Hooked Up

This evening Dexter and I were on our way to the forrest to run some trails. We were in high spirits, bouncing and singing along to the radio. Its Friday and both of us are excited cos the weekend is finally here.

At one point I look in my rear view mirror and there behind me are the evil blue flashing lights. Seriously? What did I do? I know my singing skills are not excellent, but getting pulled over because of if? Surly not. But I pull over. I roll down the window as the officer lady approaches and Dexter being the social puppy he is, sticks his head out hoping to get a "Hello".

Officer lady asks me for my license and insurance. Then she asks my dogs name. Thinking nothing of it I say, "Dexter" and I hand her my license. "Do you remember me?" is her next questions. I stare at her for a second. My head is racing, oh no, have we met before and if so what were the circumstance? Please, please let the circumstances have been pleasant. "The dog park she says". Then it all clicks. She and I had bonded at the dog park last week when her dog and my dog had become quite smitten with each other, but I had no idea she was a cop. This is awesome. I'm feeling confident that she may let me of the hook. The hook I'm currently dangling from says I was going too fast through a school zone. Not a good thing.

She goes back to her car, plays with her computer for a few minutes, comes back a lets me off with a warning. Waaahooo. High fives and chest bumps all around. Dexter saves the day and now I have a connection with the law enforcement, which means I can speed all I want, run a few red lights, maybe rob a bank or 2 and my new friend will do nothing more than slap my wrist and ask me what time and day Dexter will next be at the park. Talk about hooked up.

As far as the carriage house goes, things are starting to take shape.

And are moving along fast.

Its a little airy and spacious right now, but soon it will all start to make sense.

Unrelated photo, this is me, Mike and Fanz, playing with a little self-timer after dinner and vino at a downtown Atlanta restaurant.

Under Construction

Big things happened today. The walls on the first phase of our home went up. So exciting. Husband and some helpers, under the supervision, guidance and assistance of a more experienced builder, worked their tails off all day in the blazing heat to build the shell of what will be our carriage house. The carriage house will serve as our residence until we get the plans drawn up and finalized for the construction of the main house. Its a serious project and one with quite a long timeline, but seeing things start to happen, makes me giddy like a child waiting for Santa.

I just can't wait for all this unglamorous man stuff to be done so I can get cracking on what's really important, pretty kitchen appliances and layout, pretty wall colors, pretty furniture, pretty bedroom and bathroom designs, pretty much everything that will complement all the practical stuff that Husband is working on, like walls, a roof, running water and electricity.

The first wall goes up.

There were supervisors a plenty on site today. Supervisors to supervise the supervisors.

Later in the evening I hit up an Atlanta photographers meeting.

Where they served cupcakes. Really, you can't get much better than that. A new home in the works and cupcakes for the masses.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is Cinco de Mayo, Olé. For those not in the know, its Mexico's equivalent to St. Patrick's day. And since there is a huge hispanic community here in Georgia, its a pretty big deal. So where should one be on a day of celebration such as this? Why a mexican restuaurant/bar shakin her maracas of course. But where was I really? Shakin the lactic from my calves, hamstrings and butt after several 500m beat downs on the track, Olé.

For me, sometimes the line between a competitive athlete and retired athlete feels kinda blurred. In order to pace-make I still have to retain a pretty high level of fitness and endurance, which means sucking up some tough workouts and pushing through the physical pain barriers I was sure I left behind when I announced to the world "Yo, world, I'm Retired, no more lactic, pukey, track beat downs for me. Peace out suckers" Yet here I am, still pounding it out. Who's the sucker now? The sick thing is, I love it. I'm addicted. For most of my life, its all I knew. If I can't find ways to challenge myself physically, then I feel lost and out of balance. Twisted, right?

Anyway, here's my view of the track today. You'll notice its very close to ground level, cos thats where I was, laid out, all over the ground, waiting for booty lock to pass.

And there were no Corona's for me today either. It was smoothies all the way. Healthy, well balanced and perfect post workout.

Down on the Farm

We live on 12 acres but the only animals we have are a cat and a dog. The only things we grow beside grass and trees, are grapes, yet Husband insists on calling himself a farmer. We do have a barn though, so I guess that counts for something.

This evening Husband got busy on the farm and I tagged along to capture the moment. See how pretty our grass now looks cos of all his hard farming.

Sick Day

Something felt off as I went to bed last night and this morning when I woke up, I was full blown sick and absolutely miserable. I'll spare the gory details of my emergency sprints to the bathroom, but honey, it wasn't pretty.

I tired snacking on some grapes. For some reason grapes felt like the solution, but I was wrong, grapes were actually a trigger for violent stomach reactions that left me on my knees getting better equated with the toilet. Misery.

And for the record I would like to officially say that I'm blaming my Dad for this. Why? because he saw it coming. Last week while we were chatting to told to me slow down "you'd want to be careful Ka, if you don't slow down you'll make yourself sick". My reaction, "Da, stop worrying, I'm fine, I like to keep busy". Well I wasn't fine and don't you just hate when your parents are right? But the good news is I'm mending.

But I didn't mend enough to pick up my camera and shoot today, it just wasn't in me, so I'm sorry but todays photos are a bit of "Here's one I made earlier" situation.

These particular photos I took of a church in Southborough, Massachusetts, a town close to where my mother-in-law lives "Hi Diane" and I promise I'll have my camera back in hand tomorrow.

Sleepy Time

We arrived back from Jamaica late this evening so I was kinda pushed for a photo to shoot and post. That was until I walked into Husband's office and spotted Fintan sleeping hard in his favorite bed on one of his favorite spots, Husband's bookshelf.

How cozy does he look?

And since we're on the topic of sleep and I'm finding myself too tired to type, its off to bed for me too. I've reached a very intense part of the book I started reading, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and I'm anxious to see what happens next.

But let me leave you with one more shot, a close up, of the sleeping Fintan. Come on, you know he's adorable. Even you non-cat lovers have to agree.

De Feet

Its after midnight and we are just back from the stadium. I'm sweaty, tired, hungry and thirsty. Everything you'd expect to be after a long evening at the track, but thankfully all went well. I paced my ass off and then sat back to watch and support my fellow athletes in their respective events.

The highlight of the evening was Usain Bolt. For those not in the know, Usain is the Olympic Champion and World Record holder for the men's 100m & 200m and tonight he proved once again why he's the best in the world when he sreaked to a comfortable victory in the 200m.

Because I was using the old point n' shoot I tried to position myself as close to the finish line as possible to snap a photo of Mr Bolt and I did get a couple.


These are some of the photographers waiting to capture the worlds fastest man.



This is my snap shot of the word's fastest man.



And just for you Don, here are De Feet of the worlds fastest man. It was almost De Legs, De Torso and De Head too, but some random dude threw his backpack into my shot at the last second. Sorry.