Like a lot of people, I take vitamins close to every day. I don't quite manage every day, because I prefer to take them in the morning and either forget, or don't get up until after noon (especially during holidays!).

Here's a trick I've recently discovered to swallowing pills easily (even those gi-normous horse pills called organic vegan multivitamins):

Look down when swallowing the pill.

Everyone always looks up to swallow a pill (presumably to send the pill to the back of the throat where it's less likely to be coughed up and more likely to be gagged up). Try looking down. Or, drink water from a cupped hand under the faucet (but make sure you have to look down to drink).

Vitamin swallowing has never been easier since I discovered this trick.

We worked with Pat today, as G had to dash to get home before 17 closed (blame it on the rain!).

I started late, Kris had already started. We did seriously abbreviated ladders: 6 half ladders (only 9 squares instead of 19). I didn't feel completely warmed up, which is a bummer, because I really like ladders.

The first exercise was the L drill: run straight for 10 yards, turn to the side and sprint to the cone 8 yards away, turn around, run back to the corner cone, turn and sprint back to the starting point. 2 to the right, 2 to the left.

The shuffle T-drill figure 8 was next. Sprint forward 10 yards, around the top of the cone, shuffle to the right behind the cone 4 yards away, shuffle around the bottom of this side cone, then back to the top of the center cone. Continue shuffling to the bottom of the left cone, shuffle around this side cone, then back to the center cone. Shuffle around the top of the center cone, and run backwards to the starting cone. That's 1. 4 to the right first, 4 to the left first, for a total of 8.

Horse-shoes and one-footed side-to-sides came next. This was a bit of a mini-circuit. The first half was hop between two cones 2 feet apart on one foot for 15 seconds, then switch feet and hop between the two cones on the other foot for 15 seconds. Immediately switch to the other half of the circuit, for another 30 seconds. Do 8 of these sets.

The second half of the circuit was the horse-shoe jumps, which had four cones spaced 2 feet apart, each at the corner of a square. Starting at the top left cone, two-foot hop backwards to the bottom left cone. Then hop to the right bottom cone, then the top right cone. Reverse back to the bottom right cone, bottom left cone, top left cone. Continue for 30 seconds (while the other person is doing the one-legged hops between cones at the other half of the mini-circuit).

The killer part of the workout was next. We did 30 seconds of ankle jumps (legs locked, use your arms to jump up quickly, height doesn't matter, just quickness), 30 seconds of high-knee hops (feet together, jump bringing knees as high as possible, height does matter, not speed), and 30 seconds of squat jumps. We did 8 sets of these. I was unable to do the squat jumps at all. Kris cramped at set 7 or so, but finished.

Last was a shuffle shuttle. Start at the middle, shuffle 5 yards to the left, shuffle back 10 yards to the right, shuffle back 5 yards to the left. I kept up with Kris for the most part. We did only four of these.

Last was abs. We did a 4 mini-sets of 15 seconds each of raised leg toe touches, bicycles, lawn chairs (lie down on your back, arms over your head, raise your legs and arms up at the same time, so that you look like you're sitting in a Kraft-matic adjustable bed), sprinters (bicycles, but hold the twist for 1 second before switching), 6" leg holds, 12" leg holds.

I continued afterward with an upperbody weight workout: chest press, lat pull-dows, seated row (my favorite!), assisted pullups, assisted dips, pulley bicep curls.

Oh, I am laughing so hard right now. After looking through a soccer supply catalog, I came across the Hummel Squadra cleats in lots of colors. Look at them! They come in pink. PINK! Can you imagine seeing me flying down the ultimate field on the pull with pink cleats? Me, neither, but that's not the point. Pink! How about with a monster layout? Me and my pink cleats!

I'm so excited! I might have to buy a pair just for the entertainment value. My options are light blue, white, pink, lavender (lavender!), red, yellow, green, blue and black. My sides ache from laughing. Pink cleats!

I want.

When we feed the dogs, we give them their food, then a treat. Bella Greenies as her treat; Annie gets a knotted rawhide. Greenies are toothbrush-shaped, green chew treats that clean dogs' teeth and freshen their breath. From empirical evidence, they taste really, really good: Bella will howl until she gets her Greenie after dinner, which is our routine: dog food, then treat. She demands her Greenies. Now, now, now! if she doesn't get one immediately after she's finished her do-I-really-have-to-eat-it dog food.

It's so bad, we call Greenies by their real name: Doggie Crack®.

This Christmas, we're dog sitting Rossi. For those counting, that's one (Bella), two (Annie), three (Rossi) dogs. Their code names are The Little One (Bella at 29 pounds), The Big One (Rossi at ~90 pounds -/+) and The Bad One (of course, that's Annie, at 35 pounds).

The Bad One doesn't get Greenies, as she doesn't actually chew them. Instead, she bites them into three pieces and swallows the chunks without chewing. Kinda defeats the teeth-cleaning purpose of them. The chunks can be seen the next day out in the backyard in Annie's poop. Bella will later eat these tasty chunks of Doggie Crack®.

Before we started dog sitting, we were told that Rossi gets two cups of food a day. Normally it would just sit in a dish, but our dogs would eat it, so instead she gets one cup twice a day like our dogs do. Rossi has learned to eat it when she gets it, or go hungry until the next eating time. She also gets a treat when everyone leaves, because she has separation anxiety.

Well, as Ros is a bit overweight, we're giving her less food than the two cups. We did, however, start her on the after-dinner treat routine by giving her a doggie biscuit after dinner. We haven't been giving her adios-dog-we're-leaving-you-alone treats, because she hasn't seemed to need them.

After a few days of doggie biscuits, Rossi started getting rawhides. She didn't get a new one every day, as she never quite finished them. After a few more days of this, I thought I'd give Rossi a choice: a dog biscuit like she's been getting, a rawhide like The Bad One gets, or Doggie Crack® like The Little One gets.

When presented with the three options, Rossi sniffed each one in turn. Hmmmmm, I've had this biscuit before, it's dry. Hmmmm, yes, this rawhide takes me FOR-EV-VER to eat. Hmmmm, what's this? It's different. Now, what are these smells again? She sniffed each one in turn, then sniffed again. Then sniffed again. Finally, she put her mouth around the Greenie, er, Doggie Crack®, and waited. She didn't pull (Liza training, I think - you can't pull food out of a 2 year old's hand without some repercussion, so bite gently and wait). Instead, she just waited for me to say okay. Little did she know I was starting her on a path of no return: she loved her first one.

Now, when we try to feed her dinner in the evening, she doesn't want to eat. She wants her Doggie Crack®. She sniffs her food ("Bah. Dog Food."), then hurries over to me ("Where's my Crack? Where's my Crack?"). I have to tell her several times, and point, and command, "Eat! Food before Greenies!".

I think she's starting to understand the routine. Food first. Then Doggie Crack®. Food. Crack. Food. Crack. That's the way it works at Krikitt Downs.