Friday Fumblings, Vol. 4 - Rainy Weather OUT. Feel UNDER Weather. Definitely OVER Both.

Whine, complain, whine, complain...  Pick a preposition, it's all the same.

Just a few thingportants today and then I'm back to resting on the couch with some tea:

1. My entire body hurts.  Throat, head, bones, tummy, eyes, blech.  Perfect timing -- Colfax Marathon Relay in TWO days.

Here's me yesterday...feeling fine...

And today...  Ugh.

2.  AH!  Colfax Marathon Relay in TWO days!

3. Have run TWICE in past TWO weeks.

4. I have to run almost FOUR miles.

5. Have only run TWO recently.

6. Am determined to push through for the sake of my friend and relay team member Jill, who has been busting her patoot to run in her first ever race.  Will not let her down!

7. Had a wonderful breakfast meeting with my Pedagogy professor this morning.

8. It's hailing and raining and thundering and pouring.

9. Tucker is shaking and drooling and hiding, NOT snoring (because he refuses to eat the lunch meat spiked with tranquilizer treat I made for him!).

Attempting to move everything in my closet out of the way so he could hide in the corner...

The picture doesn't do it justice -- he's actually panting and shaking and drooling all over.  Ew.

He thought maybe THIS closet would be better...  (YES, I label everything.  No judging!)

It might look like a doggy smile, but he's really in agony.  Poor guy!   Seattle would be like suicide for him...

10. Headed to hide on the couch, myself.

-DTL

Friday Fumblings, Vol. 2 - Montage-Worthy Tumbling

Happy Friday!  I can't believe it's already been a week since my first Fumblings.   I must remind myself that I created Friday Fumblings as an exercise in letting go, so I'll just get to it.

Well, spring in Denver has pretty much looked like this:

And this:

 And yep, this: (watch out, Cherry Creek Mall...it looks like the end of the world is near!)

Which ultimately leads to our loyal, yet anxiety-ridden, Tucker to do this in the yard:

 Oh yeah, and this (you can't quite tell, but he heads over to dig up the area with the bushes as well! ARG!)

Oh, and if you aren't aware of what this adorable dog can do in terms of destruction...(no, not ME...he he)

Picture couches shredded to pieces, back doors scratched into splinters, and pools of nervously flung drool all over our wooden floors and carpets.  Ewwwww, Tucker.  Ew.  You'd think that since we've had him for almost four years now, he'd calm down.  Quite the contrary.  

The windy and rainy weather has, of course, summoned our lovely tulips and daffodils, which have brought us much joy amidst our doggy drama.  I didn't take a pic of them in full bloom this year, but here they are, somewhat withering away:

And that means it's yard clean-up time, and eh, well, time to get rid of the weeds as well:

And to transform our now barren back yard "gardening center" into a lively work center for the summer:

But first, both Mark and I have a lot of work to do (here's a little bit of school work I intend on wrapping up this weekend.  The rest of the table will be filled with Mark's work -- perfecting a presentation for an upcoming airport next week):

The working weekend will require lots of this (for me, anyway.  And yep, I did crochet the coffee sweater, which admittedly, I've used as a gin and tonic cozy as well):

See, told ya:

  And hopefully I can reward myself this weekend with some quality time with Jess:

Which makes me really:

Happy and content.

Thanks for reading, as always!  Hope you tumble into some fabulous weekend experiences.

-DTL

I've Got the Jittery Jumps (and Tucker Does Too...)

Like a nasty, sneaky evil cat...a swan will hiss too.

Yep, a swan. Those graceful white beauties that hang out at the lake with the duckies at Washington Park near my house. They certainly do hiss. And pouf their bodies up like a cat does and the only thing that's different between the feline and the bird, in my opinion, is the "meow" and the "honk."

I'm a city girl. I don't know the first thing about swans, ducks, whathaveyou. Then how do I know that they hiss? Because seriously, not one, but TWO swans at Wash Park chased me and Tucker away from the lake today, hissing and honking like somebody killed all of their swan babies (ugh....for those of you who don't know my crazy killer cats story, I'll paste it at the bottom of this post so you're up to speed and can make the silly connection between these two rediculous stories).

Well, our encounter today was unlike the kitty encounter, but nonetheless freaky. Tucker knows the lake well, since both Mark and I take him around the lake at least 3 times a week. He's familiar with the ducks. He's familiar with the swans. He just kind of looks at them funny, like they're these foreign creatures that just landed from outer space (which now I'm fairly convinced that they might ACTUALLY be from outer space, and they've formed a pact with the kitties in the secret underground kitty lair, plotting the earth's demise. Again -- read my crazy killer cats posting below...)

Anyway, we ran past the pretty birds. Well, I mean, we TRIED to run past them. But instead of heading towards the water like all of the other duckies normally do when Tucker and I are running, this time, they started towards us, hissing (I could actually see swanny tounge!) and honking and making a ruckus. And what did I do? Just like the kitty encounter, I screamed. I freaking screamed out loud and turned Tucker around so we could go around the back of the boat house instead of in front of it like we normally do.

We escaped the birdie attack, but needless to say, both Tucker and I were a little "jumpy" the rest of the way home. Denver is a city FULL of animals. They're everywhere, which is why I love it. But holy Jeez, do they all have a vendetta against me and my 85 pound dog? You'd think that he'd bark at them, or chase them, or try to bite them, but no. He just shakes and gets scared. Ugh...

So that's not all. In the 8 blocks that we had left to travel on the way home, I managed to scream out loud yet again. We were passing the kitty house, and I'll be damned if I'll let them be scared in my own neighborhood. So we proceeded with caution again, but this time, no cats in sight. However, Tucker definitely recognizes the house and always looks around for them. But no cats. WHEW!

Umm...yeah. So we go about another block with our guards let down, sighing silly sighs of relief in unison. We're both smiling and prancing down Cedar St., light on our feet, and then...RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF (scary dog barking noises)! SCRATCHING SCRATCHING SCRATCHING (behind the wooden fence)! Kujo himself emerges from his backyard to give us one last run for our money.

Yep, I certainly yelped out loud, and couldn't help but laugh at the silliness of our luck with animals lately.

This time, the man across the street didn't ask if we needed help like before. He simply laughed at us too. :-)

HERE'S THE KITTY POST:

Chrissy and Tucker, 0. Killer crazy cats, 2.

That's right, I said, "Killer crazy cats, 2." If you've seen me within the past 2 weeks, you'll know that me and my dog Tucker got attacked by two sneaky evil cats on the street last week. Seriously...attacked! No joke... Except really, it was only me that walked away with bloody scratched up rabies legs, not Tucker. And although he is nearly 85 pounds, he bolted halfways down the block, shaking like a little school girl when satan's spawns decided to lay into me with their hissing and their crazy claws. That's some vicious guard dog I've got on my hands...

I know it sounds silly, but seriously, it was one of the most embarrasing and scary things that have happened to me in a long time. Embarrassing, because 2 other people across the street saw the entire freakish encounter, and one guy (who was about my age) yelled, "hey, do you need help????) Ummm...well...hmmm...I don't know jackass, I've never been attacked by one cat before, let alone two at one time. Well, the stupid bitchy cats finally decided to have mercy on me and they slowly slithered their way back to their evil kitty lair where cats go to plan the end of the world...

Anyway, after that episode, it was Chrissy and Tucker, 0 and killer crazy cats, 1.
Unfortunately, after my walk with Tucker today, the stinking furballs got to put another one up on the board. I wasn't going to let 2 bitchy kitties keep me from walking down Cedar street, so Tucker and I strolled past the house once again with caution, but with our heads held high. When to my surprise, I found one of the wretched culprits lounging on his owner's lap on the front porch of the house.

Yep, they weren't stray cats...someone actually owns these cats and despite their apparent complete disregard for bubbly joggers and their innocent dogs, allows them to roam the streets.
Immediately, the creepy feline jumped off the man's lap and started hissing and walking towards us, and I'll admit, I was freaked out! Damn cat won again. I've never been that scared of an animal before, and I have the scratches all over my legs as a pretty damn good excuse.

So I said, "Excuse me sir, do you own 2 cats?" And he nodded, and said the one that was approaching us has a "brother." At this point, I could care less about the relation of one nasty cat to another, and I was quick to say, "I just want you to know that they attacked me and my dog last week."

And his response was classic...

"Well, normally if you just keep walking, they'll leave you alone." Hmmm...so you're saying that they've attempted this sort of sneaky sabotage in the past?

"Well we were running, and we didn't have time to just 'keep walking.'" I said, somewhat sarcastically and with good reason.

"Yeah, they really like to go after dogs." Wha wha WHAT???

"Well they attacked MY legs, not my dog's."

"Gee, I'm sorry about that, but normally if you just walk away, they'll leave you alone."

At that point, I took Tucker and we just started walking back to our house. Seriously....you are AWARE that your cats like to "go after" dogs, yet you leave them outside in a city where there's literally more dogs than there are people?

WHACK JOB. Anyway, I never thought I'd do it, but if I see them on the street again, I'm going to punt them farther than (insert a super good NFL punter's name here) ever could. Besides, Mark has been, and I quote, "waiting his whole life to kick a cat," so I thought I'd make him proud ! :-)