Congratulations to George in winning his first ever Flyball title! FD 

Houston Texas - just slightly cooler than Hell...

We, Ruby, George and I, spent the weekend in Houston for a HUGE flyball tournament. Mornings started at 4:00am wake-up calls and racing ended roughly 7:00 pm, giving us enough time to eat and sleep, so we didn't get to see any of the city. They call Houston the armpit of Texas, and that's not far from the truth. Our hotel was in the ghetto, complete with enormous fire ant colonies. The humidity was unbelivable and stifling. Walking from airconditioned building to the outside felt like wrapping yourself in a warm, damp blanket. It was difficult to breath the air was so heavy. Ruby ran beautifully and was actually faster on Sunday at the end of the day than she started off running on Friday. George earned his first flyball title and is now officially a racing dog.

99 °F / 37 °C

Soapbox

if you have a pet with a behavior problem there are lots of causes and if you figure out what that cause is, you can work toward fixing it. If you have 2 pets with the same behavior problem, it's either caused by an illness they both have, or something YOU are doing. Take responsibility for your own behavior and don't just get rid of your pets when they don't do what you want them to do. ABANDONMENT IS ABUSE. I'll get off my soapbox now.

96 °F / 35 °C

Oh so Busy!!!

I'm taking the dogs to Houston this weekend for a huge dog event - Reliant World Series of Dog - where they will do flyball but there will also be confirmation (Eukanuba US Finals I think), agility, freestyle, rally obedience, frisbee, rescue organizations, and hundreds of vendors. It's a huge building with thousands of dogs (way more than the 300 or so we see every month in the flyball circuit), so I took George to get a last minute Bordatella shot yesterday and discovered he has a lipid deposit on his eyeball. Poor George! Ruby went along for moral support (she has all her shots) and they both entertained everyone in the lobby with their tricks.

We leave Thursday morning for Houston and between now and then I have to pack the flyball bag, my overnight bag, 2 kennels, food for 4 days, stuff for promoting OUR tournament in August (http://www.flyballdogs.com/cuttingedge/tourney_05/), make some hummous, etc. feels like I have too much in too short a time.

Oh and did I mention I was writing for our tournament website, and trying to keep our 'what really happened' participants up to date with the info we need from them, plus I'm making a website for Wanda's wedding (http://www.3dburke.com/wanda/index.html) which I've fallen behind on AND I lost the email she sent me with the info I need to finish her 'wedding party' page.

To make matters worse, we have the exterminators coming to spray the building so everything has to be out of the kitchen and bathrooms for Wednesday -- I DON'T have time for that!! Guess I have to skip climbing tonight to get more of this done... it's really hard to be me!! (please imagine my most pitiful whining voice here).

95 °F / 35 °C

My Review of "Wedding Crashers"

Funny funny funny! There's something really hilarious about the way Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson talk to each other. Kinda raunchy. Rated R. Very enjoyable. 4 out of 5.

93 °F / 33 °C (T-storms are scary, but they really cool it down!!)

My Review of "Fantastic 4"

amid all the loud crashes and explosions, if you listen really carefully, you can hear the suckage. 2 out of 5.

95 °F / 35 °C

Slowly Making Progress

We have been going to the climbing gym twice a week for almost 2 months now. I'm slowly making progress on my routes, but it's in miniscule increments. Tonight I was able to complete a 5.7 (5.6 is the easiest ranked route) but I couldn't do any of the other 5.7 routes. I'm not panicing as often or as badly at the top of the wall though, so I guess I'm getting better at it!

First Rainfall in Months

Today it rained. A lot. Around 10:00 the sky got dark, so dark that street lights turned on. It was a dark black-green color like you often see when a tornado is on the way -- luckily no rotation clouds this time. Then it poured. Like bouncing raindrops. The best part of a rainy summer day is that it cools it down a LOT! I wore a sweater and long pants this afternoon. brrrrrr....

79 °F / 26 °C

Happy 4th of July

Today since both Andrew and I had the day off we decided to do some errands together. It's hit or miss which stores are open and which are not. I wanted to return my sneakers (the sole is detaching from the shoe) but New Balance isn't open. Begal shop was however so we brought some home ... must remember to pick up cream cheese.

We hope to be able to see fireworks tonight from the patio or from the pool, but that's the extent of how far we will travel to see fireworks. Unpatriotic? Perhaps, but heat and West Nile virus and fire ants and venomous spiders kinda take the fun out of fireworks...

102 °F / 38 °C

101 °F / 38 °C

believe it or not I was outside in flyball practice all morning in this heat. we have to start at 7:00 am before it really heats up, but by noon I start to melt. ugh.

These are the DNA animators. Alex, Mat (I think that's his name, he's new), Andrew, Pat (who looks like he had a few beer too many), Tom, and Sean. 

Ruby LOVES the pool. Almost as much as she LOVES her foam pool frisbee. She would spend all day and night jumping in the water chasing that piece of foam if I let her. 

not the best look for me. I think I was caught between expressions. I just got out of the water and I'm definitely not at my best. 

This is Scott and Tater. Tater is a 55lb lab/pit mix who is terrified of the pool. he is hugging Scott with all his might so he doesn't have to swim. 

What you eat as a child may determine your adult personality

We had a party tonight at the pool. Several of us live in this apartment complex so we were all there plus lots of friends... having a great time, bbq-ing, volleyball in the pool, drinking, the usual, perfect on this holiday weekend. The dogs were there - Ruby, George, and Tater (pit-lab mix), having a great time. So this guy walks by with all his laundry and takes a good look at us. then he comes by again and says that we shouldn't be drinking in there and if a dog poops and someone's kid eats it we will feel bad, and that we are very disrespectful. then he left. None of the dogs were pooping at the time, and none of the dogs pooped at all at the pool, during the entire night of swimming fun. I think if his kids are eating dog poop he has bigger problems than the dog poop. Just as he left someone new showed up with his yellow lab splashed in as only a lab can do.

Do you suppose he was having flashbacks of eating poolside dog poo as a child??

95 °F / 35 °C (nighttime)

Happy Canada Day!

Ok so maybe the Americans haven't heard of Canada Day, but I'm celebrating. I'll wear red and white and maybe even drink a beer, eh!

It seems fitting that the weather would cooperate with some more Canadian-like temperatures. Nope... it's 100 °F / 37 °C.