Bolts new friends

Our neighbor, Ann, is the best!  She always took Toules to his grooming appointments.  And she is willing to take the tiny tower of terror, Bolts too!  His appointment is coming up, so she wanted to introduce her Afghan hounds to him.  He would be going to the grooming appointments with them.

Aren't they beautiful.  A handful though.  Zoe & Melody

 Bolts was horrified at first.  "what are those things - they are so big!!"  "they sure don't look like the Bean"...

 But soon they were sniffing & making friends.  Whew, good thing, since they will be spending a lot of time together.

1st official race of 2013!

On a cold wet rainy day, we did our 1st official race of 2013:  Hyannis Half Marathon.

The race was almost cancelled b/c the weather was expected to be atrocious (high winds, snow, sleet).  But fortunately or unfortunately, the weather was better than expected, so the race went on as scheduled.  It was still a soppy wet day, but we got it done!  And the pace seemed like something I could manage all day  - and it was still under 2 hours.

 Still time for breakfast after - yes!

 Yum!  Great way to end the cold wet day - good coffee :)

Redo Roadster

 Chris was never satisfied with the roadster top.  He thought the window opening was too big & square.  Fortunately, we don't have the top up much.  But he decided to get it redone.   Here are 2 pictures of the old top

And the new top!

Chris is much happier!  We might be driving with the top up a little more...

Spending time with Bolts

Lots of posts on Bolts, I know.  But they are only puppies for such a short time & I want to get lots of pictures :)  I only have a couple pictures of Toules when he was a puppy.

We've taken him on walks.  He's ok on a leash.  We need to practice though.  He loves to be near us though, so that makes is easier for sure.

 Our park had lots of trees down from Nemo.  Ugly!  Clean up is going to take a long time.

 Off leash - his reward for doing so well on the leash.

 One happy dude!  He's growing up so fast!  His little face will soon be all brown, like his legs.

 We've started him in his training classes.  He's awful.  Way too many things to distract him.  He will easily sit, stay, come, etc for us at home.  But during class - he doesn't even know we exist.

 He still loves Bean.  Will follow her anywhere!  The Siamese, Twix, has put him in his place, so he keeps his distance from her.    This is a picture of Bean & Bolts under a tiny antique ice chest.

 Poor Bean can't get away.  He loves to sit on her.  It's the strangest thing!  Although Bean was a tyrant as a kitten, so I guess pay back is a bi#$%!

 Bolts has finally learned to go down the stairs.  Whew!  He managed to get up the stairs after 2 days.  But he was very scared to go down.  It took him 3 weeks to get down.

 Cuties!

 Here's the enormous Bean finally getting some alone time!  (she is on diet food, but she still seems to gain weight every day.  She must be cooking tuna steaks while we are at work!)

Race car - our turn!

Chris shares a Bonneville Race Car with some friends from Reno, NV.  It was his turn to turn a few wrenches on it & get it ready for Bonneville (which is in August)

 Chris is going to have some fun working on this project!!

Nemo!

Blizzard Nemo started with a light snow shower

 Then it started to build

 and build (about 9 pm on Friday night)  Chris had shoveled our walkway a couple times by now

 Waiting it out.  Bolts likes to chew his bones like a cigar :)

 Next morning we woke up to 20 inches.  Oh my!  And no electricity.  The winds howled all night.  I barely slept.

 Bolts had to do his business on the porch :)

 He loved the snow though.  Couldn't get enough of it!

 our street, which is a fairly main street - barely plowed at 7 am on Saturday morning.  Later we found out, it was because of all the trees down.

 Chris getting the truck dug out.  We were supposed to be spending the weekend in Saratoga Springs, NY for the weekend.  Rolling Bones Garage Night!!  But we decided to stay home & make sure Nemo didn't do too much damage.    We hated to miss the event, but we made the right decision in staying home.

 Winter wonderland

 Our porch even had quite a few inches on it.

 We went for a walk and saw a lot of trees down.  Not looking good for getting our electricity back :(

 a lot of wires down too

 We still had to get our 4 hour bike done.  We keep our trainers in our room above the garage.  We keep the heat turned low, since we really only use the room in winter for our trainer rides.  Soo, the room was only 43.  brrr - bring on the coats & hats!

 We got it done though!  And raised the room temperature 4 degrees!  It was 47 when we were done :)

 Later - I'm curled up under the blankets with Bolts on my lap to keep me warm :)  We borrowed Chris' brother's generator, since he never lost power.  So on Sunday, we stayed nice & toasty.  We also had our neighbors plug into our generator.  Didn't want anyone to get frozen pipes!

We got our power back on Monday afternoon.  Yeah!!

What are we training for this year?

Our triathlon season is starting early this year, so we are well into the swing of things.

 Our weeks look a lot like this:
Mondays = easy day, light swim & strength
Tuesdays = 2 hour bike & masters swim class at night
Wednesdays = 1 hour run & strength (and the horse barn for Steph)
Thursdays = 2 hour bike & masters swim class, plus an easy recovery 20 minute run
Fridays = 1 hour run & strength
Saturdays = 4 hour bike & 30 minute transition run
Sundays = 2 hour bike & 10 mile run
We are staying busy, that's for sure.   I really want to add some Cross Fit classes into the schedule, but with a new puppy & horse riding, it's not possible right now.

 It's nice to actually be in shape for the month of January, rather than just starting to get into shape.

 We are headed to Texas in April & again in May.  May 18 is Ironman Texas.  It's gonna be tough, since it will probably be hot.  It's definitely hard to train for 'hot' in New England in winter.  But we're giving it our best shot!

Thinking about doing another Ironman in late October.  We'll see if our bodies hold up :)  And if I can continue training for that long!

Bolts update!

He is wild & crazy

But he is learning to play outside

 and go up stairs

 and be nuts

 and go for rides in the car

 and meet his uncle

 and scare the cats

 and still be nuts

 and sometimes sleeps (but not very often or for very long...)