Here’s a photo of us on top of Sonora Peak, where we hiked and spent this past weekend:

L-R: myself, E, and our friends Mattius and Andrea. I’m really psyched this photo came out- it was so windy up there, and we had the camera on a timer, balancing on a rock. We were worried it was going to blow away!

Isn’t it a gorgeous view from up there? A few more photos of the hike:
A little over halfway up:

me hiking- the first two miles were up, up and up. We mostly walked in the snow- it was about 60* and sunny. Walking in the snow kinda got us all excited for ski season!

Interesting gnarled tree stump:

All these photos taken with Andrea’s camera, as mine still has no battery charger (working on that….).
Linus made the trip as well, however he sat out the hike as he TORE HIS ACL a few weeks ago! He’ll be having surgery tomorrow- I will keep you posted on how it goes. Here’s to a speedy recovery for the little guy.

Here are some photos of Linus:

They were taken while E and I were visiting my family this August in North Carolina. Linus was staying with my cousin and his wife (and their kids). One of their friends visited and took these shots; apparently she has heeps of talent and a high-quality camera. I wrote her a nice thank-you note for taking and sending me these shots!

Aren’t they gorgeous?! Doesn’t he look cute???

When people meet Linus on the street, oftentimes passersby call him “Bright Eyes” or mention his “friendly face.” He’s just a completely friendly, unassuming, Pleased-ta-meetcha, happy-go-lucky dog. I think these wonderful photos really capture that aspect of his personality.

What a sweet dog! Aren’t we lucky owners??

I find a lot of cooking inspiration from the guys at The Bitten Word, however lately I’ve been making dishes found in cooking magazines myself, thanks to time spent at work in hospital waiting areas. When we take a patient for a wait and return call (x-ray, CT scan, what have you), we’ll often remain on scene if the appointment is under 15 minutes. So if I’m not the one teching the call (doing paperwork), then I’ll grab whatever cooking magazine laying around and flip through to find something to make.

This Parpadelle with Lamb Ragu was found in Bon Appetit a few weeks ago. I’ve been waiting for a proper lazy Sunday to make it (and lazy Sunday it was! we went to the farmers market, took Linus for a long walk, and took a looong nap!), and today was the day.

First, I made a big pot of veggie stock with some extra veggies on hand. See the corn husk in there? According to this guy over at Salon, corn husks are good in stock. I also threw the leftover lamb bones in there, so I guess it isn’t totally vegge.

Next, coat lamb in S&P with flour and brown for five minutes. Then add leeks, onions and mushrooms and saute until tender. Then comes one and a half cups of red wine:

At this point, your apartment will smell sooooo good.

Then in with some oregano and thyme and 2 cups of vegge (with lamb!) stock: Simmer until lamb is tender- about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, I made the pan-roasted corn recipe above as a side, some breadstick cheese twists and also boiled the parpadelle.

Check out the Tillandsia I picked up at the farmer’s market today! It grows on air and doesn’t need dirt! We’re going to hang it up in the glass globe. Trying to figure out a spot for it. Apparently it likes filtered light, and you have to soak it in water every two weeks. Interesting. Hopefully I won’t kill it!

Oh hello. I like Lamb Ragu. In fact, I will volunteer to eat the lamb ragu for you, if you need!

Here’s the final result:

Mange!

One thing to note- this recipe makes WAAAY too much food for 2 eaters. E and I were both *starving* but neither one of us put a dent in it… resulting in tons of leftovers for the next couple of days. I would reduce it by half, even for three people (unless you want to eat for a week )

How amazing is this video??!

Thank you, Lauralea, for sharing it with me!

This guy is awesome. I love the bloody nipples shot!

In my own personal health, fitness and weightloss news, I started working with a trainer twice a week and also hired a nutritionist! Now I have my own “dream team” to work with, who are helping me reach my goals.

This is Ricky, my trainer. You can see him deadlift some cars here. How ridiculous. He does powerlifting, olympic lifting and strongman stuff. Mainly I’m strength training with him to get stronger at lifting patients at work and to help prevent work-related injury. I’m also running a few trail run 10ks coming up in the next few months. My amazing friend Andrea is getting dragged along with me on the 10ks; she and I plan to help each other stay accountable. My thoughts are that the strength-training/cardio cocktail is enough to blast off some fat!

Ricky is determined to get Earl and I into Strongman Competition Training, … we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know if carrying boulders and pulling firetrucks are really aligned with my goals. As for now, he has me doing lots and lots of squats, deadlifts, and bench press. Powerlifting type stuff. I’ll let you know if I ever deadlift a car As for now I’ve been deadlifting 100lbs with the Zercher Harness… but I’m just starting out! In addition to 2x weekly training sessions, there are group workouts we can go to which are free. We do crossfit type stuff at the groups. It’s WACKED. Last week we dragged 90lbs up and down Moss Alley in a sled. It was crazy fun! Everyone in the group cheers you on and helps hype you up so that you’re even more energized and able to get it done.

The gym I train at (other than the SOMA 24hr fitness, which is the main gym where E and I workout when I’m not training with Ricky) is right next to a sex club and a punk band recording studio, so both swingers and punk rockers were hanging around outside cheering for and catcalling us as we dragged the sled back and forth up the street. I’m sure *they* all thought *we* were the weirdos! One person would drag it one way, you would trot alongside your partner, cheering them on, then take the sled from them and drag it back. By the time it got up to 90lbs, I was dragging it so slow I was practically walking! Plus trying not to get run over by rumbling Fed Ex trucks (we were dragging the sled while running backwards, so you couldn’t really see if a car was coming!) and dying from pungent fumes of urine and rotting garbage in the alley. All in all a crazy San Franciscan experience.

Nutrition wise, I’ve been working with Dr. Clyde for the past month and we’ve come up with an entire detailed plan for me to follow. Dr. Clyde is amazing. He took into account my wacko work schedule- how do you eat on a 12 hour shift? a 24hr shift? 36? 48? etc and also my lifting and weightloss goals. I love that he’s a powerlifter himself, and clearly practices what he preaches. I highly recommend checking out his blog and youtube video archives if you have some time and want to delve into the fascinating world of science-based nutrition.

Am I setting out to save my own life? I sure damn think so. Every time these days I transport a bariatric, obese, diabetic, etc patient to the ER or dialysis I feel like I’m looking at examples of why the Western Diet and American way of life has put so many of us in danger. The extra weight is a huge medical, financial, and emotional burden! One that I, for one, can’t bear to stand any longer.

Best of luck to all who read this in their weight loss, fitness, and health goals. Perhaps I’ll post some videos or photos of myself dragging the weight sled, or deadlifting something silly in the near future
Ceej

Tomorrow Earl and I (and Linus!) are heading to the SF Corgi Owner Meetup!!

How dorky are we?? My partner at work today was telling me how he thinks the act of going to a dog-owner meetup crosses the line from dog “enthusiast” to strangely “obsessive” … heh. Not that I ever claimed to be anything but

Really looking forward to it. I actually moved my training with Ricky to earlier in the day specifically so we could go.

Can’t take any photos because my camera battery charger is missing (I think I lost it when we moved to our new apt, or shortly thereafter), however it sounds like lots of people in the yahoo group like to take photos, so there should be plenty to share.

Also- 30k views!!

Linus was featured on LolDogs as the dog of the day here, had a bunch of tweets and facebooks about it, and was also on Obsessive Corgi Disorder here.

For a while there during the Great UTI Scare of August 2010, the leetle one went on a hunger strike and refused all food. $400 worth of lab work and exam fees later, we figured out what it was and the vet gave her antibiotics.

It was *so* out of character for her to not eat, because her ravenous appetite is up there with The Greats. Fortunately for us, she’s back to bitching to get fed morning and night before every meal We are thrilled to have her back in form! She even tried to sleep on my head last night (and hogged my pillow) which is also back to true character.

Here she is celebrating with some particularly yummy (and incredibly stinky!) dried bonito flakes. Immediately after writing this blog post, I am going to take O’ Great Bonito Flake Breath and dump her on top of a sleeping in Earl.

This video of Linus getting scritches at our 4th of July BBQ has gotten almost 6k hits!

::Edit- now almost 9k!::

I wish there was some way in youtube that I could figure out where all the traffic was coming from (was it linked somewhere? put on Digg? reddit? etc…), but I don’t think there is. One time Earl posted a picture of Linus eating peanut butter on digg my traffic to this blog shot through the roof.

Oh well. Thanks to the youtubers for enjoying Linus being cute!

Poor Linus has his seasonal dermatitis, which means he gets a spray from the vet and has to wear the cone for a while.

To make him feel better, we picked him up a little football. It’s pretty funny when he’s playing with it with the cone on- he can’t *quite* reach down to get it off the floor, so he just ends up pushing it further away. We eventually take pity on him and throw it to him. Footballs, by the way, are way better with they’re plushy and have squeak toys inside.

Lucy has a UTI (we think) right now as well, AND our ceiling is leaking into the downstairs bedroom. So yucko stuff happening all around. Still, we had a great day at the farmer’s market, snoozing on the couch and now I am cooking a dinner of beef stir fry with bitter mellon and ricotta stuffed squash blossoms on the grill. I’ve been working Saturdays this month, so Sunday is my only weekend day. Goes by so fast!

Making a run for it:

This is Flea, our neighbor’s cat. She was hanging out in the sunbeam on the railing of our porch when I went out there this morning to water the plants.

She’s a little stand-offish, but sometimes friendly (I believe Earl warmed her up with some Kitty Greenies before). This morning after I saw her and grabbed my phone to catch a shot, Linus loped over to her spot beneath the railing, butt wagging, and attempted to dopily make friends. Flea rebuffed his advances, hissed, and made this speedy exit to a neighbor’s fire escape.

She’s a handsome girl, though… another time I will have to try for a better shot!

Today I worked at the Ranch Rodeo Roundup in Woodside as on-scene standby medical support. The event was hosted by the Woodside Mounted Patrol which is a horse-based Search and Rescue organization.

It was a great time. I spent a large chunk of the afternoon running a list through my head all of the potential injuries that could happen at a rodeo so that I could mentally prepare: Gored by a steer, bitten by a horse, trampled, rope burns, sun burns, falls… fortunately nothing too extreme happened!

Not only was it a fun day out in the sun, but I enjoyed the exposure to a completely new sport and had fun chatting new friends. Who ever knew there was such a strong Western-style contingent this close to San Francicso?! Here are a few pics I snapped with my cell phone. Doesn’t it look like they’re having a great time?
One of the first events- racing around poles and barrels:

One guy ropes the head, another ropes the feet, a third wrestles the cow to the ground and “brands” him with paint:

This is a little crooked because I actually JUMPED BACK from the fence as they pounded by me!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Not only am I crazy busy at work (been picking up a lot of hours on the rig and also my first lecture/presentation at the SFPA was two nights ago!), but E and I just got back from a beach week with my family on the Outer Banks of NC. We had a great time fishing, beaching, grilling, reunionizing, building sand castles, and in my case- becoming rather sunburned.