Marching On ... remaining questions answered

The kiddos are home so I have handed off the grandboys and now have a glass of recovery medicine in hand and I'm ready to tackle the rest of your questions ...

As you may have noticed, I didn't quite understand the March Q&A protocol and answered some of the first questions that came my way in the comments of my Marching On post. Now I know the Q&A answers should be done as a post (or maybe more than one post - sorry ... this one is pretty long) ...

PK asked ... What is a wish you have for yourself that could really come true?

We both wish for .... a vacation ... a real vacation, just the two of us. Given we are retired, that sounds like it should be an easy wish but unfortunately, it's not. The last vacation we had was in 2011. We've had a couple annual 2-3 day getaways in intervening years. I also had a week away to NYC with a girlfriend three years ago, to celebrate my 60th birthday. Other than the getaways, Frank hasn't had any vacation time at all. Why, you ask? .... we made a pivotal decision 5 yrs ago, at the time not realizing the ramifications of said decision. Our faithful old dog died in 2011 at age 14. Later in 2012, Frank began making noise about getting a puppy ... I told him "no, no, no puppies allowed!" I suggested we instead adopt a senior rescue dog. He finally agreed. In early 2013, someone sent us info on a 7 yr old brother/sister pair of lab crosses who needed a home ... same breed as our old dog ... and we couldn't resist. Well ... the girl dog is a well behaved sweetheart who had some minor but now corrected issues. The boy dog is probably the reason they were in care and up for adoption. We love him dearly but we affectionately (and sometimes not so affectionately) call him our special needs child. He has a significant anxiety disorder that manifests itself in several ways. We have worked with a behavioural trainer and our vet over the years, to get it under control. He is better now but it is impossible to leave him with anyone but family and he has to be left at our house. And Frank occasionally reminds me ... "all I wanted was a puppy" :>(

Adding to this, Farmer Frank decided two years ago, since we couldn't go anywhere with the dog situation, we'd replenish our by then much diminished chicken flock .... sigh! ... so we sort of have a farm ... 2 dogs, 4 cats, a couple dozen chickens (including 3 chicks born 3 weeks ago), a rooster and a turkey ... and while I was writing this, he had the audacity to tell me there were ducklings available on our local swap n' shop page ... I may pay for it later but I gave him the raised eyebrow 'stink eye' and he promptly dropped the subject :)) 

Arranging for longer term care of said menagerie plus a distressed dog, is nearly impossible. Our kiddos help us so we can do the couple getaways a year but they work and can't do anything much longer than 2-3 days. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The old boy was diagnosed with cancer last month. When we discussed treatment with the vet, I told her we'd decided we were going with the  'spoil him until the end' treatment plan. As I said to her, it's not as if he's the happiest dog in the world. We don't know how much longer he will be with us but maybe next year, our vacation wish will come true! 

Baker asked  three questions:

The first .... what appeals most to you in this lifestyle? 

The dominance and submission aspect is what I find most appealing (I also asked Frank this question and without knowing my answer, he said the same thing). I talk about this in more detail in an earlier Spanko or not a Spanko post. We played, in the bedroom only, with the D/s dynamic for several years. For us it wasn't possible to take it out of the bedroom ... it was not a headspace I could relate to in everyday life. When I accidentally came across DD in a erotic novel a couple of months ago it immediately resonated with me as a way to carry the D/s dynamic into our everyday life  (and given my extensive erotic reading history, I was and still am, boggled I hadn't encountered DD before then).

And ... How long did you lurk before connecting with other bloggers? and How are you enjoying blogging so far?

I think I can answer both of these questions together. I didn't lurk long .... maybe a week in ttwd/DD blogland? I know I ordered the book that started all this the end of January. However, my sense of time ever since has been totally off - I feel like it's been a long time since we first found ttwd/DD but chronologically it's only been 6 or 7 weeks! 

I'd spent another week or so prior to finding ttwd/DD blogland, looking for all the DD info I could find and spent a fair bit of that time going thru the ADD (A Domestic Discipline Society) blog website with Frank (I brought DD to him a week or so after my initial discovery). I happened on Ami Strongsong's blog (alphabetically first on the list) on a list of blogs on the ADD site. I was then off and running, reading her blog end to end (and then onto Ella's and Meredith's blogs). I am not a stranger to blogging having had a blog in the vanilla world for several years so I set up my own with the intention of using it as as a journal. However when I realized there was a core network of practitioners blogging, I reached out 'behind the blog' to Meredith and Ella,  who in turn encouraged me to take my blog public. 

I am enjoying the blogging and hanging out with the other bloggers in this world - surprisingly to me, I interact with others here way more than I ever did with fellow bloggers in my other blog world. There is very much a community feel to it all. I do struggle a bit with finding topics as we are so green right now there isn't a huge amount of DD specific activities to write about. Most of the blog topics floating in my brain right now have to do with pivotal points in our intimate life and how those points have led us to this new path.

Jan asked two questions:

What is your favourite food?

Steak ... a good cut (filet, strip or rib eye), grilled medium rare on the BBQ ... with all the trimmings. We don't eat much red meat for health reasons plus Frank is not a big fan so I only get to have it once a month or so.

Do I have a favourite implement and a hated one?

I have two favourites ... a leather crop and a leather flogger. With several years of experience using both, Frank is pretty good a getting a rhythm going with either which makes for a very hypnotic and sensual session. For us, the flogger is more an 'all body' implement whereas the crop is spanking specific.

Hated ... ha! The answer to this has been a draft blog post for a few weeks as it is more explicit than anything I've written so far and I've been hesitant in going there ... 

So Jan, maybe thanks? for pushing me off the edge?? :>))... 

After Frank and I decided to give ttwd/DD a go, I was 'instructed' to pick up a ping pong bat (and Arnican cream per Ami in her blog ;)) . We'd read an implement evaluation on a website and the pp bat was rated 1 above the hand as a good starting point. Boy, someone was wrong in that evaluation or the bat(s) I got were of an entirely different construction. It was a play spanking as that seemed like a good place for us to start. I was in Frank's favourite position (elbows and knees or 'doggie-style' as is his preferred description, a description I hate and he will purposefully use it for that very reason :)). It was a very, very stingy paddling but I was so turned on, it didn't matter. In the end, as Frank described it, I went off like a rocket. However, when he rubbed my bum afterward, he said he could feel bumps (aka welts) and turned up the light for a closer inspection ... he was concerned ... very concerned ... me less so as I wasn't in any great pain. However, it was a bit mortifying when I did my own inspection the next day ... 2 black and blue marks the size of tennis balls around each of my sits bones area. Yikes! ... we decided then we'd stay away from ping pong until we had this implement spanking business figured out a bit more. It has not made a reappearance other than when the littlest junior kiddo found it during the new bed rearranging and I found him playing ping pong in the living room :))

Leigh Smith asked ... have you read any of my books and if so, which is your favorite?

No, Leigh, I'm sorry I have not as yet. I am a bit overwhelmed with the amount of potential reading I have available now -  between all the ttwd/DD blogs plus books within this 'new to me' genre (and as I am an avid reader this is all goodness). I do have a couple of your books on my Goodreads 'to be read' list ... Finding Home and the Dominant Cowboy collection (I admit to having a soft spot for Cowboys so am looking forward to reading them all ;))

Ronnie asked ... What's is the one favourite food you cook for hubby?

Fish ... anything fish but preferably halibut or salmon. I, on the other hand, am not a fish fan (shellfish, yes, finned fish, no). Fishing is one of Frank's favourite pastimes so we have a fairly well stocked freezer.

Roz asked ... What is your favourite movie? 

My favourite movie is an oldie I've watched many times ... Dirty Dancing. Not only was it a sweet love story, but I love watching dance, especially men who can dance. Patrick Swayze was an amazing professional dancer (as was his wife in real life). I  also love to dance as does Frank ... and he is a pretty good dancer. 

If you've never seen it, here's the final dance scene from Dirty Dancing ...

And that is a wrap, folks! ... Thank-you all for asking such great questions and thanks again for including me in the fun!