Happy Belated Labor Day!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great labor day weekend! I can't believe it's already coming to an end and going to work tomorrow is the LAST thing I want to do.

Before I start rambling on about my weekend I've had a few people ask me about how I know how people find my website. I've got a site tracker through Extreme Tracking. It's the little planet shaped icon towards the bottom. It's free and it tells you how many hits you get each day, what country they're coming from and how they got there - if it's a search on yahoo, google, a referring website, etc. It's very interesting stuff and it's pretty crazy to see some of the odd things people are searching for that will make them end up at your site! If you want the web-html to add it to your template just let me know and I can email it to you.

Ok, on to the weekend. We've had an awesome weekend and I wish it wouldn't end. Here's the highlights: We saw two movies, Duke of Hazzard and Mr & Mrs Smith. I thought I would hate DOH but it was actually pretty funny. Jessica Simpson had a pretty small part so I think that helped. I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for something light and funny. Mr & Mrs Smith was OK, I LOVE Brad Pitt, so nothing can be wrong with a movie he's in! It was OK, there were some funny parts but I don't think it's worth buying or really paying to go and see. Definitely a rental.

We did some shopping Saturday and swung by our local running store to get some new gear. I bought a few new gu flavors to try, some additional Fuel Belt bottles, and we both got a few new pairs of running socks and running clothes. I also picked up a copy of Trail Runner magazine which really has me wanting to go out and run some crazy 50K trail races!! We took Brent's grandparents out to dinner Sat night and then headed home.

As far as running goes, I got up and did a 5-miler Saturday morning. It was hot!! I didn't get started until 9 am which is just stupid on my part. I had had Starbucks around 9 the night before and couldn't fall asleep until about 3:30. I used to have caffeine (through soda) non-stop throughout the day, so even though I trashed that habit over a year ago I still forget that I'm no longer used to it!!! Sunday Brent and I ran a 9-miler. We had scoped out an additional 1 mile path to our local Smyrna Greenway. We thought it stopped at the entrance to a subdivision, which seemed a little strange. It also ended fairly close to another large park here, Sharp Springs Natural Area (SSNA), where we did a 5K a few weeks ago. We had talked about trying to run from the end of the first trail up to SSNA, but that would mean running on the very narrow shoulder of a pretty busy road. So, we decided to scope out SSNA and see how long the trails were there. There wasn't any sort of park map, so we had no clue how long the trails would be. We happened to see a guy loading his bike up, so we stopped and asked him. He was super friendly, and told us if we followed this certain path we would end up at in the subdivision where we thought the trail ended. We were SO excited! (How dorky is that???) This would link the two parks together and offer us some good long runs. Later that afternoon we headed back with all our running gear for our 9-miler. It's really a gorgeous trail, we ran past corn fields, soy bean fields, a lake, then through the subdivision and back over to Smyrna Rec Park. We didn't go all the way back to where we normally start from there, so we still have a lot of potential for doing some really long runs between the parks. Smyrna Rec Park is right across the street from our airport, which is actually pretty big for our suburban town of 40K people. Right as we were at our turn-around point an airplane came whizzing over the trees to land, very cool! We also saw 2 deer next to the path, which always freaks me out a bit. There was also a big group of Canadian geese sitting in the middle of a field, maybe this group prefers grass to water?? Anyway, we had a great run and made it back right at dark.

Today we headed out to the parks. I know I need to clean the house, and there's a million things I SHOULD have been doing, but it's a holiday!! The house will always need cleaning, but days like this are too pretty to be stuck inside dusting. First we headed over to Centennial Park. They were have a "Living among the Lakes" jazz festival. Several local artists and vendors had set up booths around the lake. We even saw the Nashville mayor there!! I'm telling you, if you want to pick up guys/girls get a dog!!! I can't tell you how many people came up to us to talk about Pippin. Even as we were trying to eat! Then there are the people who really just need to shut up and mind their own business. As I was trying to eat my hot dog this guy and his family come up to pet Pip. Then he goes into this long story about the B Terrier they had who had red mange and all these other health problems and died at 8 yrs old, etc etc. He talked for at least 10 minutes about all the health problems BTs can have, then he started talking about all the health problems cocker spaniels can have! Geez buddy, remind me not to invite you to a party! From us he moved on to a cute little rat terrier, and we had a good time making fun of all the stuff we were sure he was telling them!! There was also a rude lady who kept going on about Pippin's weight! And she was AT LEAST 30 pounds overweight!! She kept telling me how 'uncomfortable' he looked. OK, it's at least 90-something degrees out here, we've been walking around for a couple of hours and he's been playing with a bunch of other people and dogs! He's hot and tired, JUST LIKE ME! I really hate her. I should have told her SHE looked uncomfortable and needed to go on a diet. But I was nice and just informed her he's already on low fat food, we walk every morning at 5 freaking 30, and then walked off. From there we headed to Shelby Park so he could run around at the Dog Park. For some reason there were a ton of black labs there, it was kind of freaky. There were so many of them that all looked exactly the same that you were never actually sure if you were playing with the same one!! Pippin was so tired from the first park that we only stayed a little while and then headed home.

So, we've had a great weekend, had some fun runs and enjoyed the parks this weekend! Please don't make me go back to work tomorrow!!