I don't know what's wrong with this thingy!

I have no idea what's wrong with the format of this blog... I changed the template so maybe that'll do the trick. I tried to make the last one all colorful, but apparently that screwed it up. Try posting comments now and see if it works.

What's happened lately..... Last weekend I went boating on Saturday with a women who asked me to help her get started in kayaking. The woman who does my hair also does her and mentioned I was a kayaker, so we exchanged phone numbers via our hairdresser. She was nice enough and I took her to boat Deckers which is a classic beginner run. She had only been in a boat once before which I mis understood her I guess when she was originally telling me what's she's done as far as learning. But she was very stable in her boat and wasn't scared at all. We came up to the Chutes which is the only significant part of the run and normally portaged by beginners. She said she wanted to do it and seemed very stable in her boat so I agreed. We made it through the zig zaggy part which a lot of people have a hard time with and she managed to get pushed into an eddy at the top just before the entrance to the chutes. That was a bit stressful as she got a little stuck and didn't know how to get herself out. I was ahead of her because she was following my line so I had to catch an eddy in the middle of the meat and try to ferry upstream to help her out. We got her out of her boat and into a safer position. I asked again if she was ok (if she wasn't it was going to get interesting) and she seemed fine. She said she was good and she trusted me, so we started off towards the entrance to the chutes. I went down first, got to the bottom and waited. She took a couple strokes then flipped over by the lateral wave at the top and swam the rest of the rapid. I made sure she was ok, then got her boat to shore, chased her paddle and attempted the rescue of her lost shoe. I had to walk through some brush on the side of the river to go make sure she could get in her boat. She was fine and we were off to finish the run which went seamlessly. She had a blast and the rental boat she had for the day she ended up buying when she went to return it. She's hooked!! SUCKER!! I love it when people get hooked it's so much fun to watch when someone gets that rush and can't stop smiling about it! Once I got home my legs started to itch...to the point I thought I was going to loose the first layer of flesh. I started to get tiny little blisters from my knees down and quickly realized the brush I walked through was POISON IVY! SUPER! Oh well, it's all part of it, it'll heal!

Tuesday night I met my girlfriend Patty for a hike just outside of Boulder with the doggies. It was great, we walked next to a little stream that my dogs were in and out of the entire time! I love watching them play. At the trail head we saw a little family with small children. My dogs will not hurt a fly and have had kids pull on them, love on them and everything else...and they LOVE IT! Obviously strangers don't know that, so the three little kids (all 5 or 6 and maybe a 3 year old) just stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the dogs coming. Olive was taller then almost all of them so it was probably pretty intimidating for the little kiddos. My dogs stopped in front of them and Desil immediately sits down in front of this little girl....waiting for her to pet him. She looks at me and I said 'I think he likes you, do you want to pet him?'. She nods with a big grin and gives him a bear hug! It was so cute. Desil sat quietly until she was done then gave her a huge slobbery kiss and bolted down to the water! Baxter the elderly beagle (Patty's dog) came with as they're all inseparable. This pic is when I was dog sitting Baxter......... hyper and then the rare 3 secs when they weren't moving...............................
On Wednesday I had an excellent conversation with and old friend who I've learned might be visiting family out here. I think it's been at least 5 years...maybe closer to 6 since I've seen this friend and I really hope it works out where we can at least squeeze in a dinner during that visit! Hopefully we'll have a little more time but I'll take what I can get!

Tonight I just got back from another hike with the dogs and Patty. She mentioned today that she used to be on the cross country team when she was in HS! PERFECT!! So, next week we're going to jog instead of walk the trail. I'm stoked...I FOUND A RUNNING BUDDY!

I will have some time this weekend to get that Mom and Dad trip posted I hope...I can't wait to share it, it was such a good time!

till next time.....