Emergency Room Visit

Yesterday Cody and I took Rocky and his good friend Blue Bonnet to the dog park to play. Everything was going really well and Rocky and Blue Bonnet were having a great time. They ran and ran and ran for about an hour and a half until disaster struck. Rocky was running full speed playing a game of chase with Blue Bonnet (who is surprisingly fast, despite her 6 inch legs carrying around 50 pounds!) when all of a sudden Rocky tripped or something and started yelping like crazy and rolling around on the ground. It was interesting because it attracted every single dog (about 25 or so) in the park and they all came running. Cody had to swoop in and pick up our pup who was still yelping in pain, poor thing. After Cody held him for a little bit he calmed down enough to get a drink of water and be carried to the car. The whole ride to Blue Bonnet's house Rocky was holding his front paw up off the ground and yelping occasionally. After we dropped Blue Bonnet off, we made a trip to the emergency animal clinic and were pleasantly surprised to find out that having a consultation with the nurse is free! The nurse took a look at him and we described what happened, and how Rocky had been behaving since the injury and the nurse said that it was his opinion, off the record, that it was some sort of soft tissue damage, i.e. a sprain or bruise. He said they could prescribe some pain medication for Rocky after the vet examined him, but that would probably cost around 200 bucks. Since Rocky's limp had improved and yelping had ceased even just since arriving at the animal E.R., we decided to take him home and give it a few more days of taking it easy. We were all so exhausted after the whole ordeal, we took a family nap on the rug in the family room, accidentally. I woke up first and was able to snap a couple of pictures before Cody and Rocky woke up.

(Cody was able to get these pictures of Bluebonnet before we had to leave)

Way to go!

Madelyn has some exciting news that she can't really gloat about (in fact, she'll probably be really mad at me for posting this)..... so I thought I would do it for her. Last year in May Madelyn set a goal to lose 20 pounds by her next bithday and I am proud (amazed, jealous, impressed) to say that she has reached her goal (two months early)! I honestly don't know where she found 20 pounds to lose in the first place. She looked good a year ago and she looks good now! But I am really proud of her for reaching that goal she set for herself. So far she's only been able to celebrate with me, but I thought I would share with everyone! I would love to give you her secret but I'm pretty sure she did it the old fashioned way.... excersize and eating right. However, she is extremely strong-willed, so it's possible she just willed the pounds away!

Why I Love...My Puppy

Rocky loves sticks. However, there is a rule in our house: no sticks allowed inside. Rocky knows this rule, but sometimes tries to sneak a stick in to play with. The other day I found him lying at the threshold of the door to the back porch with his body lying inside, but his face and front paws outside, playing with a stick. Clever pup.

Easter Weekend

This weekend Madelyn and I took it easy awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny..... the most interesting of all holiday mascots. We had a nice weekend filled with friends, family, and March Madness. My bracket is completely shot but I don't mind because I was able to watch this year's March Madness on our new TV! For a little over a year I have been researching, searching, and begging for a new HDTV, and this weekend (with a little help from my bonus) I finally plugged in my new TV. It's awesome. Totally awesome. Although some people weren't meant to be seen in high definition (yeah, I'm talking to you Conan O'Brien).

(We can finally have people over to watch movies and sports!)

Our new TV was pretty exciting news, but I tore myself away from it on Saturday so that we could enjoy the weather. We met our friend Jessica (seen here dressed up as the Easter Bunny) at a local taco place for some breakfast tacos (which is becoming a Saturday morning tradition). We also dropped off our old TV at her house for storage/usage. We felt it was silly for a TV to sit in storage when we knew someone who could use it. So Jessica gladly took it off our hands.... she's awesome. We also headed to San Antonio for the day to my grandma's (Nanny) house for some Easter celebrations. We had a delicious dinner, we hid some eggs, and everyone got to ride in Kevin's (my mom's husband) new car..... a 1968 Corvette. It really is a "Little Red Corvette", and that song has been stuck in my head since I rode in it. It's a fun car, but you feel like you are going much faster then you really are when your hair is whipping around and the engine is roaring. It's a little terrifying!

(My grandma getting her ride)


(Enjoying the beautiful weather)

We also took our dog down to play with my grandma's dog, Machen. Machen is an older dog, so she wasn't really interested in all of our puppy's energy, but they got a long well. It was really great to see everyone and we even left with a bag of Easter candy.... which is 40% gone.

(Machen and Rocky hanging out)



(Rocky and Madelyn)

I also thought I would mention the awesome rocking chairs my dad bought us when he was down here recently. With the weather being so nice it's been really fun to sit out on the patio in the new chairs.

(Our awesome new chairs)

Why I Love...

I decided to steal this blog idea from one of my favorite bloggers: Swampy. After all, imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? She has a post probably twice a week or so titled: Why I Love My Husband where she shares little stories about her husband and I think it is so cute! I decided to tweak the idea a little and share not only about why I love my husband, but why I love whatever it is that I love that day! I will start with a "Why I Love My Husband:"

The other day he was singing "Anything Goes" from the musical. I started to be impressed and asked him how he knew that song, as I have seen the musical a couple of times. He replied, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

Spoon and Dallas

Austin had its annual SXSW (South By Southwest) music festival this weekend. I didn't want to pay for the wristband, so I didn't participate too much in the festivities. But on Thursday our good friend Jessica, Madelyn and I headed downtown for a free Spoon show. The show was excellent, and it was held at Auditorium Shores, which has a great view of the city. We got to watch the sunset on the bank of Town Lake, see all the pretty downtown lights, and listen to one of our favorite bands..... and it was all free. Although I'm disappointed I didn't get to attend this years SXSW music festival, I'm happy I was able to attend one of their free events. It was awesome. I didn't have my good camera.... so the pictures aren't any good. But I'll post them anyway!

(View of downtown from the concert. It was a beautiful night)

(A blurry and distorted picture of Madelyn and Jessica.)

(Another view of downtown.... again, blurry!)

Friday Madelyn and I took off for Dallas. It was time for a visit with my grandparents, aunt, and cousins... so we packed up the car and the dog, and headed for the big D. Our weekend consisted mostly of eating, visiting, playing with the dog, and sitting in traffic (yuck). We had a great time and it was really nice to see everyone. Rocky was able to play with my aunt's dog Augustus.... these were the only pictures I took in Dallas (sorry).

(Rocky on the ride down there..... we made him a little bed in the backseat)

(My cousin Dima playing with Rocky and Augustus)

(They finally tired out from all the running.... but only for a minute)

(on the way back Madelyn's legs were getting hot from the sun, so she used the windshield shade.... it was funny, but also really resourceful)

Complaints from the Cubicle

Our friends Tobi, Angela, and Jessica, along with me and Madelyn, started a new blog. Please check it out and send in your suggestions. Hopefully you find it as fun and entertaining as we have.

http://complaintsfromthecubicle.blogspot.com/

Spring Forward and other tidbits.

"springing forward" is one of my favorite times of the year, but today's time change kind of "sprung up" on me. I woke up this morning and thought our computer clock had broken... It didn't occur to me that the time had changed until I got a hilarious text message from our friend Tobi that read (word for word)...

"We effing sprung forward last night?!?! Did I miss the convo yesterday? Dang... That is a harsh way to wake up on a Sunday"

I then had to change the ridiculous amount of clocks in our house an hour ahead. We live in approximately 776 square feet..... and we never have an excuse for being late. I took a picture of each clock I changed today.

This weekend we finally had to end the laundry and grocery store strike. The laundry strike finally ended when I had to wear Dr. Seuss underwear to work on Friday. The ending of the grocery store strike finally came to an end when we had a wonderful meal on Thursday of grilled cheese, pizza roles, and Wheat Thins.

Madelyn also went shopping this weekend with our new friend Jessica. Her description of their shopping trip made me laugh pretty hard. I don't think she intended this part of her story to be funny but it made me laugh. When they were getting done shopping the following conversation happened (with my interpretation)....I don't know if you are aware, but Madelyn is a really indecisive person. I'm not sure if Jessica is indecisive or just polite, but the thought of them wandering around the mall not making any decisions was funny.

M: Do you want to go to more stores or are you ready to leave? (I am ready to go now)

J: I don't care, I could go either way, how about you? (yeah, that sounds good, let's leave)

M: I don't care either are there any more good stores here? (I don't want to look into anymore stores)

J: I don't know, it depends on where you like to shop (I don't want to either, I'm ready to go)

M: I'm thirsty I need a drink of water. (This decision is getting too hard... let's delay it)

The rest of the weekend was spent taking our dog to the dog park. I'm trying to get him more comfortable around other dogs, and so far he is really tough and playful with the tiny dogs, but when a large dog comes around he comes and gets under my feet. I took some pictures.... I'm really trying to fight this "crazy dog person" that wants to come out of me.

Believe it or not, this is a "slow day" at the dog park. There are dogs everywhere.

These are the type of dogs Rocky acts all "tough guy" around. Hopefully he'll get a little braver.

Texas Two Step

Two blogs... two days... it's a new record! Madelyn and I spent our day yesterday getting our vote on. If you don't know, Texas had its presidential primary yesterday. It was especially unique because it was a primary and a caucus (they were calling it the "Texas Two Step"). Most of the delegates from Texas go to the democratic primary winner, but a fourth of the delegates go to the Democratic caucus winner.

Madelyn and I both voted during the day, we were asked if we were going to attend the caucus later that evening. They gave us a little yellow note card (see above) to take with us to the caucus at 7 pm that night. We showed up at 7 pm and were put in a room with about 300 other people. I don't think the officials expected such a large turnout for the caucus and were completely unprepared for the large crowd. If you wanted to, you could just sign the paper (they only had one sheet with 12 places for signatures for hundreds of people to sign) and leave. I really wanted to stay for the entire caucus and delegate process, but things looked like they were going to take way too long. We signed the paper that awards the candidate our caucus vote and left. We had to get home because our friend Heidi was coming over to watch the results come in on CNN. Unfortunately, they couldn't get the votes counted in time for bed. But it was cool to see all the analysts on the news channels spending so much time talking about the Texas vote... made us feel like a big part of the process.

Madelyn and I both voted for Barrack Obama, and although he lost the primary, based on what we saw last night, we think he'll win the caucus at least in our district he did. Without getting too political on our blog, we both voted for Barrack Obama because of the power he has had bringing people together. Right now our country is so divided, and we both feel like that uniting Americans is a very important issue in the next 4-8 years. Barrack is also a pretty popular candidate here in Austin and I have been trying to get some election stuff for a while.... yesterday I finally scored a bumper sticker. I'll end up saving it, and maybe one day my great, great, great grandchildren will take it on Antiques Roadshow and make millions.

It was really cool to be a part of the process... and I can't wait for November!

Kite Festival

This past weekend Madelyn and I gathered up our dog, some good friends, a couple of kites, and headed down to Zilker Park for the annual Austin Kite Festival. This was just too interesting of an activity to pass up.... even with the threatening weather.

From Random 2008

All of us thought there would be a few kites, a few hundred people, some dogs, etc....a nice leisurely afternoon. Well, seeing the traffic getting off the highway we knew we were in for a bigger experience. We got off on the next exit and used the hike and bike trail to make it to the park. This was more of a rock concert crowd than a small town kite festival. But what do I know? This was my first kite festival experience and Madelyn's 2nd kite experience ever. Maybe this is the norm for kite festivals? You couldn't have asked for a windier day (a storm was coming in). In the world of kite flying I think there is something as too much wind, and I think we hit that threshold yesterday.

From Random 2008

This is about as high as I could fly my awesome dragon kite. I was afraid that if I flew it any higher it would get tangled with someone else's kite....

From Random 2008

I couldn't get Madelyn to fly the kite.... but, in a way, she was flying a kite of her own. She held on to the dog's leash the entire time. Unfortunately, her dog/kite never got off the ground.

From Random 2008

This is our friend Jessica "flying the dragon".... which we thought would be a great code word for some sort of drug reference. I was concentrating on keeping the kite in the air and not taking pictures.... so sorry Jessica, but your face is covered.

From Random 2008

Kite flying is serious.... one wrong step and you'll end up in the hall of shame. This was the tree near all the kite flyers... with evidence of its victims in its branches.

From Random 2008

Madelyn and I have had a dog for about 4 weeks now and we're fighting turning into "crazy dog people". You know the type of people who dress their dogs up like people (sweaters for warmth are ok, Tobi), who refer to their dogs like their children, etc. But we couldn't help sharing some pictures that we took at the Kite Festival of our dog.

From Random 2008

Whenever Rocky sees or hears sometime he doesn't understand he tilts his head. It's kind of like he's saying "What?". It cracks us up every time..... I finally got a picture of it.

From Random 2008

We had a great time at the Kite Festival, I hope you enjoy the pictures.