Bloomin' Bob Tree

What the heck does that title mean?


And what does it have to do with that picture?!
A long time ago, Brennan had a good friend named Bob who moved away when they were in 4th grade.  Given that Brennan is in his mid-20's now, that was some time ago.
Bob's family had a compost pile.  At some point in time, either someone had thrown in an apple core with seeds, or a bird or squirrel had brought in some apple seeds, as they ended up with some plant sprouts.  Before Bob and his family moved away, they gave us 2 or 3 of the plantlings which we then planted in the backyard.
Eventually, only one of the plants survived and we named it "The Bob Tree".  
The Bob Tree has continued to grow and has had blooms on it every once in a while.  Once or twice, it even had some apples!  Not sure how that happened, as I believe the blooms need to be pollinated to bear fruit, but what do I know :-)  Can't remember if I ever took pictures of the apples.  It was certainly before I ever had an iPhone or I would have whipped that out and taken a picture for sure :-)
The tree didn't bloom last year, but it has blooms on it now.
And there you have it: a Bloomin' Bob Tree.


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Happy Easter!

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Daisy, Daisy ...

Can't say that daisies have ever been one of my favorite flowers, however, they are certainly cheap, cheery and long lasting! These have been going strong for almost 2 weeks now!





Found this little vase somewhere or another. Thought they were 5 individual vases but they are all connected inside which makes adding water a lot easier than I had originally anticipated! Here, I grabbed some holly from the backyard and added one of the daisies.


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Luce - Platinum Snooker!!

Now here is something really blog worthy!!

Luce earned her Platinum P3 Snooker title in September at Splash & Dash!!  She finished up on Saturday and got a spare Q on Sunday for a perfect Snooker score - 51 P3 Snooker Q's!

She has been in Veterans Jumpers at 12" since June and now is also in Veterans Snooker at 12" as well.  She will come out and play if it isn't too cold, hot or damp.  Now that she is over 12 years old, her age is catching up with her.  She is the best little girl, but apparently didn't get the memo that she isn't allowed to get old!

Finished for the year

RV is now in storage .. the one on the right.

We look forward to using it in the spring!

RV & Naughty Dogs

What is wrong with this picture?

Well, you can see Luce and Blaze.  What is wrong with that?  Well, Blaze had been locked into the back bedroom and Luce had the front area (Hugh had to leave and we didn't want Blaze sitting and watching agility from the RV)

Blaze must have wanted to come out and Luce believes in an open door policy.  No door shall remain closed!

I came out of the building and there they were!

RV & the dogs

The primary reason for getting the RV was for agility.  Which means the dogs need to travel in the RV.


Luce has become such an easy traveler!  When I think back to 2001 when we got her ... she didn't want to get into a car.  She drooled, she peed, she paced, she panted.  Turns out that when she was being brought to her rescue group, the SUV was involved in a bad accident and the car was totalled.  I found that out a year after I got her, after we had worked through her issues.  Made it all clear!!!  But now?  Settles down and is the best girl :-)  Can take her anywhere.


And then there is Blaze.  He usually LOVES getting into a car, but barks when the car is moving. The RV was something else ... maybe the all vinyl floor?  Couldn't get him in there the first day, even with using The Ball as a bribe. I finally got a big bag of treats and got him into the stairwell, and then closed the door.  He wouldn't even LOOK at me :-)


Took a bit of work and a LOT of treats, but he finally leaped onto the sofa.  And then over the arms onto the dinette seat.


He avoids the vinyl flooring as much as possible.  We will have to get some runners.  He did have to make one step on the vinyl to get to the front.  Didn't mind targetting onto the vinyl as that meant MORE treats :-)


Back to the sofa, then more treats to get him into the bedroom.  That requires at least TWO steps on the vinyl. He does like it back there and will go there voluntarily when we use the RV.


He gets quite comfortable back there :-)


He is seatbelted in the dinette while we are driving.  Very alert.  And does bark, unfortunately.


And then there is my little Luce ... curled up into a ball behind the drivers seat while we are travelling.  Such a good girl :-)

RV!

We did it!! We bought an RV.  I resisted for a long time, but after 3 straight weekends of being trial secretary, I gave in.  It is going to be SO MUCH easier to do agility stuff when I don't have to drive back and forth each day.   It is shiny, isn't it?  :-)

It is a Windsport 31J ... which means it is over 31' long.  Haven't figured out why the naming conventions are so strange with these RV's ... you would think 31J meant 31', but no.  It is closer to 33'



We flew out to Ohio to pick it up.  The dealer even had a fruit basket waiting for us. Came in handy on the way home :-)



Hugh drove most of the way.  In fact, he has done most of the driving so far. I need to take it to an empty parking lot and practice turning.  These things are WIDE and LONG.



This is me driving home part of the way ... notice the white knuckles?  Yup.  Required a LOT of concentration and my arms and hands were sore afterwards  LOL



This is the view to the back from the passenger seat.  It has one slide ... the area where the sofa and the dinette is slides out to give more space.  Queen size bed there in the back.  All vinyl flooring which will be a godsend with the dogs!!


Side view ... "starboard" side, or passenger side.  We had the awning closed first thing in the morning, but did have it open during the day.  You can also see that the curtains are still drawn over the front windows.


 And the "port" side, drivers side, with the slide out.  This was at the first trial we took it to - Hog Dog Productions, south of Maryland.  I helped out with scoring and the computers.  And Blaze got a Super Q in Snooker!!!

Will break this down into a few posts.

Little trip to Buffalo

Left on Thursday for Hugh's company Christmas party in Buffalo.  He had work in the office, so we left a day early as the party is Friday night.  The above was the view during the drive in the Poconos. Very pretty with the snow on the ground and on the trees, but not on the road :-)



We are staying at the Garden Place Hotel near Lancaster which is, basically, Buffalo :-)  The above is the indoor courtyard.


This is a view from the breakfast area in the courtyard.  Very festive :-)



Staircase leading to the second floor and a detail of little area next to the staircase.


They have little "vignettes" up on the second floor.  Must be a surprise to newcomers to open their curtains and see these right outside their window :-)


We are on the first floor and this is the view from our room - so we need to keep the curtains closed :-)

That is all of the tour for now ... while Hugh is at work, I have some work I can be doing on some upcoming 2012 trials without interruption now that housekeeping has come and gone.

A Bye!!!

We went to the Flexi trial last weekend. I was inspired from watching the WAO live stream the weekend before, plus Blaze and I had a great class on Wed night.

First class was snooker. Start line felt a little shaky - that start line will never be totally fixed but it is getting better. Did a 1-6, 1 and "tweet" Blaze took 6a really long and I sent him over 7a instead of 6b by mistake as I was disorientated. Big 8 points.

Standard - didn't Q but was happy with the run.

Grand Prix next. Had a few spots that were tricky and required thought to figure out the handling. I had worked on some 270's the week before and knew that if I didn't go in deep, Blaze would pull through the gap. We were about 1/3 of the way down in the run order so I got to watch some of the 22" dogs and saw where there were a few trouble spots.

Good stay at the start, kept the first few bars up. Came out of the chute - it was up hill there and I was a little behind - off course jump on left, off course weaves on right, correct jump in middle. Blaze came out of the chute and started to veer towards me - oh no! Told him to go on, jump. I had set a good line of motion going into the chute, so he took the correct jump and kept it up!

Decelerate to indicate turn after tire, he turned and was a little wide towards the off course dogwalk. Redirected to far end of tunnel. Picked him up and off to the dogwalk. Then the next tricky bit - jump after dogwalk, but show collection or we were buying the aframe. Phew, that worked with right arm up, name, jump, back up past plane of aframe, rotate and hope next jump was there - yes! Again, don't show extension, send to tunnel.

Took a step backwards, got him coming out, the stepped towards jump while facing to the left. Read it perfectly, didn't even see his beloved weaves and went straight towards the teeter! Can't say there was much of a wait for release there :-), but we aren't working on that - yet:-)

Into the 270 - step into the pocket, tell him out jump, start moving to aframe when he is committed. Step away from aframe to the left when he is at bottom as some dogs had taken the off course jump straight ahead. Oh god, please don't knock the bar! Weave (please don't pop out at 10!), jump, jump, done and CLEAN.

That was how I always want to do agility - running with the dog and us being in synch. Couldn't believe we were clean for a Q! Went back to check that it was still a Q a while later - and found out that we took first for the Bye!! There were lots of good dogs after us, so I never thought a Bye was possible - but there it was!




Now he gets to have 2 additional runs at the NE Regional. As I am secretary for that, he will be there anyway.

Still makes me grin when I think of that run a week later :-)

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Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Strange Easter this year. We stayed up too late the night before watching a movie, so we all ended up sleeping in - even the dogs. All 3 of us took a shower in time to go to church. By the time we got home and finished breakfast, it was afternoon!

And that was also strange - "3 of us" as Evan stayed at Duquesne due to his finals starting on Tuesday.

Plus the weather. It has been cold, rainy and dreary for most of the week after our high of 80 on Monday. Even had a frost warning at the end of the week. We woke up to WARM! I was going to wear winter clothes to church and had to scramble to find something else to wear! Good thing I had bought a new pair of sandals last week. Just so strange to be wearing multiple layers one day and then be in shorts, bare feet and sandals by this afternoon!



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Spring is coming!

First crocus about to bloom. Of course, I have taken many a picture of a crocus covered in snow, so nothing would surprise me, but I think spring IS on the way!





Have also seen 7 robins now - a group of 4 yesterday and another 3 an hour from home today.


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Spring is coming!

We had a lot of snow this winter season and it wouldn't surprise me to get a little more. However, I think we have broken the back of winter with the days being above freezing for a week or two now. Have had a few days in the 50's and instead of snow, had rain instead.







I bought myself some tulips and enjoyed the bit of spring they brought to my breakfast yesterday







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Over a year!!

It's been over a year since my last post! 2010 was busy and it just got away from me





So far, 2011 has brought us a lot of snow.

Hoping to recap 2010 soon and maybe blog on a more regular basis. Just got a Blogger app for the iPad, so maybe it will be a little easier. :-)


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Last day of 2009

Let's take a look outside, this last day of 2009 ....

It snowed!  Everything always looks better after it has snowed.

Happy New Years Eve!

It Snowed

It snowed!

Everything looks so pretty after it snows.  The jingle bells are wearing bigger snow hats than they did yesterday.

Glad I got the reindeer up before it snowed too much yesterday. They are wearing snow hats too :-)

We ended up with about 7-1/2".  Not a lot compared to the 20" in parts of Maryland, VA and NC, but a lot for around here. We usually don't have a "White Christmas", so this is exciting for us. 

And, yes, I measured it :-)

Enough with the snow, can we go in now?

More ....

Let the wrestling begin .....

I got to watch a wrestling match earlier this morning.  This was after a game of "your toy is better than mine"  They each had a toy but they were eying the other's toy.  Then, as if on a signal, they would stop, look away briefly, and then pounce on the other's toy.  Repeat for 10 minutes.

Then we had the wrestling :-)

We've had a stint outside and now all is quiet and peaceful.

For now.

Snow & Such

Wow, two blog posts in a month!  Is this possible?  LOL

Bought the dogs each a coat and they arrived on Friday.  Luce accepted her coat without qualm, but Blaze was paralyzed in his.  Just stood there and would barely move.  Had to drag him outside while Luce was bouncing all around him.  The next time I brought The Ball out with me ... that took his mind off of the jacket  :-)

Common picture here when The Ball is out.  Luce waiting for Blaze who is waiting for The Ball to move.

Today is Saturday and it is snowing.  The states further south of us are getting dumped upon but we only have maybe an inch so far.

The Koi are hibernating

Blaze is getting used to his coat ... he still thinks he is going to die when I first put it on, but getting used to quicker and quicker now.

In progress

Been a while since I posted again.  Things have been busy and disorganized around here.  Was secretary for a bunch of agility trials since August, plus went to trials, and even got to go to Scottsdale, AZ for USDAA's Nationals in November!

But the biggest thing has been our kitchen/familyroom.  Under construction since August.  Sigh.  It takes that long when we are all busy working and trying to squeeze in other things, so it just gets done in the spare time.  And there hasn't been much of that this fall!

We decided to redo the kitchen so some degree ... including painting the kitchen cabinets and stripping the 23 year old wallpaper.



Evan spent the last few days that he was home on the kitchen.  We used a chemical stripper.  That combined with 23 year old wallpaper placed directly on bare drywall = takes a long time.

While we were at it, we also decided to add some trim to the bottom of the cabinets.  You can see the tile backsplash that we had on the walls, plus the cabinet color before we sanded and painted.


Boy, does Hugh ever hate mitering :-) but he did it :-)

The cabinet doors all had to come off, get washed down and sanded.


We also decided on granite countertops.  So, the old counters had to come off ...


... before the new ones could be installed.


We are still in the midst of painting.  A beadboard backsplash was put in and we also put it on the island.
In the meantime, I still went to trials and Blaze even earned his Advanced Gamblers title and is in Masters Gamblers with a Q!


And ran a bunch of trials, including a VERY MUDDY trial at Fair Hill, MD


We have now taken all of the wallpaper off in the adjoining family room ... I rented a wallpaper steamer which made the job a LOT easier and faster!  But, again, the wallpaper was put on the bare drywall with no priming or sizing.  I would love to decorate for Christmas, but it is kind of hard when the family room looks like this:


Maybe some lights on the ladder?