Weekend with Greg

I started the weekend with high hopes.  A bunch of people invited me to various events and parties and for once when I brought them up to Greg he didn't immediately cringe and shoot the ideas down.  He seemed pretty confident that he would be home for a while and since he got home Wednesday and had already enjoyed a couple days at home, he was up for whatever I felt like doing this weekend. 
First on the agenda was a party at a co-workers house as he is headed off to the middle east for four months!  As we were about to walk out the door, Greg checked his phone and realized he had a message.  He immediately started cursing and I knew what I was in for.  The airline had called and scheduled him to start simulator training.  There's some confusion over whether he leaves on Monday or Tuesday (the message said Monday, but an email says Tuesday), but the bottom line is that he won't be home for the week + we had been hoping for.  Greg agreed to still go to the party, but suddenly the rest of the weekend was promptly cancelled as he needed to stay in and study study study. 
I actually didn't end up minding too much that we had a lazy Saturday.  We took Clyde to the vet for the last of his shots and then headed home and lounged.  I worked on something for work I'd been putting off, and Greg studied.  We ate lunch, a snack, and dinner on the deck.  We took Clyde for a walk around the neighborhood.  It was a good Saturday after all.

  I really am just happy to have him here and want to enjoy what time I have with him since he's leaving again for a couple weeks tomorrow or Tuesday.

Doggie Stroller update...also the pilot is home!

Ok, so I've been meaning to update on the doggie stroller.  It came last week in a HUGE box on my doorstep.  Clyde actually growled at the thing when I pushed it through the front door...lol.  I got it out and had assembled in about 20 minutes.  It's COOL.  Here are some pics of Clyde trying it out after I got it together:

 Sooooo funny!

I didn't really have time to take it for a spin last week because Thursday night I think it kinda rained and then I was packing for Hilton Head.  Then I was IN HHI for the weekend.  Finally Monday I decided it was time to take it for a spin.  I took Clyde for a regular walk first then came back and got him situated in it for a test run around the neighborhood.  It definitely adds to the workout to push that thing.  The position of the handle is adjustable and I'm not sure if I had it in the right place or not.  I also kinda think I felt more stress on my knees for whatever reason.  As for how Clyde did, he was pretty good in it.  I think he didn't know what to make of it at first.  He kinda whined a little about halfway, but settled down after a minute or so.  It went pretty well.
My friend Jen and I decided to run together on Tuesday night.  I warned her I might bring Clyde and the doggie stroller and she said it was fine.  Tuesday did not go as well as Monday.  For one thing we were trying to do a longer run.  My test run with Clyde was pretty short, so probably not a good gauge of how well he'd do zipped into the stroller for longer periods.  Secondly, I got home and walked Clyde, but I think he had waaaaaaaaaaay more energy to burn off and therefore being cooped up in the stroller did not make a happy puppy.  We ended up starting with him in the stroller and then he started whining and doing a high pitched bark and kind of scratching at the top to get out.  Not good.  We stopped, I put his leash on, walked him, then would put him back in the stroller for a while to run til he got antsy again, stop take him out.  It just went on in that cycle like that.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.  Luckily Jen loves Clyde and is so nice, so she seemed to be ok with the fact that we didn't get a huge workout out of the plan.  We decided to eat dinner outside after the run with Jen's husband joining us.

As we were sitting down to eat, Greg called my cell and informed me he was DONE with ground school and coming home in the morning!  Wow!
He's been home since Wednesday morning and is loving being back with Clyde.  It's so cute to see them together playing and snuggling :)  We're not sure when he will have simulator training, but for now we'll enjoy his time home.

The pilot!

So I guess I've been bad about updating the blog about THE PILOT (kinda half the point of the blog)!  It's easy to forget to update what he is doing because he hasn't been here in like 5 weeks and right now it's all about me and Clyde (yeah I know, my blog posts about Clyde are out of control-sorry!).  
But anyway, Greg is doing great at his training.  He's the oldest guy in his class and I guess he's borderline anti-social because he spends a great deal of time hanging out in the hotel room studying.  Some of his classmates are pretty young and do not have any other commercial airline experience and maybe don't completely know what they are in for the way he does since he's been through this oh about fifty thousand times now (ok maybe not that many, but it sure seems like a lot!).  Greg feels like he is kind of being held to a higher standard because pretty much all the instructors know he's got the most experience, so it's sort of added pressure (as if he doesn't already put a ton of pressure on himself!).  Anyway, the man spends A LOT of time studying.  The rest of the class, well, maybe not so much.  They like hitting Beal Street many nights of the week and sometimes don't come home til the wee hours of the morning.  Greg tries to avoid going out, but gets roped into it about once a week or so. 
Greg took his written final yesterday and scored 100%.  I think the lowest score he's gotten on anything might have been like a 95%.  He's got his oral exam later this week, and then we THINK he is coming home on Friday night!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That will be the end of ground school, and then next up is simulator training, which will probably be a couple weeks away again.  We think he's going to have a gap of hopefully a week or more in between ground school and simulator training, but we're not sure yet.  He should know more soon.  It's been a long 5 weeks or so without him.  I'm so glad we started Skyping most nights.  That really helped even though it's not the same as being with each other.  This actually may have been the longest we've been apart.  He's been to training in Miami and Houston for two + months with two other airlines, but with those I managed to sneak in a visit about midway, so we probably didn't go more than about 3 weeks or so without seeing each other those times.  Greg tells me Memphis is not the greatest city and is kind of unsafe, but regardless, I had hoped to get out there for a visit and see him and check it out.  It just didn't work out this time due to standby flights looking crappy, positive space seats outrageously expensive, driving not being very practical, and Greg feeling like he needed to really buckle down and study hard since he's been out of an airplane for a year and a half.  At the halfway mark I sent Greg some goodies with a little note from Heidi's Heavenly Cookies.  I was originally planning on sending a homemade "care package" with lots of different kinds of edible goodies in there, but he's actually been shopping a bunch while out there and had told me right before that he was worried he might not be able to eat all the stuff he'd bought in the time he had left.  I figured cookies would go quick though (I know my husband, and cookies don't stand a chance!), and he could share if he needed help polishing them off.  I don't think he needed much help though!
I'm so proud of him for doing so well in training and making it through a long time away from home.  I feel bad that he's missed all this time with Clyde.  He always says he can tell he's getting bigger when he sees him on Skype.  I think Clyde has gained like 3 lbs since Greg left, and is actually getting close to being full grown now.  It's sad that Greg missed a lot of "puppy time".  I think Greg would have had fun at the Dogswalk for Cancer, would have liked seeing Clyde meet my parents and experience the beach for the first time, and missed me teaching Clyde to sit.  :(  I guess we'll be in for the same sort of missed milestones when we have kids one day.  Sad.  I'm sure the boys will make up for lost time when he gets back though!  I see some slobbery doggies kisses and a tail wagging uncontrollably in Greg's immediate future :)

New Playlist

Just wanted to add that before leaving for my HHI trip on Thursday night I downloaded some new tunage for the trip that's been on repeat ever since:

Just Say Yes- Snow Patrol (I think someone should use this song to propose to their girlfriend!)
Never Gonna Be Alone- Nickelback
Maybe- Ingrid Michaelson
All I Have- Mat Kearney
Dancing Shoes- Gavin DeGraw
Crash and Burn- Lifehouse
Someday- Cary Brothers
Young and In Love- The London

It's all good :)  I think a bunch of it will be good for running also and may be added to my workout mix.

Weekend in Hilton Head

Clyde and I took a little trip to Hilton Head to see my parents this weekend. 

This was quite an important trip. I have mentioned before that my mom is not a dog person (here), and really worked herself up to the idea of him being at their house.  I originally thought that my parents' introduction to Clyde should be at our house, but we were having trouble finding a weekend to get together and my dad wanted to be at their house to watch The Masters on his precious HD TV this weekend, so my mom suggested I come there (which is never a bad thing for me as I love HHI).  But anyway, I had thought it best they come to our house to meet Clyde because that way if he had any accidents while they were around at least it wouldn't be on their floors, and additionally, we know how he behaves in our house, but I wasn't sure how he'd be at someone else's for a whole weekend.  Turns out it all went BETTER than I thought it would.  Clyde was just an ANGEL!!  He didn't even come close to having any accidents, didn't chew on anything he shouldn't, and furthermore just acted as cute and loving as can be.

He didn't jump on my mom and was totally gentle and sweet.  Also, my dad kind of IS a dog person but never pushed my mom to get a dog or anything because he knows she's not into them.  He had dogs growing up though, and likes playing with a dog when given the chance.  As soon as we got there on Friday, he got down on the living room floor with Clyde and they immediately started playing.  Clyde has a new BFF :)

I even went to a movie with my mom yesterday and left Clyde with my dad for couple hours and he was great.  He mostly slept in my dad's lap.  That pup could melt any heart!  I'm sooooooooooooo happy it went well.  I was so nervous that it wouldn't go well and my mom would hate him and never want us to visit again or come to our house now that there is a dog involved!
We took Clyde to the beach on Saturday and I was so curious to see how he'd be there.  Only problem was that it was soooooooo windy there!

Poor baby had sand all in his face!  He hid in his carrier to avoid the sand.  We were supposed to meet some of my parents friends there for a picnic lunch, but we quickly realized we'd be eating a great deal of sand in addition to our Publix subs and snacks if we stayed out on the beach.  Mom and I took Clyde for a walk near the water and he got his feet wet in the ocean.  I don't think he quite knew what to make of the whole experience.  After our brief stint at the beach we relocated our picnic to some picnic tables near the parking lot.

My parents' friends brought their 7 month old pug, Bella.  She was immediately kind of aggressive towards baby Clyde, and I didn't really appreciate them not being a little more conscious of that (Hello?!  Restrain your dog people!!).

I ended up taking Clyde to another table and sitting by ourselves because Bella wouldn't leave Clyde alone.  After lunch we tried socializing the pups and it went okay, but definitely was not one of his better play dates.
My parents took me to dinner at Hugo's Saturday night and my mom and I split tilapia and stuffed shrimp (YUM).
Clyde also enjoyed a walk around their neighborhood yesterday.  I may have snagged a couple new items at the Tanger outlets while there (pants, sunglasses, running outfit, two shirts).
I always wish I could stay longer when I visit, but I had to get back for work.
I'm so proud of Clyde for winning over my mom :)  Great visit!

Weekend Round-up

It was another great weekend in Charlotte. It's really warmed up here, to the point that I broke out more of my summer clothes this weekend. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get motivated to clean out my closet now though and put my sweaters and cords away for the summer. Especially with all that sunshine outside!
Friday night I was itching to be outside but didn't want to leave Clyde too long. I ended up going over to my friend Kerrie's house and bringing Clyde with me so he could be involved. We left him at her place for a bit while doing about a 3 mile run, then got some food and ate outside on her patio. Clyde played outside and had his dinner al fresco as well.
Saturday Clyde and I got up bright and early for the DogsWalk for Cancer.

(picture from website)
We got there and met Kelly and Rascal and registered. There were SOOOOOOOOOO many dogs everywhere! I wasn't sure how Clyde would be since he's only like 6 lbs. I knew I'd have to keep a close eye on him with all the big dogs everywhere. Kel and I got our free goodies and got our free Salsaritas breakfast burritos. The best thing we got was a big free bag of dog food. The flavor is trout and sweet potato...hehe. Clyde seems to like it ok. I've been mixing it in with his other food. We also met up with a co-worker and his wife, who also have a dog named Rascal, but their dog is like a King Charles Spaniel or something like that. The walk started on time and Clyde off like a prom dress! He was soooooooooo funny! The walk was 1.1 mile, and I wasn't sure how he'd do, but boy was he a runnin! People were cracking up at the sight of my teeny tiny dog running his little heart out! It was toooo cute! Wouldn't you know that I forgot my damn camera! You guys will just have to visualize the scene, sorry! At the end of the walk we mingled a little more and Rascal and Clyde met a bunch of other Dachshunds. It was cute! My little dogster was tuckered out by the time we got home. I think he had fun and was impressed at how social he was and how well he did on the walk.
Once home I went for a run and then fired up the lawn mower for the first time this year, to give the lawn some much needed TLC. Greg's a pretty big lawn nazi and he would have a fit if he were home and able to see how crappy and yellow the lawn is right now. I've been trying to run the sprinkler and get it healthy, but I think he's gonna have to work his magic on it when he gets back.
Saturday night I met my friend Nicole for dinner in uptown at Dandelion.  Their menu is kinda like tapas, so we did an appetizer of prosciutto crostini, salads, and then steak skewers.  I feel kinda bad because I think I kinda high-jacked the evening.  Nicole had originally suggested going to Howl at the Moon.  We finished with dinner kind of early and wandered into this other bar to have a beer and kill some time before going to Howl at the Moon.  Well, while we were there I got the idea to text Greg's friend Dan and see if he wanted to come join us.  He came and brought his friend Jeff and this other girl he's kind of seeing.  I figured it would be fun to have a few more people, but they were feeling the low-key kind of vibe and we ended up going next door to Connelly's and just staying there for the rest of the night.  Nicole said it was fine, but she had previously told me that she's one of those people who likes to be in the busiest bars, with lots of people, and lots going on.  That was not how I'd describe our evening.  I don't think we are on the same page about what kind of scene we're into.  I'm definitely more of a 'hang out at a quieter place and talk' kind of person, and I don't think she is.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day.  I did a little grocery shopping, sat and read on the deck, and played with monkey dog.  Good times.

Clyde pictures

Just wanted to post a couple really cute pictures of my little angel!

My new favorite (saved as my desktop picture so I can dream of cuddling him all day long)!