Some times things just go well.

Well this morning has been excellent! I got busy right out the gate and did quite a bit for just a few hours.

First I had to put the dogs out and give Toby his meds, flush his ear, and move Hachi's stuff to the side yard. Toby is healing up pretty well and has been a real trooper. Yesterday I had the dogs out with me while doing yard work and he and Hachi played briefly and he showed zero fear of Hachi. Thats something I worried about.

Next I was off to Home Depot, I hate that place unless I need stuff. Even then I can't hang around browsing. Anyways, I needed to pick up a furnace filter and toilet wax gasket kit. Just like it was planned I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes. BOOOYAAAAAA!!!!

Now task 3 was to pick up Hachi a big bone at petsmart. I opted for the large cow knuckle. It seemed like the one I would want if I were a dog ;)

Task 4 was to head to Vons and pick up some stuff. I ended up getting more than I wanted there but hell it is new years and all so why not........Pear cider, Bud Lite Tall boys and a big slab of beef ribs..........I plan on the ribs for new years day with the dogs and well the beer is for while I cook them. I love Pear cider so thats just for regular enjoyment reasons. (You can cook with it too BTW)

Task 5 was to get gas for the car, I finally filled it up since Vons has 3cents off the fuel price and was already cheaper than my usual Valero station I figured one tank of fuel made from foreign oil wouldn't kill me. I try and buy all my fuel from companies that use domestic oil normally, I think for 2012 I will try and do a majority of items I buy made in the USA. Why not it can only help the economic situation around here.

Next I came home and got started on that leaky toilet. The hold down bolts were steel and totally corroded so basically the toilet was just free standing. since the tile floor is uneven it let the toilet rock and break the seal leaking toilet water on the floor. I was very surprised how simple and easy to replace the hardware and gasket was. Only took about 15-20 minutes to do. I did however take the opportunity to clean the bottom of the toilet and tile not normally accessible and that took about 40 minutes. Talk about nasty stuff. I ended up bleaching the whole deal with straight bleach. You could almost hear the germs screaming in agony....

Having finished the toilet repair I cleaned the bathroom did the dishes took out the trash and picked up a surprise for Lisa.

The day is far from over though. I will be taking Hachi and Casey for our walk down in the silt bed. Yesterdays walk tuckered me and Casey out. We left the house going east on River drive,  then south on Pedley, through the alley back to River drive, down river drive to the dropoff at the end, all the way back through the silt bed and sand to the pedley trail for the santana river where we climbed the dirt trail back to the top in stead of the paved walk way. Good times. Took about a hour and it was nice to see the bunnys and birds all over the place. Kinda worried about the new coyote trails I saw in the brush though. Lots of tracks and obviously lots of activity not very far from the houses.

Anyways I will be relaxing and doing a little reading for a bit then heading out for that walk.

Thanks for reading
Dan

Update on Toby

For those wondering about Toby aka Toblerone

Last night Lisa and I came home to find Toby had been injured by Hachi, his ear had been ripped open exposing the cartilage and a piece of skin/fur on both sides is missing. We do not know if it was done in anger or if it was just aggressive play, but it really has Me pissed off. Not so much at him but at us. We have known Hachi plays really ruff and does not realize he is so much bigger than the others. He has always been mouthy with me and other dogs and I have been trying to curtail that because Cheech had been a little beat up a few times but not really hurt and most recently Mandy (Kat's dog) had a puncture wound on her chest we attributed to them playing since they roll across the grass biting and wrestling for hours each day they are together. Now we will be keeping him away from the others as much as possible and it will be more difficult to leave the house for a extended period but I can't see a easy way around the issue with out re-homing him. I was not thrilled to have another big dog but he did grow on me and now I do love him as if he were my own dog. I really hope his hyperactivity and overall craziness is more related to his young age and he will grow out of it soon. I took him for a long walk and for his first trip to the dog park with other dogs there and he did really well wasn't aggressive and wasn't responsive to other dog's aggression at all.  On a good note He ran around pretty crazy chasing and barking with the other dogs just fine.

Toby is obviously happy to come home from the vet, his ear is going to  have a hole in it possibly for the rest of his life. He is uncomfortable as heck but the look in his eyes melts my heart, you can see the pain and the happiness to be home. It was hard to not have him in my room last night. I am glad hes back home even with his funny hair cut ;p Ill be making sure he gets all his care and heals up as best as possible. Tonight he got a little bit of turkey with is meds and he wagged his tail briefly so I consider it a win.

On a unrelated note I fixed the ac/heater unit today, first time on a home unit. I diagnosed the problem and fixed it. I love being able to use the basic troubleshooting to fix things I really have no clue about. It was a victory! I need to do more of that. Maybe it is time to tackle some other stuff around here.

December 26th means that Christmas is officially done and we go back to normal right?

I use to really enjoy Christmas but for the last 7-8 years it has become kinda a chore. If my family were closer and did more together like we use to I am sure I would feel better about it but this year in particular was bitter sweet. I got to see Amanda and Konner a couple times and really enjoyed that, I talked to my dad online for a while and received a text or two from other folks but really the highlight of my Christmas day was getting to see our former dog "Brodie" (now named Jackson). It was really interesting to see how he has changed since Donna (Lisa's Cousin) re-homed him for us. He is so much better behaved and well adjusted. Makes me feel good that she was able to take him. It's almost  like we were just baby sitting him for her till the right time for him to go to her home. Anyways I'm glad it worked out so well and he is so happy.

Something else that happened yesterday is I was reminded that words hurt. Someone said something to me that really cut deep and I can't help but to still think about it. Was it really their feelings or just anger? I really can't tell any more, I'm sure a few years ago I wouldn't have even blinked a eye over it but for some reason lately I have felt more sensitive about things. People who knew me probably would have described me as kinda cold, I said a lot of things not caring if I hurt someone and well I guess payback is a bitch. Why do I care about it now and not then? Am I becoming a wussy? I don't know. Maybe I need to build up that wall again and just not feel anything. All I know is I did not like feeling that way at all. It's terrible to feel that pain and yet nothing is wrong to cause it. It really has twisted me up a bit.

Well anyways today I have plenty to do and I want to get some work in on another project I came up with so I gota get moving.

Happy Day after Christmas

I'm not generally one of those people that does fads or diets as it were but for a while now Lisa has been a vegetarian and pushing me to eat less meat. For a while I was doing meatless Mondays, that was ok but at times kinda frustrating because not a lot of places around here have actual vegetarian food. Yesterday Lisa had lunch at Oasis Vegetarian Cafe and well I was pretty skeptical of the food there so I ate some Doritos, peanut butter cookies and a Pepsi. I tried a bite of her Vegan Steak burger and it really was pretty good. Then Lisa convinced me it was going to be meatless Friday today and she was so stoked that that burger was good and something different than her normal bla foods that we went back today for lunch. I got a "steak" burrito and you know it wasn't bad at all. I wouldn't say it is great but it was good enough to try again. Now that it is dinner time We had bean burritos from taco bel. Today all in all felt good, I ate goodish and skipped the meat.

I can't say I want to do the whole Vegetarian thing all the time but I will be starting  to follow the meatless days again. It wont kill me ;)

When I woke up this morning I had the overwhelming feeling that I need to make some changes. My epiphany as it were is I'm sure no earth shaking world changing concept but I do not want to be the angry fat guy any more! (Not that I ever wanted to be but I did embrace it in stead of fighting it.)

Some of you will know that lately I have had some fairly bad feelings about my situation and my overall outlook. It is nothing new that I get down on myself, well about just about everything. I am not generally a positive thinking person and I have a hard time maintaining a positive attitude. That negativity and general laziness has been a major contributor to almost all of the bad things I have had happen and have done through out my life, and to top it off I have known this and done nothing about it. I have had the mantra that I am a asshole and I don't care who knows it, far to long.

To help combat this vicious cycle I need goals and activities. I seem to feel better about myself when I accomplish things even when they really are trivial in the grand plan I feel better when I am busy. I know my Mom was similar and her biggest downfall was her laziness. (Both of us also share the whole fondness for McDonald's cheese burgers that I really can not explain. I'm not sure where that fits in yet so please forgive my tangent)

Today as part of my self induced therapy I created something new for me to do, this blog. My goal with this blog is to be brutally honest about me, my goals, my activities, my thoughts etc. for me. I need this to help me make my changes and not enable further laziness. There have been a hand full of times where I attempted these very same things but got lazy and settled for less than my goals and in many cases actually settled for less than I had before. That is right I said it I am that lazy! In my life I have also had enablers that made that great feat of laziness possible. I can not blame them though. Dealing with me can not be easy and I myself am guilty of doing so.

Well having said all this it is time for me to get off my ass and out the door. The day waits for no one and it is what we make of it.

Love you all
Dan

PS Its meatless Friday for me, Lisa and I are going to the Oasis vegetarian Cafe and Im getting a Vegan steak burger........HELL YA lol