March 2022

The first weekend in March we attended a Dachshund Walk and officially kicked off our house hunt. The Dachshund Walk is exactly what it sounds like and as adorable as you would imagine, a bunch of dachshund owners assembling with their long-spined friends for a parade around the Battery downtown and up to the Pineapple Fountain. There is a group that does this the first Saturday of every month, but this is the first time we’ve been able to attend since finding out about it last Fall. Iris wasn’t interested in making new friends at first and just wanted us to wander off by ourselves, but once the group got walking she loved the walking route and did awesome around all the other dogs. (Her greetings can get a little loud and toothy so we never know how meeting other dogs will go).

That same day we saw 2 houses in neighborhood just off the IOP Connector, one of which I was really excited about based on the pictures and one Carl was interested in thinking it would make a great project (it was hideous). The first house ended up being really nice, but a little too small and the second house would have been more work than even Carl was up for so we passed on both. Seeing these houses did make the idea of having to move out of our IOP house more real and is really sad. I’m hoping we can find some positive things about the move eventually…

Carl attended a vet conference in Vegas for a few days that was supposed to be turned into a fun trip for the 2 of us and a potential visit to see some friends in California, but due to the unexpected trip to Illinois in February and some other slightly stressful developments, we decided that just Carl would go and get the continuing education credits he needed and call it done. Not as fun, but it happened.

On March 12th, we participated in the Peyton’s Wild & Wacky 10x5K with our friends Helen, David, and Jen. This is an all day event were you run a total of 50Ks broken into ten 5K’s, each starting at the top of every hour for 10 hours starting at 7 a.m. You can run it alone, as a 2-person relay, or as a 5-person relay. Our team was super prepared with a sweet tent set-up including a burner, homemade rice and sweet potatoes (thank you, Helen!), Twizzlers, and a foam roller for recovery. The race provided additional snacks like M&Ms, bacon, and Cinnabon cinnamon rolls so we were well fed. The day was a huge success and I was already talking about next year by the end of the day. So thankful for great friends that can do physical activity together for 10 hours and have such a great time doing it!

The day after the Peyton’s race, we put an offer on a house that we liked in Snee Farm, but didn’t end up getting it so that was a disappointing step in the house hunt.

The week of March 22nd, I headed to Nashville for work to finally checkout our Accountfully office there. Thanks to most of my time at the firm being during COVID, I hadn’t had the opportunity to visit our team there yet. It was a great week capped by a great weekend when Carl came to join. I got to play volleyball with the Nashville team for their first match and we won! The team showed me all the key food spots and we had such a great time hanging out. March Madness was going on while I was there so one night was spend watching basketball. When Carl got in town, we hit up a barcade and a speakeasy-type cocktail bar (Atta Boy) which was one of the coolest bars I ever been to. You described things you liked and the bartender made a drink for you. My first concern when we arrived was how I could get a drink made in this tiki cup I saw sitting on the bar. The answer was “just ask”! The next day we wondered all over the city going on a historic house tour on the Belmont campus, walking through the Vanderbilt campus, seeing the Parthenon replica, and ended at The Row where we spent hours drinking beer, listening to live country music as new artists got on stage every hour. Our last day in Nashville was spent lounging around and reading. I started not feeling well that day and we agreed that it was ok not to do a whole lot as it was just nice not to feel the obligations of being in your home and always finding chores to do.