I've been working on the blackberry invasion in our side yard, trimming back and using Round-Up on the stalks once I've cut them to the ground. I usually have Martok outside with me when I work on this project, as I think lightly supervised solo playtime outside is important for puppies as well as children, and one day he figured out how to eat blackberries off the bushes. He'd never even HAD a blackberry before that day, which makes it more impressive to me! Ezri eats berries off the vine as well, but I had to show her where they were the first time out - Martok just did it all on his own.
Our friends were out for a long weekend as one of them did an Ironman triathlon up in Canada, so we kept three of their dogs for them while they were away. Martok and his favorite girl Flirt (half BC, half mini Aussie) finally stopped playing after about three days and even took a nap together!
We had a tournament in mid-August, rescheduled from April when it was pushed off due to a severe bordetella outbreak in our region. We set a new club record on Saturday of 16.018, with me running my beautiful Ezri in start and Chris running our teammate's dog Savage in second. Nala and Sprite rounded out the lineup - we think that breaking 16 is going to happen very soon!
Our flyball teammates convinced us to join them for a group run for The Zombie Run, a 5k involving running away from zombies to try and protect your life balloons. We had a good time, Kristie and I finished in just under 40 minutes so that was kind of exciting, and Chris did really well and finished around 26 minutes I think. The zombie bit got kind of old near the end, as there were some injuries (I had to jump over someone who fell right in front of me) and at the end there were so many zombies it was impossible to "survive" with any of your life balloons intact. If there's no way to make it, then that kills the fun for me. It was a good time with friends, though, and we'll probably do other 5k races together in the future.
And of course, Labor Day Weekend means PAX Prime! We attended for the eighth year running, with Chris an Enforcer running Unicorn Theater and me being my social self for four days this year, instead of the previous three. I spent a lot of the weekend running around with other friends, such as my friend Pete in the picture above at the Cards Against Humanity booth, with dinner plans with different groups each night as well as stuff during the day. I learned how to play Castellan and Zombie Dice, saw some good panels, got my PAX XP prize, and generally had a blast.
And of course, there were buttons. This was my fourth year doing Buttoneering, and it was definitely a lot of fun. There were no "dinner plate" buttons this year, so I was able to fit them all on a single bulletin board without hanging off the sides, which was nice! I still need to move the boards around, as I only have space for the previous three where they are now, but I have a plan for moving them around to a different wall.
Martok continues to grow and learn, and a few weeks ago I took him (along with Ezri and Flirt) to Marymoor Park and the offleash dog area for the first time. He needed a bit of convincing to swim in the river, but once he figured it out he was having a great time despite the photo above.
And of course, the knitting. Last night I finished the striped portion of my Color Affection shawl, and miraculously ended up with the right number of stitches. I have about twelve full-length rows of edging to do and then it's done!
I'm also working on a Wingspan shawl, which I picked after getting the most beautiful long-gradient yarn from an Etsy store. The color made me think of dragon fire (it continues shifting all the way to red), and so a pattern that looks like dragon wings was eminently appropriate.
We are enjoying a bit of a lull here in September, between PAX and when our next batch of flyball competitions starts up again, and it's quite nice. Chris has decided to do the Tough Mudder run and obstacle course, so he's training for that right now which makes Ezri happy because it involves 8-10 mile runs. I'm still doing some running, but I'm keeping it short with just 1.25 mile runs or so as my legs and body acclimate to the new activity, plus that's a good distance for little Martok. Our next tourney is in two weeks, and then we have three straight at the end of October into November - Auburn WA, Hurricane UT, Cloverdale BC. Hopefully all this running pays off in Ezri's stamina!
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