Whew I feel wiped. It was an energy draining weekend.
Friday after work Randall and his new girlfriend were scheduled to come over. I got a text message from him somewhere around 5:40 saying they had just departed. Jeremy still was not 100% sure if he was going to be coming over that evening. Even before I left work at 5pm he was still not sure.
I got a call from Randall a little before 7. He decided to use the shortcut I blogged about off of 75, getting off at 29 and then getting on Oil Well Road. Well he missed Oil Well Road and instead took route 29 all the way to Immokalee. I have to admit I took some satisfaction in the call after the beat down I took for getting lost on the way to South Beach. I gave him revised directions and he said he would arrive soon.
While I was waiting for Randall, Jeremy called around 7 or so saying he was finally ready to commit, he was coming. Great, I told him to drive fast. Randall and Wendy showed up around 7:30. I never met Wendy before. She seemed very nice and I quickly found out why Randall and her are a good match, they are both very competitive. It didn’t take long after we ate our Red Baron, rising crust pizza (VERY good btw) before the Wii was turned on. We decided to mess with Wii Fit.
Wendy and Randall had to weigh in to get registered with the game. I don’t think 
Randall was very happy with the Wii’s analysis of his physical condition. We jumped into the various Wii activities. We tried soccer ball heading, slalom skiing, ski jump and my favorite spectator Wii Fit game, hula hoop. Randall and Wendy were constantly going back and forth trying to out do the other. Wendy is very athletic so she is more than capable of holding her own against Randall.
It was after 9 and we still had no sign of Jeremy. He didn’t roll in until around 10 pm. One of the big reasons we wanted him to come over was to see if he could back up his claims of Wii Fit greatness. After some quick meets and greets we put Jeremy to the test. It didn’t work out as planned. Instead of being exposed as a Wii Fit poser, in the span of 15 minutes he owned the top score in practically every activity he tried. Only my ski jump record remained intact and that was only by a tiny one meter. Jeremy is the real Wii deal.
Unfortunately with Jeremy’s late arrival we didn’t have all that much time to play since we had to get up at 4am the next morning for the race. As is I didn’t hit the pillow until midnight, ugh. Jeremy was lending his photography expertise to the race. Randall and Wendy volunteered to help us with the race logistics. I felt very bad about asking them to get up as early as Ali and I were and I told them it would be fine if they slept in a bit and just met us at the race site a little later. Randall said he was fine with getting up. Jeremy took up my offer of sleeping in a bit and meeting us there later.
The 4 am alarm did not feel good. The anticipation of the race helped somewhat with clearing up the haze of the early hour but I still felt just a few levels above the walking dead. I stuck my head in Randall’s room to make sure he was awake and felt like shit doing so. It’s just too damn early. When I took Nicki out for her early bathroom break it confirmed what the weather forecasters predicted, it was COLD. It was cold and breezy with temps hovering around 40, far from ideal conditions for setting up a race.
We took three vehicles to the race site, Ali in the Camry, me in the truck and Randall and Wendy in Wendy’s mini-van. Both the Camry and the truck did not have room for additional passengers. Nicki was along for the ride as well. Once we got to the site we split off to attend to various duties. Randall and I assumed the parking sign duties, pounding in the signs used to direct runners to the parking area. Even though I bundled up pretty well for the event with jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt and an insulated sweatshirt with hood, I still felt chilled to the bone as we set up the signs in the predawn darkness.
The time before a race is pretty much loosely organized chaos. With this race the chaos is expanded because of the layout. Registration is in one area, the start of the race is 1/4 mile away from that and the finish is 3/4 of a mile away from the start, back at the Humane Society. We had to be at each area several times for race prep, having to travel between these points makes it tough.
As the sun was rising the runners started pouring in. The cold weather affected day of registrations for sure, we had only 60 or so. It also affected how many runners that pre-registered that actually showed up. Out of the 650 or so registered participants, somewhere around 500 crossed the finish line. I can’t say I blamed them, it was too damn cold.
I ran down to the start line a minute or two before the race was scheduled to start. As the timer I need to be there so I can synch the start time with the timing system. As Ali started the race I was still fumbling with my stopwatch to reset it. After the start we had to walk back to registration to tend to a few things and then we went up to the finish line. We got back to the finish line only a few minutes ahead of the lead runner. I was very lucky when I realized about 30 seconds before the first runner crossed that I had not input the race start time yet. I quickly punched it in a few moments before the runner entered the home stretch.
Jeremy and Randall were in the finish chute. Jeremy was taking pictures of the runners/dogs, Randall served as my number caller for any runners that did not beep as they crossed the line. Jeremy did a great job of shooting the event. He took hundreds of pictures and tried to capture each runner as they finished. Randall did a great job of serving as my eyes at the finish. As usual we had some chips that did not register but for the most part the system worked ok. We had two more chips that flat out died however.
Ali handed out the awards. Unfortunately a number of people did not stick around for the awards because they were freezing their asses off. All in all things went superbly considering the huge increase in numbers for this year over the last. After the awards the long clean up process begun. We had most everything picked up and put away by a little after 10 am, not bad.
Jeremy had to pull right back out to get back to the east coast which was too bad. We thanked him for being our event photographer, he really did a nice job with it.
We got a tour of the Humane Society from one of the board members that also happens to be a member of the running club. First he showed us the cat area which was broken into a kitten and adult cat section. Randall is a big cat guy and spent a lot of time in the kitten room checking them out. Then we went back to the dog kennels. I was surprised at the number of kennels, they only have 24 of them. I figured there would be many more for some reason. There were a bunch of cute dogs in there, looking at some of them just breaks your heart as you can tell all they want is for someone to be pals with.
There was a dog in there named Diva that Ali wanted me to see. Ali thought that she might be a good “sister” for Nicki. I did not see the dog during the tour. However a little later Ali took me back in and showed me Diva, she was back sleeping on her bed so I guess that is why I didn’t notice her. She is an Australian Shepard mix. She is around Nicki’s size. Ali said she saw Diva playing outside earlier in the week and she thought she would be a perfect match for Nicki. Diva seemed like a nice dog although my eye immediately went to the tumor looking growth on a shaved area of her hind quarter. Ali was told the vet “thought” it was from a burn but no biopsy had been done to confirm it. That immediately gave me some pause. It seemed like a moot point anyway because Diva had paper on her kennel saying there was a possible adoption pending. The staff told Ali the hold on Diva was until 3pm that afternoon and if she wanted she could call back after that time to see if Diva was officially adopted. Ali said she would do that.
So we finally pulled out of the Humane Society and headed home. As we did I noticed we forgot to do one thing, pull down the parking signs. So Randall and made the small loop and ripped out the signs and threw them into our vehicles. On the way back we made a much needed stop at Dunkin Donuts for a coffeee break, my ass was dragging. Once we got home I threw some burgers on the grill for lunch. Minutes after lunch concluded everyone headed back to take much needed naps, except me.
The coffee had artificially given me a burst of energy so I did not follow suit. Instead I worked on getting all of the race results online. After doing that I decided to take on the daunting task of putting the chips away. At the finish line the chips are cut off of the runners shoes and thrown in a bucket. At the end of the race all of these chips need to be pulled out of the bucket, sorted and put back into the proper spot in the chip holder. Typically this is something that is handled at the race site with the help of many sets of hands to make it go faster. Well I figured I could do the process myself, it would just take longer. I filled the kitchen island and the fold up table I brought in from the garage with the chip holders and went about the arduous task of sorting them. I got maybe halfway done before the effects of the coffee started to wear off. My brain was so tired it was hurting. I gave in and went back to the bedroom and fell asleep for maybe an hour. I could have used three or four more.
After I got back up I dug right back into putting the chips away. Ali and Randall joined me once they got back up as well. The addition of two more sets of hands made things go much faster, imagine that. Ali had no intentions of cooking Saturday night so we decided to head to Carraba’s. I had one more gift card I could blow.
When we got there I noticed that the funny waiter we had before named Jeremy was working the floor. I asked the hostess if we could be seated in his section. It meant we probably waited a bit longer than we had to but oh well. Before we were seated they must have told Jeremy that someone asked for him. He came over, expecting us to be someone he knew. He shook our hands and said “How ya doing?” with a look on his face that I knew meant “I don’t really know who the f you are?” We explained we had him before and liked the experience that’s all.
We sat down and had an enjoyable dinner. I was struggling to contribute much to the conversation. My mind felt a bit empty, perhaps still from the lack of sleep, I don’t know. Jeremy helped pick up the slack with his comedy routine. After the meal which I intended to pay for the majority of with the gift card, Randall pulled an end around and slipped Jeremy his credit card. I protested but Randall wanted to pay. Well whatever, we thanked him for his generosity. Once we got home there were no late night shenanigans for me. I was drop dead tired and went to bed.
Sunday was laid back. Randall joked if I had list of chore items ready to go. I didn’t. I think the only normal chore related thing that got done all weekend was watering some plants and Ali doing some laundry and the bills. Randall, Wendy and Ali all slept in quite late. I was up by 6:30. Once we got everyone up and ready we all headed back down to the Humane Society. Ali had called back Saturday afternoon about Diva and was told the pending adoption fell through. The suggestion was that we bring Nicki down so we could put her and Diva together to see how they would interact.
We all piled into the party van and headed out. Once we were there we took Nicki into a fenced in area. A few minutes later Ali came out with Diva. After some smelling through the fence and then with both on leashes they were set free. Nothing much happened. Ali’s hope was that Nicki and Diva would immediately hit it off with Nicki wanting to play. Instead Nicki was much too distracted with being in a new area that was filled with the smells from hundreds of dogs. Diva ran around a bit and played with the woman from the humane society but Nicki had no interest in taking part in the fun. Instead she preferred to just come and be with either Ali or myself, giving us a “can we go yet?” look.
I also got a closer look at the growth on Diva’s back. It looked NASTY. The idea of adopting a dog that possibly has skin cancer was not exactly what I had in mind. Diva seemed like a nice dog but there were no feelings on my part that made her stand out from the other dogs as being “the one”. She was friendly and energetic. I don’t know how affectionate or loving she would be. During the process I never felt like I was really that into it like I should be. Getting a dog should be something you are excited about. I didn’t feel excited.
We didn’t officially put a hold on Diva. Ali and the humane society volunteer said something about maybe bringing Nicki back again to see if the interaction is any better. It wasn’t a bad interaction in that there was no growling or fighting, it just wasn’t real positive either. However after the woman left Ali confirmed what I was already feeling, that Diva just wasn’t going to be the right fit.
I’m not quite sure how we got to the point where we are ready to adopt a second dog. I know that we both thought it was great how Nicki interacted with my dad’s dogs. However that was on Nicki’s home turf. We have no way of knowing if Nicki will act differently at home with a new dog. We had talked about rescuing a greyhound but from what I heard they sort of like to just hang out and would not necessarily make the best playmate for Nicki. If anything another lab would probably be my preference. I am also very leery about multiplying all of our dog stuff by two. Twice the meals, twice the feces, twice the wear and tear on the house and twice the issues with finding suitable dog sitters if necessary. We’ll see what goes down.
After the dog visit we decided to stop at Tijuana Flats for lunch. Randall and Wendy had never eaten there. On the way out of the bathroom after washing our hands I pointed out to Randall the hot sauce bar. He pumped himself a little bit of the 2nd hottest sauce and stuck his tongue in it. It was hot. He made a face and recoiled a bit but it was bearable. He decided to go for the gusto and do the same thing with the hottest sauce they had. It was the only sauce that was categorized as “Death Wish”. He pumped it into the little cup and again stuck his tongue in it. There was a a few second delay until the pain started. This time he high tailed it for the door to the outside tables where we were seated. He needed liquid and he need it NOW. I was busting up laughing as I followed him outside. He was in pain. He gulped his root beer furiously, trying to subdue the burn. At one point he was just holding ice in his mouth to try to cool it down. It was bad. Damn it was funny though. I tried the 2nd hottest sauce. That was enough for me.
After lunch it was time to head back home. We spent the rest of the time leading up to the Super Bowl playing Wii. Randall and I went down the list in Wii Sports. I took him out in tennis and baseball. He handled me in bowling and golf. I was very surprised he beat me in bowling. He throws an ugly back up ball but he throws it very consistently for strikes. I rolled a 214 and still lost by 10 pins. We moved on to Mario Kart and pretty much called that a draw. He won some, I won some.
I’m not going to recap the Super Bowl. You all saw it, you all know it was a great game. During the last drives by both the Cardinals and Steelers I thought to myself if I could ever envision McNabb calmly leading his team down the field with time running out throwing precise passes to win the biggest game of all. Sadly, it was something that just seems unrealistic. I’ll talk more about the Super Bowl and commercials later in the week.
After the game Randall and Wendy packed up and headed back across the alley. I was surprised they stayed for the entire game. I knew if I had to work the next day I would never entertain reversing the situation. We sent along some of the famous chocolate cake that Ali baked earlier in the day. I think they had a decent time.
the ritzy event due to all of Ali’s hard work on the Paws run. The event was held at the Port Royal Club, a very exclusive, very beautiful, very fancy club right on the water. We arrived shortly before sunset which was perfect. Ali and I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset. While we were outside we were stopped by a photographer for Gulf Shore Life magazine. He asked if he could take out picture against the beautiful back drop. We were happy to oblige.
drink it. Ali and took a look at the various silent auction items. Some of the packages were interesting. We actually bid on one of them that included a signed Everblades jersey, free golf and something else I can’t remember. We knew our bid would not hold up with all of the mega-dollars in the room but it was nice to pretend that we were part of the action.
