I thought both pacing (same side front and back legs) and trotting (opposite side front and back legs) were normal ways for dogs to move--but that trotting is preferred for show dogs.

Jay

As I said this morning, I learn things! Thanks, Allison.

Allison, thanks for the video! I guess the difference is that Carter "ambles" at speeds where most dogs would be either walking or trotting. I feel better about it knowing it is a normal dog walking behavior! Although he still looks ridiculous when he's doing it. :lol:

Warning - dog stuff first!
 

I never even thought about how "my" dogs walk. Interesting. Beanybug doesn't walk - she bounces. All four paws leave and land at the same time. Particularly funny to watch in the water.

Off to my therapy consult. I might be a little weird (:rofl:) in that with past therapy sessions (long ago) I kinda enjoyed them. Being the centre of the conversation and all that. Probably not much will happen tonite other than hello, what are you here for, etc.

TGI(almost)F!

Dagmar :cool:

Although I never paid a lot of attention to they way my dogs walk, I did notice that Buddy was always in a trot as if he was unable to walk. Chico, on the other hand, "slithers." That's they only way I can describe it--it's like he's a young girl making her butt wiggle when she walks! Chico never trots. It's either his slithering walk or a run.

neurodoc-- we are 3 years post bat mitzvah (and 7 years). I remember the stress well! Give yourself a break and time to recuperate.

I don't even want to report what I found in our central AC unit outside, but suffice it to say that I didn't know if I should call a pest control person or an AC person. I have left a message with the AC person and pray he can come before we all die of the god awful smell that is coming into the house. Top that off with dd spilling (almost) boiling water on herself, and it's been a great evening. This always happens when dh leaves-- especially if it's a long, out of the country trip. Sigh...

So the therapy appointment went well. Unfortunately I can only afford 4 sessions. I did address this with the therapist immediately and she is going to work with me on that. We cut the intro sessions to just the one and she is willing to give me work I can do outside the sessions. She also is willing to take me as a patient intermittently - when I get more money saved I will book more appointments etc.

I feel better for having talked to someone face to face. Instead of heading to the grocery store for cookies I came home and microwaved a 410 calorie meal. Not great but certainly better than the cookies!

I am going to try an experiment with DH tonite. I'm going to ask for an hour of his time, explain the experiment (me driving him down to the lake for him to walk 6K while I go have a tea and read the paper) and see what he says.

His antidotes to stress relief (there's a 2 litre container of ice cream in the freezer again this morning) have not been working for about 10 years. Maybe he will try mine. I will not push him and I won't be angry if he says no.

TGIF!

Dagmar :cool:

Dagmar, it sounds as if you and your therapist have found yourselves in sympathy and can work together. That is so important, way up there, and of course, the next issue is always affording all the sessions.

My own therapist has exchanged some emails with me through this mess, and I plan to meet with him next week, when I travel back downstate to pick up stuff my neighbors were storing for me and also my drycleaning left with the local Disaster Drycleaning Specialist. Yeah, the therapist is somewhere between hairdresser and the drycleaning pickup, though not ahead of my appointment with my medical doctor for my A1C test & other blood test results from early August. (He will never give test results on the phone; you always have to make an appointment to get them, and even then, he seems to hate to give out exact numbers except to say, "They were good." At least he'll like that I've lost weight since my last appointment.)

My therapist is always asking me for the content of my dreams. He's also an advocate of meditation and yoga. He's pleased that I have taken up yoga but is telling me not to stretch & strain & overachieve in an attempt to attain the poses. (Yeah, the guy knows me well. It's kinda his job.)

In other news, I exchanged emails with the president of my co-op board at the apartment complex, and he said that the board is still reviewing bids for the contracting job on renovating the apartments. But they want the work done in six months. Six months for 24 apartments seems, well, really fast to me. But perhaps the Board can make demands, in this recession, where there is less new home-building than previously. Also it has a lot of money to work with. (The place was well-insured with Lloyd's of London after the last flood.) I am a pessimist about these estimated times to completion, since I'm a project manager in my own job and am charged with "driving" initiatives. I know about being asked when a project will be ready, what kinds of calculations one makes on the back of an envelope. And I know there has to be some commonality here between construction projects and knowledge capital/publishing projects. And that tells me it likely won't hit six months. STILL ... It changes things for me considerably psychologically to be thinking "maybe six months" rather than "oh, indefinitely, I don't know when, maybe nine months, maybe a year, maybe a year and a half."

saef.hope the construction is done in 6 months but it seems in construction there are always delays, weather, can't get materials, labor stoppage.... it is always something. I hope it won't be so in this case that everything runs smoothly and is done on time as estimated.

saef If they are doing a total rebuild of your apartment 6 months could be quite realistic. Total rebuilds of empty places stripped of everything are much faster than renos. If they have taken everything out - walls, floors, etc. it will go very fast to rebuild from scratch.

Dagmar

TGIF.
Oh. My. God. I am so freaking tired.
Tried to go to bed early since I haven't been sleeping. Dewey decided 3 am was a great time to get up and he never went back to sleep. I fought with him in bed until 4:30 while he pounced, licked me, barked at the cats, etc. until I gave up. I think his inner hunting instinct kicked in because he just wanted to go out and check the AC unit. I hope I hear back from the guy today. My dd already texted me that I left my wallet at home so I guess I won't be stopping anywhere after work! I was hoping to sleep in a little tomorrow as Saturday is my only day off but a very sweet older lady called and begged me to take her shifts tomorrow so she can go to a baby shower 6 hours away for her granddaughter. How could I say no? I tried.... So, I have to BE THERE by 6 am tomorrow which means I have to get up even earlier. Sigh... I have next Saturday off and then I'd already committed to the next 2 Saturdays after that, so basically I'm going to have about 1 day off this month. Not really a great plan when I'm sick and trying to recuperate. And did I mention my book fair is right around the corner? Fun. Fun.

Saef-- it sounds promising for your apartment rebuild. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Dagmar-- what did dh say to your suggestion? I think my dh would laugh at me! Glad you liked the therapist? Your insurance doesn't cover it I guess? My dd's both see a therapist (one regularly and one occasionally) and thank god our insurance covers most of it.

In other news--- dd thinks her top college choice is University of Arizona. She has applied and if she gets in, we should take a trip up there as we've never been.

Weight related news? Let's see if I have any.... weight is low (117) since I've still not had much of an appetite. I've been eating but not my usual snacking. I'm sure my appetite will kick in soon with a vengeance.

Morning!

Dagmar - I never replied to your pet post. I don't have any animals (my roommate has two dogs, however) but it doesn't bother me that you - or anyone else - shares about their four-legged friends on this thread. It's a chat thread, after all! :) I don't have much in the way to contribute to those conversations, but if it's important to you it's worth sharing.

saef - I just heard on NPR the other day that Lloyd's of London will be posting record losses this year, due to all the natural disasters that have been occurring. Crazy, huh? I'm glad your place was so well insured. You own your apartment, right, you don't rent? Does that work in your favor for insurance matters like this?

Michele - I'm sorry your weekend won't be very restful! Your school library is open on the weekends? Wow, mine never were. I would have lived there, if I could. Libraries are very peaceful, calming places for me . . . but I imagine that for librarians it's still your workplace, with all the stress that involves.

Disclaimer: This is not "confession time," but I wanted to share something. Last night I ate almost an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I'm not freaked out about it, really - it both was and was not a binge (was because clearly that was a ridiculous number of calories in one sitting, and wasn't because I didn't have the panicky, anxious feeling that I associate with binging). I just loved the way it tasted, was bored while watching TV, and ate until it was gone. Silly and regretful, but I'm choosing not to beat myself up about it.

Anyway, the point of me telling y'all that was to say this - this morning I felt like utter, absolute CRAP. The only comparison I have is to a hangover (I had a few of those in college before I figured out how to deal with alcohol responsibly). I had a huge headache, my mouth felt cottony and disgusting, my stomach was a mess . . . I could barely make it out of bed! It was easily the worst I've felt physically in quite some time.

So, next time an entire pint of ice cream sounds good, please let me remember how I felt today and make a logical, rational choice to limit myself to a reasonable portion. :)

Jen - I can eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's pretty easily these days. It gives me a little bit of carb and sugar hangover the next day, too. Guess it isn't a good sign that I have gotten accustomed to ice cream. :)

Saef - hope the construction goes well on your apatment.

Michele - I hope you feel better honey. Try to get rest when you can this weekend.

Dagmar - hope it goes well with DH tonight!

I'm tired tired tired today. Didn't sleep well last night, and have felt like I was moving slowly all day today. Going into what could be a bad weekend with DSS. He got in lots of trouble last week at school and couldn't keep his hands to himself and wouldn't do his work, so he is now separated out by himself in a small corner of the class and has an incentive chart to get his work done and to be helpful. His official behavior alignment plan came home Wednesday night, Tier 2 intervention - if he doesn't succeed at this then they will move him to Tier 3, which I think requires external intervention like a counselor. Not sure. He did better on Friday and then got into it with his mom at home Friday night, so was punished some over the weekend. Had a little school work left for home on Monday, got 'great day' notes for Tuesday & Wednesday, did well on Thursday, then got into it again with his mom at home Thursday night (Didn't do what she asked him to do until after she asked a couple of times, and told her no on something I think) so his cartoons and games were taken away last night. I'm just hoping that he has a good day at school today - we had to punish him the last weekend he was at our house, and he is at our house again this weekend. We really don't want to have to punish him again when he did well all week up until today. So anxious about that. We'll see how it goes.

Anyone have any big weekend plans?

Jen-- no, my school library isn't open on the weekends thank goodness. I work part-time for Weight Watchers as a receptionist. I usually only work Tuesday evenings and Sunday mornings but sometimes I fill for others.

I get a horrible sugar hangover like you described if I have much dessert these days. It is not pleasant and certainly helps to keep me in check.

Shannon-- sorry to hear that dss has continued behavior difficulties at school. I'm sure that is difficult.