Holly Jolley Saturday, Lucky in Love, Eagles at the edge
First things first, there is a Woot Off today.
Friday night my buddy from work met me out at the house. He was dropping off his dog, Lucky. I agreed to watch him for the weekend while Don was out of town.
Don lives in a development so the wide open and leash free confines of my back yard were a totally new experience. At first Lucky didn’t know what to do and was hanging close to Don. Eventually he understood he could roam wherever he wanted.
Don and I positioned ourselves on opposite ends of the yard and called Lucky. He would sprint happily between us, it was cute.
Don didn’t want to have a traumatic goodbye so while I was in the backyard with the dog, he slipped out the front of the house. When I went in with Lucky I felt bad as he darted around the house, looking desperately in each room to see where his dad was. I assured Lucky it was ok. Eventually he settled down. You could tell he was a bit confused through out the night but he was ok and slept through the night, or at least until 3:30 am, when I had to get up to time the race…
The race was way down in Marco Island. I picked up Ali on the way there, she figured that would be a good way to make sure she was up. (and that the Volt wouldn’t have to go into gasoline mode)
Despite driving over 45 minutes to get there, we were the first people on the race site a little before 5:30 am. I got to work setting up the tents that were on site already. It felt quite chilly. I was regretting my decision to just wear a t-shirt. Ali had a sweatshirt and her pink Snuggie.
Soon other people showed up and the field turned into a beehive of activity. With this race Ali and I take on the majority of the pre-race registration organization. Leading up to the race there were some problems with some of the people that signed up on paper so I knew there were going to be a few problems to deal with.
In addition to the cold, it looked like it was about to rain any second. I’m not sure how we managed to stay dry. The start and finish line for this was out on the main road that cuts through Marco, Collier Blvd. In order to set up we needed the police to divert traffic which was supposed to happen at 6:30 am. Well after waiting for a half an hour we finally took matters into our own hands, using cones to divert traffic ourselves. We had the same problem last year.
As usual there was a mad scramble for me to get the mats at the start line up before the official race start time. I got them up with about 45 seconds to spare.
Timing the race went pretty smoothly and we were out of there by 9:30 am. When I dropped Ali off I picked up Nicki and Sadie to bring them out to the house. I figured they would love to meet Lucky, especially Sadie who loves to run around with other dogs.
When I got home I left the girls in the truck while I left Lucky out into the back yard, I didn’t want to confuse the girls with another dog being in “their” house. After a quick sniffing session between the 3 dogs, Nicki and Lucky were off to the races, taking turns chasing each other around the yard, it was very cute.
The play continued inside and for most of the afternoon while I worked on getting various things done around the house. Eventually all three of them passed out.
I was supposed to take mom out to a birthday dinner along with Ali. After seeing how much Lucky loved Sadie and knowing that he was not a danger to relieve himself indoors, I asked Ali if she minded if I brought him along to stay at her place while we went to dinner. She was fine with it.
I was nervous loading Lucky in the van. Don told me that Lucky gets car sick. Basically anytime they go somewhere he throws up in the vehicle. I prepared for this possibility by throwing a towel in the van. If he throws up in the party van, who cares, it’s made for vomit.
Well I was quite surprised that I made it to Ali’s place vomit free. I could tell Lucky was nervous but he held up like a champ. I know Don is an aggressive driver so maybe that contributes to Lucky’s motion sickness, plus, the party van is like riding in a rolling living room.
Lucky had no fear of Ali’s place, anywhere Sadie and Nicki went he felt safe to go to as well. Lucky took to Ali right away, he has such a nice temperament. I really had no worries at all of leaving him there even though I only had him for less than 24 hours at that point.
Mom had asked that we do the dinner at Seasons 52, a place I never had frequented although both Ali and my mom had lunch there in the past. I was immediately impressed when I walked in the door, it was absolutely beautiful inside and the staff at the front door were extremely nice and appeared genuinely friendly.
I didn’t know the place has a seasonal menu and that everything on the menu is prepared to be 475 calories or less! Wow that is awesome. We all enjoyed our meals. Ali and mom got to catch up since they literally had not seen each other since we split up. Of course a cool dining experience like this doesn’t come cheap, but I didn’t expect it to be. I will definitely be going back in the future.
Instead of taking mom right home we decided to go to Ali’s place first so mom could see it. All three dogs were thrilled to see us and there were no disasters created while we were gone which was nice. Mom thought Ali’s place was very cute. We didn’t stay long though since mom had to work the next day.
I loaded Lucky up in the van and dropped mom off. Once again Lucky survived the long round trip to Bonita and home with no incidents.
Sunday morning I had to head over to Ali’s to do get some labels printed for packets she and some of her friends were stuffing for Thursdays Thanskgiving race. While I was there I set up her new printer and loaded up the old printer so it could redeployed back at the house.
I once again loaded Nicki and Sadie up so they could spend the day at the house with Lucky. They had so much fun all day playing. Lucky totally adapted to life on the Duffey estate in no time at all. Watching Sadie and Lucky sprint around the yard just made me smile. Nicki tried to get into the play as much as she could with her physical problems. She tried to get Lucky to wrestle with her but he didn’t take the hint.
Oh man. each week I think the Eagles can’t play any worse and each week they prove me wrong. They made the 3-6 Redskins look like Super Bowl contenders as they obliterated the Eagles 31-6.
The game was so ugly in so many levels. RGIII made so many Eagle players miss tackles I lost count. He completed every pass he attempted except ONE. I had to pick my jaw off the floor when RG III threw a bomb to a wide receiver whom was blanketed by two Eagle defenders, the safety, Coleman and Boykin, a DB whom seems like his specialty is sucking badly. Coleman fell down and Boykin tackled like a girl, allowing a ridiculous touchdown.
The game was just filled with terrible moments. Nick Foles definitely did not impress in his first game starting as the QB. In an attempt to get the ball out quickly he did a lot of throwing before the receiver was expecting the ball. As the game went on he looked increasingly unsure and rarely threw a ball over 5 yards. Of course having one of your starting offensive lineman literally be on the street the week before (was out of football) is never a good thing. Just to make things extra miserable, McCoy got a nasty concussion late in the game.
I can not come up with one positive coming out of that game, the team was terrible in pretty much every way imaginable. At this point I think Andy getting let go is pretty much assured. They need to reboot the franchise, much of the core of this team just isn’t that good, Asmongua, Cromartie, Vick, DeSean Jackson, the entire offensive line.
I think somehow Jason Babin and Trent Cole had their souls ripped out since last season, both of them are basically ghosts, after turning in a dominating season in 2011. Really, the only guy I would be concerned about keeping is LeSean McCoy and the kicker whom is having an outstanding year.
Otherwise this team is just filled with a whole lot of overpaid suck, all of which Andy is personally responsible for putting in place.
Yesterday I also spent some time making signs for the Thanksgiving race. Ali had the idea of using dry erase boards so we could change the signs as needed, I had the idea of mounting them on 8 foot sections of PVC. Here is the result.
I had Nicki and Sadie until late in the evening, I went outside with all three dogs repeatedly so they could play. When Ali eventually took the girls home Lucky was upset that he could not join his new dog friends.
Ali called me and said as she drove away Sadie was perched up on the seat looking out the back window towards the house, probably wishing the same thing.