Skipped Weigh-In, Football, Ankles and Dogs...Oh My!

Our neighbor stopped by Friday night and asked if we'd like to use two of their season tickets to go to the Husker football game the following morning and we obviously said yes. It's hard to come by tickets, let alone for face value ($52 each)....and these were in the 2nd row of the end zone! The game started at 11:30 a.m. so we headed downtown to park and tailgate with another set of neighbors around 9:00. Okay, okay...technically I could have weighed in at my normal 8:30 weigh in, but I just didn't really feel like completely back-tracking across town to do so. And besides, I was up about 2 pounds. I'm still in the up-down cycle that I've been in since the beginning of August, plus TOM came to visit on Friday.

I wasn't able to work out all week since my ankle is still swollen and too sore. The first 10 steps or so are really painful in the morning or after sitting for more than 30 minutes. Once I get moving and warmed up, I'm able to walk pretty good. I just have to be careful on slopes, stairs, or turning too quickly. It's gotten progressively uglier with each day. The only good thing that came out of this whole ordeal is that it inspired a name for one of our latest brews... Black & Blue Nut Brown Ale. =) We bottled it the day after I sprained it. Pretty fitting, eh?

Below are pics taken today, 7 days after the injury. This shows how discolored it still is. It's also slightly bruised on the inside of my ankle as well.

I've also attached a picture of my two "honey buns," my husband and our dog, Wrigley. We adopted her a year ago last weekend from the humane society in my hometown. She's a poodle/bichon mix and is now about 2 years old. For the most part she is a really good dog, but she has her moments when we ask her things like "did you eat lead-based paint chips as a puppy?" or "how many times were you dropped as a puppy?" because she really is a bit psycho every now and then! We've taught her lots of tricks...she can shake with both hands, sit up and beg, roll over, and say please. She loves to "read" magazines (aka likes to chew them up when we're not watching...particularly Consumer Reports) and she eats Kleenex out of the bathroom trashcan every morning when I'm in the shower. There's never a dull moment around our house because she is constantly on-the-go. She's provided us hours of laughs (and truth be told, some moments of cussing...) but most of all she has completed our family. Who needs a baby when you have a dog that gets up a couple of times during the night to go potty, wakes up ready to play in morning, is full of kisses, sasses you during the day, complains when it's time to go to bed, and snuggles during the wee hours of the night when she can't sleep?? She's our daughter and we can't imagine life without her. And I wonder sometimes, "what did we do with our time before she came along?"

And one last thing, she takes credit for a lot of the pounds we lost because we take her for a walk nearly every day...even last winter we rarely missed a day. As long as it was over 15 degrees, we went. She loves the snow and would run and jump through the snow drifts like they were the best thing ever. I call her my little polar bear (roar, roar, roar)....and she's the best naughty dog ever. =) Oh, and he's a great husband, too. =)