My Dog is a Stalker

I have a very cute dog named Kobe.

This is Kobe (on the left) and his brother Ben (on the right).

They're both boxers and really great dogs. However, I notice lately that Kobe has become a stalker. Yes, a stalker. I saw some signs, where he would sit and stare at me but he was just sitting in the middle of the living room, out in the open, nothing odd about that. 

Then slowly I noticed that I'd be speaking to my mother or on the phone and he would be just around the corner of a doorway. I usually noticed this because I would trip over him. I noticed his doorway sneaking more because it became hiding just behind the corner or doorway and having one eye out to stare at me. As soon as he noticed me he'd either back up so I couldn't see him or run to me very puppy like. 

Now I notice that he does it a lot, behind doorways, the kitchen counter, the kitchen island, planter boxes beds, the sofa... The sofa is the weirdest one where you just see his eyes and the top of his head. Then when he sees you he slowly lowers his head. 

I'm not sure what he's looking at or why but I'm going to say it's some kind of silly dog game, and not a plan to take my life. 

Annette Funicello - I'm Gonna Have to ask People to Stop

This weeks mark the passing of Annette Funicello. She was a great entertainer and someone who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis. She was 70 when she passed and had been in a coma for years because of her MS before her passing. I feel sad for her family and wish them the best in this time of mourning. She will be missed by those who loved her movies, her days in the Mickey Mouse Club, and fans the world over. 

Now, here is what I need to say. People, please stop asking me about Funicello, I don't know any more then  you and while I appreciate that you want to talk to me for an hour about her, I don't. I would also ask that you don't start crying and saying you're sorry that this is going to be how I die. No one said that, you're being very dramatic, and you're creeping me out. I don't plan on going into a coma anytime soon and if it happens in the future I'd rather not spend the next 50 years thinking about it. 

To be honest I'm not even sure what type of MS Annette had and that makes a huge difference in what will happen to us as we age. MS is so different for everyone that it's impossible to say what will happen - just like life. Perhaps this death will bring the spotlight to MS - I don't believe it will - but if it does thank you Annette. Until then, we will keep waiting for a cure and living our lives, not obsessing on our death. 

Huston We Have Seedlings!

Well I planted some seeds into peat pots earlier this week. Here they are.

I ordered these seeds from Burpee online and I was a bit leery of doing so. If they didn't germinate what was I going to do? I didn't have to worry because today this is what I saw! 

These are Kale. They are also fuzzy. I had no idea Kale seedlings were fuzzy (laugh). OK  yes, I'm a dork don't judge! 

These are my regular radishes. It looks as if every seed I put in here germinated! I will be transferring them very soon into their own pots so they all have a good start. 

These guys are my Watermelon Radishes. They're heirloom seeds and I am very excited to see them growing! 

Overall and amazing start with these seeds! It only took four days to germinate these specific plants I am amazed and ecstatic. I want to see if tomorrow I have a surprise in the other pots (smile). 

MS Annoyances or ARGH MY ARM

My arm hurts and it's annoying me today. I know it's from a muscle spams and I'm doing some stretching exercises to work out the kinks. To be honest I do these stretches all the time. It helps keep my spasms at bay which keeps me out of pain. For those that didn't know, at the end of January I had a MS meltdown and my right arm was in so much pain I couldn't move it. It's better now but it still decides that it needs to remind me of the invisible knife it can stab into my rotator cuff.

This is a rotator cuff. My shoulder likes to stab my subscapularis (big word) as if it were a home invader. This pain radiates into my bicep and everything else in my upper arm/shoulder.



As you could probably guess this means my ability to do things like type, drive a car, and just to move is severely inhibited. My spasms seem to be pretty isolated to my shoulders and feet. To be honest, maybe I just notice them because my shoulders and feet are the places that hurt. Maybe I am just spasm ridden!

When my muscles bug my shoulders I just want someone to do this to me. It looks painful but honestly it's not. My Physical Therapist touched my shoulders once and goes "DO YOU FEEL THAT?" I said "Uh huh" it was a lump - I thought it was just my muscle well I was partially right. "That is a LUMP you're not supposed to have that!". My muscle was knotted up into a tight ball. Previously I muscle knots were just a term for a tight muscle but boy I was wrong!



So today I have made an appointment to see my massage therapist and I am going to keep on stretching. Such is the life of the MS person. At least I get massages out of it (smile). 

He's a Pepper She's a Pepper

I have grown lots of things in gardens as a child. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, an okra. A slew of other things thing that we don't need to list here. I however have never grown bell peppers. I didn't even know what or where the peppers were going to come from. Until I googled it that is (yay for google). I am proud to announce that my bell pepper plant has sprouted a flower! 

Making it's first appearance on my blog. This is flower the future of bell peppers! I am so excited I could shit a kitten. Which probably speaks to my mental health but ya know everyone has to be excited about something. 

My tomato plants are also doing famously well! This is a mass of flowers on my Roma...I think. I'm beginning to suspect that the seeds were mislabeled. We will see however as soon as the fruits start to grow (smile).

My third planter box will be built in the near future. I'm trying to find some reclaimed wood but I think I'm going to strike out. That means I will buy more lumber soon. I'm not in a rush for the new box because I need to get my seedlings to grow. I only intended to grow two beds but I've got the bug. So here are the next generation of plants happily germinating in my kitchen. 

The gardening has been fun and has an added benefit of being therapeutic for me. When I an out there working with my plants nothing enters my mind. It's working as an active meditation, reducing my stress levels. This helps my MS of course and it seems like some of my massive symptoms are slowly subsiding. At least it seems my leg is not as weak as it was. 

To end this blog - Kobe

Foot + Plate = Pain

I wanted to make myself a snack and I decided some sliced tomatoes with some salt would be perfect. Happily I get my last tomato thinking about how delicious it's going to be. So here I am innocently cutting my tomato when the plate tried to commit suicide (or I had the plate to close to the edge of the counter)  and jumped off the counter. It didn't smash on the floor, thank goodness, but edge of the plate fell perfect on the top of my foot. It hurt like crazy but what I was most upset about was the loss of my tomato (sad face). It was my last one and now I had no snack.

Well, my foot hurt a bit but it went away pretty fast. I figure eh it's fine. Well today when I was going to go for my morning jaunt with the puppies my foot was bothering me. I look and BAM huge bruise and painful to the touch. So, my mother is jaunting with the dogs and I have an ice bag on my foot.

All of this and I still didn't get to eat my tomato (pout).