Company's Coming

The fridge is stocked.

Supplies are aren't in the house....yet. (Yup, you guessed it...more house projects.)

Floors are swept, beds are made, towels are folded. Lawn is mowed and pooper-scooped.

And Montey is on the lookout. He can't wait to see his cousin Vinnie.

New Workout??

{source}

You guys know I love dogs. I'm a dog person, straight to the core...and proud of it!

So when I read about this new workout modeled after a dog...I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Here it is, taken from this article on the Runner's World website:

"Run Like a Dog
My dog, a shepherd mix named Cooper, doesn't care where we are or what time of day it is, or even what the weather is like. He doesn't know what his resting heart rate is and rarely bothers to wear a watch. He just loves to run. And every time he does, his face and his body telegraph one simple message: This. Is. AWESOME. I'm runningrunningrunningrunning!

The "Run Like a Dog" Workout (Including Warmup and Cooldown) Walk 8 seconds. Trot 4 seconds. Stop. Sniff. Sprint 7 seconds. Freeze. Walk 5 seconds in any direction but forward. Stare 9 seconds. Lunge at rabbit. Double back, walk 3 seconds. Urinate. Repeat six times. Collapse on rug."

What do you think? Ready to tackle a new way to work out? What are you doing these days to get some exercise in??

Seriously, the whole article is pretty good, so go check it out, whether you run or not. I also found myself cracking up at the part about standing still at red lights. Good stuff. :)

Stuck On You!

My Lilly...

I should've named her Velcro.

Anywhere I am...

she is.

What a girl.

My Little "Helper"

My Most Favorite "Flower"...

Lilly!

Lilly Says...

"Have a great weekend, y'all!"

Traumatic Tuesday

See this dog?

My girl. My fiercely loyal, sweet girl. She's intense. She's like Velcro sometimes. She refuses to sleep with anyone else...oh, she'll snuggle up with you, but as soon as I turn out the lights, she comes to me and snuggles up for the night.

Today, my sweet girl chased and caught a squirrel. It got away once and she caught it again. And she shook it and shook it. Just like the terrier blood in her dictates.

It was the most intense and traumatic thing I've ever seen. I'll spare you the details, particularly because I can't think about it anymore. Call my parents. They'll tell you how hysterical I was.

There was a tiny part of me, as it was happening, thinking, "Holy crap! She finally caught one!"

Then I burst into tears and called my dad.

And then I took a xanax and went to work.

Hmm... as I am finishing typing this the tornado sirens are going off. What a day.

Foiled!!

In spite of my very best efforts to teach the dogs some patience and good manners when going out to the backyard, my plans were foiled. AGAIN!

Those "wascally wabbits" and sneaky squirrels love to prance around and taunt the dogs morning, noon, and night!

So even though I make the dogs sit before I will open the sliding screen door, sometimes it's all I can do to get it OPEN before they go flying out the door.

This morning, once again, the mutts managed to knock the screen door off its track.

And there I was, standing in my towel, having recently gotten out of the shower, trying to keep the door from crashing. And yet, hanging onto my towel for dear life was also a priority.

Damn dogs.

Wet Day...

...sad dog.

Make that two sad dogs.

It was a beautiful day today. Until I was almost home and it started raining. The mutts ran out when I got home, but were soon wet and waiting to get back in.

And there they sat. Waiting out the rain.

Saturday Morning Surprise

Instead of sleeping away the beautiful, sunny morning I got up and washed my face, brushed my teeth, and put my contacts in so I could take the dogs out for a walk. At 8:25. On a Saturday. I know, not my typical Saturday routine. But we'd had so many days of dreary, wet weather I just couldn't pass this up.

Well, that and I spent my whole Friday night walking, brushing, and bathing my mutts. They hate baths. Lilly stays as far from me as possible and glares at me for hours after the horrific indignity I force her through. Montey actually loves the part after the bath, when I rub him dry with towels. Seriously, he will sit in my lap for hours letting me rub him down all while covering me with kisses. (OK, just realized that sentence could come across in a very dirty way. Ooops.)

Anyway, since my yard is dirty and the mutts are clean, we walked this morning. I had a simple breakfast and enjoyed my coffee while finishing my book and then decided to go thrifting to see what I could find.

And then I checked work email and read this subject line: "You've won an OTM award! Congratulations!"

Huh? A what?

After a little research, I found out that someone (I don't know who) nominated me for an Of The Month (OTM) award for March for a presentation I did in a residence hall. The OTM is given by the National Residence Hall Honorary, which I just learned is the "recognition branch of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH), Inc." So apparently, since I won at the campus level, it will now go on to compete with other OTMs written by students on a state-wide level. If it wins there, then it could go on to compete for national awards.

Honestly, at first I thought it was some kind of mistake or fake award. Yes, I'm that cynical. But it appears to be legit. I have no idea how many nominations are submitted per month, or who else I was "competing" with on my campus to be deemed the winner. I'm sure it's really no big deal in the grand scheme of things. We'll see what happens, I suppose.

I guess I'm just kind of shocked. I mean, I was really just doing a part of my job. Granted, the topic is one I'm pretty passionate about, but still. An award? Really? Me?

Really?

Anyway, just thought I'd share my surprising news. Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

A Tail of 2 Puppies

According to weather.com, it was -1 when I woke up this morning. That's without the windchill factor. The puppies are having a tough time with the snow, but Montey more so than Lilly, since his feet are pretty sensitive. They trot out quickly and come back quickly, slowed only by their numb feet.

So imagine my surprise when I let Lilly out for a second time and I saw this...

At this point, it was -3 degrees, with a windchill of -13. And there sits Lilly, enjoying a nice morning on the deck,

watching the geese fly overhead, like it was nothing. She sat there long enough for me to go to the living room, grab the memory card for the camera, put it in the camera, return to the kitchen, and snap a few shots.

I Forgot My Cheese!

...and I have been looking forward to it all morning! I was so ready to enjoy my Laughing Cow Swiss cheese on my little garlic toasts ...but no. It wasn't meant to be. Instead, I bet that the dogs are at home, enjoying my Laughing Cow cheese, as I'm fairly certain I forgot it on the counter this morning in my semi-frantic-running-late-dash-out-the-door!

Grrr!

And how is your Daylight Saving Time Monday going???

The Joys of Homeownership

My fingers hurt as I type this. It's a weird feeling. Actually, the soreness doesn't stop there... it continues up my forearm, upper arm, shoulders and back, down my legs all the way to my feet. I've been moving, unpacking, cleaning, and doing yard work since Friday and I'm sore. But it's a good sore that comes with hard work. I'm OK with that.

It's been fun unpacking my things, though it will be a while before I'm actually "settled in." People have asked me if everything fits in my house...um, yes. The furniture that fit perfectly in an apartment and a small house seems like toy furniture in my new house! The carpet needs cleaning, big time, so that will be another project, probably this weekend. I also need to fix a couple of drippy faucets sometime in the near future.

The puppies are back home with me, which is great. They love the new house and yard. This morning I watched Lilly chase Montey in a large figure-8 pattern over and over, stop and pant for 30 seconds, then Montey took a turn being the chaser. They did that about 4 times ... but who knows how long they were chasing each other before I caught them. Silly dogs.

Speaking of the yard... I have a LOT of plants and flowers that I know nothing about. I'm hoping I don't kill them. Maybe I'll find a good book or website that will help me out. I've had to deal with some wasps already, but I'm sure that's not the last I'll see of them. What are wasps' natural predators?

Save the Drama for Your Mama!

I'm getting tired of drama. I've had quite a bit of it lately and I really don't need any more!

I woke up motivated and ready to work on my dissertation revisions. I turned on my laptop and waited... and waited... and waited. Things were running so slowly and the programs were non-responsive. I spent the next hour trying to remove unnecessary programs, update my virus software, scan for viruses and spyware, and figure out what was wrong! Grrr. Finally, I got things up and running...

Right now I'm taking a quick break from making dissertation revisions. These revisions fall into the "Tedious and Boring" category- things like APA style revisions and grammar corrections. My next set of revisions will be "Rearranging"- I think that category speaks for itself. Lastly (I hope), will be my "Additions" category, also known as, "Things I Stupidly Left Out." I'm really hoping all of these revisions go quickly because if they don't, there will be some drama. I don't want to rewrite my whole paper. I want to get it turned into the Grad School before I leave Colorado... messing with that stuff long distance is too much!

The house I was hoping to rent fell through. I found out yesterday afternoon. I most likely won't be able to get into a place until April 1st at this rate, though I'm not entirely homeless yet (thank you Gina & Jason!). So, without a place to live right away, I need to send the dogs to live with my parents for a while and I need to figure out how I'm moving all of my stuff. I would love to use one of those PODS units to move and store my stuff, but I'm afraid they're going to be very expensive (I'm checking prices later today). I could rent a truck or trailer and then rent a storage unit until I find a place to live, then figure out how to move everything from the storage unit into my new residence... Cripes. Too much drama.

One of the dogs decided to have a midnight snack last night. The culprit pulled my bread (about 1/4 loaf) off the counter top, ripped open the bag, and ate it all. There weren't even any crumbs left in the remnants of the bag. My diagnosis? Stress-induced nocturnal snacking.

It's a Dog's World...

I just came home from running a few errands- we needed more dog food- and found a special surprise. Earlier today I mentioned how the dogs are pretty content to sniff boxes and stare at me while I pack, but I forgot how much the dogs really like to be involved in what I do.

I left one bag full of shredded paper out near some boxes (I've been saving paper from my shredder to use as packing material). Clearly the dogs wanted to help me pack. They opened the bag and took out some paper but couldn't find an empty box and gave up. It's not too much paper and I know they were just trying to be helpful.

What can I say, the pups like being involved. When Lilly crawls on the couch next to me or in my lap, Montey wants to too (I have a very small couch). There was that time Lilly decided she was grinding her teeth at night and thought that since my mouth guard was so helpful to me, she should try it too. Montey tries to pick up his toys- he picks them up right out of the toy box after I've put them there. He also likes to make sure I know that he put a toy next to me on the bed, sometimes in the middle of the night, by standing near the bed and pushing it with his front paws over and over. He knows that I have been forgetful lately and wants to make sure I know he's waiting for me to throw his toy.

Goofy dogs...