Thursday, November 11, 2010

A belly full of ice cream...

In the middle of November, no less :) Granted, it's been unseasonably warm in Central Ohio this week, but you won't see me complaining! Getting to go on a run this morning in a tank top and shorts was pretty awesome, I won't lie.

Things have been ridiculously crazy around here lately, hence my lack of posting. A couple of days after my race, we adopted another dog...he's a 10 month old whippet mix named Eddie, and he's put us through the wringer over the last few weeks. The poor guy was woefully undersocialized, and though that has gotten a lot better he still has his moments of being a bratty puppy. Unfortunately, J and I did not prepare ourselves nearly as much as we should have for adding another dog to our family, and as a result of that and not recognizing when the dogs needed some time separate from one another they got in a small fight two days after Eddie joined our home. Said fight resulted in a cut under Georgie's right eye that ended up needing three stitches (and two weeks in the cone of shame), and mini breakdowns on J and I's parts. After much talking, and some tears, we came to the mutual realization that while shipping Eddie back to his foster mom would be the easy way out, we owed it to him to beef up the training and exercise, read he and Georgie's signals better, and set all of us up for success.

So with the help of Eddie's foster mom (who is also a vet, and knows a ton about training and behavior), a great message board for pet owners that I frequent, and a few baby gates...things are 500% better. The dogs love playing in the backyard, and are even sharing their toys well. Eddie still has his punky, pushy, bratty puppy moments (usually when Georgie's getting attention and he wants to play) but when that happens he gets put in "timeout" (on the other side of the nearest baby gate) to settle down and all is good. Luckily, he can be trusted to be upstairs while we are downstairs without tearing anything up...as long as the bedroom door is closed. Little brat has destroyed four pairs of my underwear, and the underwear-type lining out of one pair of running shorts. He's definitely a work in progress, but he's adorable and so eager to please...sometimes, it's like his little face is just looking at us and saying "Love me, love me, pleeeeeeease love me?". And we're in love.

I do have to say, the last three weeks personify my classic response when someone asks "Why do you run so much, anyway?" My response? "It's cheaper than therapy, and better for me than drinking." It's so true though...running/working out has been such an outlet for all the anxiety I've been feeling over the last few weeks, and I have a strong feeling that I'd be far worse off if I didn't have a healthy outlet for said anxiety.

Now onto something a little more lighthearted...Central Ohioans, what do you think the chances are that we'll have this gorgeous weather in two weeks for Thanksgiving? Specifically, the Turkey Trot...it's always freaking cold that morning and I'm sure this year won't be any different but a girl can hope, right? Beyond that, I'm tentatively planning on doing a 5k in downtown Columbus the first Saturday in December but that's going to depend on the weather so it'll be a last minute decision. I realized that there are three months of the year that I haven't raced in yet-December, January, and February...so I'm trying to fix that. Let's see if Mother Nature cooperates :)

Anyone else planning late fall/early winter races?