charlatan psychic

Well, maybe. Yesterday evening I was cleaning up so some friends could come over for dinner. I took Duke's bed off of the little chair he's been sleeping in all week. I brushed off the seat with my hand and saw something bigger than dust stuck in the lip of the seat cushion. Naturally I picked it up. It was Duke's tooth. Not the whole tooth, but most of the tooth. Apparently, he broke his bottom canine. I looked in his mouth and saw right away where the root was still stuck. So, of course, we went to the vet today. She was shocked that he could have broken a tooth as thick as that and not be in pain or have bled all over. The weirdest part is that I have no idea how he did it. I haven't seen him fall or run into anything. I haven't seen the dog getting any rougher than usual when they play. And as I type this, Duke bites at his tags. Could that be it? Could he have broken a tooth trying to get his collar off? I just don't know. I don't even know where...

I know it's not Tuesday. It's Saturday. But J didn't get home in time on Tuesday to go to the gun store. We waited till today. I had decided the Kahr was expensive, and my chances of ordering one from Maryland were slim. In the store today, they had sold their Beretta and didn't have any more in stock yet. So I handled the Springfield and the Bersa. I couldn't release the slide on the Springfield. Not good. The Bersa, however, I could do everything I needed to do while keeping the gun pointed forward. So I got that one. Unfortunately, Jason's Glock was sold out. Apparently it's the recommended gun for the local Sheriff's dept. and they just got some new guys. We even called another store and they were also sold out. Our store took J's name and number and will call when they get more in, probably this week. I also got 2 boxes of ammo and a cleaning kit. The clerk was great and showed me how to take it apart and pointed out one spot to make sure...

I didn't post last week, I know. I ate way too much Thursday night and was at the same weight Friday morning. I stepped on the scale again Saturday morning and - low and behold! - I was down a pound. Well too late buddy! Which leads me to this week - down another pound. Although on my WW it looks like I lost 2 pounds this week. That puts me at 153. since starting WW I've lost a total of 15 pounds! And I'm only 4 pounds away from my healthy goal of 149. That is totally doable by Easter.  I will try to keep going down after that, but like I've said before, 149 puts me in the "healthy" BMI range according to the charts. If I can get down to 140, or even 135, that would give me a little room to go up and down in maintenance. I like that. I also did a new thing today - Power Pump. It's a class at the gym. My friend Jessica is doing it so I tagged along. Wow! Totally kicked my ass. But that's what I was looking for. It's kind of like circuit trainin...

J and I went gun shopping today. We've known for quite a while now that we want to get me a handgun and concealed carry permit. With the way his plans are going, he wants me to have it and be comfortable shooting it by next winter. We went to a gun show this morning and looked at quite a few guns. We didn't buy anything, because our buddies said the prices were too high. They were right. After lunch, we went to a local gun store and the prices were much better. J found a handgun he likes, and we will definitely get it for him. As for me, I'm deciding between 4 different guns. The one I want most (right now) is the most expensive and I don't even know if I can get it in Texas. The Kahr PM40 with external safety was made specifically to meet Maryland requirements for handguns. The Kahr 40 was the most comfortable gun I held today, but it has no external safety (except for the MD model). For those who may not know, the safety is a little switch that won't let the t...

Disclosure Statement: I have migraine brain, so please excuse any typos/mistakes I miss correcting. Today I did my first ever performance of belly dancing. My tribal troupe, Hodge Podge Tribal, did a rather impromptu performance/class at the officers' wives luncheon. The instructor was asked yesterday, and had some of us perform with her before doing basic drills with everyone there. I think it went well. I was worried that not many would get up and dance with us, but quite a few did. I hope our performance was inspiring. I know the teacher's solo dance inspired me! We did 2 slow songs as a group, and I actually took the lead once in each song. It must have been the adrenaline. I also didn't have any migraine issues during the dancing, and for just a bit after. I've been fighting this migraine off and on all week. If I can make it through tomorrow's stitchers (at my house), then I can pop some strong meds if I need to and just rest. But back to belly dance. ...

I've made one. My knee got tired in the middle of belly dance class yesterday. I decided that doing the half marathon is not smart. I told J last night and he agreed that I would have a big chance of injuring the knee further. *sigh* It was a tough decision to make. This was going to be my first big run with J cheering me on. We even talked about him taking his bike to meet me at certain points along the route. I was going to get a Tshirt and finishers' medal. Bleh. I suppose we could go, and I would still probably get the Tshirt since I did pay, but I would only do the 5K. I guess I need to take the running slowly and let the knee finish healing. This would be a little easier if the damn pool was open so I could swim. (Rumor says it will be open the end of this month, when my knee will already be healed.) Instead, I'm trying to focus on the excitement I get with belly dancing. We're learning Black Sheep Tribal style. Example here:  http://youtu.be/kPEdaYMaslM?t=1...

I had a bit of an "I can't believe I ate that" moment this morning. I went out to lunch yesterday and made probably the worst possible options. Holy crap. No wonder the scale was high this morning. I'm glad I have a 2 hour belly dance class today. I'm also going to try to get a long run in this afternoon. This worries me a little because of my run on Monday. But let me backtrack a little further and take you to Sunday morning. J went for a bike ride. I got on my bike, and went on a very short ride. The cold air made my hand hurt and I had trouble braking with that hand. So I went back home and changed into my running clothes. Remy and I headed out on the 3 mile track. I had to stop and walk a few times, to work out some tight spots on my left side. No biggie. I was able to get into a slow run within the first mile and keep that up, except when the pup needed to stop. In general, I felt good. It felt good to get out there and run again. So Monday afternoon, I...

J and I talk about being localvores. We love the idea of it, but find it hard to follow through with in our current location.  I also love the idea of using all fresh produce in my cooking, but again, find the follow through difficult.  So I'm going to push for something I considered a while back. I want to start shopping through  Los Poblanos Organics . You can order a weekly "Harvest Box" that has regionally grown fruits and veggies. Most of them are grown at their farm in New Mexico. They have one location for pick-up in El Paso.  I was checking them out, and found their blog. They are going to start offering different sizes of harvest boxes this year! We can order a small harvest box and choose to only pick up every other week at first, to see how quickly we go through it.  I'm hoping this will give me quality produce (which I don't see at the Commissary) and also push our boundaries a bit. If we get a veggie that we have never tried before, we'll have...

...and the sidewalk won! First - the story. I decided to go for a long run yesterday afternoon, after Duke's vet appointment. The half marathon is in 2 weeks, and I haven't been running. I felt pretty good, but didn't want to push too hard so I figured 6 miles, with the Haan bridge in the middle. Meanwhile, J took Remy out for an easy 3. I got over the bridge and right where it levels out, my toe caught on some bit of sidewalk that sticks out the tiniest little bit. I had this horrid sensation of slowed time. I knew I was falling. Then I knew I couldn't catch myself and that I was going to go down hard. WHAM! My face hit the cement. The next few minutes felt like much longer, but I know in reality it was just a few minutes. I sat up and tried to wipe at some of the blood coming from my nose. I had to catch my breath and consciously slow my breathing. I pulled my cell phone out from my water belt pocket and dialed J. Lucky point #1 - I don't usually take my...

I need to blog about 2 things today and decided they should be separate posts. First is Duke. Got back from Vacation on Thursday evening. Sunday morning, I find that Duke has been peeing outside his box. I don't think it had been going on long, probably just that night. But the big problem was the little brown spots. He had blood in his urine, and was peeing tiny bits all the time. So Monday was a trip to see the vet. He has either a UTI, some urinary tract inflammation, or both. They gave him some fluids, an anti-inflammatory, penicillin, and gave me some antibiotics to give him. We pushed his teeth cleaning back by a week to try to clear this up. I think he is doing better already. Not going potty quite as often. We'll go back in on Friday for a check up to make sure he's OK for the teeth cleaning next Tuesday. I suspect this came on from him not drinking as much while we were gone. He does that and always has. What I don't understand is why it waited till Sat...