Feelin' HOT HOT HOT.

Seriously. I'm burnin' up over here! On the East Coast we're in the middle of day three of triple digit heat. (I'm warm just thinking about it!) Right now outside my 70 degree climate controlled office, the sun and haze is beating down on the city, smothering EVERYTHING.

Photo from accuweather.com

Lucky for us East Coasters, this heat dome was suffocating the Midwest for a few days before it moved it's way East. While it's scary to think of the dangers associated with heat waves, it was nice to be able to plan early AM workouts knowing that lunchtime would be unbearable. [It's over 100 right now, right outside my office. blllllleh.]
Yesterday morning I was able to get 40 minutes of running/ walking intervals in with Rocky, and this morning Mom joined me (as well as BOTH puppies!) to walk before I left for work. Even at 6:30 A.M., it was over 80 degrees at my house.

This is the heat index for the Eastern half of the country:

Photo from Washington Post Online

The news coverage of the heat wave in the Midwest continued to highlight the possibility that this current heat wave could become like the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. During one week in July 1995, over 700 people died in Chicago. SEVEN HUNDRED. The temperature was 106 degrees, with a heat index of 126. Absolutely stifling. All this media coverage brought me back to freshman year sociology where we read "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago" by Eric Klinenberg.
photo from http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo3641018.html

A phenomenal read, this book covers research the author conducted to determine why the week of heat in Chicago was so deadly. The most shocking things are that most of the victims died at home, and the number dead was "more than twice the number that died in the Chicago Fire of 1871, twenty times the number of those struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1992." Unbelievable.

There are weather tragedies that don't involve hurricanes and tornadoes, people!
Stay hydrated and be safe!

xoxo

Weekend!

This past weekend was hubby's one-weekend-off-per-month, and to increase the time we actually spend together, I took Saturday and Sunday off from the restaurant. Two entire, unadulterated days of nothing...sort of.

Saturday, Rocky & I did 3 miles on the bike trail behind our house. It wasn't my best time so far (44 min) but pup was happy, regardless.
Later, I went grocery/new clothes shopping with Mom while hubby & my visiting father in law went for a 10 mile bike ride. You read that right. First, the boys visited WHILE EXERCISING. So proud of them!!! Second, I voluntarily went clothes shopping. My mother, in her infinite wisdom, decided that my "old faithful" jeans I've been sporting since...FOREVER, were hideous. (Hubby agreed, and here's photographic proof)
Unless I belt them where they belong, they're, well...hanging off me. I have to butts in these pants. My own, and the space for the extra one I used to have. Long story short, I'm down TWO jeans sizes, and my extra long "Sweetheart" jeans from Old Navy suit me just fine! We had a lot of fun browsing the clearance.
We had steaks on the grill at Mom's, with fresh asparagus and romaine salads, so gorgeous that I would love to share a photo, but... I ate it before I thought of that. :) I'll get better at this blogging business, I swear!
To add even more to a full day, after dinner hubby, two friends and my father in law set out for night golf, while said friends wife & I had girl time. (Frozen yogurt! YUM!)
Once I actually have a golf game, I'd love to go on one of these night outings. Sports + glow sticks?! I'm in. I've been told I have great form, I just need more patience. Patience? Who me?!? At the end, (midnight!!) one friend spent the night, my father in law had a great time, and both hubby & myself were spent. Bedtime!

Thankfully, Sunday was much more low key. We headed out to the boat after a late breakfast so hubby and our buddy who spent the night could fish. I was happy just to be on the water and curled up with a great read, Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. It was nice to enjoy the gorgeous weather. When Bob (our house guest) needed to head home, I took Mackenzie out for some exercise. Just after we started on the bike trail, a bicyclist stopped me and asked if our dogs could hang out. For most dog owners, this "puppy play date" exchange may be normal, especially when you exercise on a dog friendly bike trail like we do, but she has a MINIATURE BULL TERRIER. We're talking about a pint size (27lb) version of my baby girl, Mackenzie. My little lady doesn't like running, evidently, and we only did 2.5 miles, but we made a new friend!

Just for comparison sake, this photo shows a standard bully on the left (like my pups) and a mini on the right.image from http://pethealth.petwellbeing.com/wiki/Miniature_Bull_Terrier

I can't wait to meet our new friend Moon. It will be so exciting to expand our gaggle of bull terriers to 4 (our 2 pups plus our friends' 1 pup).
This is a photo from Thanksgiving weekend of my two babies (Rocky in the foreground, with his white side kick Mackenzie, and our furniece Lexi cuddled up in Rocky's crate.)After our run, Mackenzie and I joined Rocky & hubby on the boat for some quiet "family" R&R.
Lucky for us we have a great navigator!
I had an awesome weekend. I made some awesome choices (like two runs, and frozen yogurt @ our favorite ice cream shop).
xoxo

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to our gorgeous baby boy. :)
Meet Rocky, the English Bull Terrier
Today my furbaby is 3 years old. In honor of his loyalty and unconditional love, I just have to share some of my favorite photos of him. :)

The night we brought him home...8 weeks old
9 weeks old...

Enjoying our favorite dog park...
Enjoying his pup friendly birthday cake for his 1st birthday...Helping mom decorate the last Christmas :)
That little white sidekick is Mackenzie, our 1 year old little girl.Cheers, baby. Momma loves you. :)