City Life and a Completed Dissertation

Hey everybody, the Food Guy and I had a pretty good weekend hanging out in the ATL. Every once in a while, we like to do the city thing, and this was a good weekend for it because the weather outside was kinda rainy. We loaded up in the mobile doghouse and headed for the ATL friday afternoon. After a short stroll around Mid-town, I took a nap while the Food Guy and his girlfriend went to see "Hot Tub Time Machine." Yup, that's right, "Hot Tub Time Machine." How did the Food Guy get his girlfriend to go see that movie you ask? Well, it's 'cause she's the coolest girl around. It was actually her idea. Can't beat that can you? She not only keeps a good supply of dog bones, chicken snacks, and toys around the house for me, she also likes to go see hilarious movies. Saturday was a pretty mellow day by our standards. We went for a nice long walk through Piedmont park while the sun was shining. There are a lot of doggies running around that park, but I feel sorry for most of them because they don't look like they get out as much as I do. On saturday night, Food Guy went up to Marietta to hang out with Reeve, Rin, and the Food Guy's new little niece. Food Guy and Reeve watched Repo Man (a terrible 80's movie) while I hung out with Java and Bella. Then, those two fools went to the Battle n Brew to play some Madden 10 football on XBox 360. Man, that place sounds weird from hearing Food Guy and Reeve talk about it. The people there know more about video games than you can imagine. But, I guess it takes all kinds...

Sunday was another mellow day. I hung out at Lisa's while she and the Food Guy went to the climbing gym. It was a rainy day, so it was a good day to take a long nap on the bed. Then, we loaded back up in the mobile dog house to come back to Athens. The Food Guy had to submit a proposal for a conference in Greece in September and then get back to work on his dissertation. He finished editing that thing this morning while I slept under the desk. He just emailed it to his committee, so now we are about to have a whole lot of free time. He has a couple of articles to work on this week, then we are heading up to the Cohuttas to go backpacking next week. I can't wait.

As for our housing situation in Boone, the deal on the house went south. So, we are back to the drawing board. Food Guy has a lead on a house to rent up there that is dog friendly, so hopefully that'll work out. Well, Food Guy and I are gonna go for a walk before he goes to his afternoon meeting, so I gotta go. But, stay tuned for our next adventure.

A new Doghouse

What's up, y'all? The Food Guy and I just rolled back into Athens from a fun-filled weekend. I spent a lot of time chillin' in the back of my mobile dog house this weekend. First, we cruised out of Athens Thursday night to head up to Boone so the Food Guy could look for a new dog house for me. This was our third trip up there since he got his new job, and finally we found a place. Check it out:

It's a pretty sweet place close to town. The Blue Ridge Parkway is just down the street, and I heard there are some good trails to run not too far away. When we went to look at this place, I noticed that almost every house in the hood had a dog. They all seemed pretty chill and one big ol' golden came over to say hi to me while I was walking around sniffin' the yard. The yard is pretty sweet by the way. There's even a little pond:

We looked at lots of places over the last month or so, and this place is the best by far.

It has lots of room in the yard for me to run around, and lots of room inside for me to play with my toys inside too. There's a pretty sweet deck outside the kitchen for me to chill on while the Food Guy is at the University making my dog food money. He made the deal on the house official today, so now he just has to get the bank to approve the house and the loan. He also has to get it inspected, and the VA has to give the approval on the house too. So, there's still a lot of hurdles to jump before this place is ours, but hopefully everything will work out. There's lots of room for our friends to come stay with us when they come up to run, ride bikes, climb, paddle, and ski. All the floors are tile and hardwood, so the Food Guy won't have to worry about me coming in and getting carpets dirty if my paws are muddy. Keep your paws crossed for us that everything works out for us.

We stayed with our friends Gregg and Karen out in Vilas and I got to play with their dogs on Friday and Saturday. They have a sweet place out by the Watuaga river, and their dogs are fun to run around with, which is good 'cause the Food Guy will be heading out there to paddle the Watauga a bunch once we move up there.

We left Boone, saturday morning and drove over to Bryson City, so Food Guy could go for a run in the Smokies. Those stupid park rangers won't let dogs on the trails in the park. I had to stay in the truck while the Food Guy ran with Reeve and Preston at Nolan Creek. They looked pretty tired when they got back to the truck, so I didn't really mind missing that run. Sometimes, it's better to sleep than to run 11 or 12 miles. Food Guy let me play by the river at NOC when they finished running, so I still got to have some fun.

Today, I slept in the truck some more while the Food Guy paddled the river before we drove back to Athens. It was a pretty good weekend. I'm pretty tired from all the traveling and the Food Guy needs to do a little work now. He is meeting Bob tomorrow to get his feedback on his dissertation. It goes to the full committee at the end of the week. He's almost done with that thing. I can't wait! This is gonna be a good spring!

Relaxing while the Food Guy Finishes Some Editing

Hey, y'all. It's been a pretty quiet week around here. The Food Guy is just about finished with his dissertation. He finished putting all the chapters together in one document the other day, and he does seem pretty happy with himself for getting this thing written. You should have seen the smile on his face when he printed the full draft of that thing out. I'm pretty happy too. Now that he's done we can spend more time outside. He's been sitting at this desk pretty much non-stop for a while. Well, I say non-stop, but we've been getting up early and running every morning and he still takes me for 3 or 4 walks during the day. But, we haven't had any real adventures to speak of this week. Mostly I've just been laying around watching him work and playing with my toys.

We have some good adventures coming up though. The Food Guy has to send the full draft of his dissertation to Bob at the end of the week, and then he will have a whole week before he gets it back from him. Since we don't have anything we have to do here in Athens, we are going back up to Boone to look at some more houses. We found a really sweet looking place about 30 minutes from campus that has four acres right near the Watauga River. It looks pretty good on-line. Hopefully it'll look good when we go check it out. I'd love to have some real woods right outside. I'm pretty tired of having to walk around all the cars and trifling city dogs here in Athens. I'll let y'all know if it looks like a good place for a dog to live. As long as it has room for my bed and a comfy couch, you know I'm going to like it. I'm pretty easy to please. Well, y'all have a good rest of the week. I'm gonna get back to napping. I'm a little tired from my run this morning, and I gotta rest up for tomorrow.

A hike in the snow

Hey everybody. I've got an epic weekend to tell y'all about. The Food Guy and I had enough of working this week, so we loaded up the mobile dog house and headed to NC for the Food Guy's annual winter hike (sufferfest) with Nate and Brian. This year the Food Guy talked his buddy Steven into coming along. It was an epic trip for sure. We rolled up to The Ridge (Aubin's Taj ma Garage) late Friday night, packed our backpacks-yes I have one too see:

and we stepped out onto the trail Saturday Morning. We started walking through some snow heading South on the AT. It was pretty cold out, but that's what you have to expect in february. Food Guy packed some extra food for me, and I needed every bite to keep warm. It was sunny for a couple of hours, but then the snow started back up. I didn't mind because I like snow. My feet were a little cold. I hate to say it, but the Food Guy better buy me some boots before our next backpacking trip in the snow. Check this trail out:

We walked along the amazingly pretty trail in the snow for most of the day. The ridgeline provided some great views:

After we'd walked all we wanted to, we set up camp at a pretty sweet spot. Once we made camp-- Ok, I ate while FG made camp-- the boys built a giant fire to warm up while they cooked their dinner and had a few cocktails.

It was a cold, cold night. I slept in the bag with Food Guy and we even had to put his down coat over us. We still shivered most of the night. That's what you have to expect at 5100 feet in February, though. Check out the little tent where we slept:

The snow was so deep that Food Guy couldn't use stakes to anchor the tent. He had to put sticks in the loops of the tie downs and bury them in the snow. It took him an hour to dig them out in the morning. He was FREEZING by the time he got done. I was chillin out, running around, and playing while he did all the work. It's good to be a dog! Then, we shouldered our packs and started walking back to the truck. There were a couple of cars at the trailhead where people were out for a day hike. They don't know what they were missing. They should have spent the night out on the trail. I can't wait till next year.