The wonders of modern physical therapy or will she ever walk again?

Several weeks ago to aid in the healing of my injured knee I was thrust (by my beloved HMO) into the “capable hands” of TheraMatrix Physical Therapy facility. The place continues to boggle my mind to this day. In the six weeks I’ve been going there, I have seen six therapists! I kid you not. The place is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

First time I show up there, I meet my therapist. He does an evaluation on my knee and prescribes some exercises. I’m hopeful and eager to start my healing process. “Oh, by the way, I’m quitting here at the end of the week” – my therapist informs me in passing. Okay, I think, I haven’t formed any emotional attachments, so I guess, I’ll survive. The next time I’m in there I’m seeing someone else already. The woman bombards me with the same questions about my knee. I sigh and repeat the whole sordid story. Then she tells me to go ahead and do the exercises the other therapist recommended. I proceed to do just that until I see the look of disapproval on her face. The look says “Tsk, tsk, tsk.. You’re doing it all wrong!” “What?” I ask. She tells me that I’m supposed to hold my squats and leg lifts for 10 counts, not just go at it. I say “okay” and obediently start holding. The very next session, yet another therapist inquires with alarm in his voice “why are you holding the squats and the leg lifts?!! “Umm..” I stumble. “’Cause one of you fine folks told me to?” “No, no, no. Stop holding. Your knee is too weak for that!” - he urges. “Right-o”, I sigh and even more obediently stop holding. Couple sessions later I’m meeting third therapist in the lineup of caring knowledgeable people employed by this amazing facility dedicated to make us invalids all better in no time at all. Where was I? Oh yes. The third therapist is fresh off the boat and happily informs me that he came to Michigan (vs. any other state) because Michigan has the lowest standards for foreign PT specialists for passing their US exams to be able to practice. “Goody!” I think. “How lucky am I?” Then the new guy wants to know “where it is paining?” “Right here” I say, pointing to my head.

Two sessions later, lo and behold, it’s a fresh new face. This lady looks like she really wants to be there. I mean, REALLY. The dedication in her eyes is simply undying. Yea, right. At a crawling speed she does my ultrasound, for some reason favoring the outside of my knee, though I have an MCL sprain, which, for those not in the know, is the ligament on the inside of the knee. Then, in an exhausted voice she asks me how she should apply the E Stim (electrical stimulation) to my knee and whether she should use the cold pack or the hot pack on top of it. “Well…” I hesitate and then politely inquire “Don’t YOU know how it should be done?” Blank face follows and I swear I could hear the squeaking of the wheels in the brain.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. The knee is getting better despite the efforts of my diligent caretakers. I go in one night and see, yet again, that the new guy is eager to heal what ails me. He appears quite knowledgeable and declares that A) I’m doing well enough to stop going to PT and just continue with my exercises at home and B) I have to start wearing a different brace (a lighter one. I’ve changed 4 braces already) but wear it a night also! “Okay”, I say and cancel my upcoming sessions. I go home only to get a phone call from the PT office to tell me that they are concerned with my canceling my therapy and that I need to come back for an evaluation. Like a sad little donkey pulled by its reins, I haul my cute little butt back in. One of the therapists I saw before, though frankly they’re all a blur by now, looks quite concerned. “You are in no shape to be done with PT!” – She declares. “You still need our help! You don’t want to stop now and re-injure your knee. Do you? ” “No, no!” - I quickly surrender. “I don’t want that at all”. “Oh, and by the way, why are you still wearing a brace? You should be weaning yourself off by now!” I roll my eyes in utter exhaustion…

I got just a few more visits and then I won’t have to see those folks again (ever, hopefully). But, I can’t help but wonder whether I’d be pain free by now if it weren’t for their tender loving care. Hmmmm….

H

The 8th of March nostalgia

Ah... The 8th of March. The International Women's day...
I remember this holiday ever since I was a little girl. In Russia, it was a real holiday - day off and everything - and it was somewhat similar to American Valentine's day. The only difference was that it wasn't about sweethearts, it was ALL about us chicks! Husbands and boyfriends dutifully brought flowers to their chosen ones. Children gave their mothers clumsily made greeting cards they spent hours laboring over while holding their breaths and awkwardly wielding crayons or color pens. And mothers were appropriately ferklempt. Heck, the 8th of March served as a Russian (or should I say Soviet? Or maybe even Socialist?) Mother's day as well! It was one day a year when all women felt special even the little ones. When socialist women of the past early in the last century created the day for all women to stand for their rights, I'm sure they didn't mean for it to become just a Spring day to celebrate womanhood with no political agenda attached. I'd say Soviet Russia was kind of skimpy on holidays for its people and the majority of the holidays that we did have had some sort of connection to the Revolution, Communism, Labor or some other such nonsense. So, despite the political origins of the 8th of March, it evolved into a day of "thou shalt love your woman on this day and bring her flowers and other gifts or thou shalt be in huge poo-poo trouble!". At least, I think that was the official motto of the day.

I remember celebrating the holiday as early as elementary school era. The tradition was for the boys in class to give gifts to the girls for the 8th of March. Some time beforehand, the boys would decide on a modest but oh, so thoughtful gift, and collect the money. Considering the kind of gifts we received, I'd say the time "beforehand" ranged from, say, 48 to 24 hours prior to the date. The gift was the same for every girl. The male population in our class had always such serious dignified expressions on their little freckled faces when they were presenting us with those gifts. It was quite proper an affair, I'll have you know!
The one common thread in all those gifts I received (together with my classmates of female persuasion) was that they were completely and utterly useless! :) But it was fun anyway. The first such gift I recall was a tea cup and a saucer of unremarkable design and quality. We were in third grade then, and it was probably some parent's idea of a "lovely/girly" gift. Then, for a few years we were getting inflatable toys (memory is conjuring up a crocodile, a doll and a Cipollino - the main character from an insanely popular in Russia at the time Italian fairy tale by Gianni Rodari, where all characters were fruits and vegetables. Cipollino happens to mean "little onion" which is exactly what he was.) Now, the inflatable toys proved to be most fun as someone came up with an ingenious idea to sign those toys like one would sign a cast or a year book here in the US. I wish I'd saved at least one of those vinyl treasures. I'm sure it would have made a fine fine memento of golden childhood days.

Forward to 10th grade. By then I had transferred to a specialized high school that had a strengthened focus on physics and mechanics. Due to such a technical profile, the girl to boy ratio was in favor of boys, as we had about 20 guys and only 8 girls in our class (which really sucked when it came to giving boys their "very thoughtful and significant" gifts for the 23rd of February, the Soviet Army Day, but that's a whole other story). Such a ratio provided for a much larger budget (or at least we hoped it did), and our gift for that year was a hideously purple lipstick! The only redeeming quality the lipstick had was its berry-like smell and taste. To be grateful and polite, though, I honestly tried to wear that lipstick (at least for some time). I just hope nobody who saw me in that getup was scarred for life.

Ahh.., the 8th of March... Such lovely memories. It may not have been perfect or deeply meaningful, but it was a nice holiday to have growing up. It signified Spring and Love and tenderness and made people mellow out and concentrate on the warmth they had in their lives. Poor Clara Zetkin wouldn't have been proud!

H

Ahh... the coveted golden statue of ambiguous gender...

Before I delve into the nitty-gritty of Hollywood glamour night, let me update you on the MRI results for my knee. Good news - no surgery required! The original diagnosis of sprained MCL( medial collateral ligament) was confirmed by my surgeon. Bad news - still gonna take a lot of time to heal. The actual words of my orthopedic surgeon were "It takes months and months!". So, I'm definitely bummed about that...
Oh well, on with the show now...My DH is in Japan this week on a business trip, so I had the "pleasure" of watching this year's Oscars all by my lonesome self. I'm putting the "pleasure" in quotes mostly due to the fact that the show took waaaaay too long without giving any fun or edgy moments to enjoy (nobody stepping over seats or missing their award due to being in a bathroom or french kissing). So, frankly, it was a bit sleep inducing. I love Ellen DeGeneres' humor and thought she did an okay job hosting. But she was too mellow, I thought. I could have used a bit more laughter. At least, she wasn't a total flop like poor Jon Stewart last year. But, as far as hosts go, I definitely miss Billy Cristal. I think he did the best job of them all (at least the ones I've watched).
So, for those that were less loyal to the tube during Hollywood's golden broadcast, here are some highlights (IMHO, that is).

Scorsese - finally won for Best Director. I was totally rooting for the guy. He came sooo close, sooo many times and finally got his due. You should have seen me looking pleadingly at the screen before the announcement going "Come on, give it to him, please? Come on! How much space does Clint Eastwood even have on his mantel, really?". So, needless to say I was quite happy to see him win. He couldn't even believe it himself - "Can you check the envelope?" he inquired unsure of his fortune. Overall, Departed seemed to have dominated slightly, winning Best Picture, editing and adapted script. It really was a good movie even if violent to a fault. But hey, Scorsese wouldn't be Scorsese if things weren't somehow, somewhere gruesome.
I was a bit surprised to see Little Miss Sunshine nominated for Best Picture. We enjoyed that movie quite a lot, it was truly a breath of fresh air (even if I had to endure Steve Carell for over an hour - picture eyes, picture them rolling), but I would have never thought a small indie flick like that would rise to be nominated for an Oscar! Several Oscars, actually. Though, it didn't win Best Picture, it did snatch the golden dude for Best Original Screenplay, deservedly so. And I don't know about y'all, but I was very inspired to find out that Michael Arndt, the screenplay writer, has actually quit his job as an assistant to Matthew Broderick to write this movie! How cool is that?! I think it reminds us all again that we gotta take risks and lose something in order to even qualify for winning...
Whitaker got Best Actor award for playing a Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland. DH and I just saw that movie last week and, I for one, was awed by both main performances there. Whitaker was larger than life and his portrayal of the ruling paranoia was simply awesome. In fact, even Ugandans themselves say that in this role his resemblance to Amin was uncanny. Gave me chills, for sure. The kid (for he does look like he just graduated from high school) that plays Nicholas Garrigan, personal physician and advisor to Amin, did a marvelous job as well, in my opinion.
Another movie that piqued my interest was Pan's Labyrinth. We didn't see it yet and, frankly, when I first read the description of the plot, I was kind of skeptical. Fantasy and fascism just don't occupy the same plane in this universe for me (I had a similar problem with Life is Beautiful). However, Pan's Labyrinth won several awards for cinematography, art direction and makeup and while it was winning those awards they were showing clips from the movie. Now, I'm still ambivalent about the whole subject matter, but the clips were really cool in a surreal kinda way. So I think, I've become of open mind when it comes to watching this movie. And so it went on the list... Anyone see it yet? Thoughts?
So that's all for the actual significant (in my humble opinion) wins. On a goof side (and, yawn, there wasn't that much) there were a couple of things that were a bit weird.
First, what's up with Jack Nicholson showing up bold and in sunglasses? The dude has lost it, I'll tell ya! And second, there was an incredibly embarrassing moment when Clint Eastwood was presenting Ennio Morricone with Lifetime Achievement award, Ennio said "Thank You" and... and that were his only words in English. From then on he continued in absolute confused silence of the audience in Italian! Which wasn't that big of a surprise for someone, who's, say, Italian. BUT, there was NOBODY translating! So, for several minutes he just kept talking and then the cameras were cutting to the people in the audience looking quite lost. Finally, Clint Eastwood had blown me away by saying that he would translate and proceeded doing just that. Now, who knew the cowboy was fluent in Italian? Not me!
That pretty much wraps up my boring account of a boring ceremony, but hey don't shoot the Messenger!
H

It's Alive!!!...even if not exactly kicking

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, to quote immortal Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." It's true I've been MIA for over 4 months. There are several reasons for that, I guess. But the main one is that I simply didn't think that anyone was really all that interested in reading my musings. (none of you comment, like ever... [she said in whiny voice]). But, to my surprise, several of my friends brought up the fact that I stopped blogging. From which I (oh the brain power) deduced that people were, in fact, reading this stuff. Hey, it beats working, eh? Well, be careful what you're asked for, 'cause you just got it!

So, to reiterate, I am alive and still in possession of all my limbs and extremities. Though, some of those limbs, as you may already know, are not exactly 100% as of late. For the ones that don't know, let's just say that "Thou shalt not listen to your husband when he suggests you try downhill skiing for the very first time on a seemingly innocuous bunny hill while nasty, arrogant snowboarders are snowboarding ACROSS that hill when you are trying to go down and it being your first time don't even know how to stop in time to avoid collision with the aforementioned nasty and arrogant snowboarder resulting in two ligaments of your right knee being sprained or maybe even strained and God forbid possibly torn!" 'Nuff Said!

So here I am a month later, still nursing the knee that seemed to only temporarily have gotten better with PT. After prolonged and exhausting fights with lovely HMO, I finally managed to have an MRI done last week and am due at the orthopedic surgeon's office this coming Tuesday to get my results. I ended up seeing two orthopedic surgeons initially and neither one of them seems to think I actually tore anything (read, no surgery required). However, my knee is "paining" to quote my physical therapist who's fresh "off the boat". So, keeping fingers crossed...

Meanwhile, having a non-operational leg has really put a dent into my lifestyle. As many of you know, I'm quite a workout junkie and usually work out for about 11 hours a week, lifting weights, doing Yoga, taking step and hip-hop classes and teaching cardio kickboxing three times a week. Now, all I can do is abs and upper body weight lifting (and trust me, I don't even feel like it). The whole thing is really bumming me out :(, and I hope and pray the Fitzone gym at which I teach will hold onto my class. I found a sub for some of my classes, but am not sure how long she'll stick it out. Oh well, one day at a time. At least, I got a handicapped parking sticker, which alleviates my misery, somewhat...

But, enough with moping. In other life news, I have "sold my soul to the devil", so to speak and went back to work at a company I used to work for a couple of years ago. That was my job for two years before my last short-lived horror stint as a programmer of the worst ERP system known to man ever... But I digress. The reason I left there in a first place was threefold. First - my utter boredom with the actual work. Second - a sense of waste when a lot of work any of the programmers did there was being scraped into the "trash can" due to "not in a budget" and "we're not ready for this" excuses. And third - a pretty exasperating boss, who wasn't a "techie" (a big minus in a technical manager position) and was overall quite lazy and bureaucratic. I felt, I was in a big swamp working there. So, why am I back, you ask? Well, it's not that simple and I am still ambivalent about the whole thing. Since losing my job back in September, I've decided to change the kind of programming I do professionally. That meant, I needed new skills before I was to look for another job. I took a course in the new chosen field (.NET) at an IT training school and have been studying at home as well to prepare for a Microsoft Certification Exam on it. Now, I'm not the world's best student when it comes to studying on my own without some authority hanging deadlines for projects over my head. So, it was quite tough to stay focused. I learn best in a formal, scheduled environment, but, alas, that wasn't an option. So, the time was passing, the unemployment check had just a few months before it was going to disappear into nothingness, and the studying wasn't going along fast enough to have passed the exam AND acquire a new job in the field I have no experience in. Frankly, the whole thing was stressing me out quite a bit, when, lo and behold, I was tracked down for a year long (at least) position back at that old job. First, I refused, remembering the swamp-ish feeling. But restless recruiters have finally broken me down by offering quite an attractive hourly rate. Also, and that was quite a deciding factor, I was to work for a different boss. The new boss was actually a guy I used to work closely with back then and quite enjoyed professional relationship. He's much more of a techie and got a good head on his shoulders. And, frankly, he was doing all the work of a manager before he (deservedly) got promoted. After conferring with DH, we've decided to take the bait with the plan being to still study and pass the .NET cert exam during this year. Thus, the search for a new direction in my career has just temporarily been postponed. Right now, I'm planning on taking the exam some time during the summer and then, maybe, building a small application for home use, that I can present in lieu of experience when I'm interviewing for a new job a year from now. Now, the hardest part is to make myself study while working.
Wish me luck! 'Cause, God who knows perfectly well what a horrible procrastinator I am, I'll need it!

Well, this has been long enough of a post, and for that I am sorry. Hopefully, you didn't nod off somewhere between ligaments and ERP systems. I promise, I'll be like the wind next time!

Peace out,
H

Pass the Unagi, Dmitri-San...

In case you didn't know, we LOVE sushi! Though, I'm probably not a true fan, as I don't eat raw fish. DH does. But I do love all kinds of sushi rolls (with cooked seafood that is). We have a couple of favorite restaurants that we frequent, our favorite being a little hole in the wall called Sushi-Ko. Great restaurant! Wonderful food and reasonable prices. And the Sunday Morning roll (salmon and cream cheese rolled in seaweed and then fried in tempura batter - can we say YUM?) is to die for! So, seeing how we love sushi, we've always wanted to learn to make it. We've had this sushi making kit at home for, oh about 3 years now! And FINALLY we got around to it! Where there's a will, there's a way! We devoted an entire weekend to this noble project. First off, we went shopping. It's quite amusing to shop for sushi ingredients in Oriental groceries when you have no clue as to what kind of stuff you're looking at! While seaweed and rice are pretty self explanatory, the rest of little cans and packages and boxes and wrapped weird looking goodies were, shall we say, confusing. Just a tad... :). But no fear, my dear friends! After stopping by four Asian grocery stores we even managed to find one that was strictly Japanese and eventually collected all the needed ingredients from pickled ginger to barbecued eel and the ever elusive ginger salad dressing. The next day, we actually got to cooking. We managed to make several rolls, such as California, Dragon Eel, our version of Sunday Morning, Shrimp Tempura and Leftover roll (with whatever we had left over). The rolls looked downright pathetic! We didn't make enough rice (kind of hard to know how much you'll need if you've never done it before), so the rolls didn't hold their shape very well. The tempura attempts were kind of ugly and nowhere near the beauty and elegance of a good sushi place. But what was surprising is that the sushi actually tasted quite good! It wasn't pretty by any standards, mind you, but actually quite yummy! So, we ate our sad but tasty creations and then proudly patted ourselves on the back for being so outrageously adventurous and creative. Next time, though (if there'll be a next time), we'll do like big boys and actually buy a bamboo mat to do the rolling. Screw the kit! We ain't no amateurs!

Arigato Gozaimasu! (Which in Japanese means, "Thank You! Thank you very much! You have honored me with lending your ears to my humble little story. May the Sun of Joy always brighten your days and the Moon of Wisdom carry you through your troubles!" Or something like that...)

Please, don't take it off, Etta!... And other fun events of past weekend.

Hey Everyone,
We had quite a happening weekend, and I thought I'd share some of it with you. Saturday is our cooking for the week day, so the first half of the day we did the usual routine of breakfast/gym/lunch/cooking. Speaking of cooking BTW, the new recipe this week was Lamb with balsamic reduction and mushroom/asparagus risotto. I got a craving to make something gourmet and it came out quite yummy! DH certainly approved. But I digress... So Saturday evening we went to an Etta James concert. For those not in the know, Etta James is a Blues/Jazz singer who started her career back in the 50's. She's definitely been around for a while ;). She's got a marvelous voice and really knows how to do the Blues. I was first introduced to her talent about 9 years ago via a CD that was a tribute to Billie Holiday "Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday". Now, I do like Billie Holiday, but to me Etta sings those songs much much better. At least they speak to me more... Anyway, the last time we saw Etta it was during a jazz fest in New Orleans a couple of years ago. We really liked that show and were looking forward to the present day concert last Saturday. We came, we saw... It was, shall we say, interesting... The program was okay, not my favorite pieces (except for the requisite At Last). But what was odd was Etta's behavior. The woman lost a lot of weight in the last couple of years. She looks thinner than she ever did, even when she was in her twenties. This whole new slim look apparently has gone to her head. She spent the entire show making obscene gestures, lewd remarks (as part of singing) and worst of all, she engaged in some sort of striptease-like gyrations by sticking her butt out to the audience and looking back provocatively. The woman is 68 YEARS OLD!!! This ain't no Britney Spears (in her younger "I'm not that innocent" stage). The whole thing was creepy to say the least. Oh well, as they say in Russian "Cедина в бороду, бес в ребро", which would be translated as smth along the lines of "When you get older, you get crazier and wilder" (not sure if there's an equivalent in English. I guess they're more respectful of the old than us, brazen Russians). I believe I'll stick to listening to her CD's from now on, rather than patronize her live concerts.

The highlight of the evening (how gluttonous of us) turned out to be a stop for dessert after the concert at Sweet Georgia Brown restaurant in Detroit. It's a very nice upscale restaurant with a romantic and mellow ambiance, live slow jazz music and friendly service. Since, we were there
only for dessert we can't attest to the taste of their dinner menu, but the Mamma's chocolate cake we split was quite good. They also had served excellent coffee, so rich and thick and full of aroma... Made us finally realize, we need to get something instead of that cheap little coffee machine we have that waters down the coffee with even the best aroma. The restaurant was using a coffee press, so we're gonna look into those. We had such a lovely time there, that we're definitely going to be back for a special occasion dinner.

Now on to Sunday in our action packed weekend saga. Sunday was a beautiful day - about 65 degrees and mostly sunny. We decided that we need to take advantage of a nice day like that and headed out to Cranbrook. Cranbrook is an Art Academy that was founded in 1932 and is based in a gorgeous estate. You have charming cottage style-architecture, ornamental fountains, sculptures, lovely gardens, ponds etc etc. We spent a couple of hours just walking around enjoying this beautiful estate and budding Fall colors. After having had our share of pretty landscapes, we decided to pay homage to Michigan Fall Tradition and were on our way to Franklin cider mill. Cider mill was bustling with activity - fall goodies, such as all kind of apples, pumpkins, squash, jams, pies, honey etc, being sold in an open air market; families enjoying an around the block horse drawn hay rides, children (and yours truly ;) ) munching on cinnamon roasted almonds. And, of course, lines of people at the doors of the cider mill, waiting to get their share of apple cider and doughnuts. We're not huge fans of doughnuts, mind you. In fact, we never eat them... - with one exception. That's right. The cider mill season! There's something really Fall-in-Michigan like in visiting a cider mill in October, drinking apple cider and inhaling the greasy sugary doughnuts with it. Guilty pleasure, I'll tell ya.

So, that was our eventful weekend. Hope, you all had a great one too!
Later,
H

I love my puppy!

Since losing my job a couple of weeks ago, I naturally spend a lot of time at home. I'm in a sort of waiting state where I go between worrying for my career future and enjoying my, if forced, vacation. I do leave the house, of course, to go work out or have lunch with my girlfriends or run errands or teach my class (yes, I got the gig and now am teaching Turbo Kick twice a week and LOVING it!). But, I'm definitely hanging out at home A LOT! I'm working on getting the next job lined up and pecking at my backlog of things to do. I finally fixed our home desktop computer! It was so ill, I had to kill it brutally and unequivocally and then bring it back to this world "shiny and new" as Madonna would put it. My DH is quite happy about it (I don't even use the desktop, as I have my laptop). He was finally able to install some World War II Game that the aching comp was refusing to let in previously. Great, I say, bring on the shooting noises! Speaking of games, though, with all this free time I even got to play some of my Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets PS game that my in laws gave me at least two years ago! Yay for forced vacations! And yes, I know, I'm incredibly lame for playing video games on a lowly Play Station I. Last time I checked it was X-box's time, and I don't even know what new and pimping technological advance is the coveted dream of boys and girls nowadays.
I also spend time studying ASP.NET. The book I'm using is a tutorial that has the reader build a real website as they go along. I really like this sort of learning, and when I'm done with the book I am planning on programming a menu building application that would hold my recipes, generate grocery lists, etc.
By now, I'm sure everybody's going, "so what does all this have to do with the puppy?". Well, I did digress a little, I guess. What I was trying to tell you is that now that I'm home so much, I spend a lot of time with Hazel. And for the hundredth time I marvel at what a sweet, kind, soft, playful and totally adorable dog she is! Look for yourself! Isn't she gorgeous? During the day she's sleeping next to me while I'm studying or jumps up on my lap because she wants to cuddle. Yesterday, we played hide-and-seek. The game goes like this: I leave her with the door closed in one of the rooms and hide her toy somewhere in the house. Then I let her out and with the most urgency and wonder I can muster, I'm inquiring out loud "Where is the toy? Do you know? 'Cause I don't know. Where is it? WHERE IS IT?". And she launches out of the bedroom on her hunt. She's sniffing around and looking for the toy. Once she finds it, (which happens quite quickly), she knows she's supposed to get a treat, so without even picking it up (granted, I do go "Yay" to encourage her) she starts running towards me for her reward. Yet, I play the stern judge and tell her to go pick it up. And she DOES! And that, ladies and gentlemen, was never even taught to her! I tell you, she's the smartest dog around!
It's probably silly, but that wonderful fur ball has a miraculous ability to make everything better. Just petting her or kissing the top of her head calms me down and gives a brighter outlook. Having that wonderful dog in our lives has definitely been great. All of you, pet owners out there know what I'm talking about. And the ones who don't have a pet. Get one! You won't regret it!

Chat later,
H