Posted on August 23, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

In which the dog park turns into epic fail

Late on Friday night I got hungry again and ate the other half of my banana, which had been chilling in the fridge. You know how bananas start getting that slimy goo on them after you cut them and put them in the fridge? Mine started doing that, but I ate that part anyway, and in doing so have convinced myself that it’s fine to eat.

My digital camera, on the other hand, is not fine for taking close-up pictures.

For breakfast on Saturday I decided to eat two of my homemade muffins. I have a whole stash of these in the freezer–cherry, peach, cranberry-orange, and chocolate chip pumpkin. I pulled out a peach and a cranberry-orange and stuck them in the microwave for a minute.

Mmm. After which I decided to watch The Prestige while I cleaned up some. About 2PM I got hungry for lunch and made this:

I grilled a piece of ciabatta with some olive oil, heated up some leftover brown rice and added Penzey’s Garden Salad seasoning to it, and cooked some chuck roast with honey BBQ sauce. I found the BBQ sauce in my cabinet and have been trying to get rid of it in this fashion. It’s working, albiet slowly, and it’s kind of tasty, too. I didn’t eat all of that meat–a lot of it was fat, which I cut off, even though that’s what makes chuck roast so tasty.

Outside it rained and rained, and then it stopped. I peeked at the doppler and it didn’t look like anything else was headed our way, so I threw on some going-outside clothes, grabbed the dog, and headed for the dog park.

Naturally, as soon as we hit the main road it started sprinkling. “Eh, it’ll stop in a few minutes,” I said to myself. No, it did not. It just got worse. We got to the dog park and five minutes later the only other person who was there, ensconced in a poncho and fearlessly chatting on her cell phone in the rain, grabbed her two dogs and left.

I’d grabbed my umbrella out of the car on the way to the park, and so was content to let Heath wander around in the rain as long as he wanted to.

Yes, I had my cell phone out, too, but mine was under my umbrella.

After about 20 minutes, Heath decided he’d had enough and planted himself in a puddle next to the double-entry gate and waited for me to whisk him away. And I did, having the foresight to bring a towel for him to sit on during the ride home.

Naturally, as soon as we got home, it stopped raining.

For dinner, I threw an (unwrapped) baked potato in the oven on 450 degrees for 45 minutes, then pulled it out, popped it open, and topped it with grilled chicken, Greek yogurt, kosher salt, and some bacon bits I’m trying to use up. This was my second time making this meal and it was just as good as the first. I think baked potato night will be entering my meal plan soon, particularly now that I’ve realized how quick it is to bake potatoes.

About an hour and a half after dinner, I hit pause on The Dark Knight, got into my running clothes, and headed to the fitness center for my Couch to 5K jog. This is the second or third time I’ve started the Couch to 5K, and I’m determined to finish it this time, no matter how long it takes me. When I restarted a couple of weeks ago I decided to drop back to Week 2 and I did it three times that week and once this past Monday. Then I woke up Tuesday and discovered that while I could put weight on my ankle, it did not feel good at all, and so I spent two days limping around. And then waited another two days “just in case.” I still did my walks, though, as you can tell from the 5-miler I did on Friday, and by Saturday I was confident I could go jogging again. And so I did. And during the first jog, at 5.5 MPH, I accidentally hit the emergency stop and nearly flew off the treadmill. But I hit the QuickStart button and bumped the speed back up and kept going, relieved no one else was in the fitness center with me…