Eye Has Healed and Halloween Dog Costumes

First 48 hours was crucial for healing. Now it's just a matter of time (as Visine would advertise) to get the red out!

As you can see, my dogs were thrilled when I showed them their new Halloween costumes.

Here's Porch Boy, the Lil Taco from all sides.

He really did hate wearing the hat!

Tater was a convincing stegosaur, but she kept tripping on the legs which were just too long for her short little weenie dog legs.

And the whole T-Rex outfit was too small for Trip. He reminds me of that weird character that Kristin Wiig played on SNL with the tiny little hands.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! My Eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11:15 pm Wednesday night. In bed with the dogs, when one of the little wild rabbits that inhabit our neighborhood hopped into our front lawn. The dogs, of course, went berserk with excitement. One of them (not sure which one since I was awakened by the barking) ran across my face in his/her efforts at a better look at Peter Cottontail. An errant paw scratched my eye!

Needless to say, it totally freaked me out. Gina rushed me to the ER and I was there until 2AM. Will be going to Berkeley Eye Center this morning for follow up. Have to use antibiotic drops every 2 hours and ER doc gave me Vicodin for the pain. Here's another shot of the eye with me pulling down on my cheek and opening wide. OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Videos from 2012 Root Reunion

Sorry this one is crooked. I didn't realize my new camera wouldn't compensate for me holding it vertically.

Isn't it just too cute the way Kaden says the town we were in?

This next one is two cutie-patootie and rather patriotically clad ghosts!

Finally, here's the birthday girl with her 'booty'!

TATER WINS!

I entered Tater in the Dachshund Rescue of Houston Weiner Dog races, and she won 3 races to make it into the final championship race! Here's what the starting booth looked like.

They had bandanas for all the racers and you matched the color to the slot for your dog. This was very much a do-it-yourself deal. Not like Buda at all!

The rules I received prior to the race said one owner was to be at the starting gate and one was to stand at the finish line. Since Gina went hiking instead of with us, I was very grateful to Kelly for coming to be the starting gate owner. Kelly is the woman who runs the rescue group who gave us Tater, so she was her owner! Here they are - and you can see that Tater was in the first racing lane with her orange color bandana.

Kelly had a flat tire on the way to the races and another on the way home! But she made it on time to be the chute owner on the first race. I asked the guy who was at one of the vendor booths to take the videos. The very first race found Tater a bit too eager to start!

I got the guy to come down toward the finish line for the re-start of the race. And as you can see, TATER WON!

Tater dominated the next 2 races as well. Nothing could stop my little girl! But by the time we got to these races, it was getting loosey-goosey with the rules. You can see the people were running along with the dogs (and messing up our video!) Kelly took these videos as she was no longer required to stand at the starting gate.

But when she made it to the championship race, someone distracted her in the starting chute. Right before they raised the doors, she turned completely around and was looking behind her. She never had a chance.

Still, it was a lot of fun. And we did get into the championship photo, even if we didn't get one of the nice gift baskets like the other 3 did. My little Tater was also the cutest one of all!

When we got back home I let her kill the little stuffed toy I'd used to entice her in the race. Once she finished it off, she was wiped out from her busy, busy, busy day!

Cat Pictures

I just received my new Kodak digital camera and plan to figure it out this holiday weekend. Thought I would go ahead and post photos that I had from my old camera that I just never got around to posting. Enjoy!

Zip and Code cuddling in the Mega Spiral

Poor Stamp had to cuddle with the post on the nearby cat tree

 Zip really knows how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h on that cat tree, huh?

Here's an oldie but goodie - Gina and Timitu

And this was one of many Xmas shots that our friend Debbie Chapman took last year.

Tater - Not the Big Winner I'd Hoped

Well, at least we tried. You'll see in the video how the official kept pushing me back and blocking Tater's view of me. By the time the race started she had no idea where I was. Still she came in 4th place.

See the Tree - How Big It's Grown

First time I heard this song was when I was a kid. Terry Jackson and I were listening to the radio in her stepmom's car and laughing because it was such a sappy sentimental verse. Then when it got to the point where we realized she'd died, we both started crying. Ah... to be young and so sensitive :-)

Here's how the tree looked one month after we moved into our house - September 2005.

And here's how it looked this morning. Quite a difference huh?

BTW - haven't given up on reporting my weight. Gained again and am at 215.2 now. But I did join a team for a Healthy Living Challenge at work. Gina joined as well. We're both exercising daily and watching what we eat. The Challenge lasts for 50 days and there's all kinds of online materials that keep you focused on the goal. Hopefully it will turn my gains to losses!

213.0! Now We're Talking!

I have registered Tater to compete in the Buda, TX Wiener Dog races next month. I think she can win! Mom and I went to this event back in 2009 and had a blast.

I'll start a new work schedule this week. Mon-Thurs 9 hours a day and Friday 8 hours for the 1st week of the pay period. Then Mon-Thurs 9 hours and Friday off in the 2nd week of the pay period. This will allow me to go to Mom's every other Friday and have the rest of the weekend at home. I love my new job!!!!!!

213.6 and My How the Kittens Have Grown!

Bet you thought I was going to abandon my resolve to record my weight already, huh? Well, I just haven't had time to get around to posting it. Gained a bit, but I'm happy with the first week results. Publication online did help me keep the binging to a minimum, and to exercise when I was tired.

Just 3 weeks old when we got Zip and Code. There was plenty of room for both of them and their stuffed toy in the bed.

Didn't take long for them to outgrow that bed!

Remember the family portrait of my triplets?

And now all three can barely fit on the tree!

Serious About Losing Weight

For the past 15 years I have made the same New Year's resolution - Get under 200 pounds by the end of the year. And while I have gone from hovering in the 230-250 range in the first 5 years to stagnating in the 215-225 range for the last 10, I have yet to accomplish my goal.

Well, now I'm 55 years old and have several obesity-related illnesses and quite frankly, I'm tired of being fat. I thought that perhaps if I had to record my weight loss/gain here on my blog, instead of just posting it on my fridge, it might give me the incentive to exercise when I'm just too tired or pass up the fried foods.

So, this morning I weighed in at 213.2 pounds. I will report weekly what I weigh, knowing the entire world can google "jeraine root" and these posts will probably be at the top of the list. Hmmm... I suddenly felt quite a bit of fear. Being identified by a search engine as the fat chick that is trying to lose weight instead of the Ph.D. that has published articles and many career accomplishments is quite humbling.

But as God is my witness I shall go hungry again!

Mom is a WINNER!

Sorry it's taken so long for me to post this photo of Mom. It's been an incredibly busy week for me. Here she is right after winning $480 in the 2012 Birthday Bash at Coushatta!

I'm 55!

I finally made it to the big double nickle. Gina asked what I wanted to do to celebrate my birthday this year and I said I wanted a trip to the casinos. Mom joined us as did our friend Annie. The week before Annie had brought me a cake and took me out to eat & to a movie!

First stop was L'Auberge where Mom & I had a free room offer. Gina & I were on the 16th floor with a beautiful view of Lake Charles and Annie shared Mom's room up on the 17th floor. Had a nice buffet lunch on Saturday, and a birthday breakfast on Sunday. Then Gina & Annie went back home while Mom & I went on to Coushatta.

Everyone who had a birthday in January was eligible to be in a 'cash frenzy' contest from 2-4PM. They called a lucky person's name every 30 minutes to come stand in this glass box and they had $5000 in cash blowing around inside. As much as you could catch and put into a box in just 60 seconds you got to keep.

I was playing roulette when I heard Mom's name called. I literally threw my chips at the croupier and screamed "I need to cash in and find my mom!" I then called her on the phone and it was hilarious trying to find her since she had no idea where she was in the casino. "I'm standing next to a slot machine" was not much help since they have 100,000 slots there! But we finally found one another and I grabbed her arm and ran with her all the way to the glass box. The contestant only had 10 minutes to show up before they'd call out another lucky winner's name. We got there just as they were making the 'last call for Mildred Root' announcement.

Mom did great and grabbed $480! Everyone was cheering her on "Go Granny!" and the emcee said she hoped she was as spry as Mom when she was 86 years old! It was soooo much fun! They should have a photo of Mom up on the Coushatta website soon. I sure wish Gina had been with us with her iPhone to get a video of Mom in that glass box.

Mom & I soon left with her riches to our final destination, Delta Downs casino where we each had a free room offer as well. Mom came home with nearly twice as much as she had taken to gamble with and I came home with not a penny -- but I had a great time.

In addition to all this fun, I got a funny Mr. Rogers birthday card from Denise along with a gift card to amazon. Still haven't figured out what I'll get with that... and an e-mail announcement from Lori that I have some delicious Harry & David pears on the way. If you've never had some of these, you MUST try them. Gina got me a Buzz Lightyear nightlight that complements my bathroom decor wonderfully AND gives me just enough light for those wee hour of the morning trips to the toilet :-)

I also got a wonderful t-shirt from Shari that has a game from The Big Bang Theory on it. Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. If you don't get it, click here. HILARIOUS! And Mom got me the sweetest birthday card ever and in it was $15 and instructions to get scratchoffs. I did as instructed, but none of them paid off :-(

Today when I returned to work, I was surprised by my coworkers having decorated my door.


Here's a close-up of that Enterprise wishing me a Happy Birthday!



My coworkers, along with the pretty balloons and flowers that decorated the cake table.



And a HUMONGOUS cake and punch that was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately I didn't start taking photos until the whole building had been alerted about free cake in our office...


Such a nice way to be celebrated :-)

Bad Kitty!