Pat - I can't get a suitcase out without my cat climbing over into it. Did someone borrow your's and leave a sock maybe?

Megan - I printed out the chickpea recipe, too. Looks yummy.

Kim - welcome back! Hope 2011 is a better year!

So far we can't find anything wrong with me, and I haven't had any symptoms since last night. Took the rest of the day for the headache to fade, but the sweating went away almost immediately. Keeping my eyes out for more vertigo today.

thanks for the well wishes everyone!

i am glad to be back...

i had a great on-track day yesterday despite digestive upset and am looking forward to putting today down as a positive day too!

i am now a spinning instructor and am about to go teach ! what an adrenaline rush! even if it is just a class of 5 or 6 people i LOVE it!

that is kinda funny about socks - normally i loose them, not find random ones !

i hope you continue to feel better shannon... i had some weird stuff happening to me in May - Aug last year and it is not nice not knowing what is going on... i agree with many of the other ladies - don't hesitate to see a doc... better safe than sorry might be corny but hey, i nearly did some serious damage last summer by not seeing a doc soon enough!

why is it that i am up 7lbs from my 'happy' weight of 175 but feel like it is 100?

i cannot afford surgery for my excess skin (both financially and because i am on blood thinners) but it is driving me NUTS!! does anyone know of any sort of "girdle" devices to hold it still during workouts?

have a fantastic onplan kinda day!

Shannon, I hope you continue to be better!

Kim, have fun teaching!

I made the most delicious dinner ever last night. I posted the recipe on the recipes thread -- polenta with mushroom sausage ragu. It was so rich and delicious! Nom nom nom.

Tonight we're meeting with the new dog behaviorist to evaluate Carter and come up with a plan for him. I hope it goes well!

Hi all,

I've been sick for the past couple of days with a bad cold. No fever or woozy head feeling or stomach issues, just a really sore throat, coughing, swollen glands, and a very low scratchy voice. I haven't been sick enough to skip work, but I've been skipping the gym to let my body get some extra rest and to avoid spreading my cough around the gym (I know, why am I more considerate of my fellow gym-goers than co-workers? Maybe bc many of my coworkers have already been sick w similar ailments over the past few weeks, so I think they're immune? Eh, you can still call me a bad person.) The weather has been bad for the past two days, but it's sunny and not terribly cold today, so if I skip the gym again I could/should go home and do a light workout outside. I need to do something, anyway, I've been sitting at my desk the past few days.

BF has been feeling much worse than I and stayed home and slept most of the last two days. He has to drive to Miami today and fly out for his vacation to the Dominican Republic tomorrow. Poor thing did not want to get out of bed this AM, he still feels crummy. But he left, and is gone again for two weeks, so I'm once again living the pseudo-single life. This is getting old.

Jessica, I hope your meeting with the trainer goes well. Your recipe sounds yummy!

Shannon, I hope nothing serious is going on. Did you get to a doctor? Now you've made the hypochondriac come out in me, I swore my ear was throbbing for a few seconds on my drive to work this morning.

happytobeamom, I hope you had a nice class. What great enthusiasm you have! I wish my gym offered more classes at a reduced cost. Right now all classes are at 8:30 AM and cost an additional fee besides your membership.

I should say I reconstituted dried chickpeas for the salt & vinegar recipe, so after soaking overnight I cooked them in mostly vinegar water as Angela suggested. I haven't tried using canned chickpeas, but since I'm out of dried and still craving them I foresee trying the canned method in the near future!

Actually a lunchtime walk sounds like a good idea, and I've been left alone in the office for now... so I'll be out walking for the next 20 minutes or so. Have a good day everyone!

Megan, not to put pressure on or anything, but have you and your BF ever talked about getting married?

We met with the dog behaviorist. She seemed really knowledgeable and trustworthy, and we learned a lot already about Carter's body language. It turns out that he is in general a somewhat afraid and uncomfortable dog, and by watching his body language we could see that sometimes he is even uncomfortable with me and DH petting him in certain ways (but he puts up with it because he knows its us). She talked about that a dog has a "threshold." Actually two. There is the threshold of when something passes out of his comfort zone into uncomfortable, and there is the more serious threshold of when something passes from being uncomfortable to being something he will not tolerate, which is when he will growl, bark, or snap.

In any case we're going to try to gradually desensitize him to letting strangers approach him and touch him without him reaching his second threshold. She recommended a book on canine body language which I'll look up at the library this weekend, and we have homework to work on with him until our next lesson in two weeks.

The only problem is that now I'm more nervous than I was before, because now that I'm looking for all this body language I'm realizing that we've put Carter in a lot of situations he's not comfortable with even though we thought he was okay, and we're lucky that he hasn't bitten anyone. Then I also feel kind of upset with him for having issues in the first place, even though I know it's not his fault. Then I feel bad for being upset with him because I DO know it's not his fault. Oh well, hopefully he will make good progress.

Dog ownership is sounding just as complicated as maintaining an emotionally healthy human relationship.

I mean, historically, people have raised **their children** without having as much insight into them as you have into Carter.

This is pretty interesting stuff, though.

Jessica~do tell the name of the dog body language book! You know we have two Labradors which are notoriously friendly dogs, however, I've always noticed Chico's body language is very different than Buddy's when greeting strangers and dogs. Buddy approaches EVERYTHING with a happy wagging tail--he loves everyone. He's been nipped or bitten by a couple small dogs that may have sensed that he was huge and might hurt them (he wouldn't) or dogs that just are not comfortable around other dogs. Chico, however, has totally different body language. His ears go back, his head lowered and his tail down, but not tucked. I usually make him sit and allow the other dog or person to greet him while he is seated as he seems more friendly in that position. Never has he ever been aggressive to another dog but I have seen him bark when a strange dog makes a sudden movement. It's different however at the off-leash dog park. He's totally happy meeting everyone. He only has this language when he's on his leash. Very strange.

Megan~hope you feel better soon!

Shannon~how is the ear thing today? Better I hope.

happy~no idea about a girdle for excess skin, perhaps PM Meg to see if she knows? Have fun teaching spin!

Happy-- that is cool that you are teaching spin!!
I hear you about the loose skin. I really would love to do surgery (met with a plastic surgeon recently) but I doubt I will get to due to the cost. It is frustrating.

Jessica-- I commend you for working so hard with Carter on his behavior. So many people either ignore problems (with disastrous results) or give up the dogs.

Yes, Shannon-- how are you feeling?

My dd leaves to go back to college tomorrow. It is funny that once they don't live at home anymore, it gets difficult when they come home. We are ready for her to go. Between her sloppiness and aches and pains, she is exhausting and stressing me out! Yesterday she said her shoulder hurt so bad she couldn't move. I haven't spoken to her today but I suspect she may need to see the doctor before she goes.

I have my big dog Jozi at school today. She is my 125 pound Great Dane and she is a therapy dog. I have brought her to visit the special ed classes and a few others today. She is getting older (almost 7) so I don't know how many more visits she may make. The kids are so excited to see her as they are having visits to the library for assemblies so they all see her.

Speaking of dogs, I took my dog in for grooming yesterday, a visit he would just as soon do without. He always poops right in front of the door when we get there, just to let me know how he feels about it. He looks great today and smells good but he always wants to find something smelly to roll in after his bath.

Ah, Michele, it's nice to read about someone else who gets stressed out by kids who come to visit for longer than a normal guest would visit. Hope her shoulder feels better.

Bargoo, dogs can't talk, but they sure can communicate, can't they?

Allison, that's a great way to solve the greeting issue.

Jessica, thanks for trying to get at the root of Carter's problems and figure out how to solve them. So many people don't even try.

Megan, hope you feel better.

I fell at my trainer's little gym on Wednesday and ended up in the ER for four hours. Tried to catch myself, but fell backward because the medicine ball was in the way. Got a bad case of whiplash more or less, but I'm still able to get on the elliptical (ER doc said sitting around will make it worse). Gotta get that exercise in! Ice is my friend right now.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Snow flurries on tap, but it's beautiful right now.

Why is it when things break at my house, my BF is out of town? My hot water heater is acting up. Yesterday morning the water was really hot, so hot I asked BF if he had changed the water heater temp (no). Now that he's gone I had sort of a warm-ish shower this morning... I do not like the trend in temps for my shower tomorrow! The repairman (who is a friend of BF's) can come tomorrow and take a look. The hot water heater acted up last time the day I got home from my Keys vacation, and BF was following a few days behind.

My cold is much worse today, so I'll spend the weekend resting as much as possible. I did go for my lunchtime walk yesterday, and by the end of it, realized I was not up to an actual workout. Blech, I am such a big baby about being sick. My office's big boss (2 up the chain from me) is leaving, and tonight is his going away party, and I don't want to miss it bc I will miss him! I'm sure I'll head home early and tuck myself in for the weekend.

Sheila, sorry about the whiplash! What a nice change of doctor's advice - exercise will help. I hate going when I'm sick or injured bc I know they will tell me to stop working out.

Bargoo, lol, of course dogs like to roll in something smelly after a bath! I've witnessed this phenomenon many times.

Michele, sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Jessica, what interesting things you learned from the behaviorist. I know I'm being judgemental, but I feel like I've seen lots of bad examples of dog care/ownership over the past few months and it's nice to see good ownership and care!

Have a good weekend all.

Saturday morning here. My exercise plan for today is to shovel snow from the storm predicted to hit the East Coast. Just looked outside. It's a faint dusting that's already mostly blown away. Woot Woot!!!

Now I have to make the decision whether my exercise is done for today or to re-plan. <sigh> . . . Reminds me why I could never do Weight Watchers. They have a zero calorie soup and I'd spend my days wondering how long I had to wait between bowls for it to still count as zero calories, LOL.

My little town has not one but two cat psychologists. I didn't realize cats' psychology was so difficult. I mean, isn't a cat's life basically (a) eat, (b) sleep, and (c) chase random invisible things ("greeblings") around the house?

But, some friends swear by the cat psychologist they saw. Evidently, their cat was in the habit of scratching at the bedroom door in the middle of the night to get attention. Our friends insist that the psychologist taught them how to modify the cat's behavior so it didn't scratch, but after they described the "how to" a bit, it sounded to me like the cat psychologist taught the humans how to modify their behavior so the cat's scratching didn't annoy them so much.

Michele, funny you should mention your DD going back to school. The university in my town doesn't start up for another 2.5 weeks, but the students are starting to come back. Some are here for athletics, but I'd guess a nontrivial proportion come back early because they're tired of dealing with parents ... and vice versa. I remember that stage of life, not with much fondness.

Hope everyone has a relaxing Saturday. I'm taking The Boy to his basketball game in the AM, then going in to work for the day. I'm sure around 4 pm, I'll be more than ready for a trip to the gym...

//b. strong,
Kim

So happy in many ways today. DD posted on Facebook that she's made the Dean's list 5 semesters in a row, has a 3.71 GPA and is striving to get it up to a 3.75 so she can graduate Magna Cum Laude. I'm down 4 pounds!! And we're going to go get DS's car this morning as well as check with a guy about polishing the wheels on my car (they're a satin finish and DH thinks they'd look better with a chrome finish to match all the rest of the chrome on the car).

Not sure what my meal plan for the day will be. I was going to make bean soup but forgot (again) to soak the beans overnight. <sigh> I'll still do it, but it won't be as easy...

DD is back at college for the weekend. She had a meeting with the instructor for the online class she is taking. She's been planning this for weeks as it was in the syllabus that it was going to take place, but the instructor posted the DAY beforehand that it was not mandatory. She already had her plans, so she went anyway. She'll be back tomorrow in time for us to go see A Chorus Line. That should be fun.

I think I need a cat psychologist. Darn kitty walked up my chest at 11 PM. Woke me up of course, and the proceeded to try to get me to play by trying to find my hands under the covers and then biting them when he did. I finally threw him off the bed (nicely) and after three shoves he finally got the idea and left. I don't mind it at all if he comes up and sleeps, but this is different.

Woot!!! Allison!
Do you attribute your weight loss to the meals your daughter was cooking?
Her GPA is great and almost identical to my dd's. She also wants to graduate Magna Cum Laude.

My cat does the same thing but doesn't get the hint no matter how many times I push or throw him off the bed. He still comes back purring!!