Welcome Cody

As if you thought I would travel 4 hours into Michigan and not return with a dog!  We brought Cody home on Friday afternoon and he's been great.  He's just a big giant 95 pound bundle of love.  He's so good with Shawn and Katelyn and listens well to me. 

He doesn't really like being left home by himself.  He basically lets everyone in the door but me and then proceeds to "dog cuss" me out by barking at me and only me.  Other than that, Cody has been a model doggie. 

Here's a few pictures take this past weekend:

quickie

I totally forgot to post a picture of the dog we're going to see on Friday so I did below.  I also got a surprise in the mail when I got home this evening.  Check it out....I'm so vain!

Cody

Halloween

I know I've been horrible at updating lately but life is getting in the way it seems.  I may have taken off more than I can chew as of late.  I'm attempting to organize an Alumni Chapter for my college Fraternity here in the region, I have been nominated to sit on a foundation board and I have accepted the nomination, work is starting to go bananas and to top it off, we are traveling 4 hours on Friday to take a look at a dog we are considering adopting.

The dog is a 5 year old Golden Retriever that was the stud of a breeder in Michigan.  The breeder is the aunt and uncle of a woman Lisa and I work with.  The current owners had him neutered and have retired him form breeding and wants to find a good home for him.  You can tell during the two lengthy phone conversations I've had with the owners that they love the dog and really wish they could keep him but due to the business, it is time to bring on a new stud and the dog must leave.  By the way the dog's name is Cody and he weighs in at a whopping 95 pounds!  He has been described as a playful, well behaved great with children Afro hating dog.  The one thing that worries me is the lack of a fence we have and the fact the dog now lives on a yard that is 10 acres in size.  I've been told that he listens very well and will have little issues with learning his boundaries after awhile.  He has always been a house dog his entire life so that shouldn't be an issue either.  I must be crazy but the kids so want a dog.

Halloween weekend started with Shawn being sick and having to be picked up from school on Friday.  He got some rest and felt well enough to run in the annual one mile goblin gallop and placed 18th in his age group (8.02 minutes).  Then the typical trick or treating...I actually dressed and scared a few kids this year (thanks for the mask Mom).

Wednesday Night Dinner

Shawn brought home his first quarter report card yesterday and it was pretty good except for a couple of issues with not finishing his work in a timely manner and paying attention in Social Studies his marks were good.  As a reward, we took him to dinner at a new pizza joint that is owned and operated by a local morning D.J. here in town.  Shawn was star struck to see "Andrew Z" at the restaurant.  He was so enamored by his presence that he actually approached him for an autograph and to take a picture.  Who would have though that a local DJ would have such an influence on an 8 year old.

By the way, the restaurant was packed and the service was extremely slow.  The food however was pretty good (maybe even above average) but pretty pricey.  Nine bucks for a sub is a bit high I think!

Here's a few pictures of our evening:

Shawn and "Andrew Z"

Katie growing tired on the ride home

A very happy Shawn

Pumpkin Carving Night

Here's a few pictures of pumpkin carving night!  

Shawn did this one himself

Odds and Ends

Not much going on as of late. Shawn (and Mom and Dad) has finally settled into the school routine again. It seems like we are in constant motion from about 5:30 every day until Shawn goes to bed at 9pm every night. From school, work, daycare, dinner, cross county practice and homework there is barely enough time to breathe. About cross country, Shawn seems to finally beginning to finding the competitive fire in his belly. He's really beginning to run well; I'm really interested in seeing how he does at the meets this year.

This weekend was a rather quiet one for us. Partially because we couldn't agree or come up with something we all wanted to do. Basically just hung out at home along with running a few errands. I did however found it necessary to buy a new grill. Yes, the old one pretty much took a trip down the crapper and it was going to cost $100-$125 to fix it and poor man engineer the portions of the grill that were beyond merely purchasing replacement parts.

I ended up buying a nice grill on clearance. This one has a light under the grill cover, a small smoke box mounted inside the burner box and an electronic fuel gauge that indicates how much time is left at the current consumption rate you will run out of propane. Needless to say, I was supposed to run out in the middle of grilling last night and I never actually did. So much for accuracy! Oh yea, the grill also has a built-in ice tub and bottle opener too!

News on the diet front...in the first 22 days of our diet (excluding the weekend in Cleveland where we partied like world class eating competition champions) I am down nearly 12 pounds and Lisa is down 7. Only 33 pounds left for me and nowhere near that much for Lisa. I'm not sure if I miss pizza, burritos or b-dubs the most. Just think of all the weight I could have lost by now if I stopped drinking beer!

Da Grill

This Weekend

Holy Schnikies, nothing planned this weekend! The layer of scum on the surfaces in the house will be cleaned. I must be sick but I am actually looking forward to giving the house a good cleaning with Lisa's help of course.

I also get to keg a nice IPA that will be just my style coming in at over 100 IBU!