Who are Louis and Maggie?

Since this is my first posting, I thought it would be appropriate to explain the name. My first choice was "cold nose", but that was taken. But the names of my dogs worked. So here we are. Louis is a black standard longhaired dachshund. His name is actually German, because the German Clovis, father of Charlemagne, was the first king of France. Clovis was morphed into Louis, pronounced Loowee in French. Simple. 

Maggie is a beagle mix who has a very short tail, but a beagle body with brown and white markings, a chocolate nose, and golden eyes. She is named after my great great grandmother, also German, Magdelena. 

I am a serious, or maybe a silly, dog lover. This blog will be about me, my family, and my dogs.... and what I do: my paintings.

This summer has been a pretty good one in at least one sense: I have lost 25 pounds. Been wanting to do it for a very long time. After trying with South Beach and working out, and being totally unsuccessful, I did it with a commercial program, Medifast. It has been everything they promised. Now I have to keep the weight off. I can continue to go weekly for advice and support as long as I need to. To keep the weight off, I have begun taking yoga and pilates 3 to 5 times a week. I am also trying to build up to regular weight training to tone my abs and arms. 

Having gotten this far, I have to remain committed to being disciplined about the eating and exercise. So far, the rush from being a size 2 and seeing my profile in the mirror are motivating. But now I have to figure out how to move on with my life and continue to make the commitment of effort on a long term basis, while doing other things I have been neglecting a bit, such as, oh, cooking, cleaning, taking care of my family, and my painting. Ummm. Chicken is defrosted. Back later.