Noah and Me and Fried Rice

I’ve been BI-ZEE.  So don’t have much interesting to report.  But feel the need to check in anyway.  I’ve been reading The Latchkey Dog (thanks, Juice!) and she suggested that obedience training was a good way to establish yourself as pack leader.  (instead of yelling, cajoling, chasing, throwing things, etc.  Not that I ever did any of those things.  Just a point I found interesting…)  Anyways, I don’t know why I never put that together.  And I’m not sure when I developed an aversion to formal obedience training.  I obedience trained dogs for years.  But in the past few years there has been some major slackage in the area of obedience training.  So, I took Noah out with the little package of treats (I never used treats before either.)  And is that boy smart!  You never saw a dog catch on so fast!  He knows sit, down, stay (a little) and ‘walk nice’ (well, he kinda knew that one already.)  And, I think it gives him another thing to do, so he is more worn out and less likely to bark.  We had a couple of really great days.

Then last night on my way home from work, I got a message on my answering machine from my next door neighbor (whom I am fairly friendly with) telling me that another neighbor was snooping around to see which dog was barking, and he said, ‘Noah was barking quite a bit in the morning.’  Well, that is not entirely unexpected, but it really put me into a funk.  I mean, what am I supposed to do?  I work long hours. I only work one day at a time.  The truth is (which I have not told you all) Noah already wears a bark collar.  But if it gets moved around it doesn’t work.  Anyway, last night (of course I am already too tired after work) I had the thought ‘if I just go completely insane, they will have to lock me up and take care of me and I won’t have to worry about anything ever again.’ Surprisingly, when I mentioned this to a few people, they actually thought it sounded pretty good.

Anyway, I talked to my babysitting neighbor (the one who has taken care of my dogs when I am gone for many years) and not only did she catch me up on all the neighborhood gossip, but I think we have worked out a plan.  Not ideal, but I think it will work.  Noah can stay in the crate in the house when I leave at 5am, and then she will let him out in his yard mid-morning, and then put him back in his crate at about 6pm which is when he can be particularly noisy about all the goings on in the neighborhood.  This is all a little frustrating, since we all live on 3-5 acre plots in the country.  But I also don’t want to be a bad neighbor.  And I don’t want to give up on Noah just when we are doing so well.

More info than you probably wanted about my doggie problems, but obviously it was on my mind.  Here’s the latest stick pics of Noah.  We alternate between formal walks and obedience training, and more casual sniff-and-stick ventures.  Works well for both of us, I think.

Foodwise, I am doing more and more ‘intuitive’ eating.  Meaning I don’t count calories, make healthy choices the majority of the time, as well as have a treat once in a while, okay, once or twice a day.  This works well as long as you also pay attention to that most important component of eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied.  Right now I’m pretty much firmly in the camp of just trying to maintain my current weight of 154-157.  Pubsgal named it the ‘summer of sustaining.’  BTW, Pubsgal wrote an excellent post on Type 2 Diabetes. Everyone should read it.

Tonight I made another version of my fried rice recipe.  This is really a great recipe, if I do say so myself!  I followed the main recipe, but used what I had on hand.  Veggies were:  onion, carrots, zucchini, edemame, and corn.  Meat was a little leftover ham that I got at that little market in Pescadero, and some little shrimpies.  Its so easy to cook something like this when you have stuff already left over.

Yes, I’m still exercising.  Sweating because its been HOT here!  Swimming a few more laps when I get in the pool, which is still averaging only once a week.  Gym still averaging 3X/week, and walking/running…well, you know.  Lots of that going on in the neighborhood.

In my downtime (haha) I am re-reading an old classic ‘Celebration of Discipline,’ by Richard Foster.  This book is so encouraging and comforting.  Not at all what the title makes it sound like.  It is the kind of book where, when it talks about praying, you actually want to put the book down and pray.  I highly recommend it.

Got a couple of class days this week, so days will be a little shorter.  Vacation is coming up, and it can’t get here soon enough.  Hope y’all are having a great week.  Hey, to leave this post on a little more positive note, don’t you just love all the birds singing so cheerfully early in the morning.  When I am driving out at 5am, I open the moon roof on my car so I can listen to them.  So cheerful.  THEY never worry.   And the smell of honeysuckle right outside my window.  With the bumble bees and the hummingbirds buzzing around it.  YUMM.