Ember's newest lessons

I have a new electric can-opener.  I haven't had an electric one since I lived with my parents (1970's?)  But this little one has a USB rechargeable battery, and it shaves the can top off.

Well!  I tried it once to learn how to use it myself on Tuesday when Ember was off in daycare.  Her first exposure was Friday morning.  She got very excited over the little thing, because after all, it altered the routine of mama cranking the handle of the manual one to open her green beans.  And it makes noise and moves on its own.  

Ember got so excited she swiped the plastic container I had put out on the counter to hold the contents of the newly opened can.  She hadn't done that in months.  She was very polite about giving it back, but unfortunately, her teeth had already done a number on it, and it landed in the trash.

One thing about having this kind of pup in the house: they "help" you down-size.

Remember a week or so ago when I mentioned Ember eating some other dog's poo?  Well, Saturday morning she did it again!  Twice.  On one walk!  I wonder what prompts this?  Must have something to do with either nutritional deficits or wild roots and marking or masking who's been in the territory.  Seems like something to mention on her next vet visit!

At home we now have the game of running up the stairs and practicing "find mommy".  Thank goodness, she's no longer eating the carpet on the stairs.  It's even got me thinking about ordering replacement carpet.  I'm not quite ready to take the door off the crate for good, but we are in a testing phase for if we're ready for more freedom.

FGC got an invite to "meet the coach" meaning the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhusker football team related to his little soccer award.  The lines were long.  The Mythical son escorted him.  Kiddo got tongue-tied when faced with Coach Rhule. Son explained, "This is ____ (kiddo's name).  He's a little shy.  He's seven."  The coach started to say "Hi, ____.  Thank you for com-" then interrupted himself, "He's seven?" 

Foster grandson is almost 8.  He is the tallest of the kids in the 2nd/3rd grade kids trying out for a basketball team.  We have a birthday party coming up in a couple of weeks.  He's head and shoulders taller than most of his sports teammates (teams based on age).  You could almost imagine the coach "aging up" this youthful potential.  OK, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  

Sunday morning, Ember did not go on a search mission for other dogs' droppings.  Yay!  It was 74℉ and HUMID and I was drenched in sweat when we got home.  

Sunday afternoon we went to see the local minor league baseball team play.  The Winnipeg Goldeyes were the opponents, so we got both the Canadian and the US national anthems at the start.  In the middle of the continent, we're not as good as the folks in Buffalo, NY at knowing the words of "O Canada" but we did our best!

Kiddo spent most of the game on the playground or in the bounce house.  But he wanted to run the bases as is tradition, after the game is over.  All the kiddos in the stands can line up and go run.  FGC put in a good effort, feeling the sense of competition with the other kids.  

The three ladies (me, DIL and her mom) kibbitzed in the stands.  Son and DIL took turns supervising FGC.  Yes, that's beer in a baseball bat shaped container.  DIL and her mom split it between them as it holds about two beers worth!

I got my selfie with the Mascot, Homer!

From 2011 with Homer

This is the one from Sunday afternoon.  Hot dog in hand!

The home team won.  Ember forgave me leaving her home in her crate (she would NOT have enjoyed the heat out there at the ball park).

Monday morning, it was back to normal routine... almost.  Ember and I encountered rain about two blocks in to our neighborhood walk.  She's not a big fan of water falling from the sky, but there was not much in the way of flashes or booms or even rumbles with this gentle cooling rain, and we covered about 3/4 of a mile.

Life is Good!  Keep on Sparking!

Ember sees the vet

Medicalizing is not just for the humans.

I made an appointment for an assessment of Ember's teeth.  Vet says her teeth are in good shape, but yes, start brushing.  Ok.  Can do.  At least NOW I can do.  Two years ago it was out of the question!

I had brought along the entire collection of things I've spent money on related to dental care. I asked his opinion on each of them.  The powder probably wouldn't do much good. It's supposed to be sprinkled on top of her kibble to whiten her teeth and freshen her breath.  Yeah, I succumbed to another one of those ads.  

A little soft rubber-feeling brush that you put on your fingertip like a thimble.  Vet says this one is the best of them.  Toothpaste is not essential, but if the flavor makes it easier for her to allow her teeth to be brushed, fine, go for it.  It comes in peanut butter flavor.  

The yogurt chews that I give her, one a day, are good, keep doing that.  The little finger tooth wipes (that do not have the brush part) he said would be good if she rejects the brush.  The brush with bristles on a handle, he judged not as good as the fingertip brush.  

Oh, and he says avoid tennis balls and bones.  Others had already warned me about the abrasive nature of tennis balls on the enamel, so I've pretty much abandoned them.  The vet kind of laughed about the bones because I said, "but she loves them."  He said they make him a lot of money when they break teeth.  Nuff said.  No more bones, little one.

There you have it, one vet's opinion.  

The vet also checked Ember's ears, did the cytology and pronounced she has an ear infection.  Again.  This is the third, I think.  He cleaned her ears and applied the first dose of medication.  I have to keep her dry (again) and this time I am going to try to apply the second dose myself at home, next Friday.  Notice I'm getting braver?  Also saving money.  

He gave me kudos for being a good dog mom.  Charged me a bunch of money and sent me home. I like to get that reassurance every so often!  It's a plus that Ember likes the whole staff.

Saturday morning

The back is better.  In case I mentioned it before.  Normalcy has returned.  Ember took me around 1.9 miles this morning.  Partway through the dog-walk, I saw a group of runners headed our way, and the gait and silhouette of one of the leaders looked familiar.  "Is that Eddie?"  I asked Ember, as if she'd know.

Eddie is my old running coach, as in "hills for breakfast, Barb!"  He's now a police officer and runs a club called "Marathon Kids" which encourages running in children.  In the time since I was actively running under his coaching, he has married and is now a dad to a sweet little baby girl!  But he has NOT succumbed to "dad bod" as between his coaching, pace setting, and now profession keep him in tiptop shape.  Now, had he become an accountant, for example, we might be looking at a different story!

As the group approached, a familiar voice accosted me with, "It's the legend herself!"  Well, I'm not a legend, but Eddie could make anyone feel like one!

Even Ember wanted to follow him and his runners for a while.  Her nose took her off that task within about half a block.  

Anyway, the weekend is starting well.  Later today, FGC is going to the Huskers' meet the fans event.  Due to his soccer camp award, he has an invite to actually meet the head football coach.  I will await the reports from "the other side of town".  An almost 8-year-old is way too honest about his opinions.  The Mythical Son says FGC would probably be more interested in meeting the players than the coach.  FGC has already stated he would rather meet the head basketball coach.  But it's football season now!

Life is good!  Keep on Sparking, on or off the new SparkPeople.  (By the way, yesterday I encountered a Sparker on there who lives in France, I think she said.)

Little things and check lists

What is the downstream effect of heading back to "the new Spark"?  It seems as though the AI Sparkcoach has given a non-human encouragement layer to the goal setting and achievement scene that always was at the root of SparkPeople.  But the friendships we gained were all part of encouraging one another in the context of weight loss, health, and fitness.  We're all in the same human boat!

I don't want to knock what's going on over on SparkPeople, it's very useful, and it's bringing back a lot of memories of the original structure that worked so well for me, personally.  

But what makes me tick?  This became the real question as I started learning to navigate the new site.

• Helping others
• Encouraging others
• Sharing ones own experiences

Those are the reasons to blog on a platform like SparkPeople.  Cronometer was missing those.  MyFitnessPal was missing those.  Any other pure tracking tool, from the automated step counters to the sleep measuring watches are missing these.  They are wonderful tools, but they are not integrated with the community in the way that works best for me:  the written word, the personal experiences.  That's why, when Spark shut down five years ago, I shopped for a blogging site. I landed here.

Over the intervening five years, most of the original group of bloggers has fallen away.  A handful of us are left, and our blogs have evolved, mostly into daily or weekly updates on "life" and how it's going.  We don't have the access to newbies, or the need to share a bunch of motivational material.  We still share encouragement, and good wishes, and prayers (if we're so inclined), but many are in maintenance or have moved on.  We know what to do, and we go about the business of doing it.  We share what's working and what's not.

What are we missing?  Immigrants!  Seriously, folks new to the process who may need a little hand-holding and personal encouragement!

So, here I am, writing not just a Spark Blog over on the new Spark2, but continuing to blog here, and trying to figure out what's going on in my own head... because that's where all the motivation really happens!

In real life:

I made an appointment at the vet for Friday to have them look at Ember's teeth and help determine whether it's time to start down the path of dental cleanings.  I have never brushed her teeth.  When she was a puppy those razor sharp puppy teeth were giving me too much trouble with bitey behavior.  I only started conditioning her to allow me to brush her coat regularly about six months ago.  

Last week I got one of the doggy toothbrushes out and started the process of conditioning her to let me do things with her now adult teeth.  The vet is running a hundred dollars off an annual cleaning this month, so... tomorrow we'll find out if it is appropriate!

Across town, got notification that my son has signed up to be a head coach for FGC's soccer team!  Wow!  You know, I never would have thought I would raise the kind of kid who would do this.  Blame the army.  I tried doing things of this sort when I was younger (as in 20's) and discovered it way outspends my own social energy budget!  He's good at this stuff, mind you.  I'm not.  I do my best encouragement behind a keyboard!  LOL!

Anyway, life continues to be good.  Keep on Sparkin', on or off the platform so named!

The non-Spark news

Somebody feels totally safe!

Ember was deprived of her leash walk on Wednesday because of her hu-mom feeling her age.  I woke with a screaming lower back, pondering "what on earth did I even do yesterday?"

About mid-day it dawned on me:  stooping and staying stooped, bouncing a bit as I picked up plastic bottles or metal cans to lift from my own bin into the big bins at the recycling center.  It's that bouncing in the stooped position that's dangerous!  That, and stretching in funny directions while weeding.

Anyway, by evening it has calmed down.  I wanted to keep my 10 minutes streak going over on Spark, so I brought a pair of dumbbells upstairs and did some upper body weights and gentle squats and lunges.  Ember got three car rides over the course of the day to make up for me being reluctant to make my sore back worse if she got distracted on leash!  

I wanted to reward her for being so patient with me.  We went to the coffee drive-thru in the morning.  After her first puppy nap, since it was cool enough for her to stay in the car, we went together to the grocery store.  At lunch time she rode with me to the election commissioner's office to drop off my request for an early ballot.

As for Spark, it is a time of transition again.  Five years ago, it was transitioning off Spark and into our various "life rafts".  None of the life rafts were complete, but we have kept along, haven't we?

Now there's the potential of re-transition back to Spark.  But several of us may be leery.  How much can we trust it?  I mean, it went away before... will it go away again?  What if our friends don't come back to Spark?  Remind anyone else of changing school years?  

I'm gearing up for a time of checking multiple places.  Which I was sort of doing already, between blogs here and the maintenance team's Google group and some Facebook groups.

Whether you come over to the new Spark 2 or not, keep on using what you learned from Spark 1... because Life is Good when you do!

Back on Spark!

 

We have really enjoyed the cooler morning walks the past four days.  Ember has taken me round several different loops in the neighborhood.  We have showed off our good manners in giving other dogs and people room, and for the most part avoiding the worst of our enthusiastic greetings, thanks to a mom braced for it and watching the signs.  And holding tight to the leash those few times.

We went nose to nose in greeting with a rescue puppy, 3 months old, saved from Texas by the Beatrice, NE humane society, and adopted by a neighbor.  So cute.  So smart.  We ended the greeting about the time Ember went into a total tail wagging play bow, and I'm sure they would have enjoyed playing, but on the leash is NOT the time for that kind of play.  Gradually, my girl has learned to accept this, but I still have to be watchful.

Besides, a 3-month-old puppy is already a handful for my neighbor, she doesn't need my girl regressing and teaching bad habits to the new puppy when her hu-mom is doing so well!

I got into the new SparkPeople.  Wow!  Have to get myself to bed now, but I can feel the old pull.  It's been rearranged a bit, but I've already found Gloria from the FB group (I think she might be Canadian?)

Tuesday morning, I slept until after 5.  Ember was probably frustrated with me as I was paying attention to Spark stuff, trying to learn my way around the new AI-driven platform before she went to day care.  If anybody wants an invite, I have them.  If I have your e-mail I can send it directly.  I know at least a couple of you are already on it, and I've already put up my first blog over there.  I am now using OKM, instead of the longer version, as my display name.

Ember is now off to day care and I have to avoid getting sucked into an online black hole, because household tasks need attention while she's gone!

I survived my first day on the new Spark, have found a few folks that were in various "life raft" communities, and am slowly re-connecting over there.  I have discovered that international users ARE on the new Spark.  Canadian and UK users located so far.  I figured out what passes for a SparkPage (my Spark) and joined a few user groups, including Sparking with Dogs!

I'll keep on blogging here for a while, just to leave the breadcrumbs if I shift over there.  Also, my Archives from SparkPeople 1.0 of selected saved blogs live on this account.

Life is good.  Spark on!

Woo-Hoo! Lynda is back on blog!

 Collection of snippets from the week between blogs

It was about 2:30 a.m. when the rumbles woke me Tuesday morning (July 28th).  Percussive shakes, I could feel in the timbers of the house.  I flipped on the local TV station, and they didn't have the weather coverage up just yet. By 3, they had a meteorologist in tracking and running the graphics of "Severe Thunderstorm Warning" radar.  It rolled on past our community in about half an hour and I fell back to sleep.  By the time I got up and checked a little after 6, only one deck chair had been overturned by the wind, and it was out in the far-back yard.  Ember was not enthusiastic about going outside right at first but warmed up to the thought when she found out it was 8 degrees cooler than the prior morning!

The indoors was a wreck, born of four days of the heat wave.  When the doggo doesn't want to be outside, she still needs to have mental exercise, and it may have seemed like a whole boxload of toys spilled onto the floor in the x-pen, it wasn't anywhere near her entire supply.  After dropping her at daycare Tuesday morning, I picked up and vacuumed, as usual.  

Wednesday morning the forecast said 80% chance of rain, locally, in the 8 a.m. hour.  The kids and my co-inlaws across town got it, my son got it briefly at his workplace, I got nothing here but a few drops of mist hanging in the air.  All in the same city.  I guess this is what you call "scattered showers".

My bug guys showed up and are doing the outside treatment.  Ember's napping in her crate.  I'm not having them treat inside the house.

Working at cleaning up the storage on my phone.  I've had this phone for several years and I have not good about digital "clean up".  I take photos, I take videos, I used some of them to share, I download some from DIL, etc.  And eventually I get a message that I'm over my storage limit at Amazon photos for videos, etc.  So I searched for help and started clearing some out!

Thursday I was having a "low energy" day, but I made myself feel better by vacuuming out my bedroom and shoving some clutter away.  I indulged in a trip to the library where I checked out a couple more of "The Cat That..." mysteries.  And I took a brief nap after that.  I also puttered with a bit of weeding of the rock bed on the South side of the house since it was "cooler" than it had been over that weekend!

Meanwhile, across town at soccer camp, the foster grandson got an award.  " Jacob Bartlett Sportsmanship Award for showing Team First, Work Ethic, Intelligence and Winning Mentality "

It is a professional team Jersey from the sponsoring Kansas City pro soccer team, signed by the players.  "The kids" (meaning my son and his wife) framing it so FGC can hang it on his bedroom wall.  Quite the honor, and it shows his progress in the nearly two years (in September) he's been with my son and DIL.  You can bet the whole family are busting our buttons over this not-quite 8-year-old kiddo's accomplishments.

I stopped the accumulation of snippets here, because I posted about the day at the fair on Saturday, but... after responding to several comments on that blog, I tripped over Lynda's Sunday morning blog!  She's ba-ack!  And working on her issues, but able to post words at least.

Life's REALLY good!  Spark on!

Fair Day!

 Saturday morning, August 1st, dawned amazingly cool.  As in 61℉.  Ember and I took a nice long leash walk, 1.76 miles.  We were both pretty happy.  The only blotch on the walk was a spot where some truck must have hit a bump and a large collection of manure clods fell into the middle of the street.  This was just too much for Ember... so tempting!  I had to direct traffic while trying to convince her to take me back to a sidewalk... I did not care about which side.  Two very kind drivers stopped and waited for this to happen.

After the furry one went down for her morning nap, I changed into shorts as the day was warming up and drove myself to meet the family group who were going to the County Fair.  Oh, my, it was a classic fair outing.  We found FGC's drawing entry.

We played bingo for cash... The Mythical Son won one game.  I split the pot on another.

We moved on to a bungy jumping ride:  100 jumps for 20 bucks.  DIL picked up the tab for FGC to have a go!  Adult audience, watching kiddo on the bungy jumping thingy.

Then we played with the Kawasaki models of offroad vehicles for a while (don't worry, not enabled for actual driving, and the Mythical Son was riding watch on the kiddo).

Next kiddo was ready for food, he thought, but the vendors were not open yet on the midway.  We settled for donuts and lemonade in the building.  Then went and found the animal exhibits.  The avian fans found one cage of bantams labeled with the name "the Three Bobs".  Which of course merited a photo by the Bob in our group!  I visited the sheep and goats; we even checked out the hogs.  Cattle were in the ring being shown.

Out to the midway as soon as it opened, and it was funnel cakes for Bob, Corn Dogs for the rest of us.  Believe it or not, this was my first ever corn dog.  I never thought that corn meal batter was the appropriate sheath for a hot dog, but turns out, it does actually go together OK.  There was another sour cold drink for kiddo.  And I should explain the kiddo's corn dog was covered in Taki crumbs and cheese.  Spicy!

Next up, the rides.  On the way down the midway, I saw someone I thought I recognized!  My niece and her fiancé!  Of course, there's the off chance it's not them, and I had not met the fiancé in person before, but I took my courage in hand and touched my niece on the shoulder.  It was them!  We chatted for a bit then I had to go find son, DIL and FGC, so we parted ways.

DIL got a big giggle out of FGC on the rides.  He would pick the big scary rides.  Then when they got on them, he would say, "I changed my mind", when they got to the top of the ride!  I'm only sharing one of the ride photos, but there were I think four of them that involved spinning and/or up in the air.  I did not go on any of the rides.  DIL went on most of them with him.  The Mythical Son went on one.  And ONE of them he went on solo (it was the kind that had at one point in both my lifetime and in my DIL's lifetime had made us throw up, so we chose to opt out of that one.)

I ducked out early to come home to Ember, who had been left in her crate.  I had lasted three hours, though.  My toes were feeling cramped. I took off my shoes and socks, which led to a game of chase inside the house, and some extra toe licking.  I think she's only seen me barefoot a handful of times.  I gave her an extra chew stick as a treat for being such a good girl (and giving me back my socks).

I got a message from my DIL that they had found my niece, too, after the rides!  Yay for small worlds!

Oh, and those of you who were predicting Kiddo might get sick from all that fried food followed by that kind of rides?  You were right... after they got home, he got sick, threw up, and pronounced he felt a lot better!  Guess some lessons are learned by experience, eh?

I have not yet heard from Lynda (LEANJEAN6) and I'm hoping she's OK.  I have seen a lot of comments on her most recent blog (with no photos, asking for help with the blog), but she has not called me back.  If her daughter was there, or maybe one of her sons can help.  I think I have an email for her somewhere, and I am a Facebook friend, but I have not seen any new Facebook content since the 24th of July, either.  Prayers, folks!

Life is good!  Keep on Sparking!