Anyone looking? I gotta sneak back into my own yard before they notice I’m gone.

We recently fenced in our back yard because Ella’s got legs to stretch. And lots of energy. A fence never seemed terribly necessary with our other dogs.

The black fence is the one we had installed. The silver fence belongs to our neighbors. A few broken strands of wire left a tiny hole in a corner. Rabbits used it to go from yard to yard to escape from my dogs.

Ella found that hole and learned she can (barely) fit through it. She decided to have a play date with April, the yellow lab next door.

We repaired the fence and now Ella can’t escape. She’s not pleased with that development.

All she had to do was ask though. Seriously, if Lassie can clearly explain that Timmy Martin fell down that well then I think Ella could ask, “may I go next door to play with April?”

Today’s bike ride home from work was sponsored by Fahrenheits — 81 one of the little fuckers to be precise. When Mother Earth finally puts enough of the bastards in one place to field a few football teams it makes for a very pleasant day.

A smattering of clouds and a breeze as modest as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s hemline kept the sun from making things hot.

A special shout out to some swimsuit and athletic wear manufacturers. They and their customers worked together to make the beaches along the lake paths especially scenic.

I set a PR (1:02:57) for riding my single speed bike home from work. I chose going for a PR over a second lap around some of the lakes and beaches. Still debating whether I made the right choice.

Happy Fathers Day.

Pictured: Jim, Henry, Bob and Eric.

This picture is from November, 2007. My brother Jim is a big fan of the Green Bay Packers. He goes to a few of their games every year. This particular weekend Jim invited our dad and me and our boyhood neighbor Eric to a Wisconsin Badgers game in Madison followed by a Packers game in Green Bay. Jim, Eric and I all went to the UW for school.

This picture was taken in the Nitty Gritty bar in Madison. The Gritty is two blocks from Sellery Hall which is the dorm where Tridad and I were roommates.

Jim also lived in Sellery Hall four years after I did. Completely by coincidence he lived in the same room Tridad and I had lived in.

This morning I ran on part of the Chippewa River State Trail. I love the old railroad bridges. Sadly I didn’t spot any of Wisconsin’s wild cows along the way.

Jack and I are in Eau Claire, WI for a soccer tournament this weekend. Among the thinks I pack when I stay at a motel are ear plugs and sleeping pills.

If management knew me better they should have told me the inn was full. That’s because every motel I stay at is too loud to get a peaceful sleep.

No, it’s not ME! It’s just my bad hotel luck. Whenever I’m at one there’s usually something like, oh say a teenage soccer team, staying in the rooms around me.

Imagine my surprise seeing a dozen or more special trucks in the motel parking lot. They ain’t ice cream trucks. Nope, those are kennels. As I checked in a huge black lab waited in line next to me.

Thus proving to me that I’ll never get a good night’s sleep in a motel.

At 10:30 PM, with a sleeping pill already consumed, I put in ear plugs, turned up the vent fan to high for white noise and went to bed. I explained to Jack that I wouldn’t be in any shape to hear a fire alarm. If one sounded I’d need him to wake me up.

“What if I forget?” he said with a smirk. I explained then we’d just have to sleep in the same bed so I’d have a better chance of noticing him getting out of bed.

“Ew, Dad! That’s so wrong. I will remember to wake you up in case of fire.” See parents, sometimes it’s just how you get your point across to make kids behave responsibly.

As it turned out I had 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I might have to move here.

Operation “Never See the Morning” is well underway for the last remaining teenager at my house.

Today school has been out for one full week. I think the number of waking hours he’s seen before noon is the same as the number of Justin Bieber songs I can sing from memory.

Each of the last two days I left a list of small jobs I wanted him to do before I got home from work. He completed them all so I won’t complain.

He has something fun planned for today. It starts at 10:30 AM! I hope he set an alarm. Heck, I hope he plugged in his alarm clock and set it to the correct time.

My legal name is Robert. People call me Bob. It never fails to amaze me when someone doesn’t realize that Bob and Robert can be the same person.

I’ve been waiting to receive a package from another employee. It never arrived so I finally contacted the person who should have sent it. She has spoken to me on the phone before and knows I’m male.

She said, “Oh, I couldn’t find your name and address in the company directory. I wasn’t sure I sent it to the right person.” Sheesh, then you shouldn’t have sent it to anyone.

It’s a big company and a lot of people share my last name. This person was looking in the B section under that last name. She found Bobbie Jo and that’s who got the package. Bobbie Jo works only 1100 miles from where I work.

The sender couldn’t make the connection between Bob and Robert but she could to Bobbie Jo.

I wonder if she’s ever sent something to Stephanie instead of Stephen because she couldn’t fine Steve in the directory.

Sheila and Jack ran the Rugged Maniac 5k obstacle race today. For some dumb reason or another I didn’t sign up. After watching how much fun everyone had I really regret not racing.

Those are before and after pictures above. Jack was happier after the race than he was before it. I loved Sheila’s braided pig tails.

I ran tonight. It was my usual lakes route in Minneapolis. In seven miles there were a few sub 8:00 splits. All fueled by aggravation.

Injuries? Upset stomach? Nope. Idiots. Lots and lots of idiots. It’s a slightly different crowd at 7:30 PM versus 7:30 AM.

In addition to a million bugs in the air there seemed to be a thousand feral children in my way. Stupid parents shepherding dirty kids in large groups. I didn’t run Rugged Maniac today but I did navigate an obstacle course of filthy children this evening.

Then there were the creeps wandering around. Who the fuck goes for a walk around a nice lake then smokes a cigarette or a cigar? The smoke didn’t even keep the bugs away.

One weirdo played chicken with me. He moseyed along the path and kept shifting into my path. I think he just hated any runner and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was fed up enough that I refused to move over or stop when I got to him.

He jumped out of my way at the last moment. Would I really have knocked him over? Well, he got out of my way.

So many people annoyed me. The only thing missing was a Best Buy kiosk blocking the path with some blue-shirted a-hole asking me why I don’t want the extended warranty.

The last few days at work have been a little stressful. In a nutshell, I need a fairly complicated chain of important things to happen by early Monday morning. Much of it is out of my control.

In the office this morning I signed in to the company’s computer system. Everything had fallen into place exactly as I needed. It’s all done. Nothing to worry about over this weekend.

That means that stain I just noticed on the front of my shirt - the one that’s big enough for everyone to notice - well, I don’t care. Had that stain happened any other time I’d walk over to Macy’s and buy a new shirt. Not today though because I have no more worries today.

A marathon miracle.

Hey ladies, if you’re training for a marathon and your back starts to hurt a lot, you might be pregnant even though you didn’t know you were!