My Running Buddy is Getting a little Porky

I've been told that my running buddy is getting fat but I don't see it. But if he is, I can tell you that it's because we've had a super rainy past few months. January has been pretty wonderful but 2010 was an El Nino year and they say that is why it rained so much. That said, 2011 is going to be a year full of running and fun-having. On our typical morning run, we do a 6 miler where we start off from home, run about a mile in the flats and then climb a hill to the Terra Linda/Sleepy Hollow Open Space. The first mile is stop and go because he needs to go to the bathroom and sniff everything he comes across, roll on his back and then sniff some more. The second mile is slow going because we're going uphill and I need to stop and catch my breath from time to time. The final mile before our turnaround is fun and rolling hills ending at the top of a short but steep climb. And then we turn around and run fast fast fast all the way down. The one exception to the fast fast fast is when we get to the end of the open space. There is about a 2 foot drop and the Uli likes to stop, look around and maybe catch his breath. After about a minute of that, he'll jump to the street and I have him sit. He gets a kiss on the face and I usually get one in return. And after a few moments of rest, it's off to run fast fast fast down the hill. These photos are in the Open Space part of our run. By the way, what's up with the I've on it's own? weird.

7 years of Uli

Today we celebrate 7 years of Uli. When I found him they told me that he was born "sometime around the first of the year" so January 1 became the day to celebrate the dog who spends most of his day napping. The plan was to take him to the park early in the morning to play ball until he had enough but we woke up to heavy rain and decided to distract him with an extra delicious breakfast. I tried to keep him up until midnight last night but when I realized it was 12:05 and he was fast asleep, I gently scratched him behind the ears and when he woke up, I wished him a very happy birthday. He yawned, stretched and then went back to sleep. A little bit happier, I think.

It's kind of shocking to see him tire out while playing ball. I never, ever thought that he would ever want to take a break. As we discussed earlier, he loves loves loves to play ball. Even on the super hot days of his youth he would take a break in the shade and then bring the ball back into play after a short break. These days, he will go for 10 maybe 15 minutes and then he will flop down and pant. He'll get back up for more but he takes lots of breaks and it's probably best to call it after a few self-imposed breaks. You can tell when he's about to flop down because the first thing he does is to take the long way back to the ball-throwers, and he'll look around to see what else is going on in the park and then he'll stop about 20 feet away rather than the standard 5 foot ball-dropping distance. Flop!

These aren't his birthday photos (rain, rain) but they are from a few weeks ago. Happy Birthday Uli!

By the way, I am trying to figure out what is going on with the font in these postings. I hope to achieve font continuity for all posts.