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Tonight’s class was the best class in a long time (in other sports, you’d call what we do practice, but we call it class.

Macy’s class is first, which is a bit of a cheat for Maggie, as she is a faster running, more of a distance dog.  She prefers it is I move more but by the time I get to her….

The other nice thing, is that both classes will have similar courses, but Maggie’s will be a bit more difficult.  That can also be confusing and it was for Maggie’s first run.

Macy has two real problems with agility — she is afraid of the teeter, and doesn’t like the chute.  She has gotten caught in it during a storm, and she’s small, so who would blame her, plus she’s a bit claustophic.  Thus, in descriminations, she always prefers the contact obstacles — plus they earm more cookies.

She has developed a little leap off the end of teeter that I’m trying to get rid of, even is it is a tad cute.  Never want to make a judge think and it can look like a flyoff — not a good thing — plus it could develop into a fly off.

She did some really good work tonight.  We’ve also got to do some backyard work on weaves and on stays.  Mom has just been very lazy this summer (or I’ve been working hard and traveling a lot and haven’t had time — you pick).

My biggest problem with Maggie is to convince I can run the whole course and she doesn’t have time to go sniff the grass, tree, or fence.  It’s coming though.

I’ve got the girls entered in 5 trials, 2 confirmed, and 3 entries out, and I’ll decided what to do after we compete in the first trial, we could go back to just Sundays, or withdraw from the trials and wait until January.

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8182371.stm:

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Domestic dog origins challenged

The authors say the process by which humans domesticated the dog is poorly understood.

Having been a beagle owner for over 20 years, I can tell you up front, they are looking at it backwards. I’ve been quite convinced that the ancestor of the beagle, saw us sitting at a fire, eating food, and thought: how do I get some of that?

When I married my husband, his beagle had completely trained him — if I give you a sock, you’ll give me something to eat.

In fact, the most effective means of training both dogs and cats involve a give and take situation — also know as clicker training. Both parties think they are training each other, so both parties are happy and get what they want.

I find that bolus rates are influenced most when I lose (or gain) weight.  I will start seeing that my blood sugar is lower than I want it to be after corrections and/or meals.

When that happens, I’ll do an adjustment in carb ratio. 

The first thing I do is record my blood sugars and use the rule of 1500 and 1800 to make sure that my boluses are at close to what is recommended.  You can do an internet search on “Rule of 1500” and “Rule of 1800” to find them.

I also adjust by meal, as I have found that I need high insulin to carb ratios in the morning, and lower in the evening.

Same thing goes for correction rates.

When I start seeing that my basal / bolus rates are off (I think it is recommended that they be 50%/50%, I’ll adjust the bolus rate, lowering it by 10% overall.

Then I start watching my bolus rates again.  Sometimes I need to adjust them up.

By the way, I didn’t come by all this magically, it’s in the Insulin Pumper’s Book

First problem — I am missing a sock.  So I walked over to Walmart and got a pair of diabetic socks over at Walmart, so now do I have to test the blood sugar on the sock too?

Went across the street to eat at a local BBQ, it isn't Dallas BBQ, but not bad.  I'm spoiled because I live very close to Marshall's BBQ in Farmers Branch and it's some of the best BBQ in Texas.

Then I came back and started packing.

I'm so funny when I'm traveling.  As soon as I get to the room, I spread everything out and get everything out of the suitcases, etc.  On the night before last day, I do the opposite, I put everything I don't need in my suitcase and start packing.  By the time I go to bed, everything is packed except what I need in the morning.

Then as I get ready in the morning, everything gets packed and moved close to the door.  I've found this method keeps me from losing things.

So I'm now at the workshop, checked out of my room and have my stuff in the corner.  And yes, I'm very anxious to go home.

Especially after the snide remark that was made by another participant in the workshop.  I was particpating, but have decided to quit for the rest of the day.

I’m almost sleeping like a normal person. Woke up at 4:30, rolled over and went back to sleep and then woke up again at 6:00 am.

Had breakfast in the hotel lobby — Fairfield Inn is coming in a second behind Embassy Suites for the two most important things I want at a hotel:  ability to sleep and breakfast.  I don’t mind a hotel that doesn’t have breakfast, I just don’t want a lousy breakfast if they do.  I have to have protein.   This morning was sausage, gravy and biscuits. Not my favorite choice but I eat mostly sausage and gravy.  Tomorrow is my favorite — scrambled eggs!

NWMS is hosting and they have us in a building they share with the local high school. It’s VERY nice.  They have a shuttle bus taken any one who wants back and forth — most of the workshop participants are from NWMS and drove here.  Tall bus but I’m surviving.

Food is fabulous — as good as Virginia University was.  Lunch was chicken, vegetables and rice.  I went with the NWMS staff to dinner at Olive Garden which is probably a big avoid if you have a lap band.

Got in 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill before dinner and doing well.  Miss home though.

People in Kansas City so far are nice (well, except for one).

The hotel people have been super friendly and helpful.

I’m here without a car (yeah, I couldn’t have rented one, but why? I’m here to work).

The hotel is in the same area as a Super Wal-Mart (the locals don’t seem to like it when I say the hotel is IN the Wal-Mart parking lot, but yeah, there is a Cracker Barrel and their lot in between.

So when I got here, I walked over to Wal-Mart and picked up 6 bottles of water, some cheese and some crackers (emergency carbs).

For dinner, I walked back over to Wal-Mart and went to the far side to find a few chain restaurants (Chili’s, KFC, Burger King) but nothing that turned me on, good thing, because it’s a 9 lane highway according to the hotel lobby.

So I walked across the Wal-Mart to the Appleby’s on the other side of the street.  People were really nice and motioned for me to go, even once when it wasn’t safe.  Lapband worked again on dinner.  I have to get used to ordering for the lapband, but I brought back some of dinner.

By the way, the hotel room has a microwave AND refrigator.

When I got in — about an hour after dinner I decided I needed a way to charge my phone (only necessity I forgot and I had several choices in how to do it) so I picked up a cable from Walmart.  Also grabbed some non-fat creamer since they have a coffee pot.  I can do no sugar but I have to have plenty of creamer, milk or something in my coffee.

I made it into the pool for my knee and then their hot tub.  I’ll have to admit, our pool when we had was bigger, and our hottub is nicer, but it isn’t bad.

I even brought my glasses this time!  I’m doing better at traveling and I’ve done lots of walking today.

Macy and I had a really good class last night.  In dog agility "class" = "practice".

First we have a fabulous instructor — Elizabeth Evans — and thank dog she had the foresight to put up a building.  No building would mean no class last night.

We were focusing on a two jump and turn sequence.  We often see them at the start line.  I may have to break down and get Clean Run Course Design (agility course program).  She had us do it 4 ways.  Sadly the two best ways for Macy involved a lead out something she doesn’t have.

Lead out == stay at the start line.  This darling cannot stay and I do work on it at home.  She can stay if I have her in a down and it on the sofa near her. Much more than that and it isn’t happening.

Wendell, our other instructor had a nice little course that involved a wicked little serpentine (basically a line of jumps that the dog jumps away then towards the handler at least three times). 

I’ve read both positive and negative posts about the Roche Diabetes Summit and I have come to the following conclusions:

• The reason they picked primarily Type 1 diabetics is they have an insulin pump to sell  (Accu-chek)
• My life and even my blog is too full for such trivia.

Though I am following Charlie Kimball example and talking more about my sport in this blog.

Flight is at 12:15 – left the house after 9:00. I like to leave early for the last minute panic of something I’ve left. So far, so good, everything I have to have for workshop is here with me.

By the way, husband isn’t traveling, dogs are still home and very loud beagles, still have security system, neighbor that works nights, and cops that go by the house every 10 minutes.

Made it through TSA but it was a bit of a screw up.  Didn’t have to be personally screened but had to go back with several bags and unpack them.  I wish they would quit changing rules <sigh> but no insulin breakage this time.

Right now I’m eating an early lunch — Friday’s petite sirloin and mashed potatos.  Seems a bit lapband friendly.

When I finish, I’ll check in with the gate as I am going to ask for mobility assistance.  Usually helps.

I’ve had my lap band now since May 21st, a good two months.  I’ve lost between 20 and 25 pounds depending on the scale I look at.

I am slowly and steadily losing weight — but it’s still a bit frustrating since we’re talking about a pound a week.  I’d rather lose more, and the initial weight loss makes it more frustrating.

Here’s how I am trying to wrap my head around this.

I went for about a year maintaining my weight within 5 pounds (and yes that was frustrating too, but at least I was maintaining.  Then last year, about August, I started gaining about 10 pounds a month.  That was not only frustrating but physically hard on my body. 

It was November when I finally realized I needed help and went to TLC Edge.  At that point I stopped gaining weight, and started maintaining again.  It was still physically hard on my body along with the psychological problems that went with that.

So then I lost between 20 and 25 pounds when I actually had the surgery.  At first it felt better, but now I am back to a lot of physical pain.  Going to the chiropractor is helping that, and I’m doing both Celebrix and Tylenol.

I am still learning how to eat, and I often ignore the stop eating signs.  Can’t ignore them for long, and I am stopping long before I used to.  So yes, the lap band is helping with portion sizes.  I am still having trouble picking the right food sometimes and the lap band isn’t going to help that.

I’m "working" this week, staff development for a possible camp on Monday, then traveling and going to a workshop in Missouri.  I’m going to see the fit tech at TLC Edge when I get back and decide what to do then.

It isn’t easy, but it is working.