Jane and I spent the last week on a vacation of sorts with Norman. He house sits for a couple in Madrona once in awhile when they are on [a real] vacation and he asked us if we wanted to stay with him for a while. They have a much larger house than we do, with a nice and cool basement. With record temperatures hitting Seattle and the need for a little time away from South Park, we took him up on the offer pretty quickly.

We spent the week gorging on food, drink, and cable television. We had plans to get back on track with our work out regimine, but we were just too lazy, hot, and tired to even think about it.

Still, not all was lost on my fitness front, I brought my Indy Fab bike with me so I could try out a new route in to work. I rode in a few days despite (and maybe even because) of the heat. There is nothing quite like climbing up hill all the way home on a large fixed gear in 103 degree weather. I felt like I had just gotten out of a pool by the time I got home each day. I meant to take pictures of the commute, but I had a hard time finding a good spot to put my camera phone that was still accessible. You’ll just have to imagine it for me.

At the house, I splurged on the Food Network and Top Chef on Bravo. Norman and I had a good time pointing out all of the little quirks each chef has. It is amazing how many people on TV cross contaminate foods after touching raw meat. Ick. The Barefoot Contessa is a main offender. We got in to a habit of recording the show just so we could go back and laugh. I’ve got issues, I know.

Jane made it a point to keep pushing us all to go down to the lake and take Chibi on her first swim. We finally got that opportunity to do it on Friday after I got off of work. It was still very warm out, but had noticeably cooled down from the previous days. Some friends went down with us and we blatantly ignored the ridiculous “no dogs allowed” signs.

We laid out some towels away from the lifeguards and the designated swimming area. Jane and I took Chibi down to a boat launch and introduced her to the water. The wake from all of the motor boats getting ready for SeaFair was pretty intense and Chibi looked pretty scared of the water at first. She is incredibly brave though. After some nervous circles, she ran down and jumped in from the top steps. She swam around Jane at least ten times to show us she could do it. I snapped a couple of pictures. She looked pretty excited to cool off and practice a new talent. Chibi is turning out to be a pretty amazing puppy.

My dad is in town from San Diego doing odd jobs in Renton for some old friends that he grew up with. They are a nice couple that came to our wedding and offered to buy us dinner for our upcoming anniversary.

It has been a while since I’ve seen my dad in person so it was nice to catch up with him. We all went to a steakhouse in downtown Renton. They had a special with Ostrich medallions and I gave them a try. The owner (I assumed) eventually came out and asked how things were. I guess I was the first to ever order them. Sometimes being a guinea pig has it’s advantages. They turned out wonderful. It was a lot like a cut of steak,  with a subtle peppery taste. I would honestly order it again given the opportunity.

Overall it was a very pleasant evening and I was fat and happy after wards. I’m planning to make my dad a dinner tonight so we can catch up a little more before he goes back to San Diego.