big boys go to the big pool

Yesterday I got together with Martok's brother and his owner Gallia to take the dogs to the "big boy" swimming pool that we've gone to for several years.  This was the first time for the boys to swim in a pool without one of us in there with them, but after a short acclimatization period they were pretty excited to jump and swim until we made them leave.  Thanks to Gallia there were quite a few photos taken throughout the day...

Ezri always leaps enthusiastically into the water to go for her ball - she usually gets pretty good distance and is very reliable at bringing her ball back to me.

Jadzia has an adorable little "hop-splash" jump into the pool, she doesn't launch herself very far but it's very cute and she's always happy and wagging her tail.

And then we have the new baby - just LOOK at those legs with full extension, toes wrapped around the edge of the deck, leaping into the pool with intensity.  We're definitely going to have to get that boy into dock dogs!

So handsome, even when he's soaking wet and looks rather ridiculous.  I like the ear turned in response to whatever we were saying to him when the photo was taken.  He even looks relatively even in growth in this picture, which is amazing given that it seems one end or the other is always up higher in the past few weeks!

After swimming time was over, we let the boys run around in the backyard for a while to dry off and get more exercise time in.  I especially like the sideways swerve that Martok is displaying here as he focuses on a frisbee toy that was just thrown.

Such a handsome boy - love the little tongue-flick that was caught in this frame!

And then there's the bitey-face.  Oh, the bitey-face.  Now with adult teeth!

And puppy yoga.  Because why not?

Swimming at the pool was definitely a success for this little boy, and we will happily be going back again in the future!

three weeks of a new puppy

Three weeks ago yesterday, Chris and I took a day trip to Chicago to pick up Martok (Ignited's Order of Kahless) as well as his brother Sirius (Ignited's Expecto Patronum!) to bring them home to Seattle.  We arranged for a friend to come get the adult border collies for the day, as we'd be gone from 4am until almost midnight, set up a meeting place with our friend who was eagerly awaiting Sirius' arrival, and we were off.  The flight out was uneventful, and while it took some time to get our rental car, we were on our way and on time to get to the breeder's house south of the city.

Three of the six puppies were picked up the day before we arrived, with just our two boys and the girl the breeder kept still there.  Little Martok was a bit suspicious, but soon played with us and his siblings with great enthusiasm.  I even got to watch Chris' reaction to a house of ten adult border collies racing around...after that, four seems pretty calm!

Martok took to us pretty well, as evidenced by this photo of a man and his puppy.  :)  We put collars on the boys for the first time, and their sister thought this was great as she could grab the collars to drag them around without them being able to do much about it!  After a few hours of playtime and chatter, we packed up the two boys into their carriers to begin the journey back to Seattle.  Neither one of them were very thrilled about this state of events, and there was a lot of shrieking in the van on our way back to the airport. Luckily for us, this abated once we got to the airport (I think they tired themselves out), and they were well behaved going through security, and both slept through our dinner in the terminal.

As we boarded the plane, we let them stick their heads out of their carriers, which got lots of "awww" remarks from our fellow travelers.  We were lucky enough to have a row of three seats to ourselves, so even with the puppies in their carriers we still had room.  Poor Sirius was very hot, with his double coat inside that carrier, so once we were airborne we picked up his carrier and put it on the seat between us, where he quickly passed out and slept through the whole flight.  Martok snoozed through the whole flight as well, including takeoff and landing - a welcome change from the shrieking his aunt Ezri treated me to on her flight home!

 

We did have a few days with both boys in the house, and one night that week while they were both sleepy I was able to get the above picture.  Curzon did play with Martok a good bit in the few days they were together, enough that I have video of it, and the photo shoot we did with Artis produced some incredible shots as well.

Much to our surprise, Martok managed to convince his sister/aunt Ezri to snuggle with him on the ground level of her princess castle - most of the time she hangs out on the upper level, which he's too little to reach just yet.  I had to sneak around in the garage to get this photo, but it was worth it!

Ezri has had to play auntie quite a bit recently, such as last Saturday when we took both of the puppies to swim for the very first time.  There's a place in Woodinville called Mega-Dogs, which has a small indoor pool that is available for therapy swimming at very nice rates.  That's where I took Curzon for his rehab swimming last year, and it's the best choice I could think of for a warm pool where we could swim with the puppies to teach them how.  It didn't go quite as well as we hoped, neither of them immediately took to the water, but they did well and had no problems swimming, so now we just need to convince them it's fun.

The boys definitely have fun playing together, even something as simple as playing chase-and-bite while racing around the pool.  This is a great picture, especially with the expressions - Martok is definitely up to no good, while Sirius looks a little too innocent...

This week has seen a lot more puppy discipline in our house, as shown by Ezri's Mad Teeth in the photos above.  Much more growling, removal of toys, and general loss of patience has been shown by both Ezri and Jadzia - nothing out of the ordinary or dangerous, of course, but amusing to us humans all the same.  Ezri is still willing to play with Martok a little bit, but she does not want him chewing on her toys.  She's actually rather devilish, and if he has something she wants, then she'll go play with something else to get his attention, let him take the second thing, then go get the original item (or spot!) that she wanted.  Smart girl.

And of course, we've been taking Martok to puppy classes once a week at Ahimsa in Ballard - the same school I where took Ezri through puppy kindergarten.  Part of this week's lesson was body handling and grooming, including putting clothes on the puppies - Martok did really well with that, even if he does look sad in this photo.  He actually ran around with the clothes on without a care in the world until he ran right out of the socks!

~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been eleven days since we lost Curzon, and while I'm not over it (and may never be), it is just starting to get easier.  I can breathe better, and thinking of him doesn't automatically mean tears every time, just some of the time.  This afternoon we will go and pick up his ashes from the vet on our way home from work, and bring him home where he belongs.  I know that one day we will scatter his ashes, probably in the ocean where he so loved to swim, but I don't think I'm going to be ready to do that on our vacation this year.  For now, having his physical remains home with us will be a comfort, as odd as that sounds, and hopefully it will help us continue to heal.

life without Phoebe, almost two months later

It's been almost two months since Phoebe went to her new home, and the changes in our household have been dramatic.  Before I get into them, however, I will note that Phoebe is doing very well in her new home, she's loving being an only dog with a fenced yard and two people to fuss over her.  She has several chairs to sit in, windows to watch the squirrels through, trips to quilt guild and other fun events to socialize, and soon a visit from grandbabies to entertain her as well.  Phoebe has never had it so good, and her new owners just adore her.  I'm so happy that it's worked out so well, it's a much better situation for everyone involved.

Jadzia has shown the biggest change, which I was expecting but not quite in the magnitude that has occurred.  The stress of living with Phoebe was apparently far higher than we realized, and now that the little dog is gone Jadzia has just blossomed into an active and interactive dog again.  Instead of spending her evenings hiding in my office, she snoozes and plays in the living room with us, and for the first time ever she's chewing on the antlers that litter the living room.  Jadzia is not nearly as anxious as she was, and in fact when her last scrip of clomapramine ran out we elected to not refill it, and she's doing just fine without it.  She's gleeful at times, bouncing and capering about the house, jumping up for hugs and bringing us toys, and it's a delight to see.  I do feel a bit sad and guilty now, for not realizing just how much Phoebe had affected her behavior and quality of life so negatively, but at least things are much better for Jadzia now and we are enjoying her newfound happiness right alongside her.

Sadly, we still can't leave Jadzia and Ezri in the kennel outside together while we're gone, however.  Phoebe was apparently not the catalyst there, it's your bog-standard bitch disagreements that end up with both of them with little bite marks where they've been tussling.  I'm pretty sure Jadzia barks at something, keeps barking and won't shut up, so Ezri tries to shut her up and assert dominance, and bam they scuffle.  So in the interests of keeping everyone in one piece, Jadzia is still spending her days in her crate inside the house, where I think she's happier anyway without having to worry about things outside of her control.

Curzon is still being his amazing self, despite the new tumor that appeared in his chest in January and may be growing over time.  We've had a rough couple of weeks, mostly unrelated to the tumor, with a kennel cough scare from a tournament with infected dogs, goopy eyes that are itchy and bothering him, and a slightly tweaked back last week from overenthusiastic yoga ball practice.  He's had his days of being off his food, mostly involving refusing any chicken meals and preferring beef instead, so we're currently running two different flavors for most meals (beef for him, something else for the girls).  Even when not wanting his real food, however, Curzon has been happy to have other things to eat so overall he's doing just fine.  And as of this morning, we're at several days of eating a full meal of something every time, so that's fantastic.

Thanks to our teammate who is a vet, Curzon's back is healing up nicely after a chiropractic adjustment, massage, and ongoing red laser therapy.  When she checked his back at practice, the pain reflex was so strong it almost made me cry - and he was still trying to run and play with that much hurt!  Last night and this morning showed no pain reflex, just some residual stiffness in his back, so that's very exciting for us.

Two weekends ago we got our first taste of spring, with sunny weather in the high 60s, so off we went to the park to play in the water.  They had such a good time romping around, although the winter (and possibly the city) have changed the main part of the creek so that there's not a good deep swimming hole anymore.  Oh well...

Things have been quiet and amazing in our house recently, I can take the dogs out to the backyard and play chuckit for fifteen minutes and never say a word, but that's soon to change.  Two weeks from today Chris and I will be flying out to Chicago to pick up the newest member of our family - Ignited's Order of Kahless, call name Martok.  He is a blue merle border collie, likely a smooth coat, born from a Singed x Fetch litter on February 27, 2013.  Singed is Ezri's older 3/4 sister (and Indigo's littermate), so Martok will be Ezri's nephew!  There are six puppies in the litter, two boys and four girls, and both of the boys will be coming to Seattle to live - which has meant a new friend for us!  We will actually bring back both of the boys when we go to Chicago, as the other boy (who will be called Sirius) is going to someone without the extra vacation day to travel to get him.  Hopefully that will make the plane flight easier on them both, but we will see!

no news is good news, at least where the media is concerned

A few weeks ago, I decided to stop watching the television news in the morning.  We've always had it on in the background while feeding the dogs and preparing to go to work, largely for the weather and traffic reports, but I realized that it was stressing me out.  Why do I need to hear about the kid that's been missing (and likely murdered by his mother) for two months?  Why do I need "breaking news coverage" of a house on fire three counties away?  Why do I need to hear yet another word about the damn "barefoot bandit" or that ridiculous young woman who killed her roommate in Italy?  Why do I need to listen to hatred and bile spewed about an election that is still nine months away?

The answer is, I don't.  I don't need to listen to the hate, the negativity, the focus on blood and pain and drama that is the standard fare of the newscasters.  They rarely show anything positive, and when they do show something positive, it's nearly always wrapped around a negative drama subject, like a charity drive for war orphans or something like that.  So I've stopped watching it entirely, although since my husband wants to keep an eye on it we've compromised on having it on the tv but on low volume so I can't hear it and get distracted and irritated by it.  And some mornings, even he has changed the channel over to the Weather Channel in disgust from all of the negativity.

I wish there was a channel of happy news, of the positive things in life along with the traffic and the weather.  Or even a balanced newscast that covered national and world news of actual merit, both the good and the bad.  Sadly, that is not the case - the media appears to prefer selling fear and hatred to sharing confidence and love, and that means there is not even balanced reporting on actual important issues.  This saddens me.

On the recovery front, Curzon is doing well enough to be a whiny little pain in the butt now.  He is unhappy to be penned up and not allowed to play with his sister, or leave with us in the morning to go out in the kennel, or run outside and play fetch in the afternoons.  So there is a lot of whining, which is annoying for everyone involved, but then again it does mean he's feeling much better, so that's good.  Here is a photo taken on Tuesday, seven days post surgery, showing that he's healing up well.  The bandage on the main incision is still attached very nicely, apart from one edge which is poking up just a bit, and when I checked the incision edge I could see it looks great.

He's now getting a slow short walk each day, about four houses down the street now and then a turn-around to walk back home.  Of course, Curzon feels I am walking him much too slowly and not nearly far enough, but he doesn't get to make that decision yet!  I'm increasing the distance by about "half of a house" every three days or so, which is giving him at least some time outside and looking at different things.

Curzon is spending most of his time doing this - napping in his big comfy bed that Chris got for him as part of the surgery recovery plan.  It's an awesome bed, I kind of wish I had one like it!   Normally this bed is in the e-pen in the dining room, where he spends his days while we're at work, but last night Chris was out so I had Curzon and his bed in my office while I raided in WoW.  Such a sleepy good boy - he is still healing and needs his rest, despite what he thinks!  I've adjusted his pain meds to be with his two meals, meaning that the evening hours are probably pain-med-free (they last about 12 hours or so), which I think is a good compromise of ensuring he has comfortable sleep and drowsy daytime when we're gone.

And of course, the princess Ezri is starting to get jealous of all the attention Curzon's getting, so to help please her here is a picture my friend took at the pool two weeks ago.  I can get her to jump in and then hold the ball up above her, and she does a very cool swirly twirly in-place sort of swim until I drop or toss it for her.  Makes for a cool photo too!

project completion roundup

I've finally gifted several of my completed recent projects, so it's roundup time! First up is a small placemat / "mug rug" quilt that I made my grandmother for her birthday in June. I used a charm pack for the brightly colored squares, which were cut in half and then put together at an angle to form the points. The border is leftover fabric from a baby quilt I made earlier this year, and the binding is from fabric in my stash that wasn't used in a quilt I made last year. The back (not shown) is made of charm squares in pastel shades of the colors shown here, with a strip of a red dot fabric. The inspiration for this piece was from something I saw on Quilt Dad a few months ago, and the color choices were based on my Nana's love of bright colors.

Next up are a pair of Nintendo DS cases, which I originally made for my new DS since it didn't come with a case that I approved of using (far too big and bulky). I made it from scratch, using measurements of the DS itself along with some math, and it's basically made of two strips of fabric that are individually quilted and then stitched together. There is a lining as well - and putting the layers together was REALLY hard on even my freearm machine, if I wanted to make many more of these I would really need a Featherweight 222k or similar tiny freearm to make it work.
Mine is made of some black and lime green Spirograph print material I got on shop hop this year, lined with some bright lime green abstract flowers (not pictured), and bound with some Kona teal fabric leftover from binding the baby quilt discussed later in this post. And since my mother's birthday happened around the time I made this one, I decided to make her one too using fabric scraps left over from the bag I made her for Mother's Day earlier this year.

Free motion quilting still isn't coming very easily to me - I need much more practice!

The lining is a fun purple/teal butterfly print that I picked up on shop hop - it adds a bit of whimsy to this piece, I think! The binding is leftover binding from the quilt I made myself as part of the first three I ever made just two years ago.

And of course, the label!

The next project is a bit bigger - it's a baby carrier quilt that I've made for my friend's second son who was born in June. I didn't quite get this made in time for his birth, but I hope he will get plenty of use out of it anyway! The fabric is from a fat-quarter pack of Sandy Gervais "Lollipop" collection that I got at the sewing expo, the backing is from a sock monkey fabric collection that I found online, and the binding is a teal Kona cotton. I went with a psuedo-log cabin layout for this one, adding strips in pairs around the central fussy-cut square with monkeys. I like how it turned out, though it is just a little off from being perfectly square - I think I need more practice or pinning with longer seams.

The quilting was done with my Accufeed foot, just following the line of each strip/log in the pattern. It worked out pretty well, but there was some pulling as I got to the end of each of the longer strips, so I need to figure out what caused that - stitches were balanced on shorter logs, so something's up with the longer stitch lines or the corners turned in the logs.

I actually took this one outside yesterday to take some pictures of it. The sun wasn't terribly cooperative, but I think they came out well enough. I like this one with the flipped-over back which shows the fun banana-print flannel and the label.

I even did a "rolled up quilt" photo with this one! The final size of the quilt is about 34" square, which should be great for covering the baby carrier for now and maybe as a lovey or snuggle blanket later on.

The last project I'm posting today was finished just yesterday evening, a new iPad sleeve to replace the first one I made earlier this year. I already posted about the fabrics I picked, and while I used the same general technique as on the first one, I went with my previously mentioned plan of "measure the item" to select the sizes. It turned out to be a bit smaller than I had meant, so the iPad fits in it perfectly but not with its smart-cover on, the edge on the smart cover protrudes a bit much for the iPad to slide in easily. I expect it to stretch out over time, however, so that shouldn't be much of a problem after a few weeks. I'm pretty proud of how this one came out and have already gotten several compliments on it - color me happy!

Front of the case - Shades of Grey, 1001 Peeps, Silent Cinema, and a Japanese import fabric. I'm very pleased with how the angles came out as well as how nicely the purple/black mixer stripes look. I wish the photo wasn't quite as washed out, it's hard to see the contrast between the purple and black here.

Back of the sleeve, same fabrics but a different order. The binding is more of the black mixer fabric, I got it at The Quilting Loft in Ballard as part of a fat quarter pack, and I may need to put more of it in more colors in my stash.

Perfect fit! I will try to remember and post the dimensions I used, which are written down in a notebook on my cutting table - they really did work out perfectly for a non-covered iPad. The only flaw I can find is apparently my lining isn't quiiiite all the way down - there's about a quarter-inch of "padding" at the bottom edge when the iPad is tucked all the way down.

Surprise! Border collies on the inside! I'm just tickled about this fabric, and so glad that I found some to use here. It made the construction one additional step, so that I wouldn't have upside-down border collies on one side, but that's not a big deal. And of course, my label!

And in conclusion, my real-life border collies enjoying some (limited) swimming at Marymoor Park yesterday. They've already fenced off most of the river for the salmon run, which was very disappointing to me, but the dogs still had a ball and it was just deep enough for them to alternate between swimming and jumping through the water. It's very hard to get a photo of all three of them in the water at the same time when I'm there by myself, however!

Ezri and Curzon racing out of the water together, trying to be the first back to get the ball thrown again! Poor Jadzia just can't compete...she comes out shivering long before these two are willing to consider leaving the water!

first swim of the spring

Yesterday was a beautiful day (as is today), with bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid 60s, so I took the three border collies to the nearby park to play. They all heat up pretty quickly, and since it was warm enough I walked them over to the swimming hole on the other side of the park to cool off and get a different form of exercise. Curzon and Jadzia are well used to this routine, with me usually having to pull Curzon back multiple times from simply sprinting off to the water without me - all it takes is looking at him and saying "Do you want to go swimming?" and he's off like a shot. I wasn't sure what Ezri would do, as she liked playing fetch in the pool well enough at her first swim back in January, but this was natural water and she had hated climbing in and out via the ramp.

I shouldn't have worried.

As we got to the swimming hole, both the adults ran right by me and flung themselves into the water, trusting a ball would appear in front of them to fetch. After the first two were thrown, I turned to Ezri to watch her follow her older sibs right into the water with only a little hesitation. It took a few tries to get her to be OK with getting the ball (the technique does take practice), but she was enjoying herself greatly by the time we were done. I managed to take two videos of her with the camera (you can see Curzon swimming around in both of them as well).

Video one - learning to pick up the ball in the water

Video two - showing a nascent dock dogs jump

After playing in the water, I returned to the meadow to run them some more to dry them off a bit, and took a couple pictures of them as they ran. The one of Jadzia did not come out well, but the ones of Ezri and Curzon that did and are posted here and above. I'm glad that Ezri is willing to swim without the intensive bribing that it took to get Curzon to swim for the first time.

In other news, I have scheduled Ezri's spay appointment for Wednesday, May 20th. I spent a lot of time thinking about this decision, as while I do not intend to become a BC breeder at this time, she is such a sterling young dog that the thought of having a pup of hers was awfully tempting. Realistically, however, we would not be ready for another puppy for at least 5 years (whenever Curzon is ready to retire), and it's not fair to Ezri or to ourselves to keep her intact and going through heat cycles for 5 years in case we wanted puppies from her. I also don't think I would have the time to ensure the puppies got the best start they can, nor do I want to ship Ezri off for her pregnancy and whelping, so that was another mark against keeping her intact. Her full brother Remy and her 3/4 sisters Sprint and Hex are all definitely being kept intact for breeding, and I'm sure at least another few puppies from Race and Dazzle/Prancer are also being kept intact, so I'll be able to get a neice or nephew when the time comes.

But being logical doesn't mean I can't wish that I could do something. It would be a joy to have Ezri's puppies...just not practical. Le sigh.

teaching puppies to swim

This past weekend we went up to Langley BC to have a flyball training retreat weekend at the Run Free Canine Centre that is owned by our friends Karl and Jenny from the Run Free flyball club. In addition to the covered flyball arena, they also have a covered 4' deep pool for swimming the dogs, complete with a current generator for resistance swim training. The setup is very clever, with clear plastic greenhouses enclosing both the flyball arena and the pool, leaving them both able to be used despite the winter weather. My only complaint is that it is awfully cold in there if it's not sunny outside, but I think Karl is planning to put in a few space heaters in the future, or it would be trivial to bring some of our own.

I took the dogs swimming three times, twice on Saturday and once on Sunday, with Chris' job being to trade me dogs every 10 minutes or so. My big goal for the weekend was to teach Ezri to swim (and enjoy it), and I think that I managed to accomplish that. Along with the help of Chris (the swimming instructor), we wrangled Ezri into the pool for the first time and just walked her around a bit to get her used to the sensation, then Chris sent her to swim to me over larger and larger distances until she swam the length of the pool without hesitation. We soon moved on to fetch with a tennis ball in the pool, and Ezri was happily bringing the ball back, spitting it out, and turning to swim back for another go without any commands. She's still not a big fan of getting -in- to the pool, but that will come with time, and she'll have way more practice this summer when it's warm enough to swim at the park or at the lake. Jadzia, Curzon, and Phoebe all got turns in the pool with me as well, with the girls both happily playing swim-fetch with me without getting out of the pool. Curzon insists on getting out of the pool after fetching his ball, however, and only swam for a longer period when we put him on a leash to make him swim laps rather than run out of the pool with the ramp. I tried using the resistance current with both Curzon and Phoebe, and that worked great for Phoebe but Curzon quickly gave up figuring it was way too much effort for just a tennis ball.

Ben also brought in baby Teal for a few swim sessions, and although she was pretty much terrified she was a great little swimmer and was almost able to pull herself out over the edge of the pool. She's too young yet to have the deeply ingrained ball drive that my older dogs do, so I mainly just let her swim from one side of the pool to the other before picking her back up to repeat it. At least at just 9 weeks and 10 pounds or so she was easier to move in/out of the pool than Ezri was!

Of course, the one downside of swimming with the dogs is that they have strong legs with sharp toenails, so I have a wide variety of bruises, scratches, and welts across my arms, legs, and hips. Next time I think I'm wearing a wetsuit to at least protect me from the scratches, even though there's not much to be done about the bruises!

The flyball parts of the weekend were also really helpful, and I think Jeff did a good job with arranging drills and doing some timing and video work that we don't get the time to do at a normal practice. Boxturns for all dogs were videotaped and we watched them on Saturday around lunchtime, so that we could better determine what work each dog needed. I'm happy to say that all four of my dogs have firmly fixed feet on the box, i.e. they're not repositioning at all between landing and launching, which was a worry I had especially with little Ezri. Jadzia's turn looks very clean, Phoebe is fine, and Ezri has got one fast snap off the box. Curzon is still having issues catching the ball, which are due to a combination of him smashing his nose into the box and not opening his mouth far enough to catch the ball entirely. The girls all got some box-aid turn work, with Ezri getting extra attention with the snap on - snap off drill, and Curzon practiced catching/grabbing the ball with an entire bucket full of them.

We also did plenty of full runs, and after an initial confusing try Ezri had no problems running as part of a team for the first time. She had a perfect pass with Phoebe, and didn't give Tango a second look when passed wide by her, so that is looking promising for introducing her to full team runs. And as long as I hold up her tug, she holds her ball, which is a bit of a problem with Indigo right now so I'm trying to be very careful to not let Ezri develop the same issue. One of the last exercises we did before leaving on Sunday was to set up the "SuperJump" course with 8 jumps in a row, to assist dogs in firming up their footing and timing for going over the jumps. Jadzia, Curzon, and Phoebe had no issues with this, having done it before, but I asked a bit much of Ezri the first time by putting her in front of all 8 jumps. After several tries with her including chase with Curzon and blockers, all unsuccessful, I gave her a break to run Jadzia while we figured out what to do. We brought her back up, started her at 3 jumps, and then increased one at a time until she did all 8 with flying colors. She's almost singlestepping all of them, and I'm sure she'll be moving right into that as her body finishes growing and strengthening.

We did a lot of work this weekend, but it was spaced out as we only had two lanes and also had the pool to use, so Ezri was not overworked. I would have loved to have done more boxwork with her, but realistically she's doing great and still has six months before her debut so no need to even remotely threaten her development with more of that. All four dogs were tired and slept most of the evening after we returned home, only moving when one of us changed rooms. Even Phoebe slept all evening and didn't even blink at the cats meowing for dinner downstairs! Now, if I could only get that sort of exhaustion every weekend.....