Well, this is my very first post to blue dog talk. You may be wondering why I've called my blog blue dog talk. Good question, with a silly answer. We share our lives with Toby, a 4 year old blue merle australian shepherd. We've had lots of dogs, but none like Toby. He is the dog with a thousand expressions. You'd think he really does talk. And he does really smile- yes, smile, from ear to ear whenever we walk in the door. And his coloring is way cool- merled black, white, grey, with one blue eye and one brown eye. I think Rachel may be a bit jealous that I didn't name the blog after her, but "rachel" just doesn't have the same catchy ring as blue dog talk. So there you have it.

blue dog talk is about life. It's about friends, politics, smart energy, food, boating, quilting, living in the US, likes and dislikes, lists and lists of cool stuff related to whatever it is that I'm blogging about, advice on all sorts of stuff, and just plain fun.

I am struggling with changing to a raw foods lifestyle and I'll be blogging about my journey. I'll have lists of great places to find raw foods, vegan foods, local farmers markets, how to cook- or not cook- to be healthy and fit without draining the old pocketbook. I have plenty of help on this subject as our daughter, Rachel, is in love with a great guy named Mark. Mark and his brother Alex, are raw food guys. Actually, Alex IS the raw guru. You can check him out at http://www.rawguru.com/ And the boys also have a sprouts business at http://www.sproutliving.com/ The problem with going raw is that I really, really enjoy a hot cooked meal. A bit of a dilemma, wouldn't you say? But I've been on a few very cool sites that have yummy recipes, so I am going to start S-L-O-W-L-Y and work myself into it. Naturally Jay is going to have to be on board, since now that I am unemployed, for the first time in our 19 years of married life, I am the head chef. Also, I just got $20 of boneless chicken breast for FREE at the local produce market when they had a buy 1 get 1 free sale. So I think I'll wait till the chicken runs out before going raw...