Day 22/365: Livestock Barn

I take my dogs to training classes at the fairgrounds.  We get to hang out in the livestock barns as we train our dogs (minus livestock). Right now, it's like a skating rink all over the place there!  I got there a little earlier, hoping to walk them a bit before class.  It was okay in the grassy area, but beyond that, not even Clyde could keep his footing.  He's been my stability when I have to walk over icy patches.  I ask him for 'help', grab on to his harness and he walks me across the patches calmly.  I'm not sure if he really helps or if I'm just more mentally confident and therefore don't slip.  Either way, it works and I'm a lot less anxious about walking them in icy conditions.  Ah, dogs.  :)

Day 21/365: Chinese Soup

Secret soup ingredients

It's been awhile and I'm long over due for some good ol' Chinese soup.  I should have been making this when I was deathly ill (ha ha) with the flu.  Oh well.  I've got a variety of dried herbs, roots, spices and other goods in my pantry for this.

Funny how I used to hate drinking these soups when I was young.  My mother would make me choke it down after I was already full from my dinner.  Of course, she also used to make it taste really strongly of ginseng (bitter) and that was part of the reason why I didn't like it either (and I was, literally, choking it down).  Anyway, somehow I really appreciate it now.

Soup fail:  I was so busy typing up my blog that I didn't pay attention to the soup at the beginning.  I didn't scoop out the nasty scum (boiled out from the chicken fat/bones), so the soup became cloudy.  Bah!  Oh well, next time.

What's awesome?  Vacuum sealers.  I've been lazy to make soup simply because I buy whole chickens and freeze them without preparing them.  Therefore, they need to get thawed, then skinned and halved before I can use them.  So...they sit in the freezer and I don't make soup.  This will now change.  :)

Day 20/365: Mountain view from the neighborhood

Maybe this could have been better if there wasn't a barbed wire fence blocking me from getting closer.  Or maybe if I didn't have two dogs on leashes trying to pull me to go sniff.  Or if I developed it for a longer amount of time?  Maybe it's too cold?  Maybe it's not that great with these types of pictures?  Or maybe it's just really not that great of a picture.  Oh well.

Day 19/365: Testing...Polaroid

Sculpture outside of Music Villa

I pulled out this old Polaroid Land camera a dear friend of mine gave me a few years ago.  I've used it a bunch of times, but not to the extent to truly be familiar with everything the instant I pick it up again.  So, I was fumbling around trying to make sure I was actually taking a picture and this was the result.  Some sculpture outside the music store and I'm not quite sure what it is...

It's really just hard for me to decide what I want to take pictures of.  I'm too used to digital stuff you can easily delete.  But to actually buy film again and know exactly what you want to take a picture of... that's hard.  -_-  Since each photo costs money, I'm more hesitant, which makes me less motivated to take pictures.  Hopefully that changes.  :)

Day 18/365: Kitties!

In their homemade cat tree :)

Katie, the white cat up top is now in that upper level almost 24/7.  She just loves that little hideaway.  I've had her for a little over 10 years now.  Man, she's getting old.  And she's traveled a whole bunch with me. ;)

Day 17/365: Wine Rack Art

I don't actually really drink wine

Day 16/365: Taco night!

Venison tacos :)...

Really, this isn't as much food as it looks.  ;)

Day 15/365: Yummy delicious sardines

Sardine salad, anyone?

I've only recently begun my love affair with canned sardines.  They're wonderful little protein packets, filled with the oh-so-important Omega-3 fatty acids, but without the worry of high levels of mercury.  True, they probably are a bit fishy for the uninitiated.  If you don't like fishy things, you probably won't like canned sardines.  You probably don't like tuna, either, though I haven't done a direct comparison between the fishiness of canned tuna vs. the fishiness of canned sardines.  I personally prefer the savory goodness of sardines (which taste great with crackers, veggies, cottage cheese, etc.) over tuna, which is really only palatable (in my opinion) when mixed with mayo or some other such thing to make it less dry.  I think sardines taste better too.  If you were raised in a non-white bread American household and exposed to all manners of tastes and smells...sardines probably won't even make you blink an eye.

A no picture post

Over the last few days, I've started practicing the guitar again (yay).  I'm starting from the beginning in my book.  It's not nearly as bad as I worried it might be.  I'm progressing pretty quickly (hurray for muscle memory) and I'm also re-learning how to read music fairly easily too.  It's encouraging to progress as much as I have, considering how long it's been.

Last night, I had a really excellent practice session and I wound up playing probably over an hour.  I really don't know how that happens.  When I start playing, I just keep doing it. Unfortunately, my callouses aren't there yet so tonight my fingers were sore and I did not play well, so I stopped not too long after.  Oh well, good days and bad days.

Iwish I had started playing when I was a kid.  Even 18 wouldn't have been that bad.  Now being a grownup and all, there just doesn't seem to be much time to do the things I want to do.

Day 14/365: Hot Wings!

Baked hot wings!

Tonight I made some hot wings.  Courtesy of this recipe here.  I can't say my wings were super crispy but I was afraid of overcooking them, so I didn't bake them quite as long.  Still good!  :)

Day 13/365: Coconut coffee

I like to have just a little coffee with my coconut milk.  Yes, the thick stuff that comes from a can like this.  Actually, I first tried this with coconut cream from Christmas leftovers.  I decided I'd just drink it with some coffee before it went bad.  So I had a mug almost full of coconut cream, mixed in some coffee and it tasted like these Chinese coconut candies from my childhood.  Coconut milk isn't quite as good but I figure it has good fats for me.  Considering I didn't eat much today, the fat probably kept me going.


I may have to try this bulletproof coffee sometime too.

Day 12/365: Beef pot roast

Tonight's dinner:  a lovely beef pot roast with mashed sweet potatoes and green salad.  I got avocado oil today and used it as my dressing oil.  Yum!

Day 11/365: Lazy hound dog

Clyde being lazy with me

Day two of being sick.  Sore throat, coughing, not being able to sleep.  I guess I was due.  I'm just glad I don't have a stuffy nose.  I think I just might hate that more than any of the other symptoms.  I have a thing about not being able to breathe...don't you?

I think Clyde looks cute here.  He doesn't look like a doberman.  He could pass for a black and tan coonhound.  Or a dachshund.  Really any other type of black and tan breed.  They're not so bad!  Sometimes I wish Clyde wasn't cropped and docked because people wouldn't be so prejudiced against him.  He'd look like a hound otherwise.  And he just happens to be slightly reactive to strange dogs that rush up to him.  But what would you do, if some large stranger charged up to you, jumping in your face?  Exactly.

Day 10/365: WTF, I'm sick?

TV with a snuggly dog and a mug of hot tea

I'm officially sick today.  This is a shamefully horrible snapshot, but who can possibly have 365 days of perfect photos (I have none thus far)?  Alas, this was the only picture I took today and you know what?  I'm sick!!  Several years of not really getting sick (okay, maybe a day here or there but nothing more)...and suddenly I've caught the flu!  I'm coughing like mad and it sucks.  I took a sick day from work.

Day 9/365: I'm being good, see?

Clyde peeking out

I was cooking dinner tonight when I suddenly noticed Clyde peeking out from the bedroom, hoping I'd see him being good (and thus be rewarded).  It was so adorable I had to quickly grab a picture before he moved.  He's such a character.  I'm not entirely sure if it's because he's a doberman or because I trained him to be this way.

Day 8/365: Do re mi (fa so...)

Play me!

Sad to say, I haven't practiced my guitar in a very long time.  So long that I'm embarrassed to admit it.  I think it's about time I started back up on that again.  I just know that I've forgotten everything and I'll need to start from scratch (mostly).  I doubt I can read music anymore at this point.  It is true, one can learn so much better with a guitar teacher.  Going to guitar lessons was always motivation for me to practice because I wasn't going to show up at my lesson not having improved from the last lesson.

It made me feel good to be able to read music too.  I'm all about anything that makes me feel good.  There's just something about playing guitar that really draws me in and makes me focus.  When I'm playing guitar regularly, I easily practice an hour or more every day without getting bored or even noticing the time.  Unfortunately, once I fall out of the habit, it's hard to get me back into it. New year, new goals.

Day 7/365: Just look at that face...

She still doesn't know this is a camera

Last year, Zoe was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, thrombocytopenia.  Basically, her body was attacking itself and she had almost no platelets left in her blood.  She was in and out of the vet every week for blood tests, sometimes more than once a week.  She was put on prednisone, which was an absolute nightmare.  Prednisone makes dogs more thirsty, more hungry and they constantly need to pee.  That wasn't pleasant.  Thankfully, she is okay now and hopefully it will not come back!

Day 6/365: Paleo Keema Kari

Actually, paleo-ish because I had it on a bed of quinoa

I made this from the recipe here.  Instead of beef, I used ground venison.  This dish was actually really, really yummy!  Indian (or Indian-inspired) food isn't top on my list of favorites, because I didn't grow up eating it, but I do enjoy it.  I also didn't have spinach, so the greens are actually frozen collards from my garden last summer.  :D  They fit perfectly into the dish.  Love collard greens!  Honestly, I think it's amazing how a few simple spices make food so delicious.

This needs to go into (semi-) regular rotation.

Day 5/365: Mau'y! the Cat

Cats are just too cute when they're napping.

Mau'y.  My wild, bratty, goofy, snuggly boy cat.  He's going to be seven this year, what's considered a "senior" cat.  Funny how that is.  He still acts like a bratty young kitten.  This came to me recently.  What if he still acts so immature because he was neutered at such a young age (8 weeks)?  There is research out there that neutering male dogs too early has impacts on their growth, and I believe, their personality.  So basically, neutering them so young prevents them from maturing like normal.  Mau'y was extra wild and crazy right up until not too long ago.  He's still that way at times.  It's such a contrast to my other cat, who was spayed at six months and remained a bratty kitten only until about a year or year and a half. Then she calmed right down and became a calm, snuggly cat.  Mau'y has only really calmed down and started snuggling in the past year or so. Anyway, he's probably about the coolest cat around, minus some poor bathroom habits at times.  <3 Mau'y!

Day 4/365: Have a seat

Just a peek into my living room

I didn't get around to taking any good pictures today.  i need to make a better effort to take pictures throughout the day so I can have interesting pictures to post at night.  Unfortunately, just about all I do is work and hang out in the house.  When I'm outside with the dogs, I'm pre-occupied because it takes a lot of effort to take Clyde on a walk. Right now he's gotta stay on the leash because of a torn CCL. -_-

Day 3/365: Snuggly puppies

How sweet it is to be loved by you

Day 2/365: I got my iPad!

Zoe the Wonder Dog

This is my very first picture with my brand new Retina Mini, which came today!!!  I'm very pleased with how quickly it came! I had gotten an estimated arrival date of January 7th but got it five days earlier.  I'm having a blast with this thing.  Whether it's because it's a brand new gadget, or because it's just that awesome, remains to be seen.

I had also ordered a Smart Cover to go with it but unfortunately, it hasn't arrived yet.  It's ironic that an item coming from California is taking longer than my iPad coming from China.  Oh well.  Luckily, Amazon Prime came through for me and I have my Skinomi SkinTech, which is a clear protective film that I put on the iPad today, before I even turned it on.  I feel comfortable carrying my Mini around with only the Skinomi and no cover.  It's covered pretty well on both sides of the tablet so I'm not worried about scratches.  It's definitely not protected if I happen to drop the thing though.  And, the Smart Cover won't really help if I drop it, either.  The only thing with the Skinomi is how much I can see my fingerprints and smears all over it.  I imagine the actual screen wouldn't be quite so bad.

And this is the very first entry typed up with my new Anker bluetooth keyboard, on my new iPad!  Merry belated Christmas to me!  :)

Day 1/365: Happy New Year!

Ribeye = Yum!

Not the most interesting picture to start off my Project 365, but at least it tasted good.  :)  Ribeyes are definitely my favorite cut of steak, cooked rare.  The fattier, the better.  Though lately I've been avoiding eating too much of the fat because these aren't grassfed cows and the fat is where all the nasty stuff builds up (hormones, antibiotics, other toxins, etc.).

Funny thing about steak (or beef in general) is that I never really liked eating it when I was young.  I didn't like beef much and definitely wasn't interested in steak.  Usually if there was beef in some kind of meal, I would eat the bare minimum and give the rest to my mother (same with chicken skin...).  But somewhere around 2007, I just...got into it.  I prefer my steak rare, where I can still taste the bloody goodness of it.  Does that sound gross?  A nicely seared, rare steak is just....excellent.

Note to self:  need to expand my vocabulary.

A new year, with new goals (of course)

Let's start a brand new Project 365 and see how long I last!  ;)

I'm not sure what compels everyone to start improving themselves at the start of a new year.  Isn't it just like all the other days, with an artificial declaration of a "new" year?

Oh well, I'm doing it.