Reliant (Saturday)

Day 3 started a bit rough as I wasn't feeling well and Shimmy was distracted by the crowds. Her Exc A JWW run I pulled her. She knocked the triple due to lack of forward motion and "trotted" past a jump. I figured there was no point in dragging out the agony she was feeling and pulled her. Good choice as she stress yawned a bit as we went to her crate. Poor girly. She rested for a while, I got my head back in the game, and she came back strong in Open STD and Open FAST! :) Here are today's results...

Excellent A JWW-E
Pulled her due to being distracted and neither of us was feeling it.
Open STD-Q/1st
What an awesome come back! We both took some deep breaths and went in there for the fun of it all. Fabulous performance by her. The crowd really made her feel special after that run.
Open FAST-Q/1st
Another wonderful run. This was only offered twice this weekend, but both runs went well. I don't recall earning as many points as we did, but I guess we did...64 points when we only needed 55 total. Works for me!

After that we did some walking around. She got lots of pets and treats from people. We also racked up on samples and what not. We'll get some more tomorrow and I was able to find what I was looking for. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day again. I'll be super sad when it's over, but I'm thrilled we have one more day to really have a great time. Exc A JWW and Open STD tomorrow. I'm so lucky to have her and she's exceeded my expectations yet again this year. Goal for tomorrow: Just enjoy the day! Afterall, Reliant comes but once a year!

Reliant (Thursday-Friday)

So, I figured I'd break this up into two posts since, one, I want to update, and two, it would be incredibly long if I did just one update. So far, Reliant has been everything I've been waiting for. The company is great, the judges have some really fun courses, and Shimmy is adjusting well and dealing with everything like the awesome superstar she is. It was great to see some people I haven't seen in a while and cheer on some of our friends. Here's how days one and two went....

Day One (Thursday 7/21/11)
Excellent A JWW-Q/1st
What a great run by my girl. A super flowy course that gave her tons of confidence.
Novice STD-Q/1st/NA
Wow, we've been working hard for this one. Flawless performance by her. What a girl!
Open FAST-Q/3rd
She had the fastest time, but places 1 and 2 had 62 points while she had 60 points. Either way, I just wanted to get our points and get out. Not like one can get a SuperQ in AKC right?

Day Two (Friday 7/22/11)
Excellent A JWW-Q/1st
This was a super neat course. Lots of turns but a great handling challenge for me. Shimmer rocked it out like always saving my butt as I almost ran into a jump...special.
Open STD-NQ
This was totally my fault. I was rushing to the teeter concentrating on that performance. We disconnected and I lost eye contact, therefore causing her to run past the panel jump. The panel and chute were right next to each other and I can't recall if I even gave a command. Odds are I didn't and she did just what she was supposed to-no command, no obstacle. Contacts were wonderful though, and I'm perpetually happy with her!

We also got our official CGC certificate in the mail today which made me very happy! :)

Tomorrow we run Excellent A JWW again, and our goal is to get our AXJ. We'll also do Open STD and my goal is to just have another confident run, Q or NQ. Open FAST will be the other run and we'll just go in to play that for the fun of it, also, Q or NQ. Sunday will only be Excellent JWW and Open STD. FAST was only offered on Thursday and Saturday. T2B was offered other days and I don't really feel like pushing for speed on this carpet flooring. Despite that she's doing exceptionally well. Her front paw pads got a bit sore, but thankfully not ripped. I put neosporin on them and wrapped them earning me looks of death all evening yesterday. Protect a pad helped today as well as her booties when we walk around. Everyone thinks it's funny and keeps asking what the "balloons" on her feet are for...silly people. We did find out though, the reason her paws on the front were starting to wear down was because she was using her front to power due to her rear being pretty stiff and kinked out. Thankfully, Ken worked on her after our runs today and made her feel a lot better. I can already see a difference in the way she moves and have no doubt tomorrow she'll be able to use her rear a bit more for that force instead of just reaching out and pulling herself through the run. She's currently crashed, oblivious to what the world holds in store for her tomorrow. We'll go around some more tomorrow, collect samples, pettings, as well as the "non-dog" people questions. For now, we're gonna relax, get a good nights rest, and enjoy the next two days of Reliant. It's been an amazing show so far!

Terramar Beach Weekend

The beach was absolutely amazing this weekend. I missed my little Shimmy lots but we had such a great time. It was a perfect weekend for the beach. The weather was just right, it was a great amount of people, and we had plenty of ways to entertain ourselves. Sexual Trivia was super interesting...to say the least. Aside from that we played Monopoly which for some reason went extremely well for me for once. It was the Nascar version-maybe I should purchase that one. Then we headed to the beach which was actually pretty packed but it was a great day. The seaweed didn't eat us too much. Galveston water isn't the greatest either, but hey, it was the beach! We also did some tanning and what not...like I need any more color! People always tell me, "Oh you got so and so many shades darker." REALLY? What the hell constitutes a "shade"? Is there some strange measurement tactic I haven't grasped yet? Alas, I can see that I did tan because there is a line from my scrunchie on my hand and I did get a bit red...but not really sunburn red, just red as in my skin saying, "Hey I got sun". I'm fortunate enough to never have gotten an actual sunburn. We came back and played Cranium last night which was hilarious considering all the sketching with eyes closed and silent doodles among the charades and cameos. Those were priceless and epic. Lots of pictures and videos on facebook...look them up hahaha. Good times with friends are so great! We headed out this morning, but Aaron, Albert and I stopped by the gift shop and got a few things. Found a gorgeous dried seastar for the madre since she lost hers a while back or it got broken, I can't exactly remember. I also bought some shells for Oma to put in her care package and ship off to Germany soon. A little piece of Galveston for her... Also bought a really cute anklet that has seastars on it. All for a fair price. It was certainly a good weekend! Hopefully the next beach trip will include Shimmer, but either way, I can't wait to go back! :) Even though Galveston is not the prettiest and clearest beach, you can't help but love it...

The Neglected Blog

It must be blog month. Is there even an official blog month? Seems I've neglected the blog a tad since I made it. (As I knew I would.) Every month has had less and less post, although I have kept up with it to a certain extend posting when necessary to tell a life story here or there. I'm going to try and keep it updated more frequently now though, especially since July seems to have promise for being a busy time of my summer. Beach happens this weekend-it's finally official. I'm super excited to enjoy the sand, the water, the seaweed that clings to your body like a stalker...not really that last part. Then of course, Reliant is now only 16 days away-am I getting annoying with that? I just can't help it...It's been nearly 2 months since our last trial. Along with that I've got a few other small plans here and there for this month. Today has been fairly fun, nothing too amazing really. We're not doing anything special for the holiday, just staying in and relaxing, and taking Shimmy to the dog park later. That's what the holidays are all about for me. Kicking back, enjoying the time with family, and a little bit of fresh air (if you can consider Houston air fresh)....Happy 4th of July!

The Idiots of the World

So, second blog post today. Usually don't do that, but man, today was so super perfect, up until a certain someone ruined it. You know those people? The ones that just have a special knack for pissing you off? It's like an olympic event... Yeah, those people need to be put together on a boat, shipped off to the ends of the earth, and stay there forever. That would make me pretty damn happy right about now...ok, I'm done now.

My Brain Just Might Explode

Too much to be looking forward to. I thought I was a bit more patient than this. Reliant is now 17 days away and I've got about a month before my puppy is born. Yesterday was a pretty productive day and we got lots done. Today is more relaxing, but it'll be fun to go out for a late lunch and maybe see the aunt and uncle and cousins this afternoon. As always, dog park will be in order later on. How can it not be? My morning was made when my grandma from Germany called. I miss her so much. Hopefully she'll come visit for Christmas, but it's still a matter of trying to convince her. I would go visit, aside from the fact that it's more expensive to fly to Germany than to the United States and if I went, I would want to bring at least Shimmer, if not the puppy as well which would be expensive, and I'm not sure how all that quarantine crap works. Definitely not enough time during winter break. I miss her though. She makes me smile. Sometimes I wish my entire family wasn't all over the place. I've got family in Germany, Australia, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas. People scattered all over the place, not enough time to go visit, and too poor to fly where I want and frequently see family. Either way, I'm lucky to have some family here. It'll be good to see them later or tomorrow. Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July. If you're somewhere where fireworks aren't banned, enjoy shooting them off...Texas isn't allowed this year. Hopefully no one does anything stupid and just accepts the fact that this year it's too dry. Texas weather....enough said.

Life. Is. Awesome.

~Piper is pretty much confirmed pregnant
~Shimmy loves licorice cats
~Broke down and ordered a giraffe print collar for Omelette
~Reliant is 18 days away (not counting the rest of tonight)
~I really want a trip to the beach so I can wear my new swim suit
~So ready to do some agility soon
~Currently, Life. Is. Awesome.