Sophomore Year

August saw Evan go back to Duquesne for his sophomore year.

He moved in before his room mate.  It was a dull and dreary day.  This building is older and not as nice, so it was a little depressing!  Sorry for the poor quality .... these were taken with my Blackberry Pearl!

Took us a lot of trips up and down the elevator to get everything in.  It was raining out, so we alternated being wet to dealing with the humidity.

A couple of weeks later, Evan sent me pictures of his room after his room mate moved in and they moved things around ... certainly looks a lot better now!

It's Been A While!

Wow, haven't blogged since 4th of July!

I spent most of July battling an abscessed tooth. After several root canal retreatments, I think we fixed it!

What I did do in July that was productive was to get to our annual hazardous waste collection day. Got rid of a bunch of old computer stuff that was cluttering up the basement.

It was nice to see the long lineup of cars waiting for their turn - less hazardous stuff into the landfills!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

I made the requisite flag cake .. easiest one there is. Sara Lee pound cake, Cool Whip, strawberries and blueberries. Oven is broken, so didn't have a choice :-)

Beautiful day today. No rain, not too warm, no humidity.

Hope to get into town tonight and watch some fireworks.

VIR

Hugh going around The Oak Tree at VIR


This past weekend took us to Virginia. Virginia International Raceway to be exact.

Hugh was participating in a Drivers Education event with Zone 2 of the Porsche Club of America for white group and above (ie those that can drive solo) and there was also Club racing as well.

I wandered around and took a lot of pictures from a lot of different places, so it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. Had to get used to the camera again! Also took video which I still need to edit and put together.

Hugh had some good runs and didn't wreck his car (a very good thing!)

Club racing turned out to be VERY serious for some of these people! HUGE big rigs and whole tech crews to look after the cars! And the carnage on the track! Hugh is now rethinking the whole club racing thing :-)

I need to do a lot of post processing on the pics I took. But I hurt my back again and am taking it easy this week while the office is closed!

Catching Up

Been a long time since I updated. I read on someone's blog somewhere that they won't read a blog if it doesn't have pictures. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures, so I'm not posting ....

USDAA NE Regional - that went well and thank goodness it is over :-) We got decent weather with only some rain on Saturday afternoon. I tend to obsess on the things that didn't go well, but, really, it went smoothly - people keep telling me that, so I'll believe them :-)

Luce was entered only in the 3 P3 Titling classes ... and only ran one. And got a refusal at the weaves, so no Q in Standard. Oh well. Blaze was entered in one class per day. First day was Gamblers and we knocked every single bar in the gamble :-) AND broke a weave pole!! A first! Second day was snooker ... my first 0 point snooker!! He knocked the first red and was over the #3 jump before I could redirect - whistle and out in 4.something seconds! LOL

Gamblers was the 3rd day - he Q'd for his Starters Gamblers title!!!

Blaze held his start all 3 days and got all of his contacts. Missed a set of weave poles ... did that at Saratoga and Flexi as well. All 3 times it was the doing back to back weaves, him on my right. Hmm. I can't reproduce it here at home.

Had a some stress getting him measured and didn't get his final measurement until Saturday. He was measured at 21" on the nose at Saratoga by the CMJ. I was hoping to get two measurements there as it was a 3 days trial, but the other judges said to leave well enough alone, so I did. Got 20-3/4" at Flexi. First day at the Regional, I was stressed, rushed etc etc and Blaze did not cooperate, so we didn't get a measurement. As soon as the junior judge got there on Saturday morning, which was before a lot of people got there, I got Blaze measured and got his 3rd measurement at 20-3/4" YAY, done and officially a 22" jumping dog which is what I wanted! Sent in the card and he is now showing as permanently carded on the USDAA site ... just have to wait for the actual card to come in the mail.

Now going to enter Blaze in more than one run per day ... we'll leave Jumpers and Pairs alone for now and just add in Standard.

FINALLY going to go to class tonight after 3 weeks!! Should have gone to Luce's class last night, but there was threat of thunder. Won't drive for an hour just for her to sit in the car shaking. Blaze doesn't seem to care about the thunder, so we'll go. I'll take Luce in case there is an opening in his class, just to get her on equipment.

Stack o' Mail

I am a trial secretary for USDAA agility trials. There are no entry limits, so people tend to enter at the last minute. It is not uncommon to get half of the total entry during the last week before closing. This year, we are hosting the NE Regional for USDAA in June. I was away for the Memorial Day weekend and this is what was waiting for me ... that is Thursday, Friday and Saturday's mail. Still to come was Tuesday and Wednesday. Yikes!

Of the total 440 dogs entered in this trial, 302 of them came in during that last week. Yikes again :-)

Good thing I expect this now and plan accordingly.

Luce, APD and Blaze's USDAA debut!

We had a WONDERFUL weekend at YAgility's USDAA trial in Saratoga Springs, NY

First ... Luce finished her APD (Performance ADCH)!!!! We have needed two gamble legs for quite a while and our history shows that we get one gamble per year. Was hoping to get one as we have been "this close" at several trials.

Well, we got not one ... but TWO!!!! Unbelievable!! It was two weeks ago and I am still smiling

The weather was gorgeous the entire weekend which was a bonus. This was the first time I had been to this site and I like it. Rosemarie and I got a good spot when we arrived on Friday and helped with set up. Our tent was between some pine trees, so the dogs were shaded all day long .. plus it smelled nice too :-)

On Luce's first gamble on Sunday I was nervous. It was a gamble she could do and has done before - I just needed to make sure I really drove towards the tunnel so that she would get it. Then the teeter was right in line with the exit and so was the final jump. She got it and I knew we had enough opening points!! But ... timer malfunction. It had started and stopped. Judge asked the timer/scribe what happened, thought about it and then asked me if I wanted to run it again or to just take SCT (Standard Course Time) I took the SCT (and still placed!) for the Q!

Next day had gamblers again and I didn't feel confident about this one. Jump to tunnel that was on the other side of the aframe, then two jumps. Wasn't sure she would bypass the aframe to the tunnel. I ended up having to walk both Luce's Gamblers course and Blaze's Gamblers course at the same time. They were similar ... dogwalk along the left side of the ring with a yellow tunnel in a U Shape under the middle. Weave poles towards the back edge, aframe over to the right, gamble over to the right. Jumps and stuff in the middle :-) Had a similar plan except Blaze's included the weave poles and Luce's didn't as she is too slow in the weaves.

Blaze's run was first. I had been working the score table in the 3rd ring, so finished there, went and got Blaze and threw the ball a few times, then we were right up. Good boy, held his stay at the start and worked nicely. We did the dogwalk and he held his contact, good boy! Tunnel, weaves, jump, back to the weaves .. hmm, had to restart them, okay, tunnel, jumps, go to the tunnel under the aframe ... where is the tunnel under the aframe?!?!? Isn't there, go back and do other stuff ... horn goes and we get the gamble for his second gamble Q and 1st place!!

But where was the tunnel under the aframe?? Walk past the ring where Luce's gamble is going to be ... oh there it is!! I had run Luce's course in Blaze's ring

Luce's turn next. We were the 4th last dog. Dog ahead of us poops on the dogwalk. Handler is ashamed and apologetic ... I had seen her walking her dog but he just hadn't produced :-) He wasn't running right and we all now knew why :-) They clean it up, no problem. Luce's turn ... we do the dogwalk fine and she even gets her contact YAY. We usually can do about 10 obstacles in 30 seconds, sometimes more depending on what they are. We get to the 10 obstacle (jump after the tunnel under the aframe which was now where it was supposed to be!), no horn, okay, keep going. I always have some obstacles in reserve to loiter on .. use them all up, start going further away from the start of the gamble ... no horn!!! Finally, I stopped and said the horn should have gone because we can't DO that many in 30 seconds. Timer had stopped ages ago.

Have to rerun. Yikes. My instructor was there and asked about the dogwalk ... what if we do it again and don't get the contact .. we got it the first time? Judge says, I'll give it to her once as we did it once. We wait for the rest of the dogs to go, then it is our turn again. I did the same opening (but better this time) and Luce MISSES her dogwalk! But we get the points, horn goes and WE GET THE GAMBLE OHMIGOSH!!!!!!!

Luce's APD - I was crying I was so happy :-)

We also finished second in Team (PVP) Charlie's Luce in the Chocolate Factory was in the running the whole time. That finished up Luce's Bronze Tournament title and we are now done with Tournaments. She is losing speed and having trouble Q'ing in Steeplechase(she will be 10 in September and some of the hot shot Ch22" dogs are now in P16" in our area) and Blaze is starting to show, so will save some money.

Blaze ran in one class per day. I was worried about the #6 teeter for Snooker on the first day, plus, I was nervous about him :-) Called out too soon at the #5 jump in the closing and down came the bar. No Q. But ... he Q'd on Sunday and Monday in Gamblers!!! He held his stay at the start all 3 days, got his contacts and went where I wanted him to go. Can't ask for more than that :-) It is SO MUCH EASIER to handle him outside than in a building!!!!!

What a weekend!!