Let's Catch Up!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and I find I have less time to browse through my favorite blogs lately.  Since it is something I enjoy doing so much, I am going to make time for it because I need to catch up with what's been going on with all my blog friends!

I feel like I'm wearing a lot of different hats these days.

One of my favorite books when I was little!

I get up early most days, grab a cup of coffee, fire up my computer, get my lesson plans ready and do two classes with my Japanese students.  For me it is 6am, for them it is 10pm at night.  I say "good evening" to them, and I'm not mixed up because it's still dark outside here.

I'm loving teaching these classes!  Because these students are adults and motivated, the classes are fun and interesting for me as well as for them.  I learn something new everyday too.  For instance, I didn't know that they drive on the left side of the road in Japan!

Yep.  They do!

After my classes I will somedays have to rush off to take care of a morning client, such as this guy, a sweet terrier mix.

"I didn't like TBL at first, but she won me over with all those treats and her squeaky voice"

His "parents" were gone on vacation for a week so I would visit him twice a day.  The first day I showed up he was standing on top of their bed, teeth bared, barking and growling at me.  I knew he was supposed to be wary of strangers, but I did not expect that.  Fortunately the owners had left some of his favorite treats and I was able to coax him outside.  I worked with him all week, each day getting closer to my goal of being able to scratch his tummy.  Did I reach that goal?

  Yes!  

By day seven, we were on good terms.  He would come down stairs, go outside, let me pet him, take the treat from my hand, lay down, roll over and let me scratch his belly.

I felt really good about that!

Most weekdays I have two puppies I visit for mid-day breaks while their owners are at work.

You've already seen my stress therapist, the golden-doodle.  He a little bundle of fluffy energy, but I did manage to catch him in a pensive moment this week.

"I wanna play with the big kids, TBL!"

My other puppy is a female Rhodesian Ridgeback, who is just a sweetheart.  I have an hour visit with her while her dad works, so we go for walks and learn things such as "sit", "come", "leave it".

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful - I'm also a funny goofball!"

She lives in a very nice neighborhood not too far from us and when I first arrived I saw house-filled hills behind her house. 

 I knew I'd have to go up there and take a look one day and this week I did. 

 Lots of winding roads and no pullovers, so I will have to rely on Mr. T to drive me up there so I can take some pictures of the lovely homes and the views.

This week also brought some Hollywood glamour to my day as I found out they were filming a home-improvement show across the street from the Rhodesian Ridgeback.  I leashed her up thinking the crew would be charmed enough to tell me which show.

They were charmed, but not enough to give me any juicy details.  This trailer is still parked there so we will be investigating further during walks next week.

After my mid-day dog duties I usually come home and teach one or two more classes to my Japanese people.  By then it is early morning for them, so they are the ones sipping coffee and trying to wake up.  This week they had an earthquake in Japan with Tsunami warnings.  I always try to have something to chat with the students with at the beginning of the class and I was excited to find out about this earthquake.  None of them even knew about it!!  I told them it was on the evening national news here in the US. "We get them all the time" I was told. They seemed amused that it had made it to our news here.

Look who's visiting!  Dexter!  And there's blurry Bumby trying to look blase in the background.

If I have canines, such as the terrier I mentioned above whose people are on vacation, I start to get ready to go back for my evening visit and tuck them in for the night, usually around 7-8pm.

Of course, with Dexter comes Darcy with her own brand of blase.

And that's been my typical day for the last couple of weeks!  If it is spaced out nicely, it is no problem, but one day I had five dogs to tend to and four classes - that kept me running!

So, I'm enjoying this new phase of life.  It's a big change for me, but a good change that I am finally adapting to.

The Maven is in Orlando visiting her college friends and look who she also saw while she was there:

Reunited again.  Orlando Grandma and The Maven.  

It's good to see that picture of them together.

(I hope one of you ate tuna in my memory!)

And my final thought is about this:

Brussel Sprouts on the stalk.  They are very popular here in Cali. I didn't like them as a kid, but I'm thinking there must be a new, delicious way to cook them that I am just not aware of.  Anyone have any good Brussel Sprout recipes??

Share away please!

Hope your weekend is great!