Update time

My my, it's been awhile. So let me fill you all in on the latest and greatest.

The last few days have been a bit brutal. While I've been in a good mood and nothing bad is going on, I've had terrible dreams at night, not sleeping very well, and am waking up with all these aches and pains. All I can guess is that I'm tossing and turning at night a lot which is leading to the aching. And then yesterday I gave myself an even better reason to be sore. I parked my car on my street and was stepping up on to the curb. My neighbors have put a low to the ground stake and string fence around a plot of land and I somehow managed to walk right into one of the stakes. For as small as they are, there was no give and I went down flat on my stomach. I'm not sure I've ever fallen that flat out before. The only thing that saved my face from hitting was the fact that it slammed into my hands first. Weird. Remarkably I really didn't get hurt, but I was a little sore!

I'm also in the process of re-training Irie how to behave when walking on the street. She's gotten pretty terrible about barking/lunging at bicyclists, runners, and just the average person walking by. Not good at all. We're making definite progress on people passing and runners. Other dogs and bicyclists are proving a little more difficult. But I'm confident that we'll get there. A combination of letting her know I'm in charge and making it worth her while to pay more attention to me than anyone else seems to be doing the trick. Basically lots of commands and lots of treats.

In other Irie news, I've recently purchased a "chuck-it" and am unsure how I lived without one of these. It's really a very simple concept, but it increases my throwing distance considerably - making the chasing of balls much more fun for Irie and also keeps me from having to pick up slobbery/dirty balls. Irie loves it and actually looks for whether I have it with me whenever we leave the house. The one trick to this is that pretty much every other dog loves this device as well, so it can get a little crazy at the dog park. Slowly but surely more and more people are showing up with them though, so it's starting to even out.

Work is going quite well, though I am increasingly distraught about how people just don't get that the services we provide a) cost money and b) are ours. It seems everyone just wants to take our ideas and programs and not give us credit or money for them. Frustrating. Guess that's one of the problems as you move up in an organization - you start to see that stuff more.

Kickball starts next Wednesday and we had our ref clinic last night. Lots of new faces and plenty of familiar ones too. I'm looking forward to it. Meanwhile I've been having fun working with the board to get our not-for-profit status all set-up. Another area where my real job experience comes in handy! If you want to keep up on the season, check out ChicagoKickball.com.

I'm also working on a website re-vamp of another organization I volunteer for, Miracles In Progress. My main goal when I first started helping them out a few years ago was to get the website functional - and it is that now, but it needs some serious design help! One of my co-workers/friends has agreed to help me in this endeavor, so I'm hopeful to have something new soon. BTW - they have a fundraiser golf-outing/dinner next Friday if anyone's interested in attending. It's a good time!

Starting tomorrow I'm off on a little mini-vacation for the weekend. Nicole and I are headed up to Traverse City, MI for a little wine tasting and fun. This has become a bit of a tradition for us and I'm really looking forward to it. Even though I'm not hugely into wine, it's just fun to go to all the different wineries and, well, I love roadtrips. Nicole always comes back with lots of wine and I always come back with lots of cherries. :-) All in all, the weather and sun is making me a little gitty and I just can't wait to get out on the road for some good ol' fashion fun.

And with that I will wish you all a fond adieu. Irie's here at work with me today and is giving me the "I'd really like to go outside NOW." look.