It's a New Day

Ok, so this weekend I was not very good with keeping up with my projects. Did not eat 10 fnv's per day, not even 5/day. Didn't do enough Spanish. Didn't exercise, and didn't blog at all. However, all was not lost; Poopers and I went to Sears and looked at kitchen appliances and found out they are going to have a big sale at the end of September. But not wanting to wallow in guilt I am glad it's a new week. Can start fresh!

This week is definitely starting better than last week ended! I've already run 3 miles, did an hours yoga class and have eaten 3 fnv's - and it's not even noon yet! But the most exciting thing is my new running gear.

Some of you know I was really curious about the woman who won the 5k road race held in Northport this past July, because she won it running barefoot! Then a little after that race I heard an interview on the radio about a guy who wrote a book about barefoot running and so I started walking Hairy (aka Little Shit) barefoot around the neighborhood. As much as I enjoy walking barefoot, I could not fathom running barefoot. There's too much gravel, broken glass and other dangers to feel comfortable running barefoot.

Have any of you ever run barefoot? What did you think?

And then I remembered the guy who wrote the book mentioned a particular kind of shoe that is helpful to transition to barefoot running: The Vibram Five Fingers Shoe

To make a long story short, I finally found a pair and tried them out on this morning's run. If they - and running barefoot - do all he claims they do to prevent running injuries then I will be very happy. I will tell you this much - they make you run on your toes! At least I don't want to land "flat-footed" on something sharp. But my calves were not happy with me this morning. By 1.5 miles they were burning and by 2 miles they were screaming at me to put my heel down on the ground with each step.

Do any of you have these shoes already? Or tried them on? What do you think of them?

This month is the also the month that weekly training runs in a park (not the one with all the recent rapes!!!) begin in preparation for a 5k race in October. The training runs and the race involve running through some streams. I'm hoping these new five finger shoes will work out for that - they advertise that they are good for water sports. I'll keep you posted.

Until next time,

Poodle

Introducing Little Shit

Hola!

So exciting! We met with the kitchen designer last night. She is very good and had lots of excellent suggestions. Looks like we'll be getting a maple wood cabinet with what's described as a contemporary design to the door. And the microwave will be the drawer type in the island, and we'll have pull-out trash bins - so no more having to triple check that the trash can is covered to keep the dog out of it!

Speaking of the dog. (Does my tone sound harsh? GOOD. Unfortunately my introduction of our dog Little Shit - that is not his real name, but it is his nickname for now - to this blog is not one I can be proud of.) Yesterday, as you may recall, I cleaned the house, which you know is my favorite thing to do just after running barefoot over shards of broken glass. And late last night, after a long day of back braking scrubbing and cleaning, and just as I was preparing to go to bed, I realized I had to put the clean linens back on the bed. I had just finished making the bed when Little Shit, who knows he is not allowed in the bedroom snuck in the bedroom while I was distracted helping Poopers. Just as I came back in the room, Little Shit jumped on the bed and proceeded to show me how proud of himself he was for sneaking into the forbidden room and urinate on the clean sheets! Right there in front of me - like he was waiting to show me! Pisser! Maybe someday, or another lifetime, I will be able to speak of this dog in my proud, high pitched, baby-talk voice again. For now though he's a little shit.

As far as the 10 fruits n veggies (fnv's) per day went yesterday - they didn't. I drank a lot of juice and had 1 serving of vegetables. Why so bad? Well, my favorite, unhealthy, fast-food type of vegan restaurant happens to be between Pooper's office and the kitchen design place. So we ate vegan fast food for dinner last night - including fries and other not very good for you food, but oh so good tasting. And unfortunately, I don't think i can count fries as a veggie! Unfortunately today doesn't look much better, either. I still drank a ton of juice (100% fruit juice) and had some of the homemade potato soup, but that's about it as far as fnv's go. However, I did do more traditional exercise today than yesterday's exercising while house-cleaning. Before teaching a gentle yoga class this am I ran 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym. It's embarrassing to admit how poorly I've eaten the last two days, but tomorrow will better, I know! As soon as I'm done here I'm going to Whole Foods to stock up on some fnv's and tomorrow am is the farmers market! Can't wait for some more of that mouth watering corn on the cob and juicey garden tomatoes!

Hasta manana,
poodle

Exercise or clean house? Both!

Yippee! Thank you for the comments jakeone and anonymous! Finally, it looks like everyone can comment! Sorry for the frustration to all of you who tried but weren't able to. It took me a while to figure out how to open up the comments section to all. See, I told you I am not a computer person.

Onto those projects!

Despite not starting to eat until well afternoon yesterday, I still managed to get well over my 10 per day of fnv's! We are very fortunate to have a produce market nearby that sells fnv's in bulk on the cheap, and I mean, cheap! Of course, it's cash only, non-organic and who knows where from? It appears to be a Latino owned and operated business, so maybe eventually I will be able to speak to them in Spanish and find out where the fnv's come from. But for now your guess is as good as mine. But look at all of those fnv's! Don't they make your mouth water?

Here's a picture of the salads we ate for dinner last night. Poopers prefers pecans and I prefer pine nuts, but otherwise they both have cukes, fresh figs, spinach, capers, sundried tomatoes, Italian parsley, fresh basil, dill, onion, and I sliced half of a cooked potato onto each of them. His dressing was a poppyseed dressing and mine had balsamic vinegar on it. Very yummy!

After dropping Poopers off at the train station - yes, train station, he decided to try the train for the first time post-op today - i went home and struggled between deciding to clean the house or getting some exercise. Hmmmm. Would really rather do anything other than clean house, but the house is pretty disgusting at the moment. And when there's picking up, putting away, sweeping, dusting, vaccuuming, laundry, a bathroom and a kitchen to clean, and mopping, etc, to do, I decided that is exercise.

So let the cleaning commence. Where to begin? How about with an experiment. Has anyone tried the non-toxic drain cleaner concoction of 1 cup salt, 1 cup baking soda followed by a kettle of boiling hot water? I wonder if your experience was the same as mine? There was no way a cup of salt was going to go down that drain. After, oh, about a millenium of poking my finger down the 4 little holes in the drain, trying to shove the salt into those holes, scraping my fingers, rubbing them raw on salt no less, i decided to stop after about 1/3 cup of salt. But it called for a whole cup! One thing was clear, that was not going to happen, no way, no how.

So over the salt I poured 1/3 cup baking soda and pushed and scraped for another eon. Eventually I decided more of the white stuff was in the drain than around the drain and I poured about a 1/3 of a kettle of hot water over the drain. Nothing happened except that the water pooled around the drain.

Rut-roh. This is not good.

About then i envisioned having to call a plumber to the house and explain how i didn't want to use toxic drain cleaners when all of a sudden the puddle began to fizz and bubble and swoosh!! The drain was cleared!! And with 1/3 of the ingredients to boot! I chased it down with the rest of the boiling water and all of a sudden my sore and tender fingers weren't quite so sore anymore. And by the way, the denture cleaners made the toilet bowl sparkle! Maybe this non-toxic stuff is a good idea after all! I would love to hear any suggestions you have for tips on how to save time cleaning house, or any experiences you have with using non-toxic household cleaners! Please post them in the comments!


Yesterday I read a few pages in my Easy Spanish Reader. That's the title of a book that is actually a lot of fun to read. Each entry is a one page short story in Spanish followed by a page of questions about the story to see if you understood. There are usually 4 or 5 short stories that are related by topic and build on each other and then a finally summary page, before another topic begins. I highly recommend this book if you can get it from the library or bookstore. What books (Spanish or otherwise - who can resist a good book?) do you recommend?? Please post them to the comments!

Poopers and I are meeting with the kitchen designer tonight! And yes, we will definitely have an island in the kitchen and hardwood floors in the kitchen as well. At the moment we're thinking about a drawer microwave in the island, so it is not over the range. And we were told it is a code requirement to have electrical outlets on the island. Do any of you have any comments about a side-by-side (frig on one side, freezer on the other) vs. a french door frig on top with freezer on the bottom style preferences? Please share them!

Happy cleaning, speaking Spanish, and eating to all my friends!
Poodle

Have No Technofear

Hello!

Wow - I got some more great emails and phone calls! Thank you! But no comments here yet, bummer. Just so you all know I just tried to post a comment myself to see how it's done. It's telling me it worked, but i will have to close this editing page and check the website to see if it actually did. I may have to fidget with some of the widgets to make it work....

It seems that this blog is helping some of you explore some computer techniques on your own - some of you created desktop icons to open this - Thanks and congrats for figuring out how to do that! Some of you are figuring out how to appear anonymous - isn't it funny - how we all want some degree of anonymity on the web? Have no technofear! I can't imagine any of you would send anything that's more embarrassing than all of my grammatical errors, cursing, and revealing private nicknames that I've already done!

So onto those projects - so far today I've listened to Spanish radio for about an hour. And I think I can now make out every 90th word, instead of every 100th word. But do they have to speak so fast? I'm about 2 minutes behind them, still trying to figure out what "ocho-ocho-ocho" means when they're already onto the next song. I was tickled pink to figure out that ocho-ocho-ocho is the beginning of a toll free phone number 1-888-????. Unfortunatley, i have no idea what the phone number was for or any of the other digits in the number. I think i figured out that the Spanish equivalent of our "dot com" is pronounced "punta com" or "punta net" for the English dot.net. I'm sharing that tidbit just in case anyone else was wondering. And as a result of this blog I found out that a few of you may in fact be wondering about that, because a few of you are also students of Spanish. Wow! I had no idea there were so many closet Spanish speakers. Why is that? And if my attempt at translation is way off, and punta com is something else completely, please correct me asap!!! And if 3 ocho's in a row is not the beginning of a phone number, please correct me here, too!

Not doing too well on the 10/d project so far today. In fact, haven't had anything to eat yet today. I am looking forward though, to eating a peach and some more watermelon as soon as I get done here at the library. Ohh, I'm hungry! The reason I haven't eaten anything yet is because after dropping Poopers off at work this am, I went to Wal-Mart to buy some Tang and denture cleaner. What? Why tang and denture cleaner? I read that they are great, non-toxic household (specifically toilet) cleaners. Though I suspect Poopers would be pleased if I just cleaned the house, toxic cleaners, non-toxic, who cares, just clean the house! He would never post that here, and he wouldn't ever say that to me - or live to tell if he did, but I can't blame him for wanting to assign that project to me. I think I would rather pull up the poison ivy from the side of the house or go for a run in 90 degree hot, humid weather, barefoot on broken glass than clean the house. Or go look for Tang at a scarey Wal-Mart. Anything but clean house. Ugh. And i guess that can be another one of my projects - cleaning house (with non-toxic cleaners). But no Tang to be found in my Wal-Mart. And wow, has anyone else noticed a facelift at their local Wal-Mart? The one I go to is not in the nicest part of town and I dread having to go there, it's usually a mess and understaffed, but today it was spotless, organized, with lots and lots of busy-workers stocking shelves and they were very helpful, despite that no-one could locate any Tang for me. Dang, no Tang!

After Wal-Mart I went to the gym and ran a 5k on the treadmill and then taught a yoga class. The gym is undergoing a renovation and it is just a little distracting during a quiet, centering meditation to hear - BANG - BANG - BOOM -drilllllllllllllllll, followed by the buzz of an accidental fire alarm. Ommmm! Still om-ing. So that completes the exercise portion for today's entry.

I know a lot of you are getting going on the techno part of following this blog - please try again to send a post, and if it doesn't work, please let me know the specific error or other message you get on your end so I can try to figure out how to help! And let me know what else you're doing in addition to exploring technology, learning Spanish, etc - by posting a comment! Who will be first?

As far as the house repair project goes, we got some kitchen design layouts from a kitchen designer yesterday and it's so much fun to see what could be! I'd love feedback on your preferences for brands of kitchen appliances (or advice of which to avoid if you have that), types of preferred countertops, or any other advice you can give. Now is the time! And you can send them right now by clicking on the "0 Comments" link at the end of this entry.

Thanks!
Poodle

wah-wah-wah-Hola!-wah-wah-wah

Hello!

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me about my blog - via my other email address! From now on, please send them to the comments section here.
And yes, others can read your comments (but I can delete them - or so I was lead to believe...) that you post as comments. But all of your emails would have been great here!

Poor Poopers - some of you were upset by my nickname for him. Oh well! He named me Poodle which I didn't like too much myself at first; I'm hoping Poopers grows on him. It's just so inappropriate to call someone like him Poopers that I think it fits. Oh, and yes, he is back to work. There's no holding him back - he went to work 4 days post-op. I've been driving him into the city early every morning and picking him up late every evening. There's no way he could climb those steps to get on the train or "crutch" around those city blocks to get from the station to his office. The city is a bitch to drive in during rush hour - some of those pot-holes, man, my whole Civic could disappear in one and never be seen again. He is extremely frustrated by the lack of use of his right quads, and justifiably worried about it, too. I'm sure he is sick of having to use all sorts of gadgets to pull his socks on and otherwise dress himself. Though I must say that sock-puller-upper is pretty slick contraption. However, Poopers said he was going to post his suggestions for more projects for me. I'm waiting...

One of you suggested I join Facebook - well it was that site that your daughters told me was for "old people." I know, I know, I'm no spring chicken, but "old"??? But I wonder why that suggestion? Is the blog no good?

And one of you called to tell me you will be checking it every day and sending in your favorite exercises as suggestions - well, please post them! You could be the first!

So, now on to all of those projects. I've decided to condense them into one, long, run-on post, with the intent of keeping it a wee bit shorter than yesterday's. Here 'goes...

All those trips to and fro the city I discovered is a great chance to listen to Spanish on the radio. Of course, my Spanish is so just-not-ready-for-prime-time that all I hear is, oh, about every 100th word. I hear: "wah-wah-wah-MUSICA-wah-wah-wah-RUMBA-wah-wah-wah-NEW JERSEY." But I guess more realistically with the Spanish accent it sounds more like: los-nos-dos-MUSICA-las-ras-das-RRRRRUMBA-ros-tos-mos-NEW JERSEY." Hmmm, well, I may only understand those cognates, but I feel righteous listening to it! Luckily, I also have CD's from a Learn Spanish book I just bought and it's more my speed. And luckily I have a few months until I go to Argentina.

The second project - to eat 10 fnv's (fruits n veggies) - is going well. I can't believe I forgot all about the most delicious corn on the cob we had the other evening before our spinach salads. Ohmygod it was soooo good. Will have to go to the farmers market again this weekend for some more! Easily ate 10 today with watermelon, apple juice, repeat spinach-dill-cilantro-basil-tomato-olive-caper-pine-nut-balsamic salad. Grape juice, pine-apple chunks.

Just as I was finishing my blog yesterday I got a call from the gym asking me to sub, last minute, again, two more yoga classes - so lots of exercise yesterday!! No time to eat before those classes, so I ate about 3 handfuls of grapes, two large bananas, and some cashews during my drive in to pick up Poopers last night. This whole week I am subbing a bunch of classes - will be teaching 8 yoga classes this week. So I taught two classes today and did the classes as I taught them. Took the day off from running. I am glad I have decided not to run at my favorite park as it is hard to resist, but there was another rape there last night, evidently not by the same asshole, but a second motherfucker. Now the police are telling women to only run there with a buddy.

The home repair project. Not much happened there yesterday or today for that matter. And as far as finding a full time job, I just received the notice for one I will probably apply for, though a friend and I are trying to come up with a consulting business we could partner up for. Which reminds me, did you all see that the H1N1 swine flu infected a flock of turkeys in Chile?? This is the worry - that the H1N1 will reassort with the highly infectious and virulent Asian avian H5N1. Not good. All the more reason to stay healthy, active, and well nourished!

Please send your comments to this blog!

Thanks, Poodle

Second Blog Post, Day 3 of 365

Hello! Day 2 of my blog experiment. (Had to skip yesterday as it was Sunday and both of my local libraries are closed on Sundays in August, and we don't have internet at home). Here's a picture of one of my local libraries. Would you look at that fireplace, the arching doorways, the old desks and their hallmark green lamps?

But I am super excited about this blog. For my web wizard friends, this may seem silly to get excited about, but I am far from being a wizard with computers, barely even computer literate, so this Blogger website is very user-friendly. Just before we got kicked out of the library on Saturday, I figured out how to put a hyperlink within my post (see the Julie and Julia link) that will navigate you to the movie's website, but when you close the window it will bring you back to this blog! How cool is that?!!

But I am getting ahead of myself....first thing's first...

Projecto Numero Uno - Learn Spanish! I found a super cool website that will teach you Spanish for free and it is super interactive and high quality. It is published by the BBC (not sure why the BBC is into teaching foreign languages for free on the web, but who am I to question their goodwill!) The website translates into My Crazy Life, and you can access it through Mi Vida Loca. (Yay!! It looks like I made another successful embedded link here!! That is so cool!!) You will definitely need HIGH SPEED internet to proceed through their sessions as it is loaded with videos and other interactive media. I can't imagine finding a better website for my needs (beginner Spanish), but if you know of any others or have other study suggestions please send them to me. Oh, and it looks to me like the "post a comment" is available at the bottom of the blogpage, so you don't need to send them to poodlewagner@gmail.com afterall, but you still can if you prefer. All of this is in preparation for this winter's trip to Argentina.

#2. 10/d = Eat 10 fruits and veggies a day. Hmmm. Well this one hasn't been quite as exciting, or successful, I fear, as my first project. I came up with a list of what constitutes a serving - and to keep it simple I basically consider one medium sized sample of each particular fruit or veggie a single serving. Not too scientific, I know, but simple. Here is a picture of a vegan veggie pizza I made the other day. I have never made pizza dough from scratch before and this turned out so yummy!!
I can't remember the recipe for the dough but it was super easy, especially since I used my 11 cup food processor to mix it up. The sauce was about 1.5 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and 2 tsp of agave syrup, but only used about 1 tbs of the total sauce. The toppings were diced tomatoes, fresh basil, minced garlic, and fresh mushrooms. Ohhh sooo gooood!

Dinner last night was a huge salad, that had to be at least 5 servings for fruits and veggies. It had baby spinach (maybe 3 cups!), cilantro, Italian parsley, cucumber rounds, minced shallot, chopped sundried-marinated tomatoes, capers, fresh dill, fresh basil, raw pine nuts, and balsamic vinegar for the dressing. That was pretty good too. I drank about 3 cups of locally grown apple juice, so maybe that was pretty close to 10 servings of fnv's (shorthand for fruits and vegetables) afterall. I thought I had missed the mark by half. Obviously, writing down what you eat is a good way to keep track more accurately, than by "feel."

#3. Uh-oh, this is getting too big, isn't it? I couldn't remember what my third project was, so I had to review the first blog entry and then I got sort of lost in the editing/posting/viewing of this blog and had a little anxiety until I found my way back to the editing page. Phwew, I thought I lost all of the photos I posted already. The cumbersome size not forgotten, the third project is repairing the damage to our house. We got quite a bit done this past weekend. We met with the contractor, paid the first third of the balance due so that he can get the permits from the township and get started. Finally, I'm getting excited about this project now that it is finally getting up and going. Ask me if I am still excited come January 15, 2010 when it supposed to be all done. I have already looked at more kitchen cabinets and countertop samples than should legally be allowed to exist. When I have more time I will post the damaged house photos and try to update with frequent pix of the repair process.

#4. Exercise regulary and stay injury free (or something like that). Check!!

Saturday - ran 5k on the treadmill and taught a yoga class as a last minute sub. The instructor was there, but acutely overcome with an illness and asked me to sub the class for her. I enjoyed it, I just hope the students did!

Sunday - ran a 2.5 mile loop around the house, on the sidewalk. Not my favorite running surface, but my favorite running place is off limits now that a woman was brutally beaten and raped at my favorite park a couple of weeks ago, during daylight hours, with lots of people using the trail. Scarey! And god dam wrong.

Monday - ran the 4 mile Hill Loop around the house, on the sidewalk/streets. Again, not my favorite surface, but I knew I had the energy today and it wasn't too hot or humid this am, so why not? Then I took an hours yoga class at the gym. Perfect way to end a run - with an hour's stretch and relaxation.

#5. Keep this blog going and current for a year. Part of the reason why I wanted to learn how to create a blog, (well, in addition to the dream of becoming like Julie in "Julie and Julia"), was because I think it is important to stay as current as possible with technology. And not being a fan of the twitter or myspace or that other social networking site that my neices tell me is for "old people" - I thought a blog might actually have some use to it. Other than teaching yoga part time, treating animals with acupuncture in their homes, and receiving royalty checks for a textbook I wrote a few years ago, I do not have a full time job. Which leads me to a few more projects. And I will try to keep it closer to 800 words...

#6. Take care of Poopers. Who is Poopers? As an animal person you may suspect it is one of my pets, but it is actually my husband. And as he is really very shy and wants to remain anonymous in this public posting blog, therefore he shall be known by all the public as Poopers. But poor Poopers just had some major orthopedic surgery and according to the surgeon there was some nerve damage during the surgery and for now he can't contract the quads on his right leg. Going from a 3:02 marathoner, to someone who can't walk without crutches 3 weeks post-op, much less run after a surgery that was supposed to help him run again, he is very depressed and upset. Unfortunately it looks like he will require more than the expected recovery time for the type of surgery he had. And he will need lots of TLC. I will pass on any well wishes you send.

#7. Find a full time job.

If you read this, and happened to read this far, please let me know and please post to my comments!!!

Welcome to Poodle Wagner's Blog

Hello!

Welcome to my blog! I am Poodle Wagner and have a lot to do, hence the url name: poodle do do!

After just having seen the blog, turned into a book, turned into a box-office hit, Julie & Julia, I realized blogs can be a good way to get your ass in gear and get some things done. And as I said, I have a lot to do. There are several projects that I want/need to complete and here is where you come in and hold me accountable.

Projecto numero uno! (don't know if that's grammatically correct or even spelled correctly...) Learn Spanish!!! I am planning a trip to Argentina this winter and need to learn Spanish. I will be looking for help finding online (and other) ways to expedite this project. If you have some ideas - please write to my comments section - which I hope to have up and available soon! Or email me at poodlewagner@gmail.com

#2. 10/d, that is, eat 10 fruits and veggies per day for a year, and hopefully make it a daily habit to go beyond this self imposed yearlong deadline. After becoming a vegan a year ago, I have decided I need to cut out some of the fatty and processed foods I've been eating more of this past year and instead eat more fruits and vegetables. Again, I will be looking for your suggestions for this project too. You can send them to me at poodlewagner@gmail.com. Thank you!

#3. Repair and work on our house project. On Christmas Day 2008 our house was destroyed by some 20,000 gallons of water when some pipes froze and ruptured in the attic. It's August and we have yet to get this going in full swing, thanks to our insurance agency!!! Lessons learned: read your policy closely!!!

#4. Exercise regularly and avoid injuries. Just heard an interview on local NPR station on barefoot running. Need to set some realistic goals here and could use your collective advice. Got any ideas? Please send them to me at poodlewagner@gmail.com

#5. Keep this blog active for one year, adding projects as they come up.


Honestly, if you have any suggestions for any of my projects - please contact me! Poodlewagner@gmail.com