery, disgusting, stinky mess.” Even before we got Katy, I was very picky when it came to dogs. I liked some dogs, but not all dogs. I prayed for a long time that God would recognize my weird phobias and give us the perfect dog. And He did. Katy has been amazing. Charlie has too, although quite a bit more work. Still, I love those two dogs a LOT.

5. I’m not quite sure if I like hiking or not. I like nature and I like beautiful views but getting to the top is not always pleasant. Regardless, I still go on hikes because Travis enjoys it and we can do it together. I just need to learn how to keep a good attitude!

6. I worked at a drug store in high school. On Sundays when I worked 9-6, the pharmacist would give me and another girl a little “quiz” with trivia facts like what temperature does water freeze at. Whoever won got to choose whether they wanted to vacuum or refill the vial bins (which was a lot of work). We were pretty evenly matched. I usually wanted to do vials.

7. My dream vacation is to go to the Mediterranean — Italy, Greece, Spain, France. A coworker just went to Slovenia and Croatia and said it was absolutely beautiful. If I could go nowhere else, I’d choose there. And if I had to choose a country, it would probably be Greece – why? Because I love Greek food and it just looks like it would be awesome to visit!

8. My favorite author is C.S. Lewis. I haven’t read nearly all of his books but I have re-read some of the classics (Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Weight of Glory) and they are even better the second or third time around. I can’t wait to meet him in heaven!

9. I dislike strength training and weight lifting. I would much rather do hours of cardio than spend 30 minutes doing lunges, bicep curls, and other various exercises I have heard about but would probably kill myself doing. I wish I liked weight lifting… but I just don’t. So that is the one form of exercise that I have to force myself to do because I know it’s good for me. The rest, I really enjoy doing!

10. I am obsessed with cereal. If I could eat a balanced diet of cereal for 3 meals a day, I totally would. Some people crave ice cream – I crave cereal. When I am eat for emotional reasons, I eat cereal. I just LOVE it. I don’t know why. My favorite kinds are Honey Bunches of Oats (best with peaches), Oatmeal Squares, Frosted Mini Wheats, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Kashi GoLean Crisp.

So there you have 10 “fun” facts about me.

And now, I need to pass the kudos on to 10 blogs that I (truly!) dig (and stalk) and find versatile:

B at B. in the Know

Ana Helena Campbell

Brie at Brie Fit

Kristina at Kristina J.

Jen at She Collects

Katie at True Things

Callie at The Wannabe Athlete

Sarah at Once Upon a (L)ime

SkinnyRunner

Kate at Fitting Into the Windy City & My Clothes

If you don’t want to participate, I won’t consider you a curmudgeon. I’m sure your blogs have been nominated a lot more often than mine has!

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Elk Slayers

25 Oct

Here are the elk hunting pictures you’ve been waiting for I told you about. Even if you don’t want to see them.

But I promise there is nothing gross or bloody awaiting you. These are just the nice pictures.

Travis’ parents and brother arrived Thursday afternoon and did all the grocery shopping. When I got home, they were loading up the trucks, so while they did that, I packed my bag. I did fairly good this time and only forgot a flashlight. That’s not important when you’re camping, right? (It turned out okay because I didn’t go to the bathroom during the night once – haha!, and I borrowed a lantern anytime it was dark.)

Friday morning, I got up early to make monkey bread (a breakfast tradition with Travis’ family) and shower. We got on the road about 7:15, got up to Silverthorne around 8, and drove another hour and a half into the middle of nowhere to find our mud pit camp spot.

 

Mission accomplished.

You can’t really tell from this picture but 60 degrees, intense sun at 9750 feet, melting snow, and dirt ground = MAJOR MUD. Ew. It was only bad for the first day and the last day we were there though.

We decided on the spot for our tent (easier said than done since the whole campsite sloped one way or another) and started setting ‘er up.

Voila!

Katy didn’t even pretend to help.

Next orders of business were getting the kitchen set up, getting the tent and rainfly staked down, assembling the wood stove, chopping firewood and setting up our cots and sleeping bags. I tell you what, elk hunting is a lot of work. And I don’t even do any of the hunting!

Free tent courtesy of Your Cause Sports.

The Leaning Tent of Pisa. The black camp stove was propped up by wood to be level and it seriously played with your head. Trippy.

My adorable hubby “trenching” – the snow was melting so fast we practically had a river running through our camp!

The inside of our tent – close quarters! The stove isn’t in the pic but it’s to the left, right as you walk in the tent. (I unfortunately didn’t take a pic of it.) My cot is usually the middle one on the left (as this picture shows) but Beth and I ended up switching so I could be near the stove. Nice on cold nights but one night, I melted into a puddle because the stove was cranked so high! Holy cow. I actually got up and asked Travis to turn it down. (Now I know how, so I could just do it myself.)

You can also see the dogs’ kennel in the back left. Charlie slept in there and Katy (who sleeps like a rock) slept on Beth’s sleeping bag most nights. Last year, Katy got so cold sleeping in the tent that I let her sleep inside my sleeping bag. She crawled all the way down to the bottom (talk about not being claustrophobic!) of my mummy bag! This year, I switched sleeping bags with Travis to let her do the same thing, except in a square bag. Well, instead of being rated for 0 degrees, his is rated for -25 and Katy ended up overheating. She crawled back up to the top, panting, and ended up just sleeping the outside of the bag. Then I switched my sleeping bag back and she decided to sleep on Beth’s instead. Fine by me!

After we got everything set up, we just hung out.

Charlie doesn’t mind laying in the dirt one little bit.

I was pretty impressed at Travis’ and Matthew’s wood-splitting abilities (they chopped it after using the chainsaw). I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to ever use a hatchet or a splitting maul. Pretty much anything that involves hand-eye coordination, you want to keep far, far away from me.

Evening, morning, the First Day.

Saturday morning was Opener. Weehee! Beth seemingly bounded out of bed to cook pancakes and bacon (as she did every morning) and by 6:15, the men were off to slay themselves some elk. They were going to come back for lunch at noon, so we had some time to kill. Every day, we read our books while waiting for it to get light outside. Then we’d wash dishes and do various things – read, go on a walk, play a game, scrapbook. Saturday was the nicest day we had so I actually took a nap in the sun.

So did Charlie:

Noon rolled around, then 12:15, 12:30. The guys still hadn’t come back. Beth and I got into a conversation about Occupy Denver and pretty soon, it was 1:15. We decided to go ahead and eat, hoping that the men’s tardiness meant they had actually shot something. Since we were a lot closer to the hunting zone that year, we heard a lot of shots but obviously didn’t know if one of those had been our guys.

Finally, around 4, the guys came back, a nice big rack in the back of the pickup. They had shot it at 9:30 that morning after they heard the elk bugle over a ridge. Once they saw it, Done.

As you might know, elk are huge. Not as big as moose, perhaps, but still huge. They estimated this male elk weighed 750 lbs – once you butcher it, you end up with about 200 lbs of meat. That’s a lot of meat. Each hindquarter weighed 65 lbs just by itself. Travis and Matthew both made 2 trips, Al made one (really heavy) one, to get the elk to the truck. Some people use horses to bring their meat out – these guys just use backpacks. Big, external frame packs. Needless to say, after their haul (literally), they were wiped.

Since I promised no gross pictures, here’s just one of the rack. Aren’t I so lucky that Travis wants to hang that on our wall with the skull still attached?

We ate dinner – I can’t remember what it was that night exactly but over the course of the 5 days, we had chili, potroast with veggies, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and stuffing. For breakfast, Beth cooked bacon or sausage with pancakes or french toast. And lunch was always sandwiches with a side of baby carrots, chips, trail mix, string cheese, mini candy bars, or granola bars. I tell you, we ate good out there. I also drank more Mountain Dews and ate more mini candy bars than I had since July’s Weeklong Eating Extravaganza.

The next day (Sunday), Beth and I drove into town for ice and a few other things. Because of the nasty, not-well-kept roads and the fact that we were camping in the middle of nowhere, it took us an hour and 15 minutes just one way. We were in town for about 40 minutes, then turned around and drove back. I was not asking to do that drive again anytime soon.

Monday, it snowed and we all stayed inside for the better part of the day.

Everything was freezing (literally) and the wind was blowing snow everywhere. Made it very challenging to do dishes. After the guys left, Beth and I played Bananagrams, scrapbooked, and read. We got checked out by the Division of Wildlife twice. We went on a walk in the snow.

A lot of the trees in that area are dead because of the pine beetle. So sad.

Blaze orange is the new black. Even the dogs thought so, with their blaze orange bows. We didn’t want them to be mistaken for any baby elk, although I mentioned to Beth that the dogs wouldn’t ever stay still long enough to get shot.

Tuesday, it didn’t snow but it was decently cold so we stayed inside or by the fire. We went on a hike called South Fork Loop. Very muddy and destroyed by horse hooves. Grrr…

Wednesday, it warmed up just in time to pack everything up.

But the fun didn’t stop there! Once we got home, everyone immediately got to work unloading the truck, hauling stuff into the house, setting up the wall tent to dry, scrubbing the tent floor clean, etc. I unpacked all the food and went grocery shopping. Travis bought a new vacuum sealer (ours bit the dust – don’t get the Seal a Meal brand!). Finally, it was time for Buffalo Wild Wings – the guys split 50 wings between the 3 of them (they were a little full afterward). Beth and I split 12 boneless wings. I also got a Black Cherry Mojito and it was delicious! And only $5!

The next day, it was back to work and I’ve already told you my saga of what happened after work. I’m glad elk hunting is over – it’s fun and I like Travis’ family but it’s a crapton of work. And I’m ready for some relaxing weekends. (Even so, I’ve already been fighting off the temptation to schedule things “now that I have free weekends”!)

Any questions about elk camp?

Look like something you’d like to do?

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Snow and speed.

10 Oct

Saturday morning, we woke up to rain and cold. I normally would’ve been excited, since weather like that is not that common in Denver, but with the race on Sunday, I was a little nervous. Those would be miserable conditions for a race – 35 degrees and rainy. Yuck. We had also planned to drive up to the Winter Park / Fraser area to do some scouting for elk hunting next weekend. One of the main roads that they have used in years past was washed out by abnormally large runoff and hasn’t been rebuilt so Travis wanted to familiarize himself with some other roads.

But first things first – while Travis had the Forge at church Saturday morning, I had coffee with my friend, Cathy. Then Travis and I headed downtown for the race expo and packet pickup. Since this is by far the biggest race I’ve ever done, I really enjoyed the expo. Usually, the expos at the races I do consist of a handful of booths of stuff that I’m not really that interested in. But this expo was different. There had to have been 40-50 booths and almost everyone was giving away free stuff. (Score!) Travis looked at new running shoes and got a 15% coupon for Boulder Running Company – which I can use for buying new shoes too! I bought a new stick of BodyGlide (mine was almost gone). After an hour, we decided to head home.

We ate lunch and loaded up the pooches. As we were leaving Denver, we weren’t sure whether going up into the mountains was a good idea or a bad idea.

This was just the foothills. We decided to play it by ear. If we hit a bunch of traffic or the roads got really bad, we’d turn around and head home. Luckily, the roads were actually almost void of traffic (this is the lull time between tourist season and ski season) and the road conditions weren’t bad – I did tell Travis several times to slow down but that’s pretty much the norm when we’re driving in the mountains. We drove over Berthoud Pass into Winter Park, then turned off after Fraser onto the back country roads. There was a good 6 inches of snow on the ground so while everything was very pretty, the roads were very slick (mud + snow = slippery!).

The aspens stood out against the snow-covered evergreens – very pretty.

As we were driving along, Travis noticed tracks in the snow on the road. He thought they were elk tracks but then we saw this:

A moose!

That was the first moose I’d ever seen so I was pretty pumped!

We drove a little while more until we found a potential camping spot for elk hunting and then we let the pooches out to run around. This was potentially Charlie’s first time ever seeing snow so we were curious to find out if she’d like it.

She did.

I didn’t get many pictures of the dogs – they run so fast that it’s near impossible to catch them in action. But this is a still from one of the videos. It looks like Charlie was whirling up a snowstorm but it was actually Travis kicking snow on her. 🙂

She did really like the snow, though. Here are a few more stills of her and Katy running around (they’re not the greatest quality but it gives you an idea).

 

Katy loves snow too – they’ll be great Minnesotan dogs one day.

Travis was craving a burger and fries so we stopped in Silverthorne to get Wendy’s. I tried their new Caramel Apple Parfait and while it was good (when is ice cream bad?), I think it would be better with yogurt.

We got home around 5:30 and I tried to be productive but I spent about 45 minutes looking for a specific devotional in My Utmost for His Highest until my brain hurt and all I wanted to do was lay down. I wanted to just go to bed but we had to figure out directions and logistics for the next morning, as well as get our race stuff together. Once that was done around 9:45, we went to bed.

My alarm went off at 5:00 am and I pushed my snooze button twice without realizing it. Good thing it’s only 3 minutes long! By the third time my alarm went off, I woke up enough to wonder what I was supposed to be getting up for. Work? Church? What? Oh, the race.

My hair was pretty greasy from not washing it for 3 days so I took a shower. Since it was so cold outside, I figured I’d probably not do my normal thing of putting my hair up half wet so I dried it completely. I wore my 2XU compression pants with shorts over them (just cuz), a long sleeve tech shirt, and a fleece vest. I also wore an ear warmer and stretchy gloves during the race, but ended up taking them off about 3/4 of the way through. After peanut-butter-ing mini bagels for us to eat in the car and doctoring my coffee, we grabbed our stuff and left right on time at 5:45.

It only took us 15 minutes to get downtown, but another 10 to figure out how to get into the darned parking lot the race organizers had told us to park in. That was the only part of the race that was frustrating – they had pretty much every street surrounding the parking lot closed off. Makes it a little hard to get in and out.

Finally, we parked and Travis left to find the shuttle to the start line. He later told me that he waited 20 minutes by himself in the dark for the shuttle and was about ready to run back to the car and have me drive him to the start when the shuttle finally showed up. He got down to the start line with the perfect amount of time to go to the bathroom, check his bag, warmup and jump over the barricade into his corral – he only waited 3 minutes before the race started!

Meanwhile, I was sitting in the warm car checking Facebook and reading my Google Reader feeds on my phone. I got done with that around 7:00, which was when the race started. I was pretty close to the relay transition point so I didn’t need to leave until 7:15 or so to give myself plenty of time before Travis would arrive around 8:04. So to pass the time, I pinned my number on my vest.

I watched a bunch of cars get towed around.

Which made me nervous about getting towed. So I made a sign to put on our windshield.

I took some random pictures of my chip timer…

…and my bored face.

Finally, it was time! I got out of the car and it was COLD! My phone said 35 degrees. Brrrr!! I walked the 5 minutes to the relay transition area and stood around for about 15 minutes before doing a short warmup. Then I stretched, the race organizers explained what would happen, and we stood around some more. Finally, the wheelchair athletes started coming. Then the elite, crazy fast runners. Then the really fast runners. And then the fast runners, which was where Travis came. He was the 15th or so relay person to come in.

I saw him coming around the traffic circle and moved to the front of the crowd, to take some pictures of him coming in. I reached for the car key that I was supposed to hand him too but it wasn’t in my pocket! Oh no! As I heard my bib number called, I had to run back into the crowd to find the key. Luckily, I found it pretty easily and still had time to take a few pics of Travis coming in for the hand off.

He finished his leg in 1:04:36, at a pace of 8:16/mile. He said that the first mile was really crowded and they almost stopped completely after the first 500 yards or so, so we think that he was right on pace for the majority of his run, but that the first mile threw it off.

I handed him the camera and car key, grabbed the drumstick (our relay baton), and off I went. Since I was going to be entering the massive pack of runners way faster than me, I tried to be mindful and run on the very outside of the road, so that people didn’t have to swerve around me. Some still did but oh well. I was glad to be carrying something that showed I was a relay runner. Sorry to be so slow and running with the fast people!

But it was a LOT of fun to run with the fast people. I was in the thick of it – there were tons of runners around. Which probably was mostly to do with the 17,000 runners doing the race. If I had been back with the 11:30 minute/mile people, there probably would’ve been plenty there too. But running with the fast people also inspired me to run fast. My legs felt fantastic. The minute I started running, I felt great.

I pushed it. For the entire race, I toed the line between running my fastest and overdoing it. I started running at mile 7.8 and tried to calculate my pace at mile 9 but came up with an 11:30/mile. Crap! If I was having such a hard time maintaining that slow of a pace, this race was going to suck. I saw mile marker 10. I decided that if my pace really was 11:30, then there was no reason to really push myself like I was. But to my joy, I discovered that I had just done a 10:00 mile. Woohoo!

That gave me the motivation I needed to keep pushing.

Mile 11 – 9:45. Holy crap, I can’t believe it!

Mile 12 – 9:55. I’m actually running sub-10 minute miles!! But holy crap, this is hard. It’s so tempting to slow down. 

Mile 13 – 10:00. Only a mile left – don’t throw away this pace now! Think of how proud you’ll be. Think of how proud Travis will be. Keep pushing!

I picked up the pace for the last .1 when I heard Travis yell “Go Kath!” from the sidelines. I can honestly say that I ran my heart out in this race – so much so, that I almost felt like puking when I was done. That’s when you know you pushed it.

I finished 5.3 miles in 52:57. That is a 9:59 pace.

Yes!

I am still on a high from that race! What an amazing feeling to dig down deep and perform in a way that I didn’t expect. I was aiming for at least an 11:00 pace, wondering if that was even a stretch. And I blew that away!

Final time: 1:58:58

Average pace: 9:05

25/86 co-ed relay teams

I’d like to think that if this had actually been a 10K, I’d have a new PR (the only 10K I’ve run, I did in 62:36). And perhaps, I would. But I’m not sure I could have maintained that pace for even another 9/10 of a mile. I was completely beat. Regardless, this proves to me that I still have some speed in me.

After the race, I found Travis and while he went to get some food (they didn’t have any in the relay transition area), I stretched. We walked around the expo a little, rode the shuttle back to our car and headed home.

About the race itself, I was thoroughly impressed. The Rock ‘n’ Roll peeps have their crap together. I give this event an A++. The registration was easy, the pre-race information was thorough (they thought of everything!), there were tons of volunteers and portapoos (and spectators!) everywhere, the race t-shirt and medal are awesome, and the post-race food was plentiful. They had anything and everything you could want to eat after a race. They also had a family meetup area, a stretching tent and space blankets. I would definitely recommend this race. It is worth every penny.

Anyway, when we got home, we showered, ate a snack, and got back in the car to head to a friend’s birthday party, where Travis played flag football. Football isn’t my thing so I just hung out with pooches and talked to the other people who weren’t playing.

Then we went to their house, where we ate a ton of food, drank margaritas and beer, and watched football. I talked to a lady who had ran the full marathon that morning – it was her 13th full marathon and she had done two half Ironmans this summer. Impressive.

We left the party around 3 and like usual, even though my plan was to plop on the couch the minute I walked in the door, I couldn’t resist being productive. So I did the dishes, did laundry, went to Target and the post office, got gas, and then rested. We watched the movie Bridesmaids, which we had heard was hilarious. Um… no? We actually thought it was depressing and pretty much sucked. I mean, there were a few funny parts. But overall, meh.

Today is a rest day but tomorrow, I start my base building training schedule. I will be taking several rest days during elk hunting – my MIL, Beth, and I will probably hike some but no running (because there will be no showers!). But then, it’s back to it!

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Sickness + Sore Muscles = Suck

23 Sep

Yesterday, after typing up my marathon training plan, I was all gung-ho to get back on the exercise horse. So I ran to the Rec (3.15 miles round trip) and did 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical while I was there. I kept an eye on my heart rate but I was so tired and sluggish that my problem wasn’t keeping my heart rate low enough, but getting it high enough. My run was at a 11:50/mile pace but it felt a lot slower.

I did the first 30 minutes of Yoga X (from P90X) on Tuesday morning and I am just now getting over the soreness. And it was weird soreness – the front of my biceps and my hamstrings. Weird. My arms were still so sore yesterday that they hurt while I was running. It always amazes me how the human body adapts to exercises. I can do an Olympic triathlon and hardly be sore at all but I do 30 measly minutes of yoga and I can barely walk. What’s up with that? Anyway, I also had high aspirations to do strength training last night but after 15 lunges on each leg, discovered that my legs were completely shot.

Then during the night, Charlie woke up at 3 am and started whining and banging around in her crate. I either have the world’s best hearing or have a mother’s sixth sense because I can hear Charlie over a fan and through a closed door. Grrrrr… I got up once and told her to stop whining. She kept doing it. Travis was moving around a little then so I asked him if he thought she had to poop and if I should let her out. He said “Maybe” and “Probably” and then very chivalrously offered to let her out himself. As he stumbled over to the closet to find some shorts and rummaged around for 30 seconds, I told him I might as well do it since I was already wide awake and was fully clothed. So he went back to bed.

Charlie did have to go. As I put her back in her crate and went back to bed, I thought about how our relationship with Katy is so different from ours with Charlie. Katy is very predictable and always has been. So if she pooped or puked inside the house, you knew there was something wrong – it was so out of character for her. But Charlie has seriously been (to use Winston Churchill’s description of Christopher Columbus that I learned in college) “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” We have not been able to figure her out. There is no predicting what she will or will not do.

But I feel like we’re making very slow progress with this. This morning, when I sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, Charlie went over and sniffed at the laundry room door (the way they get outside). I let her out and she went and did her thing. Yay! She didn’t poop inside! Progress!

The downside of getting up to let her out was that I couldn’t get back to sleep for the life of me. I think I finally fell back asleep around 4:30. I don’t know why but when I go to bed, I don’t have any trouble falling asleep. But when I try to fall back asleep in the wee hours of the morning, I always have tons of thoughts running through my head – about work, what I’m going to wear, what I’m going to have for breakfast, if I should work out in the morning or wait until after work, what I’m going to bring for lunch, etc. This stuff does NOT need to be decided at 4 am!

"Yeah, I'm a lot of work."

Needless to say, working out this morning did not happen. I actually didn’t get up until 7:30! Katy started doing her low groaning thing in our bedroom around 6:30 because she wanted to be fed. So I got up, fed them, put Charlie back in her crate and went back to bed. But I just laid there, psyching myself out, paranoid that they were whining. Bah! So I got back up at 7, put them in the backyard (with Charlie on a cable so she couldn’t jump over the fence like she does all the time now), and went back to bed for another 30 minutes. Again, no sleep. Just too lazy to actually stay out of bed. I think I’m understanding my husband more these days…

And on top of everything, I woke up feeling more sick than I did yesterday. This cold is tougher to kick than I thought! So I guess I should ease off and do some more yoga and easy cardio.

I’m feeling very relieved that I only have to run 5 miles in the half marathon relay! And that today is Friday! Our weekend is pretty open so far – I’m having coffee with my friend Cathy tomorrow and then we’re having a “last of the summer” care group BBQ on Sunday afternoon. My only goal is to get our office cleaned up. That has been my dumping ground for the last 4 months and it shows!

Do you have any plans for the weekend?

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Packing and Pooping

26 Aug

Well friends, race weekend is here. In 2 hours, I will leave work to take my dog to the vet (more on that in a bit), then head home to pack up all of my triathlon gear and prepare for my trip to Steamboat Springs tomorrow.

Itinerary

I’m going to have coffee with my friend D in the morning (who is also graciously watching our pooches for the weekend) and then hit the road around 11. Due to a bike race going on near Silverthorne/Rabbit Ears Pass, I have to take the long way around, making my trip 3.5 hours, instead of 2.5.

No matter! I’ll be rocking the same mini speakers we rocked all the way to Yellowstone and back (since the radio in our Focus is still broken).

Heck yes!

Once I get to Steamboat, my plan is to head straight to packet pickup at the Ski Haus and then go check in at the hotel, where Travis will meet me on his return from counting cacti in Middle-of-Nowhere Roosevelt, UT (no joke). He’s been there all week. Apparently, this cactus is an endangered species. Meaning there aren’t a whole lot of them. They were batting .500 on seeing them during the course of a whole day.

From what I’ve heard, Steamboat has a rodeo every Saturday night. If it’s not too late, we might go check that out because I’ve never been to a rodeo. (Shocking, I know.) Otherwise, I figure we’ll just bum around downtown Steamboat, have dinner and call it an early night. Race wakeup calls come early – this one will be at 5:15 am. But usually I sleep so poorly that I’m rearing just to get up and get on with the show already.

And the other details will be saved for the Race Recap to come on Monday. 😉

Time Goals

Things this week haven’t gone *quite* as planned. Both Wednesday and Thursday, I only drank about 40 oz of water. I haven’t stretched since Monday. I couldn’t swim this morning because our gym was closed.

But regardless of all that, I do feel prepared. My time goals for this race are between 3:17:30 (stretch) and 3:32:30 (more realistic). Here’s the breakdown:

Stretch Goals

Swim 43:00

T1 1:30

Bike 1:30:00 (16 mph)

T2 1:00

Run 1:02:00 (10 min/mile)

TOTAL 3:17:30

More Realistic Goals

Swim 45:00

T1 2:00

Bike 1:35:00 (15 mph)

T2 1:30

Run 1:09:00 (11 min/mile)

TOTAL 3:32:30

Why those times?

For the swim, I practiced 825 yards (750 meters) and finished in 21:20. Double that and you have 42:40. But if I wear my wetsuit (which I’m still debating about because the race website said the water is supposed to mid-60s.. BRRR!), I’ll be slower, since the suit limits how much I can bend my legs and therefore, how well I can kick and how fast I can go.

For the bike, I have averaged 16-17 mph in the other races I did this year and I’m definitely in better biking shape now than I was then (thank you Simms!). This bike course is downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back and the elevation map looks sweet (for the first half) and nasty (for the last half).

But the good news is that the elevation gain/loss is less than 200 feet and the steepest grade is a 2%. But… then I look at my route to work and it says those hills are a 2% grade as well. Crap it.

For the run, I have been running an average pace somewhere between 11:00 and 11:30 on my runs. But for some reason, I run faster after I bike. In the Greeley Tri, I managed a 10:21 pace and in the Boulder Sunrise, I did a 11:00 pace. So in essence, I’m looking for a miracle. I guess I’m still hoping that someday, I can get back to consistently running 10 minute miles as my slowest pace instead of my fastest. I try to remind myself that last year, I was consistently running 12:30s – so I have made progress.

This triathlon will be my longest workout ever by at least 30 minutes (if you don’t include hiking). My longest workout previously was my slowest half marathon, which I finished in 2:44:44.

Fueling

I plan on fueling on race day by eating my traditional bagel with peanut butter. I’m also going to try to eat a banana before starting, since this race will be so much longer than a Sprint. On the bike, I will eat 1 whole pack (6 blocks) of Shotbloks, with 3 blocks at 45 minutes and 3 blocks very soon before I get off the bike.

I will eat 3 more blocks on the run around the halfway point. I will also have another piece of bread with peanut butter on it in transition for me to grab if I’m hungry before heading out on the run, since Shotbloks are more to replace electrolytes than to fill you up.

And then, the best part, I’ll have an Athlete’s Honey Milk waiting for me at the finish line! I tried these for the first time at the Greeley Tri and loved them. Since they’re $2.50 a bottle, I only use them for special occasions – like this race!

**Warning: Poop picture ahead**

Speaking of last night, and taking Charlie to the vet, and the pooping I mentioned in the title of this post, I had an incredibly disgusting experience when I came home last night. As I walked into the garage, I thought I smelled something funny. My first thought was Travis’ disgusting hockey gear, but no, it didn’t quite smell right. I was still wondering when I opened the laundry room door and was greeted by this:

I cannot even begin to describe how gross it was. The smell was beyond words. Poopy pawprints were on the door, the wall, the washer and dryer – everywhere.

I put the dogs outside, entered the house through the front door, and changed into old work clothes. I put my hair up, grabbed some rubber gloves, found a sheetrock mask of Trav’s, and got out the paper towels, a bucket and a sponge.

And Denver just had to set a record high of 99 degrees yesterday so I had sweat rolling down my face as I scrubbed and tried my darnedest not to gag. After I was done in the laundry room, I took the dogs one by one and gave them each a bath. Ick.

The room still stunk this morning. Once Travis gets home, we’re going to clean the crap out of it – literally.

So that’s why I’m taking Charlie to the vet. No dog in their right mind (or right bowel?) should ever do that. Poor Katy was subjected to Charlie’s poopy mess for who knows how long. And Charlie has been slinking around all night and all morning, like she’s incredibly embarrassed that I caught her deprecating in her own sleeping space. It happens, Charlie. Once. It happens once. It better not happen again…

……

I’m scared to go home.

___________________________

Anyway, have a lovely weekend readers! I’ll catch you all Monday!

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