Pug Shot

Just because Fitzie is so cute (if a little portly).

Just a Relaxing Sunday

I took a nice, laid back hack out with some friends through the local town forest today. The junior who has been riding Ruby had taken her to an overnight show Friday & Saturday, so I wanted just a low-key ride to have her moving and to loosen her up, but without any other goal. So it was a long walk with some trot thrown in here and there. We definitely got the best part of the weekend too. Until today it had been pretty rainy and stormy.

Later in the afternoon I took my dogs out for a trail walk. At this point it was about 78° and they were really feeling it, Fitz in particular. None of this has been very strenuous for me, fitness-wise, but it does feel great to do a number of active things throughout the day. I find that the more I do, the less I want to just sit around.

Sundry

* I'm not quite sure why, but every conversation I have with my father leads to my defensiveness and even sometimes irritation, over the most mundane of topics. Case in point: Today he was asking how Tig's obedience class was going. And then he went on to say something to the effect that I must have a goal to make him "sane". What? He's just an excited dog, but he's a good boy. My response was, "no, the goal is for him to be happy. To give him something fun to do. To engage his mind. And to reinforce our bond." Whatever.

* Speaking of Tig, I took him on a very nice, long walk/hike/run/whatever in Mine Falls Park today. We saw a good number of other people, as well as dogs, during our outing and Tig was each time completely focused on me and willing to stick by my leg on a loose leash. He's really come a long way.

* On my way to the park this morning, I took a drive through the condo complex that I'm interested in, just to get a feel for the area. The place seems pretty nice and there also appears to some conservation land that abuts the property to East, which is a plus. Also, I noticed that the decks on the townhouse units are actually a bit bigger than I had originally thought. Still smaller than what I currently have, but larger than I had been thinking, so that's a plus. It was nice to see how close we would be to Mine Falls Park and other trail areas.

* I'm still a little bit traumatized by our nor'easter/hurricane/tornado or whatever it was that hit Southern NH on Thursday night, into Friday. I do not want to have to repeat that experience any time soon -- it was crazy! And now I'm rather overwhelmed with the task of figuring out how I'm going to address my damaged roof and porch. GAWD! It's always something. Add THIS to the pro list for moving to a condo townhouse.

* Post-hypnosis seems to be going well so far. I have not been tempted to binge (or really, to eat anything not in my best interests) and was motivated to do the walk today.

* I had some text messages from the kid who was riding Ruby this week down in Aiken for my trainer's "Kids' Camp Week". She sent me updates through the week and gushed about how much she loved Ruby. I always enjoy hearing when someone loves my horse and I really appreciated the updates. I told her that she could ride Ruby back in NH if she wants to. I am thinking especially for the weeks I'm on-call when it is hard for me to count on being able to ride at all.

* I'm enjoying this weekend quite a bit, I wish it was a long one!

Boxers are the Best

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a kid person. And I'm especially not a a baby person. But even I thought this was unbelievably adorable. Of course, I am completely in love with the dog, not the kid, but you expected that. Right?

Wet Dog

My Boxer, Tig, is the biggest water weenie that I've ever met. Human or canine, that's saying a lot. Big time wimp.

So, tonight it's pouring down rain. I mean, teeming, driving, torrential rain. And of course at some point Tig has to desperately go out. That is until I open the door and he sees the rain. I guess he had to pee pretty badly though, because he jumped outside anyway, after a big hesitation. Normally, he would immediately back away from the door when he saw that kind of rain. So out he slinks, looking over his should at me (which means that I now have to go out there with him). So, Tig gets half-way out in the yard and decides, nope, it's not worth it and bolts back for the door. Ugh, I know how this is going to go. He's going to go back in the house and will just start bugging me to go out again, so, no freaking way! So, I corral him back across the deck and back down the stairs, and he tries to get back to the door. I block, he bolts around me and back to the door, I chase him back down in to the yard. And so it goes, back & forth in crazy freaking rain until we're both completely and utterly soaked. Finally he stands there at the bottom of the steps shivering and looking at me. I stand at the bottom of the stairs and shoo him farther into the yard. FINALLY he gets to business, trots a little way out, sniffs and pees and then runs again for the door, this time I let him go, of course. He could have peed in 20 seconds and gotten it over with, without all the drama, I didn't need to be now sitting here soaking wet and freezing. Stupid dog, SHEESH!

Edited to Add @ 9:31 PM: Heaven help me, that dog wants to go out again!

Edited to Add # 9:42 PM: And ... I'm soaked again. The dog looks at me like the weather is my fault or something.

Note to Self:

When you're really, really pissed off about something, be careful how you stomp around the house, because dogs really don't understand that you're actually not upset with them. They will cringe and cower (or look at you like you're insane, if a Pug) as if you are.

Pugs = Comedy

GAWD, this cracked me up!

Ahhhhh Spring!

I think the dogs have Spring fever, particularly Tig. I've never seen dogs want to constantly go in & out out like this! They come in and want to go out again. They ask to come back in once more, and they want out again twenty minutes later. Sheesh! I would be annoyed, but it was a rather long Winter, so I can't say as I blame them all that much.

The Slammer

Well, I dropped the dogs off this afternoon and I was pretty much okay, for the most part. Up until the point when I was leaving and decided to walk around the back to say goodbye. My three were in the enclosed yard together and came running over to the fence to see me. Little Fitz was pawing at the fence trying to get to me and it about broke my heart. I know that they'll be fine and that they'll actually even have fun. This is absolutely the best place around. They'll be loose and able to play with other dogs inside and out all day long, everyday. When I come collect them next weekend, they'll most likely be completely exhausted, and maybe even a little bit skinny.

I don't travel a lot, so it's the logistics of it all that I don't really like. All the packing and schlepping of stuff. The flying, the hotels, the not having all your stuff with you. But the worst part for me is having to leave my dogs behind. I'm sure I'll be happy once I'm there tomorrow, I am just not looking forward to the traveling part and I wish I could have my dogs with me! I miss them already, it's far too quiet around here without them.

Self-Sabotage

I had a bad weekend. An off-plan weekend. Despite my resolve to do something active at some point on the weekend, I did nothing. I didn’t even go riding, even though we had some unseasonably warm weather today. Yesterday I made the mistake of going off to Target before having lunch, so on the way home I was so hungry that I talked myself into stopping at a pizza place and getting a sub sandwich to bring home for lunch. To make up for it, I made sure that I ate the lightest Jenny Craig meal that I had in the freezer last night for dinner and didn’t “volumize” it at all, but still, I’m sure the damage was already done. Today I’ve stuck completely on plan, except for the not exercising thing. At least I didn’t screw the food up though. This is probably a big reason why I can’t seem to lose weight. I do everything right for most of the week, but then manage some slip-up that sabotages everything and wipes out all my good efforts for the week. It is days like this that bring back my old mantra chant, “I hate myself”. I am very conscious when I start this and always manage to nip it in the bud, knowing how non-productive it is. But it sill manages to slip out (and many times out loud) with an unsettling regularity.

I don’t know what else there really is to do, other than to get back on plan and continue on. One thing I have to say is that I think I’m smart to plan one of my training sessions for Mondays. At least I manage to start the week off on the right foot. It’s a shame that Jenny Craig weigh-in day has to be the same day, but that’s what works with my schedule the best. So, I’m trying not to beat myself up too much and just move on from my mistakes. I have to do better though, I must do better. I WILL do better.

This is my seat on the couch:



Notice how little space they leave for me. Sheesh.

Stoopid Dog!

So I'm working from home today because we're in the middle of a major snow storm. And Tig is whining at me because he wants to go out. Okay, fine. So I let him out the back slider and he just stands there in a snow drift looking at me. So then I wave my arms and chase him over to the stairs leading down to the yard where he stands peering down on the snow drifts that have obliterated the steps, creating just a snow mountain. He looks back at me waving my arms and back at the stairs just frozen in place. I'm standing there in pajama bottoms and slippers trying to shoo him on to no avail. Finally (after a huge sigh) I have to wade through the big drifts of snow in my pajama bottoms and slippers and literally push him down the mountain of snow into the yard. SHEESH! So now here I sit soaked with melting snow while he sleeps all curled up and warm on a blanket on the couch. Must be nice to be a dog.

Three Confused Pugs (courtesy of Yahoo!)

Three Confused Pugs @ Yahoo! Video

Dog Pictures from the Snow Storm of New Years Eve: 2008

Lola & Fitz are wearing their new Christmas coats in some of the pictures. Tig is supposed to be getting one too, but the size he needs is on back-order.

Fabulous News

I just received word that
the Boxer rescue group is going to let me adopt Mojo after all! I am so happy and excited, I can't even convey it properly. They told me that they are going to be making an exception to their rules to allow this, so I feel especially lucky.

Catching Up

Ugh, it’s been so long since I last posted that I almost don’t even know where to start. I hate this, so much time goes by and I feel that I have so much to catch up on that I’m pretty overwhelmed. So anyway, let’s see, where to start, where to start …

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Well, Mojo is still with us and has become a much loved member of my canine family, at this point I just can’t imagine having to give him up. He is such a total love. Wants to be petted and loved and he’s happy just to have that human attention. He can get pretty riled up and plays very actively with Tig and Fitz, they all play so hard that they completely wear each other out. But when not playing, he is very mellow and happy to just hang out and be adored. The Boxer rescue group still has him up on their adoption page however, and I have heard nothing definitive back about my keeping him, so I really have no idea what is going to happen. But at this stage, he is part of my family now, so giving him up will just be horrible, if it comes to that. Still, I would like to know soon, I think, as I would like to sign him up for obedience school and get him his tags and micro-chipped, etc. make him official. Right now we’re too much in limbo and it makes me uncomfortable.

Health & Fitness

So, back in March I took a good look at my lack of fitness, general health (or where it would be trending soon, if I didn’t take some action) and my weight and didn’t like what I saw, so I decided to get a grip on things. I have known for a while now that I had to make some changes and it’s been some time coming, so I finally managed to get the ball rolling. I started with diet, cutting back on portions, getting used to more fruits & vegetables and cutting out junky stuff. And also … cutting out BEER (I think that hurt the most!)

Well, after about a month and a half of watching the eating as well as after losing some weight, I started to up the activity. I started using a pedometer (as I mentioned earlier in this blog) and I started taking walks at lunchtime at work. At first the walks were relatively tame, just around the various footpaths, but soon I started venturing out onto the wooded trails. And as I started going further & further and into the more technical trails, I more & more realized that I wanted to run. Badly. So, one day I brought gym clothes & running shoes to work with me, changed in the locker room and did just that. It wasn’t pretty, and I wasn’t able to run nearly as much as I wanted to, but I kept at it. Well, since then, I’ve developed a routine of running five to six times a week! I can’t even believe it, even at my most committed during my first running incarnation, I never managed to run that many days in a week, and particularly week after week. I alternate between running trails in the woods around work (I love living & working in New Hampshire!) with running intervals on the treadmill. So far I am extremely slow (not that I was ever very fast, even when I was in shape for it) and I still can only run for intervals of a couple of minutes at a time (at most), but I’m sticking with it and getting out there and hoping that eventually some of this training will kick in. (I’m still waiting for that).

Additionally, I decided to sign up for some personal training at the company gym. It’s a pretty good deal and I felt that if I have this to anchor my week, it will help motivate me and keep me on track. Plus, I tend to be the type that will blow off strength training and abs work, if left to my own devices, so having training appointments will help force me to do that stuff. The first couple of weeks I had one session per week, but starting last week I moved to two. My muscles are sore and sometimes it’s hard to work in those sessions around the various meetings and other commitments I have, but I think they’re valuable and I schedule them in on my calendar, just like any other meeting. I’m worried about building too much muscle as I tend to build it easily (and at 5’2”, I don’t want to be muscle-bound) but that’s another good reason to employ the trainer, hopefully he will know what he’s doing, where I have no clue.

I’ve even managed to get my bike fixed up and actually took it out for a ride this past weekend. That was fun and a pretty hard workout. I thought compared to the running that it was going to feel easy, but it was hard, just in a different way. It had been so long since I had been on a bike that I had completely forgotten what it was like.

With the diet changes and the exercise I’ve added, I’ve managed to so far drop over 30 lbs since March. Considering my age, my hypothyroidism and my general tendency towards a sluggish metabolism and other hormone challenges, I’m pretty impressed with myself so far – heh. I’m sure that this weight-loss will slow down or plateau eventually, but right now I’m feeling very happy and positive about it all. Also, with the addition of exercise and activity, I feel so much better in general, in a good mood almost every day, I’m sleeping better in general, am relatively energetic, and pretty happy overall. So if a plateau happens, I can concentrate on how great I feel and work myself through it that way, rather than get too discouraged (hopefully anyway).

All-in-all, I’ve had a pretty damn good Spring, I have to say. I can only hope that Summer goes as well. At some point I suppose I should set some concrete goals, but I don’t honestly know what those are going to be yet. I know that I am only looking at the weight-loss in increments of about 10 lbs, so I’m just looking towards the next ten right now. When I get closer to where I want to be, I will reevaluate and try to come up with a more specific number to zero in on. The running and working out too, I’m not sure what my goals are going to be yet. For now I’m aiming for general good fitness so that I can do whatever I want to do and maximize my quality of life. I would like to be able to go out my door and run five miles easily without it being a major effort, I’ll be happy if I can get to that stage. Doesn’t have to be fast, but if I can run all of it, I’ll be fairly pleased with myself. Eventually I might have some kind of race goal, like maybe to run a half-marathon or even a marathon again, but I don’t think that I will even start to think about that until I can bang out at least the five miles without too much trouble. Right now I am too far away from being able to do that, to really consider anything more ambitious yet.

So, that is the update on the major stuff anyway. I’ve been pretty boring really, keeping quiet, exercising, walking the dogs, going to work, sitting on my deck and reading a lot. Life is good.

Dog Foster

I volunteered recently to be a foster home for this New England Boxer rescue group that I have been dealing with. The dog that I was originally supposed to get last month fell through, but they contacted me last week with another dog who needed a place and I got to pick him up on Friday night. Mojo arrived on this rainy night right after his neutering and to much trepidation on all sides. The poor guy, I don't really know anything at all about his history except that he was in a shelter for some reason. I don't even know how old he is. Anyway ...

Can I say that I just LOVE this dog??? Mojo is unbelievably sweet. He’s gentle with my smaller dogs (he’s interested in them, but not too pushy or overwhelming to them), yet he gives the right amount of energetic horse play with Tig (my Boxer) that they both enjoy the experience and are able to fulfill that Boxer playfulness that they need, without it ever getting too aggressive. When not playing, he is completely mellow. He likes to stick close to me, always sticking his big head into my lap, or crawling on top of me to claim my lap for a nap. I don’t think anyone has ever taken the trouble to teach this guy much as the only command he seems to know is “sit”. But this makes me even more impressed with his wonderful good manners.

I had thought that bringing another dog into my home would make this place even more chaotic. But to be honest, I believe the opposite is true with Mojo here. He seems to be lending a nice, calm energy to the other dogs. Tig is no longer chasing Fitz (my boy Pug) in laps around the house, nor is he any longer baiting Lola (my girl Pug). He seems completely fulfilled by having another Boxer around, and the calm energy of Mojo seems to be rubbing off on him as well. I had worried that he might be a little jealous, but I really think he is whole-heartedly enjoying Mojo has a member of the pack. Even Lola seems happier as she now no longer becomes the focus of the other dogs when play escalates. Although, I suspect part of Fitz misses being chased a little bit.

I was of the mind that three dogs was my limit, but this happy circumstance is causing me to re-think that idea. I’m wondering if another Boxer (at least one with the same temperament and energy level as Mojo) might actually be a great situation for us after all. In any case, Mojo is doing wonderfully. He already seems quite happy and he has relaxed quite a bit from his first uneasy night. He is pretty skinny, so I’m hoping some good quality food (and plenty of it) and lots of treats will fill him out to where he should be.

Mr. Tig Wiggle-Butt

I was trying out the video function of my new camera and so I took this video of Tig. I was actually trying to capture the "Boxer Bean", but by the time I got the camera out, he wasn't beaning as much as he had been earlier. Anyway, the video isn't the best quality, but you can watch it if you want:

Video here.

Dog Pictures

He actually lies down and rests sometimes.


Boxer - Pug Standoff


Snow!


More snow (WTF? It's going to be April in a few days!)

What?

I'm relaxing. So sue me.

Extreme Pug Close-Up