Off the TV Grid

About a month ago, we received our Comcast bill. As would happen every 6 or so months, our bill had suddenly jumped up $40.

The old woman in me said in an old woman voice, "By jove! I'm tired of Comcast's cockamamy!"

We contacted Comcast to try to work something out that was reasonable.

Instead we found Comcast to be highly unreasonable.

Since we have no other cable providers in our neck of the woods, we decided to try out some tried and true rabbit ears for now.

However, last night the cable was cut and we had not yet purchased rabbit ears.

So what was this young, hip and happening couple to do without any TV?

We did a puzzle while listening to NPR Stories of the Day. In our house without cable. And then we went to bed at 9 pm.

29 is the new 89, kids.

What has 4 paws . . .

. . . and can't run in a straight line?



This guy.

He's been through a lot in the past couple of months. It all started at Disneyland for Dogs, a.k.a. the Dog Park. We were going to be leaving for Ireland soon and I was trying to fit in as many dog park visits as possible. I unloaded the pups and off they went.



Gordie, a dog built for running and athletic prowess, took off like usual in his full sprint.



Toby, a dog built for laying down and eating prowess, attempted to catch his brudder.

Toby failed in his attempt. Instead, I heard a pop, saw his hind leg come up lame, and he limped pathetically over to me.

A few days later, the vet confirmed our suspicions - he had torn his ACL. We had to get him into surgery, but we also were scheduled to leave for Ireland in 4 days. Fortunately, Toby has a great grandma in the form of my Mama, so she was able to care for the guy after his surgery. The vet confirmed during surgery that the tear was a bad one - he completely tore the ACL and his meniscus.

Remember, all he was doing was running in a straight line.



That's our Toby.

All is going well in his recovery to this point. He can't play or run off leash, but he can move around more and he's on schedule to be back to normal by Christmas.

I know he'd enjoy the Christmas present of being able to romp with his brudder again.

At which point I'm sure he'll promptly tear the ACL in his other leg.

Playing Dress Up

Getting ready for a wedding.

Andy: "How long will you need to get ready?"

Me: "Maybe 20 minutes. I have to get my dress on, fix my hair and put on some make up. How long do you need?"

Andy: "About the same. 45 seconds to put on my clothes and 15 minutes to figure out how to put my tie on."

Change of Plans

Andy and I awoke this morning with the best intentions.

We woke up and started driving downtown to complete a long run. On the way the clouds looked a bit too ominous and we were feeling a bit too lazy.

So we went to the beer store and got home brew supplies and some beers instead.

And here we are enjoying our first Autumn-like Saturday back in typical American fashion.

Brewing an Octoberfest.



Sipping some Pumpkin beer.



Enjoying the company of brew bears.



And listening to football.



Change is good.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

Positive: I stopped at the store to buy a Joe 6-pack of beer on the way home from work.

Negative: I was not carded and instead saw flash on the screen the following: "ID not required: Person over the age of 30."

Positive: The man behind me winked and said "Wow, you didn't get carded."

Negative: The man behind me was elderly and kind of creepy when he winked and said that.

Positive: I have a beer to drown my over-the-age-of-30-looking sorrows in.

Back in . . . Green?

We are officially back from Ireland.

We spent about 22 hours either in an airport or an airplane on Saturday.

I didn't exagerrate. 22 long hours of me sitting in an airplane or aiport thinking about my furry guys back home.

But we made it safely so I can't really complain. We flew on September 11th too, which means I had to show my passport about 15 times before boarding the plane in Ireland.

Ok, I exaggerated. It was actually about 6 times and I can't say I minded the added security.

I'll be back with details of the trip. But before I can do that I have 1,548 photos to sort through.

I didn't exaggerate. I actually have 1,548 photos to pick through.

Here's one of the first pictures I took. I could have taken this same photo about 25 times over the vacation.

I'll let you guess whether I exaggerted that number or not.

Summer Vacation

My blog took a bit of a summer vacation. It was really tired of books and teachers' dirty looks so it decided to take a break. Or perhaps the blogger behind the blog got lazy and busy with summer travels. One of the two.

We're still alive here and have a had a busy summer full of travels to other states and new breweries. We are about to embark on a two and half week tour of Ireland just 5 short days from now. In anticipation of a beautiful Emerald Isle, we purchased a new DSLR camera - the Canon Rebel. I bet you can't guess what we took our first pictures of.





I've been busily attempting to figure out how to take nice photos and reading up on Irish history and culture. I'll be back in a few weeks with hopefully some nice photos of our trip and tales of how we drank so much Guinness one night we saw a leprechaun.