Weekend Roundup

It was a fairly productive weekend in the City of Oaks on both the practical (read: housework) & fun (no explanation needed) side of things. A quick rundown:

• On Friday we did dinner & then saw Cloverfield with our buddies Brian, Erin, Andrea & Brandon (Andrea didn't make the movie as she doesn't 'do' the shaky-cam thing). If you've heard that its essentially Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project than you've heard right. The chatter coming out of the theater was mixed but both K & I enjoyed it because it wasn't the standard Hollywood movie. I liked the surreal aspect of the movie; the use of the camcorder & smart editing really gave the effect of being in the middle of an unfolding disaster. Of course some people didn't like the judgment errors that characters made, which to me just made them--& the situation they were portraying--all the more believable.
  

• Saturday was mostly random errand-running, but it was also the day of the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Some of you may recall I completed the challenge last year but a couple weeks ago I aggravated a calf injury playing football (though I did throw 4 touchdown passes) so I had to sit it out. A few friends of ours ran it this time around & I went out to meet up with them halfway through the race to provide moral support as they attempted to eat their dozen. Our friend Jennifer had 2 (she never had plans to eat the full dozen) but the husband & wife team of Scott & Lanier 'McCrevis' gave it a shot. Scott had unofficially finished the challenge last year (he had to run it the night before due to a conflict) but it wasn't to be this time. He finished eating a respectable 8. On the other hand, this was Lanier's first shot. She was only going to eat 6 donuts but 'they went down so easy' she had to go for the dozen. She actually ate all 12 in 10 minutes (it took me 20 last year) & to really throw down the gauntlet she beat my time by over 2 minutes (to add insult to injury the course was apparently lengthened by a quarter mile this time around). It might have to be on next year.......

• Sunday was lawn care day. Take a look at the insane cubic feet of leaves we've raked. The annoying thing is most of them aren't even from our trees, they belong to the huge oak next door......The day ended on a positive note as we had people over to watch Duke vanquish Maryland & eat some Lillys (damn good) pizza. We also celebrated our buddy Stephanie's 31st birthday with a cake Kristin made (the ice cream, thankfully, was store-bought). And yes, you know some Rock Band was played.......
  

• Finally, it gives me great pleasure to introduce your new Firedog Corporate Mascot...
  

Thanks to everyone who helped out & voted. At this point its unclear how many votes he got but I'll let you all know. The rescue already got $1,000 for being the charity of the finalist & an extra dollar for every vote Hank got. Now they'll get $50,000 because he won though apparently the total donation can't exceed $100,000. Very cool....