Thanks everyone for the anniversary wishes. And yes, we met when I was 16 and Marc was 22. My father was THRILLED - NOT!!!! But we have been together ever since. Never broke up (although we came close a couple of times).

Speaking of my Dad, he died when I was 18 and his birthday would have been tomorrow. I purposely chose March 3rd as our wedding anniversary so it would be next to his birthday but not on the actual date to remove some of the melancholy from the day. Now I can also mentally celebrate with you, Michele, so I'm happy about that.

Tomorrow they are calling for temps of -20 and we have a wind chill warning. I cannot believe how bad this winter has been.

As part of my anniversary gift, Marc got me this OUTRAGEOUS tutu to wear in races. We have the Shamrock Run on March 15 - hoping the weather will warm up so I can rock the tutu!!

Jen

Happy Birthday Michele and Dagmar later this week! And Happy anniversary Jen! I'm sure your dad wasn't thrilled but it all worked out!

I feel bad for all of you in that cold including my DD. Shockingly she doesn't really complain but then again when she wanted to go to school up north I told her she would freeze so she probably doesn't want to say it to me. Even though I'm not an "I told you so type of person" although DH might disagree with that.

Happy anniversary Jen! I was with my DH for 7 years before we got married and we've been married for 6. When we met I had just turned 18 and he was almost 21 (my freshman year of college, he was a junior).

Babies were pretty well-behaved yesterday overall. DH was a grouch though. His hands got too dry (because he hates putting lotion on) and his skin split on the tip of his thumb, and even though the cut is the size of a papercut he has been moaning about how terrible it is and how he'll never heal and it's a giant disaster for two days. Plus when he has aches and pains he has no patience with the babies! Am I a bad wife for thinking he just needs to suck it up and get over this little cut already?

Male Response:

Thumb cut is a major problem. Homo Sapiens need thumbs and incapacitation is detrimental to survival.

I just had this problem and was miserable. The solution that worked for me was to apply Cortizone to speed healing. I then covered with a despised band-aid (at DW's insistence because she says avoiding dirt also speeds healing). I was cured sufficiently to rejoin life in only two days.

I wish him well on his path to healing. And I send him my unbounded admiration for handling twins.

Jen, I want to see pictures of you in this tutu at your run! I think you can layer it over warmer underlayers if needed. It's going to look silly anyway, that's the point, so who cares if it looks silly over 3 layers of running tights.

Jessica, nope, that doesn't make you a bad wife. I can relate. My BF will often complain about whatever ailment he has, and then say "but I'm not complaining."

Michele, I hope you're having fun on your day off. At least, after your tests you can have some fun!

I'm mentally preparing myself to make a case to my supervisor tomorrow... or Thursday... whenever I see her next (she's out today and I'm traveling for an all day meeting tomorrow). My parents have finally confirmed their spring break visit for mid-March. They hemmed and hawed bc they weren't sure what they would do with my mom's back being hurt, and I kept asking them what dates they might be here and they put me off. I want to take off from work while they're here and I anticipate my supervisor will be upset I'm missing a project day. But I'm going to calmly ask for the days off and point out that I never ask for days off, and that I have too much time saved, and I rarely get to see my family. There is always some project going on.

I'm also very excited I'll see them soon! Especially since we spent so little time together over Christmas vacation. Their dog, my "brother" is an old man at 13 so I'm glad he's coming too. He loves the beach.

Good luck Megan with your supervisor! And happy anniversary all. I'm always amazed when teenagers find the loves of their lives. I married at 21 to the wrong person; she's still good friends of me and my wife Karen but as a couple we were a total misfit! So I went through the pain of a divorce and remarriage, and now we've been happily married over 30 years.

Winter's fading here and I sure hope spring comes soon to the rest of us!

Day 1 of my refocusing went well. On to Day Two!

Hi to everybody. I'm drinking my fourth cup of coffee at my desk at home, bundled up in fleece, braced for my apartment building shutting the heat off all day long to facilitate much-needed work on our 75-year-old boiler & steam heating system, despite temperatures in the 20s. For March, that's bitterly cold. I feel like winter won the fight this year, as it has utterly defeated me. I am thinking less of losing weight than of my mental health and staying afloat and out of a relapse into long fended-off depression.

Everybody else, hang in there. I can relate how accumulating minor tribulations & annoyances can feel magnified into life-or-death crises.

I'm feeling guilty moaning about my rainy days here and mildly cold temps. It's nothing compared to what you all are experiencing.

I'm hoping that two bikram yoga classes today (one this morning and one this afternoon) will offset the indulgences of food today. I doubt it though. My weight is up a few pounds from the low I saw a few days ago but still ok as long as it doesn't spike up more. I was planning on having a solitary lunch out but one of my parent volunteers (she has become a friend) is going to meet me and possibly another friend too.

Good morning!

Tonight is Bogey's last beginner obedience class and I have to say I'm quite impressed by him. I've taken two other dogs to obedience class and have never had a dog master "down" or even "stay" and yet he seems to know both. I've been working with him on boundaries--both with the newly installed pet gate and the back door. I have yet to try the front door but will need to address that one soon.

Meanwhile I was reading Yelp reviews on the dog boot camp that I contacted a week or so ago. All (granted there were only five) were pretty negative. So I did another Google search and found a trainer in the same area but who had wonderful Yelp reviews. I sent in a contact form and he called me within 10 minutes. He's coming to my house Friday morning to evaluate Bogey. Granted his eval costs $40, but he's coming to me rather than my driving 1.5 hours to this other place for a free eval. If it works out with him I'll cancel the other eval.

And as for the cats, Bogey alerts when he sees or hears them but is less and less reactive. Several times I've had a cat walk between him and me and he barely takes his eyes off of me. I'm feeling confident that with some extra training I can have him off leash inside and not worry about the cats (although the cats may take a while longer to "come around").

I have a few busy weeks ahead. This weekend I have two rounds of golf and dinner out with my BFF who is in town for the BNP Paribas Open (tennis tournament). Next week my BIL and SIL are coming and are staying at my house. That Sunday is the day before my birthday so my kids will come home for dinner as they haven't seen their aunt and uncle for years. I'm making a cake. Ugh. I'll just have a small piece. I haven't decided what to do for dinner (maybe I should make them take me out! LOL).

Just finished walk 7 of 8 dogwalks today (the last will be with my sit dogs again at 8 p.m. before we call it a night). It has just started snowing. It's been a long day. Since DH is at class tonite I had to come home to feed/medicate my cats. Mudpie had barfed all down the hall for me. At least it hadn't stained the hardwood - the coating on it is a good one based on her "torture testing" of it.

And there was another little surprise under my desk (from her other end). SIGH. She lets me know she doesn't appreciate my being away. DH apparently doesn't provided nearly the level of service for her that I do. I am a GOOD minion.

I my slow cooker. Came over here this morning and threw some turkey drums, fennel, onion, and a cup of stock into the cooker and, 7 hours later, dinner is served! Thank goodness!

Dagmar

Saef
That's crazy that they have to turn off the heat in that weather. Next year you should plan a trip south in late Feb or March! My DH used to get SAD (I think that's the name of it) when we lived in DC and it could definitely spin out of control. I worry about my DD up there with her first really brutal winter. Her first two years it wasn't bad at all, after I spent a fortune on winter clothes!

Dagmar, that's terrible about coming home to that mess! I've come home to my house full of my dog having it come out of both ends if he got into something. Not fun. And then the poor thing is so ashamed he doesn't want to come out and celebrate my arrival!

Alinnel, so Bogey is a rescue? That's great that he is doing so well in training. Our rescue didn't do well at all in training. My son has had him to three different trainers and he finally just passed the good citizen training but we think the lady was just being nice.

We had a Mardi Gras lunch at school today, so I had a big piece of King Cake. It's never as good as it seems like it will be. Oh well it was much more fun enjoying it this year than last year when I was on a gaining spree! Now onto Lent.

CalCounter, yes Bogey is a rescue but I think he'd been taught a little before because he's learning it all so darn fast. Either that or he is just a smart dog. The obedience trainer thinks he's smart, anyway. I'd like for him to get his CGC certificate. I'm envious of those who have it but there are a couple tests that at this point he wouldn't pass.

I bought some liquid bandage for DH's thumb and it seems to be helping, so hooray for that! On the other hand, A&C had a disaster day yesterday. DH had fed them yogurt again in the morning so I'm thinking that they're just not ready to reintroduce dairy again. It's such a struggle because they don't have an allergy, just a sensitivity, and no obvious signs. No rashes, no unusual poop, nothing like that -- they just get fussy and cry for no apparent reason. I don't know if it's gas or reflux or what, although we haven't upped their reflux medication in a long time because we were hoping we could get them off of it.

In any case yesterday they were unhappy. C took a good long nap #1 but A was up and down the whole time, then A took a 30 minute nap #2 and C didn't sleep AT ALL. She finally passed out in the stroller at 4pm for 20 minutes. Poor DH didn't get any free time all day. Once daylight savings happens this weekend I think we are going to try to put them on a clock schedule instead of basing nap times off their wake up times.

I think we're all going a bit stir crazy with this long and nasty winter. I need to remember to take Carter for walks now that the temps are back up around freezing. I did at least toss his tennis ball for him a bit last night so that's something, though I feel bad that I don't play with him nearly enough anymore.

The wireless internet is down at my dogsit. Tried a few things to reboot but nothing is working. I know lots of people are now doing things on their smartphones but some of us still need the computer etc. I was forced to buy a basic cell phone as more and more people are opting out of land phone lines but i have no need and can't really afford a smart phone.

Most of my dogsit clients DO have a secure internet connection. So frustrating when there isn't one. I'm at that point where I really really want for this hideous winter to be over and that is spilling over on to the sit. Any more obstacles and I will get really cranky.

Dagmar

The good news: What I thought was depression was actually sluggishness as a result of my running a fever. What I thought was a strange post-workout soreness was nerves thrumming with hurt. Because yesterday when I got an unfamiliar glimpse of my backside (how many of you twist about to look at your butt and back all the time?) I saw an enormous rash, as though a bear paw had swiped across my body and scraped me and left welts and bumps. A nurse at the gym in the locker room said: "Did you have chickenpox when you were a kid? I think you've got shingles. Go see your doctor."

Well, that explains some things. I've taken some Oxycodone left over from dental work, as I woke up in the night hurting. Going to see the doctor today. Either the relief of figuring out something was physically wrong, rather than mentally wrong, or the sweetness of the Oxycodone has left me feeling far better than I have for four or five days now.

Anyone here know anything about shingles? Oh, and get your shingles vaccination. I was too young to get one, or so my doctor thought.