riffday: well, does she like butter tarts?

1. We got a puppy.

I know.  What were we thinking?  She is adorable.  We were all so impressed that she slept through the night last night, and that she didn't pee inside from the time we got her home about 4:00 yesterday afternoon until this morning around 9:30.  At which point she ambled into Nell's room, hitched herself up over a pile of clothes (picture me running toward her in slow-mo yelling N-O-O-O-O-O) and ... well, you know.  And now she's done it five more times today.  *sigh*

But she is still adorable and we are already in love with her.  She mainly belongs to MadMax, so he named her Sadie.  Sadie will not eat food out of a bowl, or on a plate, she will only eat it if it is dumped out on the floor (or if you hand feed her, but that got old really quick). We only figured that out because Nell got desperate since she had barely eaten a couple of tablespoons of food since we got her home.

I will post a picture as soon as I get a good one, or figure out how to get the one Dean took off his phone.

2. Apparently my mental apparatus is ideally suited for Young Adult literature, because I am loving this class.  We are supposed to write two-page reaction papers for eight of the fourteen books we're reading (our choice), and it turns out that is the perfect length paper for me.  I am the ultimate procrastinator, but with a two-page paper you can do that.  I can start it the night before, get the introduction and a bit written, sleep on it, think about it during the drive down to UTown, and spend an hour or so in the computer lab when I get there finishing it up.  I've done three of them so far and been happy with them all.  I will write book reviews, because several of these are well worth reading-- I'll use YALit in the post title so you can skip them if you're not interested.

3.  A long overdue update on the four-letter word (diet):  I have practically quit using MyFitnessPal and instead am now devoted to Fitocracy.  MyFitnessPal is mainly about calorie counting, and I knew I hated that when I signed up. It's just that the fun factor of being able to log calories online lured me into thinking this time might be different.  But six months later I was sick of thinking about calories all the time.  I haven't deleted my MFP account yet, but I probably will.  Fitocracy, on the other hand, has completely changed my attitude about exercising.  I look forward to it now.  You may remember me griping and whining about how it was oriented toward weight lifting, and it still is.  But that is much less prevalent than it used to be-- the site has exploded with new members this year, and while the lifters are still a big group, they are no longer dominant.  At least in my experience.

My gripe now (because you knew I would have one) is all the flirting that goes on.  I guess I'm just too ancient.  I love the motivation to exercise and the support from other members, but I could do without all the innuendo and the photos that aren't porn but that result in me thinking to myself, hmmm, how exactly do you define porn?  But so far it's easy enough to avoid if I'm careful.  When did I get so old and uptight?

4. I blew out a tire on our fly fishing trip a couple of weeks ago.  It was bad enough that it couldn't be repaired, and I have all-wheel drive which meant all four tires had to be replaced.  Ouch.  Fortunately, they were probably going to have to be replaced sometime in the next year anyway, but still.  The good news, though, is that it made a big improvement in my gas mileage.  I never kept exact records, so I can't give you an exact number, but it used to take just about a full tank of gas to get to UTown and back. Now it I drive down and back and still have more than a quarter tank left. Cool. Plus a quieter ride, and it feels like I'm driving on marshmallows.  What's not to love? 

5.  So some of you caught the post I put up on Sunday and then took down, and as a friend pointed out to me today, if you signed up for e-mailed posts, you still have the e-mail after I delete the post.  I'm so neurotic sometimes.  Honest to pete, I'm 51 years old and I can still lose sleep because if I say that people might not like me.  It's ridiculous.  But I have a question for the e-mail subscribers-- I am very bad about editing a post that I've already put up.  Usually I write them late at night (like tonight), so I figure nobody is up and reading (except Julie)(Hi, Julie!), and so it doesn't matter if I edit it a bajillion times before I'm happy with it.  Does that mean you get an e-mail every time I click on "publish"? If so, I apologize a bajillion times.  I'm not sure I can stop doing it (I've tried unsuccessfully in the past), so if it bugs you, probably best to cancel your e-mail subscription.  Let me know if you have trouble with it and I'll find out how to do it.

6.  The smoke is much better today, and we are finally supposed to get a big wind and rain system  tomorrow, which we are all hoping will put an end to the smoke season 2012.  Good riddance.  I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law in Idaho yesterday where they are actually having the fires, and then I felt bad about whining about the smoke.  At least our forests haven't gone up in flames.

7. Hmmm, I'm running out of things to say here but it seems like I should have seven items.  OK, here's one:  what is your favorite meatless meal?  Nell is vegetarian and I need ideas.  Fortunately she will eat eggs, because I have 45 eggs in my refrigerator right now.  There you go.  Seven items.