Day Off

Well, today was my day off. It was a great day, but it will stink on Saturday when I have to go in from 9-5. We went to the dog park again today and we were there for two hours. Not only did the dogs get a lot of exercise and social interaction but humans do too. Every time we go we walk the perimeter (which includes a huge hill in a corner) and often stop and talk with other pet owners. We've learned a lot about the Springs chatting with locals. Almost everyone is an immigrant from California, Texas, or the Midwest. Every once in a while we meet a native.

Since it was my day off, Madison and I went to the Ute Valley Park for a hike; just the two of us. As we climbed through the trail we reached a summit of boulders and stopped to take a seat and enjoy the view. I sat and contemplated many things about life and happiness and God's role for me. I watched Madge explore, in and around cracks in the boulders over looking the valley. She is my teacher of ultimate virtue. After we came home and ate dinner, I was reading Thoreau and I found a passage that best summarized how I felt on that boulder. Thoreau writes:

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine.

So I refer to Thomas Merton from the Abbey of Gethsemani when he writes:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that he desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

To go back to Thoreau:

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

Now we are home, fat and full. Ruth has started her classwork and we will occasionally discuss her readings in "Diversity in Education." For the most part it is a relaxing evening with soft music and dog cuddling. Unfortunately, Madison is gassy and forced Josh to leave the room.

c'est la vie!

Weekend

TGIF! (yesterday)

Now that we're working all day, we don't get to enjoy the sunlight during these dark months in the shadows of the mountains. As the days get longer, we do enjoy a silhouetted Pike's Peak in the sunset on our way home from work. The native Ute indian tribe called it Sun Mountain because it is the first piece of land to feel the sun's warmth every morning.

Since today is Saturday, we tried to take advantage of our day off by seeing the sights and spending some quality time with our dogs. We slept in and took them to the Bear Creek Dog Park this morning. It was busy since today was in the 40's after a subzero week. They ran and chased and played for over and hour, up and down the hill, even through a cactus plant. We had to due an emergency operation to pull a few thorns out of Oscar's paw. He was back on the ground in no time.

We then took them to Garden of the Gods again for a hike around the rocks. It was also busy with hikers, climbers, runners, cyclists, and of course dog-walkers. We took the camera since it is such a beautiful day and we got a lot of really good shots. You can see a lot of the pictures we took by clicking on the link HERE. We will also post them on the shutterfly account as well. After Garden of the Gods, we went to Manitou Springs to get lunch. We had a really good time as usual walking through the shops. Once, the sun started to set, though, it became pretty chilly and we decided to come on home.

Now that the daylight is gone, we are home in the apartment. We'll settle in and maybe watch a movie (500 Days of Summer). We've made a tradition of playing a card game called San Juan every now and then. I may try to see if Josh wants to play racquetball again tonight. So far we've played every night this week. The night is young.

Indiana wants to send us off with a bang, or a chill. We have experienced the same blizzard that has swept across the midwest.

Madison was excited for the snow, but even she had a hard time keeping her eyes open with the high winds.

She did enjoy herself though. She ran sprints in the yard. We think she likes to run in the snow.

Oscar wasn't as excited. He did not like the snow or wind at all. Anytime we went out he would do his business and go straight back to the door.

The wind and visibility was so bad that couldn't see across the street.

The Holidays

Ruth and I have been really busy throughout the past month and going into the Advent season. We have tried to document the past few weeks through photos. Here are just a few so you can see our apartment and what we've been up to.

Here are some pumpkins we carved for Halloween. Ruth did the two on the left and I did the two on the right. Ruth made a pumpkin for Madison and I made one for Oscar. Ruth even made her pumpkin a self portrait by adding her scar from the car accident (which happened a week before we carved the pumpkins). Unfortunately, our pumpkins started to rot quickly so they didn't last very long.

Madison and Oscar also got dressed up for Halloween. Madge was a BumbleBee and Oscar was an inmate for all the "hate crimes" he's performed towards Ruth (he pooped on her purse once). They weren't too excited about being dressed up. They don't usually wear any clothes, but lately we've taken in some hand-me-downs from cousin Wrigley (the Kimble's dog).

Ruth and I got the opportunity to host Thanksgiving with the Molls and Kimbles this year. Our apartment is small but we managed to have six adults, two kids, and a baby. It was cozy but most people were comfortable. We home-cooked everything on the menu, which included; cornbread, baked mac and cheese, asparagus, and vegetarian shepherds pie.

Here the dogs are on their very best behavior waiting for the guests to arrive.

After dinner we played an intense game of Jenga in which Jennifer, my dad, Ruth and I "beat" Jenga. We were all able to move until there were no more pieces to move before the tower fell. It was pretty wobbly and the table shaky, but we managed to move a piece round after stressful round until there were none left.

Here is a group shot before the night was over. We almost got everyone to look. :)

Now that Thanksgiving is over we have our Christmas decorations out. We didn't take the time to set up our six-foot tree since we will be moving in a few weeks, so the Zeilingas donated this table-top tree to us to use. Also, you can see our nativity that Ruth got in Africa. Each piece is about eight inches tall and it's hand carved by some people Ruth met while in Malawi last summer.

Kids (dogs)

For most of you, you are familiar with our two kids. Others aren't as familiar.

We have had Madison since April of 2008. Madison was only 4 months old when we adopted her.

The shelter said

she was a Shar pei Beagle Mix. We had he for a year and she is very well

behaved. She gets excited to meet new people, but she is very friendly with other dogs and people and she is great to walk off-leash. After

the wedding and honeymoon,

we decided to get her a companion, someone who speaks her language.

We went to the animal shelter and found Oscar.

He was the ugly dog at the shelter that no one else wanted.

His hair was patchy and he had at one time a bad problem with fleas. He was truly on "death row". We took him home and he has been great. He had to learn our style of doing things, such as no begging or getting on furniture. He also had to learn how to be a dog. He wasn't interested in sniffing or playing with others dogs. He would rather sit with people or get on furniture. He is also an avid hunter. His choice prey is squirrel and thankfully he hasn't caught one... yet. He has learned to "climb" trees to try and get them. He scurries about 8-9 feet in the air before leaping to the ground. He is known at the dog park that we frequent as "the dog who climbs trees" and is somewhat a local celebrity.

If Oscar is infamous for climbing, Madison is infamous as

the dog who will do anything for the ball.

In order to get her some exercise, we would go to a large open field and hit her ball with a baseball bat.

It will travel 60-70 yards before she catches up to it and brings it back.

Since we adopted Oscar, he and Madison have become best friends. They love to play and wrestle together. They have a chasing path from their bed in our bedroom, through the kitchen, and under the dining room table. Oscar will hide under the table until Madison lays down, then he will pounce and the race is on. We even have our good friend and neighbor, Cassie, bring her two dogs over for what we call "wrestle-fest." It usually includes Oscar, the 17 lb lightweight, trying to take on Homer, the 80+ lb cuddler. Madison and the evenly matched but much younger Colbie will

usually try chewing on the same bone and play keep away.

It is a great time and great socializing experience, for dogs and humans. Evenings like this will be what we miss in Colorado.