Lure Crashing........or the Attack of the Killer Ex-Pen

Nick, Rosie, and I attended the Southeastern Greyhound Club’s field trial last Saturday. Saturday was an ASFA trial followed by a NLCC trial on Sunday. We didn’t make it on Sunday due to, among other things, the events that transpired on Saturday.

It was a gorgeous day. One of those days that couldn’t have been more perfect if it was made to order – chilly in the morning but warming up to shirtsleeve weather. The field was perfect, not to hard and not too soft. We were running on a new field that hugs the banks of the Chattahoochee River. The location could not have been more picturesque. How could we fail to have a perfect day? Unfortunately, my hounds forgot to read up on trial deportment before we left home. Nick had a nice though not stellar first run, but enjoyed chilling out in the sun in the ex-pen while Rosie had her turn. Rosie ran very well, but stopped to tinkle midway thru her course. Umm…the judges frown on that sort of a break.

Then the real trouble started. After Rosie had cooled down, I decided to let her join Nicky in the ex-pen. When I opened the door, Nick thought that it must be his turn to course again, and tried to push his way out past Rosie. In the process, he managed to knock the whole contraption down. Problem was, he was inside it at the time. While I was trying to free Nick before he was hurt, Rosie got loose. Final outcome – both of my hounds loose at the same time. Very embarrassing!!! Nick also managed to hurt his shoulder – that can happen when you struggle inside a collapsed ex-pen – and had to be pulled from the afternoon course.

We’ve had a serious talk about the day’s events. Rosie promises to take care of her business before she goes out on the field, Nick swears he’ll refrain from charging the ex-en gate, and I’ll be more careful with my gate management techniques in the future. The good news is that, although Nick’s shoulder is still sore, it’s improving and he’ll be fit as a fiddle in another couple of days.

"Mom, my shoulder hurts!!"

"Why the heck are we home on such a beautiful day? See, I have my leg muscles all stretched out and everything."

P.S. I know better management on my part would have prevented all the mishaps of the day. I should have made sure Rosie went before she ran and I should have had everyone leashed before the ex-pen gate was opened. My fault - not theirs.

Nick and Rosie's Spring Break Adventure....Take 2

I’m going to try this post again as I had a couple of folks say they couldn’t see the pictures when I posted earlier. I have no idea why as I could see them on my end. I decided it was easier to take the previous post down and start over rather than fight with the cantankerous Mr. Blogger. The pics were the point of the post so….

I had to share a few pictures of Nick and Rosie’s spring break trip. No, they didn’t go with us to Disney World, but they did have a blast with Kate Crawford at her Manyhounds Inn. She runs a sight hound only kennel in the Atlanta area with lots woods for running around in and exploring and many hound buddies to explore with. I think my pups are sorry to see me coming when I pick them up from “camp.”

Nick enjoyed his own private trip to Disney arranged by Kate’s travel service.

After filling in for Mickey, he put in some time at the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride.

Rosie says she went swimming with the dolphins at Sea World.

I want to know if Kate will act as travel agent for the humans when we plan our next trip.

Thanks Kate!!

P.S. Please let me know if my pics don’t come thru this time so I can have a serious talk with Mr. Blogger.

Our Visit to the House of the Mouse and Other Spring Break Stories....

We recently returned from a spring break trip to Orlando and also tacked on a couple of days visiting Rob’s Aunt at Atlantic Beach outside of Jacksonville. You might ask why a family of three with an almost 15 year old son would voluntarily subject themselves to Disney World. After all, the Magic Kingdom is heavily attended by members of the stroller brigade. There are lots of things to do though that appeal to teens as well as to their parents and well had a great time.

The last time we hit Disney City, Wheeler was seven or eight. We still had tickets with three days of park entry paid for, so we figured that without having to buy any tickets, a Disney trip was a reasonable option. I have to say, I enjoyed the whole experience much more than last time as we had no small children to worry about losing. We also spent a day at Universal Studios where we rode lots of roller coasters. Now coasters are something that I guess you either love or hate, but all three of us love ‘em. We were flipped, spun, and rolled until we couldn’t take it anymore. It was a blast. Also, at almost 15, Wheeler actually has an attention span, so we could take in some of the shows and exhibits the aforementioned stroller brigade misses. What could be cooler to a teen boy than learning about gruesome make up techniques. Trust me, our visit to Universal was well worth the time and I wish we’d had more that one day there.

One scary note though, there were virtually no lines at any of the theme parks. Good for us, very bad sign for the economy. Spring break should be one of their busiest times. We didn’t wait longer than 20-30 minutes for anything, and that was in the middle of the day. We could often walk straight onto headline rides. Very scary!!

We also managed a stop for lunch in St Augustine and a quick tour of Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

We had beautiful weather in Orlando, sunny, low eighties, but weren’t so lucky at the beach. Jacksonville is a little too far north for early March beach fun, but it was nice just to relax for a few days.

I do love the beach in the fog though.

All in all, we had a great time. If you're still with me, thanks for letting me bore you with my vacation pics and stories.

Memed from A to Z

Several week ago, Alex at Hope and Greyz posted a meme, and tagged all who read it to play along. If you’re interested, consider yourself tagged!! The object is to describe yourself using each letter of the alphabet.

So here is mine:

A- I live in Atlanta

B- I like Blogging

C- I need to Clean out all my Closets

D- Dogs

E- I want to visit Europe -again

F- I love wildFlowers

G- Well duh - Greyhound

H- Honesty

I- Ingenuity

J- Jewelry (not necessarily real - I like the costume stuff too

K- Kanga - My favorite Pooh character

L- Leather - love the smell

M- Music

N- Nashville - went to school there

O- Ocean - I love to visit the beach

P- Pharaoh Hound - gotta love em!!

Q- Question

R- Reason -Wheeler is always asking me the reason why he can't.....

S- Save - I'm always looking for ways to save money

T- Time - never enough - also I love to Travel

U- Umbrella - I never carry one - Maybe I'm too optimistic :-)

V- Violets - Love them!!

W- West - I love visiting the American West

X- xercise - OK I'm stretching - but I need more of it

Y- Yard - I need to landscape

Z- Zan - That's me

They Stole My What.....???????

Somebody stole my recycling tote. I don’t get it. It’s a plastic bin used to carry old papers, aluminum cans, and other stuff that can be reused to the street. You can buy one for less than $10. No one that doesn’t care about the environment bothers to recycle. Seems kind of ironic doesn’t it? A thief went to the trouble to steal my recycling tote so they can be environmentally conscious. Huh??

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights........

I’ve been sidetracked by life lately and haven’t paid enough – OK any – attention to my blog. Alex at Hope and Greyz posted a meme the other day that I have every intention of spreading; I just haven’t gotten to it. I’ve also had several good blogging opportunities present themselves and I’ve let them pass me by. For example, how could I miss writing about snow in Georgia. I mean, it never does that here. I even got a couple of decent shots of the pups enjoying the frosty air.

"What the Heck is that???"

"It's kind of fun out here!!"

The aftermath!!

There are several reasons for my failure. First of all. I’ve been Facebooked. I joined Facebook not too long ago as I felt like I should keep up with Wheeler’s cyber life to be sure he’s safe and not divulging sensitive info. Turns out he’s no idiot in that department and has done, at least so far, an excellent job. He doesn’t have anyone on his friends list that he doesn’t know in real life, and he hasn’t revealed any info that shouldn’t be out there for all to see. I, however, have found that Mr. Facebook can suck up way more time than this blog. I have managed to find a few old friends that I feared I’d permanently misplaced – and that’s a good thing. But I’ve also found that it is a phenomenal time waster – it will take every minute that you allow it. I herby pledge to be more careful in the future as I enjoy this blog too much to let it fall by the wayside. It lets me free form rant at will. What could be better???

Secondly, I had my eyes checked the other day and got a new prescription. I also got new contacts that are supposed to be great. Correct my astigmatism and let more air through. Much more comfortable - yeah rah hooray!! NOT!! The pair I’m wearing was great for about four days. Problem is now they get all dried out by noon and I can’t see thru them. I feel like I’m looking though a sheet of plastic or something. Gotta go back to the eye doctor. Can’t write if you can’t see. I know, I know, pull out the glasses you say. Well I would if they weren’t really, really old. The script is so old I’m not sure I’d be any better off, and the frames are refugees from a decade or more ago. Everyone would laugh at me, trust me they would.

Thirdly, I’ve just been lazy. Bad, bad, bad……..

I’ll do better….I promise!!