1. A beautiful snowy morning walk, with the most amazing moon and sunrise. The day before it snowed it was so warm I wore sandals, but I was happy to see the snow.

2. Ringo in training class. He did so good. I was really tired, had been working straight through the day starting with teaching a yoga class at 7 am, and was tempted to skip training. But I already missed the week before, for the same reason, and if we skipped one more it would be essentially quitting the whole class since there are only four sessions total. We are already retaking it because Ringo got sick the last time and we had to miss the last two classes. I hadn’t been working with Ringo and I was afraid we’d do terrible, but he was amazing! At one point, I had him in a settle, the first step to a real down/stay, and he was just hanging out, watching the other dogs work while I walked further and further away from him, returning every once in a while to give him and treat, and he just stayed there! I couldn’t believe it. He loves working, loves the people there, gets so happy when I start packing his training stuff and he knows where we are going. On the way in, at the second set of doors, he sat and then threw back his head and howled a little he was so excited.

3. Tiny chocolate muffins, crunchy Gala apples and crunchy peanut butter, kale salad, clementines, the good chocolate, Marionberry jam, french toast with butter and maple syrup.

4. Cuddling with Sam. He gets into our bed a few hours before the alarm clock goes off and cuddles with me. I don’t hate it.

Om Ananda Yoga

5. Teaching yoga. I’ve been subbing for my Wednesday and Friday morning class while our teacher is on vacation. Someone new to the class today came up afterwards and told me she was coming back to my class, that she appreciated how my teaching was “undriven by ego.” It was such a nice compliment.

Bonus Joy: The first week of Feast, Neil Gaiman’s new book (I’m supposed to go wait in line later today to have him sign it, but rumors are there will be 500 other people doing the same, so this hsp introvert hasn’t yet decided for sure if she’s going through with it), rereading this post he wrote when he lost his dog and crying again (the real reason I want to have him sign my book is so I can tell him that this blog post was my favorite thing he’s ever written), a whole entire weekend without a single plan, Ninja poetry, writing dates where the conversation is so wonderful we never even get to the writing, a new harness for Ringo that he hates just as much as all the others but which fits him so much better and seems like it will be more comfortable, seeing my neighbors out early in the morning walking their dogs, blue sky, people who are excited about their work, people who shovel their sidewalks when it snows, neighbors you like so much you are sad when they move, new music on its way from The Weepies and even better than that Deb Talan is officially in remission and cancer-free.

1. Friday. It was the first week of classes at CSU, the first week of a training class I’m taking with Ringo. I took on a seven day blog challenge, started a new Daily Dharma program, am gearing up to teach a bunch of yoga classes, and am taking part in an online writing class. I worked my ass off. I have a lot of work to finish today, but after teaching a yoga class Saturday morning, I’m not doing anything the rest of the weekend and I can’t wait. Sweet Sam is warming up the couch for me right now.

2. Peach jam, which I’ve been hoarding like my very own jar of sticky sweet sunshine and finally opened and oh my everything that is holy it is so delicious, the dear friend who gave it to me, and Lucille’s biscuit mix, (I make awesome biscuits, but sometimes you just want to eat them, not do all the prep work).

Doggie eye chart

3. Sam’s Pannus isn’t as bad as it could be. It can eventually make some dogs go blind, but the eye specialist who saw Sam earlier this week said his case probably only runs a 1% risk of that happening as long as we keep treating it. Now we just have to figure out his food allergy.

This still happens rarely enough it’s worth taking a picture when it does

4. Ringo keeps growing up. He still has a case of the puppy crazies, and can be so frustrating sometimes, but he’s getting so much easier. He’s so smart — if he had an owner who wasn’t so busy/lazy, he’d be a superstar.

5. Hiking season.  I rarely go with them, but this is the time of the year when Eric does a lot of hiking with the dogs. Ringo is old enough to go with now, and I am either at work or get a few glorious hours at home alone.

Bonus joy: How much Eric and I laugh watching old episodes of Friends, new music to listen to while I work, my friend Amy’s sweet dog Burg probably doesn’t have cancer after all, finding where I bought those Hello Kitty socks for my niece so I can get her the right size, meeting with my new interns and them being just as awesome as the rest, all the TV that’s going to keep me company while I rest on the couch this weekend — new episodes of Downton Abbey, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Parks & Rec, Parenthood.