Hitting the Pause Button

Some one of these fine days, I'm going to take a vacation that's really a vacation. It'll be one of those trips where everything is strictly voluntary: no deadlines, no place to drive to, and nothing else to do at sunset but open the chardonnay. Sounds sweet, doesn't it? Pardon me a second while I note that in my calendar so I'll be reminded to relax sometime in the near future.

Not that Dinah and I didn't have a good time on our last dog-show trip, but we didn't really have time to do a lot of sight-seeing, or even relaxing. I can't believe I even went past both of Mary Maxim's locations (Canadian and US) and didn't stop by to look for bargain prices on sock yarn.

Anyway, you can read about our road trip on my other blog. Let's catch up on everything else here.


Still, No Knitting

The knitting trough continues. It's hard to get up the desire to pick up needles and wool when the temperature is 87 degrees out with 97% humidity. Maybe things are looking up, though. I've started lusting after sock yarns in catalogs again.

From World's Fair to Mid-Air

The Second Life 5th Birthday (SL5B) celebration went very well for Greg, who was able to chat with musicians, music lovers, and anyone else who stopped by to visit his exhibit. When Dinah and I left for Canada, he was still running 4-5 simultaneous chat windows and muttering about streaming.

After the exhibit concluded and he left his thank-you graphic on the communal plot, he couldn't help but feel a little sad. He'd been wildly busy, sure, but he already missed the chance to hang out and talk music all day with people. He wasn't sure what to do with the exhibit building, or with any of the media he'd set up.

Marie, whom we met in real life in Portland a while back, recently gave Greg a plot of virtual land the exact size of the exhibit. (Actually, she sold it to me for $0, since I have a premium account and can own land.) The land is not situated in the right orientation for the building, so Greg made it into a skybox and stuck it 350 meters above ground. There's a teleport at ground level to take visitors up into the sky. The view of the mountaintop is lovely, as long as you shorten your draw distance to block out the ad farms and space junk. Hey, we can't gripe about the price, and the neighbors we've met are very nice people who also lament the ad farms. Giving us a plot of land was an easy way to preserve a little green space.

Frankendoggie Begone

No one is happier than Charlie that he's healed up from his last surgery. The sutures are out, he's growing some hair over the shaved parts, and now he's back in the dirt and having himself a good time. The vet reported that all but one of his lumps were cysts. The last one was what he referred to as a "spindle cell tumor," but he thinks he removed it with good enough margins so the chances of its growing back are low. Those tumors tend to be slow-growing and pretty much encapsulated, which is good news.

Now it's time to clip Seamus down. The poor little guy has a beautiful, long, thick coat, but the little princess has been systematically ripping out all the hair on the right side of his face so that he's become a semi-Beardless Collie. Maybe after a summer of having nothing to pull, she'll learn to leave him alone.

Photos From the Homestead

Charlie enjoying his new summer buzz cut and the fresh-cut grass


Seamus with a little grass to decorate his coat


Dinah wants some company -- now get down here and throw that dumbbell!


The Lovely One Herself

It's Official -- He Really is Famous!

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Rough Masters and Masterpieces

Exciting Man News: After a wait of roughly 6 months, a copy of the rough master for the Water Suite (the one that was recorded in Prague last summer) has finally hit the doorstep.

We've been awaiting this recording with quite a lot of anticipation. Greg couldn't go to Prague to hear the recording session, so this disc was his first chance to hear the orchestral version of the suite. He ripped open the Airborne package, put it into the PC, and we sat... chills running up our spines. It's GOOD.

Of course, the final mix will sound a teensy bit different -- things will be balanced a little more, and there are a couple of extra sound effects (a clunk here, a knock there) that will be edited out. This isn't intended to be a live recording, after all. When it's done, I hope it blows people's socks off as it did ours. We know the piece well, and we still were amazed.

Speaking of recording sessions... looks like the one for the Sax Quartet is coming together for June in NYC. Greg doesn't have the exact dates yet -- or maybe he does and I just haven't heard them yet. The New Hudson Sax Quartet recorded Lukas Foss's quartet for the CD at his place in New York, and they've also done Mike Veloso's quartet. Now that those two are done, Greg's is the last to be recorded before production starts.

We have our tickets and our arrangements for the two ACA concerts on the first week in June. All I need to do now is make hotel arrangements for the pups. To be honest, there are a gazillion things I would rather do with my hard-earned vacation days than spend them in New York, but the concerts should make the rest of the experience worthwhile. I only hope I can find free wi-fi.

Greg's computer bit the Big Kahuna last week. One morning, it just refused to boot. We thought that it might be the battery or the power cord -- with laptops, you never know whether your problem might not just be a lack of charge. Anyway, Greg packed it down to MacEdge to have them look at it. They reported that it had pretty much fried -- the system board, the power supply -- well, it might be easier to list the components that didn't fry. They couldn't say exactly what caused the problem -- only that there wasn't a lot left to salvage outside of the hard disk and the extra RAM chips. The laptop was way out of warranty, so there wasn't much else left to do except take it out behind the barn and bury it. Fortunately, Greg has backups -- so he's up and running again on one of my old spare PCs. Now he can gripe about a different operating system.

Canine News (Ours and Others)



Charlie Brown turned 11 last week. It seems as though it wasn't so long ago that I flew out to Jody's house to pick him up. We went downstairs to the puppy pen, and I spied a little brown Superball of a puppy, bouncing up and down and up and down while his brothers and sisters milled around in greeting. "Guess which one is yours," Jody said.

It's still hard to believe that that little puppy is now a senior dog. Charlie's in great shape for 11, aside from a touch of arthritis in his left shoulder that is probably an artifact of his having had Lyme Disease some years ago. Half a Deramaxx usually takes care of things nicely, and he only gets that when he appears to need it. Otherwise, he's hale and handsome, and still can see, hear, dig, and eat dirt. (If anyone asked him what his secret for longevity was, he probably would answer, "Plenty of dirt.")

I did my second CGC tests this past week for my friend Mary's POC class. All of the dogs were adorable -- I particularly wanted to spend the rest of the evening smooching on Dewey the Boxer. Six out of our seven passed. Emma, the Springer Spaniel, was about as unhappy with the Supervised Separation exercise as Seamus had been, and squeaked continuously for her dad until we called him back to her. Dinah was the most distracted distraction dog in history -- not only did she not interact with any of the test dogs, but she kept her eyes focused on me no matter who was walking her.

My next CGC test would have taken place in June, but the date was moved to September to coincide with Responsible Dog Ownership Day/Month/Whatever. That works out nicely for Dinah and me, since it frees us up to attend a herding clinic on that weekend instead.


...And Still No Knitting Got Done

Geez, even my Second Life avatar gets more knitting done than I do! A friend of mine discovered a virtual knitting shop that sells animated knitting needles and tintable lace knitting projects. Of course, I had to have one -- if only so I can look like I'm doing some knitting.

In spite of the time I've been sinking into SL of late, I have been trying hard to get things accomplished, and am making a teeny bit of headway. I revamped Greg's Web site, keeping all the things he liked about the original while making the new one faster and more standards-compliant. Whatever he's been using to update the site re-declared the same font family statements every 4 words of every sentence on every page. That's a lot of Delete-key action!

Today is the Day

Every year at roughly this time, the farm store here in town runs its equivalent of an office pool. Staff and customers place bets as to the exact date and time when the mountain of plowed snow in their parking lot melts completely into a puddle.

The farm store snow still has a long way to go before it hits the dirt, but today -- after four successive days of warm and sunny weather -- the last filthy remnants of snow in our yard finally disappeared. I've been so deathly freakin' sick of winter that I feel as though I've won the office pool myself.

The dogs have been celebrating the advent of spring in their own fashion. They've started new holes in the mud in the dog yard, for which I'll have to buy more rocks and topsoil. They have also been more vocal about getting me to join in the fun outside, too. I throw the ball for Dinah several times a day, and that always precipitates a game of chase between Herself and one of the boys. This morning, Dinah and Seamus had such a great time playing chase and wrestling in the mud that I entirely forgot to rush back into the house for the camera. They were just too much fun to watch.

This is the time when installing a doggie door proves to be a smart move. The pups are in and out and in and out and in and out all day long. I want to say that I love the new metal storm doggie door, but it hasn't weathered the season as well as one would hope, given the outrageous price I paid for a custom-sized, custom-installed specimen.

Lowe's is like some of the guys I've dated in the distant past. They'll charm the pants off you, vowing that their customer service people will never sleep again until you can honestly say that everything is just plain frickin' wonderful with the product.

Once you say yes, and they have you where they want you, they'll install the thing, call once to see if you're happy, and grin while cashing your check. However, if anything goes wrong after that -- warranty or no warranty -- they dematerialize. I can't believe that the customer service people are on lunch break 24x7, but it sure seems that way.

Our door is beautiful, and the installation seemed to go pretty well. However, neither the doggie door nor the storm door close properly any more. They clicked into place perfectly for the first month or so, but now I can push or pull with all my might on the door and it just won't close. Calls to Lowe's return the equivalent of, "Of course I still love you, baby, but can't you see I'm busy right now? We'll get together soon, I promise." I've heard that before. The least they could have done was kiss me first.

Lots of Music News

Greg, who is sitting in the office as I write, reports that the new NYC venue for the recording of the Sax Quartet looks good, and the recording engineer is a good one. The producer didn't give a date yet, but it looks as though it will happen within the next couple of months.

One of the members of the New Hudson Sax Quartet just emailed him that he's coming to Bowdoin next week with another new music ensemble. Greg plans to go up there with the score of Louis, Louis and go over it with the group.

The Man has been busy with a new piece that has captured his attention and energies of late. Its working title is Thouros and Phosphoros, and it's based on the story of the same name from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Before he mentioned the project to me, Greg had had no idea how much I love Ovid's poetry in general and the Metamorphoses in particular. One of my "someday" projects is a collaboration with an artist friend of mine to produce a story based on the tale of Philemon and Baucis from the same work.


Busier Than a One-Legged Man in a Butt-Kicking Contest

I used to have a boss at Digital (in one of my many incarnations there) who used that phrase every time things got a little hectic around the office, and it never failed to crack me up. I still can't borrow it myself without giggling just a little.

Anyway, it sure describes things around the homestead right about now. Work's pretty steady and gaining in momentum, plus the Web site stuff is beginning to take off. I still maintain all of the sites I ever did, plus I've taken on two new sites and a redesign for one friend of mine, and a brandy-new site for a mutual friend of ours. Not to mention the fact that both Greg's and my sites are in dire need of a redesign that brings them out of the 1990s. My site, while still a useful resource that gets a lot of hits from information seekers, isn't exactly the type of site that cries out, "Look at me -- I'm a Web design expert!".

I've also picked up yet another CGC testing gig since my last post. I knew that I would be testing for another POC graduating class in Kittery next month and for NEOESR in June. Since then, I've also been asked to test at the Meet the Breeds event in Scarborough on June 8. It's all good; we can never have too many Canine Good Citizens out there.

The Continuing Soggy Saga of Spring

Spring has finally decided to stick around this latitude for a while, albeit grudgingly. The sun seems reluctant to show its face for very long at a stretch, for fear of frightening us natives who haven't seen it since forever. "Ooh! What is that big yellow ball in sky? Run! Run before we get used to being warm and cheerful!"

I can tell it's spring because our backyard, which used to look like some of the Siberian scenes in Doctor Zhivago, now looks more like the Okefenokee Swamp without the gators. We have an actual pond here on the property, but the visiting ducks always seem to prefer swimming around in the temporary lakes of snow-melt we have out there. Here are a couple of the current visitors...



Dinah thinks I'm putting her on when I tell her, "Look! Duckies!". She knows from ducks, after all. She loves herding the Indian Runners around at Suzanne White's place on the occasions we've had to go up there. To her, real ducks don't swim or fly. They walk everywhere, preferably with her able assistance. When the wild ducks outside announce their presence with a chorus of quacks, she stiffens to attention and is ready to get to work. Those tourist-creatures out in the yard are of no interest to her, though. They only sound like real ducks.

The pups have been celebrating the advent of Mud Season, all right...



I've been remiss at cleaning up in the dog yard because most of it is under water; the dogs have to get their yeah-yeahs out in the remaining dry space, or out with me someplace else. All of the toys and bones that Dinah and Seamus hid in the snowbanks are now languishing out in the water. I'll need to put on some boots, collect the things to dry, and hope I don't lose my footwear to the mud while I'm doing it.

Yes You Can

Thanks to Sue and Judy, I received my AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluator's credentials a few weeks back. You may now call me Evaluator #35219.

I decided to go for it because I've met so many people (particularly in our breed club, but elsewhere, too) with sweet, lovely dogs. The owners shake their heads sadly and say, "But we don't show or trial. My dog could never do that." The CGC is really within reach of any dog/owner team with even a passing mastery of some very basic obedience skills of the type every dog and owner should know. My campaign slogan for the CGC would probably be "Yes You Can."

After the ink dried on my newly-minted credentials, Sue asked me to come and evaluate one of her CGC classes for Reigning Cats and Dogs. She reassured me that they were all wonderful teams, and would make it very easy for a noob like me to get started.

Of course, Sue was absolutely right. I evaluated seven student teams from her class (plus our friend Rayleen from POC and her Skye Terrier puppy). All of the dogs were puppies or teenagers except for the lovely Great Dane, who at 3 was the senior member of the assemblage. I felt terrible for the Husky's owner when the little guy decided he'd rather wrestle than pay attention, but hey... he's only a puppy. Sue and I encouraged her to try him again at POC's June match. He'll be a couple of months older by then, and every month brings big changes to a puppy.

It was genuinely touching to see the expressions of relief, disbelief, and delight on the faces of those folks who passed. Yes They Can!

I worked fairly hard to keep them from discovering that I was every bit as nervous as they were, but it did involve taking some extra time to let people breathe and puppies settle. I ran seriously overtime, but Sue came up with a great idea: Let the waiting students from her next class come in to watch the test. They'd get to see what the CGC was all about, and maybe they'd want to sign up for Sue's next CGC class.

The distraction level grew about 400% by then, but that was a very good thing -- much truer to real life. We had several well-behaved dogs, two little children, a couple of rattly paper bags, plus Sue and the other two volunteers whom I shanghaied into helping: Greg, sporting a cane I got from Freecycle and a book he dropped at intervals and my friend Jay (one of Sue's former students), who jogged around the room during the distraction exercise.

Sue followed up later with a very sweet note thanking me for testing, and saying that she and Rayleen had received numerous compliments about the test and how I handled each team. That makes me happy. All I really wanted was to let them know that they could do everything on the test, and they did. Sue prepared them well. All I did was reaffirm that with sheets of carbonless paper.

Now that the tests are over and the paperwork is done, I'm already receiving requests to do the tests at other venues. I'm testing on two successive weekends in June already. When they asked me if I could come and test, I said... wait for it.. Yes I Can.

(Apologies to Senator Obama, but it was just too good to pass up.)

This Blog Post is Brought to You By the Number 4 and the Letter S

S is for Seamus

Please forgive me if I start this post with a little brag on Almost Famous Seamus. The little guy and I spent last weekend at an APDT rally trial at Monadnock Canine Academy in NH. Since we weren't crashing over out there, we had to get up at four-frickin'-thirty in the morning each morning in order to make it there by 8 AM. Seamus, being the non-fan of car rides that he is, whined the whole way up and the whole way back.

In spite of that, the Famous One managed to qualify 4 out of 4 times, with two 4th-place finished in his class. (His lucky number for the weekend must have been 4, eh?) Since the RL1X title requires 10 qualifying legs, we're still collecting the set. Last weekend's legs bring our total up to 7. One more trial and we could conceivably finish this year!

This trial was a first for Monadnock, and indeed for NH. It was the first APDT trial held north of Massachusetts. The facility was beautiful, with a huge room for the ring and great flooring. We had a separate crating room with tables and chairs for the humans, and the food was excellent. They even had shopping available! The shelter's pet supply store was open both days and carried lots of great collars, toys, food, treats, books, and even whole bean coffee.

My friend Sissy came with both her Akitas and her 16-year-old daughter in tow. Axle, the male, appears to have re-injured a knee that has already had an ACL repair. He wasn't able to compete in the trial, but Kuma, the female, did and finished her RL1 title. Sissy will probably tale her on to RL2. Kuma has an AKC RE, so she won't have any problems with going off-lead.

You can guess what our next challenge will be when we finish the RL1X, though. I hope we can conquer off-lead work without too many choruses of "Seeeeaaaaaammmmuuusssss!" echoing around the rally-roo ring.

"S" is For...

My friend Jane lives out in Encinitas, CA, so we're lucky if we get to see each other once a year at the Beardie National Specialty. She called me up recently. Turns out she's serving as chair of the nominating committee for the national club, and was wondering whether I'd be interested in taking over the spot of the corresponding secretary. The current secretary is leaving the office to take over as president.

I don't know what came over me, but I told her I'd do it. My term begins in July, and I get to serve a maximum of two terms (I think). Someone must have seen the "S" on my forehead and thought it stood for Secretary.

Now, if that isn't enough madness for one person, I was also elected to the Board of my local kennel club. I'm glad to help, really, but I wish all of the former Board members could have stayed on the Board as well.

"S" also stands for Steward. One of the local chief stewards recruited me to help out at her local kennel club's show this year. Since I won't be entering Dinah (less than zero chance of a major there), this frees me up to work in the ring at more of the local shows. A couple of the chief stewards trained me last year and I stewarded our kennel club's fall match, but this show will be the first time I fly solo. I've been promised a ring next to an experience steward and my very own set of rocks! (A steward needs rocks to act as paperweights when stewarding outdoors on windy days. Since I've passed the initiation and been accepted into the fraternity, I will be presented with my own set of bone-shaped cut stone paperweights. Woo hoo!)

4 Trips to NYC for The Man

Any time now, the 21st Century Masterworks volume that contains Greg's Water Suite should be available. ERM had said that the collection would be out by the end of March, but they're still a few volumes behind in their release schedule. The Man should still be out on iTunes sometime this year, though.

June seems to be the big month for Greg this year. Not only is he getting two pieces played in NYC, but the recording session for the Sax Quartet finally seems to be happening, and will happen in June. Since Town Hall is no longer an option for the recording, the producer had to find a studio somewhere else in the city. One has been found, but I don't know which one just yet.

4-lorn-Looking Half-Finished Knitting Projects

With everything else that's been going on, I've been lucky to steal a minute here and two minutes there to get some knitting done. I did manage to finish the latest watch cap for Greg - this one in navy blue Bernat Softee Chunky. (I know, I know, knitting with cheap-ass Wally World yarn and all... but the cap had to be made of something lighter than wool that would stand up to abuse and hot water washloads, yet be denser than cotton yarn, yet be cooler than wool yarn... )

I started an "idiot knitting" project on the side in my negative spare time. Although knitting twisted rib watch caps is pretty close to idiot knitting, the very dark navy I used for the last one made the stitches harder to see, and reduced the project's "idiot knitting" quotient.

"S" is also for Second Life, but more on that in another post. I have to go see what's 4 Supper.

Can the Equinox Be Far Behind?

Now that the snow is beginning to melt, Dinah and Seamus are finding all sorts of buried treasure in the back yard...



What a time for the camera on my cell phone to fink out on me! Last weekend at this time, I was sitting behind the backstop at a spring training baseball game in Phoenix, drinking beer in the sun and cheering for the Cubbies. (They lost in the bottom of the 9th.) Because I'd decided to travel light (and thus, not lose my luggage for a change!), I'd left my camera here at home. I figured that the one on my cell phone could do the honors... but no. It failed. Here I'd been hoping to capture some shots of saguaro cactus, red rocks, and baseball in the sunshine to brighten up my miserable, wintry blog.

Ah, but it was freakin' sweet while it lasted. Spring training has been a sorta-biannual tradition for some years now. My friend Lise, a fellow Sox fan, and I get sick of winter at roughly about the same time, and we agree to converge on Scottsdale to visit mutual friends of ours who live there. Liz and Jim aren't into baseball, but they graciously allow us to crash at their place and soak up some sunshine for a weekend. We all get together in the evenings for dinner and to spoil their two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. (I'm not a small-dog person, but I LOVE Cavaliers. If I ever did have small dogs, I'd have them.)

We were just there long enough to get used to relaxing in the sunshine. We saw two ball games: Giants vs. As and Cubbies vs. As, in two different ballparks. We wore sunglasses, drank beer, and cheered.

Will the Real Maine Maple Sunday Please Stand Up?

Maine Maple Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. It comes as a sign of hope that winter is on its way out, the sap is rising in the trees, and that spring is just around the corner.

Traditionally, this day falls on the fourth Sunday in March. Unfortunately, for the past few years, the fourth Sunday in March also turns out to be Easter Sunday. Some farmers want the day off, and some want to stay open. Some sugar producers decide to open for both weekends, since many of them derive most of their year's income from Maple Sunday sales.

Greg and I did our Maple Sunday rambling yesterday, since the weather was relatively nice and we didn't have any holiday obligations. I looked forward to the maple cotton candy, maple hot dogs, maple baked beans, and maple whoopie pies -- but by the time we got to the farms, they had all run out of food. They did offer us samples of vanilla ice cream with maple syrup and some pretzels with maple cream, anyway. I'm glad for them that they had so much business, considering that some of them will want to close for Easter.

The Man's Ticket to Tune Town

Greg has been spending Saturday mornings over at church, accompanying some of the singers and instrumentalists who were putting on a concert to raise funds for the church's youth group activities. He allowed himself to be talked into playing, but didn't have time to practice the piece he really wanted to do, Ben Folds's "Philosophy." He decided at the last minute to work up "Bohemian Rhapsody", with "You Get What You Give" for a possible encore.

He ended up playing both. Turns out that the concert was also a "Battle of the Bands," and Greg -- to his surprise -- came in third. He won a $15 gift certificate to Tune Town. Not bad for a day's work.

He has just found out that his two NYC concerts have been moved. One piece (the four-part choral work) is now the first piece of the first concert in the series. The second piece appears in the second concert, along with a work from a friend of his from the composers' forum in Eugene a few years ago. Of course we'll figure out a way for both of us to go, and of course I'm bringing knitting.

Speaking of Knitting...

The watch cap factory is up and running at full productivity, such as it is. I've finally hit on something that Greg likes and will use, so I'm sticking with a good thing for now. Cap #4 is on the needles now, and I have some skeins lying around that will eventually become #5 and #6 (and maybe even #7).

I also sneaked in another scarf for Susannah out of some fantastic reddish-bronze ribbon yarn I picked up at Marden's. If the label hasn't disappeared into the black hole in the living room (apparently we have one in every room), I'll have to dig it out and identify the yarn. It's pretty, anyway.

Time for some more doggie shots...

I like to call this one "Glamour Girl Meets Punk-Haired Boy."




Tug of War, take 2:

Guess Why We Call Her Dinah Moe!

Photo by Lynn Lepley-Boschert, Gone to the Dogs Photos.

Finally, a Post That's Mostly About Knitting

Seems like everybody has a Super Bowl Sunday tradition, whether football fan or not. Some folks I know watch the game religiously with a small crowd of like-minded fans, along with with vats of chili and acres of nachos close by. Some watch only the commercials and skip the game itself.

My very favorite Super Bowl Sunday tradition involves cruising the sales at the local yarn and needlework shops. Back when kickoff took place in mid-afternoon, the shops would be full of football widows looking for a little fellow-feeling and 25% off all regularly priced yarns.

Fran and I decided to cruise the discounts at Rosemary's this afternoon and made out pretty well for ourselves. She picked up yarn for a vest she wanted to make, plus some more for hats and a few other articles. I grabbed a few different kinds of abuse-resistant cotton blends to make hats for Greg and some more sock yarn. Rosemary herself is headed for the Stitch & Beach cruise with Debbie Stoller and some other folks this month. Sounds like a grand time to me!

Hat Factory

Greg has been asking for more hats lately, so I've been churning them out asquickly as I possibly can. He mostly wears the original blue Wool-Ease watch cap and loves the green Encore twisted rib watch cap. I have another twisted rib cap on the needles in gray Jeannee, since he requested a cotton hat for warmer weather. In the basket are another ball of Encore (gray) and some Sirdar Denim Aran in a nice brown-and-white tweedy colorway. By the time I'm finished with all of these, The Man's going to have a complete wardrobe of knitted hats in all colors, and for all seasons.

I have to admit that I'm also knitting hats because I've been too out of it to think about challenging knitting, even socks. I messed up something in Jody's second Jawoll sock and ended up frogging the thing back to the start. Somebody breathed on me at a doggie meet-and-greet last weekend, and I've been battling a virus since. I don't really want to touch any of my other UFOs for fear I'll mess them up, too. I've started the gray Jeannee hat, and it's simple enough that even I can't mess it up.

Yeah, Me Too

If you're on Ravelry, you can find me there now. I'm my3seadogs... no surprise there...

It's not like I really needed another social network presence -- Facebook takes up enough of my time already -- but my invitation came, and how could I say no?

Handsome Guy!

Charlie has been very happy about the snow we've been having lately...

It's Baaaaa-ack!

...and Seamus celebrated.



Ayuh, the January thaw is now history. (Actually, I think it made history with a record warm temperature one day this past week.) Now it's back to Winter Classic and more of the white stuff.

I did manage to rescue most of the toys and bones from the yard as they emerged from the snow, but Dinah is busy dragging them back out of the toy box into the yard to be reburied. She does love a good surprise, and now she can get surprised all over again the next time a thaw takes place.

ScribeFire is Fired

Ah, sad thing it is, too. I really enjoy the convenience of having a screen pop up from Firefox whenever the inspiration strikes. Because I do what I do for a living and understand the complex and sometimes fragile nature of the client-server connection, I've never been wild about composing directly on the Web, either -- and there are certain things you can't do offline in a regular text editor. ScribeFire seemed like the ideal solution.

Anyway, I like everything about the ScribeFire plugin except the fact that it's turned all the text in my blog page to italic. Even if it's fixable, it's not acceptable. Buh-bye.

Taking the "Free" Out of "Freelance"

I just received my first check from Downeast Dog News this weekend. I honestly never much thought about the fact that I could actually get money for doing articles -- I've just been writing for the fun of it, and to take a break from writing about computer stuff for work. I'm also pleased that I have another publication to list for my application to the Dog Writers of America. A friend of mine who writes for Dog in Sight magazine encouraged me to join, so I can add the membership to my "journalist" credentials. DDN was just nominated for the DWAA's Best Canine Newspaper or Newsletter award.

Might As Well Take the Plunge

I've signed Seamus and me up for the next APDT rally trial, which will take place in Swanzey, NH at the end of March. Since we're working on a "money title" that requires 10 qualifying scores (RL1X), we won't finish any new titles at the trial even if we Q in everything -- but we could come home 7/10 of the way toward the next one -- and thus, we'd be only one more trial away from finishing the title. The joy of APDT rally is that there's still plenty to do on-lead, so we can continue to trial even though he might never be reliable enough off-lead to continue in AKC. I'll continue to train him, but I'm not sure I can ever trust him.

Dinah, on the other hand, is terrific off-lead, but needs time and work to acquire some precision. She's not working at the prodigy level that her sister Buffy is at this point, but that's because I'm a much lazier trainer than Jana is. I expect that eventually, with some time and some training, that Dinah will be able to do pretty much anything. If we didn't still have to chase those stupid majors to finish her conformation championship, we could plan to enter more trials this year and work on some other titles.

In the spirit of learning -- and not because I think we're ready for prime time -- we're going to our first agility trial next month. CPE agility is a great place for an agility dog to start. Level 1 courses contain no teeters (which Dinah likes) or weaves (which she doesn't care for), and the courses are simple. I've chosen to enter her in the Enthisiast level, so the jump heights are even 4" below what she'll be expected to jump in the Regular classes when we get there. It's about the best way we can find of easing into agility trialing. It's more important to me that she get used to the sights, sounds, and routines of agility trials at the moment. We probably won't Q -- especially if there are chutes on the course -- but we'll have acquired some experience. (Plus, we'll have friends there. A classmate from Auntie Cindy's agility class will be there with her Rottie boy.)

Seamus is back in Uncle Jim's agility class for this session, too. Because he's not an off-lead kind of guy, I'm not sure he'll ever run agility outside of the classroom, but we have a great time. We know most of the dogs and people there, and we still learn stuff. It's also a good way for me to sharpen my clumsy handling skills in a second class.

A Good Time for Wool

Greg's second hat is growing slowly. I've been able to make tiny amounts of progress each day. On snowy, crappy days like these, it just feels right to play with yarn. While we were in Portland over the weekend doing an art gallery crawl, I managed to sneak into Central Yarn for another ball of Encore (charcoal gray) for him, plus a skein of purple hand-dyed Seacoast Handpaints sock yarn for myself. No, I didn't need more sock yarn -- but I made the mistake of picking it up out of a conveniently placed basket on the floor, and the yarn refused to leave my hand. I had to buy it and bring it home -- I had no choice! I also saw a pattern for a gansey with a lobster design that I just have to make (maybe several times), so that leaflet also followed me home.

I've been so busy cranking out hats for The Man that I haven't started Jody's second Jawoll sock yet. The first one is beautiful, though. If we have a few more days like this one, I should be able to keep The Man in hats and still get some warm socks out to Nebraska for Jody pretty quickly. Lambing season's coming up, and she'll appreciate being able to wear something warm on those midnight slogs to the barn.

Comp'ing

Speaking of The Man, Greg's started a new piece for trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums. Its title is Comp'ing, and it's going to be a Very, Very Cool piece when it grows up. Greg's using it to take a bit of a break from The Seven Wonders. It's as spontaneous and playful a piece as The Seven Wonders is studious and involved, so the two make great foils for each other.

Greg received a Christmas card from ERM Media, but hasn't heard anything about the Masterworks series since. As far as he knows, the CD with the orchestral version of Water will still be released at the end of March, and people should still be able to download the piece from iTunes at that point.

January Thaw

(FYI, Firefox-ophiles, this is the first post I've written using the ScribeFire plug-in for Firefox. Guess you and I will find out at the same time how well it works, but I like having the little clickable icon on the bottom of my browser window. Comes in handy for those last-minute inspirations.)

Anyway... we have been going through a thaw for the past couple of days. Winter is a cruel season here in Maine -- as soon as you're caught enjoying a patch of relatively warm weather, Mother Nature comes along and smacks you back into the usual cold, dark stuff you're used to. People talk about the warm weather in hushed tones, pretending not to enjoy it that much, in order to soften the inevitable disappointment when winter returns.

Maybe it's due to the subtle mental lift that comes with 60-degree weather and occasional glimpses of actual sunshine, but lately it's been a good time to get some stuff done, and to change some things. I have been dying to learn more about CSS/XHTML and PHP programming, but didn't have the time to do a good job teaching myself. Come to find out, our local school district's continuing ed. program includes some online courses in just those subjects! I signed up for the CSS/XHTML course faster than you can say "nerd" -- and classes start on the 16th. I can't wait! Most of my CSS hacking to date has consisted of taking a design and messing with it until I liked what I saw, but now I can understand what actually goes on under the proverbial hood.

I have additional reasons to be feeling a little bit chuffed these days -- at least, while the sun still shines and the snow still melts. My very first article for Downeast Dog News, a Q&A-style piece about the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, was just published in the January issue. As a bonus, the editor included a photo of a Jack Russell Terrier pointing out that taking the CGC test would make a very good New Year's resolution. I loved it! Anyway, time to get serious about my next obedience-related article.

Not Just a Pretty Face

Even after working with the lovely Dinah Moe for the past couple of years, it still amazes me what the girlie knows when I give her a chance to show me.

Last night at agility class, we were working on some of the other obstacles while our classmates took turns at the portion of the course that corresponded with the evening's lesson. We worked on a start to a tire jump to the A-frame.

I'm used to a sit-stay at the start. When I'm working Seamus, I have to get him to sit, or he'll get some other idea into his head instead -- so for him, a sit-stay gives him something to focus on while I'm leading out. Dinah was reluctant to sit and stay at the start, and I'd have to explain it to her every time.

At one point, I decided to see what would happen if I just told her to stand-stay. She responded perfectly, and didn't move at all until given the "go." Since she's a show dog, she's had to learn how to stand still in the ring. She gets it!

Of course, she's going to need to differentiate between a sit-stay, a down-stay, and a stand-stay for all the other dog sports out there, but for herding and agility, it works. What a smart girlie!

Likewise, I've noticed that she tries to get back into heel position after I send her over a jump. I'll have to figure out ways to exploit that idea. This is the girl who insisted on heeling on the right all through puppy class (I explained that it was because she's British, and so she drives on the wrong side of the road). She's comfortable enough with working on the right side in agility, but she needs to be in heel position in rally-roo -- so she was just showing me what she knows. What a smart girl! Now all I have to do is train her to distinguish when I want her to be on the right versus the left, and when it's okay not to heel.

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More Winter Photos 'n' Stuff

Woke up this morning to see this freaky-looking ice hand reaching down off the roof... (took the photo from the outside)



There's still more than enough winter to go around. Dinah had a nice bounce with her sweetheart Traveler this afternoon...



Meanwhile, at home, Charlie is still the King of All He Surveys...



...and Seamus still keeps trying to shovel the steps with his face.



Yup, just another weekend here in Frozen Frickin' Paradise.

Minor Successes Are Still Successes

I've always been a bit leery of knitting anything for Greg that he doesn't want. When I was learning to knit, I made him a scarf just because it was the only thing I knew how to make at that point. He's not really a scarf kind of guy, so he thanked me profusely for it... but I haven't seen it since. The nice gray Jawoll socks have likewise never seen the light of day, though he assures me that they are not lost, just waiting in the sock drawer for his next winter hike.

Well, I've finally struck knitted-gift pay dirt with The Man. I made him a watch cap out of Lion's Brand Wool-ease Chunky, and handed it to him while we were watching a movie. He removed the hat he was wearing, placed the watch cap on his head, and said that if I ever felt like knitting him more hats, he would absolutely love to have them. I'm taking him at his word, so the next project will be a regular toque out of a pine-green heathered Encore Worsted.

We're Number 4! We're Number 4!

The 2007 rankings for APDT Rally are out. Whereas Seamus was #2 in the country (out of 2 Beardies) in the rankings, this year he's #4 out of 4. That's actually okay, considering that we made it to only one weekend of APDT trials all year. This year, we need to practice, practice, practice and finish up that RL1X title. We've entered the Monadnock APDT trial at the end of March. If we qualify all four times that weekend, we'll be up to 7 Qs, and will need to qualify only three more times to finish the title!

I'm still not completely sure we'll ever go on to APDT RL2 or AKC Advanced with Seamus. Seamus is still not reliable off-lead, though little Dinah Moe is better off-lead than she is on-lead. She's coming along in rally-roo, though it'll be a while before we reach anything like military precision. We start up agility classes this week for both pups, which should make them both very happy (and tired). We all could use a chance to run around and have some fun, now that we don't have to go to shows every frickin' weekend.

Not that the wheels of the dog-show machinery haven't been turning. I spent most of yesterday afternoon with the show chair and the specialty clubs chair for my local kennel club's dog shows in May. We work well together and got quite a bit done, but the process was L-O-N-G. BCCME will have a supported entry both days of the show, and as Trophy Chair, it's my happy task to compile exhaustive lists of all of the rosettes and trophies being offered by everybody for all of the breed rings, obedience, and rally-roo (especially those prizes being offered for Bearded Collies at the show).

Happy ROO Year!

Seamus wants to wish everyone a Happy ROO Year!

He says ROO when he's happy or excited about something, and that includes fresh snow. Sure, he likes to romp in it as much as the next Beardie, but he also maintains that it's not just for breakfast any more.

Enough Already!

Yeah, we got our White Christmas, and our White Boxing Day, and our White Every Other Freakin' Day This Season. I think it probably snowed more days this week than not -- or maybe it just seems that way. Seamus and Dinah have three or four storms' worth of buried toys out there in the snow now -- those suckers aren't going to see the daylight again for a long while!

Heard on the radio that this past snow (the one two days ago, not the one today) set a new record in Boston for snowiest December. Ha! You call this snowy? We eat snow like this for breakfast every morning! Apparently it's only the third snowiest December in the Portland area.

I do feel bad for my across-the-street neighbor, though. The poor man came back from a winter in Florida this past spring just in time to get bombarded with snow. Now, although he really did plan to stick around this latitude until after the holidays, he'll be lucky if he can dig out the camper and get south before the next storm gets in the way.

I have only this to say about all the frickin' snow: At least it's not ice.

The Fudge is Strong in This One

Ever since he was just a little brown puppy, I've referred to Charlie as my "little piece of fudge", especially when admiring his handsome brown fudgy nose and his fudgy brown feet. He is handsome, and he does know it.

Charlie has always kept to his own schedule for things and made his own choices. He didn't care for doggie performance sports, even though he humored me by trying all of them with me when he was younger. We went only because I liked sports, though, and he made that clear by showing the most enthusiasm when he knew class was just about over. Over the years, he has continued to learn things on his own time, and in his own way.

When we had the doggie door installed, Dinah was letting herself in and out within ten minutes. Seamus needed a little more coaching, but soon picked up on the concept. He'll still stick his nose in or out a few times before deciding which side of the door he wants to be on, but eventually, he does decide.

As for Charlie, he was sensitive to the idea of having the rubber flap swinging in his face, especially if he tried to follow one of the other dogs out through the dog door. He'd stand or sit in front of the door, and I swear he wrinkled his forehead in concentration as he figured out how to use the door. He wouldn't go out or come in without me holding the door open a crack, so he could see it was open.

Jokingly, I kept pointing to the door and using Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice on Charlie. "Use the Fudge, Charlie. Uuuuuuse the fuuuudge." What I meant was for him to employ that fudgy nose to nudge the door flap open, and then he could let himself in or out.

For whatever reason, he got it. Now "Use the Fudge" has become an actual command to him, and he will nudge the door on command! Seamus and Dinah, who don't have fudgy noses, still just let themselves in and out at will.

Turbo Holidays

The holidays whooshed past before we had a chance to blink, but I think they were pretty good. Usually I pay at least lip service to the holidays by getting wreaths up on the front door and on the barn, but I didn't even manage that this year.

On Christmas Eve, I made my annual appearance in church (in a skirt, no less!) to hear Greg play and conduct the choir. The service was packed -- standing room only -- and I heard from more than one parishioner that if only the same number of people came on Sunday, then the church's money worries would probably be a thing of the past.

We had been hoping to grab a quick dinner at the Kennebunk Inn again this year, but the kitchen had closed at 8 PM and we arrived at 8:15. We'll go back again sometime, though. We ended up at the one restaurant on Route 1 that was open after 8 on Christmas Eve: a combination Chinese/Japanese restaurant. I'm usually leery of combo-Asian restaurants... but Greg's sesame chicken and my unagi-don were both pretty danged good. I'd go back.

Christmas Day was blessedly clear, so the annual pilgrimage to the hometown wasn't bad -- just long. The twins received lots of musical instruments this year, so they and Uncle Greg had a wonderfully raucous time playing all of them. I almost had to forcibly separate him from the electronic guitar that played all manner of wicked riffs when you pushed each button or combination of buttons. We ate, we laughed, we all played the electronic guitar... all in all, it was a good time.

I'm glad I've had the week off between Christmas and New Year's, though. I needed a couple of days just to recuperate!

We also hit my local kennel club's holiday party on Saturday evening and had a great (and highly caloric) time. Everyone dispersed in time to get home and watch the kickoff for the Patriots game -- well, except us. We're loyal members of Red Sox Nation, and we're happy when any Boston team rocks the house, but we don't generally make a habit of watching football games on TV. Maybe I should have, since this was a historic occasion, but I did sneak off to the team's Web site to check the score.

If Only Life Were This Easy

By far, the world's Most Rockingest Christmas Gift Ever is the TomTom GPS my brother and sister-in-law gave us. I'd been lusting for a GPS for ages, and just couldn't part with the bucks to buy one -- so imagine how tickled I was to pull one out of a gift bag on Christmas Day! For me, this is almost the equivalent of the legendary Red Ryder BB Gun, without the possibility of shooting your eye out.

I've since discovered that you can even download custom voices for your TomTom, in case you get bored with the preinstalled ones. For $10 or so, you can even get John Cleese to tell you where to go. I downloaded a couple of free voices, including Sean Connery ("You have now reached your destination. Shaken, not stirred.") and Homer Simpson ("You have now reached your destination. If only life were this easy.").

Most of the time, the direction commands given by the voices are pretty straightforward: "Turn left." "After 400 yards, turn right, and then get onto the motorway." Greg and I just about howled when the route planning software asked whether we wanted to avoid toll roads where we were driving. The query is, "Do you want to avoid congestion charges?". Homer, however, said, "Congestion charge? Congestion charge, my ass!" We laughed so hard we almost choked. Beats shooting your eye out.

I also downloaded a couple of software updates that locate Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Horton's throughout the US and Canada. I'm waiting for Homer to come out with, "Mmmmmmm, donuts."

My Own Personal Media Blitz

A few days ago, the publisher from Downeast Dog News called me to let me know that my Q&A-style article on the AKC Canine Good Citizen test will be printed in the January issue. I'm working on another article on a favorite subject: obedience clubs. Dale and Sue will probably be able to offer me some insights into that particular subject, methinks. If I can get the whole piece together in time, it'll probably appear in the March edition.

Even though I haven't had much of a chance to update my Dog Show Newbie blogin a while, I've had the pleasure of hearing from some of the nice folks I met while I was doing my newbie tour of the Bay Colony Dog Show. The owner of the PR firm says she loved the article, and she's more than welcome to repurpose it for this year's shows if she wants to. She was also kind enough to introduce me online to Monica, the Dog Lady of Ask Dog Lady fame. Monica and her Web site are both a hoot and a half. (That adds up to three hoots altogether.) Lisa Peterson, Director of Club Communications for the AKC emailed me to say she enjoyed the blog posting, and to say that she used to show against my cousin Marie in the Norwegian Elkhound ring. Small world, isn't it?

Finally, Some Knitting Progress

Maybe I should thank the weather gods for making it impossible to do a heck of a lot outdoors this month aside from shoveling. It does mean that I've made quite a bit of progress on various of my knitting projects. I finished Susannah's organic cotton scarf, have almost closed the toe of the first of Jody's Jawoll socks, and have even started a couple of knitted hats for Greg. (Hey, he asked -- and that's cool enough for me.)

Susannah gave me knitting books from my Amazon wish list for Christmas (Thanks, Susannah!)! She gave me Jackie Fee's Sweater Workshop, which I'm hoping to get inscribed at the SPA Knit & Spin in Portland this year. Even cooler than a blue moose, she gave me the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book. I must knit all of the sock patterns from the magazine that appear in the book, except maybe the "sockies" (ugh). I know better than to make that a New Year's resolution, but it would be nice to come back to this blog in December 2008 and say, "There. I did all that."

This is a Public Service Announcement

Okay, all of you. You need to cease and desist with all this "dreaming of a white Christmas" crap immediately. Due to current weather patterns, every time that song plays in an elevator somewhere, we get another inch of snow here. It's getting old, people. Can't you dream of Cheeseburgers in Paradise instead?

The dogs are tickled about having yet more new snow in the yard, especially the boys. When I let them out first thing this morning, both boys hurtled down the back steps and dove into the snow. Seamus had some for breakfast...



...and here inside, whenever I'm not coughing up a piece of lung here and there, I'm putting the finishing touches on my Christmas shopping. I haven't started the cards yet, but my friends and relatives have probably grown used to getting my Christmas cards for Valentine's Day.

Dale has a hot new Nikon camera, and is looking forward to shooting some fabulous new pictures for her blog. Go on over there and see what she's been up to!

Back here at home, Greg's been updating one of his older piano pieces and migrating it from Finale into Sibelius. It used to be called simply À for Piano, but he's refitted it with a new name that's an hommage to the way Ravel used to title some of his pieces. Ravel would name them À la manière de So-and-so. Greg has retitled this piece À la manière de..., and follows that with a list of the composers to whom he pays homage in the piece. Messaien is one of them, and Hall makes it into the list as well.

He has a reason to be doing all that work. He has been invited, as a member of the ACA, to submit a piano piece for the next Van Cliburn Competition next May and June. Of course, composers from all over the world will be submitting to this thing... but the winner and runners-up are guaranteed to get some very fine performances of their works from some potential piano superstars of the future.

Oh Happy Day: Our doggie storm door gets installed tomorrow, and then I can quit my job as Canine Butler!

Knitting, Such As It Is

In spite of all the snow and the cold weather serving as inspiration for knitting, I haven't really felt up to doing very much of it of late. I've made some progress on the organic cotton cable scarf for Susannah, but I haven't had the brainpower to tackle anything else more demanding. Blame the cold medicine.

I've Created a Man-ster!

I try to keep up with news in my industry by reading some online tech journals. Some of it's interesting, some not so much, and some is Way Cool. Anyway, I got an article on one of my newsfeeds about how to get an online invitation to the Hulu beta. Well, no one loves old episodes of TV shows as much as Greg does, so I immediately hooked The Man Up with an invite.

He couldn't be more tickled. Now he can watch old episodes of Lost in Space all day long if he wants to. The video quality is really amazingly good for such old color film, and the playback is pretty zippy, even over wireless. Of course, the videos download with commercials, since nothing comes for free... but really, how much fun can you have?

Winter Pups Photos

Charlie's thrilled to bits that we have more snow. Someone has to be!



When Dinah's not bugging Charlie to play with her in the snow, she's dragging all the toys in the toy box outside to bury in it. Just think of all the treasures we'll find in the yard come spring! Here is The Lovely One, just back from the groomer with a fetching leopard-print bow in her hair:



Seamus prefers to take it easy...

Man Paradise: the Return, Plus Snow and Stuff

Things have been flat-out crazy busy (again) of late, what with work deadlines, club stuff, class stuff, holiday stuff, and stuff stuff. Greg actually came home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it's taken me this long to carve out enough time to just sit down and write.

Bless him, he even brought me a present: a robin's-egg blue T-shirt from Crazy Woman Mountain that says (no surprise there) Crazy Woman. He was a bit hesitant to give it to me because he wasn't sure whether I'd laugh, but I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear it. If I have to go around advertising myself as a Crazy Woman, I want to do so in style.

Greg promises to go through his Wyoming photos and share a few with the blog. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the pups from the snowstorm we had last Monday. Here's Dinah enjoying the snow:





Charlie took the opportunity to survey his domain, as a good monarch should...



Taking My Act on the Road

If you've already read this in my other blog, feel free to skip this section. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was contacted by the owner of the public relations firm that does publicity for the Bay Colony Dog Show cluster down in Boston. Turns out she reads the blog, and was wondering if I'd go down to Boston and blog about the show for a day. The Boston shows attract quite a large number of visitors, so I composed a newbie's-eye view of the goings-on and posted it to Dog Show Newbie. Eventually, I hope to supplement the first article with a first-person account of my dogless adventures at the show.

At the show, I had a chance to talk for a while with the judge who got to witness Seamus's famous premiere performance in Advanced Rally -- the one in which I sang coloratura. Bless her heart, she either has seen so many such performances she didn't remember ours as being different, or she was very gracious in saying she didn't remember. At least I'm glad (and grateful to her) that I don't have to be embarrassed to show my face around her ever again. Seamus is still mighty famous, but sometimes I get to travel incognito.

Wool Season

Now that winter has dropped out of the sky onto us and appears to have no intentions of leaving for a few months, it's definitely time to dust off the old needles and try to get some stuff done. I have long ago abandoned any pretense that I can reliably complete anything homemade in time for Christmas, but I can usually hit the same season if given a running head start.

I've been doing a lot of "idiot knitting" lately, just because I've been too burned out after chasing work deadlines to do anything that requires even the minutest shred of gray matter. I've completed a scarf for Susannah in black Berroco Bling Bling, and am about 2/3 of the way through another scarf in some lavender boucle something-or-other from my stash.

The front of my Seacolors tunic sweater also qualifies as "idiot knitting," and I've made a teensy bit of progress there, too. I brought it along with me to a couple of dog shows in November. Since this sweater is for myself, it doesn't really matter when I finish it -- though it would be nice if I did it sometime before next July.

Jody's Jawoll socks are still in process. I'm almost done with Sock #1. With a little more time and a little less stress, I should be able to dispatch the foot on that sock and get to the next one fairly quickly.

My company shuts down every year between Christmas and New Year's, so (almost) all of us get the week off whether we want it or not. Although I never would have chosen that week for vacation, I've found over the years that I really look forward to having a week off to recuperate from the stresses of the holiday season, plus whatever wacky stuff I was doing at work before the holiday shutdown came around. I'd sure like to make some progress knitting during that week. I have some Encore worsted that I'd like to turn into some hats and mittens for the twins, plus I'd like to open up the thrummed mittens kit I picked up from Amy at Spunky Eclectic a while ago. A vacation week is a good time to pull apart some bits of roving for thrums and get organized.

At Least My Dogs Have Class

I make no secret of the fact that I despise winter -- the cold, the short days, the crappy weather. I'd be lying if I didn't confess that I've been looking forward to doing a little hibernating this season, though. Since Dinah and I are taking a break from dog showing between Thanksgiving and Easter, we now have a chance to go back to classes and learn some fun things.

I'm very proud of the progress Dinah is making in agility. She still is a little iffy on the weave poles, but she's been happily practicing the teeter and can bang it with the best of them. Cindy, her instructor, declared, "She OWNS that teeter!". Class is on hiatus until the new year, but I'm hoping she still owns the teeter when we get back. Seamus starts another agility class in January, too. It's been a long while for him, since we had to abandon weekend agility classes during the show season. He and I both could use the exercise.

I own a couple of jumps, some weave poles, and a brandy-new agility tunnel that I picked up at the Springfield dog shows. My friend Fran has offered me her old agility equipment, once she unearths it in her barn. Maybe in the spring, I can use some snow fencing to set up a training ring in the yard, and we can do some practicing.

Seamus has always been my "rally-roo" boy, and he's happy to be going back to our Sunday morning rally-roo class. To his credit, he hasn't forgotten much since our last class, and I haven't practiced with him very much at all. Dinah is starting in novice rally-roo. She hasn't had an obedience class in quite a while and has been hearing "Don't sit, stand" from me all show season -- so now she's learning some rally in spite of being a bit behind in the obedience department. The girlie is a pretty quick study, though, and she's beginning to understand that she needs to watch me -- if not always my eyes, then my left hand and knee. Smart girl!

Week of Parties

I have two Christmas parties this week: Thursday's POC Christmas party, and Saturday's