No Fear

How can it be Monday night and I'm just now putting up my first post of the day?  Have you been checking back every hour on pins and needles?   (I'm kidding, I highly doubt I have people rushing to their computers to check my blog.) 

Something strange happened when Linda put us outside for our last backyard visit before bed tonight.  Neither the deck light nor the flood lights into the backyard worked.  They were fine yesterday, but tonight... darkness.  It's probably total coincidence that both bulbs burnt out at the same time, right?  Linda has been watching too many crime shows because the first thing she thought of was "someone cut the lines!" but then all the lights would be out and not just in the backyard.  But wait!  Maybe a cat burglar did that on purpose to fool her and they are wanted it dark in the backyard to execute their plan.

 Linda is really not worried at all since we have a something better than Batman, The Justice League and the Avengers guarding out house, so we'll be fine. There is no need for her to fear.

Speaking of Batman, Linda saw the movie and said it was good, especially the ending. She liked the actress who they cast to play Catwoman.  She did have to shake herself a few times to stay awake. Sitting that long in a dark theater is a recipe for sleepiness no matter how much action is on the screen. 

Where's Batman When You Need Him

Linda was all set to watch The Dark Night to prepare for sequel movie she is seeing this week.  She changed out of her church clothes, put Chim out to sun on the deck and got her favorite blanket.  Ready, set... push play.  Except she can't figure out how to get the TV switched to DVD mode, there isn't a remote for the DVD player and there are so many buttons on the DVD player she has no idea how to manually work it anyway.  OK, plan B.  Go downstairs to the lame TV and watch it on the X-Box.  Except the X box got unplugged during the router issue last week.  She does not know where to plug it back in.  Besides, she can't get the downstairs TV on the right input selection to watch the DVD even if she could get the X box plugged in correctly.  The last attempt will be to try and watch it in her laptop.  If she can't do that, then I guess she can go online and read the synopsis of The Dark Night and try to prepare herself for the next movie.  Linda.. you really need to get some help and move into the world of electronics. 

"I'll help you Linda.  Quick, to the Batmobile!"

UPDATE:  Linda watched the movie on her laptop and it was just OK.  She has high hopes that the new one will be better.  How much you want to bet part of the movie will somehow work its way into her dreams tonight? 

Olympic Bonding

"Hey Daddy, What's your favorite sport?  I like the volleyball"

Look how cute! Penelope is kicking back on the couch watching the Olympics with her Daddy.  This is such a typical baby "Tierney" picture that it is almost eerie.  Every time Linda spends time with Lil' Penny, she is reminded of Tier as an infant.  Pen's mannerisms, facial expressions, easy going personality, adventurousness (is that a word) and advanced development is so reminiscent of Aunt Tier.  Linda wasn't around Sarah as a baby, so Penny could be totally taking after her.  Taylor was a sweet, loving baby... but very clingy and not adventurous at all.  His favorite place was on his Mommy's hip, held tightly in her arms.  I know most people might think babies that are not even 4 months old don't really do much except sleep, eat and poop.  That's the thing with Penny, she seems so much older.  One thing she does get from Taylor is size.  He was a BIG baby and is a BIG guy (6'5") now.  Penny is already as long as her 6-9 month old friends.  Maybe she'll be on the Olympic volleyball team in 18 years! 

Lost Jungle

Linda is bummed she did not bring her camera to the Mini-Golf outing last night.  There were so many fun things to take pictures of too!  Her iPhone battery was dead, so she couldn't even use that.  Everyone just kept score in their heads, so she has no idea what she shot, but there were a few hole-in-ones and mostly 2-3's, so she didn't do terrible.  The only bad thing was it felt as humid as a true jungle because of the dense vegetation and water.  There are swinging monkeys, crawling spiders, a giant alligator in the swamp, and lizards that spit water! The Indiana Jones music made it even more realistic.  Supposedly, it is rated one of the top 5 mini-golf courses in America.  Her favorite part was the jungle hut that that had a animal skin rug and a giant gorilla who breaks through the window to attack you. 

 Back in the day, Linda was friends with the owner.  She is going to call him and see if she can get some discount cards for future visits.

Promises

Everyone was talking about the beautiful rainbow last night.  Linda saw it too, but she did not take a photo.  This is Tierney's picture of it.  Who doesn't love a beautiful rainbow?  When Linda was little, she was part of this super secret organization called the Rainbow Girls.  It was a shoot-off of the Masonic Lodge.  She had all these top secret handshakes and code words to learn.  You were not allowed to tell any non-Rainbow girls what went on the meetings.  All she remembers now is having to wear all white clothes, a pot of gold, an alter and a girl representing "faith" that walked you around the room in circles on a journey to find the gold. Whoops, I guess she just spilled the beans.

 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. 

 This is what God had in mind when he created rainbows, not secret handshakes. 

Not Himself

The past few days, Chim has been weirder than normal. (How many times over the last years have I started a blog post that way?)  He's been super clingy and needy. Even on normal days, he wants all the love, all the time.  He should really be an only child.  When it's my turn for attention, he head butts me away.  When he was a puppy, he actually pushed me down the stairs a few times.  When he is super jealous, he'll put his nose under my belly and try to flip me over!  Linda is so attuned to both our personalities, she can predict days ahead of the time when something is off.  Other people have said he's acting totally normal, but she noticed a difference.  Sure enough, guess who is throwing up, not eating and totally out of it this morning?  This is the first time he has refused breakfast and won't even get off the couch to go get his Woobie.  Right now he's tucked under Linda's arm and has his nose buried in her robe.  It's actually adorable, she just hopes he does not have the dog flu or something worse. 

This is his "I don't feel so good" face

The Cutest Picture on the Net

A baby sloth was born at a Dutch zoo this spring.  The Mommy Sloth wasn't making enough milk, so the zookeepers had to feed the infant with a syringe.  Baby sloths love to cuddle when they drink milk.  They gave him a teddy bear so he could cling to it during feedings. This is so sweet and adorable that I want my own baby sloth. 

It Must Be True

It must be true, it was on the internet

 

 

Linda read an article last night about  a dog who gave birth to a kitten

It was from an Asian science journal news feed.  If Linda reads something wacky online before bed, it inevitably works its way into her dreams: She was on some kind of a bus trip  with a group from her church.  It was one of those red double decker buses you see in London, except it was open on one side like a carnival ride.  They had stopped for dinner at a mall and she heard about a goat that had given birth to a cellphone.  No one else wanted to go see the miracle, so she ran across the mall to see it for herself.  Sure enough, there was a cellphone nestled among the baby goats.  She was so amazed that she lost track of of time and the bus left without her.  Luckily, Sarah stayed to wait for her and they caught another bus to the resort.  Everyone had already checked in and she had no idea which room Tierney was in, so she went through every single room at the resort until she found a closet with a lot of leopard print and navy clothes in it.  Sure enough, her suitcase was already in the corner waiting for her.

Peace and Love

"I look like a hippy"

My fur is getting out of control.  It's not only long, it's sticking up at weird angles and starting to get clumpy.  Linda has never been very good at keeping me on a maintenance grooming program.  As soon as I start looking terrible, she says "Oh Choop, you need a haircut" and then 2 more months go by before she does anything about it.  Part of her procrastination is the cost.  How can it be $60 for me to be groomed?  That is just ridiculous.  Once a long time ago, Jerry and Linda tried to do it themselves and the results were pretty embarrassing.  She's calling today to see if she can get an appointment for next Tuesday.  This is how she wants to get me groomed again. She loved this look on me. 

  How cool is the peace bandana?

What's for Dinner?

Linda got home from the gym and prayer tonight ready for some food.  She was starving from skipping lunch.  She met with some girlfriends and Sarah & Penny for breakfast this morning at 9:00 at a cool place called Mimi's.  Linda can only remember one time she ever ordered a real breakfast, but it was years ago.  Of course she eats at the annual family Thanksgiving/Christmas breakfast at IHOP, but it's always a bagel or small bowl of oatmeal.  Today she decided to get an omelet.  This is so out of character for her, that if Tier would have been there her jaw would have dropped.  Linda ate most of an omelet, some potatoes, a muffin, and juice! She was so stuffed she could not eat lunch.  (Please don't think Linda is one of those people that eats 2/3 of an Oreo and can't eat another bite.  She can pack away lunch and dinner, but her tummy is just not ready for a big breakfast in the AM.)  Tonight she made her famous shells and "meatballs" with basil-garlic organic tomato sauce.  She's made it before for carnivore friends and they had no idea they were soy meatballs.  It smelled amazing, but none of the pets got to try it.

This dead bug was on the front step when she came home from work tonight.  She could have mixed it in the sauce for extra protein, but she opted not to.  I wish she put a coin down next to it so you could see the scale of just how humungous it is.  It could feed a family of 3, easily!

The Many Faces of Penelope

"Nana, you are just so funny!"

"Nana bought be a riding cow"

"Can't you tell I'm done getting my picture taken?"

"I love how the blue on my play mat brings out my eyes."

Flower Child

"Wake up Lil' Penny"

Today is Penelope day!  Last week Linda only took a few photos, but this week she is going to fill her memory card.  Penny is changing so much everyday.  Look at when she was only a month old.  Today she is the same size as her BFF Cali, and Cali is like 7 months old!  This photo of P yawning is just adorable.  Sarah is an amazing photographer and she only uses a small point and shoot!

Today hasn't started out as she planned. Linda always admires the runners who get up before work to hit the pavement.  She set her alarm for the first light of dawn so she could take us for a walk while it was still a little chilly.  It's supposed to be one of those over 100 degree oppressive days.  It's now after 7:00 and we still have not walked.  Once Linda gets started doing something, the small task usually snowballs.  If there is a piece of fuzz on the carpet, that usually leads to a total vacuuming.  If she notices a piece of junk mail laying around, she has to throw it away which leads to emptying the wastebasket and then all the other wastebaskets in the entire house.  The only thing that does not hold true to this rule is laundry.  She never lets more than a load of dirty laundry accumulate, but folding it and putting it away isn't always punctual.  Right now there are only a few pair of socks left in her draw, but every pair she owns is clean..... they are just downstairs in a laundry basket nestled under all the other clean clothes.  To get to them, she'd have to put away and hang up everything on top.  They should make laundry baskets with two little trap doors on the bottom so you could take out the socks and underwear without disturbing the rest of the clothes.  (You read it here first, if anyone else comes up with the idea... I want a cut!) 

Hump Day.. Done!

Yep, its almost midnight and we are all still awake.  Linda wanted to watch a couple of episodes of White Collar tonight. She taught a slew of classes and then had to rush right to church, so it's been a busy, busy day with no TV.  We're sticking to the rule of no TV before 8:00 p.m. anyway.  She never wants to become one of those old women who watch The Price is Right, followed by Lets Make a Deal, and thee soap operas as chasers all before 4:00 p.m.  (If you do watch that much TV, we're not judging... but maybe you might want to get a dog and get out for some exercise.) 

It's a good thing Chim is going to spend the night behind closed doors tonight.  He has a terrible case of gas.  Linda thinks he might need to get the you know what things expressed.  I have to have that done every single time I go to the vet, and sometimes just because.  He is going to flip out.  Maybe she'll take him when I go in for my grooming.  He also needs his nails clipped again since he's gnawing on them. 

Both Chim and I have been starving all day.  We had a bigger than usual breakfast, a giant dinner around 4:00 and then both of us were howling for some dry kibble bits a little while ago.  Of course my regular meals are 2 Tablespoons of wet food mixed with chicken and a big meal is 1/2 Tablespoon more.  Chim gets 1/2 cup twice a day since he's 3 times the size I am.  When your only 5 pounds (OK, I'm 6.2 pounds but girls lie about their weight) every little calorie counts. 

Linda has a lot of social plans for the next 5 days.  That's not usually something she likes or looks forward to, but all of her plans are going to be fun... starting with breakfast at Mimi's in the morning with Sarah, Penelope and 2 other girlfriends.  She'll take lots of pictures so I can post them in the coming days. 

Taylor is starting to train hard for Tough Mudder!  It's just weeks away.  I don't think Sarah will let him carry Penny during the race.  I'm sure this guy got a lot of second glances until people realized it was just a doll.  Linda and Sarah will be pushing Penny in the BoB stroller, trying to keep up as much as possible.  It's fun watching all the stations.  Taylor beat everyone in his heat last time, over 250 people.  He's hoping to finish faster this race and ace every obstacle.

The Photo Good Enough to Eat

The big rage now is something called Instagram.  You can take a picture with your phone and then customize it with filters, lighting and special effects.  Its pretty cool and I actually have a few photos taking with Intagram, but Linda doesn't love the app, so she hardly ever uses it.  I don't know much about this new company, but you can now put your Instagram on a delicious piece of chocolate.  For under $10, you can get your favorite photo printed right on the chocolate bar and even add a message in the white part of the old school Polaroid border.  This would be a neat idea for baby announcements, or graduation invitations (if you had tons of money) or even just a birthday card.This is the promo photo from their web page.

p.s.  I wasn't compensated for this post in any way, but if Cocoagraph would like to send me a thank you prize, that would be awesome!

Not Even Little Ones

Even though Linda had a blast teaching all her classes tonight, she is t i r e d.  Nothing hurts, but every muscle is just plumb worn out.  For some reason, she thought it would be a good idea to do a lot of plyometrics in her 10:00 class and then a bunch of push ups off the stability ball.  Not so smart when you have 3 more classes to teach that day.  

Jerry took us for an hour walk around the neighborhoods tonight while she was gone.  He tried something new. He let me totally lead the way.  I got to choose when to cross the street, and which direction we took.  It was so fun and empowering that I forgot to ask to be carried!  Both Chim and I are ready for bed since we are also worn out.  Little does Chim know that he's about to be put in his own bed and not The Big Bed.  He won't like it one bit.  Linda is feeling bad about it, but he has to learn to keep the Bed rules and not keep us up all night with his shenanigans.  Chim is little (well, he's giant for a Chihuahua) but he is little compared to Snickers and Sheba.  He hardly takes up any room in the Big Bed, but rules are rules. Sorry Chimi.  I'll be keeping Linda company tonight while you sleep on the floor in the bathroom. 

Catsmilk

In case you run across this new product at Walmart, DON'T Panic!  Cat's were not hooked up to little milking machines to make Whiska's new "CatMilk."  So many people were up in arms about the cruelness of milking cats that the store had to put up a sign. 

So don't worry.  Catsmilk is a product for cats to drink.  It's supposed to be good for their eyes, heart, and tummy's.  Linda did a little research because she was curious what it was.  Here are the ingredients:  Milk, Water, Nonfat Dry Milk, Malt Extract, Trisodium Phosphate, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Guar Gum, Corn Syrup Solids, Lactase, Taurine, Carrageenan, Sodium Caseinate, Mono and Diglycerides, Dextrose.  

Ummmm....Isn't that all just watered down regular milk with bad things like Corn Syrup and other sugars and salts added?  

Although I would pay good money to see a bunch of cats all being milked together, wouldn't you?

Picture Keeper

Ha!  Look what photo was randomly up when she snapped the picture!

A few years ago Linda's laptop crashed and died and she lost all the photos stored on it.  Luckily, a lot of them were backed up on a few dozen discs, but the last 6 months before it died wasn't.  She lost so many wonderful photos.  After some liquid got spilled on the keyboard from an over excited dog (we won't name names) Linda bought one of these Picture Keepers just in case the laptop conked out.  She did some research and found the overall reviews great.  It was so easy to use, but we didn't get anywhere near the 16,000 pictures stored that the box advertises. Linda had almost about 10,000 photos on her hard drive and the Picture Keeper only has 10% more space on it.  She even went through and deleted any duplicates prior to starting the backup. She's confused by this because it said if you have a super fancy camera and you save high quality resolutions, you'll be able to fit less.  We have an iPhone and only a little point-n-shoot camera.  That part is kind of a bummer, but she loves that she can just take it to a photo printing place and print off any photos easily and quickly, all on one little drive.  It wasn't that expensive, so she'll buy another one.  First she has to find out if it will re-save all the existing photos or only add the new ones. 

Rule Breaker

Dogs are a blessing too, it's just that you can't use their kidneys.

Yesterday I was bragging on how smart Chim is and how quickly he learns to follow the rules of The Big Bed.  Last night he broke every one of them.  Just like when you are training up a child, you don't do the "If you do that one more time I'll...." thing over and over when correcting them.  You just correct them the first time and adjust their behavior.  Linda kept giving  him one more time all night.  He was licking her, changing positions, going under/over/under the top bedspread a bunch of times, and to top it all off... he woke us all up at 5:00 a.m. to play.  That is not a good dog Chim!  At 5:50, she put him into his bed and shut the door.  We were able to all go back to sleep until 7:30, but overall, I bet we only slept 5 hours last night combined.  He'll be doing a few nights off The Big Bed then Linda will give him another try.  Right this second he is sitting next to Linda with his eyes closed swaying back and forth and whimpering.  He is just like a toddler.  He's super tired but does not want to go to sleep and miss anything.  If there was a way Linda could video him doing it, it would go viral on YouTube in one day.  Chim can be a big pain, but he melts everyone's heart with his joy, exuberance for life and his unconditional love.  Having him in our life has been a huge blessing.  He gives Linda a crash course in patience and forgiveness every single day. 

Black-White and Oh So Blue

We don't watch a lot of TV at our house.  The TV never gets turned on in the morning or afternoons, ever.  Back in the day, Linda used to watch Dog Whisperer at 3 p.m. so she could learn all sorts of dog psychology.  It really boils down to "cookie."  Most any dog will do what you want it to if you say that magic word, so she stopped watching it.  There are only a few shows she likes, and if they are in reruns, she just leaves the TV off in the evening.  EXCEPT... (you knew that was coming, right?) when she starts watching a TV series on Netflix.  Linda is a black or white type of thinker. She never reads just one book by an author, she reads every book ever written by them; she'll eat super clean and healthy or have jalapeno poppers for dinner with a diet root beer tonight's meal; she never just picks up around the house, she has to clean like company is coming every single week.)  As soon as she starts watching a a new Netflix series, she must watch every episode as fast as possible.  We watched all the seasons of Lie to Me in just a few weeks.  Prison Break?  That was even faster.  24.. that show was watched almost real time.  We just started watching White Collar tonight and already we are on episode 4.  Its a fun story about a forger who gets out of jail to help the FBI solve crimes.

No really, she is watching it for the story line.

The Walrus & Mike Tyson

Two pictures to make you smile.  The first one is of Tierney.  For those of you who only know Tierney through this blog, this photo sums up her life from the time she was a toddler.  She was always making Linda laugh, acting out her storybooks, holding circuses, pretending to be a kitty and taking charge of the world.  She is still like that, only now she is an actress in skits, she plays with puppets, writes a fashion blog and apparently, pretends she is a walrus. (At least I think it is a walrus, it could be a beaver with long teeth.)

The second picture to make you smile is Penelope pretending she is Mike Tyson (the boxer who gnawed on his opponents ears.)  So far, Penelope is developing Tierney's personality more than her Daddy's.  We'll have to see if she takes after Taylor and is the dare-devil, sports star, playing on the roof type child or more like Tier, the reader with an incredible imagination and a love of acting silly.  Of course she could turn out all sugar and sweetness like her Mommy!!

For the Birds

It seems like our swimming pool on the deck has become a new bird bath for the little birds in our backyard!  When Linda got home, there were a few dozen tiny brown birds all taking a bath in the pool!  Linda had turned it upside down since it was empty, so there was only a tiny puddle of water that collected on the bottom of it.  She was laughing so hard watching them all flutter around in the water.  Chip Cat was glued to the sliding glass door watching the clueless birds.  When she opened the door to let us outside, they all flew away before any of them became dinner.  Besides the birds, Linda saw our old friend when she got back from teaching today. Mrs. Chipmunk is back making her home in our front flower beds.  Linda thought she moved since it's been over a month since she put in an appearance.  Linda will have to put out some of the special chipmunk food (stale cereal) that she likes.  I wonder if there are more babies like last year?  That was pretty tragic for all involved when Linda found the nest the mower had run over. 

Linda couldn't get a picture of the birds in our pool, but they looked like these.  I hope they come back!

The Big Bed

Look how he matches the old bedspread

I've gotten used to it now that Chim is spending the whole night in The Big Bed.  He is such a smart dog.  It only takes a few times before he learns the rules and actually does them.  In the beginning, he had to keep checking on Linda to make sure she was OK.  He would kiss her one or two times and lay back down.  Every time he did that, she put him in his own bed.  Soon he stopped that.  Then he would change positions a bunch of times. Whenever he did that he was sent to his bed.  That stopped too.  The last thing he was doing was waking her up at 5:00 a.m.  After only 2-3 times of being banished off the bed, he now does not move until she wakes him up!  If only he would learn to behave properly when Linda leaves the house, maybe he would not have to be locked away.  Who knows, maybe he won't be destructive anymore?? She just doesn't really want to chance it with the new carpet and hardwood. 

Love

Linda loves Sunday's.  It's the only day she does not have to teach classes and can relax.  It's the day she gets to go to church and every other week, work in the nursery during the evening service.  Sunday is the day she meets Tierney for breakfast and they read the paper together. Sunday she gets to see Penelope twice!  She loves Sundays because for 6 blissful hours in a row, she doesn't have anything planned.   She can read, nap, watch TV, eat lunch with friends, do the magazine crossword puzzle,  ride her bike, shop or take a walk on the trail.  Sometimes she just loves to sit in her quite house in her beautiful living room and be thankful that she is so incredibly blessed. Tonight on the way home from church, she decided to prolong her fun day and hit-up Sweet Frog for dinner.  Since yesterdays treat was free, it kind of made sense to go today since the $$ were already spent in her head, right? Speaking of Love, this list would be a good idea to read everyday, don't you agree?

11. A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate. Proverbs 15:17. (NLT)

Sunday Mish-Mash

There are days Linda wakes up dragging and days she is totally refreshed.  After a killer week of teaching, and an especially hard Friday and Saturday, she feels so good it's miraculous.  Some days she teaches one class and can barely move, so there isn't any real pattern to her back injury.  Hmmm...she's super thankful to be feeling great and is not going to question why!  She has a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with her higher protein intake the last few days.  It's been totally by accident, laziness and lack of time to eat right, but she has been drinking high protein shakes for a lot of meals. 

We woke up to the laptop not connected to the router again.  It must be going bad.  Connecting was super easy since we are just on an open thingie (she can't think what its called) and we didn't need the password to reconnect.  In case you haven't noticed, Linda is pretty clueless with computers, DVD players, Xboxes, fancy TVs and such like.  No judging though.  She can probably beat you in a sparring match and break more boards than you. 

Grass (weed) update:  Green, green, green.

My strange skin growth under my arm isn't growing or changing.  Linda will still have it checked when I go to the Vet for my grooming.  It hurts to the touch, but I'm acting totally normal and perky. Linda is amazed that I'm now jumping on high things that I've never even attempted to jump on before.  It's like I'm a spry little puppy again.  (Well, when I was a puppy I only weighed 1.5 pounds and couldn't jump over a sneaker, but you get the idea.) 

Today is going to be spent inside because Linda is cramming her new Body Pump release.  She couldn't find anyone to team with her tomorrow for the big launch, so she has to teach all 10 tracks herself.  In a way, she likes it better that way.  If she messes up (and can keep a straight face) no one will know since the routine is brand new and the gym members haven't done it yet! 

Since this is a random post, here is a random photo to go with it.

 This is the main street in the town she grew up in.  When this was taken, she was probably 10 or 11.  The white building on right is the Colonial Theater.  The first movie she saw there without her parents was "Ben."  It was about a boy who loved his rat.  Across the street is the Chinese restaurant her Aunt and Uncle owned.  There were live chickens in the basement waiting to become Kung Pow stir fry.  One of the many reasons Linda is a vegetarian today. 

One more since she is feeling nostalgic.  This is her church, St. Mary's.  It's still there today and looks exactly the same.  The school she went to is right next to it and looks identical.  There were such beautiful buildings.  In 1st grade a chunk of ice slid off the roof and hit Linda in the head while she was walking into school.  It gave her a standing knockout.  She was allowed to rest in the nurses office and miss Religion class. 

Ugh.

Linda's got a crabby headache from thinking so much.  She spent the entire evening trying to fix our Internet connection.  One second it worked great, the next there wasn't a signal.  The hotline people walked her through 30 minutes of trouble-shooting, to no avail.  Eventually, she found it was a super simple problem.  The wireless router had unconnected!  Only no one remembered the password to get back on!  Since PW is a Mensa master, he was able to talk her through a reset!  Yes!! We still don't know why it unconnected.  The router could be going bad, but she has no way of knowing if that is what caused.  She is proud that she didn't have to have a Geek person come to the house. 

Only a few pictures of the Body Combat release have been posted.  This is the best one, and it's not very good at that.  Linda was just moving so fast that her kicks were a blur!

She's the one  in the black gloves.

You Are the Clay

The news has been flooded with sad and violent stories this weekend.  If you are feeling a little down from reading all the horrible eye-witness accounts and left with a feeling of confusion and loss, read this blog entry from a women who was at the movie theater during the shooting.  It has been posted all over Facebook and Twitter.  Pretty powerful stuff.

http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/

Some readers might not even open the link because they see the word God.  Do yourself a favor and just read it.  If you feel uncomfortable or offended, you probably need to read it again and exam why it makes you feel that way.  Reading a blog like Clay Pot  makes me feel like this blog is so flaky and insignificant (which it definitely is.)  If reading this link even makes you think or question your current beliefs, it's worth it though!!    Linda

It's a GREAT Day

This is the last big launch.  People will be posting pictures of this one soon.

Linda not only made it through her brutal teaching day, she actually feels wonderful.  No pain anywhere!  She's tired, but in a good way.  She had to stay on the pool deck to do the Aqua workout because there wasn't time to dry off and make it to Combat. Drills like plyometrics, jumping, leaping and running with high knees are amazing in the water, but not so amazing on your joints when you do it on concrete. She changed and made it to the next class with a few minutes to spare. There were 90 people in Body Combat!!  It's a good think Tierney missed class because was definitely not room for her 36" long legs to be kicking.  After Combat she taught a TKD class and then worked the hanging heavy bags with the kids for 45 minutes.

On the way home she decided to splurge and stop at Sweet Frog.  She's been trying really hard not to eat out or waste money on non-essential wants.  Frozen yogurt with fun toppings isn't really high on the list of "needs", but she was starving and felt like treating herself.  Just as she was checking out, she remembered to get her frequent customer card punched.  Wow!  It was the 10th punch so she got her cup of yogurt free!  If she would have known, it would have been the large cup and had twice the toppings.

Linda was as happy as these frogs

Jerry was able to come and walk us while she was gone.  It was so good seeing him.  It's been awhile since he could come for his visits because he has been going out of town on weekends and working crazy hours.  Check out the crazy home-made leash I had to use.  Somehow, Chim's leash went missing.  Linda had it last night, but it's gone now.  She's looked everywhere.  Jerry put my pink leash on Chim and then took his belt off to make a leash for me.  HA!  I look pretty redneck.

"Seriously Jerry?? I'm so embarrassed."

You've Got to be Kiddin' Me

When Linda comes home after a long day away from me, she does the same thing as soon as she opens the front door.  First she slowly peeks in to see if I'm waiting at the top of the stairs.  If I'm still sleeping in my bed, she gets down on her hands and knees and slowly creeps up the stairs. At the top she quietly starts calling my name. The second I hear her, I come crawling on my belly towards her making these little mewling cries.  We bump heads, rub noses and she makes the little sounds with me. I guess I love it so much because it reminds me of my birth mommy.  At least she does not put on a dog mask and furry tail.

I'm sure by now you've all been reading about "goat man" who is dressed like a goat and living with a wild herd of goats in Utah.  A hiker came upon the heard and saw what he thought was a lame goat trailing after the heard.  Soon he realized it wasn't a goat at all, but a man just wishing he was a goat!  Officials are worried the man is going to get shot since hunting season starts soon.  Is it a stunt, or maybe he loves goats, or do you think the guy is just a nut?  Maybe like Big Foot or Yeti,  it really is a new Cryptid!!

Frozen Peas Work Best

Chim had a play date over at PW's today.  Linda had to work a ton of hours today so PW picked Chim up and took him to his TH.  Before they left, we went for a short walk in the light rain.  Usually I hate getting wet, but I want a walk more than I wanted to be dry.  Chim got to walk for a total of 2 hours at PW's.  Boy, is he tired now.  Almost as tired as Linda.  She taught her regular 3 classes today and then did a super-fun class with kids.  She is one of the few instructors at Gold's who will be teaching the new Les Mills Kids program!  Linda loves teaching little kids and her 4-5 year old group was a blast!  There were probably 30 kids all having a GREAT time.  Just to be safe, she is icing and taking some anti-inflammatory drugs for her back. We  don't have any giant frozen bags of peas. There is a frozen bag of squash, but it doesn't work the same as peas.  She is having to use ice cubes which don't mold to your injury.  The cubes will have to do.  Tomorrow is the big Body Combat launch and she wants to be able to be a Ninja and kick high and punch hard!

This was Taylor's favorite pillowcase when he was a boy

Weeds > Grass

We didn't lose our electricity last night, but the rain was torrential. Our empty swimming pool had about 3-4" of water in it this morning!  It wasn't too heavy for Linda to dump out though.  The rain made our brown lawn much greener.  That's the cool thing about having a lawn made up of almost 100% weeds.  They grow so fast!

I know you look forward to these exciting lawn photos

   The bad part about the storm was how it effects me.  Linda really needs to get me a thunder shirt.  I panted and stressed the entire time.  According to reviews, the shirts really do work to calm nervous dogs.  The weirdest thing is that the storms don't phase Chim at all. A crunchy leaf blowing across the sidewalk is terrifying, but he totally ignores loud thunder.  He always tries to distract me during the worst thunder by starting up a wrestling match.  He knows it stresses me and tries to take my off it.  Either that or the thunder excites him and revs him up for serious playtime.

p.s.  I had to google "how to type the greater than sign" since Linda had no idea where it was on the keyboard.

Yes I Can!

I must be part kangaroo!

This isn't the greatest photo, but Linda wanted to show you how high I just jumped, all by myself!  All this time I've been begging to be picked up to sit on the couch, bed or chair.  I had no idea I could jump this high!  (A huge thunderstorm is battering our house right now.  Linda is praying we keep our electricity or a tree doesn't fall on our roof. She has the flashlight and candles ready just in case we lose our lights.)  Of course the very second Chim saw me sitting up there, he had to come up too.  Linda told him a stern "NO!" and predictably he fell to pieces and had a melt down.  She really doesn't want any pets on this chair, so I won't be allowed to sleep up there anymore either. 

Garden Gnomes

Linda really shouldn't go out without make-up

Since Linda's housework was done early today (thanks to Chim) she decided to treat herself to breakfast at Panera.  She sat outside on the portico to have coffee and read.  It was so chilly that she wished she had a sweater!  A few hours later she wasn't saying that though.  It got really hot, too hot to walk Penny.  They stayed in and played today.  She was the best girl, just like always.  No crying, fits or temper tantrums.  She ate her bottle and took 2 naps in the four hours Sarah was gone.  Penny is growing so fast.

Penny loved playing with her dress

 When Linda got home, she found that the Garden Gnome in our front yard did all the weeding while she was away!  Yay for Garden Gnomes.  This particular Gnome is very, very old.  He lived at Linda's Nanny's house in the 1930's and then moved to her Mom's house in the early 1950's.  Now he has been living at our house since 1985.  Maybe when Penny grows up he can live at her house too.  This is the first time he's ever weeded though. 

"At least you could wash the dirt off my lip"

Say NO to Waking Up

This video is so adorable.  Taylor was trying to wake Penny up to bring her inside the house and she did NOT want to wake up.  I know how she feels. The same thing happened to me at the crack of dawn this morning.  Linda only has one day a week she does not have to set the alarm to wake up and that's Thursday.  All the other days she teaches early classes or has church.  There was this big plan to sleep really late, then slowly wake up,  have coffee, quite time, clean the house and then go for her Penny visit at 10:00 a.m.  Instead she got up the earliest she has all week long!  Chim spent the whole night in The Big Bed last night.  He never once changed positions and was such a good boy... until the birds started chirping and the first rays of dawn gave the bedroom a little bit of light .  "OK Linda.... time to wake up now... Come on, let's play..... No more sleeping...Here, you can suck on wobbie too!....HURRY, I have to go out!!"  It's a good thing he is so adorable or we would both be mad at him.  She thought about letting him out and coming right back to bed, but she was actually wide awake so our day started about 3 hours earlier than planned. So far she's accomplished the the coffee and quite time, but the house cleaning is taking a little longer to get started on. 

Bipolar Chim

Sometimes Linda feels like there isn't a more neurotic dog in the entire world than Chim. There probably is, but she has watched at least 100 episodes of Cesar on The Dog Whisperer and there hasn't been a dog that is weirder than Chimmie on the show.  He is truly bipolar. If a doggie shrink were to exam him, they would put him on Prozac.  He can be the most cheerful, loving and happy pup one minute and then next second he is screaming at the top of his lungs because the leash hit his back during his walk. (That happened just tonight.  Linda thought a snake bit him or something by the way he screamed. It was just my leash touching his back.)  He can be chasing a ball in the yard, jumping and smiling (he does really smile) when all of a sudden a breeze blows a piece of newspaper across the grass and then it's the end of the world.  It's like someone is cutting his tail off the way he flips out.  Without his woobie to suck, he can't function.  He is more gentle with babies than I am and would never hurt anyone.  He loves to give kisses and snuggles.  He's obedient and is super smart.  But if Linda goes out of the house and leaves him running free, he'll chew a dinner size plate in the carpet or an entire piece of floor molding will be gone because he's stressed. 
This is how Linda found him when she got out of the shower today.  He was on The Big Bed, under the covers and was cuddling his woobie.  Her heart just melted. 

No Comment

Sometimes I think the major news agencies read my posts. Either that or I have incredible ESP.   I'll write about something and the next morning I find an article about the very subject online at AOL or MSNBC.  Case in point:  Last night I wrote about Linda wanting to see the new Batman movie "Dark Night Rises."  Earlier, I posted about people leaving negative comments on my blog so I turned them off.  Guess what was in the news this morning?  Put those two things together and you have the answer!  The popular "Rotten Tomatoes" (a movie review site) has turned off it's comment section on the reviews who are panning "Dark Night Rises."  People are leaving negative, threatening and profanity laced comments on any reviewer who gives the movie a rotten tomato.  It's the first time in the sites history they ever had to turn off the reader comment section.  I believe in free speech and the ability to strongly disagree with someones opinion.  I don't believe it's right to be mean spirited, nasty or threatening in voicing that opinion.... especially when it's about a dumb movie.  (There, I said it.. yes it's only a dumb movie.  If my comments were turned on, people would be blasting me for calling a Batman movie dumb.) 

          BatMonkey (sketched by you know who)

Bat Ears

It's been a long time since Linda has come home this tired and worn out.  She went extra crazy in Body Combat and then was inspired by all the new students in her Aqua Class, so she pushed herself harder than normal.   Tomorrow she is subbing another Combat plus teaching her 3 regular classes.  As much as Chimi is begging for a walk, it's just not going to happen tonight.  Jerry got held up at work so he could not come over for his normal Tuesday visit.  It was too hot earlier, so we did not go out.  SIDE NOTE: The Dad of the family across the street, you know... the one with the daredevil kids, just pulled into his driveway with a loud motorcycle.  I bet the kids will be outside tomorrow trying to get it to do wheelies.

Call Me Bat Dog

 Looks like it's going to be an early night for all of us,although Linda is enjoying the Batman movie we're watching, so we might stay up a little longer.  She really wants to see the Dark Night Rises when it comes out so she needs some back story. 

Timmy's in the Well!!

The weird pimple/growth/bite thing on my shoulder isn't red today.  It's back to being just flesh colored.  Linda is going to send the Vet a photo of it to see if she still wants to see me today.  Linda is believing it's nothing and will be gone soon.  I did freak Linda out last night when she could not find me as she was getting ready for bed.  Usually, the second I hear "Big Bed Choop" I sprint from where ever I'm napping.  I didn't come the first, second or third call and of course she thought the worse.  It was actually Chimi who altered her to where I was napping.  She had left a closet open in the storage bedroom and I had burrowed under some soft blankets.  It was so comfy and quite that I did not want to leave.  Chim bought Linda right to my hiding spot! Earlier, Chim was happy I wasn't sharing the couch with Linda and that he had it all to himself. When he could tell Linda was getting worried, he took her right to me.  He's just like Lassie!!