Weekly Round Up 1 of 2: The Great Catch Up

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on, so let's split this up into two posts to keep it manageable.  Today I'm going to tell you about our winter getaway and the dog, and then I'll come back tomorrow with food, workouts, movies, and books.

The Great Winter Getaway of 2024

Last time I left off with the teaser that there were plans for us to get up to no good.

On Valentine's Day Hubs and I got up at 4 AM to do this:

So that we could return to our natural habitat and do this:

That's right, for the first time since 2019, Hubs and I put winter on pause and spent a long weekend somewhere warm.

Wait you're saying...didn't you guys just get a puppy?

Why yes we did.  This vacation was scheduled before Doggo came along, and was a part of the conversation about whether we should adopt her or not.  The shelter said that she would be fine, and sure enough she was.  We boarded her at our vet, and while we were being beach bums she got hands on attention, lots of games, and time with other dogs.  It was a good weekend for all parties concerned.  But more about the dog in a minute.

Resort Life

We stayed at an adults only, all inclusive resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  SIL#1 and family went to the same place a few years ago, so we copied them.  We had our eye on the place in early January, and then on Blue Monday they did a 50% off sale, and we made our move and decided that 50% off meant that we needed the swim up room instead of the normie room.  Can I just say that I didn't know that Blue Monday was a thing and now that I do it will be my preferred shopping day for winter vacations?

The reason that I'm not saying where it was is that "all inclusive" included a very bizarre sales pitch for the resort's time share.  The staff spent two hours explaining why their loyalty club was not a time share, but Hubs and I are a bit thick, and our tiny brains just couldn't pick up on the difference.  In the end we walked out, had a good laugh, and spent the rest of our vacation on the beach as God intended.

You know, in my everyday life I don't need a butler to take care of my every last need, but for a long weekend with my boo, I sure don't mind it.  We went from temperatures of 30F to 30C and yes yes yes there was a cold snap and a storm at home while we were gone and I indulged in some very unseemly Shadenfreude and relished every Facebook post that I saw from home bemoaning the storm.

Hubs and I took up a very strict schedule:

• I usually wake up before Hubs so as soon as I woke up each morning I hit up the resort coffee bar and puttered around the beach with my coffee.  That's where I was the day that I saw Resort Cat lounging by the pool.
  
• Once Hubs woke we met up and went to the breakfast buffet.
• While at breakfast we debated the merits of starting our day at the beach or at the pool.
• Whichever location we decided, we periodically switched between beach and pool.
• 11 AM seemed like the correct time for our first margarita of the day.
• We had lunch when we felt like it and additional beach cocktails throughout the day as needed.
• Hubs worked out twice and I worked out once.  I did the Cool Blogger's 30/12/3 workout but struggled converting MPH to KPH.  3 MPH is just under 5 KPH, but that felt really fast.
• Each night we ate at a different resort restaurant.  There was steak, there was surf n'turf kebabs, there was salmon, and there was a seafood pasta.  Everything was to die for.
  
• We made the rookie mistake that Nicole (HI NICOLE!) warned us about and forgot to bring sunscreen and I forgot a beach hat.  We paid a king's ransom at the resort store for these items but it was worth it not to get sunburn.  Sigh, you live you learn.
  
• Yay US Netflix is accessible in the Dominican Republic so we continued our Seinfeld binge in the evenings.

Anyways, this was not my normal Rust Belt Travel adventure, and I'm OK with that.   Hubs is on notice that he is not allowed to let another five years elapse between now and our next winter getaway.

It's also worth noting that in recent years I have come to dread flying.  It's expensive, airports are crappy, I've had 100% flight delays in recent years, but what really roasts me is that for some reason I've become afraid of flying.  Logically I know it's safer than driving, and in my younger days I loved to fly, but something has happened over time that has me all squirrely every time I step on a plane.  However, for this trip the flights were seamless.  No unpleasantness at the airport, no delays and the flights came in a bit early both ways, and minimal bumps in the air.  Baggage claim ran smoothly and quickly.  And wowza, the flight even had free wifi.  Flying was practically a pleasant experience.

Dawg Life

Someone is growing into quite the big girl.  There's no way to tell how big Doggo will get - on the one hand she might not get much bigger, or she might double her weight and get to a more traditional German Shepherd size.  The shelter told us that she was 25 pounds, but at her first vet visit three weeks ago she clocked in at 21.  On her follow up for her vaccinations this week girlfriend was tipping the scales at 29 pounds.  Her face is starting to catch up to her ears, and her legs are a mile long.

Wins of the week:

• Doggo had a blast at Doggy Boarding School and picked back up her life with us without missing a beat.
  
• We had our first "real" dog walk around the block. Doggo hasn't had any leash training, but she's picking it up by instinct.  Our yard isn't fully fenced, so every time she's outside she's on the leash.
• Doggo is doing very well around other dogs.  She met our neighbor's dog through the fence and has had some encounters on walks.  We've had a few instances where other dogs have lost their minds around her, but she's taken it in stride and hasn't reacted back at the dogs.
• Hubs gave her a bath and she was very calm.  Stepdog hated baths so Doggo's calmness threw us for a loop.
  
• Sniff, we're starting to have a bit more freedom and she's slightly less hands on.  She doesn't need to go outside as frequently. We're comfortable leaving her alone in our back room/kitchen for 5-10 minute stretches.  She has fewer spells of "puppy crazies".  Don't get me wrong, she still takes up the bulk of our waking hours but she's just less of a handful.  I've heard that puppies go through "teenage" spells where they revert back, and I know that will happen to us, but as of right now pup life is good.

We've got a session with our dog trainer this week and we'll figure out where to go with her training from here.

That's all for now.  I'll be back soon with food, workouts, TV, and looooots of books.