Baxter’s Brush with Death, Busy at Work, Pete in Town

Busy at Work
Hi everyone! It’s been a wild week here. How wild? Well, I stayed at work past 5:00 on both Wednesday and Thursday! That’s how busy it was at the office as I attempted, and eventually succeeded, to get a very complicated $100 instant rebate working on the website, as well as beginning the process of adding 95 new apparel items. We said goodbye to one of the members of our team as Patrick left for a new job. He is the first from the team to leave since I started.

I realized last week that it had been a full year since I responded to the Craigslist ad about the Callaway job. It doesn’t seem possible that that was an entire year ago. As soon as the calendar flips to May on Tuesday, I will have lived in Austin during every month of the year after arriving in June last year. Everyone always yaps about how quickly time flies by, but in this case it absolutely has. I never had a school year that whipped by so fast.

How Baxter Learned Easter Candy Isn’t for Dogs, and How We Learned Not to Keep Easter Candy in a Dog’s Reach
On Friday night we had a few friends over, watched some MLB.TV, and tipped back a few drinks. Around midnight, things were quieting down, when our new-to-town friend Ryan suggested he treat us to drinks and apps at the bar down the street. We piled into his car and left Baxter home alone for an hour at most. While we were sitting at the bar, Lauren said to us that she remembered she had left a few Cadbury Eggs sitting down low where Baxter might be able to get them. “Oh posh!” I yelled. “He’ll be fine!”

But he wasn’t. When we got home, the Cadbury Eggs were gone, not a trace of a wrapper in sight, and Baxter was sprinting in circles around the coffee table. And then he would stop and whimper a bit, and then he would be balls-to-the-wall crazy again. Then we noticed the gynormous pile of crap under the TV stand and knew something was awry. It took a bit of research and a big spoonful of salt-water forced down his throat, and even then Baxter’s little tummy was strong and he didn’t spit up a damn thing. Lauren, obviously very concerned, spent the night on the couch coddling him, making sure his lungs were still pumping.  Around 3 Lauren and Baxter came to bed, but around 4 I woke up to my legs being soaked. At first I thought perhaps I had wet the bed, but it soon became apparent that Baxter had climbed into bed and peed on me, soaking the sheets. We got up and threw the bedding in the laundry, I showered, and took him outside to burn off some energy. I never really did get much sleep that night. In the morning, I took Baxter for a 3.94 mile run and managed to tire him out.  He was perfectly fine from then on.

Pete Visits Austin
Next on our list of visitors to town was Lauren’s step-brother Pete Anderson, who came to town for a conference and flew in a day early to hang out with us. The highlight of his trip, as is everyone’s, was probably the food and drink. We had lunch at Rudy’s BBQ, dinner at Santa Rita Tex-Mex, then went out to The Elephant Room, a jazz club downtown. Sunday we had brunch at Snack Bar on South Congress and then grilled out at the pool for dinner. Pete entertained us all weekend with his endless stories.

Etc.
So, our weekend was go-go-go and we never really had much of a chance to sit around for long. I think our calendar for the week is all clear and we are going to take it easy for a bit.

The Twins have been angersome to watch, but, as I rediscover every year, the very next day is a new day and I’m once again excited to tune in, no matter how bad they’re playing. I have always maintained that I am a fan of high-scoring games, and even if the Twins are losing, I’ll be happy as long as they’re scoring some runs. They aren’t scoring a lot of runs, but they are sixth in the majors with a team average of .266, so they are giving themselves plenty of chances. I am now one of 200 people participating in the TwinsDaily.com project of “adopt-a-prospect” where all the forum members are writing weekly reports on a particular minor league prospect. I selected a AA relief pitcher, Daniel Turpen, and will be following his day-to-day progress for this site. Eh, kinda interesting, I don’t know.

In weather news, it seems we are headed right back to where we were last summer here in Texas. It’s already been weeks since it last rained, and there is no rain in the ten-day forecast either. The grass is slowly starting to turn brown in some spots. Temps have been in the high 80s for a week now, with hotter temps coming up. Once again, a quick look back a year ago today had me praying the MSP International Airport runway would be clear of snow for our upcoming trip to NY/Boston. What a different place this is, indeed!