Penny's Day Out

To all those people who get up at 4 a.m. on a regular basis.. how do you function?  Linda has some friends who get up at 4 to be at work by 5 a.m.  A long time ago when Linda was personal training, she had 5 a.m. clients every day.  She gained almost 20 pounds because she would eat two breakfasts and two lunches before dinner.  First breakfast 4 a.m, second 8 a.m, then lunch at noon followed by another lunch at 3 p.m.  Even though she is going to bed in about 15 minutes, it was totally worth getting up that early because she was able to go over to the TH and watch Penny from 5 a.m all the way to 4:30 p.m. today!  It was honestly one of her favorite days ever.   When Penny woke up and Linda peeked her head in the nursery Penny broke out in a huge-giggly grin.  Here are just a few of the days highlights:

"Nana, you need to get a bigger stroller"

Chimi is the star of the neighborhood

"Anybody can drive with one steering wheel.  It takes talent to drive with two at once."

Linda had to run into Giant and pick up something.  Even though she could have carried Penny, she let her ride in the buggy-cart.  They ended up just strolling up and down the aisles because Penny didn't want to get out. 

Lunch was at Subway.  Penny ate that entire sandwich, a bag of sliced apples and 1/2 a bottle of milk. After she ate, she kept pointing to the glass case full of cookies.  Sorry Penny, if I don't get any cookies, neither do you.  All that playing and eating wore them both out and they took a little nap before heading out to the library.

"Hey Aunt Tier, I think you sat at this same table when you were my age."

"So many books, so little time."

Linda went right to the gym after dropping Penny off so she could teach her evening Body Pump class. She felt guilty for being gone so much today that she even took us for a long walk when she got home. 

Bugged

Linda hasn't been outside at all today and it's made her sad.  Last night, she sat on the deck for 10 minutes while we took our time sniffing around the yard.   The term "eaten alive by mosquitoes" isn't exactly true, but she had cluster bites on her legs, arms and neck.  When any kind of bug stings or bites Linda, she gets giant lumps that swell up.  During the day, there are big bees, little tiny bees, flies and some kind of ridiculous flying beetle bugs.  At night, add the mosquitoes to the mix and you have a serious plague of bugs.  She has been searching for some natural remedies to deal with the problem that are kind to humans and pets. One of the popular Pintrest ideas for flies:  a baggie full of water with pennies in the bottom.  It's scientific. Honest. 

This horse looks fly-free!

Another one is a combination of essential cinnamon oil mixed with vodka.  Maybe the flies get drunk off the fumes and pass out. 

"I told you to stop drinking"

There were lots of natural bee repellent ideas including cucumber peels, garlic and soapy water.  Linda liked the idea of baby oil best.   It will keep her skin smooth and it won't harm the bees. 

The best idea she found to handle all the bugs at once was this:

Before she goes to enjoy her time on the deck, she could just suit-up and herself without having to deal with the annoying bites and stings. 

Curly-Q's and Crazy Hair

No posting yesterday because Linda pretty much went right to bed when she got home from her classes last night.  Tuesday has always been a busy day, and she does come home tired.  Last night it wasn't just a "my muscles are sore and I'm kinda' crabby" feeling.  It was a "I'm brushing my teeth and going right to bed because I can't keep my eyes open" night.  Her pedometer-fitness watch read 10.2 miles and 2,500 calories... and that's without walking us.  One day she is going to keep track of the weekly mileage and calorie burn like fitness bloggers do.  Linda's hair was so funny when she took her pony-tail out before jumping in the shower.  She had it up since 6 a.m. including getting it wet in the pool and drying still with the tight elastic.  The hair stuck straight back like it was in an invisible elastic!  If she would have brushed it out and went to bed like that, here is what she would have looked like in the morning.

It's a good thing Jerry got off work early and was able to come and walk us while Linda was gone.  Even with an hour jaunt around the neighborhood, Chimi was still flipping out and wanting to chase his ball at 8:30 p.m.  That pup has endless energy. 

Look at the way my tongue does a double curly-Q.

Just a normal Monday

When Linda leaves for the gym, she has started closing all the doors in the house except for the den door.  It used to make Chimi upset because he loves to nap on the big bed while she is gone.  I'm not fussy which of my beds I use (I have three.)  The past few weeks I've started sleeping weird places anyway.  Up against the couch, behind the bean-bag chair, or on the cool hardwood floor.  One day Linda noticed that if she opened the blinds by the lounge chair, it made a perfect patch of sunlight on the chair.  Now he is getting up there on his own every morning as soon as she starts getting her sneakers on. He loves it!

Linda is definitely going to Sweet Frog after her YMCA classes today.  She made sure she has enough calories left to splurge on a few yummy toppings.  If the rain holds off, shes planning on riding her bike.  I used to ride along in the carry-me front pouch, but I don't really like it anymore after the very close encounter we had with the deer on the trail.  Now when I see the pouch, I run and hide.  Deer are terrifying!

My face as the deer crossed the path 2 feet in front of us. Pure terror.

"Are they coming back??"

Yet another exciting umbrella post

Linda was stressing a little bit earlier because the weather report called for a severe thunderstorm and 60 mile an hour winds.  Normally, weather doesn't freak her out.  She was calm during the Derecho; survived fine through Snowmagaden and didn't panic during the latest tornado warnings.  Now she has to worry about her deck umbrella blowing over.  Does she take it down for safety and risk not being able to put it back up?  Last time it took 2 full days for her to open it.  On Saturday, Taylor tried opening and closing it a bunch of times to loosen the wood, but even he said it was wicked hard to open.  When she got home from church, all was well and the umbrella was fine.  Honestly, Linda doesn't get tied to material things very often.  Chip cat destroyed her new living room chair, her favorite car was rear-ended, then someone ran a stop sign into the front and she lost an antique diamond ring.  Oh well, it's just stuff.  Just don't mess with her umbrella!  That deck furniture is her vacation this year, and she is enjoying every single second of it. 

This is our exact umbrella, only ours has stripes

I'm  mad because Linda forgot to get wet dog food on the way home. We ate the last bit for breakfast.  With all the intense rain, she drove right by Target and didn't stop.  Our dinner was dumb dry food.  Chimi will eat it no problem, but the kibble bits are too big for my mouth.  She even buys the kind advertised for little dogs.  For awhile she was putting them in a baggie and using a rolling pin to smash the nuggets, but shes gotten lazy. 

"I want my wet food"

So Fun

It's been a very busy and fun two days for Penelope.  The fireworks last night were a little too exciting for her though.

 She went hiking and swimming this morning with her Mommy and Daddy.  She's been an outdoorsy girl ever since she was a wee-little baby.  Taylor still carries her for hours in the backpack, even though she is now 30 pounds.

Later this afternoon she came over to our house while Taylor and Sarah went to a dinner party.  The first hour was dedicated to chasing Chimi and I all around the house.  Next Linda read her some books (that were Taylor's when he was just a little boy) and made her a yummy dinner.  As soon as the weather cooled down a bit, Linda took her on a long walk with Chimi.  He wasn't afraid of the stroller at all this time.  All that activity made Penny sleepy and she wanted to sit and relax awhile.

What in the world is that circle on Linda's shoulder?  It looks totally weird.  I don't think that is on the anatomy chart.  It's bizarre. 

Penny was singing along to Sesame Street.  They watched an old-school Sesame Street classic on Netflix from the 50's.  Linda didn't know the show was even on then!

Jalapeno Hot

It's so hot out today that the deck was burning Linda's feet.  She was fine as long as she was eating her lunch under the awesome umbrella! but when she went to walk around, her bare feet started burning like crazy.  If her feet were burning, our paws would definitely burn on the sidewalk.  We were going to go down on the trail for an afternoon adventure with Penelope, but Linda canned the idea.  Plus it would be really hard to get the Bob stroller across the streams and carry both Chim and I at the same time.  I could sit in Penny's lap and Chim could just run through the water, but then she would have to give him a bath because river water stinks on dog fur.  He was able to walk across these stepping stones, but he either forgot how or chickened out.  Snickers used to love the water crossings.  He would always wade in and rest for a spell to cool off.  When the water is high, there were spots he could dog paddle around.  

When it rains a bunch, these stones are totally covered

*Jalapeno chili peppers are not actually that hot.  Linda looked it up on Wiki.  There are lots of chili peppers way hotter!  If she titled the post "Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Hot" everyone would have been confused.  That pepper is about 240 times hotter than a jalapeño!