Happy Feet a la Sara

Sara posted yesterday about how happy her feet were after meeting up for our bi-weekly "Pedis and Pinot" event (although we don't actually drink Pinot...sometimes we'll go out for dinner afterwards and have a Margarita or a glass of wine). In her blog, she mentioned getting flowers on her toes because the plan for the green sparkle polish (for St. Patty's Day) over the neon pink (for her birthday) just didn't quite cut it, while I got a green polish base and topped with the green sparkle:

Yes, I figured I'd get a shot with Leo since I hadn't put a picture of him out here in a couple of week.

I also decided that I would display my toes in the choice of sandals that I'm deciding on for my upcoming trip to Hawaii:

I was trying to decide which would be better as I'm only keeping one pair....I'm going with the ones on the right because they are MUCH more comfortable. 

Attempted Escape

Leo has been staying home alone lately while I go into the office rather than going to Doggie Daycare. I came home yesterday and found one of the gates keeping him in the kitchen area all catty-whompus. (Yeah, I said it "catty-whompus"!) I'm not certain if he had attempted some form of escape or if it was just a little loose and when he vaulted off his sleeping pillow to greet me as I came in it caused the catty-whompafication. Either way, we had to reset the gate and hopefully got it tighter this morning.....oh and just as a precaution the pillow is not directly in the line of fire to the gate. 

You Are Getting Very Sleepy

I have been listening to self-hypnosis and/or meditation tracks as I fall asleep for the past couple of weeks. I admit that they are primarily focused on weight-loss, eating healthy, get motivated to exercise, or, in the case of the meditation, just ways to calm your mind in order to meditate. I will play one of these at night, after I've read a chapter or two of whatever book is handy and I turn out the light to prepare to go to sleep.

I can't say that I've actually noticed any changes based on the hypnosis. I mean, I still eat about the same and  I'm not losing any weight. I still binge eat at times, which is terrible I know and an issue that I'm addressing (sorta via self-hypnosis, but whatever). And, I certainly am not more motivated to workout...I mean, Sara can't even convince me to join her team to possibly run and drink beer...primarily because I don't run NOR do I really drink beer....maybe they need to do a run where you stop and have a glass of bubbly along the way...but I digress. What I can say about listening to these tapes is that I sleep GREAT! I'm really relaxed and feel very rested when I wake up in the morning. I'm not even disturbed by the dog's movements in bed and don't realize that I'm slowly getting shoved out by him.

My one real concern, though, is that I'm wondering what effect these recordings are having on Leo...I mean, he has gotten more picky about what he eats and he seems to want to be more active.... 

Spoiled Hound

 I know this comes as NO shock to anybody out there that has been following the saga of Leo. I have spoiled him and he is a rotten, though sweet, beast....and I love him.

The latest tale of spoildom is as follows:

We went to the vet last week for another checkup for another round of antibiotics for his ongoing respiratory ailments. At this time, the vet also says that he needs to have another test, that is normally part of the annual checkup process but since he has never really had an annual checkup due to the fact that he has been in there about every 6 weeks with respiratory ailments, he needs to have this test done now. I'm okay with that happening, so they do the test. The next day the vet calls and informs me that Leo has worms (now, these are not worms that can be transferred to humans so no worry if you have been in contact with him and they can only be passed to other dogs through a mother who is infected licking her puppies...or unless a dog eats prey or drinks water that is contaminated with the larva). Well, it turns out that these worms can cause reactions in the airways, leadign to obstruction of breathing and complications can lead to problems such as shortness of breath (check), bronchitis, emphysema, fluid build-up in the lungs (check), and even pneumonia (check). Hmmm, makes me wonder if my baby had been given this test a year or more ago if we would have found this and fixed it then....ah well, hindsight is at least 60/40, right?

So, how does worms lead to a spoiled hound, you may be asking. The vet gave me this powder that I have to put on his food daily for 10 days (normally it is only for 5 days but as we all know, my baby is special) and then I have to dampen the powder and kibble to make it stick. Well, I don't want to just wet it with water because I don't use that fancy dog food that makes its own gravy, therefore, I dampen it with some chicken broth. Leo gets very excited about his dinner now!! Unfortunately, at the meals where he doesn't have to take the medicine and therefore doesn't get the chicken broth, he has started to follow me around and look at me and the food like "where's the broth". Yesterday morning, I admit I threw a little broth on there because I was rushing to get out the door and get him to daycare and knew that he needed to eat so he would have his energy to play. Today, he didn't eat until I sat down at the desk and started working and he realized that it wasn't going to get any better.

Like I said, spoiled.....but loveable.