Sunshine and Rain

Well, I've sucked every bit of sunshine that I can out of this day. A little earlier, I went over to the pool and got my laps done. At first, there were a few black clouds around, but finally, the sun came out. It turned out to be a really nice swim after all. I had a great lunch and had a nice break out relaxing this afternoon. Now the dark clouds are gathering, and I hear thunder in the distance. I do remember hearing that we could have some showers this afternoon and rain overnight. I sure hope it's pretty tomorrow. Casey and I have a TON of things that we want to go out and do. I REALLY would prefer not to do them in the rain. Oh well.... Everyone have a great weekend!

700 Puppies Rescued from Lyles, TN Puppy Mill

Most of you have probably heard of the puppy mill in Lyles, Tennessee that was shut down this week. With the assistance of the local humane association, The Humane Association of the United States, and other shelters from across the country, over 700 dogs were rescued. This afternoon, WKRN put out a bulletin for anyone who may interested in donating, adopting, or volunteering to help these animals:

Recently, there was a puppy mill that was shut down in Hickman County, TN. Most of the puppies that were rescued will be sent to the local dog shelter.

If anybody would like to adopt these animals, you can contact the Hickman County Humane Society at 1-866-304-3352. There were about 700 puppies that were rescued from this 52-acre farm in Lyles, TN, and they are all now at the Humane society.

This is not the first time this person has been caught with running a puppy mill, just one year ago, she was shut down.

Slow Friday

I'm a bit slow today. I had another round of the dreaded reflux last night, so I'm draggy today. I had planned to run today, and I was really looking forward to it. If I don't feel too bad, I might still get a short run in. I have to be careful, because sometimes the jarring I get during the run brings on reflux. We'll see. My 5k is coming up soon, so I really need to do extra training. Oh well...

Dogs, Cats, Lizards.....Recent Pictures

Here's the latest look at my brood:

Indiana Bones

Fergie

Molly

The New Lizards

Obi Wan

I should have some new pictures of Shiloh and Shingo soon!!

Weekend Whammy!!

After I had such a nice day on Saturday, it all went downhill from there. Casey and I watched movies for most of the day on Sunday. Sunday night, I had a really bad bout with acid reflux. Not only do I get the heartburn with it, but I also have the esphagus spasms. Those REALLY hurt! The spasms make my chest, back, throat, and ears hurt. That went on until about 1:00 a.m. Monday morning. Afterwards, I'm always wiped out, so I just rested on Monday. I felt some better, but I still felt like I had a baseball stuck in my chest. It happened all over again on Monday night, except this time it was worse. I ended up staying home from work yesterday. Luckily, I finally got a good night's sleep last night with no relapse. I'm still a little shaky, but I'm feeling MUCH better today! I just hope that it doesn't happen again anytime soon!

Nice Day

Wow, it's really been the nicest day! I was able to spend some time at the pool this morning. Got my laps in and a little sunshine too. I grabbed a quick lunch, and have spent the afternoon watching Kitchen Nightmares. Too funny! I'm not sure what's up for tonight. Casey has been out with friends all day, so it's a wait and see game right now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Bored

Today is just a boring day. Nothing out of the unusual and nothing to report. I'm just skywatching to determine if I'll be able to go swim this afternoon. If that doesn't pan out, I'll just go run. Later everyone.....

Where Have I Been?

I realized this morning, with a shock, that I hadn't updated the old blog here this week!! I can't believe it! You guys know that I really enjoy prattling on.... Life was normal this past weekend. We did take the puppies over to Jennie's on Sunday to play in the kennel play yard. We didn't stay long, because it was SO hot outside. I mostly just rested the rest of the day. Did the usual on Monday: cleaned house and did laundry.

I've been really working out this week, though. The weather got REALLY nice on Monday. It's been in the low 80's with really low humidity here, so it was ideal for getting some outdoor running training done. I'm running my first 5K in late August, so I've been really needing to train outside in the heat. I went to the park trail for the first time on Saturday night. It had rained most of the day, so the temp wasn't as bad, but it sure was hot and sticky. I managed to get 2 miles in, before I started to overheat. I went back yesterday afternoon, and the humidity was MUCH better. I managed to get my 3 miles done. I also learned to pace myself better on the hills. I may not be the fastest runner, but I'm REALLY improving my endurance. I went Monday night to the regular Rec Center track and got 3 miles in there as well. I hit the pool on Tuesday. Swimming the laps helps to make me feel like my spine is decompressing from all the pounding I get from running. It felt so good that I ended up swimming nearly 2 miles!! I've decided to take today as a rest day. We are moving a lot of big boxes at work, and my back is starting to feel a little strained. I'll be back in the pool tomorrow.

Well, I'd better run. I've got a million things to do today! Everyone have a GREAT day!

Dreary Saturday

Well, the rain came in about the time Casey and I had planned to go to the pool yesterday. So no go. It has been raining, dreary, and overcast all day today. I guess I shouldn't complain. We need the rain badly, but I just hate it when it rains all day.

Since I can't go to the pool today, I'll just take a long run after work. I've got the Zen all loaded up and readed to go. If it stops raining, it may be cool enough to run outside. That would be SO nice. I'll just go out to the nature trail and go for it. If not, I'll just head over to the Rec Center. I miss running on a ship. All of my runs were so beautiful. At least I have this to remind me:

It's Friday the 13th!

An unlucky day for some, but I usually have good luck on Friday the 13th. I'm just waiting to see what today has in store for me. After work today, I'm going back to the pool and taking Casey with me. He's going to sun (hehehe), and I'm going to swim my laps. I just hope the good weather holds, until we're done with that. There's a chance of scattered storms this afternoon, so we'll see.

To read about the origin of Friday the 13th, click HERE. As a history major, I couldn't resist. The short version is this: On Friday the 13th in 1307, all the the Knights Templar were arrested and imprisoned by the French King and the Pope. Over several years, they were tortured and killed. That is why Friday the 13th is considered to be unlucky.....

Everyone have a LUCKY day!!

Engineer's Guide to Cats

My friend Kim sent me this, and since this is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, I thought this would be good to share with you all. Especially, if you are considering bringing a cat into your home. Be sure to watch until you get to the part about "cat yodeling".

June: Adopt A Shelter Cat Month

June is National Adopt A Shelter Cat Month. If you are considering adding a feline friend to your family, please consider adopting from a shelter.

The New Dragons

As promised, here are some pictures of the new dragons that Casey and I got on Wednesday:

One of the new girls, Lily.

The 2 new boys and girl. (In the cage, I can't tell them apart yet...)

Here's some pictures of the 2 dragons that Casey and I already had:

Dart, who is 4 years old.

Rose, who is 5 years old.

Photo Shoot

My friend Jennie, who owns Kindred Spirits Dog Training & Boarding, is building a brand new website. She hired a professional photographer to come out and shoot all of the pictures for her website. She asked me and Casey, if we would mind bringing the puppies and Fergie out to have their pictures made for her website. Of course, I said yes!! After work yesterday, we went out for the first day of shooting. First, she got a picture of me checking in, while I was holding Shingo. He was looking over my shoulder with the cutest look. After that, she shot them out in the play yard playing. They were all so cute. Me, Casey, Jennie, and her worker, Samantha, were all throwing balls for them. They were running around like crazy!! Then, Jennie wanted to get a shot of me and Fergie for her rescue story page. Jennie originally trained Fergie for 6 weeks at the kennel, before we adopted her. We went out to her horse pasture. Part of it was mown, but the back part wasn't. The part that wasn't was full of wildflowers in bloom. The photographer put a blanket down right were the mown part stopped and the unmown section started. I sat down with Fergie beside me. The picture turned out fantastic!! It looks like we're right in the middle of a meadow. The last shot was of me and Casey and all of the dogs. She had Casey and me sit back to back, leaning on each other. Fergie sat right in front and between us, and Casey and I held the puppies on our laps. Once again, we had the wildflowers right behind us. Jennie's horse warmup ring was right in front of us, and she had climbed onto it and was squaking toys and pitching a ball to get all of the dogs' attention. Those shots were absolutely AWESOME!! I can't wait to get my copies. In addition to our shots, Jennie's other worker had her bulldog there. They had shots of him getting a bath. Too funny!! Another customer had come out with her tiny Chihuahua. She was honey colored, and her name was Butternut!! Butternut was shot using the kennel. Jennie had bought one of those little dog sofas and put it in the kennel. It was leopard print. Butternut had her picture sitting on the doggy sofa in the kennel. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. The whole shoot took about 3 hours, but it was SO much fun! Jennie said it would take about 2 months to get the new website built. When it is up, I'll post the link here, so you guys can take a look at what we did.

Dragons

One of my student assistants had friend that had bred a bunch of high color bearded dragons. Her friend is moving soon and needed some homes for the young dragons. Casey and I still have 2 of ours, Dart and Rose. Our others died of old age. Anyway since we were already set up and prepared to feed dragons, we volunteered to take some. Yesterday afternoon, we went and picked them up. They look mostly like Sunfire and Chris Allen red crosses. They are SO bright and colorful. We ended up taking 2 males and 2 females. Now, we're busy trying to name them all. I think since we already have Rose, that we may stick with flower names for the girls. I want to name one Lily, and I'm trying to think of the other one a name. We're still trying to come up with something for the boys. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch baby bearded dragons. Casey is going to attempt to get some good pictures tonight. Maybe tomorrow, I'll have something to share with you all.

After the Cruise: Ft. Lauderdale

Disembarking was VERY quick in Miami. We were off the ship, before 8:30 a.m. We did the self assist with our luggage, so we could go right straight to customs. We were back at the Fairfield by 9:30 a.m. Not bad. We got our car and made our way to Ft. Lauderdale. I have to say that Ft. Lauderdale is absolutely beautiful. We had our reservations at The Birch Patio Motel. We chose the Birch, because we had read excellent reviews of the place. It's family owned, along with the two adjoining motel properties. The reviews were spot on. It was one of those cute, little, old motels of the past. As Casey said, it had "kitch". They had three types of rooms: hotel, efficiency, and apt. We took the hotel. Our room had a full sized fridge, microwave, toaster, table and chairs, and enough dishes and utensils for 4 people. We LOVED our bathroom. It still had all of the original fixtures. We fell in love with the sink! The grounds of the complex were absolutely beautiful and well kept. Each of the pool areas and patios had garden or a fountain or both. They had gas grills, charcoal grills, and picnic tables too. A great place to go and stay.

Patio areas at the Birch.

Our groovy cool bathroom sink with "kitch".

The birch was only a block or so from the beach, which was beautiful. So, we just walked to and from the beach. It was very clean and well kept as well. After our stay in Ft. Lauderdale, we drove back home. All in all, we enjoyed our whole vacation SO much!! I just can't wait to do it again!! Ft. Lauderdale Beach