My Week

Nice to see that the chives in my planter turn green again.  The wind has removed the hulls off the leaves. Just like that, the grass has greened up.

 I was able to attend a bible study that meets on Monday nights.  I made the first with the warning I'd miss a lot of the session due to other meetings. 

Tuesday morning I got a neighborhood notice video that some teens were placing plastic forks in the lawn via the "ring" app.  Later, Amber was doing tricks at the nursing home. There was a special guest, an 11 month girl. Amber taught her to ring the bell and gave her kisses. Then she changed the crawl to a walk and Amber wanted to play puppy with her.  That can get a little rough. It was time to go home.

Wednesday morning I skipped exercise class because I had a yard man came to get the concrete clothesline block out of the new section of my garden.  He’s a former marine too.  I had a hunch based on his tats.  He knew my former nextdoor neighbor.  He used a sledge hammer to break the concrete and dug it out.

Friday I took the dogs  to the fairgrounds since Amber is entered in NADAC agility. I only entered on Friday because Saturday and Sunday we'll be running fast cat at Purina Farms in Eureka, MO. Those events are hard to find and fast cat made it to my calendar first.  No need to waste Friday portion of a 3-day event.

Q's are qualified and N is not.

  

Amber qualified in 6 out of 8 runs at the NADAC trial on 25th 2022 at the state fairgrounds. She earned her NADAC REGULAR NOVICE title.

Saturday morning I left Sophie at 9:30  with a friend  from church that used to have a dog.   Meanwhile Amber and  I went to Purina Farms for AKC  Fast Coursing Ability Tests (Fast CAT).  Purina Farms was pretty busy on Saturday.  Fast cat is so easy it's a shame to call it a sport. Dogs just run and are so happy to do it. The score keeper at the end table got a kick out of my cheer method to call Amber. I deserve and academy award. One German Shepard had to back out of the second run because of a bloody nose while waiting his turn. I calculated that we now have 306 points toward our 500 point goal for the next title. We don't really compete in this sport except to our own time. Therefore dog owners just loves it. 

 

Purina Farms is the Disney World that you take your grand-dogs to enjoy. I stayed at the same, pet friendly hotel, Super 8.   The water in the hotel gave me the impression that it's hard so I didn't use soap when I washed my hair.  

Photos by the professional photographer here: Amber is in gallery 152, 184, 304, 340.  I did like the pictures taken in Bloomington better.

I decided to take a side road back and came across a cute little memorial park in the niche of a cliff.

 

There's a little waterfall there

I usually go to Most Sacred Heart Church in Eureka, MO while staying the night.  The priest gives a children's homily at the end of Mass.  Father Joe is a ventriloquist.  This was the sermon that I attended.

 

 https://vimeo.com/692387103

 When I got home, Amber looked in the other rooms.  She was looking for Sophie who wasn't picked up from Diane's house yet.  I didn't know Amber cared.

Sean and I watched "The Rebellion" on Netflix. 

my week

 Monday evening I went to a VFW meeting.  Tuesday was  pretty  busy not even counting morning exercise class.  I had a lunch meeting with the  Women's Overseas Service League followed taking Sophie on a Therapy Dog visit.  Then I learn that 2 of the facilities in Chatham were somehow dropped from the database of places that acknowledge therapy dogs.  When  I sent the email to national, their reply was a copy of the instructions and didn't answer why they were dropped.  I have another handler that knows those places were there before.  So I had  to run around and get it done again.  Then Tuesday evening practice at the club. 

 Wednesday I finished up my taxes at the library through AARP so the processedidn't cost me  like in the past.  Still hurt.  I had lunch with Liz at  a  new restaurant called "Beef O'Brady's".  Afterwards we  stopped by the mall and got a chair massage.  Best use of my time.  Actually I hadn't been inside the  mall in years.  It's been pretty bare but there were some new places that were  interesting. 

Thursday I went out to Camp Butler and  took photos for Findagrave.com.  In the  evening I went to our Catholic War Veterans meeting.  I brought Sophie along and she was loose to wander around during the meeting.  I got the feeling that there was a greater understanding of what the dogs go through.

Friday I closed out my trust and other documents at the law office.  In the evening I helped with the coffee/tea at our American Legion Fish Fry.   It's been canceled the last 2 years so many of the Friday nights that we hold this I've already scheduled dog events.

Saturday morning, Peggy and I carried the Temperance Movement banner in the postponed St Patrick's Day parade.  The weather was in t he 20's the week before but the rescheduled date had some early morning rain.  By step off, the weather was more like 48.  I wasn't cold except for my fingertips even with gloves.

A man that was security thought my banner had something that was in Mary Poppins.  There's a difference between temperance and suffrage.  I look at this as educational for some people.  For those that knew about temperance, we got cheers, jeers and smiles.   If we hadn't been walking behind soldiers, we might have met up with a rough crowd.

Beware of the demon rum.

My keg screws on the straps didn't hold up.   I guess that's a wardrobe malfunction to fix.

I remembered that Ina had made sauerkraut balls so I had to make some myself.  The breading and frying was labor intensive.

I tell ya, I'm not a good cook.

My Week

Frank's sister, Ina Connolly Blatt, passed away.  There will be a memorial in Canton, OH on April 9.  May she rest in peace.  Her husband passed away just about a year  earlier.

I often wonder why there is more promotion for a single day event like St Patrick's Day than the season of Carnival/Mardi Gras which is a longer season between Three Kings Day and Lent. 

Monday, Amber got cleaned up since she doesn't need that stray dog look for the play anymore. She's been adopted like Annie. She played a boy dog and has a "Tom Boy" look.

Tuesday evening's obedience practiced was canceled so I had chicken at the VFW.  While  there, Liz texted  to meet at the library at 6:30 for a republican women's meeting.

Wednesday morning I went to a visitation for Sandy Temple who passed away.  She worked at the Old State Capitol and  mentored the volunteers.  Then I dropped off documents for an AARP tax prepareer.  Those two were depressing but after that I got to do some dog practice in Mechanicsburg and in the evening I went to a presentation

Thursday morning I learned via Facebook that my sister-in-law, Ina, had passed away the evening before.  She was the first of my husband's siblings that I was introduced to.

I went to Mass at 8:30, library to print some documents which is co-located with church.  Then I went to the club to practice rally and obedience.  The group had lunch at the Sangamo Brewing Co afterward.  I tried  their blackened  prime  rib  ceasar salad.   I stopped at the grocery store for some much needed hot dog reward  treats for Amber.  At 4PM I went to a  visitation  of Matthew Mau, a member  of our Chatham American  Legion Sons and our village trustee.  I was in line for an hour and a half so I kept it brief.  Matt was so well loved in this community.  The line was so long.  I filled my tank that was half full for the trip to Peoria on Friday.  It was $4.55/gal.  It started to snow so I was worried about the drive.  The weather was so cold that the St Patrick's Day Parade was postponed from March 12 to March 19.

Friday I got up early to to an AKC beginner agility trial call Agility Course Testing (ACT).  There is only a qualification title and no first, second or  third place. We had 8 runs two for each title.  Passed 7 runs.  Since this was an intro to AKC levels, there were many beginner dogs there and Amber has other venues that she's titled in so we were well beyond this level.

3 titles with 7 qualified scores. If she didn’t drop a bar, then we would have 4 titles. Nothing to snicker about.  Here's a link to the dropped bar:  https://youtu.be/h8vTEYVVUu4

ACT 2 Jumpers Round 2:  Notice the dropped bar and I had a bad position near the end that  threw me off.

 This was the final run that was unqualified:

 These are the successful score sheets so click to enlarge and look for Amber on them.  You'll see she had good time and scores relative to all the other first-timers.  I believe most of the time we were the only one to jump 8" height.  My fear is that if this was a performed in front of an ACK Judge vs an ACK evaluator that we would be jumping at 12".  That's a lot for a dog whose withers are 12".  I may not enter those  and wait till Amber is more senior and the jump height can be negotiated lower.

ACT 1 Round 1

ACT 1 Round 2 for title

ACT 2 Round1 Jumpers

ACT  1 Round 2 Jumpers for title

ACT 2 Round 1

ACT 2 Round 2 for title

 

I watched a movie called Dreamer.  Sunday we watched a movie  called  The Bombardment.

~Bologna is just hotdog pancakes~

My Week

 This is the week of rehearsals and showtime for Annie. I took this picture of Amber and Sarah before Wednesday's rehearsal.

This was the director's kind comment on a Auburn Facebook page followed by a video of Sarah singing. I was referred by a fellow club member and teacher in Auburn.  Her dog probably behaves better than Amber but a big black Labrador doesn't have the "Sandy" look.  

I've  been watching some YouTube videos of the play. I'm mostly watching the dog performance obviously and Amber is running from the cop to Annie well. This one version, the dog is humping Annie at 20:30 on the timer https://youtu.be/LLTLdUJ-JJo

Well Amber did very well on opening night and I could hear "Awe" when she came on stage.  It might have  been the chicken hearts as high value treats.  Personally, sharing my dog this way is more rewarding than all those ribbons that the club brags about but the credentials help to get to moments like this.  The smiles blessed  us for  the patience God  granted me through this little  rescue dog.   I missed a trial for Teacup agility this same weekend. So meanwhile, Amber's little poodle friend caught up with Amber in the title ladder. 

I wrote her bio.

This picture was taken by her mother and I think is shows a great moment of "feeling"

. 

Just like the rest of the cast got to go out and meet the audience, so did Amber.  I had her do a few tricks..

Tuesday I stopped by Godfather's Pizza to listen to a candidate for governor.

Wednesday I had  practice  with Amber in Mechanicsburg. We did another virtual run to be sent in for judging. 

Thursday I had and appointment with a lawyer to have a trust made.  He got stuck in a meeting so it's rescheduled.

Saturday morning I went to our DAR meeting.  Although I've been a member for months, this is the first meeting that I could attend and get a formal induction.

Well now that the play is over, Amber goes to the groomer and will look a little less like a stray for the play.