Mind Reader

Sometimes I swear that Zoey can read my mind. The other day I was thinking about asking Ben if we could go on a family walk. I hadn't done anything except think it and all of a sudden Zoey started to go crazy, racing towards the door and looking all excited. Then, a few days later I again thought about going on a walk. And wouldn't you know, Zoey knew what I was thinking again. I need to be careful about what I think!

Zoey vs. Carnitas

On Monday we picked up a tray of precooked carnitas for Ben and my brother to have for dinner. I cooked it up and got the rest of the meal ready and then headed off to book club. When I got home, Ben greeted me with a hug and a kiss. Then said, "It wasn't my fault." Uh-oh. Turns out the carnitas was left a little too close to the counter edge and Zoey helped herself to the rest of it (probably a pound +). *sigh* I wasn't upset, but now I had to come up with something for dinner on Tuesday.

We figured that her little system would be going crazy, so I worked from home on Tuesday. Good thing too. Shortly after lunch she started to need to go outside. She had several messes outside and then seemed fine. She stayed up with Ben while I went to bed. Good thing too. She ended up going out twice more and vomiting twice too. Poor little girl. They came to bed then I was up with her twice again. So, once again I am working from home to keep an eye on her. So far she seems fine, but I don't want to take any chances. Unfortunately, I don't think she will learn from this experience. Oh, well.

Tick

Saturday I had a first - I found a wood tick on my head! I was talking to my brother on the phone when I must have felt something because I went to brush my hair back, and I felt something. I went to the bathroom and there it was - my first tick. I hollered at Ben to come get it off of me (I don't think I was freaking out too much). He told me to get off the phone (sorry, Jake) and then he would help me. Luckily, it hadn't decided to latch on to me yet, so it was easy and painless.

Tuesday I found a tick on Zoey's neck. That is a tricky place to find one and remove one because her hair is so thick. And Zoey isn't sure what's going on, so she wants to get up. With me holding the hair back, Ben pulled it out.

Yesterday I found a tick on Zoey's ear. A little bit more of a sensitive spot than her neck, but she didn't react at all when Ben pulled it off.

Due to recent events, my morning routine now includes a clothes check, a full body check and a Zoey check. I've heard that this is a bad year for ticks, so I will probably run to the store and buy some stuff for Zoey.

Wild Times

I guess there is a perk to being one of the last in the office on a Friday of a holiday weekend - I got 4 free tickets to the Wild game! I was so excited! I haven't been to a hockey game in forever. We had to ditch out on dinner with the in-laws, Malachi and my parents, but I think they will forgive us. The game was pretty good. We lost, but it was exciting up until the final buzzer.

After the game the four of us (Grant, Maddy, Ben, me) went to Wasabi sushi restaurant. So jealous. I couldn't eat what I usually do, so I had to stick to cooked options. They were tasty, don't get me wrong, but everyone else was raving about the salmon and yellow fin. A few more months....

We got home after midnight. Since we had guests we didn't want to disturb, we parked in the driveway. We were sure that Zoey would wake up the neighborhood. But no Zoey to greet us. Ben checked her kennel, but I figured she had gone up to bed. Sure enough, curled up on Ben's pillow fast asleep. I quietly called her name but she didn't even stir. So I put my hand on her side. She woke up with a start! I don't think I've ever seen her so startled.

On My Own

Ben left Thursday for India. He'll be back next Sunday. So far, I have been keeping reasonably busy.
Thursday night I was going to poker (just to socialize, not play) but Zoey got sick again, so I decided to stay home.
Friday after work I took a nap and then went out to dinner with some friends. I had so much fun. And I laughed so much. We went to Pop restaurant in Minneapolis. The waiter brought us much amusement. When he came to the table he informed us that there was only one bowl of soup left and only one glass of a certain wine left. Ok. Seemed strange since it was still early for a Friday night, but whatever. After he took our order he came back a few minutes later to tell me that they only had one order of flautas left (I ordered two since it was an appetizer and he said it was small). So I changed my order to one order of flautas and one order of empanadas. A few minutes after that he came back to verify Heidi and Katie's orders. When the food arrived he discovered that he forgot to put Alyssa's order in. He told us he would treat us to dessert. I should also mention that he decided to speak Spanish to me... because I ordered Mexican food?!? Then he brought the dessert menus. We asked what he would recommend and he said the sampler. But since that was the most expensive dessert he told us he would chip in $5. Ok. I guess he didn't really mean that he was going to treat us to dessert. Whatever. But despite all that, we had a great time there. Actually, some of our laughs were around our waiter, so maybe without him it wouldn't have been so fun.
Saturday Zoey and I slept in until 7:30. We made some banana bread (ok, I made that) and I also cooked her some rice and chicken. Friday she only ate 1 cup of food instead of her normal 3 cups. When I got home from my dinner, she was more interested in sleeping than eating even though her stomach was growling like crazy. I figured maybe her stomach needed some easy food. She loved her breakfast. She kept asking for more. After that I met my mom at the mall to do some maternity shopping. I was only going to get a couple of pairs of work pants... but the sales lady and my mom got me to try on a whole bunch of stuff. I ended up with a bunch of clothes. But they should last until the baby comes. Hopefully Ben won't freak out too much when he sees the bill...
Sunday so far has been spent cleaning the kitchen. I washed dishes and cleaned off the counters. I washed all the cupboards, cleaned all the appliances and swept and mopped the floor. It looks nice. When I talked to Ben I told him he better be impressed. :) Now I'm trying to figure out what to eat this week so I can go to the grocery store.

Good Report

Zoey's vet appointment went well. Aside from the fact that she really did not want to be there. In the exam room she kept scratching at the door. Poor pup.

The vet we saw was super nice. I liked her a lot. She listened to Zoey's eating adventures as of late. Since the only thing "wrong" seems to be that Zoey is acting hungry, she suggested adding veggies to her food to help add more volume to her food without adding too many more calories. Everything else (ears, eyes, mouth, stomach, heart, lungs) was great. Her blood tests came back normal too.

The interesting thing is that apparently our little girl has been losing weight. Remarkable considering how much extra she has been getting lately. But surprising too since we weighed her just about two months ago and she hadn't lost anything. This didn't really click (timeline) when we were at the vet's so Ben and I will start to weigh her weekly and monitor her weight. If she continues to lose, we will call back into the vet to see what could be causing that. In the meantime, lucky girl gets veggies. :)

And the Doctor Said...

Friday night we went out to dinner with Grant and his current girl and David and Heather. We went to Loring Pasta Bar. It was the first time I had been there. I had been "craving" mac and cheese. I was so excited when it was on their menu. ( I put craving in quotes because this is a fairly common craving for me and has nothing to do with the little person inside of me). We had a great time at dinner.

Towards the end, I was getting very uncomfortable. I wasn't sure if I had to go to the bathroom, my pants were too tight or my body was tired of sitting. When we got home it hurt to walk. I wasn't too concerned and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and the pain was still there. I wasn't overly worried yet, but I decided I should tell Ben. He said I should call the doctor. Ok, fine. When I explained what I was feeling to the doctor, she said it sounded like just a pulled muscle and that unless it got worse, not to worry about it. So, instead of taking down the Christmas tree (yes, it's still up), I sat on the couch all day.

On Sunday Ben and I ran to the store together to buy some food for the big game. We made 1899 BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches, veggies and dip, chips and guacamole and brownies. Who knew that eating like it's 1899 could be so darn tasty? When we got home from the store I discovered an empty wrapper to a 300 gram (14 oz) chocolate bar in our bedroom. I called downstairs to Ben to see how much was actually left (I brought it home from my layover in Germany in the fall and he had slowly been eating the bars). He said there was a whole one. Yep, that's the wrapper I found.

After scolding Zoey, Ben ran down to the computer to see what we should do while I called the emergency vet. The vet said to induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide. After she emptied her stomach we were to then bring her in to get some active charcoal (to help absorb the toxins). I hated the thought of giving her HP so I gave her an egg instead (that usually makes her puke). She ate it happily and didn't throw up. So, she got the HP anyway. Not a fun experience for any of us. But sure enough, a few minutes later she vomited outside. We didn't get the whole dose (2 oz) in her, so we decided to go ahead and finish the dose. She was expecting it and it was even more difficult to get any down her throat. After waiting 15 minutes with no results, we gave up and went upstairs.

Ben and I then debated if we should take her in. It wasn't a lethal dose. And I'm pretty sure the vet (who isn't our vet) wanted us to come in so we could pay them. As we were discussing what we should do, Zoey vomited again. This time a lot. On our carpet (on a side note - this is really gross, but it smelled like chocolate so for the first time in my life I didn't mind cleaning it up). We went to work cleaning it up. I think the carpet looks pretty good. Whew. I called our vet today (Zoey needs her annual check up anyway) and mentioned the chocolate episode. They did not seem worried about it based on her size and the size of the bar and that we were able to get her to vomit it back up. Poor little girl. But tomorrow at her appointment we will be talking about her eating habits.

Bread and Butter

I have no idea what is going on with our little girl. She used to be such an angel. But in the past few weeks, she has not been. But I'm not entirely sure it's her fault. Lately she seems to be hungry a lot. It used to be that she would eat when we fed her and if we forgot, no biggie. Now she is actually asking for food. And apparently she is getting hungry outside of meal time.

Before Christmas she ate a whole package of turtles (my fault - left the completely sealed package on the floor. Interestingly, she didn't touch the cashews). Thankfully the chocolate didn't make her sick.

The next week she managed to get into the pantry (the door was probably ajar) and ate a sleeve and a half of Saltine crackers and the rest of a bag of potato chips (we found an unopened sleeve of crackers in the spare bedroom - stash for later??).

Last night (while we were home) she managed to grab a new loaf of bread off the dining room table. Pretty much ate the entire thing. This morning I noticed that the butter dish was licked clean.

She has a vet appointment when we get back from vacation. I'll talk to the vet then about this. I'm just worried that we aren't feeding her enough. (But she hasn't been loosing weight). Poor girl!

Quinoa, Deer and Pants

Last night I made some quinoa for the first time. According to Wikipedia, it is a grain related to beets, spinach and tumbleweed. I liked it. So did Ben. I guess we will be adding this to our list of food we like (which is a very long list) and to the list of food we can eat (long story). If anyone has a recipe that they like with quinoa, pass it on!

This morning on our walk, all of a sudden Zoey got super excited. She started hopping on her hind legs and pulling my arms out of my sockets. It was pretty dark this morning, but I did make out the outlines of two deer and their white behinds. Zoey really wanted to chase them. Thankfully, I was able to keep her under control and on the leash.

I think today I am retiring my walking pants. This makes me sad as they have been my loyal companion for many years (along with Zoey, of course). The other day the button popped off. No biggie, I can just sew it back on. But then today the zipper broke. While it's true I can fix that too, it sounds like a lot of work for my raggy, stained and worn pair of pants.

Being Productive

This weekend Ben has been at a conference by the MOA. Every day starts early and ends late so I have pretty much been on my own. Yesterday after our run, Zoey and I cleaned our bedroom and bathroom from top to bottom. It had gotten way out of control. I feel so good about the room now. Almost all the clothes are put away (the ones that aren't are from today's washing) and everything is put in order. I do have a pile of things that need to find new homes. Unfortunately, that new home is probably my office/craft room downstairs. That room has seen some progress, but not there yet. Maybe I'll hide the box of stuff until that room is under control too.

Anyway, today I did some grocery shopping. Went to the dog park (as it turns out, 80 and sunny makes for a hot day for a black dog). And did some cooking for the week. I bought a full chicken and roasted it. Once it cooled down I shredded some and left the rest in pieces. That will be lunch and dinner tomorrow. (Dinner will transform it into a chicken pot pie type dish). Kitchen is all cleaned up.

Sometimes I am so productive I scare myself.

The Fox and the Hound

Last night Zoey and I were home alone. I had fallen asleep downstairs watching TV (a favorite pastime when Ben is away - no joke, I just can't explain it). All of a sudden I was jerked from my sleep by Zoey barking. She was upstairs and she came running downstairs and kept barking while looking through the sliding door. I got up to investigate. Apparently Zoey does not appreciate it when there is a fox in our yard. I could see the silhouette of it on the hill by the pond. Then I watched it cross the street. Zoey would not settle down right away.

Today I was going to go for a run. Zoey watched while I was putting on my shoes and was getting so excited, that I brought her with. How could I say no to that excited little girl? So, instead of 4 miles we went 3 (her limit). Probably a good idea - didn't realize how humid it is out there. Yuck! Zoey was a very good dog. She didn't bark or pull when we passed people on the trail. Maybe she's finally figured out her manners.

Oh, and last week was Zoey's 6th birthday. I meant to go to McDonald's and get a cheeseburger for her, but I forgot to. So instead she got a rawhide.

Hungry, Hungry Puppy

I know it's probably my fault because I think I forgot to give Zoey breakfast on Sunday. I know it's probably my fault because I left a few oatmeal cream pies and a granola bar on the floor of our bedroom...

Three Little Speckled Frogs

The other night when I let Zoey out before bed, there were three teeny, tiny frogs on the cement slab. They were so cute, I went and got Ben to see them. He wasn't nearly as impressed as I was. Oh, well. And now, every night since then, I have seen at least one little frog out there. So cute! Zoey has tried to sniff them, and that's about all.

Perfect Walk

This mornings walk was fabulous!
1. There were plenty of stars to look at. I love looking up to see constellations. Although, I've been thinking of expanding my list to include more than 3-4 that I recognize.
2. An owl was out. I'm not exactly sure why I like it when the owl hoots at us as we walk along, I just do.
3. As we were coming down the home stretch, I saw a large dog cross the street. I thought it was very odd until I realized that it wasn't a dog at all - it was a deer! A second one followed it. I'm pretty sure that Zoey didn't see them. Or else she just didn't care at that point. But as we got to the part where our paths crossed, I know she could smell them because she got very interested in the air. I spotted the pair by the pond in the middle of our development. They looked so graceful and peaceful! I hope I will be able to see more of them.

A Million Things

Ok, not quite. But since it has been a long time since I have posted, this might turn out to be a long one. :)
1. Today was day 1 of being drug free. Getting out of the car and bending too far forward or backward still causes some pain, but everything else is great! So glad to be back to normal. As I am able to move more I will start to add back stretches and exercises to strengthen those muscles to hopefully prevent any more outages.
2. Holding steady/down slightly on my weight. Overall I am down almost 2 pounds from when I started. My cardio has just been on the exercise bike since I haven't been able to jump in too deep with a sore back yet. Hope to get back to my videos this week.
3. The other day when I was at the kitchen sink I looked out the window and saw a very impressive sized pheasant. Moments later he flew away with his hen. How cool!
4. Zoey went to the vet yesterday. She has gained 12 pounds since last year. Yikes! It's a combo of not running 2-3 miles each morning (at our old house she got free rain of the woods for our morning walk. Now she is on the leash for a brisk 1 mile walk), and she seems to love her food. We used to just fill her bowl whenever and she would just eat what she was hungry for. Now she'll eat whatever we put out for her. So, we are back to measuring her food. When the weather improves we will start taking her to the dog park again so she can run. In a few months we will take her back for a weigh in.
5. I found out yesterday that I am for sure going to India in April for work. I am so excited to have the chance to be going back there. The hard part will be to work while there. I have such wonderful friendships with so many over there that I truly wish I could just hang out with them. But alas, as long as the General is footing the bill, I will have to be productive.
6. I'm supposed to be working on my book and sales page and stuff. But I'm feeling a little lazy, so I'm wasting time by updating my blog. Not that this is a waste of time, it's just that I'm "supposed" to be doing something else.
Ok, so I only made it to 6 things, not a million. Oh, well. I doubt you would have made it past #100. :)

Zoey and the Owl

On this morning's walk, we heard an owl. This wasn't too surprising since we walk along a nature preserve on the east end of our development. In a way I was kind of surprised that I hadn't heard one before. Zoey is not a huge fan of hooting owls. She picked up her pace and wasn't doing her usual stop every 5 seconds to sniff. She really didn't like it when we turned up the street and the hoots started to echo off the houses. Such a brave doggie.

Free at Last!

For those of you who are following the saga of Zoey and her kennel, here is the next installment.

Before we left on vacation we bought Zoey a new kennel. This one is all metal. We were hoping this would keep our destructive little girl out of trouble. Well, she doesn't like the kennel. Ever since we got home from vacation she has been trying to escape during the day. I'm serious! Every morning we re-bend the bars so she will be secure.

I'm sure you can guess what happened today... We got home from work, opened the door and there she was with her toy and wagging her tail! Somehow she managed to squeeze through a gap she created. So for some period of time today she had free reign of the house. It doesn't look like she got into any trouble (good girl!). But Ben isn't convinced yet that she should just always roam free. We'll see...

Getting Older

(No, not me. Although, I guess I am too).

When we first adopted Zoey, without fail she would sleep in to 6:30 at the latest. Sometimes she would go back to bed, but most of the time she was ready to be up. Although I am a morning person, there were many weekend mornings that I was not happy to be getting up. The funny thing was that if it were just Ben and Zoey at home, she would let him sleep in. Anyway, lately, I have noticed that she is pretty content to sleep in too. Don't get me wrong, in the mornings when my alarm goes off, she still is super-hyper waiting for me to get ready for our walk. But on the weekends she will just sleep. I love it, but it also makes me sad that she is getting older. I have always known that I will outlive Zoey, but it makes me sad to see that day creeping up.

Every Christmas for 10 years at least, my Grandma and I have gotten together to make Krumkake. It all started one year when I was invited to a cookie exchange (thanks Amy!!) and I thought it would be fun to bring krumkake. (Not a great cookie to bring to an exchange - they are putsy to make and very delicate, but anyway). Ever since then we get together to make some. Granted, we usually only make a few dozen instead of the dozens of dozens I did the first year. :) I really enjoy the time with my Grandma. It is the most concentrated one-on-one time I get with her throughout the year. The one "bad" thing about having this time with my Grandma is that from year to year I can see how she has aged. Her memory isn't as sharp as it was in years past. Her energy has diminished. It makes me so glad that we have this tradition, but also sad that she too, is getting older. She is 82, so she is getting up there. I think to some degree most people don't "believe" that their loved ones age. I want to live in a place where no one ages...

Turns out this is a rather depressing post in a season of joy. Sorry!

Bruce, Jake and Zoey and the Snow Man

Last weekend we found out that Bruce Campbell was in town for the premier of his latest movie, "My Name is Bruce." We checked for tickets on Saturday morning and the only showing with seats left was the midnight one. So we decided to be young and hip and we went to the movie. In Uptown. Yep, we're that hip. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Bruce did a Q&A before the movie. He was hilarious! And the crowd was great. For a movie genre that I don't really care for, I thought the movie was pretty good. For a B movie, anyway.

Last night Jake came home! My dad was going to pick him up. My mom and I tagged along to surprise him. It was so good to see my little brother again. Dad took us out for dinner for us to start catching up. Jake picked GC. I was very happy with his choice. :) We have some scheduled time to go Christmas shopping together and he also warned me that he will be over a lot to play Guitar Hero and whatnot. I'm so looking forward to it.

This morning on our walk, Zoey was a very brave dog. As we were walking past a house, she growled and let out a deep, menacing bark. At a snow man. She's such a good protector. Sometimes I wish I could be her for one day. There is this one spot on our walk that fascinates her. I can't even drag her away until she is ready to leave. She sticks her snout in the snow and just sniffs for a few minutes. And everyday she goes straight to the spot. What's there that is so interesting? This morning she took so long sniffing that I think her paws were getting cold - she started lifting up on leg at a time off the ground. Silly girl.

This weekend is going to be busy. I am hoping to only work a half day today so I can run some errands. Then tonight I have a girl's night. Tomorrow night we have an Ugly Sweater party. Then finally on Sunday I have a bridal shower to go to.

Escape

I think I mentioned a while back that we had moved Zoey to the mud room for while we were gone from home. That turned out to not be the brightest idea we ever had. She went to work on shredding her blankets (this was expected). Then one day she shredded my sweater. Granted it was my fault to leave it where she could get it, but she has NEVER destroyed something that wasn't hers before. Also, she would jump up against the door and started to scratch the paint on the door and the walls. But the breaking point for Ben was last week.

I got home one day after Ben. He came out the front door and told me to use that door instead of the garage door. Turns out that Zoey wanted a Mountain Dew. She tore open the box and managed to puncture a can. Turns out she didn't care for MD and there was pop everywhere on the floor. The next day she was back in her kennel.

Rick is staying with us this weekend and I told him of the new Zoey arrangement. He was so surprised when he came home yesterday to find her out of her kennel. (Luckily I had closed the mud room door). He looked at the kennel and saw that the door was still locked. She somehow managed to turn her kennel so the hole was facing out, and climb through the hole that she had made months ago. I guess we will be buying a new kennel soon.

Yesterday it finally snowed enough and is cold enough that we have a slight covering on the ground. Zoey eats the snow every chance that she gets. I just hope she doesn't lick the door frame and get her tongue stuck. :)