Agility Show! Yipee!

It is an agility show weekend, so we are off! The show is at the National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis. We will be there all day on Friday, late in the day on Saturday and early on Sunday. I'll let you know how we did!

Time's up!

I reviewed the entries and decided to let the dogs have a vote:

I have to agree with Maggie... picturing "Dad" taking her to class does make me laugh also.

Jake-a-roo makes a good point as well... He did look pretty bored in that photo.









Since I can't decide, I guess I'll have to give away 2 gift certificates.






Anonymous (I know who you are, you can't fool me) and Meghan will be getting Gift Certificates from Helping Udders. I'm sure your furry friends will like whatever you pick out!

The clock is ticking! I'm picking a winner tomorrow (Thursday)

Wouldn't the furrykids at your house like a new UdderTug? Get your ideas in SOON!

Give that photo a name!

Gloom, Dispair, and Agony on Me....




I have to travel next week and I'm busy all weekend, so I'm packing my suitcase tonight. The dogs have learned what that means and sit around looking all gloomy from the time I get my luggage out.

But since I'm going to be putting the blog on hold for almost a week, there is a reward for you, my faithful (and few) readers. Come up with the most creative name for either of these photos (Maggie is on the bed, Jake is on the computer chair) while I'm gone and put it in "comments." I'll pick my favorite (sorry, it's biased) and the winner will get a $20 gift certificate to Hellping Udders. If you are not familiar with them, check out their webpage at: http://www.helpingudders.com/ You've got a few days to think about it, and I don't even mind if you enter more than once or tell your friends! I'll read them when I get back and pick a winner.

Agility Photography

At almost every agility show, I buy photographs of my dog on the course. When I first started agility, I thought that I would take pictures of my friends dogs and save them them the money of buying photos. Yeah, well, that didn't really work out. I have a decent camera and a good lens, but those dogs are just too dang fast, and the light too low for me to get any good photos. Even at practice and adding a flash (strictly prohibited in the show) I can't take a good picture. Here is a photo of our friend Addie living up to the nickname "grey ghost." Her big ears look like they were being used as a propeller for extra lift and I can see through them.

I had a little better luck with this photo.... at least her ears are not see-through, but her paws have ghosts. Plus I tried to "photoshop" her red eyes out... they made her look posessed. I think the only reason this one looks a little better is because she was jumping toward me instead of crossing a plane in front of me. If you zoom in, you can see that there is still quite a bit of motion there.

But even if I had a fast camera/lens, I would still have problems....

Here is a picture of another ones of our friends coming

out of the chute.

Unfortunately, I was too slow at pressing the shutter, so all I

got were two back feet. Not enough to even know who it was coming out of the chute... Auggie? Mad

ison?

I think I need to buy a faster lens, but that would cut into my agility budget. So, unless I can figure out how to make my existing equipment work, I'll still be standing in line to buy pictures at every agility show.

By the way, thanks to Addie for standing in for these horrible pictures. Addie is really quite beautiful normally, so she is being a good sport letting me show these bad pictures of her. And Madison/Auggie, whoever you are... sorry about my ineptitude... that might have been a good picture!

Why Border Collies excel at agility:

For you non-agility folks, they are "reading" CleanRun, a magazine dedicated to agility. Actually Maggie might really be studying the article on tunnel entrances Jake is just thinking "I'd better get a cookie for this."

Click on the photo for a larger image if you want to review the lesson yourself.

Why they call it "empty nest"

I used to think that the empty nest referred to the idea that the little babies had left. But after living through it, I'm wondering if it really means that all of our stuff has gone to live somewhere else.

When we went off to school "back in the old days," we didn't really take too much with us besides our clothes, and of course, our stereo. And we would rummage through trash and discount stores and come up with the materials to "decorate." Who did not have a bookshelf made with used lumber and concrete blocks? I also remember getting one of those cardboard boxes with drawers that is meant to store things and putting a mirror square on the top and calling that my bedside table. Our moms sent us with the old mis-matched towels "in case they get lost" and we drank from stadium cups and root beer mugs that someone had stolen from A&W.

But those days are over, as you can see in these photos of child 2's college apartment. But first a disclaimer... this is not really stuff out of our house. It is actually newer and nicer than the stuff in our house.

Here is Sarah trying to convince her dad that she really NEEDS a thermopedic memory foam mattress topper.

Sure, some of the stuff is "hand me down," but even that is some pretty nice quality. Add matching accessories and artwork and "voila!" you have a college apartment.

What ever happened to taping up posters that came inside your new album jacket...