Day 100: Tequila Shots!

Today is a landmark day for more than one reason. First and foremost today marks my 100th picture! I wanted to do something special, but in normal Turtle A Day fashion I was lazy and didn't.

This morning was special because my wife ran the Livestrong 5k in downtown Austin. She ran it in memory of all the friends and family she's lost to cancer and in honor of all the friends and family still battling. She made a shirt with a picture of her Uncle Mike, who she lost to Leukemia a few years ago, on the front and the names of other victims and survivors she collected from friends and family on the back. It was a little scary to see the shirt and realize how many people cancer has affected just in our lives.

She finished the 5k with an unofficial time of around 35 minutes and she even did it while carrying the Build-A-Bear we made for her uncle when he was in the hospital. In addition to running the race she also raised over $500 for the foundation in about a week. She did an excellent job and I'm very proud of her.

The last big news of today is that it's also our friend Shaun's birthday! They have a show tonight (Night of the Living Dead in which Shaun plays a zombie and my wife plays Judy) but afterward we're going out for a few drinks.

Shaun and my wife have a tradition of doing tequila shots together. I almost always assume the role of photographer since I'm allergic to alcohol. This tradition started about five and a half years ago at Casa Rio on the River Walk in San Antonio. They used to do a shot whenever they were in the same state together, but now that Shaun lives here it's mostly for special occasions. On our road trip to Florida a few months ago we stopped and they did shots under the Welcome to Louisiana and Welcome to Mississippi signs (it was too dark going through Alabama and Florida). Tonight we bought him a bottle of somewhat nicer tequila than what they normally drink and I think they're going to do a shot on stage in zombie make-up after the show. I don't drink so I hope he likes the bottle I bought off the recommendation of the guy at the liquor store.

Tomorrow we're getting up bright and early to help some friends move. I'll let you know how their hangovers go during the move.

Day 79: Donatello Walks Master Samwise

My wife ran a 5k this morning for the Williamson County Humane Society. She did it in around 35 minutes which is pretty good, but she's got normal human sized legs, so whatever. The real story here is our dog, Master Samwise the Brave. With his impressive 6 inch stride he walked (and even ran some of) a mile with a billion other dogs.

To be honest this isn't really all that amazing. He's very short, but he likes to go for walks and he's no stranger to walking several miles at a time. He's a herding dog, they're built to work long hours, people just assume he can't go very far because his legs are so short. I was more impressed by how well he behaved around all the other dogs and people. After we adopted him from the Humane Society two years ago we learned that he had some pretty serious fear and fear aggression issues. He was scared of everything and if he feels backed into a corner he'll attack. It's made us pretty nervous dog owners in some situations, but over the last two years he's improved leaps and bounds.

He's normally pretty well behaved for us, but around other dogs he can get really excitable and sometimes around people he doesn't know, especially with children, he becomes scared and anxious. We were a little concerned with how he would deal with all the new people and dogs at the 5k, but it's something he needs to be exposed to to help him get over his fears and I was keeping a close eye on him. Once he moved past his initial excitement and nervousness he did really well. During and after the walk he tended to mostly ignore the other dogs and he enjoyed getting pet by anyone who would offer. He did so well that I gave him one of the medals they were handing out but he didn't really seem to care.