What Would You Do?

So Jeff and I don't know our next door neighbors, we've said hi going to our separate cars, but that's about it. They have an adorable golden retriever, she looks about 2 or 3 years old. She is constantly jumping her fence and when she does, she just sits in her driveway, waiting for her owners to come home.

The neighbors have been gone since at least Sunday. She jumped the fence and sat in her driveway barking all night, we barely got any sleep at all. We got home Monday night and saw she was still sitting in the driveway, the neighbors were obviously still gone, so we decided to put her back in her yard. She was super sweet and obviously loved the attention from us. She looks really well groomed, she has long golden retriever hair. She has a dog house in her yard and the owners left lots of food and water for her, so we didn't feel bad putting her back in her yard.

She stayed in her yard all day yesterday, but when we came home last night at about 1am she was in her driveway. As soon as we got out of the truck she came running over and was super excited to see us. I thought maybe she just wanted a little attention so I hung out and petted her and talked to her for a minute. Then she tried to come in the house with me, and instead of sleeping in her driveway she slept on my front porch. We were too tired to put her back in her yard (it's kind of an ordeal). I put her back in her yard this morning, we'll see what happens.

What would you do? Leave me a comment and let me know. Obviously I'll have to talk with the neighbors when they come home. Jeff says call the pound, but I hate to do that, I'd have to tell the neighbors I did it and I'm afraid she'd end up on doggie death row (although she probably wouldn't, she's beautiful and super sweet). So in our situation, what would you do?

Christmas Lights

I know it's a little late for Christmas lights, but on David's recommendation, Jeff and I went to see the lights at Guadalupe and 37th Street, they did not disappoint. Very weird Austin, funky and fun.these lights were strung across the street

This praying mantis was HUGE!

There was a sign and story in front of this house telling that this was the "spaghetti monster" or something.

A representation of the Austin skyline
With the Pennybacker bridge and a trash bag Colorado River

Christmas scene inside an old stove

the Peace Angel

I loved this cool dragonfly

One of my favorite displays was an economic scene

there were parachutes with lights naming CEOs of companies in trouble this one says "Rick Wagoner, Chief Beggar"

Obama pulling up the stock market line

this truck had a reindeer driver and a penguin passenger

milk jug lights
"Bevo's Whiskey River" was another really fun display

Those are all whiskey bottles hanging from the lights

Trail of Lights

Trail of Lights with the Austin skyline in the background (thanks Coach Tracy!)

The city of Austin puts on the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park (Barton Springs) every year. You get to walk through the park covered in tons of Christmas lights and scenes.the entrance

Lights swagged around one of the big trees near the entrance. Many businesses in Austin did displays.

The Austin Fire Department wrapped a tree in red and orange lights so it looked like it was on fire, my picture really doesn't do it justice. They also had Santa's fire sleigh.

Austin Water had a display with clouds and lightening, then a rainbow, then clouds with the sun coming up behind them. A river of lights ran around the entire display.

We liked this tree covered in blue lights

I liked the dancing cupcakes

and "dilloville" with armadillos and cacti

The BIG tree of lights is really cool, you can see it from miles away. It looks even cooler when you go directly underneath it. But the camera battery died before we could get a picture underneath the tree. Update: Coach Tracy sent me these pictures of the big tree of lights. Thanks! and Great Job!

This is what it looks like under the tree, then you spin around and it looks like the picture below. Everyone was spinning, adults, kids, everyone. Of course it made me dizzy really fast.

Geocaching at St. Edward's Park

Saturday was beautiful in Austin. We decided to take a picnic lunch to St. Edward's Park and do some geocaching there. We got sandwiches from the Grapevine Market and ate them at one of my favorite spots in the park.
This is a small stone dam across Bull Creek. I think it's one of the prettiest places in the park.
After lunch we quickly found our first geocache off the trail, behind a tree, near the creek.
Jeff recording information about the cache.

Then we hiked up to the cliffs above the creek. The views are beautiful from the cliffs.

Here is the stone dam where we ate lunch. At this point, we were about 100 feet above the dam on the cliffs.

We hiked back down this area. Almost looks like stairs, but it's all natural rock.

Snot and Tears- Nic's bike race

Nic ,the head mechanic at Performance, organized an alleycat bike race and called it "Snot and Tears" because he assumed on Dec. 13 it would be cold enough to bring snot to the nose and tears to the eyes. Turned out to be around 70 degrees for the race, fine by me! Alleycat races are usually in town with checkpoints around town. Nic had 7 checkpoints, at each checkpoint, the racers found out where to go for the next checkpoint. The race started and finished at the Drungo Ice House, it's a new sports bar near campus that has a fun laid back atmosphere and great food. They also have a big patio, which was perfect since the weather was so nice.

Shawn, Jeff, Nic, Vince, Brandon, Dave, Mark, and Josh all volunteered at the race.

The blow up doll was taped to the bike used for the bike toss
Mellow Johnnies donated these wheels as prize. They match my bike. My wheels are better, but still...

There were a lot of interesting bikes that people had built up themselves, some really nice, some not so much.

Mark was the "floating checkpoint" if/when someone found him riding around town, they had to pull the sheep off his bike and bring it back to the finish and they won $50!Jeff and I were at the Home Slice Pizza checkpoint. I thought we would be there at least an hour and have time for some pizza (I ran 18.6 miles that day, I could have eaten a lot of pizza) but we ended up only being there about 30 minutes.

This beautiful tree is across the street from Home Slice

Jeff and I handed out the papers with the next checkpoint on them. I couldn't believe how fast people got to Home Slice and how bunched up some of the riders were. After half an hour all the riders had come through our checkpoint so we went back to Drungo's.

Mike, the owner of Drungo's, made some great chicken wings and vegetarian quesadillas- YUM!

The top 3 finishers. The 2 on the left (2nd and 3rd place) own a pedicab company

Nic also had some crazy games with prizes, first was the bike toss. Who ever throws the junk bike with the blow up doll the furthest wins. It was fun but a little scary when a couple of drunk guys threw the bike! The entire crowd backed up about 5 feet.

Next was the track stand competition, balance on your pedals, then with no hands, clapping, etc. Last one standing wins.

Last was bike in a circle tighter and tighter, again last one riding wins. People got a little crazy with this one, pushing riders out of the circle and trying to rub tires. It was fun to watch but I'm glad I wasn't trying to ride in the circle!

Nic's first bike race was a big success, everyone had a great time! We're hoping he'll do another one soon.