Enough

Okay, the dog might love it but this has got to stop.

Current beer-scale: a day off post-whiskey & snow 5.6

Brrrrrrrrr

A quiet but not too chilly moment stalking something before the real cold comes back.

Current beer-scale: 7.1 even though I'm just realizing I don't have any beer at home...

sigh

This is how we spend our trips to the dog beach these days, playing with rocks.  Fascinating

Current beer-scale: 8.2

dog days

 Looks like someone's trip to the beach tired her OUT. 

Nice to know some things never change.

Current beer-scale: 5.7

this gets me through

Is he looking at me?

Are you sure he's alright?

Okay, I'll say hi.

These two are getting along more and more, and it's heartbreakingly adorable to see.  Other than the whiskey I had late last night, the thought of having that level of cuteness to come home to is getting me through a Monday where I didn't really have it this morning.

Current beer-scale: 5.5

heh

I forgot I had this pic to post from the holidays of the dog enjoying a trip in the car. The look of pure joy on her face made me laugh the entire time we were in the car. She can immediately tell if we're going out to the burbs and she loves it.

That day was from over new years when we went out to look for baby furniture. B/c the babies r us on Western is a total craphole and we couldn't get anyone to stop and help us spend $700. Oh well, we spent it somewhere else. This whole "getting ready for the baby" stuff is insane. If only we could agree on names.

Current beer-scale: 8.7

Going solo for too long

The wife is at her annual conference this week so I'm on my own for the duration. It's an even longer week than usual b/c she's having a girls weekend in San Fran when the conference wraps up so I have an extra few days to account for. In the past I would have looked forward to a long week of pizza and beer but this weekend just dragged.

By the time I was getting up this morning I was not crazy about spending an entire week just me and the dog, but the dog seemed to be up for it. A few long walks and she was done this weekend.
Football provided a decent distraction for some of the day yesterday, but after having to self-medicate with rye after the dismal ND game I was about done with sports for a while. But the rye was good so more of that will likely happen this week.

Current beer-scale: 4.4 and a boring MNF game

Oh that's rough

The dog has the amazing ability to make it 1000x more difficult to leave the house when I come home early to get ready to go to an evening meeting. Today it was stopping by the house before heading up to Rogers Park, only to have her stare at me as I was leaving after a surprise walk around the block.
It was a great day to leave early though: in the 70's at 1 PM with almost no headwind to fight. God I wish it was still June.

Current beer-scale: 8.1

Home for a day

I hit the point at work last month were I can finally take vacation, so I'm spending an extra day home this weekend. Good timing too, since there's a Supernatural marathon on, I have some bike maintenance to do, and we're going out with the realtor tonite.

Going out tonite meant getting the dog good and tired. Like any good day off that meant heading to the beach in the morning. It was completely hellish, or at least it was for me. Windy, wet, cloudy, still icy but loud as the waves tried to wash it away. She had a blast and is now sleeping like a log on the couch.

Thankfully I ordered the bike part for the maintenance I want to do early enough that it got here before today since there's no mail service. But I wanted to add a cheap chain tensioner so hopefully frankenbike makes it through the rest of the crappy weather. A new chain and better gear ratio would go a long way towards long way towards a longer-term solution but would also cost more than $20 and require a lot more work. A tensioner means screwing something on and putting the chain on. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

As one last shot, here's the dog during dinner last night. Yes that is a drool bubble she's blowing. Nice.

Current beer-scale: 4.2 and lazy

Late morning

I have to stay late tonight for a networking event, so I made the most of it. Drove the wife to work with a coffee stop, took the dog up to the beach in the crappy weather. Not a bad time.


Doesn't matter if the sun's out or not, she's going to have fun.


And when the sun does come out, she's ready to head out into it.


Ultimately this is the goal. A tired dog who's happy with the occasional pet as I get ready for work, giving the crazy eyes as she rolls onto her back.

Even better, I realized with the droid x update getting it flash-compatible, I could also listen to ESPN 1000 even on the train and not miss any Bears coverage. Which was awesome, b/c between having snow in the forecast for tonight and not getting done until after 9 PM frankenbike stayed in the basement this morning. Additionally, I forgot my ID to get into the building and had to go back for it, costing me an extra 30 minutes. Oops.

Oh well. I shouldn't get too upset--this is my event and attendance is shaping up to be pretty healthy. All I have to do now is stay polite when I talk to our mortgage guy this afternoon. Good times.

Current beer-scale: 7.1 & there's an open bar tonite!

Happy photobomb!

Hi! Merry christmas!

Current beer-scale: 7.3 & on our way to the brother-in-law's

You can still laugh

4 degrees out, ice everywhere, about to pull on 5 layers to be able to keep riding to work, the dog could still make me laugh this morning.

"What do you mean I can't take this inside?"

Of course, that's after letting her run through the park and not being able to convince her it was time to go home right away. When she finds a good stick she likes to keep a good stick. Still funny enough to make me smile. Thank god for dogs.

I hope I don't have any pictures of me or the bike covered in snow after I get home tonite.

Current beer-scale: 8.2

Even in crappy weather, a weekend trip to the dog beach is enough to get some pretty great smiles out of all involved.

Fall is here people, and it's freezing.

Current beer-scale: 6.4 after one last high life as the Bears got throttled last night.

Just remember to smile

Happy as a clam, she is.

A good weekend, all things considered.

Current beer-scale: 4.1

Oh yeah, it's practically spring...

The increase in bikes out this morning should have been my first clue. Actually, the sun yesterday should have been first, but nothing really drove spring home until I had to cut my run with the dog short this morning. It seems it's nice enough for people to golf now, and it's hard to keep a crazed dog out of the way so it was time to turn around sooner than usual. Good thing we keep all our found tennis balls in the car.

It's hard to be upset about cutting short a run though. If it really does snow this weekend things will be empty again by Monday. It was pretty great to see the line of golf carts out and see how nice the grass looked in the morning light. I could easily get sucked into pulling the driver out. If I had a job to pay for a bucket of driving range balls.

Oh well. The sun is out, and I should be to.

Current beer-scale: 4.1

When it comes to days off, 4 is better than 3

Now that was a nice long weekend. Even without any ND or Bears to watch, four days away from the office did me good.

Anytime I'm off for a significant length of time, the dog really enjoys it at first. Trips to the dog beach, long walks in the middle of the day...she's happy all the time. Eventually though it wears her down to the point where I'm asking if she wants to go out and she looks at me like I can't head back to the office soon enough. Hence this look from her comfortable spot in the sun during yesterday's early game.

Would you just be quiet and watch some awful football please?

Oh well. Thinking of this made me smile on a cold ride in this morning. Now if I can just gut out the next 3 & 1/2 days, I'll be all set.

Current beer-scale: 5.1