Lisa Blount

One of my favorite horror movies from the 80s was Prince of Darkness. In it starred actress Lisa Blount. She passed away the other day from chronic illness....

Here's her whole movie list.

P for Pomegranate

I overheard a woman at Target talking about her credit card being hacked. Then I overheard another group of people talking about their credit union being hacked and all their cards were compromised. Wiki leaks...electronic madness!! Maybe it's time to go back to cash in hand for a bit.

While looking for pumpkin carving ideas tonight, I got a virus. I was stupid, but guuuhh!!! Painful!

Pomegranates are everywhere. They're prolly under my bed. And yet, I will eat them because they are fun to peel open and pick apart.

I sat at Denny's by myself today and had an All American Slam plus big bowl of grits. It's been a long time since I've eaten at Denny's let alone by myself in dare I say..peace. ahhhh Sip my coffee and stare out the window at the mountain which has a tip of snow on it now.

I finally finished all the homemade spaghetti sauce! I also finished my last frozen jar of lentil soup. I ate a Kipper snack recently. I forget how those little fishies can fill the room with their smell.

Halloween is right around the corner. Asa had a little school parade today where all the kids got to wear their costumes. It was cute. I think if I was going to do a costume, I would want to be V. It's just a mask I know, but I watched V For Vendetta today, and I still really like this movie.

A blaah Monday

Liz came home sick and slept all day. I hope she is feeling better at work today. I hope I don't catch whatever she has either. I always tell myself that I'll be fine. Just wash your hands and you'll be ok. Then I get sick and think, well that never works. I still cling to the idea that my body can repel most germs. I even have the irrational idea that I don't need a flu shot. That's more of a conspiracy theory though. Liz came home and said. " ughhhh I got the plague!" After reading Atwood's books, the word plague sounds so disturbing. That's just how they'd do it too, they'd innoculate all of us with it. See...I is cookoo!

So I had two medical appointments Monday. First the opthamologist for my yearly glaucoma check up. Have to go see if my eye pressure and big ole retinal cups are stable. I don't get worked up about it, but I really don't like the eye doc. I really don't like anything coming near my eyeballs. They always have a hard time getting a pressure reading on my eyes, because I can't help but seize my entire body when that purple donut is pressing against my cornea. Ughhhh!! I have thicker than average corneas btw. Sexy no?

This eye doc had some fancier equipment than the one in Omaha. He had a ultrasound glaucoma machine called an OCT. Not sure what that stands for. Ahh Optical Cohereance Topography! I think the machine looks like a cyclops hippopotamus though. They should name it Jerry the Cyclopotamus!

So long story short, I don't have glaucoma yet. But I think I'll be getting eye drops in my not too distant future.

Next I had my dental appointment. My last four appointments have been without issue. So I was hoping it would be another such appointment. Not so. First off, they took about 50 pictures of my teeth which included several digital xrays and a 360 one as well. That's a lotta pics of my mouth! The tech told me how she grew up with Lebron James. It's a wonder I even know who that is. Basketball is probably as cryptic to me as curling. She then told me how she's turning 40 and really wants some bling for her birthday, specifically a diamond tennis bracelet. I've never been into jewelry, but I think I understand it more now than I used to.

I don't trust dentists, or doctors for that matter. Which is ironic no? But I especially don't trust dentists. They rank right up there with sneaky auto mechanics to me. So when they told me, I have periodontal disease, a small crack in my tooth , show signs of grinding my teeth during sleep ,and a cavity....I was like nooo waay. You guys are trying to rip me off.

The first thing to address is the gum disease. After some research and honest thought, I am thinking this is a true assessment from this dentist. In fact, maybe it's been the other dentists who have been slack? Course I'm really the only one who can be truly slack in this. Regardless, next week I'll have my whole mouth subjected to scaling and root planing. It doesn't sound comfortable, but in a crazy way I am looking forward to the pain. Not so much masochism as a chance for mental imagery experimentation.

Friday Run

Well, today I decided to run to the top of Mt. Charleston. This would be over 16 miles of extremely tough terrain reaching an elevation of almost 12000 feet. (Not quite the minimum elevation of the HardRock 100 race) Half way up the mountain, I had a major problem though. You ready for this? A branch tore my pants off!!! I'm talking shorts and skivvies all in one!! Lucky I brought my knife, and I was able to cut my secondary top into a sort of tarzan garment.

Ok I'm lying. That shiznutter did not happen. In truth, there was NO run today. I was kinda bummed since I won't be able to do a long run this weekend, but the weather was not favorable and honestly, I just didn't feel like it. I realize that all this is very much a luxury, and I'm grateful to be able to take a Friday and do whatever I please.

So I finished my book The Year of The Flood.


I thought about doing a review on these books, but I don't feel I could do them justice. However, I am feeling this compulsion to draw the characters. I don't know why, but I just keep trying to picture them as clearly as possible. Perhaps I will get my focus on and show you some drawings soon. This is supposedly a trilogy, but I may have to wait another 5 years for the third book to come. That day will be met with great excitement!

To top off my luxurious day, Liz got home early and we went out to eat with just ourselves! We ate a Greek place called The Market Grill. It was very good!! Here's some pics of the food.


Above you can see my Lentil soup with feta and my gyro with both dill sauce and hummus. Next is another pic when our salads and rice came along with the rosemary an dill potato wedges. Yumm


And Finally for desert we ordered some yia yia cookies which are greek butter cookies and then this baklava cheesecake. Notice how the cheesecake is whipped rather than dense...slight taste of cinnamon and pumpkin on it..was pretty good.


I think I will be eating at this place again and soon. They have more soups and many more interesting dishes to try!

Harvesting

Well I went back to the mountain on Monday and harvested some pinyon pine nuts. I even ran into the Japanese couple that was out last Friday. They were much farther up on the trail and invited me to come pick nuts under their tree. So nice of them to offer, but I was just stopping from time to time to pick up a few nuts, since Finley had come along and needed some walking action. I thought I would be hacking into a lot of pine cones, but the nuts were all over the ground in some spots. This was a good thing because the few cones I did wrangle left me covered in pine sap which was a boondoggle to clean off. The gloves I brought, I ended up wearing home to keep my gluey hands off of everything. Hence no pictures from the day either. My fingaz were too sticky.

I had wanted to go further along on the trail to scope it out, but once again the weather was not going to let that happen. As soon as I got on the backside of the mountain, clouds rolled in, rather creepy too I must say, and then one drum of thunder was enough to make Finley wimper. I even wore my vibrams out on the trail and honestly, I think I could prolly run that trail in vibrams. There'd only be about 10 percent that would require extra caution. I did manage to chaf my heels though. The older vibrams had some issues.

I came home and put the nuts on a cookie sheet to go through. We baked them for 15 minutes after soaking in water, but many of the nuts are still soft inside the hard shell. The taste varies between nuts. Some taste really good, while others are really bland. If I had to do it over I think I'd bake them longer at a lower temp to keep the monosat fats intact.

Red Rock Casino

This weekend we went to Red Rock Casino. It's not downtown in the strip, but out on the west end of town. It's a big hotel, slash Casino, slash everything else. We have one close to us in the north called Aliante Station which is a bit smaller. It still has an IMAX 3D theatre though which I will visit on December 17th. We came here for Asa to go to a birthday party at a place called Kid's Quest. No adults are allowed in this place. It's basically a place to drop your kids off while you gamble. It's open till 1am!

So we had a couple of hours to burn. What to do? Well we tried some slot machines. Here's a pic of the inside of the Casino.


It looks just like Aliante on the inside. Liz tells me it looks just like the Casinos on the strip too. So after taking 10 minutes to figure out how to play, and then playing a mere 20 dollars on slots, Liz said she could see the appeal, but I was left thinking I'd have a lot more fun playing Tetris and eating pizza.

I wandered into the bowling alley they had there called Red Rock Lanes. The lighting in this place was a white balance nightmare. Not that I cared, but wow. To me, bowling alleys were better as dark pits. All the color, lasers, and tvs just makes it seem silly to me. Even the balls have these logos on them of skulls, crushing, and venom? To me it's like taking an econo box and putting a spoiler on it. That translates as tacky!


This is the locker room, but it reminded me of a Japanese hotel slash 2001 set piece.


All in all it was a good day and Asa had a great time at her birthday party. She didn't paint her face though. I kinda thought she'd go for that. Funny side bit, I had two people try to make conversation with me about college football here. What's up with that?!! What is it about me that says I am into some college ball.

Pine Nuts and Eggrolls

Who doesn't like eggrolls?!!! Not the cabbage and carrot filled crap at buffets, but juicy ,meaty, golden brown logs of love! Everyone has a comfort food ( or a few). It's those foods that follow you through life and have the power to make a bad day good or take you back to good times. For me, eggrolls are up there. I don't eat them often, but when I do...there is no self restraint. Gimme some vinegar and soysauce for dipping and leave the room. There are only a few things I can stuff myself with and not feel gross later. Right now...I'm riding the eggroll satisfaction train. Whoo whooo!

This past Friday was my weekly mountain trail run. I kept seeing all these people crouched under trees near the trail head. What were they doing!!! So on a stop at my truck to refill my new amphipod hydraform , I asked a woman walking by about their business. Apparently it's pine nut harvesting season. As I continued on my run, I saw a pine cone with nuts still inside. I stopped and popped one in my mouth. Ooops! I guess I'm supposed to remove the seed covering first. It's all in my teeth now and my fingers have pine sap on them. But hey, pretty tasty as pine nuts go.

Later I talked to a Japanese woman who explained to me how to cook them and how her and her husband come here a lot. She was proud of her new hiking boots. She had a 1 pound freezer bag full of nuts which took her about 3 hours to acquire. I told her I saw a bunch of them about a mile up on the trail, and she got this look in her eye. She wanted to know exactly where they were! Tuns out, Pinyon pine nuts are prime for production between 7 and 8 thousand feet which is wham right what Sawmill trail is at. The weekend was too busy for a family outing for nuts, but I may have to go back and harvest some for myself. Pine nuts are expensive, and the idea of fresh home made pine nut bread sounds goood!

At the end of my run, I was sitting in the back of my truck with the hatch open. I was just eating some food when I spied this mutant insect marching towards me on the pavement. It's legs were moving as if they were mechanical. It was like a robotic tank the size of a lighter! As it went by, I decided it was just a really big mole cricket. I said "Hi! Mr. Mole Cricket!" and the bug stopped for a couple of seconds and then kept on moving. Sensitive to sound no doubt, but if he rotated towards me and began marching at me, I might've got skeered!

As for the run, it was good. I did manage to get briefly lost which kinda spooked me for a bit since that's when it started to lightly drizzle on me, and the wind really picked up. However, my getting lost was a good thing as I found a new trail and a cool hill. It's really steep going up, but it's mostly packed dirt with no rocks and staggered really well. This means you can run down it fast and keep control. I don't get to run downhill much, and I think my quads are finally coming into the idea that they can take some stress. Scared a couple of horses, met some black labs, and felt really good through most all of it.

The brain plays tricks on you though. When I wore my heart rate monitor on the treadmill, my heart rate would almost always go up when nearing certain goals I had. No matter how I tried to concentrate or diffuse it, the beat would always go up. I think I felt something similar this outing. I knew I only had a couple more laps to go but my brain was already in the 'ok we're done' mode. I really had to focus my thinking, tighten my form, and concentrate on simple issues. I was going to get another gel in the truck before my last lap , but decided nope, just finish it. As I hit the uphill portion of the loop, I was very tired. I felt like I could just stop at any moment. So I just gathered what strength I could and just sprinted as far as I could, which wasn't far. hahaha But it kept me going strong. So I was very happy to have run my first half marathon. Felt really good the whole weekend too. This is when I start contemplating the idea of running 50 miles someday. Could I run for 10 or 11 hours? 'Do I want to' is probably the more important question.

Trapped In The Canyon

I caught an episode of " I Shouldn't Be Alive" last night. Been a while since I've seen an episode. Most of them engage me, but some do more so than others. Things like laying close to death after being in a fight with a crocodile and having flesh ripping ants pile on you, or having to leave your son in a snow cave to find help, only to come withing seconds of death....these things make me shudder.

Last nights episode was about Danelle Ballangee. She is an 'extreme' endurance athlete. It doesn't take long to discover she has an accident in Moab Utah while on a trail run in a canyon. So obviously, I was gripped right away with this. She also has a dog named Taz who she got at a pound when she was a pup. Luckily, Taz would go with her on training runs.

Danelle has a huge fall ( like 60ft) and shatters her pelvis. Her skeleton is in two pieces!!! She is crawling , but is trapped. She drinks out a little mud puddle. It's below freezing at night and she does 1 sit up every 5 seconds for 6 hours to keep from falling asleep which would mean certain death. Whose up for 4000 situps?!! The next day she is in severe pain from the adrenaline being gone. She says I would have rather had 20 people with hammers hitting me than the pain I was in.

The second night is freezing as well and she is hallucinating and forming a lump in her belly from internal bleeding. This is when she tells her dog to go find help. Her dog has been circling the canyon and keeping watch on her. This is the hardest thing for her because she knows that death is knocking and sending Taz away is probably going to result in her dying alone. She finally urinates knowing that this will freeze and speed up hypothermia. Seeing her talk about this and break apart was just gut wrenching.

Through a series of very fortunate events, Taz leads a rescuer to her aid and she lives. And through a lot of pain , she's running again, married and has a child now. Wow! Talk about a focal point in your life. A real second chance in fact. I can't help but be inspired by her story. Sometimes I doubt I would have the mental toughness to endure such a horror. I know for sure though that I can look at my shoulder pain and think, you are nothing...nothing at all.

Dust Devil

I keep seeing Dust Devils here. Both times I've been to Red Rock Canyon in almost the same spot, I've seen 3 of them. Today I saw one off in the distance near my house while coming home. Liz says she has run into them when growing up in Arizona, and that its just a bunch of dirt in your face. I have no doubt it wouldn't be much different than standing there and having someone throw sand at my face, but I still want to run into one.

I found this video on youtube just now. I think it's awesome! Don't be a wuss and fast forward. Let it load and let it build!!!

10 10 10

I didn't even realize this was the date until I got an email from a friend who had it in his subject line. Turns out there's a big race in the PI on this day. I tell ya, if I were to run down the streets of Cebu, I bet it would be like Forest Gump. People and kids would just start following me. They'd say oooh big white guy!! Goooo!!

Friday's Mountain Run

The dog that followed me home on Monday is reunited with her owner. This is my conclusion since she was removed from the adoption boards after only a couple of days. This is good, but Liz and I had already started thinking of names! We were getting ready to adopt this dog, so all those feelings have to calm down a bit. As of now, there will be no Millie or Cassie to add into the fold. The shelter named her Mabel!

I went on a trail shoe hunt recently because I'm addicted to shoes it seems. Anyway, rocky terrain / minimalist shoes are hard to find. The new New Balance MT101s are out which I would buy in a sec, but you can only get them online and my size has been sold since they came out. I went to the only hard core local running store here and tried on some popular shoes, but a lot of it was a bit heavy. I did meet some interesting people at this store though including a couple of ultra runners. One of them who worked there talked about running with Anton Krupicka and running with the tarahumara in the copper canyon race. Pretty cool!!

In the end, out of 15 pairs tried on ranging from 50 to 130 dollars, I ended up with a entry level model from New Balance, the MT572 for just 50 bucks. It gets some bad press on amazon, but I think they're pretty good so far. Light, somewhat low profile, and not much cushioning, and a grippy sole. I know Solomans are popular, but the pair I tried on at REI felt like wearing tug boats on my feet! I say this because I'll prolly buy a pair someday and say what was I thinking!

So my Friday run, brought me back to the mountain. I wanted to get on the South Loop trail which starts with a steep 4 mile ascent! Part of me thought that sounds like too much work, but I wanted something different. Alas, the parking lot was full, so I had to go back to the ole Bristlecone trail.

Its been much cooler here lately with the temps in the valley being in the 70s in the morning ,which made the mountain a bit nippy in the shade with wind. I was glad I brought a long sleeve shirt. Nothing too dramatic this time though. I quickly forgot just how steep the first 2 miles of the upper trail are. I was just out of breath constantly. I couldn't get a groove going. I felt sluggish in both mind and body. I thought, this will just be a slow day, just keep on and maybe I'll perk up.

I ended up making some better time later on the downhill side and also ended up going a bit longer than I had planned. So unlike last Fri, this 2:30 run ended with me feeling really good and running strong downhill. At one point, I passed 3 young shirtless guys running up. I said 'hey guys' to them and they said nothing. Punks! The only downside to the whole trip was that I still haven't learned 'do not put things on top of the vehicle'. I lost my favorite running visor!

There was a funny instance though. I was running along feeling good and suddenly I look up and see 2 horses coming down the trail which is very narrow. We both stop about 30 feet from one another. I look at them and they look at me. It's a stand off of confusion with both us having a bubble over our heads that says, "wtf are you doing out here!" I'm not seeing anyone else behind them. I know there are wild horses here, but are these guys really wild? Will they hurt me? So I move up the hill as if to say you go on by. That's the comedy, me trying to wave on horses. The front horse tilts his head at me and then they both run down the hill. Then some people come out and say did you see those wild horses? Reminds me of my Colorado moose story.

Anyway, here are some pics from the outing.

heres that tribute poster I mentioned in a previous post. the rains got it a bit

Some of the nice terrain going up

Crazy horses!


The goofiest trail runner in the west


Sections like this , I gotta be careful


My new shods


A 3 pic pano of prolly the highest point in the trail.

Desert Run

I pulled myself up off the ground, and the first thing I noticed was blood. Hmmm I was laughing not 5 seconds ago, and now I just feel this huge wave of embarrassment wash over me. This is silly though, because not one person in the world can see me right now. Time to get serious, time to concentrate before I really hurt myself.

Friday morning started off a tad different then most mornings here. The difference being it was very cloudy. By the time I got back from dropping Asa off at school, it looked as if it would rain any minute. This wasn't going to stop my morning walk with my dog though. It did sprinkle a bit on us. Enough to unleash the myriad of strange smells that get locked into the ground here. You might smell sausage, paint spray, sage, horse poop, or oranges. You just never know.

That morning I had added a person to the emergency contact list at Asa's school. Liz was in Fort Walton, and I had plans to go run at the mountain today. Not that this was the sole reason for adding someone we trusted, but it made us feel better. The school receptionist asked if I was going hunting. I snickered to myself thinking of me hunting.

I checked the radar and a long band of storms was moving across the valley from east to west. I could see from my house that Mt. Charleston was literally covered in rain clouds. I put all my stuff together and left the house quickly because I had to fax stuff to Liz for our vehicles. With that out of the way, the mountains had finally cleared up, but I did not want to get caught on the mountain with a following storm which I could see at the other end of the sky. I decided based on the radar movement, I would try for a run a Red Rock Canyon and go on the rest of the trail we had started out on during our first visit last weekend.

Red Rock Canyon is quite scenic. Here's a pic of it as you are driving in. Funny, I see a lot of VW buses here.


I was fully hydrated as I got to use the scary outhouse at the trailhead. I was bit hungry though. I found an extra trailmix bar in the backseat and ate that. I had my 2 water bottles giving me 48oz of water and gatorade mix. Also I had recently altered my Nike Free shoes, by shaving off the heels a good bit and taking out the inserts. I had ran on them on the treadmill for a few miles and was curious to see how they'd feel out here. It was nice outside and I was ready to get it on! Here's a pic of the canyon from the trailhead.


I put my hear rate monitor on and put my waist belt on, sporting my new camera. I still had cell signal out here, so I decided to stuff my phone in there too. It was a tight fit. I looked at the trail map just as a last minute check and then saw this sign about thieves breaking into parked cars recently. Jeez, I was compelled to go back in the car and hide stuff even though it wasn't super expensive.

The run started out great. Course it was all down hill. I was very aware of this too, give yourself some time to adjust for coming back uphill. But at the same time, I felt really strong today and wanted to get a really tough workout in. In my previous mountain runs, I was more mentally tired when I was done. Physically I was still good, so I wanted to push myself today. So I was pretty determined to go out for an hour and if it took me an hour and 15 or 20 min to come back? so be it!

The first couple of miles of this trail require a good bit of concentration. There are plenty of tight turns, and thin areas that you have to be mindful of the jumping cactus which is inches away ready to hitch a painful ride on your plump calves. The trail then has quick and steep little runs with lots of ostrich sized rocks. Eventually you go into a big dry ravine, hopping on large rocks and going up tight switchbacks. In some stretches it's nothing but crazy big rocks and it's really pointless to run because I'm going so slow, I'm really just hopping.

I eventually come to and cross the scenic drive road. Now the trail gets a little simpler. A nice straight path with a slight downhill that goes all the way to the visitor center. It's also a little elevated so you can see down on one side at some cars and people. I get in a good rhythm here and I'm just really enjoying Red Rock right now. I can still see thermals off in the distance and think of the climbers over on the mountains that I can't see. I listen to the helicopter sounds play some crazy reverb game in the canyon. I'm at 45 minutes, so I stop and look back. Here's what I see.


That's 2 pics stitched together by the way. Stitching software has really improved these days.

I decided to stop real quick at this point because my left toe feels like its getting a blister. Luckily I've brought a couple of band-aids in my pack and slap one on. Ahh much better, so I pick it back up. Just after this stop, I come upon a moderately steep downhill. It looks like fun so I run down faster than I would normally take it. I wonder how that will feel going back up.

I finally reach my turn around point. My feet have suddenly started to feel not so good. In retrospect, its because I've taken the inserts out that the toes just have too much room to move around, and there's been too much twisting friction going on. I stop to sit on a rock and empty my shoes of some tiny rocks and check my feet. I put on my last band-aide to thwart another blister forming. I then change rocks because I spy a big hole underneath my rock, and the last thing in the universe I want is some scorpion crawling out near my privates. Then it hits me, the clouds have gone away and it's getting really hot just sitting here.

I begin my trek back taking in the sights. My feet are not feeling good though and this is starting to annoy me. I have about 5/8 of my liquid left. I curse myself for not bringing sunglasses. It's getting bright out here. At least I have a white hat on. I try to get a move on and find that my pulse is getting up around 175 fairly quick at which point I need to walk. I laugh at how I can minimize things at times. It's the same thing when I'm on a bike and I know I'm with the wind. I tell myself, it won't be that bad coming back, but when I do, I turn to that voice in my head that said that and sneer at them, thinking " are you f'in kidding me!" I think this applies to friends who make me drink beyond my limit too. :)

At some point my thinking starts to get a little negative. I feel like I could just gulp the rest of my fluid and be fine with that. My feet are on fire! I cringe to think how many blisters I might have. I know the symptoms of heat exhaustion, but how do I know it won't be an odd case of it suddenly came over me? I check the time. I spy large bushes that have shade to lay in and rest should I need to. I think how embarrassing it would be to call for help and have a firefighter give me that look of "you stupid!"

My friend was just telling me the other day about Quentin Tarentino's film editor dying while hiking in the heat. What made me think that the clouds would stay all day? If only my feet were more comfortable!! I finally had come to the scenic road. Should I run on the road? It could actually be farther that way. I could actually see my truck window shimmering in the sun a little ways back on the trail. Perceived distance is a strange thing in the desert. Finally, I tell myself to lighten up! I can't let myself get into this paranoid mental negative what if spiral. Just watch your step, pick up your feet, and focus on getting this done. Oh and drink!

I started making some silly jokes to myself. I can't even remember what they were about, but I recall laughing and then whhhaaammmm!! In slow motion, I saw one of my bottles flying away from me as I came crashing down on the rocky dirt. I got up and brushed myself off, then noticed I had cut both my palms and my right knee. Ouch. Nothing like some trail rash to brighten the mood! I picked out some small rocks embedded in my skin. I looked around as if someone would've seen me (snicker). Keep moving. Ignore the headache. Ughhh that's not good.

I finally see the last hilly stretch to the parking lot. I look at the scenery and think, I'm done with you! However, I'm determined to run up the very last bit of trail so that I come out looking like Rocky. Did I even put my hands up? I don't recall.

I get to my truck and check my feet. Phew! Only a couple of blisters, nothing too bad. My feet felt like they had gone through the meat grinder. I then downed my food, some chocolate milk, and chugged from my extra liter bottle. Turns out I got the workout I wanted. Hopefully I learned some lessons from the day. Another friend had asked if I had been "out in the desert' yet. I think the answer to that question is a big fat YES! and it bout kicked my ass.

What's her name?

So much has happened in the past few days. I was going to blog about my crazy desert run last Friday. I think I'll squeeze that one in yet. Then there was the girl in the pancake house with the huge Imperial Forces / Clone Wars tattoo on her arm, and then the for real UFO and blackhawk helicopters, and then the super duper bright but not quite complete (hehe) double rainbow, or the fact that my new camera has a strange focusing issue and must be returned, or that I finished my recent book Oryx and Crake, and it has been giving me a couple nights worth of nightmares that are too gruesome for this blog.

So what am I going to talk about you ask? Well, quite simply this sweet girl followed me and Finley home today.


Here she is saying, "Please let me come in, I look just like your dog only I'm more white and weigh about 70 pounds, but hey I give sweet kisses, and I love playing with your dog!"

Last week I was driving home from Asa's school in the am and saw a small dog run out in front of a semi truck on a 4 lane road. I gasped as the truck slowed down. After a bit of contemplation, I turned my truck around to go look for this dog. Turns out the owner was there with her kid walking down the sidewalk. She didn't speak English very well, but insisted the dog was her's! Which is good because Chihuahuas scare me!

So today on the end of Finley's walk I spy this good size dog on the sidewalk several yards ahead. I could see a collar, so I decided to get closer, but got on the other side of the road too. Eventually we got close enough and this dog saw us. Her ears perked up when I asked if she was lost and her tail wagged. A good sign. Next thing you know , she's walking alongside us.

I put her and Finley in my yard and they played for a good while. It was so nice to see Finley engage in play with a bigger dog. It's been years it seems. I gave her some food and water and looked her over. Seemed to be in pretty good shape, just some matted fur. There was no info on the collar, so I called animal control and decided to wait inside while reading.

I got up to check on her and didn't see her in the yard at all!! The gate was closed. Had she turned invisible on me, just like the UFO earlier. Nope she was standing on the brick wall , essentially the fence to my yard which is about 5 feet where she jumped up. So this is your ninja skill eh. I came out and told her to get down, but then she was all scared, so I went over and picked her up on my shoulders and set her down. Hmmm, looks like I would be waiting outside for animal control. So I watched her and Finley play some more, and then everyone just chilled out in the shade.

Turns out she's a really sweet dog. She came over and put an arm in my lap and gave me little neat licks on my arm, not big ole sloppy ones. After about 2 hours, animal control showed up. I put a leash on her and took her out front upon where she was loaded into a truck that looked just like the one from Bolt. She looked so sad as the door shut on her. I asked where she would be taken too and went back inside. I felt horrible. I almost started to cry and texted Liz how awful I felt.

I certainly hope the owners find her, that she has a chip, and is claimed, because I don't think I can let this dog get euthanized.