I Need a Drink: How My Dog Ruined a Good News Day

In my last post, I told you about how Chuck forced himself out of a second story window for who-knows-what reason. In this post, I'm going to tell you about how he did it again just a few days later. Meaning, today.

I came home from my HSG today after having picked up lunch and an iced latte. I wasn't really worried when I came in the front door and Chuck wasn't there to greet me; if I come home at a not-so-usual time, he won't always make a big deal about my arrival. I set down the mail and took my lunch upstairs. I peeked into the guest room, expecting to find him on the bed in his goofy cone. He wasn't there. What was there was the screen, all torn up and laying on the bed with the window wide open.

This [expletive deleted] dog did it again! Except this time, he pulled the screen into the room, and somehow squeezed through the bed posts while wearing his cone. I walked outside and saw our friend and neighbor Tim walking his li'l guy Seamus.

Chuck [expletive deleted] did it again! He jumped out of the window and he's gone!

"Uh... what? Oh man." (Sorry for coming at you with that like a freight train, Tim.)

Tim walked the near by parks with Seamy while I called Jamie and went in the opposite direction. Jamie called Animal Control, put a Lost Dog post on our community's lost and found message board and headed home from work while I walked down the trail that Jamie often walks Chuck on. I circled both schools nearby (since Chuck would not hesitate to go play with all the kids at recess) then headed back toward home through some neighborhoods.

Jamie found me in one neighborhood and picked me up. We headed around the park and the middle school and up through our old neighborhood, and then stopped at the elementary school by our house to see if Chuck had shown up there. (He hadn't.)

While we were there, our friend Jarrod called me and asked how I was doing, if we found the dog, and suggested I call the local Humane Society to give them a heads up in case someone turns him in there. He hopped in the car with his buddy and drove around to help us look for Chuck. (I owe him a thousand beers and thank yous for being calm and clear-headed when Jamie and I were stressing out and also for the hug and getting me away from my bitch of a neighbor who was talking to me like I was an idiot.)

Jamie dropped me off at home so I could eat some of my lunch. I hadn't eaten all day so that and all of the walking and stressing and crying made me feel ready to collapse or barf. (I did neither.) I ate a few bites, made a couple calls then headed out to walk the neighborhood and check the bushes in the case that Chuck had been injured and was hiding in a bush or something. That was when I met up with Jarrod and the bitchy neighbor, then Jamie pulled up. We chatted then split up again.

I walked to the nearby park where Jamie met up with me. We were going to walk the neighborhoods, but decided to walk back to the car and drive some more when I got a phone call. It was a neighbor down the street. She had Chuck!

She found Chuck in a bush all caught up in his bandana and the piece of fabric that tied his cone on, so she helped him get those off and put him in her garage and gave him water. She luckily thought to check the message boards, which is where she found my number. Of course, I pick him up and he's like "Oh, hey Mom!" like no big deal.

I gave him a pat down and he wasn't sensitive anywhere, and the cut on his knee hadn't reopened, so I'm going to just keep an eye out for the things that the vet told me to watch the last time he went out the window instead of going back for more x-rays right away.

Right now, I really just want to either have a drink or take a nap. Maybe both.

Oh, and hey, my HSG was all good. These tubes are clear! I might elaborate on that in another post. Maybe.

Fitness Friday

After a somewhat indulgent weekend, I think I fared pretty well this week in the healthy eating department. Sunday was probably the worst day in terms of not-so-healthy eating, but it was the best day in terms of deliciousness. On our way back from shooting, Jamie and I stopped for lunch at Slater's 50/50. With a menu full of ridiculously tempting burgers, I managed to make a slightly better choice and get the turkey burger shown above which came topped with smoked gouda and a grilled portabello. I cut it in half and ate the smaller half, bun and all, then fork-and-knifed the other half, eating only the meat. Unfortunately, two Stone Pale Ale's didn't save me any liquid calories. Sunday evening was Chinese take-out and moscato (It pairs well, right?) at our friends Ella and Chris' place to watch and laugh at the Oscars. (No regrets!)

Really, that was probably the worst day. Saturday night we hosted dinner and cards and BSing for Jarrod and Kaitlyn, which proved to be pretty healthy (if you don't count the wine and beer.) Jamie grilled up some chicken breasts and I made a pretty tasty quinoa salad.

And then Monday, I made Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers! (The recipe calls for sliced roast beef, but I used steak.) Jamie wasn't "ohmigawd this is delicious", but I really liked them.

So really, eating healthy isn't a problem for me. It's not difficult for me, and I like it. What my problem is, as we all should know by now, is alcohol. I. Love. Beer. And. Wine. I tried to go the week without either of those two, but come Wednesday afternoon, I see a Facebook post from our favorite local spot for craft brews announcing that they've just tapped Pliny the Elder. If you're a beer person, you probably know that this beer, rated #3 on Beer Advocate's top 250, is kind of a big deal and it goes fairly quickly once it's tapped. So of course I had to stop in for one before I headed to the grocery store to buy stuff to make salads for dinner. Okay, so, because Jarrod also happened to be there, I had two. Geez. (Jamie was being good and was at the gym!)

BUT! Aside from giving in to beer (did I mention I had beers last night too? Yikes.) I've managed to still keep on track to lose my 4% body weight for the DietBet game I'm participating in, so I'm happy with that. Oh, and guess what? I took photos this month!

Left: 1/4/13 - Right: Today
(click to view it large)

Left: 1/4/13 - Right: Today
(click to view it large)

You can't really see too much of a difference, but I did make a bit of progress. I don't know about you guys, but I can see a bit of difference in my midsection. Here are my numbers:

March 1st, 2013 (-since 1/18/13, -since 1/4/13)

• Weight - 148.8 (-2.2, -5.2)
• Calf - 13.75" (0)
• Knee - 15.25" (0)
• Thigh - 23.75" (-0.25)
• Hips/Butt - 41.5" (0)
• Belly - 39" (-0.25, -0.5)
• Waist - 30.5" (-0.5, -1)
• Bust - 36.75" (-0.5, -1.25)
• Arms - 12" (-0.25)

In 6 weeks, I've lost 2ish pounds and 1.5 inches; in two months, I've lost 5ish pounds and 3 inches. Not bad. While I'm a little impatient with losing right now, I'm still in the mindset that the more gradually the weight and inches come off, the easier it will be to keep off. If you look at my original photos from when I started back in June, I can definitely see how far I've come, and I'm happy with my progress and the fact that even when I wasn't eating properly at the end of last year, I didn't regress much in my numbers. Since June, I've lost 14 pounds and more than 14 inches off my limbs and midsection! Yessir. That's fantastic.

The Great House Flood of 2013

Once upon a time (or three weeks ago, today) I ventured out one late afternoon (two Mondays ago at 4:15pm) to meet my dear husband after work to lavish ourselves at a fine local clothier (Burlington Coat Factory). It was a day like any other for this stay at home (to work) wife; I (was supposed to have) worked out in the morning, then showered (in the afternoon). I spent the day (considering) doing laundry and washing (some of) the dishes.

Pleased (to be getting out of the house), I shut the dog in his crate (to protect him of his suicidal tendencies) and left the house. Everything was in it's place (where we set it down instead of putting it away) when I embarked on my journey. Nothing could have hinted to what we were to discover upon our return (but the title is a pretty solid hint for you).

This was from that day, and has been the first and only time he's ever climbed into one of these boxes. It must have been a very unclear sign.

[If I may, I'm going to just start telling you what happened now in a not-so-clever way, because those first two paragraphs were exhausting to write.]

Jamie and I dug around Burlington Coat Factory for a while trying to put together an outfit for him to wear to a wedding that weekend. While doing so, we had been asked via text to join our buddy Jarrod at a local spot for happy hour. There must have been some kind of cosmic imbalance in the universe on this day which had caused us to pass and head straight home after the disappointment that was the BCF. Come to think of it, that shopping trip was the only time we had ever left that store empty-handed, so we should have known something was up. 

We drove home, Jamie leading our two-car caravan. Only an hour since I had left the house, we pulled up to the garage. Jamie clicked the clicker to open the door but it stopped about a foot off the ground. He looked back at me in my car thinking that this had become a game of Clicker Wars, but I just shrugged. Then we noticed it: the rushing river (this is only kind of an exaggeration; it was a lot of water) flowing out from under our slightly-open garage door. 

My first thought was that the washer, which lives in the garage, had gone haywire... but then I remembered that I had only considered doing laundry that day. My quick thought was interrupted by a panic; what the f'k do we do!?

The garage door was stuck, so we drove off in opposite directions to park our cars and sprint to the front door, Jamie only beating me by a second or two. In this second, after having discounted the washing machine option, I imagined a waterfall in the middle of my house. See, the kitchen and dining room are on the second floor, and overlook the living room below so I thought that maybe I left the sink running? But then I remembered that I didn't even turn the sink on before I left.

Artist's rendering, except not-Christmas.

Jamie quickly unlocked the front door and through to the garage to shut off the water. It was at this time that I realized that there is no waterfall in our living room and everything appeared dry. Confused by the sound of an Amazonian downpour, I ran upstairs to investigate. A quick glance to the kitchen sink confirmed that it was not the culprit. By the time I turned the corner to check the guest bathroom, Jamie had gotten the water shut off.

A large area surrounding this bathroom had no standing water, but the carpet was thoroughly soaked. I looked inside to find that every inch of this bathroom, from floor to ceiling, was dripping. I looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling and immediately concluded with my husband upon his joining me upstairs that a pipe had burst. He immediately got on the phone while I trekked back downstairs to see if I could go for a swim in our garage.

With the door open and the water having already rushed out, there was still quite a bit of standing water on the floor. The ceiling on the back half of the garage was dripping so constantly that it was like rain. The photo below is only a fraction of the damage.

After an hour or so, we finally got a plumber in our house to assess the damage. What he found was that there was no pipe in the ceiling that even existed in that area to burst, but upon further investigation, found that it wasn't a pipe at all. It was a $15 part to our toilet: the water supply line that bends from the wall to the tank had broken and shot an estimated 100 gallons of water up at the ceiling, creating the hole that we found.

The next day we found exactly how much the water had affected. They set up fans and dehumidifiers in the house and planned demo for the following day. The second floor bathroom, where it happened, had to have the toilet and sink and mirror taken out and the lower quarter of the drywall torn down; the drywall in the guest bedroom closet and near the walls of the door had to be torn down about a foot off the ground; the first floor bathroom had to be mostly gutted; and about half of the garage drywall had to be torn out.

Let's go back to the fans for a moment. We had about 15 machines running in the house, 24/7. Because of the dehumidifiers, we had to keep the windows closed so as to not affect their job. These machines create so much hot air, the house was miserable. When it came time to demo, the house was 96 degrees. While already concerned about our electric bill, we were told we could keep the air conditioning on but set somewhere in the 80's to keep it livable.

On the following Friday, just as we were about to walk out the door to head to New York, we're told by the guy checking the fan progress that now our water heater is leaking. I, of course, started stressing out; we had a plane to catch! To keep any more disasters at bay, we had the water to the heater and the gas turned off while we were gone.

The guys still needed access to the house while we were gone to manage the fans, so Jamie's brother Mike was kind enough to let them in when they needed. On one of these occasions, they found that, oh hey, guess what, the HVAC unit is also leaking. We had a lot to come home to.

So, to wrap this long story up, it's been deduced that all three of these leaks were caused by our water pressure being too high. And because of this, three weeks later, we're still dealing with the aftermath. Yesterday they finished the drywall, today they're puttying, tomorrow they'll texturize the walls, Wednesday they'll sand it. Hopefully it can get painted and the bathrooms can be reinstalled by this weekend and then maybe we can get back to normal. Oh, but wait, there's still the issue of the carpet, which needs replacing.

(I just really want to not have to walk up to the third story every time I have to pee.)

Luckily for us, none of our personal belongings were affected by the water. Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, this is going to cost a shit-ton. We rent, though, so it's not coming out of our pocket. Hooray for that.

Catching Up

I haven't really made time to catch up around here. There are a few things I could have written about so as to not fall behind, but I wasn't really feeling it enough to take time out of my day. Because of this, you get a pretty significant Instagram photodump with recaps.

My Thursday was spent cleaning the house and hiding the miscellaneous Christmas boxes that haven't been put away yet in the guest bedroom and shutting the door. I was still waiting on my new rail garland to arrive, so it had to be accessible. The rest of the crap I stowed in there is all the decor for the Ping Pong in a Winter Wonderland Party this weekend! (If you're reading this and know me personally, you're invited.) Really, though, I was cleaning the house in preparation of having our buddies Jarrod and Kaitlyn over for dinner. Jamie made a casserole, which wasn't fancy, but I was feeling fancy, so I set the table all fancy-like.

I also took time to admire my table and my beer's ugly sweater. I've seen these on some other blogs and really loved them, so I was really excited when I found them at Target for only three bucks. I grabbed one for me and one for Jamie.

Friday night was a friend's company party that we were invited to. It involved taking a so-ridiculous-it's-cool limo to dinner which was followed by drinks and dancing at a small club down the street. Jamie and I didn't get home until 3:30am, which we promptly recognized was something that we are too old for, but that didn't mean that we didn't have a lot of fun!

Saturday was tricky. We got up around 9:30, which was way too early to be getting up after that crazy Friday night, but I think we may have been too hungover to sleep in. My goal was to get up and eat something, then take a nap before we were to leave for our next adventure, but it didn't really work out that way. Luckily, I was able to push through and I didn't feel too bad for the rest of the day.

So on Saturday we went to another soccer game, but not just any soccer game, the MLS Cup! We didn't have sideline seats this time. In fact, we were way up in the second level, but the seats weren't bad. We could see everything in the game pretty clearly. And what's fun about the second level bleachers? Rumble seats. 'Member in high school when you stomped the bleachers to get revved up? It's like that, but times ten.

This keeps happening to us.

 Luckily, before we headed to our seats, I was able to sneak a peek at Alexi Lalas before he shaved his significant ginger mo at the half.

I'm not going to get into the game too much, but after a slow first half in which Houston was ahead by one, Galaxy redeemed themselves in the second half giving us a great show and winning 3-1. After the win, we found our friends Victor and Julie (with their two friends), who had passes to some post game party that offered free food and drinks. The problem was that there were six of us, but only had four passes. With some strategery and confidence, we figured it out. The four of them went in, then Julie came back out with two of their passes for us to put on. When we walked in, the lady wanted to scan them, but Jamie said, "Oh, we've already been scanned." And she was all "Okay, have a good time!". It was pretty much way too easy.

Since we didn't park at the stadium, Jamie and I had to leave a little early to catch the shuttle back to our car. Being that it was only 5:30, we decided to head off to Fullerton to visit our buddy Brandon at his new place of employment, HopScotch. We knew this place was going to be cool, but I think it exceeded our expectations. I was driving, so I only had a couple craft beers, both of which were ones I hadn't had before. Being the somewhat connoisseur that he is, Jamie opted for scotch and bourbon. Does the name make sense now? HopScotch? Get it? Anyway...

Brandon, I stole your photo because it's better than mine.

HopScotch also offers their version of a Bloody Mary, the Porky Mary! We had to try one. Pork fat infused bourbon, tomato juice with beef consomme and a glass rimmed with their house pork rub. Ho-Lee-Crap. While being not even close to healthy, it was the best Bloody Mary I've ever had. It's hearty! It doesn't have the tang of a normal Bloody Mary and the meat flavors aren't overwhelming, but they really balance it out and make it really well rounded. It was fantastic.

Jamie and I will have to make a point to visit again when we haven't already eaten. We saw so many dishes that came out of the kitchen that smelled so delicious. I just wish this place was a little closer to us! We'd be in there all the time.

So that was pretty much my weekend. Sunday was a Sunday Funday for Jamie, who spent most of the day at Selma's with our friend Jeff. I was only able to stop in before my afternoon commitment, then come back later afterwards. They had definitely had a good afternoon by the time I returned.

Sunday night, I crashed, and crashed pretty hard. It felt so good to sleep off the weekend.

Did I mention that I saw Colin Hanks at the soccer game?

Fitness Friday

This week has been tricky. Kind of. Since signing up at CUT, I've stopped taking Sunday off and also doubled up on my workouts on Monday and Tuesday in order to kick my own but into winning my DietBet. Well, it worked... but then also I think my scale went a little wacko. The pictures below show my weigh in for the first DietBet, my weight in for the second DietBet, and on the right is my weightout for the first DietBet.

My scale decided to weigh me out at 143, yet when the scale was back by the tub where it usually is, I was of a more acceptable and realistic-seeming weight. However, I still used this weight for my weight out since I had the scale in the same exact spot for my other two weigh ins, so I just went with that... but now, superstrangely, I'm weighing the same with the scale in either spot. This makes me wish I had one of those big manual scales.

Anyway, after reaching my DietBet goal (I won $39.16!), and feeling good about having doubled my workouts on Monday and Tuesday, I doubled up again on Wednesday for an hour spin class followed by an hour of Zumba. I had planned on Thursday being a one-class kind of day, but then this happened Wednesday night:

Hello, impromptu cheat dinner!

And then also this:

Oh yes we did.

Yes I ate the whole burger. No, I didn't eat the whole dessert. Jamie and I couldn't even finish it between the two of us. Let me tell you why I allowed this...

Once upon a time there was a restaurant called Beachfire that lived a block away from our house. Jamie and I spent a lot of time and money there. (Without Beachfire, we never would have become friends with Jarrod and Kaitlyn!) We loved their food; the burger being my favorite. The dessert show above, the After Dinner Mint, was just.. oh my god. I do know how to eat healthy there, and often times I opted for a salad with grilled salmon. But then, one day in March of last year, our beloved Beachfire closed.

Now, Beachfire still has a location about 20 minutes away from us, which we decided to visit on Wednesday night. Yes, I could have eaten a much healthier meal, but you know what? I haven't had a full-on cheat day in a long time, so I decided to go all out. After all, I did make my weigh in goal and I am in the middle of one bitch of an Aunt Flo visit... so I went for it. Let me tell you, it was so delicious and I enjoyed every bite of it.

Ten minutes later, however, I felt like crap. Not mentally, though. I did not and still do not regret my majorly caloric dinner, but I felt really not-good, physically. As odd as it is to say, I'll take that as a victory. This means that my body is now used to eating healthfully and appreciates nutrition, and I have to listen to it if I want to keep from feeling that gross ever again. This isn't to say that I won't do this again, but it definitely won't be very often. It does make for a good reminder as to why I prefer to make the food choices that I do, though.

So back to Thursday. (Remember when I was about to tell you about Thursday but then went on a major tangent?) Thursday was going to be a one-class day until my cheat, so on Wednesday night I scheduled myself for a spin/pilates class to follow the spin/body pump class that I had previously scheduled.

The problem with having been doubling up on work outs is that now I'm starting to feel like one workout isn't enough. I know that it is, but I kind of like doing two work outs. The problem with that is that it takes too much time out of my morning, and it has caused me to slack on the things I need to do at home, with work, and this blog. So today, I shook my booty at Zumba for an hour... then I considered staying for an hour of Body Pump, but then went home instead.

When I got home, I noticed that I received a couple Paypal payments that I was expecting, so I treated myself. This treat isn't a cheat, or shoes, or a mani-pedi (though I have my eyes on some really epic wedges on Poshmark). No, I bought something to help me monitor my progress and motivate me to push harder.

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor from HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com

I've been seeing these all over Instagram from fitness people that I follow for a long time, so I finally took some time this week to research HRMs and find the best one for me. I ordered it today, and it will be here on Monday! I'm really excited to start using it to see how many calories I'm actually burning rather than kind of guessing based on what the internet thinks I burn during, say, 30 minutes of spin. I'm sure I'll be following up on this in next week's post.

As for this week's numbers, there's no change from last week. While I did reach my goal for the DietBet on Wednesday, I'm hanging onto some severe bloat and water weight from this wretched period which has caused me to bounce back up to last week's weight and measurements.

My goal for this weekend is to keep my eating in check and to try not to drink too much green beer (or more likely, just beer in general). This will be difficult, but I'll do my best.

Iffin' y'wanna follow my fitness&healthy-eating Instagram, my username is @fitgosam! 

Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

Whoa. Hello, unexpected hiatus. I haven't mustered up the energy to even update yous guys about either fitness or my acupuncture treatments let alone set aside time to really write in a way that satiates my soul. I miss really writing, but I'm having trouble finding things to really write about. (Really.) It's exhausting to try and tell a story when the only thing going on in my life at the moment is work, working out, and my strange now-not-so-new diet.

So, in an attempt to break through the writer's block and to hopefully curb the redundancy that has been so present in this space lately, here's a Currently post. (Please, please contain your excitement and hold your applause until the end of the post. Thank you, The Management.)

(If you don't follow me elsewhere on the internetz, I'm platinum now. Oooh, aaaah.)

 
 
Watching: Breaking Bad, finally. Jamie started watching it last year. I initially watched it with him, but I just couldn't make it through the first few episodes without losing my mental shit.

If you live in this world and still somehow don't know the premise of the series, the main character is a chemistry teacher who finds out he has lung cancer. In order to cover his ever-growing medical bills, he turns to cooking meth. Unfortunately, the first few episodes were heavily peppered with coughing fits that too closely resembled those of my dad's during his last few years after his colon cancer had spread to his lungs. It was still too soon for me, so Jamie watched the show on his own.

But! One day, Jamie decided he wanted to re-watch it while I was tooling around on my iPad. This may have been strategery on his part as I found myself paying attention. We watched a few episodes a night before he had left for a work trip. While he was gone I kept watching. When he came back, we kept watching. Within two weeks, I was caught up on 4 seasons of Breaking Bad. Now that's some master couch-potatery.

Listening: Early 90's jamz. For real. It puts me in a good mood and makes me wanna shake-m'booty. Hip hop hooraaaay hoooooo, Motownphilly is back again, that girl is poison, and I wanna sex you up, too.



Thinking: I need to get back on track with my To-Do lists. I stopped making lists and now the house is a disaster. D'oh.

Eating: After 6 weeks of adjusting to my TCM diet by excusing myself to eat junk just because I couldn't eat a lot of what I used to eat, I've finally cracked down. I'm readjusting to both this new TCM diet and fitting it back into a healthy everyday non-diet diet. It's only been a short time, but I feel a difference. My body definitely prefers a healthy lifestyle.

Loving: Weddings. I love weddings! I get really sappy at them and I think Jamie does too. Our good friends Jarrod and Kaitlyn got married last weekend and it was just beautiful.

We were feelin' romantical.

Anticipating: BABIES. No, not an announcement. But we do have two nephews and a niece due to arrive before the end of the year. I'm so excited to have babies in our family. I know a lot of women dealing with infertility don't want anything to do with anyone else's babies, but I'm somehow the opposite. It's like babies are my drug and I just need my fix? Sure. If anything, I'll get to see more of this:

Men holding babies = swooniness.

That's from a dinner date with our friends Jon and Amanda who moved away but were in town last weekend. They stole this baby for us had a super cute li'l guy named Edison James back in April and we were stoked to spend some time with he and his 'rents. My insides may or may not have mushed out when that homie fell asleep in my arms.

Thankful for: Pie.

My Weekend via Instagram

I used my Friday for errand-running and nail-getting-done-ing, like I usually do. We're getting more and more hot days and Friday was one of them. I shouldn't have worn my hair down, but I couldn't resist; it has gotten so long! I almost always wear it up, so sometimes the length surprises me.

I can feel it on my back and that's weird.

Between errands, I headed over to Jamie's office where I would go eat dim sum with he and a couple others from his office. I had a little time to kill beforehand, though, and stopped at Goodwill. I didn't have enough time to really browse and find anything, but I did find these chairs that I wished I had a use for.

$5 each!

After Goodwill and lunch, I headed to the mall for three things: sandals, another summer outfit and Jamie's birthday gift. I only found one of those, and since I can't give any details, you can probably guess that it's Jamie's birthday gift. I am stoked about it and can't wait to give it to him!

Friday night involved grabbing a couple beers at Selma's, then deciding to keep it cheap and easy by grilling burgers with Jarrod and Kaitlyn at our place so's that we could play ping pong after dinner. (Jamie bought about a thousand pounds of ground beef which means I'm still having burgers for lunch.)

Not ping pong.

While eating, drinking, ping ponging and using exercise equipment incorrectly, it had been decided that we would join our friends the next day on an afternoon trip down to Stone Brewery in Escondido. That place was soooooo cool. They have a big restaurant and a really pretty garden with all of these great spaces to sit and enjoy their beer. I should have taken more photos.

I want to go back, ASAP.

Day drinking took it's toll, and I was in PJs by 6:30 on Saturday evening. Gettin' old, folks. It was worth it.

On Sunday, we ended up spending 4 hours at the pool. Most of the time was spent alone, with the pool to ourselves. We were surprised that it wasn't full of kids on an 80 degree Sunday, but we weren't complaining. It was so relaxing. Perfect.

Orca in the pool.

Beer and books.

After returning from the pool, we had just enough time to change and lounge a li'l bit before getting our science on and watching the solar eclipse. We tried the hole in posterboard thing, nope. Waffle-fingers (google it), nope. Binoculars! Yep.

The sun began to fall behind the trees, so we took our science (and the dog) to the park and popped a squat. A teenage girl ran from across the street and asked if she could join us, so the three of us sat and watched. We had worried about the clouds rolling in, but, hey look! It allowed us to look at the sun without any special glasses or a freaking welding helmet.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Darrell Day

(Buzzed on the side with a perm? Hellzyesss.)

Saturday marked two years since my dad died. I woke up feeling okay about it. I didn't feel the consuming sadness that I've had in the past on important days related to him and that made me nervous. In the hour that I was awake before Spin class, I think I poo'd three times due to my nervous stomach. Then about halfway through Spin class, I felt like I was going to lose it. "It" being the contents of my stomach, which so far had only been two rice cakes and some water.

I felt unsettled for the first few hours of my day. It was like I was anticipating a break down and it could come at any minute. I took a long, hot shower to relax and allow myself some undistracted brain-space to really consider how I felt about the day.

My thoughts bounced between memories of times spent together and of how he was as a person. While I felt emotive in response, enough to cause a sniffle and watery eyes, I didn't really cry. On Saturday, I realized that the time had finally healed a large part of the wound that his cancer and his death had left me. The majority of my sadness had turned to just plain missing him, and that is a much more manageable emotion.

Pa and I used to jitterbug.

Jamie and I had lunch, but then he had plans with his brothers that evening leaving me with some free time. I met Clare for a couple drinks at a local spot where we tossed back a shot of peach schnapps in honor of my pop. It's kind of a family thing to toast with peach schnapps; We did it to toast my grandfather, and now we do it to toast my dad. When he died, one of the first things we thought was "Oh crap, we're out of Peach!" and we called someone up to bring us some so that we could all do a shot. What a visual, huh? A man dies, and his family does shots... and this was all before they took his body away, but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Peach and PBR.

My dad also drank PBR. It was his go-to brew for decades. It's what we drink when we're thinking of him, so I grabbed a 12 pack and headed over to Jarrod and Kaitlyn's to eat, drink, and play cards. I couldn't be more grateful for my friends here. They had never met my dad, yet they help me celebrate him as if they knew and loved him too, and that means the world to me.

Happy Darrell Day!