Boating, with dogs

I may have mentioned this earlier, but, quite by accident, I have recently become friends with people who like to take me out on their boat. Yay for me!

Over July 4, I went out on my friends' boat to watch the fireworks.  I invited two married friends to go with me (my best friend and her husband.)  They reciprocated by having us all out on their boat a month or so later.  With their dogs.

This is Hans.  He is my surrogate dog.  He absolutely loves me.  When I run with my best friend (who owns Hans and his sister), I hold his leash.  When he sees me, he jumps up and down; turning in circles with excitement.  It is so fun to see.  And he'll do it every time, even if he just saw me three hours earlier.  He is willed to me, though that should not come into play since his owners are just 40!

We had a great afternoon and have plans to do this more often in 2015.

Catching Up!

Despite what it may seem, I have not forgotten about this blog! I am still a bit angry with myself for not posting more often, as I'd love to be able to look back and see what's been going on in my life! Yet again, I will try to post more regularly...starting NOW!!!

But, first...I must catch up with the past few months. I'll miss a lot, but hit the highlights relating to pictures I took.

In September, I ran a 50K race with one of my best friends.  She's someone I knew before I found out about Thomas's cheating, barely.  We both volunteered for our local marathon, but I never became friends with her due to Thomas's weirdness and the fact that since he didn't have any friends, he begrudged me mine.

She really stepped up, and we've become so close over the past two years.  In fact, tomorrow we are going trail running, touring a winery, and watching our NFL team at her house as her boyfriend makes us vegetarian chili. Score!

Usually, I run my own race, but we agreed that we would run this 50K (31 miles) together.  It was so much fun!  Here is what we saw near the beginning:

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we became even better friends due to this experience.  We crossed the finish line holding hands and collapsed in a giant hug.

Two more pictures of what we got to see during our run:

In early September, Steve Earle came to town!  I've been a big fan ever since I saw him on The Wire (best show ever to appear on TV, in case you're wondering.  I am watching Season 1, episode 4 as I write this post.)  As an aside, on a terrible first date, I met George Pelecanos, one of the writers on The Wire.  He was absolutely amazing, and made me love the show even more!

Steve's live show was every bit as wonderful as expected.  I went with my parents; I've become much closer to them throughout this ordeal, which is one of the many silver linings of finding out I was married to a sociopath and getting divorced:

This is the dessert at one of my new favorite restaurants.  I first shared it with one of my best friends (and fellow parrot-enthusiast) a few months back -- brownie with salted caramel gelato, nuts, cherry, etc.  I went back with another friend, and once I showed them the picture I had taken of my dessert earlier in the summer, they agreed to make it for me, even though it was no longer officially on the menu.  Yay!

Here's my good friend near finishing her first triathlon!  Surrounded by geese, which I loved.  Another one of our friends and I chased her around on our bikes with signs, cheering her on.  It was such a great day!

I had been on yet another bummer first date, followed by a lake cruise with friends.  I feel so lucky to live in such a fabulous city!  The views more than made up for the bad first date!

I cat-sat for my good friend and her husband.  Sprecher was watching me!

And the two of them, eating their food:

This blog was originally started to chronicle the antics of my parrots, so we will now enter that portion of this entry!

Here's Max, eating something (shocker!)  Andreas's tank is in the background.  Speaking of Andreas, he has become so much more personable recently.  He asks for me to pet his head!  I'm starting to think certain animals really can recognize evil people, which is why the parrots and Andreas are so much happier now!

And, Beeps: eating some food as well.

Calypso had climbed into Max's cage and was eating her food!  Since I always supervise, this situation was resolved without bloodshed.

Max, perched on some blankets on the couch.  She likes to be near me as I read after work.

Beeps, again.  He's actually not done as well in our new life.  I had begged Thomas to take him, since he never got along with the other birds and would prefer to be solo, but Thomas refused to take any of the parrots, or (not so shockingly), any responsibility for anything.  I had to figure everything out alone, and made what I thought were the best decisions for the parrots were at the time.  I think he feels abandoned, and hasn't rebounded as much as Calypso and Max have.

I'm still trying to eat healthy; here's a pan full of zucchini!

At my new job, I frequently have to go to fancy fundraising events.  This is a shot from a recent one.  The local professional hockey team were our servers; it was pretty exciting to be out there, sitting on the ice!

The meal (vegetarian option) was pretty, but not as tasting or filling as I'd hoped...

Also during the fall, I dog-sat one night for my closest friend and her husband.  They live only a few blocks from me, which is so convenient!  They currently have two boxers (sadly, one is nearing the end of his life.)  They have adopted me as one of their favorite humans, which is so fun!

I was trying to take a picture of Hans, but he jumped up on me and made a good picture impossible!

He always grabs a toy and tries to get me to play tug-of-war:

He wanted to go inside, but since I wanted to make sure they didn't have any accidents, I kept them outside a little longer!

So he decided to rest on their patio furniture, waiting until he could go inside again:

I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to get both of them in the photo.  The older one was coming in for some attention when the younger one pushed him out of the way:

HELLO!

A few weeks ago, some friends and I ran a 5K race that took place entirely inside a corn maze!  It was a lot of fun (though a bit hard on my knees, with the twists and turns), I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for a year, and I won first place in my age group!  To celebrate, we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant:

On yet another bad first date, I had some more macaroni and cheese:

I am not even kidding that I could write a blog about all of my bad first dates.  I've had some good ones sprinkled in, too, so no worries!

My dad and I have season tickets to a local NCAA team; the games started recently.  We went to almost all of the games together last year, and it was so much fun!  We're hoping to make all of the games this year:

Last week Saturday, I ran another 50K -- my third of the year.  I wound up third woman!  The race was established in honor of one of my friends who is dying of cancer.  I took what I hope is one of many annual pictures with my friend and his wife (another one of my friends.)  The wife (also my friend) and I will probably run Boston together in 2015.  I have run it before, but was with Thomas (aka "The Dark Cloud of Doom and Gloom") so it wasn't much fun.  Next time, it will be for sure!

Gorgeous picture of me and my race partner running up a hill, at about mile 30.7:

After this recent 50K, there was a campfire to warm us and make us smell delicious:

After the race, my plan was to hang out at home, drink beer, and sleep in.  But one of my friends had another idea in mind.  She's in the process of leaving her abusive partner.  Since I have recent experience with this, I have tried my best to be as supportive as possible.  We went to a haunted house (even though I am terrified of them) and then did a zip line, pictured below:

Today, my parents came up and helped me to winterize my house.  We cleaned the gutters, put some plastic on windows, took out my window air conditioning unit, and played some cards. It was a great evening! 

More to come, on a more regular basis!

Urban "wildlife"

Last night, Thomas and I were making dinner, when we caught something out of the corner of our eyes (pretty much at the same time.) My first thought was a black bear was walking through our yard, but on closer inspection, it was revealed to be......our neighbors' dog. He must have slipped under or jumped over the fence. He had a great time:
Dog meeting with the dog that lives behind us:
They came and got him after about 20 minutes.

Strider

Strider is one of my dog friends. She is owned by one of my good people friends, J. Occasionally (but not frequently enough) I will join J and Strider for a walk. Strider is one of the friendliest dogs I have ever met. She and J have an amazing bond. I'm pretty sure they've been together over a decade. I have threatened to dog-nap her, since I am in love, but J knows I'm not serious. Plus she knows where I live!

J sent me this series of pictures of Strider cooling down, and I loved them so much I asked her for permission to post them here, which she granted:
When I was growing up, we'd buy the ice cream that is sold in bricks, and when we were done, we'd open the package flat on the ground and our family dog would lick the paper clean, so this brought back great memories.

J assured me that Strider is well stocked for getting through the hot weather that is approaching:

Boston wildlife

We arrived in Boston on Sunday, the day before the marathon. I had to get to the buses to take me to the starting line almost 4 hours before the marathon started! Which means that Thomas had around 8 hours to himself in Boston until I finished.

Originally, he had told me that his plan was to not get so drunk while I was running that he didn't recognize me at the end! But he was just kidding and was completely sober when we reunited at the finish. He had spent his morning running and then walking around the city.

He was resting in a park when this pigeon started harassing him for food. Sadly for the pigeon, Thomas didn't have any (plus, we don't feed wild animals even if he had had food), so the pigeon left him alone and went in search of other food:Then, he watched some sparrows taking a bath. He claimed to do this for about an hour, but he may have been exaggerating!There were so many pigeons in the downtown area! I know many people don't like pigeons, but I find them very beautiful. From behind, while in flight, they remind me a lot of Max!The next day, to rest my legs, we went on a whale watching tour through the Aquarium. Our guide told us that we had one of the best animal sightings of any tour she's ever given! (Though she may say that every time). In any case, we were impressed with the whales and especially dolphins that we saw.

We saw the dolphins first; they were so playful!We saw two kinds of whales; humpback:
And fin (though I know we got pictures of the fin, I'm not entirely sure that's what this one is, but I think so!):Back on land, we had more normal urban wildlife sightings. We hung out in Boston Common and the Public Gardens for hours.

I love watching squirrels!There were several blue jays flying around:I know many people consider them pests, but I absolutely love Canada Geese. They are so beautiful and their black necks are just breathtaking. Thomas and I used to have a shift doing wildlife rehabilitation (which we hope to be able to do again someday) and these were one of the more common animals we'd take care of. Once I was carrying an injured goose to the tub, and she pooped all over my shoe. Gross!We were in Boston at a very beautiful time, though I'd also like to see it in the fall. Many of the trees were just beginning to green:Not exactly wildlife, but this made us laugh:I've mentioned frequently that I'd really like to have a dog, but that our lifestyle and house are not suited to one at present (cue tiny, sad violins for me). In Boston Common, we were seated on a bench near the experimental off-leash dog area.

We may be weird, but we had a great time watching the interactions various dogs had with each other and with the dog owners:We were staying in the North End, where this sign displayed the famous dogs of the area:We probably saw some of them during our stay!

And in a major case of dog stalking, we fell in love with this guy:He was walking with his owners; the woman was holding a dog frisbee. He kept going over and mouthing the frisbee to get her to throw it to him. Finally she did a few times, but not enough for him, as he'd immediately ask for more. He was very playful!