Glorious Saturday

What a beautiful day here in the Dallas area.  The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and I feel great!  Morgan spent the night with us, then she and Gary went to Eric's girls softball practice session.  I felt so good today, I went for a walk.  Gary conned me into taking Stella, which was a big mistake.  She and I went thru the park to the trail, and she took every turn into the woods, trying to get into the water.  I figured she was thirsty, so I took her to the best possible place to enter (no weeds,and a good safe walking path down the bank) the water.  That little shit.... she refused to get out of the water.  She loves to wade.  No, not jump and splash.... just a saunter shoulder deep in the water, wandering from bank to bank.  Once she FINALLY got out, she was finished.  So much for making an aerobic walk.  When she's finished, she's finished.  She headed for home, and I tried to pull her to keep walking.  She just layed down and refused to move.  I finally gave in and let her lead, and she headed straight home.  Oh well, at least I got out.  It's 86 right now, and a little too hot to walk any more until maybe this evening. 

Haven't done much here at home, but I did finally get my closet cleaned up.  That was yesterday.  I just lead such an exciting life.  I swapped emails with Sheila yesterday.  She has been working on the Firewheel web site move.  Not going smoothly, but there is nothing she can do but outlast the vendor.  She did say she and Mark got a new dishwasher and refrigerator.  I haven't figured that one out yet.  I honestly find it hard to believe they'd both break at the same time.  I figure they must have wanted them to match in color or something.  Hmmmm.... maybe red?  Just kidding about the red, but I am curious.  Maybe they went stainless steel, or black.  I'll see if I can get a picture before too long.

I went for a ride yesterday evening with Eric and Chloe.  We went thru the park, and I came upon the fattest copper head snake I've ever seen.  It wasn't that long, maybe a foot and a half long, but it was fat overall, but not the tail area.  Really weird.  I gave it a wide birth as I rode my bike past it, then stopped a good 20 feet away to take a cell phone picture. 

I had to zoom max to get the shot, but the weird part is.... he was crawling into the woods, till he saw me stop.  Then he turned around to look at me.  I think he was thinking I looked good enough to eat.  You know, much like the lion checking out the herd of water buffalo.  They select the slowest one in the herd, then make them their target, swoop in for the kill, then they devour it.  Yup, that's the kind of look I got.

I know, it's a bad picture, but you can tell he's fat, except for the very end where the tail is.  I wonder if someone or something got the end of his tail? 

There was also an article in today's paper about the abundance of snakes this year.  It's because of the mild weather.  There are four major types of poisonous snakes in Dallas.... rattlesnake, cotton mouth (water moccasin), copper head, and coral snake.  The copper head accounts for like 90% of the bites.  That's because they hid in falling leaves so they blend in, and also in tall grass.  Then people (and the paper said usually people wearing flip-flops.... I don't justify the news, just repeat it) stop on them, and they naturally get bit.  They really get dogs.... usually on the nose.  That's why I wanted to keep Stella on the leash.  I stayed on the alert... just in case. 

If you love Italian Food, and want a good recipe, here's a site for you to visit.  OMG!  Here I am on a diet, and I want to cook everything they have.  I don't remember exactly how I got here, but I was NOT intending to look at any food blogs, cause I just don't want to go there.  Anyway, have a look at this site.  Your mouth will water over some of the recipes and the pictures of each recipe.
http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/

I finally feel 100% again.  What a long time.  I am now one whole pound under my "normal" weight.  I am so happy.  I am struggling right now, cause it is taking so long to lose anything.  You may not know it, but I have 21 nodules in my thyroid, and one small goiter.  Have had them for years.  We have done a biopsy on almost all of them at one time or another.  No big deal.  We just monitor my thyroid function.  It's been within normal range for the last 6 years, when we first found them.  Well, this month, ta-da.... my thyroid tested low.  I figure it's a fluke.  I do feel tired, but I think it's because I've been a little ill for the past few weeks.  Anyway, we're just going to wait until next month and test it again.  I did have another sonogram, and they haven't gotten that much bigger.  I think I just wasn't mean to lose weight!  Here I've been dieting, and Sheila just eats more than normal and loses weight.  Life just ain't fair!

Guess I'll close the blog for now, since I really haven't done anything to blog about.  I'm going to go out into the garage and finish cleaning out my golf closet.  I started it about a month ago, and quit cause my back started hurting.  I'm feeling so good, now's a good time to finish.  Later....