Pa-Tee-Tee

Our newest foster:





Patina, just turned 6 in January, a little red brindle girl. She was adopted out of MA group (who expressed NO interest in her return to them or a financial assist to the group here who took her in!). A bounceback - her people had a few reasons why they couldn't keep her but I think it boils down to the usual, 'she just didn't fit into their lives anymore'. Thankfully, they did contact a local group that didn't have room for her but put the word out and so W's group took her.

She is a very sweet girl, loads of spunk and personality. She entered our home and was at home, relaxed and ruling the roost, within 5 minutes. However, yesterday, when I took her to B's house for a little cat testing - it was a completely different story. They probably thought I was on crack because the playful, confident, secure dog I had been raving to them about was no where in sight. Instead, she was stressed, anxious, insecure and definitely did not relax much there. Turns out Patina is an actress. She put on a good show of confidence at my house, because, let's face it, my two boys are an embarassment of wimpiness*, even in the gentle, quiet world of greyhounds. Then Patina came up against B's three dogs, who, while very gentle and well-behaved, exude self-confidence as visible auras**. Face to face with true canine confidence, she folded like a cheap lawn chair.

She has her vet checkup today and then will be ready for a home.

*Mal and Mo are as passive as they come but they have their moments, especially Mo. They are dogs, after all. Last night, while turning the dogs out (I held Mal back so he wouldn't get pushed or jostled around), Patina hit her side and leg against the doorframe. She yelped and held her back leg up. While I tried to get around and check her out, Cosmo, who was in front of her, immediately turned around and went at her leg. Not really biting but snapping at her. He got a push and a shove and a 'Knock it off'. He immediately spun around and went at her again (she was still crying out at this point). He actually made contact this time and pulled off a little tuft of hair. Little bastard. My correction was of a harsher variety at this point (harsh meaning I really smacked his ass and in the 'Voice of God' told him 'I. SAID. KNOCK. IT. OFF.') He sulked off, properly chastened and I tended to Patina (no lasting harm done). Cosmo spent the rest of the evening avoiding me, flinching if I got to within 3 feet of him, afraid to look at me. Anyone seeing his behavior would have thought I beat him regularly. Patina spent the night, afraid to get up off the bed and afraid to go through the doors to go outside.

**Even Rimmy, who we joke is always worried and fretful. He has no problem making his wishes known. If he wants on the couch and there isn't room, he will stand there or pace until you make room or will climb up anyways and wedge his 90 lb body in a 1 foot square space.

3/4 ETA: In the interest of complete girl crush disclosure, I will also admit an addiction to Washington Week in Review - I just *heart* Gwen Ifill and listen to it as a podcast. I also listen to the McLaughlin Group - yeah. Not easy to follow as a podcast - but my girl crush on Eleanor Clift knows no bounds.

2/3 ETA: The constant political coverage is starting to get to the husband now. He has developed the habit of just yelling out, at completely random times, "HA!" in a high pitched tone, ala Chris Matthews.

I have never been a sports fan/junkie. The fact that there are networks completely devoted to sports is mindboggling to me. However, in the last few months, I am starting to understand. I have always been interested in politics but this year's campaigns have me completely obsessed. MSNBC is on every night. I told my husband this must be what sports people feel watching the sports networks.
How bad has it gotten? It is embarassing but I think I am developing a crush on Joe Scarborough. Oh, for crying out loud.....who am I kidding. There is no 'developing'. It is a full blown crush. I have my theory though. Gaze upon Joe in all his glory:




Now gaze upon an image of one of my favorite dog breeds:



The eyes have it. I must have some deep seated attraction to teeny-tiny, squinty little eyes - I would say little piggy eyes but I don't want anyone to search on piggy eyes Joe Scarborough and come up with my blog.



When I get to the point that my political crushes officially include Pat Buchanan, I promise to seek help.

Run Report

We have managed to reclaim our spot on our training schedule - yesterday was an 8 mile slow run. I have never run 8 miles before. W has never run 8 before. Cosmo has never run 8 before. It was virgin territory for us.

It was slow...........sloooooooooooooooooow. Program called for 12:58 miles. Only way we would hit that was with walking breaks. We didn't take any walking breaks. We averaged 12:18 miles. Breakdown looks like this:

Mile 1 - legs crikey and creaky. Momo thrilled to be out. We go out very slow (especially for us since we pace horribly and tend to jack rabbit our first miles) with lots of crosswalk and traffic stopping, 11:45

Mile 2 - feeling good, beautiful cold day with a wonderful blue sky and sunshine. 12:07 with a poop break, for Momo, not for us! He gets even happier afterwards. LOL

Mile 3 - crusing right along, lots of chatting. We figure if we talk, it keeps our pace down. 12:05

Mile 4 - halfway, still feeling decent, but starting to feel a little tired. Feel a little awkward, running so slow but we keep at it. 12:31

Mile 5 - I tell myself and W that we only have a 5k to do now - piece of cake, right? We can run 3.1 in our sleep. Cosmo drops back from being in front of us to running between us. 12:10

Mile 6 - I am tired. I start the bad thoughts....the "if I feel like this now, how do I think I can run more than twice this distance?" stuff. I tell W I am struggling. She gives a little pep talk - we are so close, if we stopped or walked now we would be upset later.....etc. I try to go to my 'happy place' and trudge on. 12:14

Mile 7 - No memory. I must have blacked out from sheer agony. LOL Seriously, this part of the run went through one of my least favorite sections of our course. It is also by the lake so we ran into a stiff wind for almost the whole mile. Brutal. I was warm but my face was freezing. Cosmo drops behind us for most of this mile - I think to use us as a wind break. 12:45.

Mile 8 - It's a death march. Cosmo is hanging in there (our pace is practically a walk for him) but he is still back behind us. I don't know if he is tired or just bored. At this point, I start checking Garmin obsessively, thinking that staring at the watch will make the distance numbers change quicker. Finally at 7.75, I stop and tell W we just need to listen for the 8 mile beeper. She says she is feeling it in her back, shoulders and neck. I feel tired and my legs are tired but otherwise (thanks to my core conditioning class devotion) I feel strong. In that past, that has not been the case - I usually ended my runs bent over like a 90 yr. woman. 12:45

8 miles - 1:38:32

Came home, showered - long and hot. Gave Cosmo his well-earned biscuit and turkey neck and then he settled down to sleep his well-earned, well deserved nap. I headed out to the Y and spent the next 5 hours in a cpr training. Hamstrings are a little achy but otherwise, just some tired but feeling good legs. Getting this run done was a huge mental addition in the plus column for us.

Run Report

My presence has been pretty scarce around these parts - I guess I don't have much to say if I am not running or not running well.

This week is our third week of half mar training - unfortunately it is turning into our first week. Two weeks ago, I came down ill - the two days in bed, not far from the bathroom, unable to eat, ill. Good news is I dragged myself to WW weigh in and I was down 5 lbs! Bad news is I was unable to do anything else, meaning running. The accompanying bad news is that W tends not to run unless I run, so in effect, she had a two week break - the bum! I also haven't taken a weights or core conditioning class in the past two weeks. It was one of those illness, that once the initial agony is over, there are those lingering, it takes a week or two to pass symptoms.

I am glad to say that I think I have finally thrown off all vestiges of nausea and exhaustion. W and I were determined to get back on schedule with our training - today was a 5 mile tempo run. The middle three miles were supposed to be 11:11. Now, a month ago, this wouldn't have been a problem. Today, it wasn't even a possibility. Our pace was 11:28, 11:40 and 11:58. The sad thing is, I could not have gone a smidgen faster - my effort was as if I was running much faster. The good thing is, we got our distance that was scheduled which gives us a huge mental boost. I know that if we can just stay on track with the distances, our times will come back in a few weeks.

Dub Dub Update

Weigh in is tonight.

Last week, as a group, we hit a total of 69.5 lbs. gone. In 8 weeks. We also had our first, SD, hit the 10% gone goal. She has lost 10% of her starting body weight. Two more of us are within 2-3 lbs of this 10% number too. WTH? I am stunned by these women. Abso amazing.

Maybe tonight, 75 lbs? It seems almost ridiculous to type that number out.

Run Report

Yes, the first official week of the training program and what do I have to show for it? A measly 2 miles.

I started off this week sick. I woke up Monday morning completely out of it. How sick was I? Colonoscopy prepping sick. I was unable to eat or leave my bed all of Monday and most of Tuesday. So Tuesday's tempo run did not happen. I did drag my gurgling, gaseous, nauseous self to the WW weigh in. I wanted to see what two days of havoc wrecked on my system and I wanted some credit from being so sick. 5 lbs down. In one week. Yeah, I was pretty sick. Of course, I know that as soon as I was able to keep water down I probably gained most of it right back as my poor little dessicated, dehydrated cells swelled up to their normal giant size....

I have to take a core class, teach a cycle class and meet with a total health client tonight so I didn't want to push anything but I did want to get out and stretch the legs, so to speak. I thought about doing an easy three - Cosmo is back to his old self and was rearing to go. I ended up stopping at two. First mile felt good and then it started getting crampy around 1.5 so I cut it short (I was also right by my house) at 2 miles. That was plenty. Our 7 mile is still on for tomorrow - program calls for a 12 something pace so even if I have to take walk breaks it should be do-able.

Painter guy shows up to finish the bathroom job. Painter guy has been here before and met son #2. Husband is home from work. Painter guy asks husband if he is another son he hasn't met yet. Husband is flattered, I am mortified.