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 jinx, life with dogs May 19th, 2013 @ 5:23 pm 
Jinx’s Ghetto Garden, 2013
Oh, hello there! I assure you I have not fallen off the face of the earth, nor did the jogging kill me (although I haven’t gone out since the last jogging post). I have been extremely busy and exhausted when I am not working and then away for a long weekend so I haven’t had time to run, blog or do anything. I did get a ton of books read on the train though. I just needed to turn off the internet for a while.
This is a long weekend in Canada and “traditional” planting time if you live on my coast – even so, it’s still a little cold at night and I am not certain how my – er, Jinx’s tomatoes will fare. This morning Shawn and I went out to the farmer’s market and picked up my (Jinx’s) plants for the garden this year. I managed to get it all done before the rain started to pour down. Score!
I already know the tomato plants I get from this vendor at the market turn out splendidly, so I hope they do again. Once more I got one tomato and one cherry tomato plant. Since Shawn doesn’t like tomatoes and my neighbour sold his house, I won’t have as many people to share them with. (Other than my sister, of course!) Last year I bought six little english cucumber sprouts and ended up with cucumber out the wazoo (much to Jinx’s delight! He might hate tomatoes, but he LOVES his coocumbers). I only got one carton of sprouts this year, but there were 4 rather than three. Let’s see how that goes.
Due to the abysmal experience with the sweet peppers last year, I knew I wasn’t going to attempt those again. But I’m still going to try something new – broccoli and celery. I have no idea how these will turn out, but I am determined to grow my own veggies darn-it-all! I don’t like lettuce or cabbage enough to try those (and they attract earwigs. *shudder*) but I do like fresh broccoli and I will eat celery if it’s fresh. So, we’ll see.
This year I really need to make a sign for the garden. I hope Jinx takes as much pleasure from it as he did last year. He was quite excited when I brought the plants through the house. I also hope the garden does well again this year. I don’t have the best planting area – a lot of rocks under that soil. =/
exercise is hard yo!, jinx April 14th, 2013 @ 2:51 pm 
End of Week 1 Redux
Today marks the end of the second time I have done the Week 1 training routine for my Couch to 5K app. This means I have successfully run 6 times in the last 2 weeks. (And there was that unsuccessful almost half-way through the first day of Week 2 in the middle, so did run 7 days, sort of…) As much as I have to push myself through those last 3 60-second runs, I am seeing progress in my distance while running and my pace. I don’t feel like collapsing and giving up before I read the half-way mark and I am not as beat up when I end the 31 minutes.
I think I will give myself one more week of this schedule and then attempt the Week 2 schedule again. I am still not convinced I will be able to run for 90 seconds, since towards the end of this one I am struggling with the 60 seconds. I am not going to force myself to get through if it’s too painful/difficult. Right now I am at my limit of what I can push myself to do and I am not injured & beat afterwards.
I think I might also open my Runkeeper app and see if the distance matches up, I’m confused as to how it’s always so different. Not to mention it stops calculating when the time is up, so when my 5 minute cool-down is over, the distance stops. I still have to continue to walk HOME. I don’t just POOF where I am. Obviously. =P
As much as this can hurt physically while my body gets used to it, and as little fun as it actually is, I find that it is helping me. Not just with the weight loss/getting in shape, but with my mood and with the anxiety. I mean, to top off all the traumatic stuff from 2 weeks ago, this week my husband was given notice that he’s got 2 months of work left as his company laid off 2/3 of their office in Montreal. LOVELY.
I still feel like I might never be able to run 5K, or even more than 60 seconds at a time with a break in-between, but there’s a noticeable difference between now and the first day I tried this, so I am trying to believe it will happen. At my own pace. I try not to get discouraged and/or jealous of all the “I just ran 5, 7, 10k in x-amount of time!” posts I see my friends writing. These people are runners. They didn’t just step out the door for the first time and run 7km. Some people might be able to do that, sure, but it’s not me. I will just be happy when I can run those 90-second bouts in this training thing. The weather is HOPEFULLY getting nicer finally (I didn’t run on Friday because of the SNOW STORM. Really, April. Get over it.) and I hope running will be easier when it’s not so chilly.
I think I will have a teeny, tiny window of decent weather though before it gets way too hot to want to do anything. Running in damp, cold is one thing. Running in extreme heat and humidity isn’t going to be fun either.
But I will do this. I will don my Runnin’ Rhino t-shirt and I will BE that unicorn!
exercise is hard yo!, jinx April 10th, 2013 @ 9:26 pm 
Me and my pink hi-lighter hair took to the streets again this evening when we got home from work. You can’t tell in this photos, but I had a cute little poof and aqua bow hair-style going on today. Aqua looks GREAT with fluorescent troll-doll hair, btw.
I didn’t go to aqua fit today. My body hurt. Rather, my bones felt like they were hurting. I am great at listening to my body, so I made the call and skipped AF today. I went out to lunch with Mo and friends instead. They ate, I had a snack and looked forward to my home-made lunch back at the office. Thing was, on the way back to the office, a construction site dropped something that was so loud and sounded so similar to the jumper hitting the pavement two weeks ago that it freaked me out. A lot.
Mo, Jo and Erin all fussed around me and I took deep breaths and we crossed the street. My heart was in my throat and tears were in my eyes. And just as I was telling them that I’ll be ok, but wow, it was exactly two weeks ago TODAY that the incident happened – IT HAPPENED AGAIN! We passed a delivery truck that ALSO dropped something heavy and loud as we passed it. I swear I thought I was going to pass out. Mo, the blessing of a friend that she is, took my arm and petted me as we walked away saying “everyone is alive and well. No one has died.” And although I KNEW I was safe, my body was in hi-alert mode and up until I went running, I was still very shaky.
So I made the decision when I got home – I was running (or attempting to) before we ate. I said I’d go alone. I’d take Jinx. But Shawn came with me and walked the dogs. I did take Jinx though because the last two days we went out, as soon as I started walking BACK to Shawn & dogs, Jinxy would start to bound to me looking all happy and tail-wagging. Therefore I said I would try taking him with me this time. If it didn’t work out, I’d just drop him off with Shawn on one of my walks.
As soon as I took hold of Jinx’s leash he wanted to RUUUUNNNN!! He was so very, very happy. I kept talking him down to a fast trot because “Mummy’s only on her 5 minute walking warm-up, sweetie. We’ll run soon!”
And he RAN! He was so happy the entire walk. I started out trying to keep him even with me, but he wanted to bound ahead, so I let the leash go a little (it’s a 6 foot leash, so why not use it?) and he just GALOOOMPHED! ahead of me and would slowdown, look back at me and settle into a nice trot for him as I ran.
Honestly, as much as my body ached (not in a concerning way) and didn’t want to run tonight, watching Jinx bound and be so blissfully happy that he got to run with me, was inspiring and made me forget about “how much time is left in this stupid 60 seconds” and how much I hurt (not in a concerning way) and I ran faster.
Jinx was slowing down in the end and I did do one 60-second jaunt without him because he just wanted to stand and sniff. I gave him to Shawn for that. The poor boy IS 8 years old now and running isn’t something he’s used to either. But that 60 seconds was HARD and I had to stop, but as I stopped the chime sounded to start walking so, go, me! I took Jinxy on the last run and he was happy to be back with me. As long as it’s cool I will try running with him again. Finnish Lapphunds cannot do heat at all and I don’t want to give him heat stroke or a heart attack. 
So I did my 31 minutes of running/walking and I listened to my body.
My shoes are fine. They were bought from The Running Room and they make an amazing difference in running than any other show I have ever tried to run in. What hurts is my body reacting to the running. To my feet hitting pavement. I feel the pain in my bones (with the exception of the back cramps I get randomly… I have no idea why??) I can tell the difference between pain and BAD pain. I have been dealing with chronic pain issues for years now, I assure you all I am very in tune with my body. I just pay attention to what I am feeling and where I am feeling it as I run. I am curious as to how each time out something feels different or the same or better or worse.
For instance, my lungs don’t hurt at all. I can BREATHE while I run, which is a new thing. I am not breaking down into a 15 minute bronchial cough once I get home and stop running. I am not gasping for air in a painful way as I stop running and start to walk. I can take deep breaths and have been getting better at breathing while I run. I consider this an accomplishment and I sort of feel that if there’s hope for my lungs, there’s hope for my bones. I am not feeling pain in my muscles (very much, anyhow) it’s a deeper ache that doesn’t feel wrong, it just feels different and it is different every time I go out.
BUT I can almost reach over and put my nose to my knees when I reach for my toes sitting down. (You know the leaning forward with legs out in front of you?)
I am still pushing myself to make it through these 9 broken-up minutes of running though. It’s not easy and I sometimes feel like it won’t ever be easy, that I’ll never be able to run more than 60s at once. I am going to try though and having Jinx along helps me get through it without thinking about how much I have left (until I am sure I have 3 runs left and I start each one with “Oh, GOD!” as I set out. heh)
I am enjoying listening to my body when I am out there doing this. It keeps my mind off other things like work, school and stupid jumpers. And.. I’m starting to not hate the way I look in photos either. So, there’s that.
So, to Mo, Jo, Erin, Jinxy, Sophie and my extremely wonderful & patient husband – thank you for making this all a little bit easier. I couldn’t do any of this without you.
life with dogs, sophie March 16th, 2013 @ 3:59 pm In a little over a month, Sophie will turn 3 years old. I still have to blog about Jinx’s 8th birthday from Feb 28, and my husband’s more-than-8th birthday from yesterday, but Sophie’s getting the spotlight right now because, well, that’s how I roll.
We have been blessed with well-behaved and easy to train Finnish Lapphunds in our life. Jinx went through his chewing phase while we lived in my in-laws’ basement for a year, so by the time we bought this house, he was easy to leave alone with Annie. We honestly thought Sophie wouldn’t be too much trouble after her 2nd birthday, but you all know how that turned out.
Table corners and shoes are SO MUCH FUN and DELICIOUS!
We’ve been crating Sophie since shortly after her 2nd birthday, once we realized that she just wasn’t to be trusted. Of course we always started out small – a 30 minute run to the store and then building up to a couple of hours and then the full work-day – but inevitably, this dog would remodel our coffee table and destroy my shoes.
Our dear, sweet Sophacleese Lappie has begun to mellow out considerably. I can leave the dogs free on the main floor while I take a nap upstairs and nothing happens. (I learned this while I was really sick in February and couldn’t call the dogs upstairs when I needed to lie down and then ended up giving up and just dying a slow death for an afternoon by myself.)
So this morning when we went out for breakfast and then to run a couple of errands, I removed any chewable item I could think of (computer, books, electrical wires, tissue box, SHOES) from the living room and we closed the door to the basement, blocked off the stairs to the second floor and*….
Nothing was destroyed!
It’s a small victory, but I know that Jinx and Sophie like to nap together and now that Old Man Jinx naps a lot more, it’s sort of nice to have Sophie on patrol.
I see you.
We are very proud of our little Sophie and I thought I’d keep track of our successes AND failures this time so we have something to refer to when things possibly go wrong.
So Day 1 of Operation Free-Range Sophie 2013 has gone well!
*Shawn even took a photo of the corner of the coffee table that was re-chewed after his father fixed it for us (so we’d have a reference point). We’re still not sure which dog did the nibbling, but it was only once and when we first got the table back. Table seems to be extra-nibbled-free!
holiday fun, jinx December 29th, 2012 @ 7:24 pm Christmas vacation means that I get to spend time with one of my dearest friends, Jill. We’ve been friends since the first day of high school, way back in 1988. Yikes. We’re old. Jill is also Jinx’s girlfriend. He looooooooves her so much. More than I have ever seen him love any other female we have had over. Jill’s visit this year was during our huge snowstorm (45.5 cm in one day!) and it was iffy getting her to our house, but we managed. Sadly, our traditional meal of St Hubert BBQ chicken wasn’t a reality since the restaurant was closed due to the storm. (It takes a LOT for something in our area to close for snow, so that’s an idea of how bad it was out.) Jill brought with her a card game, much like Apples to Apples only for people with sick and twisted minds. Cards Against Humanity is a game of association. Everyone gets dealt a hand of 10 white cards and with each turn one person turns over a black card and you have to put down what you think would go best with the prompt. The person whose turn it is picks which response is best. If your card is chosen, you get to keep the black card.
Jinx started off all sweetness and light, with “cuddling”.
You need at least four people to play this game so Jill dealt a faux hand, then Jinx settled himself down next to the cards on the table. We called that Jinx’s hand. We would just toss a card from his hand on to the table to mix in with ours. It started off as a joke but quickly dissolved into more when the Jinx hand began to crush us all in winning plays!
I won, Mummy! I won! Can I have a treat now?
There are some really crass, crude and politically incorrect cards in this game. It happens to be hilarious. It’s especially hilarious when the cards played from Jinx’s hand fit perfectly with whatever the prompt was. Or when they were just so horrible it was too much to handle coming from the Gentleman Jinx on the floor.
My name is Jinx and I am SO GOOD AT THIS GAME! *waggle*waggle* I’m beating Mummy AND Jill!
Seriously. Jinx’s hand just kept winning and he was laying, sitting or standing right there almost the entire night. We laughed so hard at the answers being played, both by human and dog, and we were stone cold sober. We played until we hit the bottom of the black card deck, which means we did this for almost FOUR hours. It was hilarious. I think I burned a zillion calories just from laughing.
One of the answers to one of the prompts was “Puppies!!!” and Jill joked that Jinx had played that card – turns out, she was right (photographic evidence above). The next time Jinx played an awesomely funny card was during this hand:
You call me Billionaire Jinx Puppy, of COURSE I’d play BATMAN!!! (Also, he’s just cool.)
The fact that the Batman card is in all caps with three exclamation marks just made it extra hilarious that it came from Jinx. Also, he totally won that round.
Some of the cards are fill in the blanks. Some are random questions and some cards get a little personal…
 Not funny, game.
I don’t think there were many rounds without laughter. This was just so fun and if you follow me on twitter, instagram or facebook you’ll have noticed I kept posting these photos. Turns out I desperately need this game. So I signed up on their website to be notified when they are back in stock. This game sells out. Fast.
Jinx’s hand started off really sweet and innocently. The cards from that phantom hand were all nice like cuddling… then Jinx began to concern us. He had an awful lot of answers about BALLS! and not the tennis kind. We think he might be a little bitter about getting “tutored” when he was a puppy. And sometimes, his answers really concerned us and we might want to consider getting him some therapy…
Ethnic cleansing? Really, Jinx? Really??
I am sure playing this game with 4 actual people (or more) will be just as entertaining, but honestly, having Jinx laying next to “his” hand in this game made for a lot of extra laughs. Not to mention – he beat the pants off all of us. He came in first, second was Shawn, third Jill and I was last place.
Snowstorm or not, this was one fun evening. Even if we were beat by our dog. 
Good boy, Jinx. Don’t mind us, we’re just removing all sharp objects from the house now…
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