The muscles I pulled in my chest are not improving the way I'd like.  Like, at all.  Very aggravating.  It feels like there is a tight band around my chest, just below my boobs.  Painful when I lie down, stand up, run, drive, bend over, twist, sneeze, breathe deeply, lift more than a few pounds, and probably a bunch of other things I haven't noticed yet.  Originally it was mostly on the left side, with just a little soreness on the right, but now my right side seems to be worsening, probably because I've been trying to do less with my left.  Still not much I can do about it, since rest and painkillers appears to be the treatment of choice.  I do have vicodin, since they gave me 20 tabs when I went to urgent care for my back, and I only needed a few.  I'm down to 7 now, I've been using them to sleep (since there is no comfortable position to lie in), and occasionally when awake.  I'm considering emailing my new doctor and seeing if she'll give me some more without me having to be seen.  There's really no point in seeing a doctor, there's nothing they can do other than give me painkillers.  I'd just take megadoses of ibuprofen, except that it's been making me sick lately.

Anyway, this pain means my dogs haven't been getting exercised, since I've been trying to take it easy.  So, we had to go to the barn today, though I knew that working them would hurt.  Which it did.  I mostly did stuff that didn't involve a lot of me moving.  I tried to work with Pirate on flipping away from me on the DW, into a tunnel.  Which he didn't get at all, and his RC was slipping, so I gave up.  Did some jumping exercises with threadles and backsides.  I came to the brilliant realization in the backyard the other day that I should actually have a separate cue for the backside, other than the verbal, and started extending my hand with the palm out to indicate that he should go around.  Shockingly, this improved his understanding a lot, and today he showed me that it works with some speed on him too.  It also helped Tess, who hadn't seen that cue before.

Tess got only a little bit of work, since she doesn't really need it.  I was going to skip my own sprint work, but I decided that I really need to get some exercise, so I did do it.   I didn't manage to run all out like last time, but I did push it a bit.  Then I threw a ball for the dogs for awhile.

I'm concerned I'm going to suck at the trial this weekend, since my somewhat restricted motion is going to affect my handling.  But I really want to go, so we're going to go anyway, and hope.  I guess if I can get some more vicodin, I can try taking it before I run, and see if it helps.  Vicodin doesn't make me groggy or anything, so it won't affect my handling.

She pulled down and rifled through the bag I got at Nationals, today.  Either there were treats in it, or it smelled like treats.  Naughty girl, she left stuff everywhere.  It was hard to be really mad, since it's nice to see her feeling well enough to make trouble.  That's how I felt when she chased Heather's chickens on Sunday... Heather might have felt differently.  Especially since I saw the chickens, and rather than leashing Tully, decided to wait and see what would happen.  Mitigating circumstances: the chickens are about as big as Tully.  The chickens can run faster than Tully.  I can run faster than Tully.  So, I caught her before the chickens had their feathers too ruffled, but was secretly glad to see Tully spunky enough to be naughty.

Tess' photo from nationals finally arrived!  It is awesome!

by Heather.

So today was a fabulous day of imposing on Heidi.  I started by going out to the geisha barn to practice, since I missed our training time this past Wednesday.  I'd been intending to get out there anyway, I wanted to try to set up what I could of the first course from WTT, which I thought looked fun.  Of course, when I got there today, I just didn't have it in me to move a lot of equipment.  Don't know what I did to my rib cage area in the fall (pulled muscle?  Still no bruising.), but it's really uncomfortable, and lifting or reaching with my left arm is rather painful.  (Also hurts when Tess steps on it).  So, I left the contacts and weaves where they were, and set up what I could around them.  I'd have had to alter the course to fit the space anyway.  The course I invented looked something like this:



Distances and angles are approximate.  I managed to keep the middle part of the course, from the DW, which is what I was most interested in.  Would have liked to have the weave entry, but I'd have had to move contacts to get the weaves up there, and I wasn't moving contacts.

It was a fun course.  Challenging.  Not as challenging as the course I based it on, I think, although the speed challenge I added in the beginning just about killed me.  I think that's mostly because of the difficulties I'm having in moving.  With Tess, doable, though I really had to remember to say "tunnel" before she took off for #4.  Pirate is faster, and getting through that section involved ignoring my pain so I could run like hell, and also saying "tunnel" as he came out of the first one.  And no loitering, once he'd seen jump #2 I had to get moving.

The middle section wasn't really that hard, with either of them.  It looks funky, but ran really easy, and yes, Pi got his RC.  He went wider than I'd prefer, but part of that was him running straight forward through the contact, and I don't want to discourage that at this point.  After the first go-round, he did start having trouble noticing #10.  We worked through that.  With Tess, I worked on a bunch of attempts to make #13 a backside of the jump.  Which wasn't hard to get her to take (Pi was perfectly happy to take it as a backside, too), but too difficult to figure out how to go on from there.  Both dogs had trouble taking 15 at the right angle to get the weave entry without a spin.

So, lots of fun playing with that.  I was going to do some sprint work, but I was feeling pretty beat up.  And running Pirate in that opening was automatic sprint work.  So, I loaded up the dogs and drove down to Poodle Acres.

Arrived about the same time as Heidi, so I had lunch, and got to admire the work on the house, which is looking fabulous and now smells like fresh paint instead of mildew.  Then the puppies started arriving; Anne with Ellis, and Katie with Banger.  Both Pyr Sheps.  Banger is like Fluffy Pirate, so I liked him immediately.  He's bold and confident and smart and happy, and likes everyone.  He's more than happy to interact with people, but if you don't stay engaged with him, he gets distracted.

After some puppy romping in the field, we took puppies into the yard attached to the house.  I was sitting there with Anne, looking at the road in front of the house, and I said to her, "This road makes me nervous."
 
"Why?" she asked.  BANG!!!  Car accident right before our eyes.

"That's why."

Looked like someone was trying to turn into the farm stand next to the house, and another car tried to pass.  I think.  It happened very fast, and I really wasn't expecting to witness a car accident as I began to discuss the unsafe speed limit on that road.  Smoke was coming out from the hood of the struck car, and an older man got out of the drivers side, looking woozy.  We were afraid he was going to wander further into the street, but he went onto the side of the road and sat down.  Then lay down.  Heidi had been getting Dean, but she returned at that point, and I remarked to her that I thought the guy might could use a doctor.  So Heidi went over there.  Apparently, there were also a couple off-duty firefighters at the farm stand, and they came running over, so it was the fastest responded to accident ever.

I just sat around in the yard with the puppies, and watched the emergency vehicles arrive.  I believe everyone was okay, so while very dramatic, it wasn't so very bad.

After the drama was over, we got Pirate out and introduced him to Banger.  They mostly didn't interact with each other, Banger was being respectful of the "mature dog", and Pirate thought Banger should want his ball and chase him for it.  They did have an incredibly dorky boy moment where Pi left his ball, Banger got it, and Pi failed to realize he could just take it back any time he wanted.

Then there were strawberry milkshakes.

Then we took Pirate, Banger, and Bea for a walk through the field.  The 3 of them very adorable, and appropriate with each other.  Too bad we didn't have a photographer.

Tess was concerned about my road rash last night and wanted to wash it for me.  So I'd yell "OW OW!", she'd come out to see what was wrong, then go back under the covers, find the road rash again, and have another try at cleaning it.  Argh.  I'm pretty sure the pain in my rib cage is a pulled muscle, there's no bruising there so I don't think I banged anything.  It's a little challenging to lean over because of that, otherwise, I'm in okay shape.  Planning to mow the lawn today. (a relatively minor project)

I also got a call from the doctor this morning about the results of my blood tests.  Mostly okay.  A little high on the blood sugar, which doesn't surprise me, but not diabetic.  Apparently not high cholesterol, which astonishes me, but I guess she'd have mentioned it if it was there.  I was actually pretty afraid of having all kinds of things wrong with me, but in fact, I guess I'm not that bad off.  Mostly I need to improve my diet, which I already knew, it's just a little hard with my IBS.  Talked about it with the doctor yesterday, and she had some ideas.  (I actually diagnosed the IBS myself, but she seemed to be going along with my diagnosis).  She mostly wants me to eat smaller amounts more frequently.  And she encouraged me to eat nuts, which I really don't need to be encouraged to do.  Since my cholesterol is apparently okay, I'm not going to worry too much about avoiding fat.  Within reason.

Bad news for me today is first, that my next-door neighbor caught me on my way to the vet with Tully (recheck urine).  Apparently, the owner of that house died, and the house has been sold to a developer.  So I feel bad for my neighbor and her family, having to move.  And they were pretty good neighbors, and who knows what I'll have now.  Since it's a developer, likely there will be construction there.  Yuk.

Second bad news was another email on the job I'd applied for.  On closer review, they saw that while I met the minimum requirements, they had other candidates who had more relevant experience, so I am no longer under consideration.  No interview.  I am a bit bummed about that, and wish they hadn't gotten my hopes up with the first email.  I could have sold myself with an interview.  I'll have to keep looking.

Anyway, since I'm stuck at the mill for now, I guess I can go ahead and make plans to take Pirate down to SoCal next month for the show.  I hadn't wanted to firm those plans up until I was sure I wasn't going to be starting a new job, but it's just 5 weeks away, so definitely a "go" now.

First off, I had my doctor's appointment today.  I missed my barn time yesterday, I went to take a little nap after work and slept through my alarm, so I just spend a lot of time resting and making sure to eat before going to my 3 PM doctors appointment today. (well, I did take the dogs for a walk last night)  I wanted to give my blood pressure every chance to be normal.  Which it wasn't, but it wasn't so very high, not scary like it was.  I'm supposed to take it a few times a week, then have a phone follow-up with the doctor next month.

Of course, I now feel more self-pressured to lose some weight, since it now looks as though doing that would bring my blood pressure down to normal range.  I thought it was more out of control than that.

I did like my new doctor, she was nice.  She got on board really fast with the fact that I avoid doctors, and tried to get everything in.  I managed to dodge the mammogram and the tetanus shot; but I did have a pap smear (ick!) and bloodwork.  She was really positive about the fact that I exercise regularly, so she didn't make me feel as bad about my crappy health decisions as I feared.

Um, also, I'm apparently 5' tall.  I thought I was shorter than that, I'd never been measured that tall before, and people usually lose height with age.  But the doctors assistant got me spot on at 5', so now when people ask my height, instead of mumbling unintelligibly I can just tell them "5 feet".

So it being a lovely evening, and me being newly inspired to maintain my activity level, I wanted to get the dogs out for a good bike ride, and then a walk.  Off I went with Tess.  We made the first loop, and then she happened to see a cat under a parked car that we were riding past.  Apparently, the cat darted away, and Tess went after it.  Bringing me crashing to the ground.  My only solace being that as the bike and I crashed to the ground, Tess got dragged aross the street, too.  I'm hoping she'll learn from that; Pirate has been much more careful of the bike since he got run over by it.

So I'm sitting there in the street, telling Tess that she is a Very Bad Dog (I don't think it made much of an impression, since I wasn't using an angry voice or anything), and the older lady whose house we were in front of told me it was not my dog's fault, it was that cat's fault for darting away and startling my poor baby.

Okay.

So I reassured her and the guy across the street that I was okay.  I think I thanked them for their concern, I hope I did.  Anyway, got back on the bike and did the other 1.5 mile loop with Tess.  She doesn't get off that easy.  Came home and tried to patch up my badly skinned knee (I also took a photo of it, but I'll spare you).  I don't appear to have much bandaging material, so I put on one of the tiny bandage pads I have, some very old and chewed vetwrap (red), and a piece of duct tape (also chewed).  It doesn't appear to be holding very well, I think I'll have to go get some more wrappings to avoid bleeding all over my sheets tonight.  After pasting the knee back together, I took Pirate out for a nice 4.75 mile ride, and then took all the dogs for a 1.5 mile walk.  It was supposed to be a longer walk, but I lost too much daylight futzing around with my knee.

My elbow is a bit skinned too, but it's not bleeding, so I don't care.  Also a little sore in the ribs, I don't know if the handlebars jabbed them, or if I strained something.  I guess it's good I did all this after I went to the doctor.

My dogs were pretty neglected this weekend.  Saturday, after work, I went to urgent care to get my back checked.  It bothered me that it was becoming more painful.  Probably unnecessary, since it turned out to not be anything, but at least I don't have to worry about it anymore.  I was partly concerned because of the looking for a new job thing... if I got hired at a new job and had new insurance, and then found out that the old injury was more serious than I thought, it would be a problem.

So yeah, X-rayed, and no new damage.  A bit funny to me that the location of the damage is so close to my previous compression fracture, apparently I have it in for my lumbar vertebrae.  (L2 was my compression fracture, this injury is at L1).  There's a lump on my back there which was the other thing that concerned me.  I noticed it after the fall, and was thinking hematoma, but it didn't look like one.  Then I wondered if it was just fat, though I didn't remember having fat on my back there.  It became obvious that it was not fat, and combined with the sharp pain I was still having, I decided to go in.  The doc said the lump was a seroma, and felt that the increased pain was the result of being on the concrete floors at work.  She would have given me a note to get off work for a couple days, but I just asked for a note saying that I need to sit down frequently for the next few days.  Also got some vicodin.  And, I made an appointment for a routine check-up, which is something I've been procrastinating.

All of this, plus the extreme long time I spent on the freeway getting to the Kaiser urgent care clinic (whoever designed 84 should be shot.  That's all I'm saying.) made me really late getting home Saturday.  So, poor dogs got little attention, and little out time.

Then yesterday, late again, since I had to go after work to my sister's house for the family get-together and official announcement of my younger sister's engagement.  Also to admire my older sister's new couch, which is very nice, but I think the cream color is a bold move in a household with a dog and 2 cats.  Admittedly, the dog is also cream colored, but she still tracks dirt.  The cats are tabby.

Despite having not actually practiced, I won the prize for acting most surprised at the engagement announcement!  Definitely, I should be pursuing an acting career, I can be surprised and sinister!  Um... maybe not at the same time.  We had a nice dinner, and a really fun family visit.  I stayed longer than I should have, needing to get home to my dogs, but we were having such an entertaining conversation it was hard to leave.  We got into the topic of where Amy & Clark should take their honeymoon, which mostly involved the rest of us making really impractical suggestions ("Mongolia!"  "New Zealand!"), while my sis reminded us that they needed all their money to pay for the bands (since all of Clark's bands have to play the wedding); until I suggested that we should come up with honeymoon locations that had songs associated with them, which meant we were thinking of impractical and budget locations and trying to find songs for them.

Which led to me having my phone out and doing searches to find songs, which led to me googling "iceland song", which led to me finding this article:
Icelandic town hopes angry elves have been soothed by songs
Which I am now sharing with you.  In the hopes that you find it as entertaining as we did.  I managed to read it aloud until the last clause of the last sentence, which I couldn't read without laughing.

I applied (online) for a new job last week.  I didn't expect it to go anywhere, since all the relevant experience I have is from long ago (been working at my current job for 15 years).  To my complete and utter shock, I got an email today informing me I'd passed the initial screening, and next would come testing or an interview (it was a form letter).  Whoa.  Didn't call that one.

Still don't really see me getting hired, but I'm a little blindsided that I even made it past the initial stage.