Our Great Urban Race

Taking a small detour from the vacation catchups....

For Terence's birthday this year we decided to run the Great Urban Race in Houston, ON his birthday (how perfect is that timing)!

In case you don't know what the Great Urban Race is... it is similar to the TV show The Amazing Race. Each team is given 12 clues to solve that require you to solve puzzles, perform challenges, and physically run your heart out in the city of your choice.

I made us some team shirts...had to represent Kiddy and Roma with Team Kadlec! Original, I know :-)

The race kicked off at Lucky's Pub in downtown Houston, everyone received their clues at noon and we're off. Our strategy...was to stay there, solve the clues, devise a plan, and figure out how the heck the Houston bus system works. We definitely didn't prepare enough for the race, who would have thought they would have us running all the way out to the Chocolate Bar!

After solving the clues, thank goodness for iPhones, we headed straight for the MetroRail and headed down to Hermann Park. We had to get to the Houston Weather Research Center to make an anemometer as proof of completion. Next we headed to the Lawndale Art Center to meet the Chipotle sponsors. I had to make a paper airplane (Terence coached me while on the Metro), then he had to fly it into a Chipotle target, two free burrito coupons as the reward! Woohoo Chipotle!

Next we knew we needed to get to a mile and half down Richmond, so we started hauling it, but like a mirage in the distance there was a bus. We started sprinting across an abandoned parking lot, holding our hands out to the opposing traffic, running across Richmond and hopped on the bus. We took it all the way out to a music shop where we  had to guess the lyrics to a popular song, then we walked to the Chocolate Shop. Took pictures of us feeding cupcakes to each other and then back down to Ervan Chew Park to learn some belly dancing. Sorry no pics of that!

Next we hiked it back down Richmond to CVS where we met the Houston Food Bank, we donated a few items and were on our way to the Timberline Fitness Center. Terence hopped on a stationary bike and went to the distance of an alegrba solution that we had solved earlier. We took a picture and headed over to St. Dane's bar to shoot some hoops.

After making a basket, we stopped at a Florist for some arts and crafts time. We made a rose out of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner we were off to the House of Dereon Media center. We got to load up on tons of promo CD's (glad we went towards the end of the day) and our last location was at Aerosol Graffitii studio. Terence and I got to spray paint our team name over one of their canvases. We completed all 12 clues with no penalties and we ran it into the finish line, which luckily was at the bar!

Our finish time was 3:39, only an hour after the first place team finished! We placed 31st out of 268 teams! Pretty awesome for our first urban adventure race :-)

Learning with Roma, "Sit, Watch Me, Down, Leave it..." Pee in the house?

Roma is definitely a smart dog. No doubt about it. She knows when she's doing well, she knows when she's being a stubborn adolescent, and she certainly knows when she is in trouble or has done something bad...

Training at Petsmart started last Friday. In our first session, we basically held Roma back from being the pain in the a$$ dog. She was hyper and distracted.

We learned the "watch it" command and how to properly walk on the leash... Basically you get the dog to watch you, so that both are in sync with commands, listening, etc. She didn't do well there, but by the end of this week and last night's class, she was a pro. With the walking you have to continually stop if she's pulling you. We are walking her, not vice versa. This is hard for her at times, but this week she did really well. At times though, you have to give her some latitude especially when you come home from work and she's all amped to go to the bathroom!

Last night we reviewed our progress and showed off our command of "sit," which she does really well. We did the "watch it" really well for our trainer, too. She was impressed and proclaimed our smart dog. Then we showed that she could walk well on the leash, a complete 170 from last week. Not quite all the way perfect, hence, 170, but she did awesome. Then we showed off next week's command "down" which Debbie has been working with Roma on. She lunges down but still she's starting to understand what we want.

Lastly we touched on "leave it." Granted, this would have been useful on Wednesday night when she decided to start chewing gum. Not once, but twice. It was gross for her to put in her mouth, but even worse going digging in her mouth! Ewww!

Overall progress is there, but she's still being a pup. With her estimated age at 6 or so months, her behavior apparently is going to get worse before it gets better. This scares the both of us! Worse? How about we take her to the bathroom and bring her back in...10 minutes later, pee! Then 45 minutes later she decides "i'm going to pee again!" Yup, this was pushing us...and this was last night! After her great showing at Petsmart. Oh well, she'll get there.

Hopefully I don't expedite my hair going gray, I was saving that for the kids! How do I blame the kids if I'm gray by the time we are having them? Oye...puppies!!

Bonus photo...after all the rain the past two weeks, we have to keep toweling her off. She thinks it's a game...actually it's pretty cute and a lot of fun!