Hello Again -- Meet our New Family Members!

It's been nearly two years since I blogged. The last time was in July 2010 when we lost Polly. Since that time, we have adopted Zena, who is now two, a Jack Russell Terrier mix, and more recently, Jessie, a Papillon-Terrier mix, who is all of 7 pounds in size. We're a three-dog family again. No one will ever replace our Border Collies in doggy heaven, Tommy and Polly, but these two young dogs enrich our lives in their own way. Both Zena and Jessie were adopted from Star Paws, a wonderful pet rescue organization.

Polly - February 1998 to July 2010

Polly was our beautiful Border Collie/Jack Russell Terrier who we rescued in 1999 to be Tommy's friend. We lost her last week to what was probably a brain tumor. She was a wonderful, sweet, loving, comical, smart dog and we will always remember her.

Long Overdue... Renaissance Faire Fun!

Kim and I enjoyed our third year together at the local Renaissance Faire. We are gradually completing our outfits as the Innkeeper and his Wife...

...who were visited in 1525 by our friends from 2009, Kevin and Lizzy!

Eureka!

I was feeling bummed this morning because recently I'd lost 21 pounds (as of mid-September) but then gained about 4 or 5 of them back again over the past three to four weeks. I've been trying to get myself back on the rails and the harder I try, the more I obsess, and the more I obsess, the worse I eat, and it becomes the same pattern that put the 21 pounds on me in the first place. (Self-loathing => self-destructive eating => more self-loathing => more self-destructive eating...) At that rate I would soon find the weight back on me.

Another manifestation of this problem was feeling unfocused in my work. I have stacks of work on the shelf but the harder I think about clearing the shelves and getting the work done, the more distracted I get and the less work gets done.

This morning while walking the dogs I got outside my head for a moment and managed to see a way out. I have to stop focusing on the failure and focus on the goal. D-uh! Seems pretty simple, but just having that epiphany helped me feel less lost.

This worked when I ran my last marathon. To get through the last 6 miles, I focused on the mile ahead and as I reached each mile marker, I literally focused on it with my eyes and imagined it "pulling" me toward itself like a big rubber band.

The trick is not to look at the end goal (e.g. 26.2 miles for the marathon, 122 pounds for the weight goal, all that work sitting on the shelf getting older and older) but at the next sub-goal (the next mile for the marathon, the end of the week for the production goal or weight loss goal.

So I will let $[ ]k and 127 pounds pull me toward itself this Friday, October 31. Let me look FORWARD and let the goals in front of me pull me in. No one ever finished a marathon by looking down at their feet!

Ran my 6th Marathon Last Sunday!

I ran a marathon last Sunday and felt great the next day and the next and the next! If you've ever been thinking about doing a marathon, I highly recommend it. No matter how long it takes you to cross the finish line, doing so is the BEST!

I do want to air a couple of peeves (I feel entitled since I consider myself a seasoned runner now.)

Race walkers, I love the fact that you're there but please, don't walk abreast and make us runners try to dodge you, risking injury.

First-timers - especially young ones who haven't tuned in your vocal volume -- please refrain from telling everyone within earshot your experiences. We're trying to concentrate.

That said, I really, really, appreciate all the volunteers and people on the sidelines (especially residents of the route) who come out and cheer us on, give us water, first aid, and vaseline to prevent blisters. You are the salt of the earth!

The Dogs who Own Me

Yes, I know, my blog title is I love dogs. I think I'd better introduce my fur-children:

1. Tommy is a 12 1/2-year-old Border Collie/Terrier mix. I've had him since 1997. I got him just a few months before I met my current husband, Kim, so Tommy is our firstborn. He's as bright as they come. Now that he is older, he has slowed down a bit and has, over the past three or four years, lost most of his teeth, but he is still handsome and a great companion.


2. Polly is a 10 1/2-year-old Border Collie/Jack Russell Terrier mix (so they say -- personally I think she's about 80-percent Australian Cattle Dog. See photo to left. She is a real character. She "talks" with growls (a friendly greeting would go something like "grow-roo-roo-rooo!" and teases the devil out of the neighborhood dogs. She was a rescue from Border Collie Rescue and a birthday present to me from my husband in about 1998 or 1999.
3. Beggs is the beagle you see in my profile. She just turned 6 years old and is every bit a beagle -- loving, wonderful with children, great sense of humor, and stubborn as a mule.

More on these guys later. They are our fur-children and the lights of our lives.