State of the State

So yesterday (Valentine's), the flags were at half staff.

"Don't look now, honey, but I think Texas has shifted to a Catholic State and is commemorating the martyrdom of St. Valentine by putting all flags at half staff. I think it's probably best if we just quietly go with it."

6 Years

6 years ago when I moved down here, I found out that the garage had a little kitty door. I decided that this seemed like a brilliant idea to catch myself a pet cat and so I turned the little lock knobby thing to the point where an animal could come in, but couldn't get out.

Of course, after Ivy found us, I left it that way because she and Quazi would frequently go out into the garage and sit at their little kitty window and look outside trying to figure out a way to get out. (What happens if I push on it? hmm, Nothing. Okay...What happens if I push on it now? hunh. Odd. Nothing happened)

Since it's been 6 years and we've never had a problem with animals coming into the garage, I completely forgot about it. Until the other night when we had a feral cat in the garage. Well, we can't blame the cats - they tried to warn us (they both REALLY wanted out in the garage even though it was fuh-reezing outside). It also should have tipped us off as we came home and the garage smelled like cat piss, but I figured that the smell was because I had been cleaning out the litter boxes and throwing the waste in the garbage and we hadn't thrown away any other trash. So instead we sat in the house until the poor animal knocked over a rolled up rug Shawn had next to the garbage can. When we saw the cat, Shawn just opened the garage door and the cat left (though I feel like we should have put food and water out for it first because who knows how long it was stuck in the garage).

But man, can those feral cats jump. It was jumping about 6' straight up in the air trying to get away from us (and it was already in the opposite corner of the garage).

Pawprints

Taken after the cats went outside on Friday, Feb 4. (The most snow in Austin, TX since 2004)

Shutterbug: Catch of the Day

Upcoming photos will be as follows (and not necessarily in order):
-Catch of the Day
-Unlikely Duos
-Murals
-Those were the days
-Milestones
-State Parks
-Birds
-At the Fair
-EEK!
-Fall Leaves
-Curious Cats
-Man's Best Friend
-Heroes

More Cross Fit

Since yesterday's Cross Fit workout consisted of needing nothing other than a pull up apparatus (bar or rings), Shawn decided that it was a perfect opportunity to use the rings.

The workout: Burpee Pull-up.

How: Place hands on ground, hop your legs out so you're in pushup position, drop to ground, push up and hop a little to pull your legs up under your body, stand up, jump. As you jump, grab onto the pull up bar/rings, do a pull up, drop to ground on feet. Repeat.

Reps: 100. that's right. ONE. HUNDRED.

The goal: Do this as fast as you can. Record your time.

Shawn's time: 28 minutes give or take.
My time: 24 and a half minutes.

Of course, to be fair, I was doing hops instead of jumps since I can't do a full pull up and so the rings were set up to be a little above my head instead of a foot above my out-stretched hands like Shawn did.

Still. I win.

Now Shawn's out in the garage filling a basketball with 20 pounds of sand so he can do Wall Balls (that's what I'm calling them anyway). Wall Balls are where you take a 20 pound ball, do a squat with it, stand up and then throw the ball up 10', catch the ball, repeat. The reason why you do this by a wall is because it's probably pretty dangerous to just be outside throwing a 20 pound ball up in the air and trying to catch it, so you face a wall and aim for 10' up on the wall - then the ball only has a small area where it will come down and you don't have to move around as much to try to catch the damn thing.

But today's goal: 150 wall balls. in as fast as you can.

Is there anyone out there wondering why the unofficial mascot of Cross Fit is called "Pukey"?