Saturday, January 17, 2009

Out of the Igloo

The temperature here is FINALLY above zero.

I woke up to a balmy 10 degrees. Woo hoo!

After 86 hours below zero -- including two mornings of wake-up air temps of 21 BELOW, ten-ABOVE felt like summmer.

Well, maybe not summer, but certainly much better.

I woke up in time to run with my friends Mary, Marcia, Gary and Sarah. We only ran about 5 miles, but it was really nice to be outside and to breathe some fresh air.

Although I'm not in hard-core training, I did swim twice this week; did an hour of cardio Tuesday and ran today.

I also successfully did not eat candy for three days. Progress, not perfection.

This afternoon, Hubby and I went to see Annie, the golden retriever that made the news last December.

She had been shot twice (by some jerkassholeidiot that has yet to be caught) and was left to die in a freezing snowbank somewhere in rural Minnesota.

A good Samaritan found her and brought her to the Twin Cities where Rescue a Golden of Minnesota (RAGOM)and the University of Minnesota Small Animal Clinic took her under their wings and saved her.

I've been following her story on the RAGOM website. Really a horrible story with a wonderful ending.

Today, RAGOM arranged a "thank you" party for people that have been supporting Annie through contributions or love or interest at a suburban car dealer.

Hubby and I went to say hello and to give her a hug. The place was packed with lots of well-wishers and other RAGOM dogs.

Annie was great. Friendly, cute, warm, oh-so-lovable. Very tolerant of everyone petting her and giving her praise and cookies.

The other dogs were also really sweet, wonderful dogs.

I was so happy that we got to go to say "hello" and to give a little bit of of a contribution to RAGOM.

I took a couple photos using my camera phone and now I have my whole evening ahead of me to figure out how to get them off of my phone and on the here....

5 comments:

IronWaddler said...

Thurs was -17 and Fri was -27 actual. Unreal.

The story about Annie is so touching. How cool that you got to meet her.

Nat said...

Good job on the workouts. I am stiil eating peanut butter and trail mix! Are you still thinking NY Marathon?

Christopher, Amanda, and Babies said...

I was at our Vet yesterday. While there, they had a bunch of the "up for adoption" animals hanging out in the office area.

I could not work in a vet clinic. I would own many many animals!

Pets are cool.

Steve Stenzel said...

I glad to hear Annie's doing better! Pharmie and were out of town recently, so we haven't heard the news on her in a while!

Sunshine said...

You are so brave to run outdoors. I'm waiting for above freezing. I have a long wait, I think.
We ran at Bethel U field house races this morning.