In Boston
I’m currently sitting in the Logan Airport in Boston with my husband waiting four hours for the final leg of our flight.
Yeah…four hours.
It’s the price you pay for the cheap convenience of flying into the tiny airport of Augusta, Maine, where my mother lives.
My in laws drove us to the San Jose airport where we took a red eye Jetblue flight to our current location.
I’ve never flown Jetblue before and I have to say that I really liked them. They don’t charge for bags, they have an abundance of free snacks and soft drinks and they provided us with free sleep masks and earplugs for the overnight flight. They also had free direct tv built in to the seat in front of you that provided a very enjoyable distraction during take off and landing.
Having said that, the seats could have been more comfortable and I’m used to larger planes for such a long flight.
Didn’t really get a whole lot of sleep which is going to suck a lot when we get to Maine and my mom is raring to go.
I’m pretty sure that is our plane from here to Maine. Not too excited about that.
My 1st Coolatta of the trip. I AM pretty excited about that. :). Oh Dunkin Donuts how I have missed you.
Alright. Now, to kill three hours without passing out from sheer exhaustion. Wish me luck!! I’ll blog later.
Phoenix Trip Review Part One
For those that aren’t familiar with our trip, we headed back to Phoenix this weekend. The reason behind our journey is that a local band that we used to follow was getting back together for one final show and Rob was one of the opening acts for it. This was a pretty big deal for him and I was happy to support him on this. 🙂
Rob let me sleep in as late as he could Thursday morning but finally had to rouse me, and then it was up and showering and finishing the final packing details. While I was showering, Rob deposited our furry babies to the vets where Shilo was scheduled to get fixed on Saturday(poor baby)anyway. This was our first time leaving her and it was kinda hard but I know she is in good hands. The vets LOVE our dogs there and totally spoil them.
We made it out of the house with no drama and thankfully the traffic into San Jose was light so we made it in no time.
Everything was going smoothly through security until I realized I forgot about the liquid rule. I had visions of tossing out all my make up and an expensive trip to the store until I was able to scrounge a plastic baggie out of the bottom of my purse(finally, a bonus to puppy training cleanups!) so I didn’t have to throw away perfectly good make up.
Other than that, security was uneventful. I guess I am unsure of what the big deal is on the new pat down procedures. If you go through one of those scanner deals you don’t even have to worry about it. It’s not much different than going through the metal detector other than having to strike a pose and wait for just a second to have them review the scan. It was very painless.
The flight was good. It was a little nerve wracking for me during take off because I hadn’t flown in a while but Rob was a doll. Hugging on me and being silly to make me laugh. I adore that he can totally crack me up even when I want to be nervous/mad/sad 🙂
Once we were safe on the ground in Phoenix, we gathered our bags and caught the shuttle over to the rental car place to pick up Chevy’s answer to the PT Cruiser. I think it is called an HHR or something like that and it was pretty nice for a rental car. Probably not something that we would purchase though, since we are currently in the market for a new car, the engine wasn’t strong enough for our needs.
With our car secured, I placed a call to DD to let her know we were on the way and then put Caryn’s address into the GPS on Robs phone. The GPS proceeded to give us the longest directions EVER to get there as it avoided all freeways for no apparent reason. It was a bit of a pain in the butt but we decided that we were on vacation and not in any hurry so we weren’t going to let it ruin the day.
DD had to jump on a conference call as soon as we got there so we hung out with Caryn and discussed what to do with our evening. It turned out they had built a new Indian casino about a half a mile from her house so the decision was a pretty easy one to make. 🙂
Once DD was off her call we headed out to lose some money. I texted Renee on the way there and she agreed to meet us there. I was shocked at how many ppl were there on a Thursday night, yet we still managed to find some machines together and deposit some money into the Gila River community. Around nine thirty I realized I was starving. The original plan was to get some killer Thai food from this place around the corner from Caryn’s but I guess they closed at nine. Renee suggested a Chinese place nearby but DD and Caryn were tired so they bailed leaving us to go it alone to Phoenix Palace where we ordered and ate some fantastic yuminess. We all split sweet and sour chicken, beef chow fun and crab puffs and still had enough leftovers to make at least one more meal. We sent said leftovers home with Renee and headed back to Caryn’s house where we crashed hard.
Friday morning Rob woke up and got ready to go meet up with his old college buddy Vince. He woke me up when he left around eight thirty so I decided to get up and face the day. DD was at work but Caryn was awake. She works from home so we were able to hang out all day and chat and catch up and it was awesome.
There are very few friends that I have had in my life where you can go for months, even YEARS without speaking. Not through any faults in the friendship, simply because life gets busy and you don’t have time to talk, yet you once you finally DO get together, it’s like no time has passed at all. Ever. DD, Caryn and Renee are these kinds of friends and I adore them with all my heart.
So Caryn and I ate cookies, chatted, smoked and laughed our asses off as we watched the movie “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” on demand until Renee showed up.
Renee took me out for a late lunch at Olive Garden where we caught up and ate ourselves sick. If you have never had the Lasagna Fritta’s at Olive Garden…Holy Crap! HEAVEN! Anyway, we finished eating and then headed to TJ Maxx. Renee needed an outfit for the show that night and my purse was threatening to bust a strap and fall of my shoulder.
For very little money we both found what we were looking for and headed back to Caryn’s so I could get ready for the show.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
The 21-day purification program is so effective because it focuses on the whole person–making better food and beverage choices, taking whole food supplements, reducing stress, and increasing exercise. The purification program is more than just a diet. It encourages patients to adopt a healthier lifestyle, which, in turn, helps them look and feel better.
This streamlined, easy-to-follow program emphasizes whole, organic, and unprocessed foods; whole food supplements; and water. Vegetables and fruit are eaten from days 1-10, with select proteins added at day 11. Whole food supplements taken during the program include: SP Cleanse®, SP Green Food®, SP Complete® or SP Complete® Dairy Free, and Gastro-Fiber® . Other supplements such as Whey Pro Complete, a protein powder with 15 grams of protein per serving, can also be added to the protocol to support purification.
To assist the patient during purification, we provide an all-in-one purification guide that describes the program and offers features such as an FAQ section; a tear-off shopping list; program-friendly shake and salad accent recipes; a daily intake journal; and an area for you to recommend additional supplements.
So there is that…
This is a program recommended by the doctor that I work for. Several of the girls in the office have done this program multiple times with great results. Two of my co-workers are starting on it again on Monday. I have often voiced that I needed to try the program but it is soooo strict and I was never confident in my ability to stick to it.
Today I decided I needed to take the bull by the horns and just commit. I’m sick of being sick. And perhaps the reason I have been sick so often lately is that all I’ve done since Repo started was eat crap. Soda, caffeine, salt up the ying yang and told get me started on all the processed fast food crap. Plus not being able to get back even to my weight watchers diet for more than a day or two.
I need something that is going to kick me in the ass. Something that I will commit to because, well the suppliments can get a little pricey and I’m not one to waste money, but also because I will have two friends/co-workers doing it at the same time that I can lean on. They have both done it before and they are both very supportive of me doing this with them.
I’ve been sick more since August than I have been in the last five years. I can’t say that for sure that it is related to my icky eating habits but SOMETHING is wrong. What can it hurt to try something new? It’s only for three weeks right?
I’m going to do it! And I’m probably going to be a bitch for a few days…you have been warned. 🙂
The Puppy Diaries — One week later.
So we’ve settled into a routine with the new pup. She comes to work with me in her crate and stays in the back of the PT. She has her pink snuggie blanket and toys and I go out periodically for pee breaks and walks. Everyone at work just adores her of course and with good reason. She gets a little overwhelmed meeting so many new people at once that want to love on her but she’s doing well.
We are learning all her traits and signals for when she has to go the bathroom. We’ve had surprisingly few accidents in the house. We know when that she has to be scooped up immediately upon exiting her crate in the morning because she will squat and pee anywhere at this stage in the game.
Also, any time she starts circling in her crate and clawing at the padding she has to poop. Learned that one the hard way but now we know. 🙂
She is gotten so much better at settling down in the crate at night and going to sleep instead of whining. Now if she whines we know it means she has to go potty but she’s also been really good at holding it overnight.
Pappy has been very standoffish with her since we brought her home. Which is unfortunate for Shilo because she wants to play with him SO BAD! She keeps running up and nipping at him and getting on her hind legs trying to bat him in the head. He’s pretty much just been growling at her and letting her chase him off. He usually runs to the top of the couch because he knows she can’t reach him up there, and then he barks out the window pretending to see a squirrel but really just voicing his displeasure at the little gal.
Last night Rob brought Pappy’s crate home from where he had it at work and he seemed to really like having a little place to go to get away from her.
This morning when we got up and everyone had been fed and done their business the dogs started to play. For real playing. No growls, just playful jumping and wrestling. It was like Pappy finally realized he wasn’t going to break her. He had to feel her out for a couple of days and now he’s cool with her since he has his crate to get in when he’s sick of her.
It was such a relief to see them getting along. What we have noticed this week is that whether he realizes it or not, Pappy is teaching her his mannerisms. He has taught her how to growl and how to stand on her hind legs. She also now follows him in the kitchen and stares up at whoever is in there just like Pappy does. She doesn’t know why she does this because people food has no effect on her yet, she’s never had it and has no interest in it. However she sees him do it and figures it must be the thing to do. So cute. She has a way to go with the training but she really is doing remarkably well.
The Puppy Diaries — Trip To The Pet Store
I finally made it to the pet store today.
Pappy is such a low maintenance dog that we really didn’t have any toys in the house. Certainly no chew toys. Pappy’s never been much of a chewer unless he was confined in some way and had to chew his way out(learned that lesson by tying his leash to the table leg when we first brought him home and didn’t have a crate. Woke up with him in the bed with us and the remains of his tattered leash around his neck.)
We stopped at a tiny pet store in PG right after we picked her up to get a crate and and puppy food. They were nice enough to give us samples of the bed food to get us by until we could get to a grocery store, but that was all we got.
Today Rob was home so I was able to head out to get the grocery shopping done and since there was a pet store right next to Safeway I was able to pop in and get a bunch of chew toys, food, a collar, leash and okay, a couple of cute little sweaters for her. Yes, I am *that* kind of dog mother.
She was napping when I got home but soon woke up. I put her new pink collar on her and she spent the next ten minutes itching it and rolling around on her back trying to remove it with no luck. I then gave her one of her new chew toys and BOY was she happy!!!
She still wants to chew the carpet, the couch, my hair and such but it is so nice to be able to give her an alternative rather than just saying no and taking things away from her. Plus, it’s kind of hard to take the couch away from her.
She does NOT like her leash but she looks to be very trainable. All the things they taught me when I took Pappy to Petsmart training are coming back to me. 🙂
Internal War: To Play Or Not To Play…
Inner Me: “Wait, you want to get involved in a play again? Weren’t you just saying how glad you were it was over?”
Me: “Yes, but that was so intense. And it was over for a month or so and maybe I’m ready to start again…”
Inner Me: “But weren’t you sick twice in the time of the last play? You are NEVER sick!”
Me: “Yes I was, but it all worked out didn’t it?”
Inner Me: “But you got so run down! You were physically and emotionally exhausted!”
Me: “And? As apposed to sitting on my couch doing nothing?”
Inner Me: “Give me one good reason why you would want to get involved in another play…”
Me: “I went to the rehearsal today and it felt like home.”
Inner Me: “… I got nothing.”
The Puppy Diaries — Day Three
Having a new puppy that will scour the floor looking for any little particle to put in her mouth has vastly improved my house cleaning skills. I never used to be a vacuum the carpet every day kind a gal but I’m discovering running a quick cleaner over the carpet beats chasing a 3 pound speed demon around the living room trying to remove a leaf from her mouth.
She is quite the little explorer. She wants to see EVERYTHING and she wants to put said everything in her mouth. And chew.
“No!” is her favorite game. To her the rules mean that whatever I am doing when Mom screams NO means I need to stop for one second, look at her and then continue what I was doing with even more vigor than I was before.
Whining is another pastime she enjoys. Usually while she is in her crate in any state other than sleep. The louder the better.
Don’t get me wrong. She is a little love. When she is done trying to attack innocent toes and chew on computer wires she is perfectly content to curl up in your lap in a tiny little ball and sleep or just stare up at you with adoring green eyes.
She has had several successful outside pees. The secret is to catch her right as she is coming out of the crate. If you wait even a second, she will run off and pee as soon as she gets away from you. However, if you get her in time and put her outside she will sniff around a bit and squat.
She and Pappy have just started in the last two days to spar a little bit. She has been wanting to play with him from day one but he just keeps looking at me as if to say: “But Mom, she’s so small! Can I really jump around with her??” Now he’s trying to feel her out and is getting more comfortable with jumping back at her when she approaches her.
Much like having a newborn I have been getting up in the wee hours of the morning to let her outside and then lay with her a bit to get her back to sleep. She’s very small and her bladder isn’t very big. It would be unreasonable to expect her to hold her water for more than three or four hours and since we don’t want her going in her crate, that is the option.
Rob said he got her to give her first poop outside this morning so that is promising even if she did poop inside tonight when I got home. It was my fault for not noticing her sniffing around.
I gave her the first dose of her deworming meds right after that so I’ll be watching her closely so she doesn’t get near her poop in case there are worms.
Fascinating blog entry, no?
Alright, on to the cuteness!!
The Puppy Diaries — Day Two, The Cuteness Continues…
Woke up this morning to the double dose of doo doo in Shilo’s crate that I mentioned in the last entry. I cleaned off the blanket and popped it into the washer and took the pup into the bed with me while Rob got ready for work.
I got up around eight and wrote the last blog entry before getting ready and heading to the vets with little Shilo.
She really didn’t like riding in the car without being secure in someones lap but I wrapped her up in my sweatshirt and since it was only a mile to the vets office she did pretty good.
I LOVE our vets office. Mostly because they all love Pappy so much and well, who wouldn’t. But they were also really great when we made the decision to put Romie down. They know us by face even when I don’t recognize them and always make us feel like they really care about our pets.
They got us right in and did what they needed to do. The start of three series of vaccinations, a nail trim and also some deworming meds for her that I am supposed to administer tomorrow.
She weighs three and a half pounds and seems to be in good health. She had a little scabby sore on her side when we picked her up yesterday but the vet just picked it off and declared it was healed underneath. The vet said Shilo should be about 12 to 15 pounds at her target weight.
Since I brought her home, I have fed her twice with no problems and had two successful outside pees. No poops yet but I’m sure that is coming. She napped a lot as she had a very hard day, but she and Pappy have had a couple of runs around the living room. No wrestling yet, mostly her chasing him and him not knowing quite what to do but run. I’m pretty sure he’s scared because she is so little and he doesn’t want to hurt her. She has backed down every time he turned on her with a bark. This is just so much like when we introduced Romie and Pappy, it’s comical.
She has been really good at not getting into too much trouble while I was cooking dinner.
I came in from running upstairs really quickly and caught her playing by herself with a small leaf. She would take the leaf in her mouth and throw it to the side before immediately jumping on it and starting the process all over again. Playing catch with herself. So CUTE! Romie used to do this in Arizona with a tennis ball.
So far so good. She is tucked in again by my side for a nap. She seems to have a span of a half an hour of playing or running around followed by a two hour nap. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
The Puppy Diaries — Day One
So we adopted another dog. Okay, not just a dog…a puppy. A VERY young puppy.
Neither of us have ever raised a puppy before so this is going to be interesting…or something.
It all started on Thanksgiving. We were invited to the house of the director of the play we were in for Thanksgiving dinner. Koly(the director) had been fostering a dog for a friend and the dog had recently had puppies. The first one I picked up, I fell in love with. They called her SheShe and she just melted my heart.
There was no way we could have taken her home that day since we had nothing and no stores were open, not to mention the fact that she was only six weeks old and I wasn’t comfortable with her being away from her mother yet. It was a lot of responsibility and we had to really think it over. Plus we had the whole trip to Vegas thing planned so it wouldn’t be fair to bring her home only to board her for a week.
The more we thought about it the more the timing seemed right. We had thought about getting another dog right after Romie died but decided we should just hold off for a while. Well two years have passed and we had been thinking maybe it was time. Especially since I had been trying to socialize Pappy a bit more lately and I could tell he kinda missed having someone to play with.
That brings us to yesterday when we brought our little Shilo home. We decided on the name Shilo after much debate on other names. I had originally wanted Pebbles or Willow(Buffy reference–natch!) but neither was really significant to us. Rob joked that we should name her Repo(The name of the play we were in) since that is how we met Koly and thus the dog. We sort of joked back in forth over various character names in the play and decided that Shilo(the lead in the play) actually worked really well. It was age and gender appropriate. It didn’t sound like Pappy or any commands so it wouldn’t confuse things.
We brought Pappy to the theater at noon to introduce them. Pappy reacted very similar to how Romie did when we first introduced them. Very indifferent. Curious as to what this little thing was, but not all THAT eager to find out right away.
Since neither one had run barking in the other direction we decided it was okay to take her home.
We stopped at a pet store on the way there and got a crate for Shilo. No sense in putting off crate training, and since we were going to have to housebreak the dog as well, the sooner the better.
When we got home we marveled over just how much the role of Pappy had reverted to the role of Romie all those years ago when we first introduced them. Now it was Pappy that sort of skulked around looking at the little thing with a mixture of excitement and disgust. What is this little thing and just how long is it staying anyway? It better not get any of my food or toys!
It was kinda funny.
Last night was spent trying to get the dogs to play mostly unsuccessfully. Pappy is just not sure about it and I know from the experience with Romie it’s going to take a little while for him to get used to it. Shilo is all for it and really wants him to play with her but she seems to understand that she shouldn’t bug him too much until he warms up to her.
So far she has yet to pee or poop outside. She doesn’t seem to get it but that will come with time.
I’m also pretty sure I overfed her last night and the results were three big poops. One on the carpet as she got away from me and two in her crate when we woke up this morning. Lesson learned.
She has quite a little personality. Very playful and active but also very cuddly and cute. She will curl up on you and fall asleep once she realizes that playtime is over. She is a chewer though. Understandably because she is just getting used to her teeth and all but we need to get some chew toys stat if we want to keep our furniture and clothing intact. 🙂
Also very whiny in her crate for the first ten minutes or so before she settles down. I’m thinking that will diminish over time as she gets used to it.
Today she goes to the vets to get all her shots and tests and such done. I will update later about that.
Oh, and did I mention that I finished my first half marathon? Heh, yeah so there’s that. 🙂
The Day I Should Have Stayed In Bed.
I apparently learned nothing from last Friday night when I had an iced coffee at rehearsal and then couldn’t get to sleep. Yup, I did the same thing again. So this morning I woke up around 9:30ish and played with the dog a bit before my alarm clock Rob told me I had to be in the shower and out of the house soon. So I showered and picked out my clothes and before I knew it I was running late. Rob nuked some leftover Mexican food(chimi and rice) and put it in my bag and handed me our new Starbucks iced coffee container. If you haven’t seen them they are just a beverage container that snaps shut so it doesn’t leak. This was our first use of the cup…this comes into play later.
I headed out of the house and discovered our neighbor had some friends parked right outside our gate. After many attempts at backing up and moving forward, backing up and moving forward, I was finally able to make it out of our driveway and head out(it is important to note that this particular neighbor was the man that spearheaded a campaign to get NO PARKING signs put in on our street. There is one right where his friend parked their car…)
As I hit the road I remember that today is the Carmel Valley Fiesta. I remember this because there is a man standing in the middle of the road holding a detour sign and waving me onto a street that I am not familiar with. I shrug it off and follow the rest of the traffic, popping open the spout to my new iced coffee cup and taking a slurp. Eventually I realize I am not going in the correct direction and have to stop and turn around. This would be strike two I believe.
Finally on familiar ground I start over the grade. This is a road where you go up over a very curvy mountain top and down the other side. I realize I am starving so I pop open the container of food Rob has so wonderfully provided for me and eat the rest of the chimichanga like a wild savage while navigating to the top of the grade. At the top I reach for my iced coffee. Having drank from it before there is absolutely no reason for me to think that there should be a problem. I flip the top open and am immediately showered all over my right leg with coffee.
So I guess there is this thing with airtight containers and elevation…
Um, yeah.
Cursing and trying to steer over curvy roads in search of napkins, I decide that I am not currently liking today.
I make it into Monterey and was cut off at a stop light from someone who ran the light, leaving me in the middle of the intersection. Still not liking today.
Traffic was hell and I managed to get into rehearsal right on time(I usually like to be a few minutes early).
Rehearsal was fine and when we were released I headed out to my car. Now this part, I admit was totally my fault. I was parked in a 90 minute spot and totally forgot to go out and move my car. Yeah, I got my very first parking ticket.
I was done. Defeated. The day had won and I had lost. I got in the car and decided the hell with the diet! I had heard fabulous things about Gianni’s Pizza and it was right up the road so I headed on over.
Oh. My. God. That was the best pizza I had ever had. I got the Alfredo pizza and it was so good I even ate the mushrooms(hate mushrooms!).
My original plan was to go shoe shopping for the vow renewal but I just couldn’t imagine it. Not today.
So let’s review:
Saturday, August 7 2010=shitty
Gianni’s Pizza=fabulous
Thank you and good night.
About Me
I am a 40 something married woman living in California.
I enjoy knitting and crocheting, watching crap movies, snuggling with my two adorable dogs and trying to be a good person.
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