Happy Thanksgiving!

Image via Wikipedia

So many things for which to be thankful:

family and friends

Eva, Rex, and Zeli (my personal home menagerie)

my house

the job that pays for the above

a wonderful year of multisport adventure

so I guess that means my health

peanut butter and bananas

the local coffee shop, for beverages and community

hand-me-down clothes that have spared me the terror of shopping for a season or two

my 1996 Corolla that with $2,000 of work this year will last another 100K miles so that i can tote the critters to the vet and myself to sporty stuff without a monthly car payment

my brain, which so far seems to be mostly in good shape

crossword puzzles, for helping to exercise this mind

the co-workers who talk loudly and remind me of the change i don't want to be

snarkiness, and the internet's acceptance thereof

this community of followers and blog buddies that i've come to rely on for daily entertainment and inspiration

Bulldogge WoTDs

Though I check my WoTD widget on a, well, daily basis, I haven't been much inspired to incorporate any into blog posts. I fear for you, my readers, and your vocabulary building so here goes:

Words of the Day filtered through Bully Puppy lens

Zeli, whose name does mean cabbage in Czech, is hardly a macédoine* in a room. She commands one's attention as does a proper entree. Alas her behaviors still puzzle me as a strange blend of brave and curious with shy and aloof..in this a veritable macédoine** of non-verbal cues.

Is it unreasonable that I perhaps mollycoddle*** to a degree? Can I not indulge my own desire to snuggle and hold the puppy who is growing so rapidly that before long I, even with my IronMuscles, won't be able to pick her up?

Speaking of her growth, at our first vet visit four weeks ago she weighed in at 21 pounds. Last week she topped the scale at 27.7 pounds when we went in for another round of puppy shots. My payments to the vet, as well as to Chuck & Don's (my favorite pet gear store), are no small pittance****. Alas the monetary expenditure is repaid in puppy kisses and living room poops.

Wait one moment, poos in the house are hardly a douceur*****!! I suspect little Zeli knows this, and thus hence delivering fewer such gestures.

Ah puppys and vocabulary.

Nov. 24
macédoine
\mass-uh-DWAHN\
noun
*1 : a confused mixture : medley
**2 : a mixture of fruits or vegetables served as a salad or cocktail or in a jellied dessert or used in a sauce or as a garnish

Nov. 22
mollycoddle
\MAH-lee-kah-dul\
verb
***: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention

Nov. 21
pittance
\PIT-unss\
noun****
: a small portion, amount, or allowance; also : a meager wage or remuneration

Nov. 12
douceur
\doo-SER\
noun
***: a conciliatory gift

Ways to stay fit when not actually training

After recovering from Whistlestop, I decided it was time to really rest my sporty self for both physical and mental reasons. That said I haven't wanted to become a complete couch potato, despite the encouragement of the cool days with shortened hours of sunlight. Now that the puppy is around, I have added incentive to sit about cuddling, warm under blankets.

Pre-puppy and R's new job, Robin and I made it to the gym to swim. I fell off the 100 pushups plan thanks to a nasty cold and then a puppy (very hard to do push-ups with a playful pooch around!). We have made it out running a bit more, but really I might even fall below recommended daily allowances for "exercise" these days.

I'm not too worried. Training will begin again in January. I won't loose all muscle and cardiovascular health in the meantime. It is important to me to have variety and keep my mind engaged. With many interests, I value apportioning time to the house, reading, cooking, not to mention the critters.

The eating-disordered me though is surely freaked out that I'll get FAT...that is fatter than I am (remember, that is crazy libgyrl talking there). Interesting thing is that I've probably dropped a couple of pounds since IM. Lost muscle, sure...but some pants fit a itsy bitsy bit better. The NYT has some relatively recent thoughts on exercise v. weight loss. Many endurance athletes, especially of the female variety, will tell you that training is often the worst time to attempt poundage loss.

Anyway, I'm really rambling today. Rainy Monday, not bringing me down today, but possibly messing with my intellect!

Activities that I've found to wear me out, cause a sweat, make muscles sore:
(most recent first)

1 hour of edging a back yard sidewalk for the first time in a decade using only a flat head shovel

mixing a very full compost pile

parking on the top of the ramp and using the stairs

moving furniture, washing walls, and spakling in holes all by one's short self

Scrubbing bathroom while monitoring laundry

carrying around a baby bulldogge whose put on the brakes on a walk

raking leaves and mowing the lawn


huh, that list seems shorter than I thought it would be. oops.

Among the many changes

Any major life change with cause a ripple effect of minor life changes. If this is news to you, I have a feeling you need to mix things up a bit. This statement too from a person who rather likes routine. It is the structure upon which sanity and creativity live.

Properly managed change is the topic of plenty self help and MBA text books. BORING. Probably useful, but since it has been done and is BORING, I'll not cover it here. I bet though the concept of personal flexibility (and no I don't be a touch your toes test, though it is good to be able to do that too) gets a chapter or two in those books. Like many people, I can attest to the benefits of just rolling with them thar punches.

Puppy. Let me count the changes. 1. 2. 3.... Among then many big and small is my recent (temporary?) abandonment of bus riding to work. I've been an avid bus commuter and often enough other time bus rider for 7 or 8 years. Three, no, four different households. Two, nope, Three different job sites. I love riding the bus!

I can count those reasons too: less stress, no parking worries, no parking costs, no freakin' parking tickets when you forget to move your car, less gas costs, lower car insurance premiums. Then there are the FUN reasons: people watching, people listening, flirting with with other riders, seeing the changes in the neighborhood around you. Oh the good karma: reducing traffic through our neighborhoods, reducing single car user damages (emissions, oil, noise, etc), supporting our public transit.

Image by ladymay79 via Flickr

Really, can you tell...I LOVE riding the bus. If only I had ever lived on the light rail line, all of the above + my adoration of trains. I'd have been in transit heaven.

Alas, puppy needs to be let out in the middle of my work day. She just can't hold it for over 8 hours (and as of late she's not even making it 4 hours!). My busing options will not get me home and back to work in less than a couple of hours in the middle of the day. Bummer. So what is a bus rider to do?

Buy a parking pass to the nearby ramp. Uff. Guilt. Financial despair (its 30 bucks more per month than my beloved bus pass!). And then I use it. Confusion ... what is this ... I LOVE it!!

I can be from my desk to my home door in less than 20 minutes. What?! I can leave for or from work at ANY time. Huh?! I can stop at the grocery store on the way home and buy ice cream without worrying it will melt on the bus wait/ride or walk home!! (okay, that isn't a good thing for my waist line).

Anyway, I do miss the bus. I'll get back to it someday, but for the moment I'm trying to not feel too guilty about my new found love of the parking pass. Good news is, I still HATE driving (well actually just the bloody morons on the road, but that is another post) ... so don't worry public transit, I'll be back.

Bullie Snores

In case there was any disbelief when I wrote that my puppy snores.  This is about a medium level snore.

Huh, I now notice the "upload a video button" is gone from my edit screen.  Dammit, I'll investigate and get back to you.

Fixed!

On a scale of 1-5 (5 is loudest) this is about a 3.5: