July Come and Gone...almost

It's almost the end of the month of July, and as we get ready to head into August, I start to think about how the summer is almost gone. We'll have a couple more months of good warm weather here, but with the end of August starts the college football season, the Broncos reported to camp yesterday, meaning the first exhibition game of the season isn't too far behind, these mean the ushering in of fall.

Work has been busy this summer. We are having the biggest month we have had since I rejoined my company, I am happy to say that Jaz's surgery about 10 days ago was a success and that she is doing well, she will return to swimming tomorrow, and has really started to slim down. Her mammory glands have started to shrink just a little, I really need to get her weighed, I may do that one night this week if I can sneak off to the vets at some point. She's a little less obidient right now as she has began to feel better for the first time in months, and I couldn't be happier with her progress.

Marathon training has been a little up and down, a lot of that is my fault, as I think I had been over cross training a little, thus leaving my legs a little tired to really give everything I can to my Chicago workouts. As I have really quieted the other stuff besides running down, the last two really hard workouts for me have gone very well. My 40 minute tempo run on Thursday, and my 8 miles at MP (the MP workouts have been the toughest on me so far) today were both the best workouts I've had so far. I remember preparing for the Flying Pig...er Colorado Marathon, that when I had a LR on Sunday, I used to go easy on Saturdays. This plan has me doing that MP run today, then backing it up with a 16 miler tomorrow. Plus afterwards I get to help my roommate move a bunch of stuff. Fun filled day for me tomorrow. I'm fried right now and I have to get up and pound out 16 in less than 9 hours. LR's never bother me though, probably because they are slower pace, I've always joked that I could run 8 minute miles all day long, it's when they need to be in the 7's and 6's...

Besides that stuff, life is the same as always. Biggest change for me right now is that I put the camper shell back on my truck today, it'll be better for Jaz when she needs to be in the pickup for any stretch of time.

Small Miracles

So the 4th of July has come and gone. It is my favorite holiday by far of all of them. It's always warm because its right in the middle of summer, work is closed, and the 4th is more about friends than family. Don't get me wrong, if your married and spend the day with your SO and kids and stuff, that's cool. But holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving are where you spend time with your parents and aunts and uncles and shit. The 4th is about being with people you WANT to be with, not people you HAVE to be with. New Years Day is a close 2nd to the 4th. Notice I say New Years Day, and not New Years Eve. New Years Eve sucks. Sucks bad. New Years Day is great because of football and beer and relaxing and all that. Something about the 4th makes it the best though. I had 2 seperate wedding receptions to attend over the weekend, one for a buddy of mine from Iowa, one for my bosses brother. I also enjoyed an awesome dinner with my friend Ryan and his SO down in Denver. As a whole I had a great 4th weekend. Best weekend I've had in months actually.





On Wednesday this week, after about a month of unsuccesfully trying to rid Jaz of this psudopregnancy that she is in, I contacted the vet and made an appointment to have her spayed. This is what they say will take care of it, and truth be told its been way too long coming. They freaked when I told them the length of time that Jaz had been false pregnant and so we made the appointment to have her looked at and blood tested to make sure she could go through the surgery at 6 years old. Thank god, she passed with flying colors. All in her blood work was ok, except being a little anemic, from the false pregnancy, everything else was great. I was so afraid they might find something wrong with her. They also said that some of the weird things with her, the balding tail, her bald nose, and the dryness on the edges of her ears, should all clear up after the surgery. Her body never rid itself of it's last heat cycle, so she's been in heat for almost half a year. Jaz is the most mellow dog you will ever meet when it's not time for hunting, or hunt training. They said that a little of the piss and vinigar that she used to have in her should return. So I'm very excited, plus it should remove about a 6th of her body weight from not carrying milk in her mammory glands anymore. Her quality of life should be greatly improved. I am saddened that she will not carry on her lineage, but there are others who can from her litter and others by her parents. She is just such a cool, unique dog.





The dog in the grass is Jaz's mother Max, and the one on the right is her father Jax. Both are over 9 years old now, so they probably will not be having anymore litters, but Jaz got very cool traits from these dogs. A couple of the best dogs I've ever hunted with.

I'll keep everyone updated on Jaz's surgery next week.