Return to Normal

Well, we're home. The drive was uneventful. Due to Joseph's digestive problems at the start of the trip, I made sure that the travel snacks provided decent fiber. However, after 12 hours of eating fresh fruit and vegetables, and "Quinoa Quee-runchies" or "Flatul-O's" or whatever, the car was pretty toxic (and no dog to blame, either).

"It would take over two and a half million bowls of your oat bran cereal to equal the fiber content of one bowl of Super Colon Blow"


I was shocked when we picked up Argos at the kennel and found out that he had gone from being underweight to being visibly overweight. It sounds like despite our assurances that Argos never fights, even when provoked (or attacked) the kennel was nervous about letting him play with other dogs, and he probably did not participate in "doggy play time" regularly. (This is especially disturbing, given that we liked this fancy-ass kennel which cost us a half-month rent because of their outdoor play facilities.)


However, I must add that I also got a bit of a gut from so many excellent meals in New York and Baltimore.

An excellent meal indeed.

"I can't believe I ate (and drank) the whole thing!"

I feel like Mike Myers' Middle-Aged Man from Saturday Night Live: "You're looking at my gut, aren't you?! Well, I'm working on it!"

So Argos and I are both running extra this week.

The weather in Baltimore (and New York) was beautiful. In my grandmother's words, it was "not too cold, but cold enough to make you frisky." It was disheartening to drive back to Illinois. The closer we got to home, the colder, grayer and snowier it was. When we left Normal, it was in the 20's (and the temperature dropped to 0 while we were gone). Before we left, running (and walking) conditions were rather perilous, with alternating periods of ice, slush, deep snow, packed snow and ice-coated snowpack. Danny and I were thinking about buying a used or cheap elliptical machine because we were having trouble getting enough exercise. Oddly enough, the warm temperature followed us back to Normal: it was up to 55 degrees today, and all of the snow has melted. Although it is not springy--there was a strong wind and everything is waterlogged and slippery with rotten leaves--it is kind of like an extended fall.

Another attempt at a family picture.

Joseph plans our next trip.