Gardening with Pablo

Yesterday, Farmer Bleat (AKA Pablo, Pablito, Bleat-Bleat) and I went out to the garden. It's past it's prime (and was pretty neglected this year, I am not going to lie), but I thought our withered peppers with their crinkled leaves still held a certain amount of beauty.



Don't you agree?

Farmer Bleat decided to test them out:



See all that feathery-ferny stuff? That's asparagus. For the first two years you let it grow up like that (only cutting it back around Feb-March) and don't eat it. It makes the root system stronger. Next year we actually get to cut it and eat it!

Pablo was overjoyed that I found one last (unripe) grape tomato hanging out. I only got to pick a few this year because he ate them all. I'm sure I'll grow them again next year just for his enjoyment! I get a kick out of seeing him picking them off the vine himself.

"Please, Ma?"



"THANK YOU!"

Julio has it rough.

"Hey, Pablo, did you just take my stick?"




"He DID take my stick!"



"Awww, man."

My little tomato eater - and POISON IVY??

I was very excited that my tomato plant was going cray-cray this year. I had visions of homemade salsa dancing in my head. But every time I'd go check to see how many were ripe, none were, and there were fewer of them. Hmmm.

Eventually I found the culprit - Pablo. Every day he helps himself to a ripe grape tomato or two, plays with it and then eats it.







And of course when he runs out of ripe 'maters, a green one will do...



In other news, the Bipster went camping over the weekend. I had a great couple days of "me-time." House was scrubbed, I was napped and self-nurtured, laundry was done and dinner was in the fridge by the time he came home.... covered in poison ivy. Egads. I've never had it, even thought myself immune to it. I got him several over-the-counter remedies and thought it would all work itself out, but it kept spreading. Then yesterday, some itchy, blistery patches popped up on both of my legs and one arm. Oh, hell to the naw. I was not going to deal with it. So off I hauled us both to a walk-in-clinic (we actually had to go to three before we could get some care, but that's another story). Verdict? They don't know what it is, but they don't think it's poison ivy. Josh just breaks out in itchy, burning blotches all over his body that eventually shrink down to itchy little pimples. Mine started as itchy little pimples that turned into raised, red patches. He is on heavy duty oral steroids (6 a day for the first few days, gradually decreasing over two weeks) and since mine is not as severe, I just needed a steroid creme. Mine will probably be totally gone in a day or two, his is not slowing yet. What in the world is it?

Of course there's all kinds of special soaps, lotions, potions and disenfectants littering my once-spotless house.  Part of the disenfecting process is TONS OF LAUNDRY. Josh's definition of "doing" laundry is washing it, drying it, and then putting it somewhere else for me to deal with. Not happy. Not to mention the steroids make him hungry and super-duper grouchy. If I come home tonight to a still-cluttered house and unfolded laundry and my Incredible Hulk of a Hubbin asking me what's for dinner, I may have a little 'roid rage myself.

Our little genius!

This booger has finally learned to shake hands! We can add this to the (very) short list of words/commands he knows, such as "sit", "lay down", and "stay". He can't quite grasp the concept of "no" yet... or maybe he just has selective hearing.

Yoga, round 3, and Pablo

Pablo got neutered yesterday and 3 teeth pulled, but it isn't slowing him down a bit. I just got a one minute video from Josh of him playing like crazy. He is immune to the pain medicine, apparently! It made Julio sleep non-stop, but I think it just dulls Pablo's pain enough to make him feel like his old self.



Crazy booger.

Last night was yoga, and I was totally off my game. I was ok at first, cleared my head with no problem, but then I kept messing up the moves, losing my blalance, wondering why my knee was hurting so bad - um, because I forgot to use my toes on some poses! I would not engage my foot at all and just kept coming down hard on my knee, like an idiot! It was nearly impossible to get back into a good headspace after that, I and I did not get my usual release, which was disappointing for me.

We did get to do a new (to me) move that I love - the Boat Pose!

We also did another pose that I don't know the name of and can't find a picture of, but we were on our backs, legs up and spread in a V-shape, and then did kind of a sit-up with our upper body! Difficult, but enjoyable.

One really cool thing that happened was this... at the end of class she usually goes around the room and touches your head and shoulders (I think I mentioned this in my last yoga post). Well between the music, the hardwood floors, my eyes closed, and her bare feet, I couldn't tell where she was in the room. Until she got to Josh, who was next to me. I didn't hear her, (and I know this is going to make me sound like a new-age nutso), but I felt her energy. I just felt a sense of peaceful warmth by/in my right shoulder, and I knew she was there. And then, inexplicably, my fingers (my hands were at my side, palms-up in corpse pose) on my right hand started to curl toward her. I had no control over them! Such a strange but neat experience... it almost makes up for my lack of Zen.

However, I am hurting pretty badly today, especially in my lower back. Not sure if it is because I messed up so badly last night, or something else, but in any case, I took today off from the gym. I have a 4 day weekend coming up and I am going to use the blessing of having two weekdays off to do some daytime classes there that I otherwise miss out on!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Update from Dog World

First, thanks to those of you who left sweet comments about Pablo. We're really enjoying him!

But, woo, it's a big change going from two dogs to three! Especially when one spends most of the time acting like he's jacked up on Mountain Dew.

Jorge is coming around pretty well. He even played tug of war with Pablo yesterday!





It's not the best picture, but I had to take it since it was the first time one of his brothers showed him any love.


Again, I am grateful for our yard. Jorge and Julio do not use it to it's full potential, but little Pablo does. He runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs so fast that you can't even keep up with him with the naked eye. Then he collapses for about 3 seconds and then gets up and does it all over again. Yesterday, he found a grody softball in the corner of the yard... guess it came over our way from someone else's yard. It made for some cute pictures, though.







He's also very pleased with his new bed.



One little fella in our house is not quite as pleased.



Yes, those are tears in his little blinky-blinky eyes. He was so desperate for some one-on-one time with me last night that he sat on the floor by the bathtub while I took a bath, peeking over the edge every so often to lick my nose.



Sigh.




So he got to sleep in the bed last night (and snored louder than a freight train, might I add), and he's doing better this morning. Tolerating Pablo much better. It's only been two days, I think everyone will be buddies within another week or so. Can't wait for that! But now I've got 12 feet following me all over the house instead of just 8....

How quickly life can change in 48 hours!! New addition to our little family.

We're parents!

Well, DOG parents, that is. Of course we already have two dogs (Jorge and Julio), but they are from my previous marriage. Josh is an extremely good Poppa to them, but I know he misses his dog from his first marriage (he wasn't lucky enough to get joint custody), and has been wanting a dog that is truly his/ours. I told him if he wanted one he needed to either do it this summer (so he could train it and everything) before he goes into the nursing program this fall, or wait until he graduated. He wants to do everything the "Cesar Milan" way, so he wants to be in charge of the training. Cesar Milan would run the other way at Jorge and Julio. They are not dogs, they are lazy, manipulative (and adorable) teenagers. At least that's what they act like.

Saturday, I noticed on facebook that Josh's cousin had gotten another dog and that just put Josh's dog search into overdrive. He wanted a white-bodied rat terrier with a black head. After some internet searching we found Oreo, a rescue dog (he is a Rat Terrier with a little bit of Jack Russell in him, but his nose reminds me of a Bull Terrier-So cute). He had been found by the side of the road as a little puppy and was with a foster family. We could tell by this picture alone that he was a strong candidate to be the next addition to our family.



Could he be any cuter with that crooked little mouth?

Josh filled out the application, they checked our vet references to make sure Jorge and Julio were well taken care of and up-to-date, and then brought Oreo by for a home visit last night. He made himself right at home, loving on us and playing with a toy. I think it was our nice big yard that clinched it for us, though. The lady remarked that it was a great yard for him and he agreed by running in circles around it and peeing and pooping like a champ. Then Josh signed the papers and he was ours! Oreo became Pablo Montoya Parker just like that. I even asked her, "He's ours? Just like that?" and she said she can tell right away when a situation is right and that little Pablo was truly home.

Jorge and Julio aren't too thrilled quite yet, but they will come around. Jorge couldn't stand Julio when we first got him and now he worries and fusses over him like a true big brother. Jorge is a little better about Pablo right now than Julio is. Julio feels betrayed. He is used to being the baby and attention hog and this is just not fitting in well with his life-plan at all.

Please excuse all the blankets and pillows on the couch (we put a quilt over it when the dogs are there, and Josh had the pillows and extra blanket on there while he was studying), but this picture is probably as close as we're going to get to household peace for a little while (Jorge was elsewhere freaking out about the rain). Also, our walls aren't that turquoise and grainy, it was the filter I used for the picture.





Look at his sweet spotted belly!











We loved him immediately and look forward to giving him a great life!


P.S. Guess it's time to work on a new blog-header? ;)