Labradoris

-Cosette had a good annual checkup at the vet a few weeks ago.  She received her Bordetella, Rabies, and DA2P-P-C vaccinations, along with a yearly Lyme Disease vaccine.  Lyme is somewhat prevalent in our area, and given how much we hike, I can't take the risk.  I also brought in a stool sample for their internal parasite test.  Her heartworm test is done in May.  Everything went well.

-Joel's doctor visit went not so well, because he wasn't there for a physical, he was there for a diagnosis.  He has been having pain in his right foot for about three months now, mostly at the onset of increased exercise.  His doctor suspects he has torn his Achilles tendon, and has cleared him only for light cycling/spin and walking.  About three months ago, we were playing a wicked game of racquetball, and during a particularly tight and aggressive move, he most likely tore the tendon (or aggravated a pre-existing unknown condition).  He's been trying to restart his exercise regimen since then, but every time he does, his foot flares up within a week.  He has several standing appointments for ultrasounds and physical therapy.  If no progress has been made, they will re-evaluate and possibly run an MRI to see the extent of the injury.

-I've been doing some thinking.  Much like Pooh Bear.  "When you are a bear of very little brain, and you think of things, you find sometimes that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."    Except, the thing seems as thingish inside as it does outside.  I've been contemplating how to keep my two dogs entertained independently.  Cosette, see, loves to retrieve.  She loves to retrieve on land, in the water, while traveling, when at home.  She loves to take walks, and go for hikes.  Cosette is very easy to work into exercising.  Trooper, on the other hand, likes to run.  He likes to run to go get things, and then likes to keep running.  Sometimes he will retrieve consistently until he grows bored (usually after about 15 throws).  This, as you may know, is not enough to wear out a Lab.  Then he just likes to go lay down, or if he's out with Cosette, to play chase with her in the yard.  The problem is keeping him going.  So I sat down and mulled this over, think, Pooh Bear, think, and I came up with a plan.  With Cosette I will continue to use retrieving as her main mode of activity.  Trooper I will take around the neighborhood so that he is able to continuously run.  I don't have enough of a consistent running habit to support this endeavor, so I chose the next best thing:  rollerblading.

Trooper is a work of art when he runs.  I plan on writing a little more about this in the future, possibly integrating it with some video, because Trooper really is beautiful when he runs.  When we are on flats or downhills, I'll encourage him to "stretch it out!" (stretch implying lengthening his stride) and he'll just simply fly.  I mean, he really will.  It's beautiful.

The dog exercise plan has worked out fairly well so far.  I'm just trying to make it consistent now.  It's hard to get up the motivation to go sweat in the heat some evenings, when I could just be throwing a ball around like I do with Cosette.  But, with the knowledge that he's a happier and calmer puppy when Trooper has been exercised - and allowed to fully run - I'll strap on my Rollerblades and hit the streets.  I bet Pooh Bear wouldn't Rollerblade.

These little guys or gals (I'm not up on my bee knowledge) were working hard yesterday on a shrub outside my home office window.

And this little guy is brand new to the world.  Say hello to the baby caterpillar.  :)

This is the light fixture in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at for half the week.  I hadn't noticed it until the last day we were there, so as soon as I saw it I snapped a quick shot.  Gorgeous, right?!

Here's a view of downtown Toronto from Centerville Island.  The day we traveled there was our last day in Toronto, and what a perfect day it was.  The kind of perfect that you want to cherish forever and ever.  I know I will.

This is what I'm listening to right now as I construct a new class syllabus:

I stumbled across Jorane three years ago and wrote almost my entire Masters thesis listening to her.  Her voice is ethereal, but it blends well (especially in some of her other songs on her album) with her heavy cello sounds.  I love this album to pieces, mainly because this is what I expect from a cello in a performance art piece.  It's like she's hugging the cello truly and deeply, and the cello is kissing passionately right back. 

A very quick synopsis of our Toronto activities:

Day 1 in Toronto:  Selecting a Thai restaurant from Chinatown that wasn't breaking health code, and rescuing Little Guy from a near drown.

Day 2 in Toronto:  Riding almost all the coasters at Wonderland Canada, including Canada's tallest (the Behemoth, hoo baby!), and then eating great Greek food for dinner.

Day 3 in Toronto:  Doing what I came here to do (presentation at national conference), meeting up with my co-author from my masters cohort and his roommate for lunch, visiting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) where we were able to see them setting up for a special event (looked like a gorgeous wedding) where I wanted to stay and eat their food and take pictures, then back to downtown for dinner with the guys at Pier 4, a fantastic seafood restaurant.

Day 4 in Toronto:  Taking the ferry to Centre Island and spending the day.  First, buying an all-day pass for the kid-oriented amusement park, riding every ride but the Ferris wheel.  Walking to the bike rental shop, and after a lengthy discussion over the cash only policies, deciding on a three-seater quadricycle.  Riding the quadricycle around the small island (about an hour and a half jaunt), dropping the cycle back off, then walking back to the rides and re-visiting the pony rides, the mini-coaster, and the dizzying barrel ride.  Managing to secure a ride on the ferry, and walking back through downtown to a great Indian restaurant.  Returning just in time to  the hotel to miss the enormous thunderstorms that would end up delaying all of our colleagues' flights that evening. 

Day 5 in Toronto:  Waking up way too early, in a mad rush to the airport, finding a line a mile and half long to drop off the luggage, rushing through border patrol, rushing through customs, rushing through security, arriving at our gate just in time to see...our flight delayed an hour.

But, we made it home safely and Little Guy was a great little traveler.  Pictures and  video of our adventures to follow this week. 

...why are they still talking to the media? 

I'm not a celebrity follower.  I don't have cable television (I kid you not).  I don't subscribe to US Weekly or People magazine or read celebrity blogs. 

But somehow, somehow, I still know all the details of Jon & Kate's nasty divorce.  Why?  Because it is plastered all across every website (check that link out, it's CNN.com!), every magazine, every television screen within earshot in shopping centers. 

Jon and Kate, would you like some unsolicited advice?  Well, that's okay, because I'm going to give you some anyway:

SHUT.  UP. 

No, I'm serious.  I'm so serious I'll say it in Spanish:

"¿Por qué no os calláis de una puta vez?"

Well, a dirtier version nonetheless. 

Unless you are money-grubbing fame-whores, *clears throat*, you don't need to be doing this.  Do you know we have a term for this?  It's called airing your dirty laundry, and you are doing on a national level.  Take your mess and go home.

And if anyone likes to watch/follow Jon & Kate, sorry if I offended, but really.  Why do we need such trash?  WHY ARE THEY STILL TALKING?  Probably because someone is still listening...

We are off to Canada for a few days.  Posting will resume on Tuesday.

For now, here are some videos of the dogs playing before I took them to the kennel this morning.  They were wound up and Trooper was NUTS this morning.  Watch carefully in video #2 - you can watch Trooper try and stalk Cosette like a cat.

Update:  Sorry about the videos right now.  Vimeo is apparently taking a crap right now.  I think if you click on the pictures, it will take you directly to the videos.

This afternoon we took Little Guy to spend some time at his grandparents' house.  Lo and behold, grandma bought LG an adorable pair of...wait, can you handle it? 

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

....

Blue, SpongeBob SquarePants (who lives in a pineapple under the sea) adorned, CROCS.

I'll let you absorb that one for a little while.

I was going to take a picture, but my camera grabbed its little neck and started gasping for air and then flopped over on the couch.  Who knew my camera could self-asphyxiate?