Stella Roams Her Own Route

At first it looked like rain was just a few minutes away when we woke up but I wasn't doing anything before I had my daily two cups of coffee. Especially since it was a brand new bag of Seattle's Best Coffee Portside Blend. It really is better than Starbuck's Coffee. So where did the sun come from?

About the time that Stella and I stepped outside, the sun started breaking through the clouds. I could see some blue and the gray skies were disappearing. That's good because it is Opening Day in Cincinnati today and I need to see some regular season baseball. We will top tonight off with some college basketball in the next round of the NCAA "March Madness" and tomorrow it will be a repeat under a forecast of rain.

I wasn't sure what I had planned for today up to 1pm, when I'll tune into the first baseball game on ESPN. That will lead into 'my' Cincinnati Reds game at 4:15pm. No worries, the hounds will still have their lunch at their regular time as well as an afternoon walk. Although ... we will start that afternoon walk around 3pm, an hour before the Reds game, just in case Heidi decides she needs to tip toe every step of the way. In a half mile that is a LOT of short basset hound steps.  :)

The birds were happy with the warmer weather, their talking filled the air this morning. I loved not wearing gloves, the down parka and sock hat. I think it's getting closer to spring with each passing hour. I just pulled an article off of my Flipboard account that will tell me the 20 Landscaping things I should NOT do this spring. Maybe I can get out of some yard work.

I really don't want to turn this into a diet blog but I would like to give some updated thoughts just in case someone else is curious about making changes to their eating habits or wonder what's happening with me since I have opened the door to my plan.

I wanted to see if the word "go" had Stella responding the same way as yesterday. What do you think?

While I let her walk on her own, with very little verbal herding, I couldn't help but think how the last few days have been since I made some slight changes to my food and the way I am eating. I have found out from reading that I have always eaten pretty good food these past 5 years of retirement. What has not been good have been those times when I don't fight off the urges for junk food and ... the size of portions of good food I eat.

Two things have been discovered just in the last 48 hours. It was nothing new really but things I didn't keep doing in the past because I would cave into those battles for a junk food run or eating a meal from the fast food drive-thru.

(1) Following the serving size on the label I found out yesterday that just a 1/2c dry pasta and a 1/2c of pasta sauce was filling. It was a shock how long that filled feeling lasted after having that for lunch. The norm has always been 1/2 JAR of the sauce and 1/2 BOX of pasta !!!! That would give me about one and half plates of pasta and rarely did I keep some for the next day. I'd eat all of it. Now a 1/2c of dry pasta ??? Interesting.

(2) All of us have cravings for sweets, some more than others. I've read in the past that chocolate cravings are a sign that I need more Vitamin B. My dad use to tell me I got that craving from his family who were always chocolate fans the for the past 100 years. Since I am trying to escape the sugar addiction I forced myself to grab a small apple instead, anytime I had the urge for sweets.

Portion size has always been a problem with me and I have no doubt that just by reducing the portion size of my food will have major benefits in my quest to drop about 20 pounds. I also caught a glimpse on my small white board where last May 22nd I wrote down my weight, fat measurements with calipers and stomach size. IF I did nothing right now and continued that large portion of pasta, chips with salsa, sandwiches, french fries etc .... I have had some great reduction in all of those measurement since last May, but I need more decreases.

I also reduced my breakfast from 3 eggs to 1 egg and I don't eat eggs every day. I rotate between oatmeal with fruit, nothing but fruit and an egg. Yes, those tv commercials during "March Madness" with a stack of pancakes  (IHOP??) are killers ... I quickly change the channel.

So that is it for the food discussion.

The book about Apple and Steve Jobs still seems very interesting but it is really a slow read. I remember the first computer I worked with was in 1977 when La Costa Hotel & Spa in Carlsbad California did their nightly audit on a brand new computer system. I remember the programmers were using a cassette tape that was inserted in the top of their monitor. The disc drives were at least 3' tall. Little did I know that 42 years later my Apple Watch would do more than that computer would.

As we walked I thought about my plan of attack on my 'to do' list this year. A lot of it is annual repeats, a couple of things are required with no excuses this year and some are brand new with hopes of changing the look around the house. Stella will not be able to roam free outside while I work this summer. Sadie use to keep her in the local area but the two times I let Stella outside by herself as a test recently ... I ended up walking to the neighbor's backyard to convince her to get home.

I'll use the 80' tether that is centered out in the field and she can roam the field right behind the house or sleep in the backyard under the sunshine.

I'll leave you with the photos to show the rest of the walk. I am somewhere between finding it hard to write more, losing my train of thought and/or needing to step away from the computer to get some things done.

As you can see Stella took her own way home but a familiar one, as I took the 'old' return path back to the house. She always ends up entering the north backyard upon her return.

What is happening in D.C. today is fantastic.  :)

With baseball, sunshine and March Madness all in one day ... that is a great day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Enjoys The Sunshine

It looked like the normal afternoon routine this afternoon, which is lunch, a short trip outside and then an afternoon of sleeping. Only today they decided after an hour of sleeping inside they needed to be outside. The sunshine was just right. She passed on the walk today but wandered around the yard while Stella and I took a walk a little after 6pm.

Stella's A Diet Assistant

While Heidi got plenty of rest this morning for a possible walk this afternoon, Stella and I duplicated the start of the morning only she decided this morning I deserved an extra hour of sleep and didn't start her whining to wake me until 6am. She seems to forget at times that I am retired and do not need to get up before the crack of dawn.

It was cold again, below 30°, but really nice this morning as we walked in the field. We had a pretty steady walk, with few stops in between as the photos will show. So, what's the post title about? Well it happened again last night around 9:30pm. I was not the first time it has happened but good old Stella prevented me of making a quick drive to the Dollar Store for some candy, cookies and anything else I could get my hands on. I had a HUGE CRAVING for junk food.

With her on again off again, never knowing when she will have a separation anxiety attack when I leave, I have been keeping her and Heidi in the bedroom as always BUT I continue to use the baby gate outside of the closed door. That door is always tied in a way that she cannot open it.

It takes probably less than two minutes to set up "the wall" but the effort to do that while waking her up from a deep sleep is a huge roadblock for my junk food runs late at night. I really don't like waking her up on the couch just to move her into her 'jail cell' while I am only gone 5-7 minutes, 10 at the most.

Doesn't seem like a lot of time does it? Besides I just told you she is in a deep sleep on the couch. Based on past experiences when I trusted her and was sure I could make it back before she woke up ... NOT ONE TIME did that work out as planned.

She must wake up as she hears my car drive away. Then she will counter surf for any possible food, fruit in bowls, maybe some left over pasta sauce stains on a plate that is waiting to be washed. She has even tried opening the refrigerator. The hanging bloodhound drool on the handle was a dead giveaway last summer.

So ... 7-10 minutes is too long for Stella to stay out of trouble. With it being too much of a hassel to set up "the wall", she slept on the couch and I changed my mind about going. I killed my junk food urge with a raw banana.

You may have noticed I did change the blog design. This was quick and easy since I did not have to do hardly any cusomization after I implemented the change. It still has a sidebar but it has the posts listed one by one instead of a grid. I was getting tired of the grid look on the home page. I did change the font and for the blog posts title, that change automatically reduced the size enough to make all the post titles just one line.

I know I've said it at least four times before but "I like this design"

When Stella heard the word "go" she stopped in her tracks and looked at me is if she would be making the trip when we returned home. All I said was "I have to go to the store" as I was trying to get her to work more and sniff less

I usually don't like shooting directly into the sun but I kind of liked this photo the more I looked at it.

Starting Thursday night I will be back to living on the couch watching "March Madness" through the weekend. Combine that with the start of the MLB season, there will be a lot of games going on at the same time. The split screen will definitely be used. It's a feature I did NOT have with DirecTV but do with DishNetwork. Unless my internet service changes from satellite to through my phone service I don't see many options on how I get my tv signal.

I have 11 months left on my contract with DishNetwork and at the rate things are changing I am sure my options will increase from now until February 2020. Being a sports addict and my locaction most of all, makes it hard for me to become a "Cord Cutter".

One of the problems of getting up at 6am, is that Heidi and Stella now want to have lunch at 10am. They have both given up their barking and howling knowing that I will not feed them until at least 11am, maybe a little later.

Since the release of the Mueller Investigation Report and the announcement by the Attorney General, tv news has been very very interesting. If it wasn't so sad it would be hilarious. I do glance at those channels that are far left and it is just amazing the amount of DENIAL that is going on by current and past members of Congress, the FBI and the CIA.

Just like the Democrats loved Comey in the summer of 2016, they hated him by October 2016. They (the far left media and pundits) have pulled that same whining feature with Mueller. They were positive that Trump would be nailed to the cross by that investigation and when he wasn't Meuller was the bad guy. Some think they can get the truth easier than it took Mueller. Clowns.

Needless to say any comments I make about the political scene from now on will be based on what I read online. I'm done with TV news ... again.

I reset my targets or limits for calories, carbs, protein and fat on the Cronometer app to what the Mediterranean Diet suggested. Calories 1,527 - Carbs 190g - Protein 110g - Fat 30g.

I am back to following "My Diet" which is a little bit from all the top diets. My emphasis is tyring to stay away from fast food, junk food, processed food and sugar. Some of those that I am focused on, I have stayed away from most of the time the past four years. So I am really trying to eliminate those late night junk food runs I have had in the past and combatting against those fast food urges I have.

When I have fallen off the whole food wagon, I have fallen hard and make up for all the ice cream, pizza, cheeseburgers that I have missed. Although the last time I had a Pepsi (months ago) it did not taste good.

I am slowly breaking my sugar habit by cutting the quantities in half. That means only 1tsp per cup of coffee or cup of oatmeal. It has seemed to have worked the past two mornings.

Why is it every time I take a photo where my house is in the background or as we end our walk, that I always have to edit it and level the top of the roof to where it is straight???? Anywhere from an angle of 2°-4°. It's the same way whether I use the smaller Canon G9 or the larger Nikon D3200. I am positive I am holding the camera level when I take the photo.

Is my house sinking 2°-4° on the north end of the house?   (that's a joke ... I think)

The camera didn't catch her but Stella ran a couple of times today. Once she was so fast that she ran into the back of me as I was about to turn take her picture. Oh, one thing I do not want her to find out about, is the "dietitian assistant" job, because she will expect more kibble with each meal.

No matter what the temperatures are, it is always nice when the sun is out and it's not raining.

Stella getting in a little hamstring stretching.

With the library books returned I am back to reading the small font, 600 page book about Steve Jobs. It's a very very slow read. It's not him that I want to read about it's about Apple that I want read about. His partner was the computer whiz, Steve was the salesman. In the few pages I have read they made quite a pair. They are just starting their first computer as a company, when I put the book down and went to bed last night. They combined what money they had and started Apple with $1,300.

My car is a year older but the great state of Indiana let me know I needed to pay more than last year for license plates. They also hit me for a little more income taxes to pay this year. I still see a lot of bridges that need repaired, highways that need repaired ... so where does the money go? This state use to have a huge surplus of funds just a few years ago.

Well I need to go. The hounds are trying a different strategy to get me to serve lunch earlier than normal. No sounds but they are both sitting next to my desk chair staring at me with just a little bloodhound drool on the left jowl of Stella.

It's another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.