Good Thing There's Work So I Can Recover From the Holidays

SUMMARY: Busy busy busy.

December 21, I went with a few of my sisters and bros-in-law out to dinner and then to the refurbished California Theater to get into the holiday spirit with a screening of White Christmas.

Sing along now with sisters #2 and 3, "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...!" (Watch/listen as performed by "Haynes sisters"...or, bonus, as performed by Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye)

Christmas Eve was fairly relaxing. Wrap a few gifts. Listen to Christmas music. Actually quite a bit to do; dogs neglected except for a short walk. At least they got those big juicy bones to work over.

Christmas Day I dropped in on a long-time friend, we went for a walk and chatted. Then Family most of the rest of the day, then a brief evening with some other friends. Home around 10 p.m. and crash into bed. Dogs were totally neglected.

The day after Christmas found me driving to Monterey with other selected sisters and related children. Took dogs for a really quick half-mile walk before I left, which really barely gets us started.

Beaches at Monterey have a lot of "no dogs" signs. Maybe these weren't really dogs. Or maybe this wasn't one of those beaches. Viszla discovers kelp.


I took no dogs of my own to bound gleefully along the beach, but fortunately I thought to bring along young offspring of random sisters to fill the void.


Sister #4 successfully conquers kelp.

Dragons are my other thing. Besides dogs. And photography. And writing. And some other stuff I like to do but don't have the time for. This one isn't really missing his tail; I'm missing some determination to finish merging multiple photos...

Sister #2 and bro-in-law who instigate many of these trips gaze longingly out to sea. No one knows why.


Nieces and nephews--can hardly tell who, because mostly all I ever see are the backs of their heads dashing away from me so fast that their color shifts towards red--stop for a moment to gaze longingly out to sea. No one knows why.


At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, danger lurks in every corner; assorted nieces and nephews are nearly devoured by a giant clam.

A special exhibit of otters from around the world nearly devours my inadequate frolicing-creatures-in-the-dark-interior-through-thick-spattered-glass-surrounded-by-crowds-of-people camera skills. One of them, sensing my fear, pauses for a millisecond in triumph and I finally get it on film.


I hate younger generations whose camera phones take photos that are as good as or better than my digital SLR. But ha! take THAT you young whippersnappers, I get two photos of jellies for the price of one!


In the evening, we rush home and then out for a Boxing Day banquet at another assorted sister's house. Home by 10, crash in bed exhausted. Dogs are completely neglected.

Two days after Christmas, leap out of bed early and head for the hills for a strenuous 8-mile, 2500-foot-cumulative elevation gain (and drop back down) hike. It's a perfect day for it, but my up-hilling equipments have gotten out of shape over the last couple of months of not doing any hill hiking. I can barely drag myself across the parking lot for a late afternoon movie viewing with a friend.

I crawl into bed at 8:30--dogs completely neglected again and started to really show it--and sleep for 12 hours. Except for the nightmare where Tika runs across the freeway out on the coast and is hit by a car. I cry for a bit and then fall again into an exhausted sleep. I am SOOOO not going to see Marley and Me.

Next day, my body is wiped out and rebels in many ways, but I make it out to the theater for yet another movie (all those studios releasing all those good movies the same week. Dash it all! How to keep up?!). I, the popcorn maniac, cannot at this point in my rebellious bodydom, stomach popcorn. I crawl home afterwards (hard to do in a minivan, I'll tell ya), collapse into bed for a long long nap. Dogs are going nuts. I can't believe I don't even turn on my computer for 24 hours.

Then spend 6 hours sorting and editing hundreds of photos. I'm STILL not quite done with the last week's worth, and I didn't even take any photos on the hike or the Boxing Day banquet or many other activities. Someday I'll get back to my October Monterey trip, my September Montreal trip, and my November Scottsdale trip photos. In the meantime, dogs are very very neglected and are not letting me forget it.

Meanwhile, I've finally met someone special!


OK, I think I can almost walk again today and have no movies, parties, trips, or photography sessions scheduled. Must work. Must take dogs for walk. Might even think about practicing some--uh--what's that sport called that I used to do with my dogs before THE HOLIDAYS kicked in?

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The Whole Family

SUMMARY: Except 4-year-old Kate, who wanted to wander around looking at stuff instead.

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Well, It's Christmas All Over Again

SUMMARY: Santa Claus is coming to town. Tonight. I hope I've been good.

I haven't done much decorating this year, just no time. But my tree's lights are twinkling quietly in the background, and oddly I don't miss the Darth Vader ornament--which I hang every year but this time didn't get around to--saying "[inhale]You are not a Jedi yet, young Skywalker[inhale]" every time I turn on the lights. I realize that its absence detracts from the whole Christmas spirit thing that I try to evoke, and yet--huh--nope, don't miss it.

Never did perch the annual dragon atop the tree's highest branch.

But it sure smells wonderful in here every time I step through the door from outside and smell that conifer! And I love the twinkling lights; have always been my favorite part of the tree, along with a wide variety of unusual ornaments. This year, none of my old faves made it--no time--no grinch, no cookie monster, no Thing One and Thing Two flying their kite, no pink panther climbing down the chimney, no Batman descending the rope hanging from his batarang entangled in a tree branch. None of the whole entire box of mostly purple (with some blue) ornaments of all shapes and sizes and themes. Nor the other 3--or is it 4?--boxes of ornaments. So much for spending all that time thinning out the tree so I could hang the collection!

This year, the only ornaments are just half a dozen new ones I bought during the year that I hadn't packed away yet: A sparkly purple spiny thing, a sparkly blue not spiny thing, a blown-glass Leica camera, three silver ornaments with my initials (E L F -- seemed apt), a blue and purple velvety beribboned thing. A bunch of candy canes, which aren't lasting very long I must say.


Didn't get around to setting up the creche--mostly hand-painted by yours truly years ago although goodness knows why, I'm pretty agnostic and think that the God's Only Son story is a nice myth--OK, yeah, I think it's an interesting myth with a nice message (peace on earth, good will towards men, can't ask for much better than that)--which means that the dragon bearing the gift of a sparkling orb never made its appearance behind the manger. But that's OK, I eventually got tired of the detail work and so Mr. and Mrs. Christ and their little Christ child and half of the wise men are gorgeous, but the shepherds and camels are a little spotty, and the sheep and cattle--ha! Let's just say that I'm sure there were plenty of albino livestock in bethlehem that year.

Christmas is a little different around here.

Have done the little bit of shopping I was planning on doing, and everything is wrapped. Am not planning on baking.

After the diverse family entities trickle gradually to my parents' house tomorrow afternoon, my whole extended family looks like will be together for the first time in maybe years. I hope I can get a few photos before they all start trickling away again to their various corners of the valley or the country.

I'm thinking that I'll give the dogs their really big juicy bones for gnawing as soon as I'm done here, try to keep them on the sheets I'll spread out and off the carpet. Ha! As if!

Christmas music is playing quietly in the background. Life is good.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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Working On Keeping Spirits Up

SUMMARY: Because those spirits sometimes sink more than one would like.

Mom

Spent the day Thursday with mom in the hospital. She looks and sounds fine, but there are critical medical issues occurring. We were hoping that she might be home today, but I've not heard anything today at all. Thank goodness for another sister who spent Wednesday and probably most of today there.

Boost and bars and serpentines

Last night in class, we had a bunch of serpentine exercises. Boost got through most of the ones that I did with her, but that last one, grr. During the evening, I'm guessing that she knocked 2 or 3 bars per run, and these are sequences of no more than 14 obstacles. Not promising for getting that jumpers qualifier this weekend.

And the last serpentine was one at a very shallow angle, so the dog is taking the jumps almost parallel to her body. These are of the type that Boost always wants to run by. Well, for fun, we were timing this particular sequence because there were two ways to handle the ending--not even involving these two jumps.

Well, Boost first went past the 2nd jump a couple of times. Then she went into her alternative mode for Me No Jump, Me Run kinds of jumps: Run almost past it, then swoop in with a couple of little steps and hop over it facing almost in the opposite direction. Was driving me nuts. I tried being further behind her, further ahead of her, yelling my lungs off, telling her to Hup Hup Hup!, with assorted advice from instructor and classmates. Every. Bloody. Time. You'd think that after all those repetitions she'd figure out where we were going and adjust her path. But no.

I took a break, let some other dogs run, tried again. Same thing. Finally I said screw it, she's just going to do it the way she wants to do it and I'm going to try to finish the run to get the time on the last part. Well, I tried so hard to get to where I wanted to be and get her over the jump also, that I crashed backwards through the side of a heavy wood-winged jump with the built-in metal ground bar, and somehow my hand ended up beneath me.

Nothing broken, near as I could tell (jump or bodily parts), but the thumb hurt enough that all I wanted to do was to get home and ice it. Put the dogs in the car, downed some NSAIDs, and headed home. Turns out that ice on my thumb was more painful than the injury. Don't know why it helps so much on a sore knee but not the thumb--not enough flesh to absorb the cold?

Waking up today, I'm also thoroughly bruised on my opposite arm, although I don't even exactly remember hitting anything with that arm.

I hope things go better tomorrow in Santa Rosa...

Weather

...Oh, the snow level's now supposed to be down around 1,000 feet "in snow country"; Santa Rosa isn't, really, but it's at about 350 feet. Could we have a White Agilitymas? That would be cool. I mean...really really really cool... like, guess I should pack my long down coat.

Computers

Spent two hours today trying to solve the issue of why I could send email up until 9:25 this morning but not after that. An hour and a quarter with AT&T (service provider), 5 different people, and they said it's not their problem and I finally believed them and hung up. Except that they basically run their service through yahoo (I'm not entirely clear on the concept), and it's apparently yahoo's AT&T servers that are giving me the problem, and their online help covers a lot of ground but not the ground in which my problem is growing roots. (OK, give me a break, I'm coming up with metaphors in a rush here.) Problem is not solved. Have to copy and paste everything I want to send into a rudimentary web email facility to get it to go out. Well, at least I can *get* email. Or... I was, before I started fixing things. Hmm, nothing has arrived in several hours. AM I getting email still?

I hate computers.

Christmas

I'm a Christmaholic. Usually can't get enough of it. I have tens of thousands of lights in boxes in my garage that are not going up this year. I have a couple dozen boxes of Christmas ornaments and gewgaws and decor in my attic, only some of which will make an appearance this year. I have an entire 60-disk CD case that is filled to overflowing (as in, maybe should get another one) with Christmas music. Love it love it love it. Have more Christmas CDs than all other kinds of music put together. I will listen to all of them, sometimes multiple times. Deck us all with dogs and dog hair, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-laaaaa-laaaaaaaah!

I turned it on about half an hour into my journey through AT&T's support system to try to remind me to keep the holiday spirit. Not sure it helped. Made it harder to understand what they were saying, sometimes, which was maybe not a bad thing.

Dogs pretty much ignore the music, unless I sing along, which disturbs them greatly. At least, having all girl dogs these days, I don't have to worry about what alternative uses they might conceive of for my lovely Christmas tree, whose twinkling lights I can see above my computer monitor. Yay Christmas!

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Christmas Tree, No Beast

SUMMARY: Some lights are up.

Tried photos with Tika in them, but they all ended up blurry. Oh, well.

Tree with some lights. Progress occurs.

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Trimming the Tree

SUMMARY: Of course I mean literally.

I like Christmas trees with room inside to hang ornaments. Because I have a lot of ornaments. And because ornaments that lie at an angle down the outside because the branches are so thick don't count as "hanging." That's more like lying on the tree. And who wants to encourage lying at Christmas?

If I could afford it and could find them every year, I'd always get a silver tip (AKA abies magnifica). But they don't grow 'round these here parts, apparently don't grow well in many places, grow really slowly anyway, and they cost a purty penny when thems getsk here.

Second best is noble firs (AKA abies procera); sometimes you can find them almost as nicely openly layered as the silver tips if you spend a lot of time looking in various lots and paying more than average moolahs. But often they're just barely open in some places but too dense in others. Like Mr. Tree who came home with me this year.

So a little thinning to correct to bring out the open beauty that it really wants to display is sometimes necessitated. (Compare to previous photo of unthinnedness.)

And this is so much easier than fixing a bar-knocking problem with TWO individual dogs.

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Weird Weather and Whatnot

SUMMARY: Dogs are playing, dogs love agility, what's with the lemon tree?, what's with xmas?, and whatever else.

Odd warm weather this fall. We haven't had frost yet even once so far. In fact, the spells of unseasonably warm weather have really confused things: My lemon tree is starting to bloom. I think that's a bad thing. Don't remember when it usually blooms, but I don't think it's mid-December.

After 2 weeks without agility, both dogs were nuts to run in class last night. Boost did very well on the handling, but both dogs dropped bars like crazy. That'll learn me to not have any jumps up in my yard for a whole month. Now I've got a week to fix all that again before the last trial of 2009.

Actually it was fairly cold last night in class. We did a whole series of short exercises involving jumps and weaves so that we could keep moving. I wore three layers and stayed warm (except the nose) but some others had cold hands and feet. Wasn't below freezing, though.

Tika and Boost used to play together every morning on my bed while I dressed, but that stopped earlier this year. Was it about the time that I stopped having Boost and Tika in separate agility classes? About the time Tika had an anal gland thing and got pissy a bit? The last 2 mornings, first time in many months, they played tentatively and briefly again. Thank goodness. Hope it continues.

Meanwhile, if I spend 10 minutes a day working on my xmas tree, it should be all ready by Xmas. Can't believe that's less than 3 weeks from now already! I haven't even figured out what to get myself yet!

My Mom called last night and she sounds great, just wonderful, completely totally like Mom again, vigorous and youthful and active and is starting to do things around the house again. Now that's an awesome xmas gift. Maybe I don't need anything else. Even if she won't accept my housebeasts as granddogs.

(Man, how does Team Small Dog find the time to do all those clever labels on all those photos?)

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Of Christmas Trees and Grocery Clerks

SUMMARY: The dogs helped me get a tree.

Well, not really; the dogs just happened to be in the car when I picked out a noble fir at an amazing price--less than $40 for a 7-foot tree when it's usually close to $100. Either it was a good year for nobles or the economy's really bad.

With Boost's blue merle coloring and droopy ears, even people in the agility world sometimes mistake her for an Australian Shepherd. People in The Real World almost never figure out that she's a Border Collie. And most don't know what to think about Tika.

So it was interesting to me that, when two grocery clerks were tying my tree to my van's roof rack, and one saw Boost in the passenger seat so was hesitant about opening the door for better access, the other said, "She'll be fine, she's a collie; those are good dogs." Of course he was right on all counts, although I'm not sure that I could guarantee that all BCs would sit calmly and watch.

It surprised me even more, when Tika popped her head up from the back seat, that he also said, "Oh, you have a Border Collie AND an Australian Shepherd--or is she an Aussie?" In my experience, the guy putting the Christmas tree on your car doesn't know nuthin' about no herding dogs. Turns out he has a BC and an Aussie mix. I didn't ask whether he does agility with them--I'd probably know if he did.

But it was fun to have the experience. And now my house smells WONderful with the scent of evergreen wafting in from the living room. Maybe I'll even get around to putting lights and decorations on it this year.

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Thankful

SUMMARY: I'm just glad.

Backfill: (Posted Sunday morning.)
My family's all alive and we're all getting along and we love each other. My dogs are healthy and alive. I can afford a house and food. I have a job. I try to remember it's just the basics, just the basics.

Family at the dinner table. Twenty of us--only the niece & nephew in Baton Rouge weren't here.

(Clockwise from bottom left featuring assorted related hair: Brother-in-law Martin's hair, Bro-in-law Doug, Dad's cousin Carol, Dad, Mom, sister Sharon's main squeeze Mark, sister Sharon's hair, sister Linda's hair, Bro-in-law Paul, my cousin's spouse Simon, sister Ann's hair, niece Katie's hair, niece Elizabeth, my ex Jim, his mom, my chair, nephew Alex's hair, sister Susan's hair. Not in photo, me, cousin Dawn, niece Kate, or any of our hair.)

Jamela (cousin's dog) gets some Thanksgiving loving:

Annie (cousin's mom's dog) gets some Thanksgiving loving, but really she was more interested in the food.

The food guest of honor: Mr. Turkey.

Uncle Marty teaches his nieces the finer arts of computer gaming. (Oh, really, they can probably out-geek him any day of the week.)


Mom. Can you believe she turns 80 on Sunday? Her mom didn't look nearly so good on her 80th. No, she doesn't color her hair. I hope I'm so lucky!
But noooo, the hair in front of my ears is already fading...fading... But I'm thankful anyway!

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Erikson v. Columbus

SUMMARY: History ain't what it used to be.

Remember when we were in school (not sayin' when) and we celebrated Columbus Day¹ with fanfare and little construction-paper cut-outs of the Nina, Pinto, and Santa Domingo? Because, after all, Chris discovered the New World?² Well, along about 1964 we apparently realized that someone else had been here a whole 400 years earlier "opening new frontiers"², and Congress officially authorized the President of the U.S. to recognize Leif Erikson Day every Oct 9, which he has faithfully done ever since.

(¹ Remember the cute little rhyme to help you learn your important dates? "In fourteen hundred and ninety-three, Columbus sailed the deep blue sea"? See how well you remember now?)

(² Never mind those hundreds of millions of inconvenient half-naked uncivilized aboriginals who'd been hopping around the forest in their mocussinass for the last 20,000 years.)

What, you might ask, does this have to do with agility or dogs? Well, I'm getting there-- see, I've now spent half an hour googling "national (a variety of random things) day" and feeling a warm, cheery glow about all the things that are available for us to celebrate. Sure, you can mark your calendars for National Mutt Day on Dec 2! (Sorry, Boost, I couldn't find a National Border Collie Day.)

But here's the thing: There's no National Dog Agility Day?! I'm hereby proposing creating such a thing. I'll make a web page for it and everything. But I need to pick a date. Anyone have any good suggestions for what date and why?

P.S. Isn't it nice how Boost's hat matches BOTH her eyes? You wish you had it so good!

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CPE Weekend Photos

SUMMARY: Today, some photos. Later or maybe tomorrow, some narrative results info and post-game analysis.

	There is always a workers appreciation gift (WAG--isn't that clever? I made it up back in, uh, gosh, when we were still doing trials up on the lawn between the buildings at Hayward) raffle, and you can get tickets only by working. This is what I really want and why I work a lot each trial. Free-entry certificates. I put in many tickets. Did I win many free entries? Not this time.
	But this looked like it would be a useful thing to have around the house, so I put a ticket in here, too. I also didn't win this. I'm guessing that's a good thing.
	This is what most of the raffle offerings look like. It's exciting until you realize that I already have 60,000 toys, rawhides, and leashes lying around the house, many of them never used ever for anything.
	In the Easter spirit, the pens for filling out your raffle tickets are decorated all flowery. Or maybe that's all the time, to prevent the miracle of the pens rising and walking away under their own power.
	This keychain looked pretty cool but as we saw earlier, my keychain is plenty crowded with useless gewgaws already, so I did not put in a ticket.
	Instead, let's look at some entertaining results for ouir runs on Saturday. The darker horizontal lines separate dogs who are competing directly against each other.
	Compare and contrast Tika's results with other dogs. All the dogs on the sheet are at the same level of competition, just different heights.
	If only she had been one stride further to exit the tunnel, we'd have gotten those 3 points, too!
	This is the only thing that kept Tika from having a perfect weekend (10 Qs out of 10 runs)--that danged knocked bar for 5 faults. Dang dang dang.
	This was Boost's really lovely Standard run Saturday. We went downhill considerably on Sunday.
	Ribbon for Boost finishing her last Level 3 requirement, so now she's earned "CL3".
	Our ribbons for Saturday. They don't fit on Boost's crate, so Tika's crate is kindly holding all of them. On Sunday, Tika had 5 ribbons and more firsts, and Boost had fewer ribbons and fewer firsts. It's nice to have two dogs.
	When I'm eating lunch, I have the crates open to toss them orts (there's that crossword puzzle word again) from my plate. The rule is that you can't exit the crate. Tika isn't big on rules. But it took me about 20 shots to catch her, because every time I raised my camera, she ducked back inside.
	The neighboring Little Black Dogs, Sparkle and Scully, get watermelon cut up specially for them.
	Scully enjoys and Sparkle drools. My dogs get Zukes or maybe cut-up Rollover served from my slobbered fingers. As also previously recently discussed. Not watermelon tenderly and loving cut into LBD-sized pieces and served with a fork.
	Wear sunscreen. Wear sunscreen. Wear sunscreen.

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Spring and Easter

SUMMARY: Yard's in bloom; bunny, dogs, and camera are active

Spring is more here daily. The plum tree is in full bloom; seems like any day now when plums will, true to their names, again be plummeting to the ground for the dogs to consume.

Meanwhile, they're consumed with interest about what the Easter Bun will bring them, and they're excited to be part of this unusually early Easter in their short little lives. I'm sure you all know that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. That means that the earliest it could ever be would be March 22, and the latest, April 25. There's an email making the rounds about this; I provide an updated facts list here.

This year is the earliest Easter that any of us will ever see--pending time travel or an immortality treatment. Only the most elderly have ever seen it this early (at least 95 years old). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be in 2160. The last time it was this early was 1913.

2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in 2285. The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

3) But you may have seen, or might still see, the latest possible easter (April 25); last occurred in 1943 and will next occur in 2048.

My dogs are fascinated by facts such as these, as long as they are accompanied by peanutbutter-filled easter eggs.

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Happy Boxing Day

SUMMARY: Another lovely holiday season.

Family and Friends

My sister and her spousal unit are hosting another Boxing Day open house--really just another excuse to eat to excess. I'm lucky enough to have a family and friends nearby with whom I enjoy spending the holidays. But I do have to leave the dogs at home most of the time.

Yesterday was gifting and feasting with my extended family (let's see--at its height, we had 21 people there simultaneously for about half an hour; people drifted in and out). Dinner at another friend's. Tonight at my sister's with a mob of people. Tomorrow night with some old friends from high school. Friday night some friends from San Diego are dropping by and so I've invited others of their friends to join us. Saturday and Sunday I have off. Monday is a New Year's Eve party in Petaluma (a 2-hour drive but I haven't seen these folks in a while).

Tuesday I finally have the option of taking the dogs when Power Paws has its potluck open house for students. Haven't decided whether I'll take them; we could do a little agility play but then they'd have to stay in the car while I eat (a recurring theme this time of year) and socialize.

Gifts

When I was younger (mostly as a minor), I enjoyed making Christmas gifts. In recent decades, I haven't felt that I had the skill(or time) to make things that people would actually appreciate, as I no longer have the cachet of being a cute kid from whom love provided ample excuse for misaligned, cheaply constructed, or amateurish efforts at gifts.

This year, though, inspiration struck. My parents are challenging to shop for--they have more than they need, they keep saying, and usually get themselves what they do need or want. Then I saw an ad for these cool signpost thingies-- and decided that I could do it better, for considerably less financial output, and have a whole lot more fun than by ordering. I created signposts for all the places that my Dad has lived and some other important places--fictional and otherwise--from his life. I had a great time researching and creating, and I think they turned out very nicely. (Not pictured--one for the Lake District (because of Swallows and Amazons) and 3 blank ones that I'll let him choose what to put.)

Dogs

The dogs got gourmet treats for Christmas--a neighbor baked them some home-made biscuits and my cousin brought them bags of Salmon treats all the way from her trip to Alaska. I just got chocolate. Dang! [grin]

Maybe I'll take the dogs for a hike today to make up for neglecting them yesterday and for eating all that chocolate--

Wishing you all the best of the season.

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Merry Christmas from Taj MuttHall

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Wednesday Night 8:15 Xmas Dinner

SUMMARY: The Gourmet Agility Class wraps up 2007.

In all the 13 years I've taken agility classes with 4 different dogs, I don't recall ever doing anything like this: We talked our instructor into joining us for an off-site Christmas dinner for our whole class instead of our last class session of the year, and we all showed up for Mexican food at On the Border for a 2-and-a-half hour evening of tattoo viewing, pepper spray stories, fun with clicker eyeballs, detailed descriptions of the birth of twins (I guess you had to be there--hysterical--), several pitchers of margaritas (I'm the only teetotaler in the group), and plenty of laughter.

Back row from left: Ashley, Jim, Ken. Front row from left: Cathy, Tracey, Lisa, Jennifer, Ellen, Bobbie (More photos, including eyeballs, here.)

My dogs, however, are going nuts--for the past 2 weeks, I've split a class between them because I haven't been there for the other class, and I'll be doing the same tonight. And there's been no agility on weekends. And I've been working on a deadline so ignoring them. They've just been hugging up to me, wandering around whining, finding artful ways to make nuisances of themselves. Poor puppers!

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Here's To Overabundance

SUMMARY: We had so much food today--don't know what they'll do with all the leftovers.

We were 14 for the family Thanksgiving celebration. And food for about 28.

Appetizers were laid out when we arrived. Pickles, two or three types of olives, several types of crackers, several types of cheese. Really good garlicky hummus with carrot sticks, which I've never had with hummus before and they worked really nicely. Mints. A few types of nuts, prepared in various ways. Other stuff that I don't remember.

Spread across the table for the actual dinner, we had huge bowls of so many things--We had a turkey and a honey-baked ham. Stuffing (cooked separately from the bird AND in it), some with bacon and onions, some without. Mashed potatos and scalloped potatoes. Three types of cranberry sauce. Corn, peas, and a greenbean casserole. Candied yams. Rutabagas fixed like squash or applesauce--very tasty, who'd have ever thought of it? "Rutabaga" always sounded like some kind of joke to me. Two types of jello salad. Rolls. I'm thinking that there must have been more, but it has slipped my mind at the moment, since I have candied yams coming out my ears and crowding my brain cells.

For dessert, five types of pie: pumpkin, apple, berry, cherry, and Reese's chocolate peanut butter. With ice cream and/or whipped cream. Pfeffernüsse.

Have I left anything out? There was a lot simply LEFT. I couldn't really bring any home, although normally I'd have been delighted to, as I'm going to be off at agility for the next 3 days. It was all very tasty and although I had only little tiny bits of not quite everything (and of only soupçons (turned out to be our word for the day) of 2 types of pie), I feel as if I don't need to eat for the next week. Ready to hibernate. But, no, gotta go to bed & get up at 4 a.m. to head to Elk Grove. At least I won't need to have breakfast. (Maybe. Except now my stomach is stretched out past maximum and might want MORE to feel full. ArgggghhhH!)

All very delicious and beautifully prepared and served in wonderful company. Give thanks for the opportunity to eat what we want to eat and to be with the people we love, and then for getting up in the morning and doing dog agility. Happy Tday, everyone.

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Turkey Trot Dreamin'

SUMMARY: This weekend: Thanksgiving and hopefully some big turkeys.

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I'll be at a CPE trial in Elk Grove trying to win our third consecutive Turkey Trot Friday night. Then I'd get to be the Top Turkey the rest of the weekend!

Jake won in 2004, with Tika just barely missing it (read blog post).

Jake AND Tika won in 2005 (read blog post).

I couldn't compete in 2006 because of knee surgery.

Unfortunately, Jake will be there this weekend only in memory, but he'll inspire me, I hope. Tika and I will be trying for a repeat in our height, and now Boost is competing in her first-ever Turkey Trot.

The Turkey Trot is WAG's invention. If you're entered on Friday, you can enter this freebie class Friday night. Every year, the rules are different, but it's always 3-dog teams in three height classes. In 2004, it was a straight 3-dog relay; in 2005, it was strategic pairs...er, triplets. The teaser for this year says "Brush up on your spelling and strategy planning..." Could be interesting!

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The Jakester

SUMMARY: Just a couple of Jake photos.

Jake taking a snooze in the brand-new bed he got for Christmas, thanks to my sister Ann and her family.	The last 3 (?) digits of Jake's tattoo, maybe 8 years old. Can you tell what numbers they are? I just got Tika and Boost tattooed, and I hope theirs don't look like this in 8 years.

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Christmas Rawhides

SUMMARY: Different dogs, different rawhide personalities. (This was one of several scenarios that I had envisioned as part of my Christmas letter. But I pared a lot out of it, so you-all get it on my blog, instead.)

Sheba and Amber: Christmas 1983, just a couple of normal dog pet pals enjoying a treat. Maybe Sheba wants to enjoy two treats.

Jake Step 1: Carry his gift around looking concerned and mildly reproving.

Tika Step 1: Tear off enough paper to get to work. No nonsense here.

Jake Step 2: Carry his gift around looking concerned and mildly reproving.

Boost Step 1: Carry it to bed and check it out cautiously.

Jake step 3: Carry it to bed and monitor for intruders.

Boost step 2: Bury the rawhide in a secret place.

Jake step 4: Carefully remove just enough paper to tempt the other dogs to just dare to try to come take it.

Boost's cleverly buried rawhide bone. No one will find it now.

Jake step 5: Carry his gift around looking concerned and mildly reproving.

In the Olden Days, when we had Sheba and Amber (who were just normal sort of pet dogs, although special in their own ways), we gave them giant rawhides for Christmas every year. They'd pull the wrapping paper off and lie there chewing on them for a while and eventually get tired of them and then chew on them off and on for maybe weeks.

Remington was completely spooked by giant rawhide. (He was a sensitive soul.) He just wouldn't go within a foot or two of one, although he'd chew small rawhides with pleasure. After two or three attempts in different years, we just gave up.

It occurred to me that I hadn't tried giant rawhide bones with any of my current dogs for Christmas, I don't think. So I bought three large rawhides, wrapped them loosely with just one piece of tape holding the paper, and handed them out.

Tika immediately trotted to the den, gently tore off enough paper, one small bit at a time, to get at one of the big knobby ends, and proceeded to gnaw. Normal. Except for the wrapping paper remaining on half the bone, for hours.

Jake, typically, carried his slowly around or just stood in one place, looking concerned and occasionally shooting me admonitory glances for saddling him with such a huge responsibility. Eventually he retired to his bed and let it rest beside him for a while, while he monitored the environment for encroaching canids. When none approached him, he appeared disappointed at not having a chance to warn them off, so after a while he tore the wrapping off half the bone and went back to carrying it around past the other dogs, looking concerned.

Boost took it gingerly, watched the other dogs for a couple of minutes, then took it to her bed, where she examined it closely for a while. Then she determined that the best course of action was to bury it where no one else could find it while she decided the ideal plan of attack. A couple of hours later, Jake found the cleverly hidden package and walked around with THAT one for a while, looking concerned. Eventually, it disappeared again, and I assumed that Boost had buried it again. Apparently she had, but in some odd corner of the living room, because the next day Jake found it again (still wrapped) and carried it around for a while before Boost finally took over once more and removed the wrapping paper to give it some chewing.

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Holiday Letter Photo Credits

SUMMARY: Holiday letter, as usual, didn't make it for Christmas.

Well, folks, the annual Holiday Letter is finally printing and a big batch will (I hope) go out in the mail tomorrow.

I had intended to give photo credits for all the photos, but decided that there just wasn't enough room and, since this is a limited-distribution-to-friends letter anyway, I figured I'd just post the info here. Here goes:

• Front cover (me at Scottsdale): my camera, some friend wandering by
• Back cover (me at Disneyland): my camera, my sister Linda or her spouse Paul
• Back cover (odd shell thing): me
• Sepia hiking group: me with camera on tripod & timer
• Me with camera: Keith Holt
• Me with Boost going over jump: Bamfoto
• Pile of mulch: Me
• Jake: Me
• Team at nationals: My camera with human tripod (I set up the camera and position and hand it to random someone with instructions on how to frame the photo)
• All others: Probably my father (Bob Levy) or mother (Louise Levy)

Now all you need is the letter. :-)

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Feliz Navidog

SUMMARY: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Taj MuttHall purple and blue tree

The dogs haven't knocked too many ornaments off the tree. I keep the lower levels decorated with lightweight, nonbreakable ornaments just in case. And the tree is tied to the walls in case of earthquake or dog entanglement, so we don't have a repeat of (many years ago) when the tree crashed sideways.
(Same tree, different camera settings. Ain't photography fun?)

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Just a Cold, Near-Christmas Morning

SUMMARY: Coldest morning in a long time. Dogs don't care.

The tule fog makes a stunning view on many mornings.

This morning, the temperature dropped briefly to 29F around 7:00. The grass and ground were crinkly with frost, although you can barely tell in this photo.

It's so cold that even Boost needs to wear a fur stole.

Tika almost-patiently waits for action, her Christmas collar just visible.

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Down and Up Again

SUMMARY: Yesterday exhausted; today exercycle

Oh, hmmm, I thought I had posted my notes about the Fun Match I attended on Nov 25 (right before my surgery week), but they seem to have been stuck in limbo. So I just reposted "Out of Condition" for November 26.

Yesterday I went out to a movie, during which my knee throbbed off and on, then felt really tired by the time I got home. So I lay down briefly, then prepared some green beans (a really strenuous chore indeed) for dinner at my sister's, drove up there, had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up til the next morning-- oh, wait, sorry, distractaed there. Had a lovely pot roast dinner. Watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was good as always, and then a 1992 Charlie Brown christmas special (on DVD) that we never even knew existed--and after watching it, now we know why we never knew it existed. But I was so exhausted still, and my knee just wouldn't let up its mild throbbing. So I drove home and I was so exhausted & sore that I thought I was gonna die right there. So I used the ice machine in the evening for the first time in a few days while collapsed in a little heap on the couch, watching TV in a barely conscious state.

This morning I felt much better.

So I did the exercycle today for the first time since physical therapy last Thursday (it hurt then), and I did it for 10 minutes on a pretty easy setting and everything felt fine! Huzzah! Also raked some leaves in the yard and mopped the kitchen floor lightly (not on my hands and knees).

Dogs are helping by periodically crashing into my leg for various not-very-good reasons.

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Tidings--

Merry Christmas from the Taj MuttHall, and to all a good night.

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The Holiday Spirit

Ah, yes, the true holiday spirit--soft cushy Christmas toys and big sharp pointy teeth.

OK, that's better.

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Dog Photos Just For Fun

When my housemate makes his sandwiches for work the next day, guess who regularly shares some tidbits.
Boostie at 10 months. Stretching--bored? cramped? ready to play?
Close-up of the brown part of her eye that you usually can't see so that it looks just blue (as in preceding photo). Note holiday collar. Imagine holiday music playing in the background.

And picture decorations of red on a green Christmas tree...no, wait, tree has been sitting out in a basin of water for 2 days. Took Boost out to look at it to see whether it would spook her. "Yeah? A tree. So what?" But when I first turned on my stereo--"Bark! Bark! Danger! Look out! Something's invading our house! Woof!" But ended up quite curious when I started pushing buttons (switching CDs) and the sound changed. She had to put her feet up on the stereo to look. Waiting to see what happens when the tree springs into existence in the living room in a threatening manner. Probably tomorrow.

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Quick Notes

My comment about the mammogram the other day: I went in for an ultrasound today and the technician said that the radiologist said that they didn't need to do any follow-up today. That's all I know. I think things are probably fine.

Christmas was pleasant other than the fact that I underslept and overate, making me pretty much a wreck by Christmas evening. I got dog toys, dog Christmas ornaments, and a gift certificate to PetCo, so I can go down there shortly and have a grand old time. Several more dragons also joined my household--but that's not dog-related.

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To Everything There Is A Season

I rarely stray from dog topics here in the Taj MuttHall. But tonight is the night to wander afield.

Earlier, I was slaving away in Santa's Workshop in the attic, wrapping gifts galore for the tremendous gathering of Clan O'Levy tomorrow, when it suddenly occurred to me that I was enjoying myself and indulging apallingly in the spirit of Christmas. It has been a long time.

My ex moved out in May of 2000, then I sold the house (wiith the half-acre agility yard) from which I said I'd never move again. For Christmas of 2000, I was living in the Horrid Rental, rain coming through the roof at every opportunity. I was on disability and could barely function with spinal problems. And it was the first time in 21 years that I hadn't had my significant other around--Needless to say, depression had taken hold in a deep and nasty way. I did set up a half-sized tree at the last minute with only a couple dozen decorations.

In December of 2001, I had just moved into my new home. Boxes occupied every corner of the house and garage. I was trying to do everything myself without reinjuring my back. Every shopping trip reminded me that I had no significant other for whom to shop. I felt more alone than almost any other time in my life. I strung one string of lights on the outside of the house. I did not get a tree.

In December of 2002, Remington was dying of cancer. He was in and out of the veterinary hospital. My bills for operations and treatment were huge. Just before Christmas, x-rays seemed to show remarkable improvement, but on Christmas eve he began internal hemmorhaging again and I spent Christmas day on and off the phone to the vet hospital. I was too stressed and distracted by Remington's fatal illness to enjoy things, and bearing the burden made me realize even more how alone I was. Furthermore, my divorce was final the week before Christmas. I put up about 10 strings of exterior lights. I got a tree but it took me about 3 weeks to gather the enthusiasm to decorate, and even then I put up only perhaps one box of ornaments and then quit.

This year I've shopped with pleasure, put up a couple of dozen strings of exterior lights, set up a lovely tree and decorated it fully, decorated random stuff around the house, wrapped gifts so that I'm not up til midnight Xmas eve--and have discovered that I've almost rekindled my old enthusiasm for the whole holiday season.

It's been a long three and a half years.

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Love and Joy Come To You

And this message that I'm sending out, like a telegraph to their souls--if they can receive--you'll always be in our hearts, taken too young as you were: human friends Tina, Betty, Louis; canine companions Remington, Tanith, Sparky, Pippin, Tyler, and so many others this year.

But for all of us still shuffling around that mortal coil:

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

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Xmas Photo

Just stuck an xmas photo up under Nov 30. Enjoy. Real xmas letters & cards will be along eventually, with an even nicer photo.

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Xmas Photos

Backfill: Dec 9 The spouse of a friend is a photographer and they did photo shoots of dogs for the holidays this weekend. Aren't we a lovely bunch of agility nuts?

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It's Been A Year--Part III

I feel like I'm reliving the last 4 months of Remington's life all over again. Not as intensely. And I don't think about it all the time. But I'm acutely aware, over and over, that November was the month in which he was diagnosed and had his operation and started chemo.

I'm sure that this will go on and on through March.

Christmas will be odd; last Christmas Eve he went into the emergency room and stayed for 36 hours and I hardly got any sleep and was on the phone to the vet all day Xmas when I wasn't actually leaving my family to go to the hospital to sit with him.

OK, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was about this time last year that I sat the 3 of my dogs down in front of my Xmas fireplace and took a ton of holiday shots with and without me sitting alongside. So now I'm preparing for it again and am again acutely aware that I have only 2 dogs this time.

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Christmas Morning Blues

My freshly ex spouse came over late Xmas Eve evening for some finishing touches on present wrapping. When we came down from the attic around 10--me with still a lot of ribbons & bows to add--Rem was lying down instead of greeting us, ears back, and when he got up he had that awful hang-dog look about him like he did during his bad episodes in August & again when we discovered the cancer. His gums looked quite pale gray to me. He shivered a couple of times while he was lying next to me while I checked him over.

I took him to the emergency vet's, where he immediately perked up a little ("See, I'm feeling MUCH better, can we go home now?"). His heart rate was a *little* high. His gums were a *little* pale. But blood test showed a drop to 30 for his red blood, which is apparently a tremendous percentage for a day and a half. Probably indicates some bleeding going on somewhere. Except for blood in the urine (which I haven't noticed but haven't looked closely), Cytoxan doesn't cause bleeding, the emergency vet said. (Interestingly, white cells had gone way back up into the good range, but apparently they can fluctuate tremendously within a couple of hours.)

Since they share office space with our regular vet specialists, they were able to dig out Rem's folder to catch up on the medical details.

They wanted to check his blood every 3-4 hours through the night & wanted to have someone keep an eye on him in case bleeding became worse & he collapsed. I didn't think I could stay awake all night, I was so tired already, so I left him there.

Vet called this morning; count dropped to roughly 28, then 26, then 24-25, so something's still going on & they want to keep him until at least this afternoon. She said he looks good, though, better than last night--perky, with a good appetite. Apparently bodies can adjust themselves to the low blood count. But if he drops any more, they might want to do a transfusion so he has enough platelets in his system to attempt to stem the bleeding.

This has always been the biggest short-term risk--rupture of the tumor. If that's what's happened, there's nothing they can do except transfuse and pray. Smaller ruptures (which is probably what he's had before) can often close themselves up. But if it's more major...

Of course I'd been hoping that the risk was greatly reduced with the tumor shrunk so very much.

I guess I'm going to head over to the Clan Home to hang out with the family and hope for only good phone calls.

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It's Christmas Eve Again

Remington's doing well; lots of enthusiasm for life. Monday's blood test showed that his white blood cells were a little low but that the "important" subcount (neutrophyls?) were fine, so we're going ahead with the next round of cytoxan. He's also fractionally anemic--normal is something like 37 and he's at 36.9.

His weight is holding fairly steady around 52.5. And he loves his special canned food.

Just a side note--Jim and I met 23 years ago this past week. As of today, we're officially divorced. Happy Holidays.

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