Where Does the Time Go?

Seriously??? Its been an age since I have blogged but I feel like I never have time to sit down and do it -well that and there are just times that I am NOT inspired.

Life's been running pretty much along normal lines right now - work, work out, dinners with friends and sleep. That's it.

We did have our first agility trial of the year a couple of weekends ago and it was nice to get back in the swing of things with the guys from Southeastern Agility club. They are all so nice and friendly, it's great to use their show as a springboard for the rest of the year. Kudos to them!

It was a good show as usual - and I have to say that Reilly has improved SO MUCH over last year. I know it doesn't look like it to the naked eye, but with a dog like Reilly it's all about baby steps. We are ECSTATIC that we can actually complete an entire course now. We might still get the big E, but we can start and finish and get around without me standing in the middle of the ring yelling for him.

All my other agility peeps have gotten qualifying scores and we haven't yet, which is a bit of a bummer, but I know that one day, if we keep working at it, those purple ribbons are going to pile up like you wouldn't believe. It's just taking Reilly a bit to understand it's a TEAM thing, not the Reilly show. He's remembering to look for me and not just run around willy nilly.

So we have another show this weekend - another nice and easy ASCA show. They are usually small shows which is nice, as they run fast and there's not a lot of hanging around waiting, like we have at the USDAA shows.

Ah and we DID buy some bedroom furniture for the other spare room this weekend. So that makes 2 full spare rooms, which is nice to have.

I can't wait for Spring. My fingers are itching to plant and dig at the new house.


Check out the video - this is a run at Reilly's last show. This is Jumpers. You can see we get stuck in the corner bc I keep pulling him off the jump to move to the left. Totally my fault.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsXDZwzaMWFq

He's home and he's sick( or driving adventures in the snow)

DH got home on Thursday right before the snow started - thank goodness. Here are some snow pics in case you aren't on FB.

My snowy nosed dog.....

Our backyard was a winter wonderland. Too bad we really didn't feel like going out and playing in it.

So we've had a quiet weekend at home, both due to the snow and DH's illness - whatever it is that's plaguing him is a doozy - I don't know if it's super jet lag or if he's really sick. If he's not recovered by tomorrow, I will get him into the dr.

Meanwhile I did venture out briefly with Cat yesterday to go and see Mamma Mia( the musical) at the Fox Theatre. Thankfully we had tickets to the matinee, bc if we had to go out last night and see it, I think we would have passed. The main roads were fine - and we had no incidents till we got into a parking lot. We decided to use one down the street from the theater - it was easy to get into and it was only $10. So we pull in, only to find out that there's no more room at the inn. Fine. Whatever. I was tempted to curse the poor man into the ground, but since I am a Southern lady, I held my tongue.

In order to get out of the parking lot, we had to drive down a hill, and then back up the same hill on the other side. And since the owners of the lot didn't have the foresight to SAND or SALT the lot, this was trickier than it looked. We managed to get down the hill and turn to go back up without taking any lives or parked cars with us. BUT then halfway UP the hill, some MORON was trying to go DOWN the hill on the same side as us, effectively breaking the law of the parking lot.

We were at a standstill, on an incline in total slush. Icy slush at that. After the stare down(which I won by the way) he backed up and proceeded to descend the hill in the correct direction. But it was too late. At that point I was stuck. Not just stuck, but sliding.

Now I am not dumb and I was doing my best, but my car would NOT go forward, but just kept sliding down and sideways ( moving closer to aforementioned parked cars) everytime I tried to go forward. I had to lean out and tell the people walking behind me to please move so they didn't get squashed. And in turn, I had to ask them to tell the woman in the VW bug to PLEASE GET OFF MY A$$ so that I didn't squash her - well like a bug.....

But this NICE NICE NICE NICE NICE (forever my hero) man who MUST be a transplant from the north, helped me get my car unstuck( strike one for front wheel drive) and moving again. He literally risked life and limb - had I started to slide again, he would have been squished into another car. He pushed my driver's side door while telling me the best way to get my traction back. ( and as a side note it was nice to hear that the reason I was stuck was bc there wasn't enough WEIGHT in the front - flattery will get you everywhere!)

As we got moving again, Cat and I both rolled down our windows and screamed THANK YOU! I hope he heard us.

The musical was very entertaining and the ride home much less hair raising than the ride in.

Now, Reilly and I are going to go spend the rest of our Valentine's Day watching the Winter Olympics.....

Three Days and Counting

till DH comes home and I tell you Reilly and I cannot wait! It's hard enough to communicate when he is in Europe, but throw in a 10.5 hour time difference and there is only a small window of time when we are all awake.

Fortunately Reilly has been a little more occupied this weekend than last weekend. My friend Adj brought her dog Doc( smooth collie) over to play with him this weekend. I wasn't concerned as Reilly usually doesn't have issues with any other dogs. But he seemed to take issue with Doc and for a few minutes I was worried we'd have to keep them separate for the evening. But after a few minutes of the growlies, Reilly play bowed and invited Doc into his world. The rest is history. They played all day and all night.

Then Sunday we had agility class and that got him thinking and he has been worn out all day. He slept most of Sunday and a lot with me today. I was home today with a sore back - and it's feeling better it- was a much needed rest.

My big plan for the entire time DH was gone - was to paint the hideous blue bedroom. Unfortunately I chose a nice beige color with a fancy name :) and it's going to take 3 coats to cover it so the room is NOT done. Not for lack of effort. Sarah came over and helped trim out the tall part yesterday( it helps to have a tall friend) and then Cat came over today and did some more work. So it's started and it will eventually be finished, just later than I planned. A snow weekend would come in handy to get it done.

Well my dog has deserted me - there must be something more interesting upstairs. And I guess I should go and eat something. All meds and no food is not a good combo.

Boutwell out.

He Went to Paris

DH is travelling again, the first time in about a year. This trip is a 3 week long excursion to Paris, then India. Maybe Frankfort, but we don't know yet.

So he arrived in Paris this morning( midnight our time). I always ask him to text me when he lands so that I know he got there ok. Unfortunately this time I was DEAD to the world and having a great dream and my vibrating BB scared the crap out of me. But I was glad to see that he got there ok and texted him back. Apparently I was sleep texting because I meant to say: Sorry ( the trip was bumpy) and I am glad you got there. Apparently it came out as Sorru - I am glod I R there. :)... So texting at night is not my strong suit.

Meanwhile, back here, Reilly and I are going to try to keep busy while he's gone. I am going to take off this weekend to Charlotte for some girl fun and he's going to go to camp at Auntie S's house.

Then the following weekend we are having some people over, and a new doggie friend for him too. And if I have to, it will be DAYCARE for him :)....... So far he's been mopey though, so I won't subject him to daycare if he's not feeling up to it.

Reilly and I are also going to be doing some creative cooking... so stay tuned!

The Big Brewing Experiment(i.e. it failed)

And probably for a number of reasons, but the beer never did get started fermenting. One reason could be that the weekend that we decided to do it, it was SO COLD outside and in the house, that it just never got to the right temperature.

OR it could be that we totally screwed something up( which is highly likely).

OR it could have just been a bad batch of something. Who knows? So DH dumped the batch yesterday( yes my entire house smelled like beer for hours) and so we will start over again. In fact, he should be at the beer place right now, replenishing the supplies. Must be nice to have a day off :). But we won't get to restart the brewing till he returns from his 3 week jaunt to Paris and India. But that's fine with me. It's an exhausting process and I need to work myself up to it.

Other than that, we don't have too much going on right now. The dog is going nuts being cooped up in the house so much with all the bad weather. He was playing with DH last night and now DH looks like scarface. Reilly got him good with a nice right paw to the face.

Back to work now... some of us have to work on this NATIONAL HOLIDAY. Whatever.

It Seems Like an Age

Since I have blogged and it has been. I miss it and I am determined to get back to it on a regularly scheduled basis - maybe this week.

Life keeps hitting us with the unexpected here in the new house. This week it was a busted water heater. That's fine we dealt except that it took an extra day to get it installed since we had SNOW and ICE and the guys couldn't get here till Sat. So it broke on Tues -we had hot water on Sat. I finally got tired of waiting and did all the clothing laundry in cold water. And I got really tired of showering at the gym. But I have to say I am thankful that we had water at all. Had we had no water, it would have been a hotel for the 3 of us. There are 2 things I don't deal with well - no water and no AC. ( well and roaches, but that was when we lived in FL.)

I did feel a bit like pioneer woman, or like I was camping, I would heat water to wash the dishes - so it was a bit of an adventure. But I was drawing the line at heating water and scrubbing the clothes!

Today( first whole day of hot water) we brewed beer.... We did an IPA and in 4 weeks, we will see whether or not we spent 8 hours and endless $$ to poison our friends.

Taking DH out to dinner, since I missed my awesome dinner the other night and I am SICK of cooking.

TTFN!

Southern Gathering 2009

Last weekend Reilly and I drove to Asheville to meet up with some of our fabulous Canine-L friends. It was a nice mix of people- some were old friends we'd met before and some were new - we know them from the list but had never met them in person.

Reilly and I decided to drive up Sat instead of Friday night, so we got up VERY early Saturday morning and headed up the road. We hit Asheville about 9:30 - just in time for Reilly to try his CGC test. Unfortunately the stars did not align and we didn't pass. But that's ok. We know what we have to work on and he was a good sport for trying so hard.

Then we went into Asheville and met up with a HS friend that I had reconnected with on FB. That was a nice hour spent outside catching up with promises to get back together again soon.

Finally we were on our way to the little community center in Fairview that was SO kind to let us use their facility and bring the dogs in. We were afraid the weather might be bad, so we wanted a place that had some shelter. The weather turned out to be absolutely beautiful though! We could not have asked for prettier weather.

We met some great people and dogs. One dog, an Irish Wolfhound*( Dancer) just stole my heart. She was a sweetie and so calm for a 14 month old puppy. I wanted to sneak her in the car.

The collies were there, along with Cooper and a little Corgi. Reilly kept pretty much to himself- by my side and if I wasn't available, he made straight for our friend Tim.

We had some great meals cooked by our friend Edie - and were all stuffed by the time we had to leave. But Reilly and I were exhausted and happy to get back to the hotel to crash.

After a nice shower, we got ready for bed. Now the one thing I could not figure out was WHY a dog friendly hotel had WHITE( nice) linens for the bed. I, unfortunately forgot to take a sheet for Reilly to sleep on, so we had to carefully remove all his hair the next morning. But WHITE? REALLY??

The next morning, we had breakfast at our favorite restaurant in Hendersonville NC - and then off home. It was a great weekend! The weather was beautiful and Reilly was so well behaved - and well you couldn't ask for better company!