Life with a Puppy, etc.

Ginger has been with us for a week now. It's hard to imagine her not being here. She has integrated into our family very well. The first week our lives pretty much revolved around her. This week the challenge is to reduce that a little. She seems OK when we leave her for a while so this morning we'll all be gone for an hour or so--me to the practice range and Susan and Jocelyn to the fitness center.

Susan and I have started using the fitness center. We met with a trainer who set up a regimen for each of us based on our needs. The center here is very well equipped. There is a double set of exercise machines as well as free weights. In addition, there are about 20 treadmills, 10 elliptical machines and a dozen or more bicycles. Susan is going to start water aerobics this morning in one of the pools. Right now there seems to be a good balance between the number of users and the quantity of equipment--we never have to wait long, if at all, for the machine we need.

We've also started playing more golf. Unfortunately the quality of our play is not improving as fast as we'd like. Mostly it's a problem of consistency-- a few good holes or even a good nine--followed by some spectacularly bad play. I've started posting my rounds so I'll have a handicap index soon. It's not going to be pretty. But I'm optimistic. I just need to use better judgement and hit fewer abysmal shots. I think I'll be solidly in the 80s soon. The real challenge will be improving after that.

I did finally spend the Golfsmith gift card that my Fed colleagues gave me as a retirement gift. I got a new Nike driver. I think I'm going to like it a lot. Thanks to all of you for this assistance in improving my game.

I've also started doing a little consulting work for the Fed. The early work will be gratis--sort of on spec--in anticipation of more work later, because the IRS doesn't like for companies to pay recent retirees for doing work similar to what they did before retirement (the reasoning escapes me). I'm working on transforming a course the Fed uses for examiner training so that it can be taught to non-US examiners. I've finished the first lecture and I'll start on the second one this week.

We're planning for our first trip back to Chicago. We want to make it before it gets too cold. This fall has brought home to us one of the reasons why we moved to Texas. Today the high will be 83 and tomorrow 87. We'll have a cold snap on Thursday and Friday with a high of 68. Fall here is very nice. Anyway, our plans right now are to leave the week after Thanksgiving, stop and see my mom in Springfield and then stay in Chicago at least through December 2. There are a lot of people we want to see and we'd like some extra time with Rob, Sarah and the grandkids.

Our New Family Member

Today a little cockapoo named Ginger joined us in Georgetown. We'd been looking for a puppy for a while and been unable to decide exactly what we wanted. We finally found a website offering cockapoos down near Houston. They were so cute we couldn't resist any longer.

We're just getting to know one another, but Ginger seems to be adjusting to us pretty well. It remains to be seen how we'll adjust to her. We're in a better position to train and raise a dog now that we're retired and we hope to avoid many of the mistakes that we made with our first two dogs.

Here are some early pictures: