Doggy!

It's official (having been unofficial since July 3rd). We paid the lady, got the papers, need to take care of a few bits of paperwork with the city and the microchip people, but to all intents and purposes we are the legal owners of a (mostly) Dachshund, goes by the name of Boudin. A note on the name: he was apparently named after a brand of French sausage, being one of a litter of sausage dogs, but we knew nothing of his pedigree or of French cuisine when we first stumbled across his profile on petfinder. So from the start we pronounced it 'BOW-din', and, well, as a bona fide American these days I see it as a right, if not a duty to mispronounce words of foreign origin.
Having a dog is awesome. I took a lot of convincing to take the plunge, but when we met Boudin for the first time it was clear he was a smart guy who would fit in well in our household of genius animals. For me one of the best things is being on an upwards learning curve. Sure, he's chewed a few things but nothing we will miss terribly. Haven't felt this fit in a year or two. Early to bed, earlier to rise! Hell, I'm even drinking Michelob Ultra these days!
Woof.

Crab Pickin'!

Hard to find a better way to dispel the Monday blues that pickin' some crabs for dinner. We tried the seafood joint in the Kroger parking lot in Carytown, but they were sold out. So we risked this slightly dodgy looking place on Broad across from the DMV. Coincidentally it's very close to my old digs on Monument and Strawberry. Used to be an ice-cream parlor, and is now a seafood shack called Cameron's. You gotta check this place out. Nothing fancy, but great prices, and they steamed their crabs just right (according to my resident expert!). It's only my second or third time tearing apart crustaceans. I'm just about over the slight sadness I feel in destroying with my bare hands a creature so cleverly designed. But hey, the poor bastard has already been steamed, so I can't feel too bad about making the best of the situation. De-licious.

Back behind bars

The whole point of moving house was, in my opinion, to be closer to the James River Park System and it's variety of trails. Something about getting in the truck and driving to a trailhead never sat quite right with me. I once tried to ride the northbank trail starting from our Westend rental, but the last two miles home were absolute agony. I was chugging Gatorade and Redbull and the only thing stopping me from passing out was the pain in my legs. That was fun and all, but I much prefer being on dirt about five minutes after shutting the garden gate.
It's taken me a little while to really take full advantage of my new location. On Saturday the dog (more on which later) woke me up at about 6.30am. After wearing him out with a game of catch, it suddenly occurred to me that it was 70F and I had the whole morning to do whatever I wanted. The day before I had walked Boudin along some new trails in Forest Hill Park and wanted to try them out on two wheels. In the end the route was Buttermilk from 22nd street lot to Reedy Creek. The gravel road from Reedy Creek to Boulevard. Forest Hill Ave via the Suntrust ATM (hey, I can still run errands!) to Forest Hill Park. Rode most of the trails I know of in the park, then back along the gravel road from Reedy Creek to Belle Isle, off the back of Brown's Island to the pipeline (note: the railed section is not wide enough to ride - the un-railed section is just flippin' scary!), over Mayo's Bridge to the East section of the floodwall walk, checked out the Manchester Slave Trail (a bit depressing, but I was rather impressed that the information board alluded to the protection Sickle Cell anemia affords against Malaria), hung out at Ancarrow's landing (never been down here before, just wanted to see what the sitch was -- watched a couple guys launch a boat out the bed of a pickup!), took the other half of the floodwall walk back behind the Suntrust buildings and back along Riverside to the Homestead! Phew! Loved every second of it.

A lot to catch up on

Where we're going we don't need roads...