another flyball milestone

The last weekend in September was another flyball tournament for us, this time one in a new location hosted by a club that hasn't hosted before.  The weather was kind of rotten (high winds and heavy rain...ick), but the venue was suitable and had good RV parking, so we were happy enough.  Our A team won Division 1 on both days, and Ezri earned her Flyball Grand Champion 40k on Saturday - that's forty thousand points earned over four years and two months, and 40% of the way to my goal for her which is HOBBES, the hundred-thousand-point title.  One of my flyball friends took some great photos this weekend, which I was happy to see that he's putting up for sale now online - photography isn't cheap, after all!

I love, love, LOVE this photo of Ezri leaping off the box - she looks so strong and fast, and of course she's chomping that tennis ball flat into submission.  This is the essence of flyball, to me - athletic dogs having a ball playing the sport that they love.

As usual, there was a wait here and there for technical problems or conflicts between the rings (one club racing in one ring and on deck in the other is the usual issue), and he got a great picture of us hanging out and waiting.  Even when lying down, Ezri is not particularly relaxed when she's in the ring...she just waits...

Martok did great in both Friday and Saturday night green dog work opportunities, although we just had him do flat recalls with distractions due to his healing shoulder.  His focus is amazing and I'm super proud of him...and of course he's a giant dork as this photo shows.

I love this photo of Martok tugging, with his ears flattened out, his legs braced to pull, his tail curled up happily, and those teeth going GRRR at me.  Such a great puppy!

I'm very happy that Martok's shoulder is all healed up now, whatever was causing him to limp has gone away and he's doing just fine.  Thank goodness it was just a strain or growing pains!  I played chuckit with them in the yard on Friday, plus he did over-back jump practice on Thursday and Sunday, and he's doing really well.  We'll be starting him on wall work in November, and if his progress continues as it is now, he'll be debuting in March.  Attaboy!

Next post will be all about the Tough Mudder run that Chris ran yesterday...he succeeded and I'm so proud of him!

photos, memories, and knitting

Here at long last is a photo of the cowl that I've been working on since April.  It's been a bit of a struggle at times, as it's the first lacy thing I've made, but it's coming out well.  This photo was taken after I completed the second mesh lace panel, so I'm over halfway done and working to finish it up now.  The project has seen two sets of needles (started on Signature fixed circs, moved to Chiaogoo interchangeables and sold the Signatures), seen my first rip-back and pick-up (after I screwed up the first lace panel), and three flyball tournaments so far.  I really love it, and I can't wait until it's finished.

At the tournament last weekend, I got to pick up Martok's new crate tag, which is made by the same awesome person who made the other three a couple of years ago.  I decided to leave Curzon's tag on the crate and just add Martok's below it, as I'm not ready to take it down and I kind of like leaving it there as a legacy.  Martok looks so tiny in that crate...

This week I also was able to pick up our finished prints and digital images from Artis, from the photo shoot we did two days after Martok came home and nine days before we lost Curzon.  The new banner bar is the dog family shot from that session, and the one below is my favorite one of me and Curzon - I just adore how his ear is flipped up against my face.

It's also pretty amazing just how many changes Martok has gone through in the eight weeks since the photos were taken - of course I know he's grown, but the changes are so subtle it takes photos to recognize them.  Here he is last night (his sixteen-week birthday), next to one of the prints from our photo session (age 8 weeks four days) - such a difference!

Monday was also Martok's last day of puppy class, which of course he passed with flying colors.  Chris took a great shot of him with his blanket and graduation certificate - the first of many to come, I'm sure!

One of my teammates posted some photos from our after-racing hangout/BBQ at the tournament three weeks ago, including this shot of Ezri snuggling with me in my awesome camp chair.  She earned that relaxation after running a bunch of 3.9's that day!  The pattern has continued, with her running a 3.905 on Saturday last weekend in the first heat of the day and then running a 3.950 in the last heat of the day on Sunday.  Overall I think she had more sub-4 heats than not, and I'm pretty excited and happy about that!

I'm still working on finishing up the photo book for Curzon, and I've made it through 2011 in our collection of digital photos, so I'm nearly done.  I found a bunch from that year that I want to include, so I may end up adding more photo pages before I call it good.  Meanwhile, this is one of my favorite photos - taken at Lake Whatcom in 2009, where we spent our summer shutdown week at the cabin owned by my best friend's in-laws.  It was a great week.

Oh, how I miss my handsome brave boyo. It's starting to be less of a constant hole, but random moments still catch me off guard whether I expect them to (picking up the photos) or not (the way Martok curled up in my lap last night).  I'm wearing my locket every day, tucked under my shirt next to my heart, and I do take comfort in that as well as in all three of our dogs.  I'm trying to focus more on gratitude for what I have now, what we had with Curzon, and the gifts and memories and lessons that he gave to us with all of his heart.  It's a process, that's for sure, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  He deserves the best of everything I have to give him, even now that he's gone.

this weekend, in pictures

We got back from our trip to Ireland late on Thursday evening, and then after just 18 hours at home we left for the first flyball tournament of the year up in Canada.  Four countries in less than forty-eight hours, oof!  Pictures of the trip to Ireland will come later this week, first I wanted to put up some of the amazing photos and celebrate the milestones from this weekend.

First up are a couple of shots of me playing with Jadzia in the runback.  She never really liked the tug in the first place, and in her old age I'm only using it as a visual marker for her and instead I play with her using the ball she's brought back.  This makes her very happy, as you can see by the tail blur in the photos!

Finally, at long last, this weekend was Jadzia's FGDCh-60k title - Flyball Grand Champion 60,000 points.  This will be the final title of her career, as she'll be retiring from active racing in April at her ninth anniversary tournament, and it is a well-deserved title.  One of my teammates got this shot while I was watching the clock to see if the time was under 24 seconds to get those last few points....and it was! 

The other milestone this weekend was Phoebe's retirement from flyball, as next Saturday I will be taking her to her new family who lives in La Grande, OR.  She will have a retired couple all to herself, with no other dogs or cats, and I think she's going to be very happy.  These photos were taken by several of my teammates, and they really sum up Phoebe's career in flyball.  As much of a pain in the ass as she was (and still is for four more days) at home, at flyball Phoebe was always great and I will miss running her.

Barkblur!

Last flyball run ever...

Curzon and Ezri did well all weekend, in fact Curzon even helped "break in" a new handler on our team as she's never run a racing dog at a tournament before.  She did great, and he behaved himself, so all was well.  I'm pretty proud of him this weekend - he had fewer bobbles than he did in December, and several times he did return over all four jumps after a bobble.  He wasn't perfect, but he ran mostly clean and had a great time, and that's all I want right now.

And last but not least, some incredibly beautiful shots of both Curzon and Ezri by my teammate Liz.  These are two of the best photos of Curzon that I have period, and definitely the best of the last few months hands down.  I love the photo of Ezri stalking the tennis ball...so much focus!

 

And yes, for those paying attention, we have changed flyball clubs with this tournament being our first running with Unorthodogs.  Curzon and Ezri, as well as our soon-to-be puppy will race with Unorthodogs moving forward, and Phoebe and Jadzia are retiring with our friends on the Jet City Jumpers.  This was not an acrimonious move at all, and was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made, and I'm ever so grateful that my friends on both clubs have been gracious and accommodating as we make the change.  It means a lot to me that Phoebe and Jadzia will retire in lime green, the color they've raced in their whole career, and I'm so glad that they are going to do so.

a quick post...

I haven't forgotten about my blog, far from it...my problem is that I start writing these awesome blog posts in my head, and then I need to find time to type them for real, and track down the pictures, and and and....then before I know it, it's been two months.  So today I am starting back by posting a beautiful short writing that is circulating amongst my flyball friends this morning, which really explains why we do our dog sports.

What is a Title Really? 

by Sandy Mowery

Not just a brag, not just a stepping stone to a higher Title, not just an adjunct to competitive scores.

A Title is a tribute to the dog that bears it, a way to honor the dog, an ultimate memorial.

It will remain in the record and in the memory for about as long as anything in this world can remain.

Few humans will do as well or better in that regard. And though the dog himself doesn't know or care that his achievements have been noted, a Title says many things in the world of humans, where such things count.

A Title says your dog was intelligent, and adaptable and good natured. It says that your dog loved you enough to do the things that please you, however crazy they may have sometimes seemed.

And a Title says that you loved your dog, that you love to spend time with him because he was a good dog, and that you believe in him enough to give him yet another chance when he failed and that in the end your fatith was justified.

A Title proves that your dog inspired you to have the special relationship enjoyed by so few; that in a world of disposable creatures, this dog with a Title was greatly loved and loved greatly in return.

And when that dear short life is over, the Title remains as a memorial of the finest kind, the best you can give to a deserving friend, volumes of praise in one small set of initials before or after the name.

A Title is nothing less than love and respect, given and received permanently.

Posted today in honor of my four wonderful dogs...

Jadzia CGC HIC FGDCh50k TFE-II NDD-R

Curzon CGC HIC FGDCh40k TFE-I

Ezri HIC ONYX TFE

Phoebe FGDCh50k TFE-III

my first quilt shop hop

About two months ago, I discovered the existence of something called a "quilt shop hop," and it turns out there is one in western Washington each June. The point of the event is to raise awareness/interest in supporting local quilt shops, by encouraging quilters and sewers to visit many of them during a specific weekend. The shop hop organizers (at least here in Washington) work with local fabric designers to make a set of fabrics just for shop hop, then each participating quilt shop uses those fabrics (along with one of their choice, if desired) to design a quilt block. Each shop then creates small kits including the shop hop fabric and instructions needed to complete their block, which are given away for free to each shop hop patron who visits their store. Many stores also make "finishing kits" using their chosen fabric and any embellishments, and sell those for $1 to $4 apiece. Furthermore, there is a paper passport that each quilt shop hop participant gets stamped at each shop that they visit, and once they have obtained a certain number of stamps, they can turn it in for a chance in a raffle with some serious prizes (this year included two high-end sewing machines, several goody boxes, and lots of gift certificates).

The shop hop runs from Wednesday through Sunday, and I decided to give it a shot and see how many of the shops I could visit during that time. Of the 54 participating shops (one of the original 55 closed before shop hop began), most are along the I-5 corridor between Vancouver WA (near Portland OR) and Bellingham (up near the Canadian border), a highway stretch of over 250 miles. There are even more out on the Olympic peninsula and on the various islands, but I put those out of the running since I only had one full day and couldn't spend time on the ferries. Thus I focused on the general Seattle metro area, and managed to visit a total of 18 shops between Wednesday and Saturday, with 11 of them visited during a marathon day off on Friday between 9am and 3pm. I went on Wednesday at lunch to visit the two shops closest to work with my best friend and another coworker, hit the shop near my house on Thursday after work, and had extra time appear on Saturday so hit two shops up north that morning plus one near the airport that evening. Friday I began in Lakewood and ended in Arlington, with a total driving distance of about 250 miles! All of the shop hop block kits and finishing kits that I picked up are shown in the picture to the left...there are a lot of them! It was a very long day, but I had a lot of fun.

Many of the shops had additional fun things going on, with several offering bottles of water or pieces of fruit, others offering special bundles of items or "pick a prize" drawings, and plenty with raffles hosted by the shop or a local quilt guild. I'm all about supporting quilt guilds and other worthy causes, especially for just $1 a ticket, so I bought a raffle ticket for everything that I came across - quite a few tickets, as you can see! Most are for quilts, but one is a drawing for two Featherweight sewing machines instead of a quilt. Yes, I need another sewing machine like I need a hole in the head, but for $1 who can pass that up? This is one of several reasons why it's a good idea to take a lot of one dollar bills with you on quilt shop hop, even if it made me feel a little odd to be asking for $30 in $1's at the bank on Thursday afternoon. Now I just need to organize my tickets so I can keep an eye out when the dates for the drawings come around - I left my email and phone number with all ticket stubs, of course, but best to have an idea of what gets drawn when just in case.

And of course, I visited 18 quilt shops...so there were purchases. Just a few, nothing too crazy, although a small purchase at nearly every quilt shop does add up quickly! I wanted to support the shops for participating in this event (which was a lot of fun for me), so I tried to buy something at nearly every one. I saved up a few essentials that I needed on purpose to buy at some shops, and then of course found quite a bit of fabric here and there that needed to come home with me! My total haul is in the photo below...

Lots of fabric, including a roll of 3 yards of rock/stone pattern flannel (on clearance!) and a half-yard of laminated fabric for making a new bag. Everything else is fat quarters, 1/2 yard, or 1 yard cuts of things that caught my eye. I also picked up more basting pins, some hand-sewing needles, a spool of teal thread for finishing my current quilt project, a shop hop pin, and a super cute little zippered bag that says "Shop Hop Queen" for keeping my hand-sewing items in when I travel.

There is also a neat handmade large wood button, which are sold at a quilt shop in Tacoma and which I just adored. I bought some green embroidery floss to use as the "thread" in the button and it will be hanging up in my quilt room shortly. This picture also shows some of the fun butterfly fat quarters I picked up, as well as another photo of the laminated raindrop fabric.

I also picked up one pattern book, and of course some lovely items from Shibori Dragon in Lakewood (my favorite stop at the Sewing Expo, and their shop is even better - I got a dragon to add to my collection!). At two different shops I picked up two different fabrics that have a long repeating print that is flowers with insects growing across the width of fabric - one in purple with lilies and one in blue with dragonflies - that I'm going to interweave to form a simple pattern that should be quite striking. All in all, I'm thrilled that I got to do shop hop this year, and hopefully next year I'll be able to do it again, this time with a friend!

And of course lest this post be solely about quilting, here's what I received at the tournament last weekend - the FMCh pin for Ezri, and the FGDCh50k pins for Phoebe and Jadzia. All three girls titled at the March 26/27 tournament, which is probably the only time that will happen in my life, and I am so proud of all of them and thrilled to have the pins to show for it.

I also got the 50k point plates to put on Jadzia and Phoebe's plaques, which will be done this week or this weekend. We have also been on vacation for the past two weeks (and then rolled right into a tournament in Oregon last weekend!), so I have a lot to share from that as well but will have to wait until I can get the photos off the camera. Sometimes it's much easier to make blog posts from iPhone photos...oh well!

Halloween Flyball

Last weekend was the annual South of the Boo!der tournament hosted by the Cascade Comets at Argus Ranch down in Auburn. While it is nice to not have to leave the country or travel much for a tournament, it does mean that we have to get up ungodly early due to the hour-long drive from our house down to the facility. As usual everything we brought was just covered in dirt, as it is a soft dirt-floored barn that doesn't pack down well, but thankfully we had no canine or human injuries.

All three of our dogs ran very well all weekend, with Jadzia running as height dog again (13") with the new rules change. Her times were slower than I would like, with her best time only around 5.3", but that soft footing made her lose a lot of speed especially coming off the box and causing her to double-step between jumps 5 and 6. I had Carol take a look at her midday on Sunday and Jadzia does have some tightness in her spine, so I think I'll take her to see the vet and see if she needs any chiropractic work. She's also still chunky despite lowering her food, so a thyroid test may be in order as well. Curzon ran well all weekend, with only one bobble on Saturday and that was still a clean run, so it looks like our "throw the ball at his head" drills are helping him with catching the ball out of the box more reliably. Phoebe ran solidly both days, and this was the first tournament in two years that she didn't run every heat of every race, as both Siena and Taben were also on her team.

Perhaps most exciting of all, at least to us personally, was the presentation of title awards on Saturday after racing was over. Chris got the ONYX plaque for Curzon, and I received the Flyball Grand Champion plaque for Jadzia. The FGDCh plaque is huge and really gorgeous, and I'm just so tickled to finally have it - she earned the title on June 29 after all! Unfortunately the title pull was just before Phoebe earned her ONYX, so it'll be another six months or so until I get the plaque for that title. Julie and Tango also got their ONYX plaque, and there's at least two other dogs closing in on the title so hopefully we will have at least one more achieved before the next title pull. I hope to get both plaques up on the wall in the dog room tonight - Curzon's ONYX plaque will go below Jadzia's, but I think I am going to move some art around to put the FGDCh plaque up next to the bulletin board. We might move other things around too, and re-hang the individual photos of the dogs with their ribbons as well, depending on how motivated I turn out to be.

Ezri is doing beautifully and is fifteen weeks old today. I plan to write a longer post tonight with pictures after I've taken the weekly set this evening at home.