Irie trying to figure out how to get into the front seat.
Tuesday enjoying the breeze from the window.
Taking a break by the lake.
When we ran out of water.Thursday, July 30, 2009
Lake of the Ozarks pictures
Irie trying to figure out how to get into the front seat.Tuesday enjoying the breeze from the window. Taking a break by the lake. When we ran out of water.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Leaving on a jet plane (if it doesn't leave me first!)
I'm sitting in the airport in Sacramento waiting for my flight. I should be in the air right now, but when I arrived this morning, I was told my flight was delayed 45 minutes. As I was about 2 hours early, I wandered around the airport, responded to some emails, checked messages, etc. I wandered down to my gate at 10:20 and asked where my flight gates had been moved to only to find out that it had already left. Apparently they were able to take off sooner than they thought they would be able to and just went ahead and left. Because my flight was booked by a travel agent, they didn't have a number to call me at. Awesome.
This wouldn't matter so much except I'm supposed to be delivering a teleconference at 7pm this evening. I had to move flights around so that I will now be on my layover in Chicago during the call time. I can't imagine how much fun it will be to try to deliver a teleconference from an airport! I'm quite sure I won't be the first though.
Anyway, while I wait for my Sacramento to Chicago flight to take off, I thought I would spend a minute updating my blog.
I don't have any pictures handy, so I'll have to update with those later, but we did have another eventful weekend.
On Saturday morning, Ryan and I decided to make the 2.5 hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks with the dogs. It was a bit of an overcast day and we wanted to get out and do a little hiking. I've never been to Lake of the Ozarks and Ryan hadn't been in a long time, so we thought we should get it done before the summer got even further away from us. The drive was a bit long, but not too bad. When we got there we found the state park and a nice little trail. As we were entering the trail, there was a nice sign that said there was a high level of ticks in the area so to be sure to wear repellent. Well, the dogs had their frontline on and we had sprayed ourselves with repellent so we carried on. Our overcast day turned out to be extraordinarily humid and we (and the dogs) were dripping in no time. About an hour in, the dogs had already ran out of water and we decided to head back. We spent some time driving around the area to see what all was there and quickly discovered that it's not very dog friendly. While pretty much everywhere in St. Louis allows dogs on their restaurant/bar patios, nowhere in Lake of the Ozarks does. So after trying several places, we finally cut our loses and decided it was probably time to start driving back anyway. About this time I discovered a teeny-tiny little tick on my hand. With a quick look over the dogs we found that they were totally infested as well. It was a very long 2.5 hour drive home knowing that we were all covered with ticks! Our would be leisurely evening, turned in to a full scale tick hunt with specialized shampoos, sprays, etc. It was great. Irie (who's fur is much thinner and therefore easier to see through) has at least 100 bites all over her legs and stomach. She looks like she has the chicken pox. I called the vet and they said they would check them for Lyme disease when they get their next round of shots, etc but otherwise not to worry about it if they didn't show any symptoms. Ryan and I, other than being itchy, don't seem to be showing any negative signs either. Keeping our fingers crossed!
Sunday was home improvement day and while I spent the day painting our upstairs bathroom (which I'll post pictures of later), Ryan spent the day filling our big hole in the driveway much to the neighborhood kid's dismay. Since we moved in, we've discovered the neighborhood kids playing in our driveway with the pieces of asphalt that make up the hole. They seem to enjoy stacking them up and knocking them over. This is not a big deal, except somewhere along the way a few of the kids have decided they're also good to throw around - specifically at our garage door. After hearing this a few times and running out to try to catch the kids that were doing it, we decided the easier thing to do would be to remove all the pieces. Now it is mostly filled and Ryan has told several of the kids to stay away from it so that it will set properly. The next day the neighborhood snitch showed up at our doorstep to let us know that some of the kids had been putting their footprints in it and riding their bikes through. She wouldn't give up who had been doing it, but wanted us to be know it was happening. Nice. At any rate, while neither project is professional grade, it felt nice to get a few things accomplished this weekend (and checked off the ever growing list of home improvement tasks.)
This wouldn't matter so much except I'm supposed to be delivering a teleconference at 7pm this evening. I had to move flights around so that I will now be on my layover in Chicago during the call time. I can't imagine how much fun it will be to try to deliver a teleconference from an airport! I'm quite sure I won't be the first though.
Anyway, while I wait for my Sacramento to Chicago flight to take off, I thought I would spend a minute updating my blog.
I don't have any pictures handy, so I'll have to update with those later, but we did have another eventful weekend.
On Saturday morning, Ryan and I decided to make the 2.5 hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks with the dogs. It was a bit of an overcast day and we wanted to get out and do a little hiking. I've never been to Lake of the Ozarks and Ryan hadn't been in a long time, so we thought we should get it done before the summer got even further away from us. The drive was a bit long, but not too bad. When we got there we found the state park and a nice little trail. As we were entering the trail, there was a nice sign that said there was a high level of ticks in the area so to be sure to wear repellent. Well, the dogs had their frontline on and we had sprayed ourselves with repellent so we carried on. Our overcast day turned out to be extraordinarily humid and we (and the dogs) were dripping in no time. About an hour in, the dogs had already ran out of water and we decided to head back. We spent some time driving around the area to see what all was there and quickly discovered that it's not very dog friendly. While pretty much everywhere in St. Louis allows dogs on their restaurant/bar patios, nowhere in Lake of the Ozarks does. So after trying several places, we finally cut our loses and decided it was probably time to start driving back anyway. About this time I discovered a teeny-tiny little tick on my hand. With a quick look over the dogs we found that they were totally infested as well. It was a very long 2.5 hour drive home knowing that we were all covered with ticks! Our would be leisurely evening, turned in to a full scale tick hunt with specialized shampoos, sprays, etc. It was great. Irie (who's fur is much thinner and therefore easier to see through) has at least 100 bites all over her legs and stomach. She looks like she has the chicken pox. I called the vet and they said they would check them for Lyme disease when they get their next round of shots, etc but otherwise not to worry about it if they didn't show any symptoms. Ryan and I, other than being itchy, don't seem to be showing any negative signs either. Keeping our fingers crossed!
Sunday was home improvement day and while I spent the day painting our upstairs bathroom (which I'll post pictures of later), Ryan spent the day filling our big hole in the driveway much to the neighborhood kid's dismay. Since we moved in, we've discovered the neighborhood kids playing in our driveway with the pieces of asphalt that make up the hole. They seem to enjoy stacking them up and knocking them over. This is not a big deal, except somewhere along the way a few of the kids have decided they're also good to throw around - specifically at our garage door. After hearing this a few times and running out to try to catch the kids that were doing it, we decided the easier thing to do would be to remove all the pieces. Now it is mostly filled and Ryan has told several of the kids to stay away from it so that it will set properly. The next day the neighborhood snitch showed up at our doorstep to let us know that some of the kids had been putting their footprints in it and riding their bikes through. She wouldn't give up who had been doing it, but wanted us to be know it was happening. Nice. At any rate, while neither project is professional grade, it felt nice to get a few things accomplished this weekend (and checked off the ever growing list of home improvement tasks.)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Fawning over Ryan
On an unrelated note from this past weekend, I realized another reason why I love Ryan.
As we were driving through rural Illinois to get to Clinton, two young fawns jumped in front of the car. Ryan slammed on the breaks and managed to scrape by with only tapping one of the deer on its hind-quarter. The fawns ran off, but Ryan backed up to where he had tapped the deer and we searched to make sure it hadn't been hurt.
As we wandered along the side of the road hoping to not find the deer, it struck me that I'm with someone pretty special - and very in line with my own feelings. Not many guys I know would stop to make sure a deer they barely tapped was OK.
Thankfully, as we were searching, we saw both deer further down the road running into the corn fields. Good stuff.
As we were driving through rural Illinois to get to Clinton, two young fawns jumped in front of the car. Ryan slammed on the breaks and managed to scrape by with only tapping one of the deer on its hind-quarter. The fawns ran off, but Ryan backed up to where he had tapped the deer and we searched to make sure it hadn't been hurt.
As we wandered along the side of the road hoping to not find the deer, it struck me that I'm with someone pretty special - and very in line with my own feelings. Not many guys I know would stop to make sure a deer they barely tapped was OK.
Thankfully, as we were searching, we saw both deer further down the road running into the corn fields. Good stuff.
It's officially summer
It never really feels like summer to me until I get to spend some time on the water. As luck would have it, the most unseasonably cool weekend we've had yet this summer, was the one we ended up spending on the water. It actually was really nice despite the cooler weather. Ryan and I met Sarah and Michael in Clinton at Sarah's parents house. They were nice enough to put us all up for the weekend (and babysit the Oldham boys) while we got some quality "adults only" time in on the boat.
We spent the majority of the day just lounging on the boat and chatting, but before we headed in we got inspired to do a little tubing. The water in Clinton Lake is oddly warm, so despite the 70 degree weather, it was actually quite nice to be in the water. It has been several years since any of us had been tubing, so it was a nice blast from the past.
Michael, Sarah and Ryan
Me and Sarah in our classic self-portrait style.
Ryan showing us how it's done.
I also had the pleasure of getting to spend a little time with my two pseudo nephews, Payton and Preston. Payton, as always, was a crack up. He's just such a sweet, lovable little guy. He's in to everything (especially anything mechanical) and spent a good hour when we first arrived taking me and Ryan for a ride in his grandma's Yukon. Plenty of buttons in there to play with.
And Preston - I just can't believe a whole year has almost passed! As bubbly as Payton is, that's how serious Preston appears to be. It's pretty funny. But despite the fact that he normally has a deadpan stare on his face, I was able to get some giggles out of him this weekend and actually managed to catch a few on film.
So, now that the summer has officially begun... I find we're at the end of July. How does that happen?
In truth we've done a lot of fun things this summer that I just haven't gotten around to writing about. We had a great 4th of July with Nicole and Jason. Ryan and I got to take in a day at the Six Flags water park. We've had a few BBQs in our new backyard, lots of house guests and plenty of fun activities with the pooches, but somewhere along the way I lost some interest in documenting it all on the blog. I think in part that is due to stress at work and my lack of desire to sit at the computer and think in the evenings.
About the middle of last week I decided I was starting to feel a bit out of balance and, well, just bored, so I'm on to a new regime now. More trips out of the house during the week, more exercise, new engaging books and less thinking about what all I need to do for work seems to be the ticket for the moment. I think next on the list is getting started on some of our home improvement projects so I can feel a bit more accomplished and getting back to finding some friends in the area. There are actually a few decent prospects, there's just been so many other things going on I haven't really spent any time focusing on it! Summer is just a busy time.
We spent the majority of the day just lounging on the boat and chatting, but before we headed in we got inspired to do a little tubing. The water in Clinton Lake is oddly warm, so despite the 70 degree weather, it was actually quite nice to be in the water. It has been several years since any of us had been tubing, so it was a nice blast from the past.
Michael, Sarah and Ryan
Me and Sarah in our classic self-portrait style.
Ryan showing us how it's done. I also had the pleasure of getting to spend a little time with my two pseudo nephews, Payton and Preston. Payton, as always, was a crack up. He's just such a sweet, lovable little guy. He's in to everything (especially anything mechanical) and spent a good hour when we first arrived taking me and Ryan for a ride in his grandma's Yukon. Plenty of buttons in there to play with.
And Preston - I just can't believe a whole year has almost passed! As bubbly as Payton is, that's how serious Preston appears to be. It's pretty funny. But despite the fact that he normally has a deadpan stare on his face, I was able to get some giggles out of him this weekend and actually managed to catch a few on film.
So, now that the summer has officially begun... I find we're at the end of July. How does that happen?
In truth we've done a lot of fun things this summer that I just haven't gotten around to writing about. We had a great 4th of July with Nicole and Jason. Ryan and I got to take in a day at the Six Flags water park. We've had a few BBQs in our new backyard, lots of house guests and plenty of fun activities with the pooches, but somewhere along the way I lost some interest in documenting it all on the blog. I think in part that is due to stress at work and my lack of desire to sit at the computer and think in the evenings.
About the middle of last week I decided I was starting to feel a bit out of balance and, well, just bored, so I'm on to a new regime now. More trips out of the house during the week, more exercise, new engaging books and less thinking about what all I need to do for work seems to be the ticket for the moment. I think next on the list is getting started on some of our home improvement projects so I can feel a bit more accomplished and getting back to finding some friends in the area. There are actually a few decent prospects, there's just been so many other things going on I haven't really spent any time focusing on it! Summer is just a busy time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)