East coast time

I'm failing miserably at getting back into EDT, as can be seen by the time stamp for this.

Ugh. It took me 4 days to get used to PDT and I'm hoping it will be the same with EDT. I need to get into work before 10am!

Other than that, things are slowly getting back into the swing of things - well, as much as they can be without Tweakerbelle around. This house is sooo quiet it's unnerving. But, I'll have my baby back on Friday! Woohoo!!

She had fun at Auntie Michelle's, or so I hear. She stopped being an asshole about a week in and accepted her place in the pack. I'm going to be all over her like white on rice to get rid of any residual repetitive challenging once she gets home. It's a good thing the new pup will be a boy. :)

I got 1/3rd of the placement prizes done tonight. The rest of the week will be finishing the other 2/3rds, finishing the title prizes (changing designs midway is never a good idea) and seeing if I can get a dress for Jill & Pete's wedding Saturday night. I should find that invitation so I know where the hell I'm going.

I'm looking forward to some down time again - *after* the tourney & wedding this weekend, and *after* the disc dog clinic in NJ next weekend and *after* the trips to CT mid-week the following week - then I might have some time off. Perhaps.

Not surprisingly, the pool is green. Again. I don't think my brother did anything to it at all when he was checking on the cats. Apparently I just need to start paying someone to come and stay here so everything can get done at least some of the time. Sigh.

I'd like to find a little time to clean at some point. That would be nice. Maybe do some laundry, some dishes, find the kitchen table again. Y'know, the normal stuff.

I'm following politics more now than I have in the past. I've always had an opinion and I've always done my research but now I'm actually reading articles and watching ridiculous videos of people-who-shall-not-be-named getting blessed against witchcraft in church. I'm not even going to say anything else about it. The same things probably went through everyone else's minds as well so there's no point in repeating it all.

Off to *try* and fall asleep. Again.

D

a few things...

So, apparently people in California follow the walk signals consistently. If you want to get from here to there and you need to cross the street, watch the walk light. Good to know if you plan to visit.

I went to a restaurant/brewery that was recommended to me by Mario & Cathy. It was pretty good, I'm glad I went anyway.

I've met a lot of people from other countries during my stay here. All of them have been at the conference - from Brazil, South Africa, Norway, England and Australia. There are far, far more, but that's who I've met.

The sessions have been pretty good - the best ones being a troubleshooting from the client session & a HCM vision road map. Honestly tho', there's really only so much 'geek' I can take in a day so I'm done by the time the day is over. I need a balance between my geekdom and the rest of my life. I did manage to find and pet 4 dogs today, which made me pretty happy. :)

I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but there's been a couple of instances where I was walking down the street and the people in front of me were clearly and openly toking it up. Must be that laid back California attitude. :p

I think I've finally settled into the time difference thing too. I'm not tired right now, even tho' it's 1:30am edt right now. I've still been waking up between 2:30-3:30am pdt so maybe not.

A weird thing that I've noticed? I've seen so many people that look like people from back home. I've seen at least 10 people that look like George, 5 that look like some co-workers, a couple that look like family, etc., etc. There was one guy that soooo looked like Juhan from work that I actually caught up to him and started to say something along the lines of "You didn't tell me you would be here!" Embarrassing.

All in all, it's been a good trip but I'm still looking forward to coming home to the pups. :)

D

I have a problem...

I'm addicted to my dogs.

I'm going through a homesickness kind of thing, but it really has nothing to do with where I am, just that I don't have any of my dogs with me. I'm going through some serious withdrawal here. I ran across a street today to pet some guys dog, who I'm sure thought I was freakin' crazy seeing the ferocity that I started talking and petting to said dog. Thankfully the dog was people friendly and didn't bite my head off for almost hugging the poor thing.

San Francisco is very city - at least where I am. I saw some grass and almost fell to the ground to smell it. Considering I'm allergic to it, that wouldn't have worked. It's busy - always busy - and noisy. Lots of sounds - the trilling of the hotel guys trying to get a cab for customers, the sounds of buses (do they seriously run all night?), the chatter of hundreds of people walking up and down the street, the sound of car brakes squeaking as they come to a stop - it seems like it never ends. It doesn't bother me too much, it's just weird.

But the worst part is missing my dogs. As Susan would say, I need to dig deep and bra up, which I'll do, but gods do I miss them. Only 4 more days and I can see at least some of them. I keep watching Millie's clip on SNL so I can see her. I never knew such a thing as dogsickness existed but I'm living proof!

I'm meeting up with Laura (a friend that moved down here a few years ago) and her boyfriend on Wednesday - that'll be nice.

The conference is interesting. I've actually learned a few things, which is kind of unexpected. They had some gathering tonight but I've really had enough geek for a day and couldn't bear the thought of going to it. I will go to the big concert thing they have planned later this week but that's probably about it.

Not surprisingly, I met up with one of my developers today in a session. We have a lot of classes in common and I'm sure I'll see him plenty this week. As long as I don't have to talk to his boss, I'll be a happy camper since he's a huge ass.

It's only 8pm (CA time) and I'm ready for bed - there's something seriously wrong with that...

D

Millie's 1.5 seconds of fame

If you watch until the end, and don't blink, you'll see Millie's 1.5 seconds of TV fame by running after the "bad" guy (handled by Susan's nephew Paul). I'm such a proud Momma!

Tweakless in San Francisco

Not just Tweakless, but completely dogless, actually. The first day is always the hardest for me. Thankfully all these Californians are laid back so when I mugged them on the street to pet their dog today, they were cool with it.

I've been up for 20+ hours at this point and I'm not sure I can come up with the words to describe how freakin' tired I am. So, some highlights instead of paragraphs:

I saw 15 deer on the way to the airport at stupid o'clock this morning.

I wasn't quite awake and apparently dropped my ticket in the ladies room and didn't even know it until some sweetheart of a woman found me and gave it back to me.

I took the cable car/trolley down to Fisherman's warf and did the touristy thing. I did a lot of window shopping, hit Ripley's Believe it or Not and the wax museum, which I wouldn't recommend. Ripley's was cool, save your cash on the wax museum - there were very few that were actually pretty good, the rest were so off the mark you couldn't even guess who they were supposed to be.

I got a call from Susan, I guess Millie's skit is 4 after the news skit. I was able to use the online scheduling thing for Tivo to record it.

I'm passing out as I type.

D

only with verizon...

...can you have phone service at 30,000 feet in the air. I want to see *that* in a commercial.

I've landed - the flight was good even tho' I wasn'T able to sleep.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Millie on SNL

Watch snl this weekend and hopefully her skit won't get cut at the last minute.

Even my 11 year old girl deserves her .02 seconds of fame! Let me know if you see her as I'll probably be passed out! Don't worry, I'm Tivo'ing it. :)

I'm off to bed so I can get up at 2:30am to make my flight - shoot me now!

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Tweakless in New Jersey

Not having her around is a transition, let me tell you! I'm even having bizarro dreams where she can suddenly speak English and is asking me why I gave her away. Guilt is fabulous that way.

Her transition into Michelle's house is going ok, but not as smoothly as I was hoping for. Apparently my puppy is a dominant bitch and is testing all of her dogs. Michelle's on top of it, but I'm afraid she'll need to get her ass handed to her before she knocks it off. Sigh.

I'm off to New Jersey for a decompression day before my flight to San Francisco on Saturday. I was going to leave last night, but there was just too much shit to do and I wouldn't have arrived until around 2am - if I stayed awake that long. As it was I was up until 1am or so figuring out what needed to be done and when.

I also got a call late last night from Susan, asking how much Millie weighed, etc. Huh? SNL is looking for a hound dog for a skit this weekend (which I won't be around for) and she wanted pictures of Millie to submit for the job. Who knows if she'll be accepted or not, but I'm meeting her at NBC this afternoon on the way to her house. We'll see.

Now I have to go finish packing so I can hit the road. I'll have wifi at the hotel so I won't be out of touch. Just remember the 3 hour difference and don't call me on your way to work. I really won't like that. :p

New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, ready or not, here I come...

D

Tweakless

I am Tweakless right now and I do not like it. No sirree Bob, not in the least. She'll be well cared for at Auntie Michelle's and we have a lot of the same house rules so she'll fit in pretty well but I want her here!

You're probably going to hear that for the next 3 weeks. I'm apologizing in advance.

PetRock actually went far, far better than I (or anyone else for that matter) was expecting. The rain stopped around 11am and the grass dried out enough for us to practice the puppies and do a couple of demos for the crowd. Freddie, not being used to running on grass that much, was the humor for the day since he ran around the jumps, instead of over them, 8 times out of 10. We also took him out at the end after everyone oooohh'ed and aaaaahh'ed over the Border Collies. It was a good way to end the demo - must remember that for next time. :p

After the last 2 days I am freakin' wiped out!! I'm going to go watch TV for an hour and then pass out.

D

VT seminar

Let me just say - You know you're in the boonies when you stop at a Mobil for gas and have an assortment of cigars, humidors and tackle bait to choose from. Interesting, those northerners.

I took a disc seminar with Ron & Apryl today up in Vermont. My god did that rock my freakin' socks off! I learned soooo much that my head was spinning when I left 9 hours later. Holy crap.

I strongly recommend getting some time with them if you're into disc doggin'. Not only are they one of the coolest couples I've ever met but they explain things in such a way that you're actually able to *do* it before you leave.

Man am I beat tho'.

Tomorrow is PetRock day in Worcester. Please do the anti-rain dance!

D

It's that day again...

Americans are somewhat foolish in that we don't learn from our own history. Again and again we repeat past mistakes thinking we'll get a different outcome this time. I believe that's one of the ways they judge insanity but I could be wrong.

It's not nice of me to say we're foolish on a day of remembrance. But it's still true. I could go into countless examples but really, do I need to put a spotlight on the big pink elephant in the room? I think you're smarter than that.

We are complacent. We forget easily. And if it doesn't directly affect us, we disregard it.

The country came together in a way I haven't seen before or since, when the tragedies at the World Trade Centers, Pentagon & a field in Pennsylvania happened. We had moments of extreme ugliness at the same time, attacking people with different customs out on the open streets. It's amazing to me that humans are capable of such compassion and in an instant can turn to utter brutality.

I won't attend a memorial for today, although I'm sure work will have a moment of silence. I won't gather with people and talk about where I was or what happened near me to make myself a part of it. It affected me, sure. But not like the people that were there and I'm not going to pump myself up to others to make it seem like that.

People want to be accepted; they want to be part of a group, liked and respected. They want to know they're not alone in this world; that other people have the same feelings and thoughts as they do. It's just sad that it usually has to take something severe to get people to reach out.

I feel like I've been rambling without a clear direction. So, today, just remember what happened. Remember and respect your neighbors. Don't ever forget because the second we do, we're bound to repeat it.

Or you can be all hippy like and love thy neighbor, run around wearing tie-died shirts and peace symbols with a bandanna around your head. Stage a love in like John & Yoko. Now that sounds like fun!

D

it's done - yeah, right...

I have my friend Donna to thank for this one - she's so clever sometimes. Strike that, all the time.

Rocket Relay's And Your Little Dog Too - call name Wicked


Then Susan came up with:

Rocket Relay's Defying Gravity - call name Wicked or Elphie

So the choices, so far, are:

Rocket Relay's Wickedly Misunderstood - call name Elphaba (Elf, Elphie)
Rocket Relay's What the Hell was I Thinking - call name Limit
Rocket Relay's Someone's Jealous - call name Envy
Rocket Relay's And Your Little Dog Too - call name Wicked
Rocket Relay's Defying Gravity - call name Wicked or Elphie
Rocket Relay's Son of a Witch - call name Liir (leer)

Since I have, oh I don't know, 3 1/2 months to figure this out, I'm just going to put up a poll and let you guys vote.

D

Deer on the highway...

I've seen sooo many deer on the highway this summer. Probably because I was looking for them but still. I saw a doe and her teenager (I think) on the side peeking out of the trees on the ride home. That was pretty cool. :)

Tweak met a full size horse yesterday. We took small, cautious steps in to meet the horse and handler. Of course she started barking at it when we were like 40 feet away. But, a little heeling, a little attention work and before she knew it we were right in front of this beautiful creature! I thought Tweak was gonna have a kitten when the horse bent down to sniff her little head. We were just sitting there and Shazam! horse head! She reacted pretty well tho' - she waited until after the horse was done sniffing to pull me off my feet like a freakin' cartoon to get away from it. They say dogs don't have facial expressions. After that meet & greet, I'm going to respectfully disagree. Good lord was her expression funny!

So I'm already on the name game. With Tweak it was easy, the first one I came up with was the first one I kept. I'd like to come up with a few choices with the new one. I have 3 1/2 months but being obsessive about my dogs, I like to be prepared. :)

So far I have a couple:

Rocket Relay's Wickedly Misunderstood - call name Elphaba (Elf, Elphie)
Rocket Relay's What the Hell was I Thinking - call name Limit
Rocket Relay's Someone's Jealous - call name Envy

I'll keep thinking...

Saturday I'm heading up to Vermont to take a disc seminar given by Ron & Apryl. I think I'll get a *lot* out of that! The ride will blow chunks but there's nothing I can do about that. If I can walk out of there not crashing my dog on vaults, I'll be one happy camper. Safety first!

Sunday we're doing a flyball demo at PetRock. I can't believe how quickly time flies! I will be Tweakless afterwards, which is going to freakin' kill me. I'll probably bawl like a newborn the entire ride home. 3 weeks without my puppy. Man that is going to suck ass! With 3 dogs in the house, I'm going to be so lonely!!!

D

Man am I stupid...

Dictionary.com has the following definitions:

in·sane [in-seyn] –adjective

1.	not sane; not of sound mind; mentally deranged.

2.	of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who is mentally deranged: insane actions; an insane asylum.

3.	utterly senseless: an insane plan.

stu·pid /ˈstupɪd, ˈstyu‑/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[stoo-pid, styoo‑] -er, -est, noun –adjective

1.	lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.

2.	characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless: a stupid question.

3.	tediously dull, esp. due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless: a stupid party.

4.	annoying or irritating; troublesome: Turn off that stupid radio.

5.	in a state of stupor; stupefied: stupid from fatigue.

6.	Slang. excellent; terrific.

–noun

7.	Informal. a stupid person.

Put the two together and what do you get? A foolish, mentally deranged person. That would be me.

I put myself on the list for a Border/Staffie this morning. I've wanted one since I saw Whisper, Scott's B/S, and it just kind of fell into place. 5 dogs. Wow. It looks like I'll be heading up to Canada mid-December to pick up a puppy. She'll be a mid-winter gift to myself!

Foolish, mentally deranged person. :p

D

long, but good, day

Tweak and I had fun at the Disc Dogathon. Tweak because she likes anything to do with discs, me because I like anything to do with my dog. :p

Sarah & Cheryl were there (see! you made the 2nd paragraph!) and between the three of us, the sarcasm was never ending which translated into a lot of laughing. Apparently you shouldn't ask Sarah questions first thing in the morning - she's less of a morning person than I and will, in fact, bite your head off. I didn't actually see it in action unfortunately. Maybe next time.

And, don't even think about talking to a member of the opposite sex (a nice looking one, I might add) without expecting her to loudly mention to the entire area that it's not a good thing to use your dog to meet men. I didn't necessarily agree since it was working. :p I should've got his number.

We all came away with a number of ribbons and medals from the day. Tweak got 3rd in Women's Distance/Accuracy, 2nd in team Fly Disc (which I really, really like!) and 1st in the non-existent Women's Novice class. I say non-existent because it was just Novice, Women's & Men's divisions but they had extra ribbons or something so they split up Women's into Women's Novice and Women's Pro.

My arm hurts today. I haven't thrown the disc like that for a while. I'm thinking about going to the seminar that Angelo's putting on with Apryl & Ron. Are any of you going? Not like I need another thing to do but I have to learn how to make her land properly from a vault. She landed poorly on two vaults and I'm not thrilled with that. I dunno, we'll see.

D

Disc day

I'm off to CT for a day of fun with my dog!

Stop by and say hi if you're around - http://www.ctwagapalooza.com

D

Learning new things...

This morning, Tweak learned that the cellar wasn't the big bad place she thought it was. She actually had fun sniffing around and following Millie to see what she did.

Of course, in order to get her past the big bad cellar, I had to carry her down there. As a side note, instead of getting branded by a hot iron with some meaningless design, I recommend carrying a Border Collie down some stairs or into a pool. That'll get you branded right quick enough. And then you'll have a cute claw pattern permanently indented in your skin. Much less painful I would think.

So now she's panting like a maniac all stressed out. She'll get over it. We have flyball practice later so she has an outlet for that stress.

The demo was canceled today so I have some time to do some stuff around here. I need to get a good batch of tugs ready for the flyball demo next weekend. I bought the fleece and rope I needed yesterday for that. My laundry was starting to talk to me so I tossed that in the washer, much to it's bellowed chagrin, I might add.

The dishes are next since they're taunting me from the sink. I don't know where they picked up *that* kind of language but whatever, they'll get theirs. (Who am I kidding, they got it from me.)

I have a few key things going on that I have to get organized for. First is the flyball demo on the 14th, then my trip to San Francisco, then our tourney & Jill's wedding the 1st weekend in October. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in. 

Speaking of San Fran, I'm bummed that I'm the only one going. Anyone want to go with? I'm looking forward to it, have a whole list of places I need to visit while there and am excited to see my friend Laura who moved there from Boston like 5 years ago. It'll be interesting, to say the least, to see how my go-go-go attitude adjusts to the more sedate pace. Maybe it'll be like a vacation! Or course my vacations don't typically involve OpenWorld (I'm such a geek) and frequently involve dogs (of which I'll have *none* Yikes!) but whatever. I'm adaptable. I can go with the flow. (Insert eye roll here.) I'll probably be crying over my beer because I'll miss my dogs.

But first I have to be a tug making machine. Then I have to do the awards for our tourney. I'm not telling you what they are but they're pretty darn cool if I do say so myself. Useful, memorable and certainly not something that will be given away. It's a surprise!

I also have to find a dress to wear to Jill's wedding. I'm leaving the tourney on Saturday in the afternoon and will be back as soon as I can. I wish I could clone myself so I could hang out with my friends at the wedding all night *and* still be at the tourney to race my dogs and sit in front of the fire pit after racing. Dag nab it.

Oh well. I'm off to cut fleece and prepare to do battle with the dishes. I'm wearing gloves.

D

another silent killer...

Women, be aware.

Who knew?

I didn't.

http://komonews.s3.amazonaws.com/ibc/komo_ibc.wmv

D

flower pictures

I haven't posted pictures of the garden flowers in quite a while. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I usually do since I wasn't around much this year. I'd go away for a long weekend and when I came back flowers would be in bloom - I just didn't grab the camera right away so they'd be dead a few days later. I'll try harder next year. :)

the buzz..

Yesterday's buzz was about politics. The Republican VP nominee's 17 year old daughter is pregnant. And that affects her job how? Whether or not she's qualified is debatable and something to be scrutinized and nothing else.

This kind of stuff is the reason I stay out of politics. I vote, but short of that I'm not a die hard in any way, shape or form. I honestly don't have time to worry about that kind of stuff. I don't know the woman nor do I know the daughter. And I don't think that the daughter being pregnant sets a precedent for anything. That business should stay where it belongs - between the mother, father, father-to-be and his parents. That's who it affects. Not us.

I was a little bit angry when I heard Obama left the church he's attended for years because of a comment the preacher made. Guess what! People can have differing opinions and it's really Ok! Obama can use the sense he has to listen to the preacher and reject what he doesn't like or agree with. Really, he can. I mean, seriously. He's one of two people nominated to be in charge of the freakin' nation and we don't trust him to use his own common sense when it comes to going to church? Really?

This kind of shit pisses me off. If you're going to judge someone, don't do it by another person's actions. Listen to what that person says and look at what that person does - that's what matters. Not whether or not Palin's daughter is pregnant. It's none of our business and it shouldn't be news.

D

Labor Day weekend

I think I was supposed to have a cookout this weekend but with all the other events and tourneys on the calendar I totally missed planning it! I wasn't actually here to have it so I guess it didn't really matter. :p

Saturday was the great 3.9 day, which I'm still pretty happy about! Sunday was another good day, just not for Tweak. :p Freddie pooped in the ring one heat, so that sucked but otherwise it was a good weekend! So many good things happened - half of which we didn't know about until afterwards. Chili (Tweak's littermate) pulled out a 3.8(!!!), Grit got his FDCh-S title, Yikes got his FGDCh (30k) title, Chili got her FDX title, Tweak ran a 3.9, Gotcha got floor time and did well in warmups, Brink did her job like a trooper and everyone helped out for each puppy. It was really great.

I'm not sure what happened to my puppy on Sunday, she just kinda left her mind in the crate I think. :p She did well in most of the warmups but lost it when she was racing another, faster dog. She spit the ball and ran around the jumps to get back to me. Apparently she doesn't like losing and will take any shortcut available to her when she is behind. All of this stuff is normal, green (or new) dog behavior. I'm still uber proud that I she did as well as she did and am glad I got to see what she can potentially do.

Sunday I spent the day on the Vineyard relaxing with Susan and her parents. We drove around, made a few stops, had lunch, had ice cream, went snorkling for sea clams (wow they're big!) and went out on the boat for a bit. I didn't have my suit with me so I had to stay in the boat during the snorkling - oh darn. :p

It was the perfect way to spend a day off - beautiful weather, good people, good food, lots of sun, good conversation and most importantly, relaxation! The sun was setting when I crossed the Bourne bridge and what a site that was - absolutely amazing. I wish I had my camera and could've stopped to take a picture. I looked to the right and it was nighttime picturesque; I looked to the left and it was sunset picturesque. Ohhhhh... I could've used my landscape setting and got both sides in one really long picture. Darn.

The pool is starting to look a little cloudy from my time away so today is pool and dishes day when I get home from work. That and dog day because they all need baths and nail trims. I might need a spearate night for just that tho', we'll see.

Today I need to book my flight for San Francisco. I'm off to a conference later this month and will be gone for almost a week. Aunty Michelle is going to take Tweak and work her while I'm gone and Aunty Susan is taking the rest of the kids. Susan was also going to take Tweak but she needs some fine tuning and Michelle and Dan have offered to take her. I need more hands to work her here and I just don't have them.

All in all, an excellent weekend!

D