Misha & Sophie Updates

Misha has been doing well, and it seems like she got used to wear “party hat.” Since the second day, her appetite came back to normal or more(!), so we are happy for that.

On the other hand, Sophie lost her appetite a little bit, because she hasn’t done exercises with Misha so much. Also, she has been scared of Misha’s party hat. It makes loud noise and she runs away from Misha every time she tries to be close to Sophie. Well, actually, it’s kind of funny: Sophie is a 14-month old Great Dane and weighs 95lb. (maybe more) is running away from 65lb.(probably heavier now) Mastiff puppy. Sometimes Sophie slides on wood floor, hits her stomach and has hard time to stand up (If I see it, I usually help her up). Wearing “party hat” obviously works with Misha; the hat is her weapon now: it’s so easy to take toys away from Sophie.

Frog’s Eye Salad & Buffalo Chips

This is “Frog’s Eye Salad” I made the other day. As I mentioned in my “Kitchen Notes,” the recipe is adapted from Ronzoni Recipe. When I first saw this salad at A.A.’s house, it was pretty shocking: the acini pepe looked like frog’s spawn; lots of canned fruits; jell-o and whipped cream. I couldn’t understand why this was called “salad,” and I thought it was rather “dessert.” I needed time to accept this sweet salad and it took a couple of years to taste and make this dish. When I had my wisdom teeth pulled out, I made this without acini pepe as my meals for a few days after the surgery. It worked pretty well.

“Buffalo Chips” is one of the breakfast menu at Buffalo Cafe in Twin Falls. This is very simple, but delicious breakfast and I just tried to make similar one at home. I added some vegetables and avocado.

Big Day

Today was a big day for Misha. She didn’t know what was going on: she was not given either food or water since last night. In a few hours, she would be spayed at Broadway Vet. She begged us for water all morning so that she was thirsty (she usually drinks water much more than Sophie does.) A.A. suggested me to give her ice cube, but I said, “No, that’s not a good idea.” Oh, poor Misha!

Sophie was lonely all day until Misha came back. She usually spends time quite a lot at the backyard, but she stayed inside most of the time today. Also, it seemed like her stomach was upset (I couldn’t figure out why; I fed her same meal, though) and I was worried about both of them. Sophie is a very energetic and outgoing puppy, but at the same time, I think she is very sensitive. Since her stomach was upset, I gave her meal twice instead of three. Whenever either Sophie or Misha (even for my cat, Shoe) has upset stomach, I always give them a holistic supplement with their food. It was a bad timing: the supplement was almost gone; I ran to the H3 Pet Foods (very close to our house) just for that. 

Surgery went well and she has been doing fine, but she acts little different from Sophie. We brought her back home around 4 o’clock and she has been sleeping since then – it’s almost 8 o’clock now. When Sophie got spayed, yes, she slept for a little while, but she got up and had dinner. We decided to leave her alone until she wakes up and we will give her medication. Sophie really wants to play with her and tries to wake her up by banging crate and making noises around her. Well, nothing worked. Sorry, Sophie, it’s going to be like this two more weeks! 

What’s for lunch?

I hear following sentences from A.A. every day: “What’s for lunch?,” “What’s for dinner?” Somehow, I never heard “What’s for breakfast?.” Anyway, I always need some time to answer the question: What should I fix? 

Day 4: bad, bad, bad!!!

It was TGIF Friday. I was trying to be careful with what I would eat, because it was weekend. Weekends were always “key” to the diet. The week after the weekend would be all up to how I handled myself for three days. This weekend was challenge, because it was the first weekend since I started going on a diet. Well, it was much harder than I thought.

• Breakfast: A cup and a half of cereal (same brand so far) with a banana 
• Lunch: chowder with rice (left over); yogurt; 16 oz beer (grolsch)
• Snack: 5 pieces of crackers
• Dinner: a tiny slice of apple (I was not hungry, but I had a bit)

Day 5: honestly, I don’t know how I should control my eating habit.

• Breakfast: a cup and a half of cereal with a banana
• Lunch: chowder with rice (yes, we still have some leftovers); yogurt
• Dinner: Häagen-Dazs mango sorbet (1/3 pt – about 200 cal.)

Day 6: trying to be on a track..

• Breakfast: a cup and a half of cereal with a banana; two slices of apples
• Lunch: pastrami and swiss cheese sandwich; coffee with about 4 oz. whole milk
• Dinner: 6 oz rib eye steak; a half of baked potato with sour cream; green salad with no salad dressing

 

How Much and How Many…

I love music: I listen to various music and play piano. So does A.A. Though he doesn’t play any instruments, he loves music so much. Every weekend, he stays in his room and does something related to music: searching music; downloading music (of course he pays); listening to music, etc. Last year he purchased an USB turntable and has been collecting vinyl LPs.

We went to Record Exchange after watching a movie, “88 Minutes,” (which was O.K.) We (especially me) were not planning to spend any money on vinyl today, but somehow we headed to downtown Boise. Well, he bought a few of them and seemed to be satisfied. When we got in a car, first thing he said was, “I wish I could buy more. I have at least 2,000 LPs that are on my wish list.” I was like, “… it’ll take for a  while to collect them, huh?” Then, I remembered I was thinking about what I should get for his birthday. Vinyl LPs! That will be a great birthday gift for him..but, wait a minute, I guess I don’t know what he wants, so I will probably get a Record Exchange gift card. 

In the SPIN magazine issued May 2008, there is an article about vinyl LPs. Musicians are still making vinyl, and of course, people still love the noise from it. It’s cool to collect and listen to LPs lately. In this article, a sales and marketing VP Andy Kotowicz points out that “CD sales have dropped by 35 percent since 2000, while vinyl sales appeared to be upswing.” At one moment, people preferred clean cut, but I guess we still want to hear “noise.” I think this is like photos: lots of photos can be edited, but these photos are still expected to have “noise.” For example, photoshop has a tool to add noise on the clean and pretty photos.

Well, in this situation, I wonder how much time and money A.A. wants to spend and how many LPs is too many for him.

Healthy Diet

Well, I started going on a diet again. I can’t remember how many times I have to go through this, but anyway, I decided. This time I decided to do low-carb diet because I like carbs and I don’t think that I can live without them (like Atkins Diet). Here are some commitment I made:

• Eat three times a day – I used to eat twice a day, early morning and late afternoon. I started having this habit because of the work schedule and then I got used to it. As a result, I had pretty big portion of each meal. 
• No Alcohol – I love wine and beer, but I will try not to drink for a few weeks.
• Low Carbs – Rice, pasta, bread…it’s hard not to eat at all. So, I decided to reduce the amount of carbs for each meal. For dinner, I don’t think I want to have any carbs, though.
• Exercise – taking Sophie for a walk! I’ve been doing this since we had her. So, try to walk for one hour a day, five days a week.
• Caffein – I used to drink about 12 cups of coffee a day, and then reduced to 8 cups a couple years ago. Now I want to have 4 cups a day.

Day1 Meal:

• Breakfast: A bowl of cereal – Wild Harvest Cereal. It was very good and I had a cup and a half with a banana.
• Lunch: Ham & Gruyère cheese quiche; instant seaweed & tofu soup; light yogurt – I love making a quiche and crust always tastes good. I wish I could eat crust more.. but at the same time, I told myself, “I can make it!” 
• Dinner: A quarter of chicken burrito - even a quarter, I know I shouldn’t eat it. 

I know there are lots of different kinds of diet strategies available. If I stick with one method, I don’t think I can make it. So, I combine some of them and just try to be healthy.

Today is the 2nd day of my diet. I want to update what I eat today tomorrow. I really want to lose my weight before a fall semester. How much do I want to lose? Well, my goal is to lose 35 lb.  After that, 15 more to go. It seems like A.A. is also on a diet. This helps a lot!

Since the Last Post…

It has been getting warmer and warmer. We, included our puppies, love it! Since the first post, a few things have been updated:

First news was Misha’s baby teeth. I found one of them on the carpet in the morning sometime last week. On the same day, I noticed she had a loose tooth. I told A.A. and tell him to check it out. Then, what happened? Well, he pulled it out. Misha was fine and left there to have some water. My poor Misha..

Second news was our weekend trip. We decided to go to Hot Springs near A.A.s parents house. For Misha, it was a second trip outside the town. We went to  Balanced Rock, Shoshone Falls, and some more things around Twin Falls. 

Sophie loved to hike the Balanced Rock, but Misha was scared to walk on the rocks. Also, she cut the edge of her left eye because our nephew threw a rock toward me and Misha! I know he didn’t mean to do that, but I was kind of shocked.

Since we didn’t have three dollars in cash, we couldn’t get in to Shoshone Falls. It was pretty disappointing. I will remember to have some cash with me whenever we go to state parks…

Overall, I think we had a good weekend and hope to go back to see water falls soon.

More photos @ Flickr.com

First Day at the Puppy School

A 17-week old Mastiff, Misha, went to a puppy school yesterday. It probably was good experience for her, but my husband, A.A., and I were disappointed about the class because of the training method. Also, I totally forgot about her to be spayed end of this month or early next month, that will be during a puppy school. When I came home, I was thinking about a personal trainer who took care of our Great Dane, Sophie. Sophie was a very handful puppy (well..still, but much better) for me and I didn’t know what to do with her, honestly. Then, we found the trainer. He worked with Sophie hard and we learned lots of things from him. I wish he could train Misha, too. This morning, A.A. said he wanted to cancel the school and I agreed, of course. Even if we cancel the class, she still needs to socialize with other puppies, so we decided to contact the personal trainer to see if he has a puppy school sometime soon. Well, I hope it will work.. 

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