10 miles, a cow, and a dog...

Yesterday was one of those perfect days when everything just goes exactly as it should, and there are even some good surprises along the way that remind you that the bad day the day before is nothing more than a blip on the radar.

My work life has been a little slow lately; the company brought me on right as my group was reorganizing, so they only had one short assignment for me with the rest of my time spent working in training classes, or worse; onboarding. Yesterdays onboarding session was due to last 5 hours, but they gave us a lunch hour I wasn't expecting. On top of that, Rach forgot her run clothes, so she came home for lunch and we got in a 30 minute run together at the same time. We took a different hillier route, and it was at least 15 degrees hotter than when I ran on Tuesday, so I was just a hair slower yesterday, but was pretty happy with it. Not quite 2.1 miles in 30 minutes.

After the onboarding session ended, I got an assignment that will keep me busy most of the rest of the year. I think this is important because I really need work during the day to help me set and keep a schedule. Having something to make me be at my desk and active first thing in the morning will keep me from staying up too late, not getting enough sleep, and being less likely to make healthy choices.

Another plus was getting the new project and talking to my boss had me done for the day at 4 so I could get in the bike ride I hadnt had a chance to do Tuesday. Unfortunately, I realized I had left my bike shoes in the truck so I couldn't ride my road bike. This meant a trip out on the MTB, which would be more fun if I had any place to ride it but the road. To take some of the blase feeling that comes from riding the MTB on the road, I try to take new routes.

Yesterdays new route took me past a field of cows. I'm not sure how it started, but Rachelle and I have some sort of travel related in-joke where we roll down the window and "moo" at the cows we drive by. As I passed the cows on the way back on my ride, I mooed at the cows as I rode by. Evidently, cows are ok with cars mooing at them (probably because they know they can't catch them), but take umbrage with cyclists mooing at them, because the nearest cow to me turned his head looked at me, and then start trotting after me as I continued on by. Being on my MTB, I was only going around 9 MPH uphill and the cow was gaining on me right quick. There was a small fence, which I'm guessing was electrified, but being chased by a cow was enough to get me up that hill quite a bit faster. I wound up doing 7 3/4 mi on the MTB and a decent amount of climbing thrown in.

So, we've covered the 10 miles (2+ running, 7+ biking), the cow, so now we've come to the dog. As I mentioned yesterday (and you may have already seen on my twitter or facebook), Rachelle and I became the owners of a dog last night. He's a 6 week old Chihuahua / Rat Terrier mix that we've named El Papa Grande. In an amusing twist to the day, the dog looks like a very small cow with his white coat and black spots. He's adorable, but also already affecting our lives in a big way; he couldn't handle being in the bathroom alone all night so I slept on the couch. 2 years of marriage, 18 months of dating before that and I've never been made to sleep on the couch. One night of puppy ownership and I'm on the couch. (To be fair, Rach had to be up at 6 this morning for work, so she needed her sleep). Papa Grande work up once at 4 AM, but otherwise snuggled in my robe, which he has now claimed as his own, and slept most of the night. Considering the whining he was doing when we tried putting him in the bathroom, one night on the couch was probably worth it.

This picture was taken less than an hour after we got Papa Grande. I'm pretty sure she didn't have that same look on her face when she was picking up his poos this morning at 6:30 AM.