Randoms from last week...

1. I thought I broke Mulligan a couple (?) of weeks ago when he did some agility equipment and then started limping.  He'd limp and then be better and then go really lame again.  It was the leg he had his ACL surgery on.  I thought for sure I broke him.  He went to the doggy chiropractor (don't judge) and he has a muscle strain but should be ok.  His knee is ok.   I didn't break my dog too badly...so we think for right now...

Mulligan does his "flat Stanley" imitation. 

2. We get lots of deliveries here.  This means lots of UPS and Fed Ex trucks.  A certain yellow dog who remain unnamed (Cally) not only jumped into the Fed Ex truck, she ran around the inside of the truck like a lunatic and ate the drivers Doritos.  That's my finely trained dog-except I did not train her to do that-honest.  Maybe she learned it from Mr. P?   Maybe he'll keep the door shut next time.  She hopes not.

Taken moments after the Fed Ex truck incident.  Doesn't she look innocent?

3.  Since I quit my day job I've been busy with my dog business and watching Days of Our Lives (twice).   You didn't know I had a dog business?  Surprise-I do.  It just so happens that I've been a canine massage therapist for two years.  (google it-we really exist)  I've also developed an all natural flea, tick and bug spray for dogs called NatuRepel. (it can be used on people too if your dog will share)  I'm thrilled with how well it works because we live in freaking ticksville.   If you're interested in doing a blog review, have any questions or want to purchase, hop on over to A Balanced K9 and let me know.

4.  I talked with two grown men on Friday and they both had to get off the phone because they had to pee.  (you know who you are)  I'm just thankful they didn't decide to multi-task.  Really thankful.

5.  This isn't last week, but today I had a great five mile run.  It was spitting rain but not to terrible, so I headed out.  It felt great.  For some reason last week was crazy and even though I got two workouts in, I felt like this:

Here's to a great week ahead!  Happy Earth Day!

I'm a terrible quitter

Bunker, Cally and I went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota this past weekend for an agility trial.  We were in one about two weeks ago that went really well.  Really, really well.  This weekend-not so much.

We had a total of fourteen runs and only qualified on three of them.  That's less than ideal.  Wayyy less than ideal in my world.   Now, don't get me wrong, both dogs ran well.  Really well.  Bunker's jumping was phenomenal and Cally was always a pistol.  There was just one thing that seemed to go wrong on each run.  At our level, if you're not perfect, you're not  going to qualify.  We're also at the level where we need not only one, but two perfect runs per day.  No pressure or anything.

Having such an imperfect weekend is discouraging.   You start trying to figure out whether it's worth it to keep trying. You look at the entry fees, the cost of travel, hotel and food and try to decide if it's worth it for only three q's (q is slang for qualifying score in the agility world)  out of fourteen runs.

Yesterday I decided I was going to quit doing agility. I was just so frustrated with the outcome of this trial. Good runs that weren't "good enough."  Someone said to me this weekend that those of us who do agility have a problem.  Our problem is that we just don't have enough sense to quit.   We just keep going, because we know that the next run might be the run of utter dog and handler perfection.  The run where every contact gets hit in the yellow, every bar stays up, every weave pole is done and every tunnel gets entered the correct way.  It's some kind of freaky addiction.  My decision to stop doing agility lasted a whopping three hours.  When I was on the road home, I knew I wouldn't quit.  I knew that today I'd be sending in entries for upcoming shows.

I also recognized some of the holes we had in our training.  Things we will work on so we can rock the next trial.  I'm a terrible quitter....

Wednesday Bliss

It's Wednesday and I got to spend it doing this:

Ok- that picture wasn't taken today, but I wore that sweatshirt today so I thought I should use this picture.  Plus it makes me smile because Cally isn't paying any attention to me here and my hair is just plain sexy.  I mean, really sexy and once you add in the super hot sweatshirt-oh baby.  It's no wonder Mr. P can't keep his hands off me.  (Although he did mention something about burning my sweatshirt this morning because he's sick of looking at it...) Agility is so glamorous.

And this:

Ok- I didn't do this, Bunker did this.  He's cute and I'd be silly to not include a picture of his bliss today.  He doesn't ever have to worry about how his hair looks.  Maybe he worries about how his ears flap?  Nah, I doubt it-he's a guy.  They don't worry about stuff like that...

Happy Wednesday!  :)

A Sign of the Future?

The other day I mentioned that when I rode Eeyore (my bike-for those of you with super short term memories and can't remember the name of my totally awesome two wheel pedal bike that lives in my dining room) my "sits" bones would get super sore.  They weren't because I wear see through tights-that has nothing to do with it, at least I don't think it does.  One would think that my large gluteus maximus would be padded enough to withstand a bike ride to the moon and back, but I guess not.

So, I ordered some padded bike shorts.  My friend Amy(who does all things TRI) told me that the Terry brand was the best way to go.  I found them online and totally dig the stuff they have.  Since I quit my day job (newsflash-since I've hardly told anyone)  and have all this extra time, I'm thinking I could go on their wild goose chase bike ride.  Bunker likes to chase geese, maybe I would too.  I've never tried it.    Because I'm frugal, (not cheap-there is a difference)  I found another site that had the same Terry shorts but for less shipped to my door.  Yes folks, I'm a deal finder.  Feel free to bask in my awesomeness.  Or not-that's ok too.

Now then, I've never worn padded shorts before.  A padded bra-yes, but padding on my rear-never.  Having no previous experience with this, I find them a bit, um, strange.  I wonder if this is what it's going to feel like when I'm in the geriatric stages of my life?  Is my plumbing going to give out at a certain age making padded bike shorts necessary for social interaction?   People are always warning you about the future with things like "just wait until you get older!"  Is that what they're talking about?   I am hoping technology will have solved this whole "old age issue" thing by the time I get there.  Paws seriously crossed on that one.   Shudder.  

As far as serving their biking purpose.  They rock.  Obviously I don't have any other brands to compare them to, but after seven miles today, my tuckus is happy, happy, happy.  And that makes me happy, happy, happy!  (and probably Eeyore too)  

The mailbox project....

We needed a new mailbox.  Somehow ours got hit with my car.  I was there.  It literally lunged into my car, committing some type of mailbox suicide.  Apparently I can't own a car without a scrape down the left side of it....   Sigh.  Poor Gus.  (that's my car-not my suicide committing mailbox)  

Because we're completely heartless human beings, we left the mailbox up after it decided to end it's life as a postal receptacle.  In order to get the lid closed we had to use a sledgehammer to "ease" it back into a life like position.  Even then, the strength of a giant and three small schoolboys was required to get it to shut.

Handy little thing...

After the hammer,  you can imagine what it was like before.  

The final decision to get a new mailbox happened the other week when I was rollerblading.  No, I didn't run into the mailbox.  (Thanks for the vote of confidence.)  I witnessed our postal carrier trying to get the lid shut.  I was sooooo embarrassed.   I think she grunted as she slammed it shut.  Probably because she pulled something in her arm.   She was pulling away when noticed that the door didn't close with her herculean effort, so she backed up her car and tried again.   I wanted to melt into my rollerblades.  She was still courteous enough to wave with her now strength depleted arm.  Uuugh.   

I will admit that in my 30-something years on this earth, (not 40 just yet!)  I've never put up or changed a mailbox.  While Mr. P was out of the house I got the new box and the new numbers and set to work.  This shouldn't be so hard-should it?

Since I'm a bit anal retentive about some things, it's imperative that the numbers be on straight.  I'm not sure why.  I hardly ever look at the numbers on the mailbox.  BUT in order for all the numbers to be straight, the first one must be straight.  And I really didn't want to fail at this whole mailbox thing anyway.  So I cracked out all the tools I knew to use.  I had a level (my favorite and maybe a billion years old), a straight edge (aka-a piece of cardboard that was straight), a tape measure and a sharpie marker.  I was set.

On the level...

And NONE of those things helped me.  The box curves just so and I don't know what else.  In the end I just said "screw it" and eyeballed it.   I have to admit, it turned out pretty good (not that I'm breaking my arm by patting myself on the back or anything.)   But, at least the postal carrier hasn't complained yet!  

Yes, we are #1.  

Isn't it beauteous???

  

The Perfect Day...

We had an awesome weekend.

I took Bunker and Cally to an agility trial.  It's about an month and a half since we've done a trial.  We only got in one day so we made the most of it!  

Little Miss Cally-Josephina-Head had her fastest jumpers with weaves run EVER.  She ran the course at a little over six yards per second.  So much for getting slower as you get older!!

Weave 'em like you stole 'em!

Not to be totally outdone, Mr. Bunker-Chunker had his second fastest jumpers with weaves run ever.  He was a just a titch under six yards a second.  He had such a great time!  

After they properly annihilated the jumpers courses, Cally and Bunker both ripped up the standard courses.

It's called a dog walk-not a dog RUN!  

Yes folks, we had four runs and four qualifying scores.  In the world of agility, that's called a perfect day.  How do we get soooo good that we have a perfect day after taking six weeks off?  Well, we train just like my friend Will.  Totally, exactly like him.... You can see his totally awesome training skills here....

In my world, it was a perfect day.  Not because of the perfect scores from both pups, but because I got to spend quality time with them and see an awesome group of friends that I haven't seen in a while.

Here's to many more perfect days!