Mean Pippin

Hey guys! I know, I'm still being a bad blogger but we are getting SO much accomplished around the house. A ton of crap was disposed of this weekend and we got several important projects underway. I need some sort of motto for our "downsizing" - something like "Crap Free in 93" just for 2006. The year is already 15% over and I'm really happy with all we've gotten accomplished so far. Any good motto ideas??

Last night I also did our taxes!! (Sorry, I don't give two cents about the Oscars! I did have it on but it was raining pretty hard and the sound of the rain on the roof was too pretty not to enjoy.) We have several investment type things that make our taxes a bit more complicated than normal, so it takes a while plus we ALWAYS have to pay so I usually put it off until the last minute. Not this year baby!!! For the first time in SEVEN years we are getting a refund and I didn't even have to claim Pippin as a dependent (which he IS! what a rip off)! Yee haw! Now, I did increase my filing deduction from Married to Single to have more withheld from my check and I did increase our 401K withholdings this year, so it's not that we're paying less in taxes (for the most part). Those changes made us close to break-even on the whole pay or play scheme, and with some other special things we did last year it pushed us into a nice refund. Finally, justice! Every other year I have printed the forms and waited until the last day to mail them in along with our check as my form of silent protest. Not this year! I filed electronically but the internet connection must have dropped out while the data was transferring, because it hung up all night. I ended up rebooting the program and everything went peachy today.

Is Nashville/TN having the best week ever?? First there's the whole Bachelor hook-up thing from last week, where the Bachelor is from Nashville and he ended up picking the person from Nashville. I didn't watch the show, but it was the LEAD STORY on our news all week last week. Apparently they're pretty much in hiding so no one knows if they're still together. Who cares, Brent and I are still the cutest super duo in N-town! They can't handle this. Secondly, Reese wins the Oscar and mentions she is from TN. Then, TRIPLE 6 MAFIA wins an Oscar (they're from Memphis) beating Dolly who is all about East Tennessee (Dollywood anyone??). I am from Memphis and was WAYYYY familiar with 666 Mafia WAAAYYY before they were anywhere near famous. Yeah, that probably makes me ghetto. We downloaded their performance so we could see it once we heard about all the hub bub. Then on today's Oprah - Reese and Oprah talk about their Nashville origins. (BTW, Oprah is so jealous of me. First, my marathon time is faster than hers. Secondly, on one of last week's episodes she talks about a trenchcoat she bought for her dogs from Target - Pippin has had the SAME coat (as featured in his Pippin in Boots video) for months and months. She is such a copycat. I deserve my own show.) And now AT&T is buying Bellsouth. Calling the big building downtown the "AT&T Bat Building" just doesn't sound the same as the "Bellsouth Bat Building" (it just looks like a batman type thing.)

So, exercise. Saturday am we ran 13.1 miles! My original plan was to do 14 but we ended up pretty close to the car and we were both ready to stop. Get this - we ran it in 1:54!!! Is that insane or what? My fastest half time is 1:59, so that is a huge improvement. I know it's 13.1 because we're run the paths along the Greenway a million times, but it's still hard to believe. We both had a tough run. Even though it was 42 degrees, it was still a chilly wind and the earlier parts of the week had been SO much nicer. I think I am ready for spring to be here permanently!! My foot felt great 98% of the time, so I'm very happy with that! Both of us had a mentally tough run, but we were thrilled with the results and are looking forward to the half in two weeks. It didn't feel like we were going that fast, but since I wasn't having a great run I wouldn't let myself look at the watch often.

It really warmed up that afternoon (50's) and was SO sunny. We asked Pippin if he wanted to walk to the park and of course he did. It's 1.5 miles there and 1.5 back. When we got there we played on the swings for a little while and just watched the tons of people out enjoying the day. We saw a ton of walkers, runners, and people walking their dogs. We've got some great swing pics I need to post of me and Pippin. I'm on my work laptop now so I'll have to do that tomorrow. On the way back we saw Diddy. Diddy is a little white fluffy dog that doesn't get along with any of the neighborhood dogs. He is typically left sitting in his front yard, free to chase anyone who dares to run by. His owners will typically come out once he is "on you" and apologize. You'd think they'd get a clue, but no. We'd already been chased by him once last week already. So, deja vu, he's outside, unattended, and once we come walking by he speeds out to us. We yell at him to stop, by name, and he gets in Pippin's face. Pippin really didn't see him coming (he's pretty oblivious and was pretty tired by then. I'd already had to carry him quite a bit on our way back from the park). All of the sudden we hear a whimper - Pippin bit him STRAIGHT ON HIS FACE! Diddy was shocked and pretty much in disbelief, sort of like Brent and I. Out come Diddy's owners, late to the party as always, and carried him away. No apologies this time and they had the nerve to give us a mean leak!! We told Pippin how proud we were and what a good dog he was. I even carried him for a little while again because he was pretty much all walked out. I've always wondered if Pippin would defend himself if he felt any of us were in danger. And he did it all without a bark or growl - just one good chomp across Diddy's face. Brent saw Diddy being walked later (on a LEASH even!) and I asked if it looked like he still had all of his nose! =) I doubt they will learn from this episode, but you never know. Next time I hope to get a good shot of pepper spray on him. We love Pippin so much, I just don't get these other dog owners who take no responsibility! Anyway, moral of the story, Pippin DOES have a mean side, just like Brent & I!

That's all I have time for tonight, hopefully I can get some pics up tomorrow!

Rachel

Exercise-
Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 40 mins toning
Tues - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 5 mile run
Wed - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 2 mile evening walk with B&P, 40 mins toning/yoga
Thurs - 1 mile am walk with P, 6 mile evening run w/B
Fri - 1 mile am walk with P, 1 mile evening walk at the lake w/B&P
Sat - 13.1 mile run w/B, 3 mile walk w/B&P
Sun - 4 mile run, 20 mins yoga
Mon - 1 mile am walk w/P, 40 mins toning (abs/thighs)