Dawn's Blog House

Day 4 - Vigeland Park

2011-04-23T05:08:00.002-04:00

With the Easter holiday and everything being closed, we took the bus (woohoo!) to Vigeland Park in Oslo. What a nice park! It was *huge* and had lots of statues and different sections. I posted some pics on FB so go look there for them.

The park was named after the sculptor that created all of the statues in it, most notably Angry Boy and The Monolith. That park wouldn't last a week in the US as there are naked statues of adults and children doing normal every day things scattered about the park. Definitely something the Europeans have over Americans - not being too prudish about statues depicting people as we were made.

I'm not sure how it happened but we kinda lost track of time yesterday. Going to the park was the only thing we did and we were only gone about 4 hours. I have no idea where the rest of the day went but know we had a pretty good day just being together. :)

Ahhhh Day 3 :)

2011-04-22T05:42:00.002-04:00

Day 3 was relaxing day!!

This weekend is the Easter holiday and Norwegians take their holidays seriously - most people have Thurs, Fri & Mon off from work to celebrate. BTW, those are paid holidays. So, with most people off of work, most places are closed. In the US there's always something open - even xmas day some places are open for those that don't celebrate the holiday. You can go to a movie or do a little shopping at select stores. Not here. No way, no how. NOTHING is open.

So we spent the day indoors, talking, playing games, listening to music, watched a movie - basically just being all lovey dovey and enjoying each other's company. Ahhhh.

Jan has made a homemade meal every night so far. Last night was a dish called KlippFisk - a traditional Norwegian dish made with dried, salted Cod, potatoes, onions and butter. The fish was a little stronger than I am used to and I had to eat each piece of fish with a piece of potato due to the high salt flavor but it was pretty good. I told Jan next time we'd have to grab some sour cream - that would change it from good to great for me. :)

The weather has been typical spring weather - nice when it's nice, cold and rainy when it isn't nice. Actually, yesterday was a bit cloudy but that has really been the extent of the bad weather here. It's been mostly sunny and in the low 60's for the most part. Oddly enough, thinking back on our walking trip through the city, most Norwegians were covered up in one way or another and I thought it was beautiful, just has a t-shirt on. For people used to "cold weather", they didn't seem to think it was all that warm.

We have plans tomorrow to take a train to the coast, then take an overnight cruise to his hometown to visit his family. Not sure what is on the agenda today, probably out walking somewhere. :p We'll see what day 4 brings us!

Day two - ouch

2011-04-22T04:34:00.002-04:00

So, like any big city around the world, if the public transportation infrastructure works, there's no need for a car. Jan lives in the city, his walk to work takes 10 minutes. He walks everywhere and when he needs to go further, he takes a bus/train/taxi.

I'm spoiled. I don't walk anywhere, I jump in my car and go wherever I need to. I don't think about distance, I just go. So when he said we could easily walk to downtown Oslo, I really should've thought about that little fact.

If you ask him, I complained the whole way. If you ask me, I didn't complain nearly as much as I could've. :p

Like I said to him, keep in mind I'm coming off of a flyball tournament (sore), am fat, old and out of shape and I'm used to walking to the next room or to the car. Sad but true.

We walked to what they call downtown and saw a few famous sites. We walked up to the King's castle (Norwegian castles aren't like what you see in movies apparently - get rid of the old Irish or English stone architecture with lots of turrets and stuff mental image - it's a big rectangular building. Think business building with a few touches of grandeur. We walked to a pier, saw a few ferries, saw lots of people having lunch at outdoor cafes, saw lots of stores.

BTW, they don't have stores like Walmart here. If you need food, you go to the food store. If you need towels, you go to a housewares store, clothes, a clothes store, etc., etc. To run errands that we would normally go to a Walmart/Target/etc. and do one stop shopping doesn't exist here.

I think that would totally tax my planning capabilities to the max. No one stop shopping?!?! Ugh. I'm so spoiled.

All in all we had a really good day - spent a lot of time walking around in the warm spring weather (3 hours to be precise, not a short jaunt), looking around, did a tiny bit of shopping, people watched and if you ask him, complained. :p

Norway, Day 1

2011-04-20T06:03:00.003-04:00

I figured it was easier to write about my experiences here than to people individually. Plus, I'm sure to have some... ahem, experiences.. here that I wouldn't have in the US.

The flight over wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - about 8 hours or so in the air. It was an overnight flight and I thought I'd be able to sleep but that was quite impossible. I'm thinking about buying a pillow at iKea and bringing it home with me - maybe that will help me sleep on the plane. ;)

I'll say "Norwegian" a lot but really I mean Scandinavian. I think there is a lot that is common between the countries. Not having visited the others, I can't say for sure but I'm going off of what Jan says and from what I do know about the area.

Mostly, I think I'll talk about food as that seems to be the biggest difference so far. I'll also impart language lessons from time to time as I encounter them - just have to figure out how to add the special vowels they have.

First lesson of the day: Kaffe is coffee. It's stronger than most basic American coffee but not as strong as Starbucks. It's quite good but I'd recommend learning how many "cups" equals how many "liters". It's important when futzing around with coffee makers - trust me.

Last night Jan made dinner - pasta from scratch with a cheesy cream sauce, chicken, mushrooms and prosciutto. It was delicious and a good introduction to home cooked Norwegian meals.

Side note: I did tell him I would try anything he put in front of me but he doesn't want to force me to eat anything. He's so sweet. <3

This morning he made breakfast. I guess a lot of meals are somewhat tappas style - just put out lots of little stuff you like. He cooked bacon and eggs (Swedish bacon is a lot saltier than American bacon but the rest is the same), then put out an assortment of stuff: bread, butter, peanut butter and strawberry jam (in case I didn't like the other stuff), yellow cheese, brown cheese and finally, pickled herring in tomato sauce.

Bacon & Eggs - check. Not much of a difference there. Same with PB & Jam, butter, bread and the yellow cheese. I guess they have 3 kinds of cheese - white cheese, yellow cheese and brown cheese lol. We had yellow cheese last night with the pasta - it's kind of like a type of mozzarella but not. Hard to explain but good.

Tried the herring. It wasn't totally disgusting, I didn't need to spit it out or anything but it's not something I would request. They call it a tomato sauce but it's more like a shrimp cocktail sauce with onions - not as much of a bite as American cocktail sauce but very much the same flavor. So, not my thing.

The brown cheese was a pleasant surprise. I've seen YouTube videos of Americans trying brown cheese for the first time and I was not really looking forward to it. First, a few things about brown cheese - it is cheese, made the same way or similarly to regular cheese. It's brown because of the sugar content in the cream according to Jan. Like an other sugar, the longer you cook it, the more of a caramel you get. Same thing with this cheese apparently.

It was really pretty good. It's a fairly soft cheese and comes in varying degrees of "brownness". The darker brown it is, the more the sugar was cooked. I tried a fairly light version of it, Jan's favorite, Flotemysost (the first "o" is supposed to have a slash thru it). It was a mild flavored cheese that was pretty sweet - much more sweet than I'm used to, but good. It had a later taste of a soft caramel. Now I'd guess that a sweet, soft, caramel tasting cheese sounds pretty bizarre but it was quite good.

One thing I have noticed is that things are generally smaller here. When you buy a package of bacon, it's not like an American package of bacon. It probably has about 1/4 of what you'd get in an American package. The pillows are more square than rectangular. They are very conscious of and very good at managing space.

We're heading downtown in a little bit and I'm going to bring my camera. We'll see what kind of pics and shopping we do!

The longest 5 weeks of my life...

2010-09-07T20:32:00.002-04:00

Ok, I know 5 weeks is 5 weeks but the next 5 weeks is going to feel like eternity even though it's passing by pretty quickly.

I have been friends with a man for quite a while now. We both play this stupid game on facebook, which is how we met. To make a really long story short we are now dating in a complicated, odd kind of way and have been for a few months I think. I'm so bad at time, I have no idea what the date was.

Anyway, going back to making the long story short, he'll be here in 5 weeks and I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. We'll have 2 full months together! We'll live day to day life together as well as some weekend trips and a week in Florida doing the Disney/Universal thing.

~~!!! EXCITEMENT !!!~~

The reason why he's visiting for 2 months and not a weekend or week like a normal guy/relationship? Because he lives in Norway. Makes sense, right? :p

If you know me well, you're probably rolling your eyes and chuckling. If you don't know me, well, let's just say I'm not known for doing things like other people. I tend to take the long, winding road instead of the easy road.

omg, 5 weeks...

I am one of those...

2010-05-10T16:57:00.002-04:00

It shocked me today to realize that I have turned into one of *those* people. We all know them, tolerate them to a point and avoid them the rest of the time. Well, I've joined the club - instead of pulling out baby pictures and telling people what great new thing little Johnny did, I do it with the dogs.

I'm not actually sure when I turned into one of those people, maybe my friends can help me pin point it sometime. But, as sure as shit, I am one now. Apparently I can't go anywhere or talk to anyone without bringing up some silly thing one of the dogs did. Or I'll start talking about the dogs, then segue over to flyball, which really gets them to yawning.

Crap! When did this happen? Last I knew I could hold a normal conversation with normal people and get along just fine in the world of normal people. Sadly, it looks like that time has passed for me. Bummer dude.

I guess I'll have to be more aware in the future - talk dog stuff with dog people and non-dog stuff with non-dog people. The problem I can foresee is that I do so much dog stuff that I am kind of limited on non-dog stuff knowledge.

Darn.

the Holidays

2009-12-24T09:28:00.002-05:00

It's Christmas Eve and I still have a few things to do before heading to my aunt's house tonight for the extended family gathering. It used to be all the aunts, uncles and cousins but has shriveled down to just my siblings and my cousin Sue & her family. We're really not sure where all the other cousins are - they faded out of the family years ago for reasons we don't know. It's kind of sad because we used to have such fun during the holidays together. It's been so many years since any of us have seen them that we aren't even sure how to get in touch with them. How sad.

This year I'm having trouble with my holiday spirit, as in, it's missing. I didn't put up the tree or decorate at all, which is probably part of it but certainly not all. It's been a tough year and I think the fact that I'm coming up on a year of being unemployed is starting to effect me. I'm not all Bah Hum-buggy or anything, just more neutral. Usually I have a lot, especially on Xmas eve and I'm hoping I'll feel a little bit of it tonight when I'm with my family.

So, the festivities are the same as they always are - Christmas Eve at my aunt's house, Christmas morning at my cousin's house and Christmas afternoon/night at my Dad's house. The dogs will open their gifts after Sue's and before Dad's - we'll see if Ash can figure out how to open gifts this year. :)

I have a few last minute things to pick up today but am done otherwise. I only bought gifts for kids this year so I don't have a lot of wrapping to do, which I'll do today.

I suppose I should get my ass in gear so I'm not late (Ha!) and get everything done that I need to.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, I wish you the absolute best!!

Stupid little rat with legs...

2009-09-23T22:33:00.002-04:00

Today was a *gorgeous* day - absolutely divine! I was a good girl and did all the things I was supposed to first thing - exercised the dogs, finished and mailed out some tugs, checked the PO Box, went to the bank, went to the unemployment office, went to the supermarket and then came home. I played with the dogs while doing some stuff outside - it's time to empty the vegetable planters that are done producing so I can put everything away.

After playing frisbee with the Tweak & Ash (thankfully they've stopped crashing into each other when I play them at the same time), I figured I'd let them cool down and play in the pool. Millie & Freddie were out as well, but they were on the other side of the gate that separates the pool from the rest of the deck.

(I just have to interrupt my train of thought here and say that one of the dogs is so totally gassing me out of the freakin' room right now. )

Anyway, after playing for a while, Freddie jumped the gate to join us. This happens pretty frequently - he tries to steal the frisbee out of one of the dog's mouths when they're climbing out of the pool - and usually it's nothing to worry about. Not today.

The little shit jumped over just as I threw the frisbee in for Tweak. He scooted right past me and started walking along the rim of the pool, which is a few inches below but right next to the deck, up until a certain point. Needless to say, he was unsuccessful in walking along the rim not next to the deck and fell into the pool.

I wasn't really worried as he can swim on his own for short distances without my help. I just went over to the stairs and called him over. He was panicking tho' and couldn't hear me. Weirdly enough, he wasn't horizontal in the water, he was vertical. It's like he was walking on his hind legs in the water. Weird.

He went under once, then went under again which succeeded in freaking me out and had me jumping into the pool, shoes and all, to save the little idiot. Thankfully Tweak and Ash are good swimmers and got out like normal since I wasn't paying the least bit attention to them while this was going on.

The stupid little rat with legs was/is fine tho'. (But whichever dog is farting must have eaten something dead to have this kind of torrential gaseous eruption.)

I'm heading down to New Jersey for the 10th Annual Min Pin rescue picnic. It was 11 years ago that we started the Internet Miniature Pinscher Service. I think Millie will be kept downstairs for the picnic since there's usually like 80 dogs or so that attend. She's better with Min Pins than with any other breed, but she's getting older and doesn't put up with as much as she used to. I'll let Freddie (the family Min Pin representative), Tweak & Ash have all the fun. I imagine Tweak will start herding all of the Min Pins at some point in the day and when that happens she'll go away too.

Should be fun!

What a cutie...

2009-09-20T23:43:00.003-04:00

James Marsden - total freakin' yum. Wouldn't have known his name but I've been seeing him on TV a lot lately and figured I'd put a name with the drool action.

Ash & Tweak are getting their final 32nd wind out of their system by doing box turns off of every piece of furniture, and me, in the living room while playing Crocodiles and Alligators. Gotta love that energy level!!

This weekend I started helping my grandmother weed down her stuff yet again. She's moving into an assisted living facility and I/we will need to pack everything up. Again. Every time my grandmother has moved, I've helped pack her up. I'm getting pretty good at it since she's moved like 4 times in the last 10 years and it's generally just my aunt, uncle & self that do it.

I went over to Dina's house this afternoon to start working with her dog. She was going to sign up for classes and then thought, boy that's stupid. So, for the next 6 weeks I'll be heading over to help her with basic obedience. We worked on sit, heeling and come today. Frisco did fabulously - quite the quick little learner and food motivated, which works very well with clicker training. Eventually I'll get out there with Ash and do all the same stuff! I've been so lackadaisical with his training.

I started writing in my journal again, in addition to blogging. I like going back and reading what I've written. I take very large hiatuses from the hard copy version, only writing when I have something to figure out that I don't want to share with the world or when I'm feeling especially creative and want to write poetry or something. I found a couple of kick ass poems I wrote a long time ago. They make perfect sense to me but since perception is key in everything, I'm sure they'd mean totally different things to different people.

I have a store order to finish, the website to fix and a whole lot of cleaning to do this week. Tomorrow is supposed to be really nice so I'll probably swim the dogs a couple of times. I worked with Tweak on a couple of freestyle moves that I learned from the Apryl & Ron seminar. I have a few things in the works that I'll continue to work on with them. More info on that later - like if/when it's done. :p

sometimes life hands you lemons...

2009-09-18T12:08:00.002-04:00

It's been that kind of week - Murphy's Law on a rampage like bride-to-be's on the day of the Filene's Bridal sale.

I could be all philosophical and say when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. But I own more shares in lemonade than I care to admit and am tired of the bitter taste in my mouth.

Really what you have to do is just breathe through it. Breathe and dodge. Shit happens. Shit will always happen and really your dodgeball training as a kid will help you more than knowing how to make lemonade. Well, that and a good shower.

I think I popped about 28 new gray hairs this week with all the stress & crap. Most I won't even mention.

My friend's dog passed this week - they think he was poisoned in some way, maybe even from eating mushrooms. Peri was a therapy dog who finally got his own little boy this year. So sad.

Scooby has gone quiet so it doesn't look like anything's happening there. I'll be in NJ next weekend but doubt I'll see him. Another one bites the dust.

Next week will be better, life can't suck for all that long!

So to raise my spirits and mood, I'm heading to G&E's tonight for Great Chow and cigars. :) I love sitting in front of the firepit, there's something so zen about watching flames with people you love to be with. Beer helps.

In good news, AgilityVision.com just picked up Tweak's Tugs. :) A rush order was sent to them this week for their booth at the NADAC Championships. I guess I need to start learning what all this agility stuff means :) So if you're there, talk up the tugs!!

got a lot of crap done...

2009-09-08T21:31:00.003-04:00

I have been pro-duc-tive. I did actually re-arrange the bedroom on Sunday. Yay for me. :) I'm actually really digging the set up too - no idea why I didn't think of it before!

I FAILED on Sunday tho' when I totally forgot to head down to G&E's to babysit that night. I need reminders for that sort of stuff, like call me a couple of hours before and remind me it's Sunday and I should be driving to your house. I have no concept of days or time anymore, sadly. It's no excuse, I should've had a brain. Thankfully our friend Sarah wasn't doing anything and was able to head over. Also thankfully, she lives closer.

Monday was spent getting orders and samples completed for the mail today. I also cut all the mats and bathed my male cat - that was a ton of fun. Not. I've been catching up on the laundry situation, doing pretty well too, believe it or not. All the dog laundry from the whole freakin' summer is done. I only have 4 or 5 loads of my stuff left.

Speaking of which, I have too many items of clothing and once all the laundry is done, I'm going through everything. Good Will is going to get a few bags of stuff from me. After that I'm going to put all that's left away in drawers like normal people instead of living out of laundry baskets.

Today I went to the post office, did a few errands, stopped by my grandmother's and sliced about 40 yards of fabric for tugs. I have a store re-order I have to get done this week and another potential order coming in from an online agility site that would need to be ready in 10 days or so. Hopefully they'll be able to figure out what they want rather quickly so I'll have some time to make them.

Just for the record, if it's too cold out for me to go swimming, it should be too freakin' cold out for mosquitos to fly around and bite people. Just sayin'...

sucker punched by a movie

2009-09-05T20:48:00.002-04:00

I've been working on the website today - something happened and all of the changes I made months ago are no longer showing up. So I'm trying to remember what I had where, re-writing the description and explanations and basically bring it back into the world of making sense.

The TV was on in the background - I wasn't paying attention to what was on until some silly dialogue made me look up. I spent the next 2 hours seesawing between crying my eyes out or laughing at clever quips. I just got sucker punched by a movie! P.S. I love you is a movie about a woman who loses her husband to a brain tumor at the age of 35. Before he dies, he sets up a series of letters to be delivered after he's gone - they all end with P.S. I love you.

I wouldn't have watched it on purpose unless I was in the mood for a good cry, hence the sucker punch comment. It wasn't until I was further into it that I started to pick up what it was about and by that time I was hooked. And crying. A lot.

A good line from it was during a breakdown the wife was having, crying on her mother's shoulder, "God. I didn't come here for you to give me some bullshit honest answer. Why can't you just lie to me just once?" It was quite difficult trying to laugh while sobbing my freakin' face off but I managed it somehow.

Last night Dina & I went to G&E's for steak and cake. As always I (we) had a great time laughing and chatting. I think it's mandatory that E & I now end all of our sentences with "We're awesome." I'm not sure how that came about, I mean it's true and all, but y'know, I don't like to brag. lol

Today I swam the dogs, did some dishes, got a bunch of supplies ready for the next Tweak's Tug order, went food shopping, swam the dogs and myself, again and then made dinner. Talk about freakin' yummy! I made a lemon pepper chicken with onions, garlic and this wicked yummy lemony sauce. I also made myself a caprese salad using tomatoes that were perfectly ripe from my garden. De-lish.

Tomorrow is a big cleaning day - I plan on re-arranging the bedroom and hopefully reining in the out of control laundry situation. I probably won't be all that successful but here's to hoping!

lawn equipment

2009-08-31T12:11:00.002-04:00

Lawn equipment and I do NOT get along. At all, in the least, *ever*. The battery died so I went to jump it and stuff started boiling out of it. I took that as a bad sign. I have to figure out how to get it back to the store (bought it this spring) without burning my skin off.

I've been in tug making world for quite a while now. Finishing that big store order, getting things together for the next store order, making online orders that come in. All good things.

My cousin came by to help me get the accounting software set up correctly so I'm not screwed royally come tax time. Can I tell you just how much I dislike that accounting crap? I have no idea in the world how people can try to figure that crap out all the time. Yikes.

Yesterday I went out to breakfast with Sue & Cameron, then went to Elissa's so we could go shopping at iKea. I need to make some mugs for the next disc competition and didn't have enough in stock.

Next weekend is the Ron & Apryl seminar in VT and a disc competition the next day. I'm not sure if I'll stay overnight for the disc comp or not. Still deciding. :)

Short and sweet because I still have like 20 tugs to make!

the sound an elephant makes...

2009-08-27T20:32:00.002-04:00

....is called trumpeting. I do what I can to share the useless information banging around in this head of mine. :)

Soooo, last time I was in NJ I met somebody. We've been talking but I'm kind of hesitant to say anything more than that because if you've been reading my blog for any length of time at all, you know I pick men about as well as I pick lottery numbers. Since I'm not independently wealthy....yeah. I'll just say we'll see what happens and leave it at that. In the meantime, we'll call him Scooby. :)

Facebook is a pretty amazing tool when utilized properly. For example, I'm in the market for a cartoonist for a small project I have. I asked if anyone could recommend someone in my status and I got 5 people to check out. Pretty darn cool.

I have a couple of big orders to get out the door in the next couple of weeks. One of them I've very excited about and once it's done, I'll tell you all about it. Scooby has some great ideas on business which I'll be trying out after I get these off of my plate. He owned his own business for 20 years and learned a lot in that time, which saves me from making some of the stupid mistakes I'd be probably make. Hopefully, anyway.

Tweak and Ash have been swimming 2 or 3 times a day. Tweak is very cautious, very meticulous when getting in the water. There's a right way to do it (the way I shaped her into the water) and that's the only way she's going to do it. Period.

Ash, on the other hand, is a freakin' maniac. He may not ever win at it but he will certainly be my dock diving dog. He doesn't care, doesn't have a fear in the world when it comes to the pool. He'll dive off any part of the deck for any reason at all. Thankfully both of them are very well trained on the proper way to get out of the pool so I don't have to worry about my liner anymore.

The way Ash learned how to swim? I was in the pool vacuuming it one afternoon and the dogs were in the yard. I was close to the edge near the yard and said hello to him. Next thing I knew, he jumped 4+ feet in the air, landed on the edge of the pool and jumped over to me not knowing it was water. They say dogs don't have that many facial expressions (as humans know them) but I'll tell you that his expression while in mid-jump into the water was so priceless it's burnt into my memory forever! After that, I started training him on the ways in and out of the pool in case he decided to do it again.

Now, if I open the gate to the pool area (which doesn't keep him out anyway since he just jumps over the damn thing), he's at the edge of the deck in a down/stay waiting for me to throw the frisbee for him. I'll have to get some video of him at some point.

My hands are sore from tug making but that's a pretty common thing these days. A friend of a friend runs an agility site and asked about carrying Tweak's Tugs on their site. Sweet! I just got another re-order from one of the other stores that carries them locally so I'm pretty optimistic about how the business is going.

Tug making time...

4 months...

2009-08-24T12:53:00.002-04:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted. I guess I was just going through a phase of not wanting to write. But, I miss it and so I'm back (not sure how consistently, we'll see).

The weekend before last I was in Canada for a flyball tourney. I love catching up with friends that I don't often get to see. The teams Tweak and Freddie were on both got 1st place in their divisions, which was cool.

Last weekend I was in New Jersey giving a couple of disc dog demos for a huge 4H fair they have. Tweak and Ash both did very, very well playing with the kids too. I'm not surprised, they both have very nice temperaments, unlike their mother. LOL

The dogs are all doing very well. Millie is really starting to show her age, which is kinda sad. My once super obedient dog now gives me the furry FU pretty regularly. I'm not sure if it's because she's losing her hearing or she just doesn't give a crap. She has to go back on drugs to stop her leaking or else she'll have to start wearing diapers. I'll also have to get some senior dog pee pads for her if I'm out of the house for more than 4 or 5 hours. Sigh. I hate it when they get older. :(

Freddie is starting to get a little more gray in the muzzle but he's not slowing down really. He's such a trooper. :) Tweak and Ash, being the youngest, are doing the best. They swim a couple of times a day now that Tweak isn't afraid of the pool any more. :) They're both trained to use the stairs so my liner is safe. I have a few videos and will post them at some point.

Back to tug making. :)

another good thing

2009-04-28T09:35:00.002-04:00

This happened last week but forgot to blog about it. Shoot me.

So I went to visit the manufacturer of the hockey balls I use, Mylec, so I could become a customer and purchase directly from them. It's so much easier when you have a consistent supplier for things.

I brought some rope tugs with the hockey ball on it to show them what I was doing. They liked them a lot and are going to offer them on their website, which is really very, very cool. I found out they have a glow in the dark hockey ball available as well and picked up a case of them. If I could get the tug to flouresce, that would be awesome!

I found out today that one of the sheltered workshops I've been meeting with had a successful trial on making the tugs. Woohoo! I officially have help! I've only met with a dozen so far - I guess 13 IS a lucky number! So now I'm cutting tubing and rope for 30 tugs so I can drop them off tomorrow.

I've done a lot of planting - way more than I should, because I know I'll eventually and unintentionally kill most of them. With my luck I won't and I'll have more beans, peas & veggies than I can handle. I potted 25 strawberry plants, think that's enough? lol

I can hear Tweak snap, snap, snapping out on the deck. That means she's playing tag with one of the carpenter bees. Thankfully the males can't sting her and the females are too freakin' busy drilling holes into my house. Fuckers. Once I find out where their nest is, Dave the exterminator is coming for a visit.

Ok, I have to get these tugs together today so I have the afternoon to play in the pool. Temps are supposed to get up to 95 and you can bet your ass I'll be in pool regardless of how cold the water is!

lots of stuff

2009-04-20T08:55:00.003-04:00

I've been thinking lately how fear is a bigger motivator as you grow older... at least for me it is. Now there are so many things I have going on in my life that I want to continue, where as before, I didn't really understand what I'd be losing if something happened. I'm not as fearless as I once was and that's a good thing.

The other thing that happens as you grow older (and have more experience) is that your not so quick to react in an emergency type way. 10 years ago if Millie came in the house limping or had a bump on her, we'd be at the vet within an hour. Now, I rest her up, ice her down and wait to see if it's something simple like a sprain or something that needs vet care.

Before, I'd be at the doctor for any weird pain. Now, eh. I'll head to the doctor if it doesn't clear up in a few weeks or so - sometimes months. I just think it's funny how things change over time.

I've been slowly getting things done at the homefront. This weekend was phase one of my planting. I planted in containers:

25 strawberry plants, 1 blueberry plant, 2 pepper plants, 1 oregano plant, 2 tomato plants and 1 flat leaf parsely plant.

I have seedlings started for canteloupe, big beef & cherry tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, romaine, eggplant, lettuce, more parsely, rosemary, basil & sage.

I'm doing everything in containers and will pick up 2 large kiddie pools once they come out for the may plantings of corn, squash, cucumbers & whatever else I bought seeds for that I can't remember.

Oh, I also have to plant the raspberry and blackberry bushes. Unfortunately those can't be in containers and I don't have any really good places to put them where the dogs can't get at them. It looks like they're going to have to be planted along the fence in the dog yard. Oh well, I just won't pick from the bottom. ;)

I'm sure someone, somewhere is taking wages on how much stuff I'll unintentionally kill. Better get in now!

Sunday we headed up to Jo's house for an outdoor flyball practice. The great outdoors changes everything for the pups when they're completely used to running indoors. But, they all held it together wonderfully - especially with a loose chicken in the area. I thought for sure a few of them would be tugging for a drumstick.

We did some power jumping in teams so they were racing against each other while power jumping with the dogs that currently race. Then we worked with Fury over some jumps and Ash on the flat.

Ash decided he does, in fact, like tugging now. I had his attention the whole time and he was on the tug when it was out. Good boy!

I threw some videos up on youtube of all of the team kids. Unfortunately the videos for Tweak & Jigger didn't come out. Doesn't it just figure!

I've got a rope order coming today, I have a hundred title awards to make, a couple of suppliers to call and job searching to do. Busy day.

It's flyball time!

2009-04-03T09:04:00.002-04:00

We're in Downington, PA for Revolution's tourney - Bare Naked Flyball. I'll leave the name alone but let your head go where it will.

Pacie & Millie are staying at Aunty Susan's house while Freddie, Tweak, Ash & I are racing. Ash isn't really racing, he's just along for the ride to get used to the environment. I've been thinking of leaving him with A.S. too as she'd take him and do some training with him. :p I probably won't tho'.

In other news, GO SIGN UP FOR CAMP IF YOU'RE PLANNING ON COMING THIS YEAR!

The economy sucks but this is probably your best bet at an affordable vacation - AND you can bring your dog!

http://www.campbarkinghills.com

If there aren't enough registrations by April 15th, camp won't be happening this year. You really don't want to see me cry, do you?!

D

It's spring in New Jersey...

2009-04-02T09:11:00.003-04:00

And I'm beyond freaked out! Now, I'm not sure if we have these things up north or not but I know I've never seen them near my house. There's probably a name for them too, other than Donna referring to them as stink bugs, but holy crap are they fugly!

They look prehistoric, like they were around in the monolithic era - hard shell with ridges along the side - they're kinda shaped like a spade or an arrow tip. According to Donna you can't smush them because they'll stink up the house. Ugh!

There's one that's been flying around my head all morning, causing me to dance around and shriek. I hope her neighbors aren't home. It just fell into a vase in the sink and I feel bad that it's probably going to drown but at the same time, a dead bug is a good bug in my book. Correction, it has drowned. Now I feel bad. Sigh.

Today I need to do some laundry and some shopping. Donna & I are heading out tonight to do the shopping part and I'm schlepping my laundry over to Susan's this morning.

Wait! It's moving again! I'm almost tempted to pluck it out of the water because it hasn't done anything to deserve to die, like touch me or anything. But, that would involve me touching it, which ain't happening. Poor thing.... it's just gonna die.

Anyway, once laundry is done we'll head out to lunch and talk about the new product licensing so we can get that up and running. I'm so excited about this thing, it's not even funny!

A nice, relaxing day hanging out with friends before the craziness of a flyball weekend!

D

WTF!

2009-03-29T18:24:00.002-04:00

Seriously, what the F*%# is wrong with people?!

I logged in to check email and this news article is on the first page - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/nursing_home_shooting

And people wonder why I like my dogs better than people most of the time?!?

It just eludes me.

D

I'd like to Introduce....

2009-03-27T00:08:00.002-04:00

Tweak's Tugs!

I'm done! It's done! Good lord am I freakin' tired. :p

If I wasn't so tired right now I'd probably have a feeling of relief, excitement and maybe even a little bit proud. Tomorrow I'll feel that way instead of the profound and all encompassing exhaustion I have now. ;)

I'm relying on all of you - every single one of you - to go take a look, poke around and let me know what you think. I've been looking at it non-stop for weeks and weeks so I can't really tell the difference between one thing and the other. :p There are a few quirky things that are on the list of things to fix, like the zip code coming before the state but I could always use your help to find more.

As if the website being live wasn't enough excitement, there are a few pet supply stores, local to me, that are considering carrying my tugs and one store that has already agreed! Dodge Grain in Salem, NH is the first store to agree to carry my products! Yay! After speaking with the owner earlier this week, I came away with an order for 6 tugs. I went by there today to drop off his order and drop off a pricing sheet and by the time I left I had another order for 14 tugs. I was jumping up and down earlier when I had some energy. ;)

Right now, I just need to get the word out. I have a list of sites I'm going to request a link to but if you can think of any others, send them along. Other than that, tell your friends! If you have a friend that has a dog, please pass the site along to them. If you have a website, add a link to the site. If you have small pet supply stores in your area, send me their name and address so I can visit them.

I know I'm asking a lot, especially if you don't know me personally but I can't put into words just how much I would appreciate any help! Word of mouth is the *best* way to advertise it so really, I just need you to talk about it. :)

I need to go pass out now. I'll blog tomorrow about some other really cool things that have happened or will happen with the site.

Don't forget - Tweakstugs.com ;)

D

months of updates...

2009-03-21T12:39:00.003-04:00

Ok, not months because I just don't have the memory capacity for that but it's still an update.

I am soooooo close to getting the site live it's not even funny. Expect to see a Woohoo!! post within the next week. I can't even begin to explain what a pain in the ass this process has been but I'll summarize.

I hired a couple of consultants to help me figure out some weird stuff. The first consultant helped identify a corrupt install of the CMS & shopping cart. I thought that was all set and was ready to customize it to how I wanted. Some of the things I wanted I didn't have the programming skills to do myself. I don't write PHP so I hired another consultant to help with that. I got scammed - hard. After a day and a half of getting it the way I wanted, the consultant deleted *everything* off of my server claiming I needed yet *another* re-install.

ARGH!!! Not only did he delete all of the store stuff, he deleted my mail, my databases, my private files - everything. I could barely log in and called my hosting company, literally, in tears. *Thankfully* they had a backup that was just 2 hours old and put everything back where it was. Whew!

Nothing in life is perfect, however, and I ended up needing to re-install the CMS & shopping cart *again* - of course losing ALL of the customizations I had just paid the consultant to do. Fucker.

I seriously considered tossing my hat in and calling it a day with the website at this point. Thankfully my stubbornness turned into a boon and I started from scratch, again, determined to get it up and running come hell or high water - both things I have experience with and have overcome. ;)

No consultants this time, just me. I re-installed everything and got it all up and running, cleanly, not corrupted and customized!

Right now there's a blank page hiding the real deal. As soon as the photographer takes pictures of the remaining examples I gave her yesterday, the site will be live. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of happy dance I'll be doing once that happens!!

I have a list of sites I need to contact to see if they'll link to me, I have a bunch of places to visit to see if they'll sell my product. I have a few other designs in the works that need to be dog tested (any takers?) I have more supplies to order, customizations to make to the notification emails (because they're butt ugly), but all of that can be done after the site goes live.

Can you see what's been taking up my time lately? Hopefully it'll be worth it. :)

I plan on sending emails to every person I know - word of mouth advertising is everything. Even if you don't plan on using them, spread the word!

There will be a big sigh of relief when I can actually do other stuff (besides looking for a job - I've been doing that the whole time too).

Of course I'll launch the site live and will cry my eyes out when I don't get an order that first day. :p

Enough of that - I'll look forward to as much feedback as you care to give - both good and bad - when it goes live so *please* don't be shy and leave comments!

The kids are doing well. Millie gets more and more creaky every day so I've ordered some supplements that will be good for her and the other kids. The puppy is growing big! He's such a sweetheart and is a lot of fun to play with, until his distracted mind notices the wall or something. He'll get it - I hear it takes a little longer with the mixes.

Freddie has gone up in the flyball Miniature Pinscher ratings and is the 3rd Min Pin in the sport, for now. I say for now because monthly tourney season is about to hit and I'm sure the younger dogs will soon whup his ass in points. I take every victory I can get with my 10 yo man.

I had to take a picture of Tweak for her animal actor portfolio and it came out *awesome*! I guess there's a very specific shot they use and I was pretty darn close to it. A dog food company is looking for a pair of Border Collies for a commercial next month and she's one of the dogs being submitted for the job. Fingers crossed she gets it because the household could use the extra money!

Let's see - we're heading to a flyball tourney in PA the 1st weekend in April, Millie, Tweak and I will be returning as the Tricks demo for the Mass School of Law's Animal Rights day in April. I'm working with Tweak on some new moves for freestyle and hope to be able to go for some private training in April as well. I also hope to get her herding again very soon.

The boys (Freddie & Pacie) had another photo shoot with Pet Edge for their catalog this month. Can't wait to see what comes out of that.

I know I've mentioned this service before but I just have to rave about it again - Freecycle! My bread machine died and I was able to pick up another one from someone who doesn't ever use it. Today I'm meeting with some people to grab a crib/toddler mattress that they no longer need. Millie needs the extra support for those creaky bones! I went to one of those baby stores and couldn't believe the mattresses were like $60-$80! A lot for a dog bed. But, we're getting one for free today and, most importantly, keeping it out of a landfill for a while longer.

Since the site stuff has slowed down, I'm spending the weekend getting my house in order - dishes done, floors swept and washed, shit put away, pictures hung, etc. I guess my spring cleaning has started. I *hate* cleaning but like how everything looks when it's done. I'm even aiming to be able to see the kitchen table today!

D

Millie on SNL..

2009-03-18T00:33:00.001-04:00

I was trying to find this video and couldn't. I could've sworn I added it here! I'm probably too tired or too stupid to find it. Anyway, here's Millie on SNL last year.

Millie's 1.5 seconds of fame on Saturday Night Live 9/29/2008

I'm going to bed. Will *try* to write more frequently. :)

D

presidential address to congress

2009-02-24T21:16:00.002-05:00

I'm watching Obama's presidential address to congress. I don't know if I'll have any thoughts or questions but if I do, I'll type them out as I have them.

Boy I hope they'll stop clapping so he can speak.

Lord I wish I could stop coughing - I'm blocking him out more than the applause is.

I'm not sure American workers are the hardest working people on earth. I know we like to think we are, but I'm not really sure that's the case since there are people that work 14+ hours in a day, every day, for less than $1 a day. Just sayin'.

I'm not sure laying broadband is equal to alternative energy sources but I'm also not against it being the online junky that I am.

Did I just see McCain in the audience?

Recovery.gov - a website the public can use to track recovery spending.

I like that interest rates are lower but how can someone who's been laid off take advantage of that?

Buy fancy drapes? Is there a CEO-buying-fancy-drapes epidemic that I haven't heard about?

I bet his approval rating goes up every time he speaks publicly.

Please stop standing up and clapping, half of the audience can't take the increase in exercise and might injure themselves.

Energy, health care and education - that's a good start.

Who was Biden pointing to?

Clean coal? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Who was the injured military man sitting next to Mrs. Biden? How was he injured?

Why do I notice and wonder about things like that?

Wow. I can't believe he spoke about a cure for cancer - that's a freakin' huge goal.

If people don't stand up while applauding does that mean they don't agree or that they just don't want to stand?

Did I just hear boo's when he said Senator Edward Kennedy?

I thought Millie was growling at the puppy but it turns out she was snoring. :p

What programs do we lose if we cut 2 trillion from the budget?

I think I just saw a congressman chewing gum - isn't that inappropriate?

The checks are on the way he says. I haven't got mine, have you?

I think it's kinda gutsy for him to include the cost of the war in the money total.

If we honor our military men and women, does that mean we'll take care of the veterans that have brought us here today?

Obama just said we would. One can hope.

Quantanamo bay is being closed and we'll no longer torture terrorists. Not that I'm for it but I wonder how much information we'll lose.

"In our hands lies the ability to shape our world..." Yup.

Mentioning Greensburg - makes me think he's serious about alternative fuels and energy.

If it's not an "official" State of the Union, is he going to give an "official" one at some point?

How come I don't see any secret service personnel? Do they just blend that well?

Nevermind, I see them now.

I wish I could get one of the programs they handed out. That would be pretty damn cool.

Overall I think his speech was hopeful yet still realistic. I hope he can accomplish all that he hopes to. I also hope there can be true bipartisan cooperation in getting this country back on its feet.

Since I've been sick I've been going through the West Wing seasons like they're cough drops so I like to think I have a tiny bit of a clue on what some of the negotiations are potentially like. :p

Ok, back to the West Wing.

D

ahhh...flyball

2009-02-13T21:59:00.003-05:00

This weekend I get to play flyball and I couldn't be more excited. :) Friends from Canada have come down and friends from the PA area have come up. It'll be hectic and tiring but oh so worth it!

I hired a consultant to help me figure out what I was doing wrong with the business site. As it turns out, it wasn't me at all! I had been doing everything right but my CMS install was corrupted so it wasn't parsing the information correctly. I'm bummed that I had to hire a consultant for that but pretty stoked that it wasn't something I was doing wrong. I have another session with him next week. Fingers crossed that it will *finally* be up and running next week.

I'm fighting off a cold, which sucks. Good that I'm still fighting it, sucky that I'll probably succumb to it after I push myself to the limit this weekend. Bleh.

Ok, I have to potty the dogs and hit the hay so I can get plenty of sleep yet still get up early.

D

just to shut Sarah up

2009-02-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

I don't have a ton of time, I need to get on the road but we can't have a cranky Sarah so here's a little something-something to tide you over. I'll *try* to remember to post via cell phone while gone.

I'm off to New Jersey to work on a few things and hang out. We'll be doing a lot of camp planning and of course a lot of dog stuff. I was planning on getting down there on Monday but I had water coming in from my ceiling fan and had to get that fixed. Then I ran out of hot water and it wasn't coming back so I had to get that fixed. The guys are finishing up as I type. They had to replace some stupid part. Whatever, I just want to shower because I can't quite put into words just how much it's needed right now.

Still working on the website. I realized I don't have a few pictures I need so I'll have to make the products and get pictures taken quickly. If it's ready to go up before I have the pictures done, oh well, it's still going. One of the reasons I'm heading down to NJ is to finalize the addition of some other products I'm licensing the rights for. This official business stuff sucks, I'm just saying.

I'm only going to be in NJ until Sunday. I have a disc dog meeting so I'm hitting that on the way home. Why did I say I'd do this? Sigh.

Anyway, the most important thing is Camp. We'll be working on what new classes to teach, who's teaching what, etc. etc. For all of my local friends, I want to see some New England people representing this year!! There's a couple that come down from VT and have a freakin' ball so save up your pennies and come and have fun with me this year!!

Tweak ran a few races this weekend and I think she did pretty well! It's so freakin' hard watching your own dog while you're trying to run her. We didn't have extra people so there was no one to see how the pups were doing. The photographer got a few pictures of Tweak on the box and I'm thrilled to report that it looked like she was holding it together. Scott said she was chucking up at the box so she could set herself up properly. I think experience will help her with that. Fingers crossed anyway.

I watched the news last night and was quickly reminded as to why I don't watch the news anymore. What inane drivel. I had to shut if off after a few minutes. I really don't think that a drug to make your eyelashes grow should be national news. I mean seriously. wtf?

Ok, the guys are done and I'm off to shower - finally!

D

night owl

2009-01-27T00:30:00.002-05:00

I'm naturally a night owl. If I don't have a schedule to follow, I'll stay up late and wake up late. Guess who's going back into her night owl ways? :)

The dogs are a little off schedule with that as their morning routine is later than normal. They don't seem to mind all that much, which is good.

The bad part about being home all the time is that I can hear just how many times the heat goes on during the day. Yikes!! Trust me when I say you don't want to know how often it is on these really cold days. I'm not even turning the heat up either, just letting the programmable thermostat take care of it like it normally would. I do have a blanket in the office tho' to keep me warm as I waste time on FaceBook. Damn site.

It's 12:36am and I'm watching Paranormal State. I probably shouldn't watch ghost stories before bed but they aren't scary at all. I love the gay medium, he's the absolute best!

I saw a commercial for the movie Taken today. I want to watch it but I'm afraid there might be some startling moments and I need someone with me to grab on to if I get scared. I can't stand scary movies by myself... my imagination really is that good. :p

The funny part is I used to *love* to get scared. I used to watch scary movies in the dark. My father would come up behind me and startle me during a really intense moment. I would, of course, scream and then start laughing - I loved it! Now, not so much. I have no idea why it changed.

The business website is coming along pretty nicely. Most of the products are loaded in. I have to create the navigation and test the credit card integration. I am not storing any credit card numbers, I'm sending them all through PayPal. I don't have the knowledge or experience to safely keep that stuff so I'm leaving it to the experts.

I'm not sure how I worked a full-time job with all the appointments and stuff I have going on. Sheesh! Today I went to the eye doctor, tomorrow I have that outplacement thing-a-majig, Wednesday is something I can't remember. Ugh.

I'm off to go read a bit before bed.

D

house stuff

2009-01-23T17:46:00.002-05:00

I rearranged my desk and tossed everything that was on it on the love seat. What? The desk is still clean! Anyway, I started going through the piles of piles (because I'm quite the piler) and I found a bunch of post its stuck together that I haven't seen in a while. Ok, fine, they were lost in one of the piles, happy?

I wrote down a list of all the things I wanted to do to the house right after I bought it. Actually, I think I started the list when I was walking around with the house inspector. Regardless, I've been adding to it and crossing things out over the years.

House list

~~tile bathroom floor~~
~~replace toilet~~
~~replace bathroom sink~~
~~add garbage disposal~~
~~rip up living room rug~~
~~install flashing~~
~~install gutters~~
~~insulate attic~~
replace floor registers
~~replace wall intake cover~~
~~replace broken toilet paper holder~~
~~replace sections of deck~~
~~install pool~~
~~remove wallpaper in bedroom~~
replace screens
~~install Atrium screen~~
replace back door
~~replace pipes under kitchen sink~~
~~replace stove~~
replace kitchen floor
replace rotted wood in Atrium door
add door to office
~~get gate for deck~~
~~get 1/2 door for cellar~~ - NO
~~dryloc cellar~~ - NO
~~replace locks~~
replace ripped screen (cellar)
~~replace ripped screen (front door)~~
~~install programmable thermostat~~
~~add fencing section~~
plant trees
extend sump pump hoses
~~rewire house~~
~~replace bathroom switch~~
~~replace kitchen and office ceiling fans~~
~~add closet doors~~
fix under deck (yeah right!)
~~fix fence near wall~~
add fence blocking driveway
new baseboard
~~paint bedrrom~~
add baseboard
install fireplace
~~rip off bathroom tile~~
rip off kitchen tile
~~replace motion lights~~
~~add wainscoting to bathroom~~
~~replace soffit~~
add heat/ice melter on roof
paint kitchen
refinish LR baseboard
~~clean cellar~~
replace hinge on big kitchen door
~~add threshold in living room~~
~~build bookcase in living room~~
~~install attic ladder~~
~~replace kitchen window~~
~~build closet~~
~~add cellar door~~
~~add motion light for the back door~~
~~add outlet in attic~~
~~replace cracked vinyl siding~~
install hot tub

All in all I think I've done pretty good over the last 4 years. Just giving myself a pat on the back.

D

lunch...

2009-01-22T19:28:00.002-05:00

I have an appointment in my phone for 12:30pm tomorrow. Lunch @ Bamboo. I have no freakin' clue in the world who it's with. I hate my phone calendar. If it's with you, please let me know.

I did pick up a planner to keep on my desk tho'. I knew there was something else I was supposed to get but couldn't remember what it is - until I got home, of course. Yup, the good old wall calendar. One could ask why I feel the need to have two planning devices. The reason is simple. I'm a freakin' moron. Or did you not figure that out from the 1st paragraph?

Ash has been doing really well on his training. I swear, there's no way better to bond with a dog than training him or her. I love him, but I'm starting to love him even more now. Training rocks. Since I have the time, I'll try to capture more of his training on video and post it online.

I'm still struggling with the stupid website. I can't get the cart to connect to Joomla properly. Looks like tomorrow will be spent combing through the forums on each of the software sites trying to find a solution. So much for it being online by the end of the week. :p Damn thing. I think I'm getting closer though.

I have no plans for the weekend and I'm going to try and keep it that way. Instead, I think I'm going to try and clean this dump. The living room is the only room partially under control. I rearranged my desk yesterday and I feel so much better about this little area. Now I just have to do something with everything I took off the desk. :p I think the shredder is going to get a huge workout. I have to get this place under control because even *I* can't stand to be here. Plus, I don't have work to escape to anymore. :p

I have some web stuff in the works, some sites that have been started and will soon be finished. Just in time to add them to my portfolio before looking for another job. If you know of anyone looking to have web work done, send them my way.

I had lunch today with a co-worker that I wasn't able to hook up with before leaving. We didn't talk about work *at all*, which was really nice. Instead we talked about her husband being on TV, how her kids are doing, how the business and the dogs are doing, etc., etc. It was good and I hope we stay in touch.

Now that I have some time off, I'm trying to figure out when I can get the time to go on a few small trips. I definitely plan on spending some time in NJ, that's a given. But I'm also trying to schedule a trip to MI to spend some quality disc time with Ron & April. It's a really long drive so I don't want to just go for a weekend but a little longer. With flyball tourneys every other weekend in Feb, I think it'll be tougher than I thought to find the time. Maybe my new planner can help me figure it out. :)

My brother is leaving for Florida tomorrow. I stopped by his new place tonight to pick up a key so I can feed her. I'm not sure I knew he had a cat before this trip. Apparently he picked her up from the shelter over a year ago. Her name is Abigail. I don't know if my not knowing about her shows how bad a communicator my brother is or how bad a sister I am for not asking. Probably both.

D

it's the wish, not the word

2009-01-20T20:14:00.002-05:00

I don't belong to a mainstream religion. I also don't sneer when someone says "God Bless You" to me.

I don't get offended when someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Easter or any other religious holiday saying.

It's not the words that are important, it's the well wishing that are behind them. Who cares what specific words are used? I don't.

That was my conclusion after watching the inauguration of President-elect, now President, Barack Obama. It was a weird kind of segue, one that I'm not sure I can even explain.

I thoroughly enjoy listening to him speak. He captivates me with his unique style and concise pronunciation. He could be reading a menu and I'd be hooked. He had a lot of really good sound bites too- phrases that will be repeated, hopefully, for years to come.

If he can accomplish even a 10th of what he'd like, I'll be impressed and thrilled that we're on the path to fixing all things broke.

Some observations of today's event:

- George Bush didn't look pleased at all. I wonder what he was thinking through all of that?

- Bill Clinton is really wearing his age and not in a good way.

- I don't give a rat's ass about Aretha Franklin's hat. Jeez people! We just made history!

- I thought the respect shown to the Bushes by walking them out to the helicopter was extremely admirable. I was impressed that a) it was done and b) that it was one of his first actions as president. Regardless of what you feel about either of them, you have to admit that that was a cool thing to do.

- Apparently I can't listen to the national anthem without tearing up. (Should that be capitalized?)

- I knew who Yo Yo Ma was because he was in a West Wing episode. (I'm not sure if he was *actually* in the episode but he was supposed to play for the president in it.)

- I've never seen so much fur in an audience before. Are only rich people invited to sit in that top area?

Today was officially Day One of unemployment. Yesterday was a holiday and I would've had it off anyway so I'm not really counting that. I worked on the website, got frustrated, uninstalled everything, reinstalled everything, got frustrated some more and then gave up for the night. Productive? Hardly.

I've decided that I actually need to leave the house tomorrow, unfortunately. I haven't been out of the house since the last snow storm since some bastard stole my shovel and I couldn't dig out. Not that I really wanted to go anywhere anyway. But I have a dr's appointment that I can't miss and I need a wall calendar and a small planner. I can't keep track of everything I have to do and the calendar on my phone blows. I'll have to see if there's an app I can grab for it but since I lost my outlook calendar too, I need to have something in front of me telling me what to do. It's amazing that I have so much to do now that I have nothing to do!

D

One more day...

2009-01-15T21:49:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is my last day at work. All in all I think I'm handling this pretty darn well - almost like a grown up or something. Yesterday and today were a little tough tho', having people come in to say good bye. It's the hugs that get me every freakin' time and leave me a little teary eyed - especially when the people come in with those telltale shiny eyes. Ugh. That's when it's tough.

I sent out my email to a select group and hope they (and I) keep in touch. We'll see... you know how people lose track of each other over time.

I have a meeting at 10:30am, then will go over my package with HR and then that's it for me. I'll come home, play with the puppy, screw around on the computer for a bit before heading to the Irish bar to meet whomever wants to have a few drinks.

Since I have the time, I'll be heading to lunch with a few people next week that I didn't get a chance to hang out with before leaving. I'm waiting for Susan to get back from vacation before deciding when to go hang out down there for a week. If I push it out far enough, we might be able to squeeze in a few classes or something, which certainly wouldn't hurt. :)

For those of you not on FB, here are a couple of pics from a photo session with Furry Moments Pet Photography. I'm rebuilding her site next week so it'll be better then. :p

Signing off...

D

ooops - almost forgot...

2009-01-13T23:21:00.002-05:00

The latest tattoo...

D

Laid off

2009-01-13T20:15:00.003-05:00

Friday is my last day at *****. I can't say I'll miss being there because I really, really won't!

I don't think I'm a "government" kind of person. I like to think outside the box and actually get shit done instead of just writing about how I want to get shit done. To me there's a big difference. My boss can certainly talk the talk but after a year he still has nothing to show for it. Well, except for laying me off that is.

I was there for 8 years (look at me already speaking in past tense). I went through a lot of stuff there and in general since I first started. After leaving Lotus/IBM, I didn't want to work for another big company. My Dad talked me into it. :p When I could work and actually get stuff done, I was happy and had no desire to leave. About a year and a half ago, that changed and I've progressively grown unhappier with every passing day. This is the perfect ticket out for me - I get a little bit of severance to tide me over while I look for a new job - one in a smaller company where people say Hi to you in the morning and you got out to lunch together once in a while and you aren't debating between slitting your wrists or getting ready for work. I think I could even work at McDonald's and be happier than I was there. Which very well may be the case with the economy tanking the way it is. :p

But, I have some stuff lined up to do. I have 4 websites to build, I have some dog sitting and private dog training to do and of course, first and foremost, I have to get the business up and running. I'm sooooo close! I'm picking up the CD of images this week and will have alllll of next week to work on it. I'm hoping against all hope that it goes even half as smoothly as I think it will. Of course I just cursed myself with that but ah well. :)

I think the part I'll miss the most is not being able to go to school. I'll have to see if Baker has any scholarships for out of work people. :p

I started bringing shit home from work so I wouldn't have to do it all on Friday. It's amazing how much shit you can accumulate in 8 years. Sheesh. I don't even know what I'm going to do with it all, which means that while I'm not looking for another job, I'm be freecycling, recycling and tossing shit out.

The two main goals I have besides the business is to clean off the kitchen table and my desk. It would be amazing to be able to see both of those surfaces at some point in the next 3 months.

Some of the benefits: the dogs are going to love, Love, LOVE having me home during the day, I'll save money on gas, I'll have time to clean the house, I'll be able to get my laundry under control once again, the puppy will be properly house broken in weeks, I can come up with a freestyle routine and actually train Tweak to do it properly (still need a song dammit) and I can go for long walks/hikes with the active ones! Not to mention that I won't have to get up at any certain time, deal with people I seriously dislike or put up with my boss's bullshit anymore.

The downside: money. I have to make sure I'm not spending needlessly until I get another job. Thank dog I ordered and paid for that flyball box months ago. :p Priorities y'know...

D

I'm in love...

2009-01-06T22:19:00.002-05:00

...and I'm not even talking about my dogs. :p

I am in love with Arizona's Pomegranate Green Tea Iced Tea mix. I think I've gone through 3 containers of it in the past week and a half. I swear I drink about a gallon of it a day. If you try it and get addicted, don't blame me. I warned ya.

So I was actually kind of productive today. I got one of the sink bowl full of dishes done, which is huge for me. I also got the Xmas tree un-ornamented and taken down. It hasn't made it downstairs yet and probably won't until tomorrow but that's still pretty good.

I have a Border Collie laying across my shoulders and neck like a stole right now. Gods I love that dog!!

I've been trying new toys with the puppy, trying to find the one he prefers for tuggin'. The little bugger won't make up his mind so I have 8 kinds if tugs in every room of the house. I pray that he makes up his mind soon although it probably won't happen until he gets his big boy teeth in.

It's funny how it seems like I just got Tweak a short time ago and it feels like I've had Ash for forever. I wonder why that is. Is that a bad thing?

Tomorrow I'll put the Xmas tree away and work on being able to see the top of the kitchen table. At this point the pile o' crap on top of it is close to a foot tall. Yeah, it's time for some kind of organizational system for stuff coming in the house. Or, I could just not bring anything in the house. I like that idea.

Bedtime!

D

chortling

2009-01-05T21:23:00.003-05:00

So my new puppy makes the craziest damn sounds you've ever heard.

One of the first days I had him I swore someone had him in a noose and way. Apparently that's called chortling. I call it scary and have vowed never to be 5 minutes late for his meal ever again.

Somehow I have to clean this pit of a house by Thursday. Sue & Mary are coming over to play with the puppy, get some product-in-use shots for the business and get take some pics of the puppy. How that is going to happen, I haven't the foggiest idea since I couldn't even manage to get some of the dishes done tonight.

I did, however, manage to play with the puppy lots! I think Ash has learned that biting my face isn't nearly as much fun as biting the tug toy. Probably not but one can hope.

The toy I got Zeke for Xmas freakin' rocked! Who's the best Auntie John in the world? I am! People say you can't buy love... clearly they haven't had the opportunity to give gifts to kids because you most certainly can with the most rockin' of toys! The Roboraptor was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time and I have no idea how I'm going to top that for his birthday. I'll figure it out. Going back to the toy, it was so cool I'm even thinking of getting a few for myself!

I'm thinking of the robopet or dawg and/or the robo/femisapien. I probably won't but it would be cute for a bit - until it became Millie's chew toy.

Saturday I'm planning my birthday dinner/drinkfest. There's a potential for some drunk tattooing too, but I have to check in with Ken and see what he has for plans.

Sunday I'm heading to the World of Wheels with Glen & Elissa. I was supposed to go to Monster Jam with them in Feb but can't because of a flyball tournament. :( I love flyball but I love Monster Jam too. I hate that they're on the same weekend.

It's time to go read, I'm bored with writing.

D

This one's for Sarah

2009-01-04T10:47:00.002-05:00

Because god forbid she should be bored at work and have nothing at all to read. :p

I guess I've been going through one of my don't-feel-like-writing spurts. Well, that and I'm chasing after a 10 week old puppy and exercising my 2 year old Border Collie so it's been a little busy. Add in the holidays... you get the picture.

I'm not even sure I can remember everything that's happened over the past month or two - there's been so much!

Yesterday we went to a one-day flyball tournament in Manchester, NH. Freddie did very well all day and earned his 9th flyball title - ONYX. I'm so proud of my little man and he was beyond thrilled with the plain double cheeseburger he got as a reward! I'd like to get one more title on him but we'll see what happens. He is 10 and the next title is 10k points away. Fingers crossed!

I picked up my new puppy the day after my niece was born. Short of winning the lottery, there really wasn't any chance that week could get any better! I'm still deciding on a kennel (long) name but his call (everyday) name is Acheron or Ash for short. It's based on a character in a series I read and fits in with the whole phoenix tattoo theme.

I posted about my niece, she's a cutie! There really isn't a whole bunch you can do with them at this age since all they do is eat, shit and sleep but wait until she gets older! I'll be dragging her to flyball and monster jam shows in no time. Korn will also be one of her favorite bands. :p

A couple of weeks ago I was told there was a 90% chance I would be laid off in January. I was upset about it at first, now I'm seriously looking forward to it. There are a number of things I have/want to do and that would certainly allow me to do them while looking for another job. I wrote that I was itching for change and bam! here it is! I'm actually quite excited about it now!

Tweak & I went to a toss & fetch competition on New Years Day. We ran in the Pro division for the first time and did A-ok. We were tied for 3rd place but didn't get it as the other person had one more successful throw than I. Ah well. At least I didn't get spanked across the field.

Speaking of the other half of my heart, I have to start working on this year's freestyle routine with her. I wish I was better at it - she would rock hard with someone who knew what the hell they were doing! Step one, pick a damn song! Suggestions are welcome. :)

Today I'm heading to Glen & Elissa's to hand off some annoying Xmas presents that I'm sure the kids will be thrilled with. Probably not so much for Glen & Elissa. Ah well. That's just the kind of "Auntie John" that I am. :)

The business stuff is taking far longer than I thought it would. I was hoping to have everything up mid-November but considering I just got the product picture options over the holidays, I blew by that date. Now I'm hoping for end of January but think sometime in Feb is more feasible unfortunately. Of course, getting laid off would help get that up and running much more quickly!!

Was that long enough for ya Sarah? :p

D

I have a new niece!

2008-12-17T07:32:00.001-05:00

Layla Dawn was born this morning at 3:45am. Coming in at 7 lbs., 14 oz., she has a chubby little angelic face.

More info soon!

D

more stuff...

2008-12-02T20:18:00.002-05:00

....but I don't mean "stuff" this time, I mean what's been going on.

I got my hair colored. All the ends look like they're haloed in candy apple red. It's actually quite fitting for the season! Faith threw some short layers in there and cut off about 3 inches in the back so it's still long. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell.

Thanksgiving was good. I cooked some of the veggies so we were ready to go before the turkey was done. We had a good time and my very pregnant sister sat there and looked very pregnant. :)

Right after Thanksgiving dinner I came home and demolished the shower walls. A previous home owner cemented this laminated board stuff over the tiles in the shower area. I don't like pink either, but I don't think I would've gotten rid of it that way. So, I ripped it all off. I love demolition!!

My b-i-l ripped down the wall board behind the tile because it was regular blue board and not cement board like it should've been. He replaced it with cement board and then completely tiled the shower area in white. I can't even begin to describe how much better it looks now.

I've had a lot of stuff going on in the house. The bookcase, which has been done for a while, is now shellacked and full of books. Not surprisingly, there isn't enough room for all that I have. I now have a closet closing off the drop to the cellar stairs that is, I think, completely finished. I'm not sure if he has some sanding left to do but eventually I'll have to paint it and then I can hang stuff in there. The wainscoting is up in the bathroom and it looks really good. I have to fill in the nail holes and paint the trim, but that's pretty much done. Next week the kitchen window is being replaced and the living room threshold installed.

I'm rearranging the living room because apparently I can't just do one thing at a time. Yesterday Susan said I couldn't sit still and I thought she was crazy. I love doing nothing on the couch! Apparently she's right tho'. Dammit.

I went to Montreal for a flyball tournament last weekend. Tweak ended up having the squirts Friday night so Jo & I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep because of it. That sucked. There were a number of things wrong with the venue, like the potty area being so far away the dogs couldn't make it and ended up peeing on the floor. Twice I had to pick up Freddie and hold him like a baby to stop him from pooping. Freddie is a housebroken dog, he doesn't just poop anywhere. Suffice it to say we survived the weekend, barely and were thankful to get on the road around 5pm. I hit a snow/ice/sleet storm on the way home and my 4 hour drive ended up taking 6 1/2 hours. The weekend started out wonderfully too as I had forgotten the dogs rabies certificates and had to turn around when I was 1/2 hour away from home. Then I couldn't find them, had to have the vet fax them to me, had to figure out how to hook up the stupid printer that does faxing, etc., etc.
Freddie was 653 points away from his next title and we were 30 short so he didn't get it. There were just so many things....

I don't think I have anything going on this weekend but practice, which will be nice. I plan on catching up with Tivo the next couple of nights since it has been severly neglected the last couple of weeks. I need to make another appt. to take Tweak herding sometime when it isn't cold enough to freeze my girls off. And, as always, I have lots of cleaning to do. Lots. Tons. Ugh.

D

"stuff"

2008-12-02T19:40:00.002-05:00

I've been re-arranging things in the office (for the business) and the living room (because I'm stupid). I got rid of one of the bookcases in the office, the other I'll use for supplies. I gave away a ton of books through Freecycle (the best way to get rid of good "stuff" ever invented) and moved everything I wanted to keep into the new bookcase in the living room.

First I should mention that I'm a piler. When I have "stuff" and I don't know what to do with it, I put it in a pile. Piles of piles everywhere. I don't know how to get out of that really crappy habit so I'm forever surrounded by piles of "stuff".

While cleaning out the bookcase, I found a couple of... wait for it... piles. I started going through the piles and made 4 piles out of them ('cuz that's what you do when you're a piler...) - recycle, throw away, put away & examine further. I dealt with the first 3 and went back to the 4th. I found 3 old address/date books. I wondered why the heck I kept them since I'm sure none of the numbers are good anymore. One of them was so old it didn't have area codes. (Remember when we didn't have to dial an area code for the same city?)

I started looking through them and remembered why I never threw them away - memories. Looking back through some of the names, I was remembering the people and wondering how they're doing. Some of them I still know and still talk to, most, however, I don't.

I found a datebook from 2000. If you asked me what I did in 2000 I'd look at you with a blank stare. How the hell would I, who has the worst memory in the world, remember anything about the year 2000? That's why I kept them.

I was dating John in the beginning of 2000 but apparently we broke up that year because I started dating Jim in August. Glen & Elissa's annual BBQ was on August 27th that year. Mario & Cathy had a BBQ on May 28th. Glen & Elissa were married on June 3rd. I saw Kiss in concert on June 13th - 2nd row center seats baby - that rocked! I saw Ichabod and Tree on September 22nd. Every week there was something written - some band I saw, a night out with the girls, even what days I worked.

I rescued and placed the following dogs: Rhythym, Blues, Petie, Zeek, Max, Freddy (not my Freddie), Regis, Roxy, Captain, Duke Nuken, Ludo, Duke, Dino, Spanky, Lady, Tramp, Rex, Shelby, Seven, Bao Bao, Joey, Willy, Dallas, Sadie, Tilly, Mr. Peabody, Rosie, Mork, Mindy, Thor, Baby, Honey, Lucky, Frasier, Buzz, Pixie, Dixie, Scotty, Gracie, Janey, Sundance, Kid, Elvis, Dudley, Lucy and Max.

I don't have a place for these things but I guess I'll have to make one. Memories are kind of cool so I guess not all "stuff" is bad.

D

blogging...

2008-11-26T00:59:00.002-05:00

As I attempt to type, I have a Border Collie gently rubbing her face against mine. She's so damn sweet that my heart swells when she comes near me. I love her dearly, but she makes a far better door than a window.

I'm going to the salon tomorrow so I can get my hair done in a funky cool way. I have 5 different shades of red so we'll see what we come up with. Now I just have to figure out how to get it cut. To chop or not to chop, that is the question.

I'm working from home before and after my appointment. Typically I'm ridiculously productive while working from home. There isn't any of that wink, wink, nudge, nudge type of working from home either. I mean, it's the real deal, typically. But, I think tomorrow isn't going to be as productive as I am normally. I have a ton of stuff to do and I'm running out of time. I'm hoping to get some stuff done, like boil some of the veggies and bake an apple pie. I also have to get stuff together for the weekend, which I can do after turkey day.

For turkey day I'll be heading to my sister's house where Iyman & Keith will cook the turkey and Dad & I will make everything else. It's low key and a good time, just my kind of day. I have to remember to bring Scene It so we can play that at some point... as long as my very pregnant sister is still awake that is.

I'm exhausted and going to bed.

D

draggin' ass...

2008-11-24T15:31:00.003-05:00

Man am I tired today. I feel like I could go to sleep, for the night, right now. That's never a good thing at 3pm.

So real quick 'cuz I'm not all chatty right now, Tweak did so much better than I was expecting at her herding lesson on Saturday. I doubt she'll ever be phenomenal at it but she's trainable and if she enjoys it, we'll do it. Sarah can speak to the details using all the right jargon about eyes and whatever else. She got to meet sheep, circle the herd a bit and eat sheep poop. In a dog's world, it doesn't get much better than that I suppose. The rest of the kids were in the car and unable to partake in the sheep poop. Oh well.

I got down to Joisey around 8:30 or so Sat night, ate dinner with Kara, Erich & Miyuki, had a couple of brewskies, walked the pups and went to bed. Thrilling stuff.

Competed on Sunday - didn't expect to walk away with anything to be honest. We came home with a 3rd place in Spot Landing, 3rd place in D/A, 2nd place in Time Trial and an overall 2nd place in Time Trial for the weekend. I thought it was pretty cool that we were faster than all of Saturday's times and took it for overall. We got a pretty medal thing for that one.

Back to work so I can blow this popsicle stand sometime tonight.

D

hump day...

2008-11-19T13:47:00.002-05:00

The seasons are changing and I am anxious for a change as well. I feel restless deep down but have no idea why or what to do about it. Maybe it's because I was on the go for the entire summer and now that fall is here things are slowing down a bit. That could be it. Regardless I'm itching for change.

So, I'm going in to get my hair done next week. It will be wild and vibrant and different. I'm looking for a new hair style too so if you see any that you'd think would be good for me, send it along! I'm kind of limited since I still want it long but I think it will be considerably shorter after next week. I'm really in the mood for change. I'm hoping chopping it off and coloring it will sate the unexplainable itch - it has in the past....

I'm going away with the pups this weekend and next. This weekend I'll be in CT on Saturday for Tweak's first herding lesson. I think that will be very interesting! She herds the Min Pins around the house but usually barks like an ass when she sees a strange animal. I don't know how much herding instinct she has or if it will override her bark-at-them-and-run thing. I can't wait!! Sarah's meeting me down there too I'll be able to see what her dogs too. Oh! And I'll get to meet Tweak's sire! I totally forgot about that. Cool. :)

After we're done herding, I'm driving down to NJ. I'm staying with Kara & Erich at their place on Saturday night and will head to the Meadowlands Pet Expo in Secaucus, NJ for a disc dog competition on Sunday. Unfortunately I'll have a long ride home but ah well. It'll be fun. :)

Next Wed is hair day and Thurs is Thanksgiving. The new tradition is for me and my dad to cook everything over my sister's house while her husband and my brother fry the turkey. I'm going to try and get as much done as I can beforehand so it's not such a rush at the end. Thursday night and Friday morning I plan on demo'ing the shower so my b-i-l can replace the tile. Every piece of tile in the house is pink or maroon and I'm determined to rid myself of every single on of them. After that, I'll pack up the car with stuff and dogs and head up to Montreal for a flyball tournament. I'm looking forward to it! I think I'm going through withdrawals or something it's been so long!

D

pictures...

2008-11-15T21:06:00.007-05:00

The summer is such a blur to me that I don't remember what I've posted for pictures during that time. I was looking through them tonight to pull some out for a friend when I noticed a couple of cool ones and thought I'd share.

This isn't a particularly good flower picture but it looks like it is crying. I can't believe I missed this one before. Kinda neat.

Look at the color of this flower. I want my hair that color next time. Amazing.

These are my chive flowers. Pretty for an herb!

You can see how neglected my garden got this summer when I wasn't there by the plethora of green weeds in the background. But good lord, would you look at the color of this flower?! I want my hair *that* color!!!!

Early morning, a dragonfly sunning itself on the screen house. I don't know why I like these bugs but I do - enough to have a tattoo of one anyway.

I didn't take as many pictures this year as I have in the past. I'll have to rectify that next year...

D

Having that feeling again...

2008-11-13T17:21:00.002-05:00

...that not-quite-normal-feeling because I don't have the kid thing going on. Every once in a while it rears its ugly head and I have to talk myself out of feeling defective. I know I'm not, or at least my brain/mind knows I'm not. But times like this make me wonder. Where the fuck does this feeling come from?

I like my friend's kids. I like my nephew and soon-to-be niece. But I only like them if they behave. I'm not a fan of the out of control, won't listen to no one, do whatever they want, have no care in the world, never had a consequence in his/her life type of kids. I dislike the little assholes and I'm not afraid to say it.

Basically, I don't like them if they act like me. :p I'm just kidding. Trust me when I say I've learned what consequences are. The hard way. Each time.

I'll get over it, I always do.

And I won't give a flying that my profile pictures always have dogs in them. I'll remember that that's something to be thankful for. That I won't have a little snot back talking to me. Nor will they sneak out of the house, steal the family car, drink when they're too young or do drugs, waste their college education and not take care of me in my old age. Instead, I'll have to deal with Millie ripping apart a Bic and having blue paws or picking up the insides of stuffed animals after the poor thing gets shredded or vacuuming. Hmmm... me thinks I'm feeling better already!

I'm not defective, I'm procreatively challenged in the head and I think I'll stay that way. :)

D

It's been a while...

2008-11-07T21:15:00.004-05:00

I blame Facebook. It's the biggest time suck you've ever seen. Ridiculous. Stupid eggs.

Just a few quick notes:

Here's a picture of my soon-to-be-puppy and his litter mates. Since there are only 2 males, either the brindle one or one of the solid black ones will be mine. I'll have to go back to that list of names I wrote since I can't remember a single one of them now.

The Dunkin Donuts on 28 closed down the ice cream portion of the store but now has coffee shakes. Oh my goddess are they freakin' yummy. Filling, but yummy.

I got the friggin' deal of the day when I stopped at the pet supply store for a ticked off spoon (Tweak had a nasty bugger on her) and noticed they had a new, unopened Kong Time on the clearance rack for $20. Sha-wing! Yup, that bad boy is mine and Millie will be in heaven once that puppy is up and running.

When there are 9 days left before Linen's & Things closes forever and everything is 50-70% off, do *not*, I repeat, do *NOT* get in any little old lady's way. She'll kick your ass with that cane without a backwards glance.

Freecycle is the best invention known to mankind (right behind the loo). You can get rid of all your good crap without an ounce of guilt. It's like rescue for stuff - you find it a good home where it lives happily ever after. It's a beautiful thing.

Tomorrow is Free Electronics Recycling day at the dump. I'm thrilled since I have a few computers and monitors to get rid of. Now I just have to find the dump. :)

When you coo over my dog and say "She's so cute, I want to give her a hug!", do not be surprised in the least if she obliges you. Quite frankly, she doesn't care that you're wearing white, she just heard you say the word "hug" and she knows what that means. Sorry about that. The husband made me laugh when I said to them "She's friendly", and he replied "So is she", as his wife squatted down to pet her.

Saturday Night Live is a re-run this week - it's the one Millie's in so make sure you set your Tivo!

I put together Skootchie's shadow box tonight. I've had it for 2 years but never got around to it. I pinned a picture of her and three of her toys in it. Now I just have to hang it up, which will take another couple of years.

I saw a button today that said "I'm smiling, that alone should scare you." I. Must. Have. It.

Tomorrow includes the visit to the dump, Facebook, a trip to get dog food, Facebook, more cleaning, more Facebook, closing the pool (I know!) and I'll probably top it off with some Facebook. Stupid eggs.

D

How to Sweep the Floor

2008-11-03T21:17:00.004-05:00

At least, this is what it's like at my house...

1. Put all of the dogs outside in the fenced yard
2. Pick up the dog toys
3. Separate the dog toys into 3 piles - intact, skins and trash
4. Pick up the double armful of trashed toys and place them in the trash in the kitchen
5. Let one of the dogs in
6. Chase the lone dog away from the pile of toys
7. When the dog's focus changes from the intact toys to the stuffed animal skins, throw as many of the intact toys as you can in the corner
8. Try to pick up the skins as fast as possible
9. Pick up the skins that were scattered when the dog ran to the back door
10. Let the dog out
11. Continue picking up the remainder of the skins
12. Let another dog in
13. Throw the skins in the trash
14. Watch the dog make a bee line for the pile of intact toys, picking up a dropped skin along the way
15. Watch the intact toys scatter as the dog bowls into them like stacked pins
16. Chase the dog around the house trying to get the skin back
17. Inadvertently play tug of war with the skin until you remember to say "out"
18. Throw the skin in the trash
19. Wonder how the dog can fit 4 toys into its mouth
20. Pick up the intact toys one at a time and toss them in the dog toy bin
21. Laugh in a frustrated kind of way as the dog retrieves every toy you threw
22. Grab the toy in the dog's mouth and lead the dog outside
23. Try to prevent the remaining dogs from getting in the house
24. Count to 10 from your unsuccessful attempt of preventing the dogs from getting in the house
25. Grab a handful of kibble, show the dogs you have it
26. Walk outside and toss the kibble into the grass
27. Remember to bend your legs as they zoom past, .o2 seconds too late
28. Run back into the house and quickly close the door
29. Pick up all of the intact toys, again, and toss them into the dog toy bin
30. Pick up and shake off each one of the 6 dog beds, place them on the couch
31. Kick one of the marrow bones with your slippered foot
32. Curse while dancing around in pain
33. Pick up the marrow bones and gently put them in the bin
34. Run to the back door to stop the loud, out of key, 4 dog serenade
35. Bend your knees, belatedly, again
36. Bellow in pain causing all but one of the dogs to scatter
37. Grab the broom and sweep the big pieces of toy stuffing into a pile
38. Chase the not-so-smart dog away from the stuffing pile
39. Sweep the dust, dirt and hair balls towards the pile that is no longer a pile of toy stuffing
40. Chase the not-so-smart dog away from the stuffing pile that is no longer a pile
41. Remake the toy stuffing pile and the dust, dirt and hair balls pile
42. Combine both piles while shoo'ing the not-so-smart dog away at every turn
43. Move the ottoman
44. Bellow at the not-so-smart dog that just cow-a-bunga'ed into the large pile of stuffing, dirt, dust and hair balls
45. Pick up the not-so-smart dog and place him in the bathroom
46. Close the bathroom door while using your foot as a blocker
47. Sweep under the ottoman and move the small pile towards the big pile area
48. Re-re-make the big pile of toy stuffing, dust, dirt and hair balls
49. Using the dustpan and brush, make 7 trips to the trash in the kitchen (one for the pieces dropped along the way)
50. Move the ottoman back
51. Put the dog beds back into position (which got knocked off the couch at some point)
52. Realize it's 10pm and time for bed
53. Let the not-so-smart dog out of the bathroom
54. Find a small dog lying on top of the toys in the dog toy bin
55. Find a big dog squashed into a cat bed in the other room
56. Find the shy dog under the corner portion of the kitchen table bench (read 4 inch wide opening)
57. Pick up the forgotten broom to put it away
58. Roll your eyes as 3 dogs scatter and 1 not-so-smart dog dances around your legs barking at you.

True story.

Stay tuned for my next DIY article title "How to Make a Sandwich."

D

Millie ate my asparagus

2008-10-28T17:49:00.002-04:00

I came home to find the asparagus I picked up yesterday, that I was going to make for dinner tonight, all gone. Apparently Millie got bored and clearly I didn't push it back far enough on the counter. After a frantic online search to make sure asparagus wasn't bad for dogs, things are cool and I'm having peas instead.

After weeks of struggling to be productive at work with my crappy machine, I finally caved and am having our computer people re-image it. It'll take about a week until I can be at the same level of productivity pre-computer suckiness. In the meantime, I'll be working from home on my quick little desktop. I really do owe Microsoft a bit of thanks for that one. If we were on Linux, I'd never get to work from home because of computer crashes!

I bought 2 little pumpkins the other night and am planning on roasting the seeds sometime this week. I haven't done it before but I *love* pumpkin seeds so I figured I'd give it a shot. If it works out with the little ones, I'll have to get me one of those big honkin' pumpkins for even more seeds. :) I plan to cook and mash the pumpkin part of the pumpkin, which I'll then throw in the freezer for the days when the kids have upset stomachs.

I still haven't decided what I'm doing for Halloween. I can't even believe it's snuck up on me like it has. I should probably decide so I'll know whether or not to go grab candy.

I've been thinking about next year's freestyle routine. I have the song, something a little more edgy and quicker paced, something you'd hear and say, 'Oh yeah, that's fitting' without the blood and gore from the album cover. I asked my ex if he could massage it so it's not as in your face and screamy since they typically need to be "family friendly" songs. I'll have to remind him of that so I can start dreaming up all the things I'll forget on the field.

The other day I decided to forgo the shellac on the bookcase and started loading books into it. I'm a little afraid there isn't enough room but I'll go through them all before I'm done to make sure there is. Today I decided I was a blipping idiot for that and stopped at Home Depot to purchase a can of shellac. I know that I will *NEVER* unload all of those books and shellac it in the future so I'm making myself do it now. Yay me.

D

doggies and babies and ballots, oh my!

2008-10-27T15:07:00.002-04:00

My sister's baby shower was a hit. Cara did a phenomenal job with the decorating and planning - it was gorgeous! Cal got most of the stuff that she needed and suffered through hours of opening gifts gallantly. At least it felt like hours and hours.

Baby showers are sooooo not my thing. Elissa's was cool, but that's because it wasn't typical at all. It was more of a rock star themed shower than an actual baby shower. I mean, how can you not love a shower where the gifts included a Misfits newborn T and lots of tiny clothes with skulls and crossbones on them?

I sucked it up and did the big sister thing and the writing down the gift thing. It was a really, really long day. The good part is that I have plenty of leftovers from the party and won't have to cook at all this week. That's one of the good things about being a bachelorette - everyone sends you home with food. :)

I've been looking into the propositions on the ballot this year. I like to think I'm a somewhat educated voter - at least I try to be. I found a site (ballotpedia.org) that gives a great breakdown of what the measure is, as well as what the pros are, who's for it, what the cons are and who's against it. A layman's description of the political jibberish used to write them.

Anyway, the Greyhound Protection Act, or the 3rd question puts me between a rock and a hard place... big time.

At first glance, it would appear to be a very good thing. Who wouldn't want to save dogs that appear to be mistreated. For dog lovers everywhere, it's a no-brainer. At least, it's a no-brainer if you don't think about it.

I'm actually going to vote No on this measure. Most people that know me are completely shocked by that and can not for the life of them understand why. My life revolves around my dogs - nothing on this planet is more important to me than my dogs. So let me see if I can explain my reasoning.

While keeping in mind that there are two sides to a story and each side will only highlight what they feel backs up their side, I play devil's advocate to see if I can see the real issue. The Pro-3 faction says they're confined for 20+ hours a day. Does that mean they're in a crate for 20+ hours a day? I don't think so, otherwise they would've said crated for 20+ hours a day. So, they could be in a fenced in area or in an expen or in a room or building. Please tell me what the difference is between that and what happens when dogs are boarded in a kennel. How about in a shelter, what's the difference there?

How about at my house? No matter where the the dogs are, they are confined. They're either in their crates, in the house, or in the fenced in yard. I don't let them run free and terrorize society. I don't let them poop on other people's lawns while they go about doing whatever they want. I don't let them get into a situation where they could fight with other dogs, chase small animals and cats into the street to be hit by cars. Even when we go out for a walk, they're confined by the leash. I'm not seeing a large difference.

Another argument is that they suffer serious injuries. They're right, they do suffer serious injuries, the same injuries that happen in everyday life. Millie gets a sprain once a year from running on uneven ground. Tweak will dig a hole that Millie doesn't know about and when she gets the zoomies, she's not looking for new holes, she's just racing around because she wants to. Injury is a part of life, aren't I a freakin' clumsy walking billboard for pete's sake? Do the dogs get the care required to heal them? Or are they left there, untreated and in pain?

Side note: Nobody can question why a dog is euthanized because one will never agree with the other. Being in rescue for the past 10 years I've had to euthanize dogs that I would've preferred not to. Sometimes it's a quality of life issue, sometimes a safety issue, sometimes one of a billion other reasons. So I'm not even considering this when thinking about the measure.

Moving on, another reason they use as justification is mysterious illnesses. They don't go into any more detail than that so I have no idea what's so mysterious about the illness. Pulling a situation from my own life, I'm sure kennel cough would be a mysterious illness if you didn't know what it was. How about that time of year when the flyball community goes through the kennel cough warnings and teams pull out of tournaments left and right to prevent it from becoming an epidemic? It's contagious, maybe that's mysterious. Since they give me no other information to go by, this weak argument gets a weak defense.

I feel like I'm rambling so I'll get to the point. For me, I don't want to open a door that could potentially cause any kind of timed, fast-paced dog sport to become illegal. My dogs live for flyball - I found it because Freddie needed a job, not because I needed something to do. To take it away from him because other people see very little difference between greyhound racing and flyball is just plain mean. The key here is perception, not fact. We've already been turned away from certain venues because "dog racing" wasn't allowed in that city. It didn't say Greyhound racing, it said dog racing, which is exactly the same language used in the this ballot measure.

Anything considered "dog racing" has the potential to be shut down if someone doesn't like it and can show any kind of correlation between the new law and the sport. So if you think I'm cruel to run my dogs in flyball, you can bitch, moan and complain that I'm "dog racing" and goodbye flyball in Massachusetts. If someone dislikes the height of the A frame and thinks it's dangerous, goodbye agility. Anything timed and fast could be subject to this ruling. No more herding trials, they're timed. Goodbye disc dog competitions, timed and fast. See you later flyball, agility, lure coursing, bikejoring, earthdog trials, jack racing, weight pulling, mushing, scootering, dock diving, etc., etc.

At a federal level, it could make the Iditarod a thing of the past. Seriously.

Can you imagine what would happen to high-energy dogs if they didn't have a job to do and running around of any kind was forbidden? Good lord I'd go batty (!) as would my dogs. Some dogs need a job and since I can't afford to sell my house, move up north and buy a farm so Tweak has sheep to herd, we're stuck with conventional dog sports.

So, as much as I love Greyhounds, I'm voting No on this measure. I think the potential for this ballot to open a door that shouldn't be opened is far too high to take the chance. I think perception and interpretation of the law would cause far more harm than good. "Dog racing" is far too broad and in a world where perception is key, I'm not willing to take the chance that you not liking flyball could force it to be illegal in this state.

Instead, I'd like to deal with the issue at hand. Make sure the Greyhounds that are racing have proper food, water, exercise, vet care and shelter. Punish the groups that don't provide, at the very least, the basic requirements to care for the animals - like we do with hoarders when we find out about them.

Getting ready to defend my thoughts,

D

just another day...

2008-10-24T08:03:00.003-04:00

I found a new supplier yesterday that I'm really excited about. It will take a bit to be able to order from them but I think it will be worth it. I'm thinking of building a shelf type thing to hold supplies but since I can't cut a straight line, that might not work out so well. I have to come up with something...

Tomorrow is my sister's baby shower. She's my sister, and I love her very much, but I don't want to go. There's very little joy in me seeing baby outfit after baby outfit come out of little boxes. I'll love the kid, watch the kid, protect the kid and teach the kid, as well as spoil the kid as a good aunt should. I'll help my sister in every single way possible and support her in every decision she makes. But I still don't want to go.

My job tomorrow is to write down who gave what so there's a listing of what Cal needs to thank them for. At least I'll have something to do. I've also promised to provide lots of sarcastic remarks to my sister during the process since there really isn't much more that she hates in life than opening gifts in front of a lot of people.

I'm waiting to hear back about a herding lesson with Tweak's sire's owner. I don't know if she has what it takes - that instinct or whatever - but we'll see. It should be fun regardless since Sarah will be there.

Sunday I have to close the pool. I know, I just haven't been here! So it's not as crystal clear as it should be but I can deal with that when I open it.

Really I just can't wait to get the business up and running. The last part is the website and I'm s-l-o-w-l-y getting there. Every spare moment is spent staring at the computer so it'll be done soon, hopefully.

Halloween - I have to figure out what I'm doing!

D

How to Catch a Border Collie on a Tug

2008-10-22T07:58:00.010-04:00

Thank you to Dave Strauss (http://www.waltzking.org/) who took these photos of Michelle running my Tweak while I was at a wedding that night.

This is a good photo depiction of what it's like catching a dog on a tug during a flyball tournament. I've always wanted to write a picture book!

The Steps

After you release the dog, run up to the line, scream the dog's name as loud as possible and start running away. Remember, don't run backwards but instead run forwards while looking back. Someone said it causes less pain this way. Very important: Hold the tug away from your body!

As the dog runs towards you (don't worry, you'll hear the little pitter patter of feet steam rolling towards you), brace yourself for impact. The dog will propel itself at the tug and with one final leap, take it in its mouth. Remember what I said about holding the tug away from your body? Yes, don't make the crucial mistake of pulling the tug close to your body like Michelle demonstrates here. Those teeth are going to grab on to something and the dog probably has its eyes closed in a final Hail Mary kind of attempt. Trust me when I say the dog does not care if it missed and got your leg/hand/boob/etc. instead. (Hence why Michelle wears hockey gloves in the ring.)

Once you feel the dog on the tug, quickly throw out your other arm in a panicked attempt to save yourself from momentum. It doesn't really work, but it's worth a try. Swing the dog around while still on the tug to try and redirect the motion in a useless attempt to change it enough so that if you do fall, you land on your butt instead of your face.

Once the dog is almost on the other side of you, you can resume breathing. Chances are, if the dog does take you down, the both of you might've slowed down just enough that you won't break anything but instead will just look foolish.

Once all 4 of the dog's paws hit the ground, the chances of serious injury decline. Play with the dog and the tug as a reward for not killing you this time. Do not let your guard down, however, as one quick head shake could quite possibly dislocate your shoulder. Remember to hold on to that tug like your life depends on it because...well, because it does.

Want to see it again?

Slow Motion Replay

Here Michelle is catching Tweak on the tug. She has good form - her arm out to balance the force pulling her forward and the swing of deterring death has already begun.

Sometimes the dog falls off the tug, kind of like when you were a kid and you jumped off the swing while it was up in the air. We're not sure if they do this on purpose or if the propulsion used to launch for the tug pulls them off of it. Watch what the dog does, more times than not, the dog will surprise you.

Here Tweak demonstrates her gymnastic ability by landing in a full hand stand after releasing the tug. Michelle is probably screaming "oh my god" at this point thinking she just broke my dog. Never fear! Those disc freestyle moves come in handy at times - this was one of them. Reposition the tug so when the dog does land it can immediately launch itself at it again. Very Important: Do not hold the tug in front of you as demonstrated. Your asking for your stomach to get a nifty new scar that way. The dog will oblige you immediately and forcefully.

Once the dog lands and launches itself back on to the tug, breathe and continue playing tug like normal. Now is also a good time to pray. Remember, it's not over until you set up for the next heat, which means any number of very bad things could still happen.

I hope you've enjoyed this presentation of "How to Catch a Border Collie on a Tug." Stay tuned for my next presentation titled "How to Wrap the Injury Caused by Not Moving the Tug Away From a Body Part."

D

it's dark out...

2008-10-15T05:34:00.002-04:00

...and I'm up. Weird.

It's been too long, I've been too busy, I know.

The disc dog seminar this past weekend went well. It looks like I'll be heading down again in the next month or so to give a seminar to the local Search and Rescue groups. They don't really understand drive as well as they perhaps should and since they build it for their working dogs, it's kind of important that it's done right.

Today will be spent in CT, I'll let you know how that goes.

D

weird things

2008-10-08T19:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was getting out of my car, just about to shut the door when I felt a rustling at my back. I turned to see what it was, closing the door as I turned. I couldn't see anything but when I looked back at the car, I saw feathers sticking out of the car door. A bird had flown in behind me and gotten stuck *in* the door when I shut it! I immediately opened it and the poor thing, thankfully not dead, hopped away, shook it's head and flew off. WTF!

Tonight I stopped at the supermarket on the way home. I haven't done that in about a month or so and I figured it was about time. I brought in my reusable bags (yay me!) and gave them to the bagger explaining that there were more but they were under the food and I'd pass them down when I got them. Apparently he didn't hear me, nor did the cashier as when I did pass them down they both smiled and the bagger said, "I was wondering how we were going to fit all of this in 2 bags." Right. Einsteins at Market Basket tonight... free show! Anyway, no sooner had I thought that when I clocked myself in the eye with the box of kitty litter. Karma is such a bitch sometimes.

With it being cooler out, I was in the mood for some comfort food - food that says stay inside and have a hearty meal since it's nice and warm in here and you don't want to be out there. So there's a meatloaf in the oven baking away while I type. I can just start to smell it through the house and my mouth is watering. I love meatloaf. :) Add mashed potatoes, corn & gravy and you've got my favorite meal in the whole world right there. It's the simple things.

I had to run to Barnes & Noble again today, even tho' I spent enough money there yesterday, because I forgot the one thing that I actually needed to get versus wanted to get, a computer book. I walked around their bargain book section and found a book on container planting. Mine! Next year I'm going to attempt to have a garden completely in containers. I've been thinking about it for a while and it just sounds sooo appealing - growing your own vegetables. I'm hoping my black thumb doesn't hit them like it's hit the poor seedlings I attempt year after year. I never do well with them so I'm forgoing the seedling thing and instead will just buy ready-to-grow plants. The book even has design plans for making your own self watering containers, which I'll attempt as well.

I know, the chances of me actually *doing* that are slim but I've got my fingers crossed!

D

slowing down?

2008-10-07T08:26:00.002-04:00

I successfully pulled off the weekend without having a stress attack; although I cut it pretty darn close.

This past weekend we hosted a flyball tournament at Greenfield. One of our teams went FEO due to an injury. :( The other team took 1st place I think. It's all such a blur I'm not sure I even remember to be honest.

In the middle of it, I had to leave so I could attend Jill & Pete's wedding in Charlton, MA. What a drive that is! It would've been worse had I not been 1/2 way there already. That was a fun time although I couldn't stay as late as I would've liked. Jo was watching all of my dogs while I was gone, on top of all of hers, so I didn't want to push her over the edge.

The ceremony was great! It was far from typical as they threw in personalized vows like "Do you promise to stop and ask for directions if you're lost?" and "Do you promise to share the ice cream?" and "Do you promise to obey every single request that comes to you, regardless if you know you're right or not because you and I both know even if you're right, you're still wrong?" When it came to the "love, honor, cherish & obey" part, the groomsman handed him Sharpies. Pete took them, did a little crossing out and asked her to read it aloud again. When it was Jill's turn, I couldn't help but add my two cents and let her know I had a pen for her. I've never been to a wedding where audience participation was encouraged! lol

Anyway, it was a fun time and I got to chat with Glen & Elissa for hours, which I haven't had much of a chance to do lately so it was good. They went off to Adam & Paul's Oktoberfest party and I jealously drove back to the tourney. It's hard when there are soooo many good things going on at the same time and I can't do all of them - really hard!

I'm finally done etching too. I metal etched 1st, 2nd and 3rd place on to dog water pails for the placements and glass etched the titles on to glasses for the title awards. I think they came out pretty good, but I have to call the company and see if there's a way to seal in the etching on stainless steel. They didn't stay as black as they should've when I washed away the chemicals. Not too shabby tho' for a first timer.

I was joyously reunited with Tweak this weekend too! Yay! I finally got my dog back! I didn't go and see her as soon as I got there because I knew if I did, I wouldn't want to do any of the work that needed to be done for single dog racing. So I waited until it was her turn to race and then met her out in the lanes. She jumped up once for a "Hi Mom!" and then went to line up in her lane. I thought she'd be a little more excited to see me but ah well - flyball is way more fun. She made up for it that night by sleeping right next to my head and giving me kisses every hour or so.

This week is filled with cleaning my dump of a house before leaving for New Jersey on Friday. I have an intro to disc dog seminar to teach and then we're heading into NY for the Capital Steps show. It should be *hilarious* with as much fodder as they have these days. The only thing that could possibly make it better was if Tina Fey showed up to do Palin for the show. That would completely rock.

After that, I think things are slowing down a bit for me. My sister's baby shower is coming up in a few weeks but that's really all I have planned at the moment until we head to Montreal in November. Woohoo! I get to relax!

D

it's fall...

2008-10-02T22:43:00.002-04:00

I'm a summer person - I love the heat, I love the sun, I love the hours and hours of daylight, I love the flowers growing, I love it all. There's a part of me, deep inside, that smiles and sighs when I get to relax in the sun. Of course, summer is my busiest season so there isn't a whole hell of a lot of relaxing getting done but occasionally I can sneak it in there.

So I'm a little sad that fall has arrived. I enjoy fall, I just like summer better. There are nice things about fall, I like being able to sit in front of the fire pit at night in the fall. I like how the air has a crispness to it that can't be found at any other time. I like how colorful things get here in the northeast during this season. But I'm still sad that summer is over.

The thing that tells me that fall is here is that I don't need the air conditioner on at night anymore. A fan in the window blows in cool enough air - that's my switch of seasons.

So, it's time to change my thinking again - fall isn't a bad thing. There are good things about it and I have to focus on that and not think at all about the fact that I won't be able to swim in my pool or wear sleeveless shirts. I really like sleeveless shirts.

I, instead, need to think about going apple picking. I need to look forward to Halloween since it is my favorite holiday. I need to be thankful that I won't have to mow the lawn anymore this year. I'll think about how it's still warm enough to go out and do things with the dogs versus when winter comes and I hibernate as much as possible.

Compared to winter, fall is a good thing. I guess.

On a totally different note, I have something to bitch about. I was out doing errands during my lunch break today and I stopped at Burger King to get a bite to eat. I got a burger and asked for a small side of onion rings and a diet coke (regular coke is sweet and puts a coat of crap on my teeth). The kid comes back and says they don't have a small size, the smallest size they have is medium. I think to myself, how can you possibly have a medium size if you don't have a smaller size to compare it to? Medium usually sits in the middle - I haven't looked it up but that's probably how the word was created for pete's sake. There has to be a middle in order for there to be a medium! Rather than get into a debate about it with the poor BK kid that really just wants to drive to the 2nd window, I kept my mouth shut and pondered it some more.

I did, however, look at the menu after I thanked him to see what sizes were listed: medium, large and extra large. Let me get this straight - BK offers 3 sizes of onion rings but rather than call them small, medium and large, they're instead calling them medium, large and extra large. Ok, that makes sense. Not.

Look, I'm all about artistic freedom and thinking outside the box. I'm not so far gone that I'm saying there isn't a spoon (can you name the movie?) but c'mon now. Can't we all just agree that there needs to be a small before there can be a medium? I mean, is that so hard?

So, Burger King, you're on my shit list for not applying the most basic tenets of sizing logic to your side orders. I will miss that zesty onion ring sauce but I like not being treated like an idiot more than your delicious sauce.

D

almost done...

2008-10-01T23:00:00.003-04:00

I'm almost done with the awards for this weekend. *Finally*

I finished the placement awards yesterday so now I only have the title awards left. I'm hoping to get them done tomorrow night since I'm pretty much out of time after that. Changing how I was doing it in the middle certainly didn't help, but they are going much faster now that I have. Maybe I'll try and sell the ones I did earlier since they, now, don't match.

Only two more days 'til the Tweakster comes home!! Man, I just can't wait. I'm sure Freddie will hate it as he's loved her being gone. He's back to his obnoxious, pushy self without her herding him around. I'll have to make sure I manage that better once she comes back.

I finally have a step-by-step list of things to do to get the business off the ground. Supposedly my lawyer is going to call me tomorrow so we can go over the terms of the license agreement that I was supposed to have made up oh, I don't know, about 6 months ago or so now. Susan will be happy since that means she can get rid of all the crap that's on her porch. :)

Tomorrow I have to go see the building inspector so I can get the zoning on my property changed. I'm not going to have a storefront but apparently I have to do it anyway. Whatever. I'll do what it takes so I can get this thing off the ground. Soon now, very soon.

I still have to find a dress to wear to Jill's wedding on Saturday. I'm hoping I'll have some time during lunch tomorrow to run to the mall. Otherwise, all I have are summer dresses and that probably isn't going to cut it. I think I might be a little on the chilly side.

I'm branching out at work, looking for other growth opportunities within the company. I had an excellent opportunity to soft shell to a different department but my boss said no and ultimately it's up to him. So, now I'm looking for something a little more permanent somewhere else. I spoke with a few people today so we'll see what happens. I'm still kinda pissed about that soft shell job not working out - I really, really wanted to work with that group in a very bad way.

Other than that, life has been pretty normal - organized chaos. Maybe that will be my next tattoo. Apparently I can't function without it. :p

D

East coast time

2008-09-30T01:17:00.001-04:00

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...

2008-09-24T01:19:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-09-22T22:41:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-21T14:51:00.001-04:00

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

2008-09-20T23:00:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-09-20T13:16:00.001-04:00

...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.

----------
Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Millie on SNL

2008-09-19T21:50:00.001-04:00

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

2008-09-18T07:46:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-14T19:37:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-13T23:34:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-09-11T07:40:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-09-10T12:39:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-09-09T20:25:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-09-09T13:28:00.003-04:00

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 [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

2008-09-08T08:45:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-07T05:54:00.001-04:00

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...

2008-09-06T10:21:00.002-04:00

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.

another silent killer...

2008-09-04T16:16:00.000-04:00

Women, be aware.

Who knew?

I didn't.

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

D

flower pictures

2008-09-04T13:35:00.005-04:00

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..

2008-09-03T08:29:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-02T07:47:00.003-04:00

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

My baby did it!!!

2008-08-30T20:19:00.002-04:00

I can't even begin to explain how proud I am of my little girl!! She ran her first 3.9 and I couldn't be more freakin' thrilled if I tried. :)

Freddie is a *great* flyball dog. I love him to death and think he's the coolest dog. That won't change, either, because the two dogs are just so different. He ran great today, never spitting the ball and going over the jumps with the exception of one race when it bobbled into the other lane. He kinda tripped over the first jump and dropped the ball in another race but that was just a fluke. Otherwise he was great - solid, decent times and more importantly, clean.

Tweak was doing well in warm ups, she was driving out harder, her box looked good (from what people told me) and she wasn't stopping to see if the dog in the other lane was racing or not. So we tossed her in for a race, racing against another Border Collie, and she did it. She ran a 3.981. I've never had a dog run that fast (that was mine) so I'm uber thrilled that she accomplished it. :)

I actually didn't even know (bad mom!) that she ran it until Jo yelled to me and I saw the time. I was psyched and played with her that much more vigorously. She's so good. :) I'll love her to pieces no matter how fast she runs, but I will admit it's not killing me to see that she can do that!

And now we're off to sleep so we can do it all over again tomorrow.

D

busy week...

2008-08-29T20:24:00.002-04:00

I had a vendor in on Monday and Tuesday to demonstrate his software product to my internal customer. That went pretty well and I'm hoping we can make a decision and get the ball rolling within the next couple of weeks. I'm hopeful that this project won't have me tearing all of my hair out. It's doubtful, but I'm still kinda hopeful.

I got some cleaning done around here. See? Miracles do happen. The rest of the time was spent playing with an open source software a friend recommended. I'm having a ton of fun with it and am planning on using it for a few projects. I just have to wrap my head around the infrastructure.

I ran into my cousin Diana today, which was such a cool surprise! She came by with her youngest son a few hours afterwards - we hung out by the pool and caught up on family goings on. I have to say I was just so pleased! I haven't seen her in a couple of years and we used to hang around a lot when we were younger and had less going on in our lives. Hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch more frequently now that we're live close again.

I have a flyball tournament this weekend in Foxboro. We have exactly 4 people going, which is pretty short handed. This tourney is all about puppy practice! Working with the puppies and being as successful as we can with them. It's all about getting them up and running, giving them some good real-life practice and building up their stamina.

I have a headache tonight for some unknown reason. I actually laid down earlier and ended up taking a 2 hour nap because of it. Even with the nap, I'm still tired and am going to bed very soon. I'm wondering if it's a lack of caffeine headache since I didn't have coffee this morning. I would've thought I would've had it this morning, but whatever. I have to get up early anyway. :)

D

A weekend of my own...

2008-08-24T22:06:00.002-04:00

My weekend consisted of only one dog thing - practice on Saturday. Of course there was 6 hours of driving for said practice, but for dog stuff, that was it! Aunty Michelle might be taking Tweak for a few weeks to tighten up the things I can't do on my own. If I had one or two people here to help it would be a different story but alas, I do not.

While driving from the Bershires to home, I saw things that made me long for my childhood when things weren't as complicated. I saw kids walking home from the local watering hole with tubes over their shoulders. No shoes, no grownups, just kids doing kid things on a beautiful summer afternoon. I saw families at a small ice cream stand at the side of the road. I saw rolling rivers and country living. I saw farms and animals on said farms. It was idyllic and calming and not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, let me tell you.

Of course, before that I saw a bear crossing sign and after that was a moose crossing sign - two animals I really don't want to meet in person, thanks anyway. :p

I found out my mother was in town on Saturday and stopped to chat with her and her friends at Kowloons. I thought I would see her today, as I invited her up, but apparently there wasn't enough time. I really don't know why I let her bother me at times since she'll never change and I can either take it or leave it. Let me tell you how close that decision is made by a coin sometimes.

Today I went out to breakfast with Sue & Neely. I taught him lots of useful things, like playing En Guarde! with spoons and making towers out of empty creamer cups. It's good being the aunt. :p We did a bit of shopping afterwards and then parted ways.

After that I poked around the house a bit, did a couple of dishes, vacuumed the pool, threw the frisbee for Tweak, played a couple of games and did some web stuff. It was a lazy day, a good day. I have a ton of cleaning to do and I might even get to it sometime this week (doubtful) or something but I was able to push it all aside to keep my zen state of mind.

Right now I'm nice and relaxed and ready for bed. I'm gonna slide into the soft sheets, read a chapter or two and cuddle with my girls before falling asleep. It just doesn't get much better than that. :)

D

healing and time...

2008-08-21T08:48:00.003-04:00

I was driving to my aunt's house last night when I thought of Skootchie. She's been on my mind lately because Tweak will occasionally do something to remind me of her. Also, I've messed up and called her Skootchie a few times. While thinking of her last night, I started crying. I miss her so much even though it's going on 2 years that she's been gone.

Does your heart really ever heal? Does time really heal old wounds or just make them pop up less frequently?

I wish everyone in the world had the chance to meet her. She was a zany little thing with a bright personality. She wasn't perfect but then again, that's what real love is, right? Loving someone or something despite their imperfections and quirks. I'd give my right leg to have her back, even if it was just to drive me up the wall.

People come and go in our lives. Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's just losing touch over time, sometimes it's over something stupid, and sometimes it's a really, really good thing. I know that dogs will come and go too, darn that shorter life span. But I wasn't ready for her to go. I still had years I wanted to spend with her, things I wanted to teach her, places I wanted to take her. I think she would've liked going to Canada and camping. I know she would've liked doing all the tricks demos for kids, she was a pro. I wasn't done having her in my life and I'm still sad that she's not.

I don't think time heals all wounds. I think some wounds are too deep to be healed. I also think any parent that lost a child would agree with me there. I think life just keeps going and forces you to think of other things. I can see why, I'd hate to walk around crying all the time because she's not with me. But I definitely wouldn't say I'm healed.

D

catching up...

2008-08-20T16:19:00.003-04:00

I love going away, but I'm starting to despise how long it takes for me to get back into the swing of things when I get back. It takes one full work day to understand the hundreds of emails received while away and another day to act on them in some form. Ugh.

Then, every night after work is booked up visiting family, doing errands and taking care of the dogs so they don't drive me stir crazy. My poor Tivo is going to go on strike soon if I don't start watching a show or two. Meh.

I snapped a quick picture of the medals we won while in Binbrook. Pretty cool, huh?

Pretty soon I'll have to build a room for all of Freddie & Tweak's ribbons, medals, plaques and trophies. I'm just as proud of them as a mother is of her kids. I have the coolest dogs ever. :)

Tonight I'm off to visit the g-rents & help my aunt with some computer stuff. My cousin is going back to school and they want to have everything set for it and her phone.

This weekend I have nothing to do except flyball practice. I repeat: I have *nothing* to do except flyball practice. How freakin' cool is that?! We have another flyball tournament the weekend after, a disc demo at Tufts Vet School the Saturday after that and then a disc competition in CT the next day. September looks nice and light right now too -- with the exception of my week in San Francisco at a conference.

October heats up again with 2 flyball tourneys, a wedding and a weekend in New Jersey to teach disc basics for Barking Hills - all in the first 3 weeks. Yikes. Two more tourneys in November and then we're done until after the holidays (unless someone sanctions something between now and then.) I'm sure I'll probably lose my mind not knowing what the heck to do with myself with a whole *month* of downtime!

There are grumblings of Wicked! being made into a movie. Some people have already started talking about it so eventually it will happen. I just wish it would happen *now*! You know I'll own that the day it comes out on DVD. I might even disregard my dislike for going to the movies alone and hit it on opening night at the theater.

Good lord I can't wait to crawl in to bed tonight. :p

D

2008-08-18T09:32:00.001-04:00

Another boost for us New England girls was holding our own against Kelly during the jousting contest. We figure she was having an off day since she'd normally hand our asses to us.

Thanks to John on Ruff Enuff we got to hear all about how great Guitar Hero was from Jo after she completed two full songs. It now rivals Dance Dance Revolution and might be a necessity on future camping trips. Speaking of necessities, I brought the Keurig on this trip and it will be tied to my body for every camping trip after that. It was a godsend for getting us moving in the morning.

Gritty again ran a 3.7 at this tourney which had Aaron threatening to kill our pups when he realized we had 5 up and coming puppies. He's just kidding because he and his team are the reason why we have most of these puppies.

We're in New York now on our way home. We're *finally* going to stop at the biggest Camping World I've ever seen and I can't freakin' wait! I'll probably get home around 6 or 7 tonight. I can't wait to see Millie and snuggle and rub her and kiss her and hold her and love her! I hate being apart from her as she grows older. :(

Until I think of more......

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1st place for Freddie

2008-08-18T09:05:00.001-04:00

They keep saying those 1sr place ribbons are hard to get in Canada but I'm just not seeing it. I'm kidding. The competition is tough up there which makes us work harder, push it that much more and generally kicks us in the ass.

We've been running Freddie in Open while we wait for his CRN to switch over. So far we've done really well there, coming home with 1st place in the 3 Canadian tourneys we've entered this year. Plus we got a boatload of points for Freddie's race for 30K.

A bonus of the weekend was winning the Good Sportsmanship award at this tourney. We also won it at our last in region tournament which is pretty cool. Jo says I'm ruining NET's reputation and to knock it off. :p

I think Tweak did really well in warmups this time. We kept the props in and really just ran her during the warm up time. I think she needs a little more of that and she'll be good. She finally had a chance to do a head to head race with a dog in the other lane and she ran a 4.0. Not too shabby for a green dog, with props, who will only speed up with time and practice.

The highlight of the weekend was the zip tie incident, which sadly, we had no part of. 3 or so teams got together and zip tied shut every single crate belonging to Rocket Relay - which was about 60 crates or so. Before the awards started, the guilty party did a lap around the ring to the Olympic theme, which had Aaron laughing and Kelly swearing vengance on all of them.

(TO BE CONT'D)
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Highway Robbery Part Two

2008-08-14T15:44:00.001-04:00

The reason I say this is because if you pop a tire on the NY Thruway, it'll cost you $135 to get it changed. Just to clear up any confusion, that's not purchasing a new tire and having them change it, that's just them using the spare.

Oh, and if you have AAA, don't bother calling them because they're not even *allowed* on the Thruway. Another lesson learned is to make sure AAA has RV coverage just in case the tire that blows is on the camper.

Say it with me, I love New York!
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Highway robbery

2008-08-14T15:22:00.001-04:00

Now I know where that saying came from - the New York Thruway.

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Man...

2008-08-13T22:11:00.002-04:00

To use Jessica's saying, today blew chunks.

Some plaid flannel wearing, cheese eating yahoo of a dog owner didn't check all of her dog paperwork to get over the border until last night. Yes, that would be me. So at 2pm Tweak and I were off to the vet to get her rabies shot updated, 10 days late. Sigh. Normally they send out reminders so us yahoos won't do that but because my account is a rescue account, they turn those handy little things off. Grumble, grumble.

I remembered to grab the Keurig this time so we'll have delicious coffee whenever we want it! I think I managed to remember everything else but we'll see. I always manage to forget something. Thankfully I still have some Canadian cash left over from the last trip so I can just run to the store if I need to.

Today consisted of trying to get *some* of the 9-5 work done, running to the vet, running to the butcher, running to the supermarket, coming back home to meet a potential adopter, then running to Walmart to get propane for the grill. We will certainly be eating in style this trip!

So now there's a big pile of crap near the door that needs to be packed in the car. I'd do it tonight but, quite frankly, I don't feel like it. Plus mosquitoes freakin' love me so I'd get eaten alive doing it. I don't know why it seems like there are soooo many more out at night. Unfortunately the bats don't get close enough to pick the little blood suckers off of my body. Lord knows there'd be enough of them.

I'm pretty much all set for the last camping trip to Canada of the year. We'll camp again in October and we'll be in Canada again in November, but we won't do both again until next summer. How thoroughly depressing. If anyone knows of a big company that wants to sponsor us so we can all stop working and travel the country attending flyball tournaments, feel free to send them my way. :p

I'm off to cuddle with the pups for a bit and then hit the hay. I'm wiped!

See y'all on Monday or Tuesday.

D

Pictures are up

2008-08-12T14:20:00.002-04:00

Knock yourselves out:

Sarah's Birthday dinner

4th of July

Michelle & Dan's wedding

I think Pedro might be going to his forever home tonight - fingers crossed! Now I just have to see if the people interested in Reco are still interested. I hate it when people don't call me back.

No time to chat.

D

It was fun!!

2008-08-11T07:54:00.002-04:00

Everyone had a good time at the wedding, no surprise there I'm sure. :)

I have pictures and will toss them up sometime today to share - I just won't share *all* of them. :p

The rescues and Pacie were complete assholes to my sister once it was time for bed. The cried and barked for hours before she finally said enough was enough and left at 4am to go home and sleep. I was panicked at first, thinking she might not have let them out at 4am but she did. She sent me a text message letting me know so I was on the road first thing in the morning. I was a little sensitive and stopped for coffee as soon as I hit civilization.

Yesterday was a lazy day since I needed it to recoup. I cleaned the pool and played with the dogs in between being a couch potato. A home came by to look at Pedro, which went pretty well. Her and I will talk today and make plans for the transfer to his new home! Another home is interested in Reco, which I have a call in to. I'd really like to get everyone placed before the trip to Binbrook if possible.

Speaking of which, we're heading to Canada again on Thursday. It will be our last camping trip to Canada for the year. I'm hoping Freddie can hold his shit together and not spit the ball like he did at All Dogs. I still don't know what's up with that but you can be damn sure there will be some training on the "hold" command this week. I have to remember to bring Tweak's training noodles too.

D

wedding day

2008-08-09T07:02:00.002-04:00

Today is Michelle & Dan's wedding and I'll be leaving shortly to drive across the state to attend it. My sister is being a doll and staying over with the dogs - including 2 rescues. Which reminds me, I have to write down what they get for food.

At least I can appear to be a little more put together than normal since my hair is newly colored and the tail feathers of my tattoo are now vibrantly colored as well. Out of respect, I asked if Michelle would prefer I cover it for her big day. She laughed at me and said No but thought it was kinda cute.

I still have to pack but that'll take no time at all for an overnighter. After that, I'm off again, with camera to celebrate their joining. :)

D

1 down, 2 to go

2008-08-08T07:55:00.002-04:00

Kona, one of the rescues I'm fostering, found a home yesterday with Auntie Kim! I can't wait to hear how her nephews take the news of a new dog in the house. :)

That leaves me with 2, both of which have had potential homes inquiring after them. I would be thrilled if they were adopted before leaving for Canada again next week so my brother only has the normal amount to look after while I'm gone. He's good with the dogs, but I don't think he can handle 7 of them. :p

I'll make arrangements today for one home to meet with Pedro sometime this weekend and will send an app out to the family interested in Reco. Thankfully the calls of dogs coming in has slowed down too. It can pick up after Binbrook, I'm fine with that, but not before Canada!

I need to do as much cleaning as possible tonight so my sister doesn't have to sleep in a pit while staying over while I'm at a wedding. I also have to charge my camera so I can have plenty of photos to share.

Speaking of which, I have to get the pictures up of of

Sarah's birthday dinner and Mario & Cathy's 4th of July BBQ. I'll add that to the list of things to do for today, like it's not long enough. You know you're in deep shit when your to do list could be considered a novella at 8am. :p

D

What a picture....

2008-08-05T21:08:00.000-04:00

What a bizarre picture!

I was leaving the house for work and I noticed the flies on the screen house. I know what 2 of them are doing - or at least I'm guessing what they're doing, not being familiar with the mating rituals of flies. But the other guy/girl? Couldn't tell you. Do they need supervision? Is it waiting in line? Cheering them on? Is it a parent and they're in trouble? Or is it just a voyeuristic fly? lol

I don't know, but I thought it was kinda funny so it's here.

Freddie had trouble this weekend, for some unknown reason, at the flyball tournament - he kept spitting the damn ball. We switched to small balls to see how he did with those and then he boggled the ball and went around the jumps. I guess it was a good thing it was on a vets team and was just for fun and a couple of points.

I'm kind of worried about Binbrook and hope he was just having an off weekend or something. I think we have the extra bodies that I can pull him if I need to.

Neutron went home today, one less dog for me! Now I'm debating whether or not I should mention some of the damage he did while here or just leave it be.

This weekend is Michelle and Dan's wedding. I'll be heading west really early Saturday morning so I can do her hair for the ceremony. I'm even wearing a dress. I know, just breathe. But it's true, I'll be wearing a real dress that I actually own. It's a somewhat casual wedding so it'll fit in with that. My darling sister is staying with the pups Saturday night. :)

I'm going to admit something that I'm not at all proud of. I can't stop watching The Two Coreys. I can't even call it a guilty pleasure because it's not - at least it doesn't feel like it! It's like a plane crash man, I can't look away. It's the most bizarre thing ever with the "Haimster" acting like a spoiled, petulant child. The drama that kid brings to himself is unreal - on levels I didn't even think were possible. In the last episode, he was acting like one of those old people that swear at the kids for walking by their house. Then they (Corey, Corey & Corey's wife Susan) get into a screaming/swearing match that ends in a dramatic 'we're through'. He sits down with the cameras afterwards and states he's through with them because they're "ugly people to me" with, ironically enough, the ugliest sneer I've ever seen on anyone's face. Child.

But damn it if I can't stop watching the stupid show.

I picked up Acheron today by Sherillyn Kenyon so I'll be heading to bed early so I can get a head start on it! I can't wait!!

D

Hanging plants

2008-08-02T06:23:00.003-04:00

I haven't done a thing with my garden this year - at least not as much as the last couple of years. But, it still looked pretty good if you can ignore the tall milk weed stalks growing up against the house. :p

The one thing I have trouble with? Every year? Hanging plants. I love them in the front of the house, but I kill them all the time. I don't mean to, and I'm not exactly sure how I do it either, but I do. Right now my hanging plants have 2 flowers each on them and are more brown than green. I think they *say* they can take full sun all day, but in reality they really can't handle as much sun as the front of my house gets. That could just be a cop out, who knows.

I water them, I feed them, I pluck all the dead flowers off, I don't know what else to do. The side that's facing the house doesn't look nearly as bad as the front, which is what makes me think the sun is the culprit. I'll take them down, give them a good soaking, trim off all the dead stuff and give them a couple of days of not so much sun to see how they do. If they don't come back, they'll join the empty husks of hanging plants from years past.

Freddie and I are heading to All Dogs today for the tournament. It should be fun and will be quite a treat for him since I won't have Tweak with me. He gets a little full of himself when he has me to himself so I'm sure there will be a lot of grumbling when we get home - Freddie telling everyone to keep their distance 'cuz he's too sexy for them. He's a hoot.

D

Slight change of plans...

2008-08-01T14:12:00.002-04:00

Today's still about reflection - so far I've hit on old friends, situations, and relationships - the normal garbage.

Other topics, yet to be decided upon, will come to me as I float in the pool. :)

D

Reflection

2008-08-01T07:20:00.002-04:00

The weather this morning is warm and cloudy. There's a calm feeling in the air (although I'm not sure that word can really be used in a household with 8 dogs....) which has put me in a reflective mood.

Kinda like Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy but not nearly as silly and probably fringed with sarcasm. :)

I'm not sure what I'll think about today, but I can tell reflection time is here. Time moves forward so quickly as it is; responsibilities and commitments making it move that much more so. I know most of that is my fault. I concede, wave the white flag and take the responsibility. I bite off more than I can chew and have nobody but myself to blame.

Today I'm going to focus on the basics: Work, because if I don't I won't get paid and that's pretty essential to do things like pay bills and buy dog food. Dogs, because with this many mine aren't getting the attention they're used to and the rescues need more attention to get through being moved around. And finally, me because although most of my time is spent doing what I want, sometimes I don't give myself what I need, whether it be a break from the hustle and bustle (where did that saying come from?) or, like today, time to reflect on the past.

BTW, I never did clear coat the bookcase. With as much hair floating around this place (including my own), it seemed wiser to hold off until there were less dogs. :p

Pedro the rescue did not go to his forever home last night. He wasn't so keen on the man half of the couple and he was inexperienced with dogs, making his movements and expectations a bit awkward. Pictures will be taken today and their bios will go up on Petfinder later today.

I have a flyball tournament this weekend up at All Dog's Gym in Manchester. Freddie is running on a veterans team, which he's old enough for. So it'll be a non-competitive weekend, which could be considered a refreshing change of pace. We'll see if that's actually the case tho'.

D

Man...

2008-07-30T07:19:00.002-04:00

The last couple of days at work have been killer. I'm glad they're over and sad that they will eventually reappear in the next couple of weeks.

I had a vendor coming in from Canada to give us a demonstration on software we might be interested in purchasing. I got everything set up: getting them into the building, finding and setting up meeting rooms for both days, setting up the meetings that were going to happen in said meeting rooms, directions and hotel information to the vendor, permission to bring foreign nationals on site, lunch for the 5 hour demonstration and calls to multiple technology departments. It took a whole day of me doing nothing but and in the end, the vendor got sick and had to reschedule. Man!!

So I got everything canceled yesterday and will reschedule everything again for next week. Ah well.

I got into the pool after work yesterday! 2nd time this year and it's only the end of July. September better be a hot non-rainy month! A friend came over to swim for a while and hang out. He helped skim the pool while I was vacuuming and then, when the top step cracked, helped me take that off and reattach the stairs. I don't know if they sell that piece separately or not but I'll have to figure something out. We went out for dinner and hung out here after. It was a good, relaxing way to decompress after the last 2 days.

I have a home coming to look at the puppy tomorrow night. I have to get the others listed online after I take their pictures. I got a call about two more that need to be placed but I need to wait until one of the rescues and Neutron go home. I'm hoping I can place Reco soon as Tweak just does not like him and will herd him while baring teeth the entire day. I'm trying to capture the behavior and put a smile cue on it. It's just a little harder to click and treat with 8 dogs bounding up to you for a cookie at the same time.

I read that MA might allow gay non-residents to marry here - the law was appealed and is now in the Governor's hands. One more step in allowing all people to be treated the same way. Good for us. :)

Oh! The photo shoot went really well! Donna got a ton of pictures of Tweak, Freddie, Millie & Pedro doing various things. I can't wait to see the proofs! I'll post the link once they're up.

Tonight I'm going to attempt to clear coat the bookcase. I know, don't faint. It's taken me months to get to it but it's really on the list of things to do today. :) Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll actually be able to get it done.

We'll see you tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel.

D

Disc Doggin'

2008-07-26T19:57:00.004-04:00

Tweak & I went disc doggin' today. I'm not sure if that's an *actual* term or not, but I'll be using it to describe competing in Distance/Accuracy and/or disc freestyle from now on. It just kinda fits.

We didn't get to compete in freestyle today, unfortunately. We could've, but the only division offered was Super Pro freestyle and that we certainly ain't!!! They only offered 2 divisions for Distance/Accuracy too - Novice and Super Pro - which is kinda sad. I wish they'd offer an in between one as well but they say there aren't enough people for it. I think Tweak and I are past Novice but not yet ready (in the least!!) for Super Pro.

Anyway, we took 1st again in Novice, which is cool as we got the most points we ever got in D/A to date. The big accomplishment of the day was my 40 yard throw! It was the first time I hit 40 yards and Tweak jumped up to catch it making it a 4.5 point throw! Here's a picture of the Eastern Nationals trophy we got:

Pretty snazzy, huh?

Once I got home I brought a water sample to the pool store, again, and got directions for how to make it clear and un-green, again. I wonder how many of the employees that pass out advice actually *have* a pool and have tried all of the things they tell people to do. I'm guessing not many...

Before I started adding chemicals, I went in it to brush the walls and floor. But before I did that, I brought Tweak in to the water with me. I thought a disc would get her diving in to it but no such luck. So I brought her in with me and held her so she could get used to the swimming motion. She managed to put 2 holes in my swimsuit and she was clinging to me for dear life the whole time, but we managed. I let her swim to the stairs so she'd know where they are and let her get out. Then I started teasing her with the disc to come to the stairs, then stand on the top perch, then put her front feet on the top stair, etc., etc. Overall I was happy with the amount of progress we made. She'll be swimming by the end of the summer if I have anything to say about it!

When I was coming back in the house, all of the dogs were standing at the door waiting for me so I took a picture. :) Missing from the photo are Freddie, Kona and Pedro but you get the idea.

Tomorrow morning Millie, Freddie, Tweak and I are heading over to Donna's house to take pictures for a training book she's shooting. I'm probably going to bring the puppy since she needs some puppy shots too. That will be a lot of fun! After that we're heading to flyball practice and then home for me to work on a website. As always, a busy day.

D

RIP Randy Pausch

2008-07-25T13:43:00.002-04:00

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47. more...

I didn't have very much to say today anyway, but this trumps whatever garbage I would've given you.

If you haven't seen his lecture, I highly recommend taking 10 minutes and watching the video below.

If, for some unknown reason, the video doesn't play, search YouTube for "Randy Pausch last lecture".

RIP Randy. I wish your family the best.

D

Taking a step back...

2008-07-23T07:29:00.003-04:00

...with Tweak in flyball. So sad, but sooo necessary.

So I finally got a chance to go through the pictures that were taken at the tournament... oh. my. god.

Her box was *awful*! Not even close to kidding kind of awful!

I think it's because she doesn't have a lot of experience running full speed with props but who knows. So that's it - she's out!

Not out entirely, she'll do warm up with full props but she won't run without them. This will also allow us to remove the where-is-the-other-dog pondering she's doing *while in the lane* thing.

The last thing I want to do is rush her and it's very clear that she doesn't quite have the muscle memory for her job yet. So, back to training only and we'll take it from there.

What kills me is that her box looks *sweet* at home.... she just doesn't have the 60 feet to gain speed here like she does at a tournament.

Sigh.

In other news, all of the rescues are fitting in quite nicely. I have to work tonight (at home) but I'll try to upload some pictures and get them listed online. I have limited time before they're included in the dog watching while I'm away and I'm really, really hoping that doesn't have to happen!

D

Where to start...

2008-07-22T07:10:00.000-04:00

Two flyball weekends in a row make for a tired Dawn, that's for sure! The pups were nice and tired as well, which is always a good thing.

Freddie ran ok on Sunday. I'm not sure what was up with him but for the last race of the day (and the last race with WW) he dropped the ball before the line - twice I think. It could be that he was just really tired due to racing the weekend before, the extremely hot weather and the number of races there was over the weekend. Everyone looks forward to a lot of racing but doing it is another thing completely!

Tweak lost her little mind in the middle of the day Sunday. She crossed over a couple of times and was pulled immediately. Yeah, that's not acceptable at all. She realized that she was racing this weekend as well. She stopped on her way up the lane a couple of times during warm ups to wonder where the dog in the other lane was. I'm glad that she's getting it, she's starting to understand the game.

Her return to me is killer so now I have to work on her go out since it's not nearly as strong. It seems I'm always training, training, training with her! Her best time this weekend was a 4.0something. That's 2 full seconds faster than Freddie. Michelle's Grit ran a 3.7 which takes the pressure off of me to have a sub 3.8 dog. :D I can say that I'm really happy with that!

This coming weekend I have a disc competition in Wrentham. I'm looking forward to it because I've been so immersed in flyball lately that this will change it up a bit. I think they're doing toss & fetch and freestyle at this one so I'll have to try my hardest not to forget my routine yet again. I bought a vaulting vest from Kerrie this past weekend so now I can start training her for back vaults and not worry about being scarred for life. :p Her and I need to practice *sometime* this week!

I have 3 rescues in foster right now - Kona, a 5 yo b/t neutered Min Pin that has some sort of allergy thing going on I think; Pedro, a 2 yo stag red neutered Min Pin that thinks he's king of the world and needs to come down a few notches; and Reco, a 6 month old stag red neutered Min Pin that just wants to play. There's a little bit of training that needs to happen first as at least 2 of them would snap at you without blinking if you tried to pick them up without warning. I'm soooo glad I don't have school right now on top of everything else!

D

omg I stink...

2008-07-19T21:08:00.001-04:00

I love flyball. :) But boy can it make you stink!

Freddie and Tweak are doing well - I'm happy with each of their performances. Fingers crossed they do it again tomorrow!

For the first time ever, I saw lightning bugs in my yard! I went outside to find Neutron since he wasn't coming in when I called him. He was in the back left corner just standing there. I noticed a glint of light and thought there was a critter in the greenery but the longer I looked the more I saw them. How cool is that? I feel all country like now. :)

Literally, it's time for sleep.

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