Random Saturday blurbs...

Drinking my usual morning Seattle’s Best coffee… One of our favorite baristas, a really sweet girl named Korrie, is leaving for college soon. Interestingly enough, she’s moving to Chicago. So maybe we’ll run into her again some time… We’re still waiting to find out whether we’ll be moving or not – Rick thinks the chances are pretty good. But even though they want someone up there in about five weeks, they’re really dragging their feet with the whole hiring process. So we just have to wait and see…

But speaking of Chicago… we’re driving up there next week for a visit, where we’ll hopefully get to check out Eric’s new condo, and perhaps see if any units are available in his building. :) We actually did find a listing for one a few days ago – a really nice-looking three bedroom/two bath. And that way if we DO move to Chicago, we can have a whole “Friends” thing going… Eric and I will leave our doors unlocked at all hours of the day (because that’s what people who live in big cities do, according to sitcoms…) and barge into each other’s homes whenever we feel like it. Eric will steal things out of my fridge and watch movies on my TV, and I’ll take him my grocery bill and ask him why I seem to spend so much money on biscuits (where have all my biscuits gone?? And why do I have all this extra mayonnaise??)…

I had to take Echo to the vet yesterday, which I felt bad about… especially because the day before yesterday I gave her a bath, and she really, really hates baths. She huddles up against the side of the tub, looking as if she’ll spring out onto the bathroom tile the second she sees an escape route. She may have tried that a few years ago, but now with her arthritis, she’s pretty much stuck in the tub until I lift her out. Once her bath is over, she’ll follow me around the house for about an hour, just to make sure I’m not about to spring any more surprises on her. So like I said – I felt especially bad about shuttling her off to the vet just 24 hours after dousing her head to toe with lukewarm water and berry-scented “Crazy Dog” brand shampoo… I took her to the vet so they could test her liver enzymes and make sure the pain meds we’ve been giving her for the arthritis haven’t adversely affected it. And I felt REALLY bad once I was at the vet, because when the vet tech tried to take blood, she screwed something up and poor Echo’s leg started bleeding… the tech had to call in the vet to get blood from another leg. And Echo, always the quiet, stoic, well-behaved dog she is, didn’t complain one bit. (Well, okay – she might be a little less quiet when she’s running around the backyard… and she may not be as well-behaved when someone is eating pizza and she’s certain she’s entitled to a few scraps of crust…)

So Rick and I have both dropped another pound. We took a nice 2.8 mile walk last night – I think we’re trying to build up to three miles per walk. We’ve been doing great with our eating and staying pretty consistent with our workouts… and so, to celebrate, we’ll probably go out for ice cream tonight. (Hey, it’s our cheat day… Jessica Alba does it! It’s okay!) Now comes the great experiment: can we stay on track even as we head up to Chicago next week? I have no intention of depriving myself of some of the great restaurants Chicago has to offer… so I’ll just have to hope that walking around the city will make up for it.

Oh, speaking of our trip to Chicago – Rick and I are driving, and then mom and dad will by flying up to join us. We’re traveling our usual Dallas-to St. Louis-to Chicago route, which should be fun. We made reservations at the same hotel we stayed at the last time we were in St. Louis – the one that used to be a train station. I’m pretty sure I posted pictures last time, but I’ll probably take more this time, too. So I’m looking forward to posting my daily travelogues… :)