Echo?

Is there an echo on my blog?

I say this for two reasons.

1. It has been abandoned. Sorry blog.
2. I tend to repeat myself.

Now if anyone is paying attention, they will notice my little widget showing my weight loss is no longer impressive.  That's right, I have gained a lot of weight. Now I could make all sorts of excuses, but it comes down to I just didn't care, plus I was enjoying my desire to eat after getting off my back pain meds. I kept telling myself that I should stick to my calories, but MAN, food is delicious! And after 4 months of not wanting to eat, I just didn't care, I was happy to be hungry again!!!

BUT, I am back on the wagon. And to give myself some additional motivation to stay on said wagon, I signed up for a "diet bet". It is a website that you pay money into a pot. If you make the goal (in my case it is 10%) I get to share the pot at the end. If you do not make the goal, you lose your money.

The bet I signed up for is 10% in 6 months. For me, that is more weight than I wish it was, but I am determined to meet that goal.

The first month, there is a mini goal of losing 3% of your body weight. Which means this month is going to be really kicking it into gear. My goal is 2 work outs a week, not including puppy time. Now two doesn't really seem like a lot, but when you have NOT been doing any exercise besides walking, it is a lot.

Tonight I kick it off with my return to water aerobics. I have missed hanging out with the old ladies, so back I go! Plus, I figure it is a good way to ease back into working out.

As for other news, Lulu is turning out to be a great dog. The mouthy play (biting) has declined significantly. And she is excelling in training. She will even come to me and sit at a "front" at the dog park, which if you saw her at the dog park you would know how big of a deal this is. She LOVES other dogs. In fact, if there is a really fun dog around (one she can chase) she doesn't seem to notice people but she will come when I call. She has also been throwing her own toys lately. It is pretty funny to see.

PotPie has also accepted the Lu. Sure there is occasionally hissing, but Pie also sits by Lu on the couch and the bed. This makes for a calm house, which I love.

So back to goals. With the diet bet, I am weighing in weekly, so hopefully the number on the widget will start going in the right direction again. I will also try to blog more. While I know I have a limited audience, I think it will help me be a little more accountable. Besides, I don't really like to post this kind of stuff on the Facebook.

My dog.

This is how she sleeps. ALL. THE. TIME.

I do admit, it is one of the things I love about her.

DNA, Camping, and Chickens

DNA
After what seems like AGES, in May, I finally learned what Lulu's breed is or should I say breeds are, as there are a lot.

Ms. Lulu is a Golden Retriever, Irish Water Spaniel, Boxer, Labrador Retriever, Scottish Terrier Mix. I am so glad they added "mix" on the end, so there is no mistaking that she is a MUTT! The cutest mutt in the world!

The report, also, gave me the breeds with the strongest statistical likelihood to be the unidentified breed.

Now, I know I only have a MS in Engineering, so this is probably over my head, but how can they tell how much below a breed is under the Detection Threshold???  Oh well, I am going to pretend she is part Scottish Deerhound, because that way she is more Scottish and she would be awesome with a Scottish accent.

CAMPING

In June, I decided Ms. Lulu needed to go camping. Really, I just wanted to use my tent I bought years ago and I needed to get out of the heat.

We went to Bridger Lake on the north slope of the Uintas, on probably the coldest weekend of the summer. It was still beautiful. And I was so happy with our camping site. We had a perfect grove of trees to set the tent up in.

This is my favorite picture of the year. She loved the grass, enough that I keep thinking I should add grass in my backyard.

Her favorite thing to do is caught in this next series of photos.

Man, that dog LOVES rolling. She is rolls all the time, and if she isn't rolling she is hanging out on her back. She is such a different dog than Nova, but she is exactly what I needed.

Not only was it the coldest weekend (That is probably an exaggeration, probably.), it was the weekend of the "Super Moon". Technically, I took this photo the day before it was "Super", but it was an amazingly beautiful moon. I love camping with a full/near full moon.

And now CHICKENS....

My new-ish neighbor, who I hadn't met, has chickens. The chickens are all fancy (aka not white chickens) and wander freely on his property, which is fine, except they can be seen from the sidewalk AND his property is an apartment complex. Well, Ms. Lulu noticed them one day while we were walking, and the next day as I was taking out the trash, she slipped under my arm, as I was struggling with my broken gate, and ran down to greet them. By greet them, I mean chase. MAN, she had fun chasing those chickens. We are still in process of training, so she doesn't really come to her name, especially if she is having fun. The dog training instructor informed us we needed to call our dogs in happy voices, so they think they are coming to something fun. Well, as I am trying to "happily" call her and convince her that I am more exciting than chasing chickens (I'm not), the neighbor aka Chicken Man, came out and started screaming at me. It made it really hard for me to stay "happy". Now, I didn't want her chasing the chickens any more than he wanted her chasing the chickens, but I was doing all I could. When I finally managed to grab her, I ended up carrying her back to my house, after exchanging some lovely words, because there was no way I was going to get her home otherwise.

The next day, I emailed Animal Control to make sure he had a permit for his poultry. I got a reply that they couldn't find one in the computer, but they would send an officer out. Great. Well, when I went home for lunch, I had a nice little "Notice of Violation" of a "vicious or attack animal" on my door. SWEET! The officer had written on the bottom that the dude did indeed have a permit (that is not in the system???) and that next time Lulu was caught chasing chickens, I could be criminally charged. EXCELLENT!!  

Fast forward to later that night, I am getting back from a movie, open my gate, Ms. Lulu takes off running. DAMN! CHICKENS! I sprint after her and made it in time to see that the chickens are actually in the coup for the night, so she can't see them. When she noticed her little friends were not there, she turned and ran back to me. But as luck would have it, Chicken Man heard me calling her and came out to greet me with some choice words. I just welcomed him to the neighborhood...okay, I didn't, but I amazingly enough did not swear at him...just yelled that she was a puppy in training.

Ms. Lulu is now always leashed when I leave the fence or house with her. She doesn't run off when my immediate neighbor takes her, as he does every day so she can play with his pup. So I guess it is a case of the "kid" only being naughty when the "parent" is around.

Stay tuned for a post about my gate.