It's almost been a month and I haven't sat down to type a post. There really hasn't been much going on. Winter is starting to lose it's grip and we are starting to see some warmer temperatures. Meaning it's making it up to 40 degrees. The snow has all but melted off the lawn, other than what is shaded by our big pine tree, and the north side of the garage where the snow got piled deep. The one bad thing about all that snow meling is that is exposes all the dog piles that got hidden under the snow. Thank the big guy they have certain spots where they usually go. They leave certain pathways that you know are safe to walk on. I usually wait for a day like yesterday to go out and clean it up. Once the winter nights start getting clear, the early morning temperatures get really cold. This turns everything into a frozen solid mass before the sun comes out to warm it up. So Friday afternoon we stopped by the store and I bought a pair of those yellow elbow length gloves that our moms used to wear when cleaning the bathroom, and get to work. It is actually much easier this way as "do-do" is forzen so it doen't smell. I just go along and pick it right up with my hands, dump it in the bucket that I lined with a garbage sack, and did work. I try to stay on top of it as much as I can, but it never ceases to amaze me, just how many little piles there are. I ended up with two full garbage sacks. This probably groses everyone out, but it is by far the easiest way to get the job done fast. If it isn't frozen, it smells. If you use a shovel, you end up taking a chunk of grass with it.
Last weekend we headed down to St. George for the weekend. It was Valentines and President's Day all in three days. We actaully didn't stay down there for Monday because Deb had to get back to work. Uncle Bryan was nice enough to let us and Anje, Jerry, and Baby Gabe stay at his house. Anje and I ran the Dam to Dam race out at Sand Hollow. Well, we didn't actually run other than a total of 10 minutes. Anje, just had Gabe a month ago so we took it easy. We actaully started off in Dead Last Place, which was kinda fun. I decided that the folks at the rear, have a lot more fun that those that take it even remotely seriously. We thought we were going to be the very last ones to finish, and we even joked about it with some of the other folks that were walk/running by us. We would run the first two minutes of each mile, and then walk the rest of the mile, until the end when we actaully did a bit more running down the last mile. Two of the people were were joking with about finishing last, actually got in the ambulance and hitched a ride back to the start. We ended up passing two people and finished 3rd and 4th last out of about 300 runners. It was great scenery, just like other years, and we really enjoy that fun little run. The reason we run it is that it is part of the Runners Series for the St. George Marathon. They allow 500 runners to sign up and if you run two of the races, you get an automatic entry into the marathon. You still have to pay the money, but you don't have to go through the lottery and wait to find out if you are actually running it.
For Valentines, we really didn't do anything. They guys made dinner for all the ladies. Jerry BBQ'd the stakes, Bryan set the table, and I made the twice baked potatoes, also with Jerry's help, the salad, I cheated and bought the rolls, and we topped it off with Apple Crisp for desert. It was a lot of food but it was really good.
The next morning, Jerry and I headed down to the Oasis Gun club to shoot some sporting clays. Anje bought Jerry a really nice semi-auto Winchester 12 ga. for Christmas and he hadn't had the chance to shoot it yet. I was definatly rusty when it came to clay pigeons. I remember back in the day when I was going to the Provo gun club to shoot Skeet and Trap, I could usually get through a round missing only a few. I missed the better part of half this time. Maybe Jerry and I can make it up the Skeet range a little more often and get back to not missing many
This morning we decided to take the dogs and Rae for a walk down by the Jordan River trail. It was overcast, but not too cold. Skull has a lot of fun when we take him down there and let him off the leash. He gets to run through the fields and swim in the dirty water. Lucee seems to enjoy her little walks, but Broose is a whole other story. We actaully got worried that he wasn't going to make it back. Anistyn wanted to walk, rather than ride in the stroller, so we let Broose have a break and take a ride. He was so proud that he got to be pushed along while everyone else was walking. Hopefully, as the weather gets warmer, we can get out on more walks, and help the poor guy lose some weight.
