Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Busted

My dad came to visit and all my secrets are now revealed.

I have to fight my dog for space on the sofa for my usual Saturday nap. Thankfully I won this time.


It's okay. I got my father back. Here I snapped evidence of him spoiling my dog as well. Tucker looks pretty comfortable helping my dad read the paper.

And I wonder why I'm not Alpha Dog? Yeah, right.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I'm Jealous

He took the sunniest spot and is laying on all three of my blankets. How is it that I'm constantly outsmarted by my own dog?

Monday, May 17, 2010

Wild Animals (In the City)

By now you may have noticed that I take pictures of random things. With my dad in town, I seem to be spotting more animals on my travels around the city.

First off, we met some guy walking around with a plastic pig on his shoulder. I thought he was protesting people who eat pork or something. Turns out it had to do with the election. Some analogy of 'snouts in the troughs' but I didn't get it. Dad (looking very sinister in his dark glasses) decides to help the man with his pig.




Next, I really admired these lamp posts along the Queen's walk on the river Thames. How cool are they? Not only do I really appreciate the classic wrought iron design but they are made of fish. Don't you wish you could have some of these in your neighborhood? Really, don't you? Wild fish!


Giving character to a lamp post. I love it.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Law Abiding Citizen

Since we are aliens in this country, Tucker and I do our best to make sure we follow all the local laws and customs.

Not sure if you can read the sign above Tucker's head. It says 'In respect of our neighbours, no drinking beyond this point'. It's awfully nice of Tucker to make sure he keeps his can of Fosters to the correct side of the sign.....

Monday, May 10, 2010

International Arrivals

Have you ever been through Arrivals at a big International airport? You tend to see the sight below where everyone is holding signs waiting for their party to arrive.

Since I haven't seen my dad since August, I thought I might need a sign too.


Tucker helped model it just in case my dad wouldn't recognize who he was supposed to be meeting.

Great news - he made it! Ignore the woman in the front of the photo who decided to stop right in the middle of the exit. You can just see my dad escaping Duty Free in the background. Yippee!! You know how I love playing tour guide......

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Payback

I tell you, the universe is pretty good about getting even. Well, it's my own fault really. I should have known better to gloat in my last post about beating Mr. John Booker by 8 minutes in this year's duathlon when I knew full well that we would have many more races together this year. Needless to say, John was very quick to remind me as he was standing at the finish of this weekend's triathlon that I finished behind him. Arghhh!! I really should have known better. (I also should have brought my camera this weekend. Sorry you are stuck with no pictures )


Sunday's race of the New Forest triathlon looked to be off to a rocky start. At 5:30AM it was pounding with rain. Luckily by the time we were ready to head off to the race at 6:15AM, we were greeted with this lovely rainbow. The race distance was slighly shorter than an Olympic with 1100 meter swim, 36K bike and 10K run. (I really wish the run was longer. Have I ever mentioned how I'm not a sprinter?)



The results may be too small to read but it clearly shows that I finished last out of all my friends. Not a problem - I am very happy with my finish given a few mechanical issues with my bike as well as the guy in transition who decided to rack his bike in my spot and then try to steal my clothes. So yeah, my time wasn't the greatest but a good race tune up and now I know what it feels like to swim with completely numb hands and feet. Needless to say, lake swimming in May in England, is not warm. No, not warm at all. What I did want to point out - what I think is so cool about my friends who raced this weekend - is that we were all in different age groups. We had one represented in almost every group - M20, M30, M40, M50, F20, F30 and F40. Pretty neat, eh? (By the way, the only pure time is the bike time. The swim and run include transition. I actually made it out of the water in 23 minutes! My hands were just too numb to put my helmet on quickly)


Other than that, Tucker joined us for the race as hosts Barry and Julie were kind enough to let him stay. Unfortunately, our visit with them was also off to a rocky start as he tried to eat their rabbit. Good thing the cage was able to withstand the attack. Yikes! Tucker also had a play date this weekend. I thought the photo of him and his friend Huronomous was quite sweet.


Especially when 'H' wanted his bed. Just a bit too big for this boy.