Friday, January 11, 2013

Kitteh and The Turd

We have a little black tortoiseshell kitteh... she is about 2 now.  She was a pretty sick little kitteh when we got her home from the humane society until we figured out her issues.  She has to eat a certain type of canned cat food or she has explosive diarrhea.  I think I posted about it, no?

Anyway, because of this, we have to separate her when we feed the cats or she runs frantically from food dish to food dish and she eats all the food in each bowl with ONE GIANT BITE.  Our other cats were losing weight and looking at us with starving, hollow eyes because they weren't getting much if any food.

We started locking our little kitteh - affectionately called "Kettlebell" for her *ahem* round shape - in the bathtub and closing the shower door during meal times.  She gets her portion o' food, the other cats get their food, they put on weight and stopped looking at us with baleful, hungry stares and lashing tails. 

Win - win.

Sometimes, Kettlebell will poop in the bathtub.  shrug.  I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go.  At least it's easy clean up right? 

The other day, she pooped in the bathtub.  We hadn't had a chance to clean it up yet, however, we had opened the door and set her free.  Furry Husband was in the bathroom and heard a "rattle, rattle, rattle" coming from the bathtub.

Next thing you know, little Kettlebell pops up.  Cute, dainty, furry paws on the edge of the tub, sweet face with wide-eyed wonderment ... and her own turd in her mouth!  She had been batting it around the bathtub and was apparently going to make a mad dash somewhere else to play with it.

I just heard a panicked, deep shout of, "DROP IT!"  outta Furry Husband from the bathroom...

And it still makes me laugh.

What cat plays with it's own turds??   Only in our house.  Hooo boy.   Sheesh.  

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Happy New Year

Wow - I never post here anymore.  It seems life goes along without many blog worthy interesting things and one gets swept up in daily routine...

Let's see what's been going on in Shanster's world.

I've been working hard and eating real foods - cut way back on sugar and processed things.  I feel better than I ever have before.  It's actually fixed a lot of the brain bugs I've always had. 

Supposedly depression runs rampant on the paternal side o' the family and from what I hear, the maternal side hasn't been all that cheery either.  I figured fighting depression was par for the course, it was "normal" in our family and it was only going to get worse as I aged. 

Nope. 

Turns out eating fruits, tons of vegetables, proteins like beef, pork, poultry and fish with some dairy thrown in here and there (cuz after all I do milk goats two times a day)... has done WONDERS.  Add in some exercise... and voila.  Brain bugs gone.

Not to say I don't get sad or upset about certain things, of course I do.  Those things are still there, only there is not this oppressive, heavy weight to fight hanging on me all the time at every turn which is absolutely amazing and wonderful.

I learned and am learning how bad the diet and fitness industry is... lies mostly.  Low fat "diet" food crap is still crap.  It's still chemicals and processed food and marketing to the masses.  Your body doesn't know what to make of all that chemical, man-made food.  Eat like your great grandparents did, before there were 100 calorie snack packs of Oreos or strawberry filled low fat cereal bars or fruit loops or Velveeta.

You can eat a shit ton o' food as long as it's the right kind of food.  I eat so much more than I ever have in my entire life...and I've been told in my past that I can pack it away like an Iowa farm boy.  So yeah.  Now I eat MORE than an Iowa farm boy. 

A guy at work who is 6'4" - maybe 6'6"?  He says I am his hero because I eat so much.  I out eat him.  And I am now a size 8.  I have NEVER been a size 8.  Not in high school or college or even grade school.  Was always "the big boned" sort or in grade school the "extra baby fat" sort.   Not that size defines anything, I liked myself when I was larger and I like myself now.  That hasn't changed - I'm still the same person.  

I'm jus' sayin' for any non-believers - I EAT and I feel GOOD and I have decreased in size tho' I am only 5lbs lighter than I was when I was in high school and a size 12.  It's just now I am feeding myself right vs. Suzy Qs and Mountain Dew for breakfast, fast food for lunch and Kraft Mac & Cheese for dinner... my body is loving it and responding to it in every possible way - emotionally and physically.

I eat a plate full o' vegetables - I'm talkin' 3-4 cups of broccoli with dinner - possibly more or 1/2 of a very large butternut squash or a head of large cauliflower... with some protein like 2 pork chops, a nice big steak or hunk of fish or 1/2 of a roasted chicken... add a bit o' fat (yup, I eat the chicken skin, and I drizzle my veggies with olive oil or flavor it with butter) cuz it ain't the enemy despite what conventional wisdom says and some carbs which are found in my veggies or I eat fruit cuz carbs aren't the enemy either and chow the *F* down.  People tell me my salad portions are enough to feed their whole family.  I am teased I should use a feed bag or a trough at meal times.  Yup.  And I love every single bite.

Conventional "exercise" putting yourself on the treadmill for hours isn't going to get you anywhere either. My workouts are sometimes 7 minutes and sometimes 30 minutes.  Rarely are they 45 minutes or over.  I work so hard I can barely breathe in those few minutes.  Plain ol' calisthenics - push ups, squats, pull ups, carrying or lifting heavy things and variations of those things.  Modify as needed to your ability.  Just work hard when you work.  Make it count.  It fires up your furnace for the rest of the day. 

Gots to work in tandem tho'... diet - not fad diet - but diet as in what you consume every day AND moving more.  You can't out-exercise crap food.  I started with diet and gradually added in exercise as I could.  I didn't change everything all at once - that would have been too overwhelming.  Baby steps. 

It's simple.  And hard. 

Of course I want to eat Doritos and Oreos and order a giant pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni with a giant Mountain Dew.  Yes, I want those chocolate chip cookies you are eating.  Of course I'd love to open a bag of kettle chip Lays potato chips.  And I would rather sleep in and lay on the couch...however our bodies were meant to move.  And with everything, habits are made the more you practice.  I move.

However, to me, not moving and eating poorly is simply not worth the depression or sleepless nights.  Besides - when you eat 3 large heads of broccoli and 2 pork chops with 32oz o' water for dinner?  You don't feel much like dialing up the ol' pizza palace cuz you are pretty full.

Anyway - that is where I've been I guess.  Learning all about that stuff.

I am still riding.  Still working on my flying changes - however in winter, I ride once and if I'm lucky twice a week so not like I'm drilling every day.  They are getting better and better.  I'm looking forward to longer days and more time in the saddle.

I am still practicing agility with my little dog, Toe.  He has 6 in-line weaves now and at the Novice level in AKC they only use 6 vs. 12 ... so I guess that means I should start entering competitions!  Gulp.  And I need to get my butt in gear to do 12... and I have NO IDEA why I have such a mental block or fear of weaves.  Rolling eyes at self.

We are fostering a rescue dog this month because we lost our big yellow dog about 3 months ago.  We are just now beginning to feel like we can move forward and test the doggie waters again.  I hope the foster is a positive experience.

My deceased Dad has been on my brain lately - there is some finder company that says they found some $ of his somewhere.  They will provide it to me for 20% of the cut.  They seem like mobsters to me when I talked with them.  Sounded just like Tony Soprano and his crew.

However, when I talked to the state treasurer, they say it's law that the funds will be released to the state in 5 years and to check the state site now and again.  I checked the other day and accidentally clicked on a link that LOOKED like the state treasurer - only it was another finder company and only after I entered Dad's name did I realize this.

Now I am being spammed with all sorts of things geared toward Dad and his "interests"... and his last years were pretty durned seedy as he lost his mind or maybe he finally let loose what was always there.  Who knows.  Do we ever truly know any one?  Maybe not.  So every day lately I've been reminded of all of his badness and everything I dealt with for the last years of his life.  And it is really bumming me out.  Not feeling so great about my family right now and where I came from.

So see?  Problems still there, they don't go away.  However, I can only imagine how bad they'd be if I was still jacked up on fake foods and thank goodness for my 10 minutes and 28 seconds of hard work this morning...helps get that aggression and bad feeling OUT. 

Endorphins.  Gotta love 'em.

And practicing the here and now.  I am here.  I have such a great life and such a great husband and friends and I have made the life I want.  Right here and right now.  Wolf!  (If you have not read Stephen King/Peter Straub and their book,  The Talisman - do it now!)

Hope everyone is well and still out there fighting the good fight!  Cheers!





 

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The nose knows!

Took a break and took Toe on a walk around our buildings (Saturdays I can park in the shade with my windows down so Toe gets to come with me to work and hang out in his car kennel) ... there are these wide gutters along some curbs and he is always so interested in them...

Today after investigating the gutters, there was a wild animal poop on the sidewalk that he investigated a long time... then he sniffed all along the building - up against it... to this employee area with picnic tables where some wild thing had raided the trash... my guess would be racoons.

It was just cool to watch his nose work, watch him investigate... track...back track... and then come upon this scene of trash and I could just imagine fat racoons emerging from the gutter... slinking along the buildings in the shadows and raiding the garbage.

Dogs is so cool.

Just had to share... for some reason it just tickled me today... tho' he is always sniffing... today I felt I could follow along with the story he was "reading".  grin.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Gas-O-line yeah

My sister visited yesterday and not being aware, left our front gate open through which Toe made his escape to finally find and take care of that damn rabbit that has been in our driveway driving him over the wall insane.

I went running after Toe... he was at the neighbor's house.  The neighbor to the East of us... the family that is ... hmmm.  How do you say?  Harmless, nice enough and yet so incredibly annoying and not really very smaht.   No.   Not smaht at all.

IE:  Took a couple years for them to build a "yard" for the dogs... in those years dogs either got hit by cars or were picked up by the humane society and it was easier for them to leave the dog at the humane society vs. paying the fine.  

Shooting guns for the fun of it, but shot toward Mrs. Kravitz's house and there is buckshot in her exterior house walls.

Keeping horses in a pasture that has t-posts, sagging, mish-mosh of "fencing" made of wire, baling twine, barb wire - so low in spots I could easily step over it so the horses got out and ran around the neighborhood regularly til he took them to the sale barn.

Now his daughter, son-in-law and their children have moved in... I come home to naked boys (5-7 or 8?) running around outside in the summer.  Nice. 

Couple of winters ago, one of the said boys from above was small - 2ish?  And the wee boy was outside with only a diaper on and it was mid-30s... maybe low 40s.  Not freezing but not weather you want a naked 2yr old in.  Anyway, he made his way down the pasture and to Mrs. Kravitz's house (a long trek for a 2yr old)... they found him, scooped him up and took him back to dumb ass (oh, did I say dumb ass?  Sorry about that.  I meant neighbor...)  The response?  "Oh, he does that all the time!"

Now that you have a somewhat pix of these neighbors... that is where Toe had gone.  I walk over, see Toe.  He is in the back part of their house where the dilapidated garage is, driveway with large dirt parking area.  The 2 little boys are sitting on the ground, playing in the dirt... there are a couple metal mixing bowls, rusted pans and an aluminum paint tray for roller brushes...

Toe sees me and comes over... they are yelling at him and shooing him away.  I pick him up and say "Whoops, we had an escapee - sorry about that!" 

Their response?

"Oh, we just didn't want him to get near those bowls and stuff.  The boys thought it'd be fun to fill them with white gasoline."

Alrighty then.

You have fun playing with your gasoline and your kids under the age of 10.

Good grief.  What is it that Ron White says?   You can't fix stupid.   He is 100% dead on with that statement. 

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Nature is scary

Before bed, I was going out to let the dogs out, I open the door.  And on the threshold of the doorway was this GIGANTIC spider... I have NEVER seen a spider this big.  I thought it was a tarantula... it was so hairy and giant... (I did hold a tarantula at the butterfly pavillion so I have seen one up close and personal)  I mean - HUGE.  And it RUNS INTO OUR KITCHEN.
Well - a black bear cub was spotted in the neighborhood this week... Furry Husband has been all on high alert for a bear.  Which I am not cuz bears don't hunt horses right?  Anyway - Furry Husband is all nervous about the bear and keeps talking about the bear...
So this mo'fo tarantula runs into our kitchen and I'm going "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!" 
Seriously.
That thing was as big as a baby kitten and just as hairy. 

If I had seen it outside I would have been "oh cool!"...it's another thing when this giant spider unexpectedly runs into your kitchen ready to stage a coup.
Furry Husband comes running thinking there is a bear just outside our front door....
and I am pointing at the spider...
and I'm screaming - "SHOO IT OUT!  DON'T KILL IT!"
Well he tried to shoo it out, but it feinted right and faked Furry Husband out and he accidentally stepped on it and I was covering my face -"OMG, GROSS, OMG, OMG -  I CAN'T LOOK!"   and Furry Husband is like - well honey... here is a leg... and over here is a leg... I am just covering my eyes and waiting for the horror to end...
Once the carnage is cleaned up... he goes outside to make sure the horses are safe from the bear....
I guess he was walking in the dark, he told me he was watching where he stepped cuz I always tell him that he never looks where he is walking (which he doesn't and good thing he listened to me for one time in his life last night...) and right as he was stepping, there was this thing...

He tried to step over it... he didn't have his glasses on tho' and it ended up being one of the larger fist size toads we have around our place this year.

Right as Furry Husband tried to step over it, it jumped up, hit his leg and slid down and he was all "UG!  OOK!  GAH!"  trying to avoid stepping on the frog and losing his balance, pinwheeling his arms and being grossed out that it just slid down his leg....
He tells me all this.... and I say in a hushed whisper with huge, dilated pupils:   "Honey.  Nature is scary."

Monday, August 20, 2012

Corn nubbin' toof

Dentist today... I have a tooth with a small spot they've been keeping and eye on. It has crossed over to cavity land... my third cavity in 41 years. And yes, I am nervous about getting it taken care of. Call me a weenie. I don't care. I have not needed much dental work in my life - cleanings every 6 mos and that is about it for 41 years people.

I have a tooth that has a sharp pain every now...
and again when I eat something crunchy (like a veggie chip - think corn chip)...

The Dentist told me he could put a crown on it if it gets worse.

I didn't know what a crown was. He showed me on a tooth model... they grind your tooth down to a corn nubbin and then glue a prosthetic tooth on top?!

No. Huh-uh. Nope. That is all I need.

You put that in your mouth and then the next fabulous vacation you go on, you eat some food that is the best thing you've ever tasted, the crown comes loose, gets lost in your food or you swallow it and then you have this worthless corn nubbin tooth that is good for nothing and probably so painful you can't sleep, your face swells up so all your vacation pix with your wonderful husband look like you suffered through a car accident and the next thing you know your once in a lifetime trip to Italy is ruined.

No thanks. No crown for me until it is 100% totally necessary because my gum around that tooth will rot and fester and I will get gangrene and die.... then and only then will I submit to his corn nubbin tooth and prosthetic tooth crown thingy.

He sat back and looked at me, eyebrows up..."Really? You find a crown frightening?"

Me - YES!

"Mmmm - that is really interesting."

He doesn't live in my head. If he did, he would find it frightening as well.
 
(and to all of you who have had lots of dentistry done... you are very, very strong people.  That is all.)

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Bud Lite with Clamato and dog urine

OK - and ummmmm.

I found this in my "draft" file in my blog list.

I have NO IDEA what this post was gonna be about. 

Sure sounds interesting doesn't it?  

Maybe my life IS full of drama and I just don't realize it..... cuz I've been drinking too much Bud Lite, Clamato and dog urine?