UFLI Qualifiers and a goodbye

Last weekend I took Ezri went up to Victoria Island with my friends Ben and Deborah for the UFLI NW Qualifier tournament.  They are about to move to Boston, and their new team captain Sue flew out to Seattle to come with us along with her borderjack Stingray, so we had quite a fast team.  Another person from JCJ came along as well, running her green dog Zach in singles competition on both days, and he did absolutely fabulously!

I had three goals going into the tournament this weekend:
1) Get Ezri to run consistently under 4.0 seconds again
2) Break 8.0 with the pairs team Ignition Sequence (Ezri and her sister Indigo)
3) Break 16.0 with our team

Amazingly, we achieved all of these goals within the first half of racing on Saturday.  Ezri busted out with the 3.8's and 3.9's in start, running 3.87 several times throughout the weekend and not running above 4.1 (even in the pack) until late in the day on Sunday.  Seeing as her personal best is a 3.83 and she has barely run below 4.0 since last summer, I'm pretty thrilled!  She was a little more tired and had less motivation on Sunday when she ran singles, so her best recorded singles time was a 3.96.  However, she and Indigo ran flawlessly in their pairs races, and I even got two perfect starts along the way, with all clean runs under 8.0 and their best time a 7.86.

 Ezri is very focused on the box - this photo taken on Sunday while she ran in singles.

The team ran wonderfully on both days, with the addition of a friend's dog on Saturday while we ran in the qualifier.  We had two different lineups run a 15.65 (once each day), with Ezri running start dog both times, and we had quite a few 15.8's and 15.9's in addition to a plethora of low 16's.  I even got another perfect start on Sunday to make the hat trick for the weekend!  Canine Mutiny is now all set to go to UFLI Nationals in August, with a current seed time of 15.65 which will put them in Division One competition.  They have a 3.7 border collie who will take over where Ezri was running, so hopefully they will be quite competitive!

E-pen wall covered in tugs, leashes, and our First Place Division 2 qualifier ribbon.

We even managed to set one last Jet City Jumpers flyball record, with Pax / Ezri / Indigo / Goose running a 16.08 on Saturday afternoon.  I'm really going to miss my friends and racing with their dogs - it was certainly one hell of an experience to run on a team that was consistently breaking 16 for a whole weekend.  That's something the region up here has never seen, at least not with local clubs/dogs competing, as the current fastest club time is a 15.99 that was run last July.

Once we were done racing on Sunday, Ezri and Indigo were more than happy to climb into their crate for the trip back to the house where we were staying.  Pax sat out the last half of the day, so the other four dogs ran 15 heats without a break (3 races of 5/5), plus Ezri and a dog on another club decided to compete intensely and they both false-started a lot in the last two races due to that competition.

Ezri was very, very tired but wouldn't settle completely until I was showered and ready for bed - then she completely passed out and I don't think she moved until Monday morning!

 

Our friends' house has a short walk and a steep flight of steps up to a reservoir above their neighborhood, which provided a great place to swim after we arrived on Friday afternoon.

On Monday morning before we left, we went to a nearby state park and took a short trail walk so that Sue could see some of the incredible trees that we have in this part of the country.  This one had originally fallen across the trail and had been cut in half, and the hollowed-out halves made for great photo opportunities for the dogs!

 

This tree was very artistic, as the new tree was growing out of the old rotten trunk of the original tree.  I quite liked how the roots wrapped around the trunk in curves, it is very graceful.

Finally, we saw some trillium in bloom - a rare occurrence, given that the plant is uncommon even around here.  There were of course many other lovely sights, including a stream and some time spent watching a pair of bald eagles, but this will do for now.

spring at last...at least, one would hope so...

The weather seems to have finally started a shift away from cold and wet and towards a drier, warmer space - it was 67F on my ride home from work on Monday, and over 50F when I rode to work yesterday morning.  Of course, now a new storm has wandered our way and it was about 36F on my way in today, but I will firmly cling to hope that we are finally moving towards spring.  After all, we've had less rain than the weather forecasters have called for over the past few days, so maybe we're getting there!

Curzon continues to be his own awesome self, completely oblivious to any surgery, pain, or rehab that happened just mere weeks ago.  The photo above was taken last week at eight weeks post-op, and really there's nothing more to say beyond "it's like it never happened."  His mentality, behavior, mannerisms, and even his fur (well, almost) are just as they were before that fateful day when I found a lump on his rib.  Right now I think he's frustrated with us because we're being cautious about his return to flyball, as even though he'll be competing at the May 5/6 tournament we haven't let him hit the flyball box yet.  That will come this weekend, however, as he did more jumping drills last week as well as some wall work and passed both with flying colors.

Chris has been gone on a business trip for a while, and while he's been away I've been having one of the dogs sleep with me at night on a blanket on his side of the bed.  I need to wash the duvet anyway, so I figure it's fair enough.  I'm sleeping much better since I started doing that, as I know that whichever of the two dogs who sleep with me (Curzon on weekdays, Ezri on the weekend) will wake up and alert me if something happens.  I'm a very deep sleeper, so I think I was subconsciously keeping myself almost-awake the night or two that I slept without one of the dogs, which meant the next day was pretty rough.  I took the 9 weeks post-op picture above on the blanket that Curzon's been sleeping on - he makes funny faces when I try to take pictures of him before breakfast.

Last Sunday, April 1, was the day we've chosen as Jadzia's birthday - and this year that marked her tenth birthday.  Despite aging and developing a few extra special border collie tics, namely anxiety and possibly a touch of dementia already, Jadzia is still a lovely dog to have around the house and a wonderful pet.  She is the reason we ended up playing flyball and with Curzon and Ezri, so no matter what I will always be grateful to her for bringing me down this road.  Happy 10th birthday, babydoll - Jadzia HIC CGC NDD-R TFE-II FGDCh50k.

On Saturday I took Curzon and Ezri to the nearby dog pool, where they get to jump into the water and swim for their tennis balls.  Curzon was much happier to be here this time, instead of the boring old therapy pool where I make him swim in circles without much jumping!

With Chris gone, I've been having quite a few gluten-filled meals since I don't have to worry about cooking for him as well.  This is the most adorable chicken pot pie I bought from the farmers' market last weekend, which I baked for dinner last night.  It is delicious, and is full of all kinds of things, plus it has a tiny chicken cutout in the crust - what's not to like?  I'm looking forward to having the rest of it for dinner tonight.

On Saturday my friend Michael came over and we cooked dinner together, with him choosing and making a recipe of pork chops in a red wine and garlic reduction and me making mashed potatoes and asparagus to go along with it.  The pork chops were absolutely delightful...yum...I will have to make them again for Chris to enjoy at some point.

This weekend I am traveling with Ezri and friends to Victoria island for a UFLI flyball tournament.  This will be the last time I get to run with Ezri's sister Indigo, so it will be both fun and sad for me.  I'm really looking forward to it, however, despite the way-too-early start we have to make on Friday to make the ferry from Anacortes!

first flyball weekend of 2012

Last weekend we headed up to Cloverdale, BC for the first flyball tournament of the year.  It was really awesome to get to see all of our flyball friends again, as well as to spend the weekend in my trailer - I was bouncing around from excitement at work on Friday morning before I headed out for our trip.  Chris took the day off so we were on our way with the trailer by about 2pm, and with a short stop at Camping World for a new tongue jack we were up in Cloverdale with plenty of daylight left.  And to make things even better, it was sunny and beautiful all weekend long!

Warmups for our fast team, which ran together for the last time this weekend since our friends are moving to Boston in a few weeks.  We've been working on adjusting Ezri's turn, as she's been landing too far to the left and has simply leaned forward and folded over her wrists, which is both dangerous to her health and slower.  This is the prop setup we use for her - a jump board to raise her jump, right straight gutter to keep her from turning wide, and left angled gutter to guide her further to the right on the box.

Looks like the work is paying off!  We'll keep drilling her with the props, of course, but between this picture and improved times in start (3.96, 3.99, and a lot of 4.0's) I'm feeling much better about her performance.  And I got a 0.001 start with her on Sunday!

This is one of my favorite pictures - Pax starting, Ezri in second, and Indigo in third, with all of us clustered together at the 45 foot mark.  It's so much fun to run with a pack like this, and I'm going to miss it so much...hopefully we will build a new pack quickly!

Most of us in our club use ex-pens for our dogs, and this can create the "Great Wall of Jet City" effect seen here. Five e-pens plus a stack of four crates for the terriers...each pen with at least three dogs inside!

This was our eighth flyball anniversary, as it was on March 13, 2004 that Jadzia debuted at this same tournament as the 14" height dog at just two years of age.  She's going to be ten years old this weekend. and she's slowed down a bit and is developing anxiety issues, but nothing will stop her from flyball.  Such a big change from that day eight years ago...Jadzia was so scared she barely ran under 6.5 seconds, and she flipped over and peed herself when a judge came to talk to me.  We attended that tournament (our very first) in my old Chevrolet Impala, with Jadzia and baby Curzon (at just 5 months) on a towel-covered backseat, and I didn't know anyone but the other five people from our club.  This year we attended with our truck and RV, with four racing dogs in the backseat, and I know just about everyone in the region.

Phoebe did well over the weekend, though I think the slight crack in her toenail was bothering her a bit, as she was running 5.8 and above pretty much exclusively on Sunday.  She pulled out a couple of 5.5's and a 5.495 on Saturday though, so that's not bad for an almost 13yo height dog!

And at long last, Phoebe's Region 7 2011 MVP plaque!  She was nominated once before but lost, but this year she was the only nominee and therefore won (though I'm pretty sure most clubs voted for her anyway!).  As irritating as she is, Phoebe is the reason our club has prospered and done well over the last six years, as without that little tank of a height dog we wouldn't have been able to run as often and consistently as we have done.  With Deco handling the fast team, Razer just about ready to handle a team, and Zach successfully debuted, Phoebe's retirement date will be approaching soon once we find a nice retirement home for her where she can be spoiled and not live with border collies.  She's a good little dog.

spinning in the night

Yesterday I ripped off about a third of my left ring fingernail while getting geared up to ride home from work, so now that hurts (especially when using the clutch on the bike) and I have a band-aid.  I had wanted to spin in the evening while I baked cookies, but due to the band-aid I gave up on that and knitted instead while catching up on "Once Upon A Time" with my husband.  After I got out of the shower, however, I still really wanted to spin, so I sat down for about ten minutes and played with my fiber.

I'm getting much better at spinning a smoother and more even single, as you can see by the cop currently on my spindle.  This is about a total of 30-40 minutes of spinning, most of it last Friday evening while Chris was talking on the phone with his brother and I sat on the couch to keep him company.

This is my spindle along with the bulk of the combed top roving that I bought specifically for the purpose of practicing spinning.  Given how much of the singles I am getting out of the first little piece that I pulled off of the batch, I'm going to have a lot of practice spinning and hopefully some usable yarn at the end of it.  It's now making more sense to me why people buy/sell such small looking amounts of fiber - if you spin it finely and evenly, it really does go a long way!

Incidentally, I'm still learning my terms and how they apply to the different fibers available.  I think the stuff I have right now is roving, but the label says it is combed top, and I'm still not quite sure the difference between them.  That would be a nice addition to a beginning spinners class!

Some of the goodies I've ordered recently arrived in the past few days, including the set of interchangeable circular needles (the tips screw on to the cords and lock with a key, so you can combine any tip size and cord length), a new set of pretty embroidery scissors for my hand sewing kit (so my others can go back on my tool board in my sewing room), two new drop spindles, and a "party game for horrible people" called Cards Against Humanity.  The games is very simple - it's basically like Apples to Apples in how you play it - but the cards and topics are decidedly R-rated and not for the close-minded.

The two new drop spindles are ones I bought off of Etsy primarily because they were pretty, not because I need more of them (though I do tend to collect things when I first get interested in them).  One is made of ebony with inlaid crushed lapis lazuli, and the other is made of bloodwood for the whorl with a maple burl shaft.  While debating how to store and display them, it occurred to me that I had kept a lot of the empty Dublin Dr Pepper bottles from my Christmas gift, and so I washed out a couple of them and will keep the spindles in them when not in use.  The ebony one is about as heavy as the student maple one on the right, which are both lighter than the purplewood one I'm using right now, and the bloodwood/burl one is very light.  I should weigh them for comparison purposes.

Yesterday marks seven weeks post surgery for Curzon, so we're over halfway to the median survival point of 90 days with surgery only.  While he's not fond of posing for pictures before 6am, he's looking great and is doing fantastic - it's truly like he never had surgery.  I have found no additional lumps or bumps on him, he's tolerating the artemisinin/butyrex and Hoxsey's quite well, and his behavior shows zero change from pre-surgery.  He's back at flyball practice now, and this week he ran the superjump exercise (7 flyball jumps in a row at the regular spacing of 10 feet apart, for striding practice), was a practice passing dog, was a "bait" recall dog behind gates for a chaser, and worked up to all four jumps in the bounce drill.  Despite a collision with the green dog he was practicing with (the lab was just so excited he ran straight at Curzon, even though he's been successful with the exercise before), he is showing no issues with any of the exercise or drills and only wants to be let loose to run the course again.  We have a tournament this weekend, and then next weekend we will start putting him back on the box, planning that he will return to racing in the May tournament.

$400 lasted us fourteen years...

When I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment (really the lower level of a two-story house) after my freshman year in college, we had the Laundry Conundrum.  The landlord had a set of inoperative coin-op machines in the basement, and his comment on the topic was he could fix them and we could not bring in our own later, or we could just bring in our own but the inoperative set stayed put.  Not wanting to rely on either questionable coin-op machines or our landlord, my roommate and I picked up a used set for $400 from another student who was graduating and moving on.

That was in 1998, probably around May or June.  Those machines lasted through three years of college, a cross-country move, and another (almost) eleven years of service to Chris and I (and our pets), before the washing machine finally bit the dust on Saturday morning when the agitator stopped working.  I can't say that I'm overly upset about it, as I've been swearing at the damn things to DIE ALREADY for about four years now - I've really wanted to upgrade to nicer front-loading HE machines, but I couldn't bring myself to replace perfectly fine working machines.  So as part of our errands on Saturday (which also involved getting the Subaru detailed with a Groupon about to expire and de-winterizing the RV trailer), we stopped by Sears and ordered a new set for delivery on Sunday.

 

Chris didn't really have much of an opinion once I told him there was no way I was getting bargain basement bottom-of-the-line machines again, so I picked out the Kenmore Elite HE set that is the current top-of-the-line.  The prices between the three "tiers" were within $300 of each other per machine, and the middle tier was actually more expensive because it was just updated, so we went ahead and got the nicer ones which were a bit cheaper.  I drew a line at paying an extra $130 per machine to have it them in muddy silver (not even a pretty bright sparkly silver, or a nice rich color) instead of plain white.  They have pretty blue LEDs on the front, they chirp cheerfully when powered on or done with their cycle, and there are so many choices for adjusting cycle type that it's ridiculous.  The dryer has an insertable rack for drying shoes or sweaters, both machines have steam options for sanitization or refresh, and the capacity is huge.  The machines have already gotten use with washing sheets and one of the dog beds, and so far so good.  Hopefully they will last us for another 14 years, and by then maybe the new ones will simply live in my closet or dresser and clean things that are put in without any additional effort on my part.  That would be awesome.

Last Thursday (March 15) was the cats' 11th birthday - we got them as kittens when we moved out here in June of 2001, when they were three months old.  I had to throw out all of the bedding in their room a few weeks ago thanks to another infestation of those damn bugs (at least those haven't reappeared in the dog room yet, thankfully), so on Saturday I picked up some replacement beds.  Onyx approves of the pyramid bed for sure, she's barely moved out of it since I brought into the room except when she fell off the top of the wardrobe in it.  After that little incident she sulked in the cat carrier (which has a nice new purr pad in it) for a few hours before trying the pyramid bed again.  I should probably put up some nonskid material to help keep it in place on top of the wardrobe, before she's scarred for life.

Today is March 19th, and last night it was snowing at our house.  This morning the snow was still on the ground, there was some on the road, and the news was full of accidents on the highways and side streets due to the icy conditions.  I'm getting really tired of this - there's record warmth on the east coast (it's been in the 80s where my mom lives), and we're currently running 10F-15F below normal.  And then it snows or ices, which adds insult to injury as then I have to drive the truck to work instead of riding my motorcycle, which is a giant pain in the ass - I don't even get the benefit of going out at lunch, because if I move the truck then someone will take my spot before I get back, and the truck can only fit in half of the first floor due to the height.  Bah.  Hopefully the La Nina pattern that's been keeping us in this cold and nasty pattern for the last 18 months or so will clear out in the next few weeks like the weather blogs say it will...if I don't get a summer this year, I'm not responsible for any actions I take the following winter!

first quilt finish of 2012

At long last, I have finished the quilt for my niece, Averie!  Originally meant to be a Christmas present last year, I had to put it off as I realized just how much work was going into a (almost) twin-sized quilt especially since she and her brother are young enough that I'd need to have both ready for an event like Christmas.  Her birthday is in March, so that was my new deadline.  Of course, I thought her birthday was March 15, and it turned out to be late last week, so I didn't make her birthday like I intended...but I will make the deadline that I thought it was, as it will be shipped today.

I've spent the last two weeks watching TV/movies and sewing down the binding, and I finally finished it on Monday night (while watching Black Swan, which is an incredibly creepy and crazy movie).  Yesterday when I got home from work I added the label and tossed the quilt into the wash to see how it would finish up.

The final dimensions stayed very close to the pieced dimensions, and the quilt is about 54" wide by 92" long, give or take a bit.  I was targeting 54" x 90", as that's what I had found for twin quilt dimensions when I searched for them back in the design phase, but apparently I found incorrect measurements as most twin quilts are at least 60" wide.  I'm a little sad about that, but there was nothing I could do at that point as I'd already completed the quilting and was about to put on the binding, so it is what it is.  It's definitely long enough, as Chris had to stand on a folding chair to hold the quilt up for a picture!

I did end up with one minor problem on this one, which I didn't really parse until it was too late.  While sewing down the binding, I came across about an 18"-24" stretch where there were apparently tension issues when the binding strip was machine sewn to the front of the quilt.  It didn't seem like a problem, so I went right ahead and hand-stitched the binding down...only to find when I rotated the quilt that you could see similar tension issues on the front.  If I had really thought about it in time, I could have re-stitched the machine part before the hand sewing was complete.  At this point the way to fix it would be to rip out the handstitching, resew the seam, and redo the handstitching, so I decided to wash the quilt and see what happened.

The problem is much less noticeable after washing, hurray!  The binding is very securely sewn in place, so as long as someone doesn't grip that edge of the binding and try to rip it up, I think it will be just fine.  The location of the weird area is down at the "bottom" of the quilt, so if it's kept on a bed it shouldn't be used as a grab point very often, and if the quilt is used as a lap or play quilt then it probably won't be gripped by just that spot all the time.  And worst case if it does come off, I know what to do to fix it.  :)

Yesterday marks six weeks post-surgery for Curzon, or 42 days.  He is continuing to be his own normal and awesome self, being loving, cute, playful, energetic, and a pain in the ass just like nothing happened.  I did manage to make him yelp a bit the other night while messing with his scar tissue, but he forgave me quickly with some belly scratches.  At flyball practice this week we moved up to full recalls over all four jumps (set to 7"), and also started the bounce drill for equipment respect and made it to 3 jumps set at 18" by the end of our first session.  Curzon REALLY wants to go hit the flyball box though, so I don't think we'll keep him away from it for very long - hopefully we'll start some wall work with him either this week or in three weeks.  Next weekend will be hard on him as we're going to a tournament that he's not going to race in - but he'll run in the May tournament, so it won't be long!

I think I will take him swimming at the therapy pool another time or two, and then we'll transition back to the regular "dock diving" sort of pool exercise so that I can take Ezri and Jadzia along with us.  I've really enjoyed swimming with him, however, it's very nice to spend time with just one of my dogs upon occasion - and being able to submerge in 75F water in the middle of winter isn't bad either!

In closing for today, this was posted up on Facebook and it really struck a chord with me - this is exactly what the rabid religious right is trying to say with all of their attacks on women's rights.  It truly disturbs me that a woman's right to contraception and abortion is being questioned in this time, and it disgusts me that Senate hearings about these very topics don't include any women, either giving testimony or making decisions.  Santorum is definitely living up to his redefined name (thank you Dan Savage) with his continued insistence that women are fit only to bear children.  Oh, he doesn't use those exact words, but his actions and beliefs that contraception is unnecessary for "good women" and that all of our country's problems are due to women not staying home with their children are more than enough to send the message.  The other candidates for the Republican nomination are spewing the same sort of vile, bitter hatred towards women that is just astonishing and depressing.

 

These men want nothing more than to remove women's rights to control their own bodies.  They want to spread a culture of fear under the guise of religion, they want to give more money and control to corporations (whom they consider "persons" unlike the very women that birthed them, married them, and were born to them), they want to deny legal protections to anyone not like them (i.e. white, straight, and "Christian"), and they want to take away support and rights from the very people they are trying to win the election from.  I hope that the American public wakes up soon, because if this loss of women's rights happens, our country will be set back decades and it may never recover.

spinning class recap

Spinning as in yarn/thread spinning, that is.  Not the exercise bike kind of spinning.

One of the classes I took at the Sewing Expo last weekend was a beginner's hand spinning class using drop spindles taught by Morgaine Wilder of Carolina Homespun.  I have been somewhat intrigued by the concept of spinning for a while, and it was recently brought back to mind when I re-read The Mists of Avalon as the women's work of spinning, weaving, and embroidery is a constant theme throughout the story.  So I signed up to take this class, and I had a very good time and really enjoyed Morgaine's teaching and the opportunity to learn how to do this once-common and basic skill.

I'm not going to attempt to explain or teach the basics of spinning in this blog post, as I certainly don't have the experience or credentials to do so.  I do have a ton of pictures of my learning process during class, however, so here we go.

The first drop spindle I picked out of the box and the first piece of roving, before we did pre-drafting work on the roving to begin the spinning process.  Unfortunately I was too rough with this one when trying to spin a leader and the hook on top of the shaft pulled out, so I had to change spindles shortly into class.

Leader successfully spun and additional spinning of the yarn is underway.

Spin and park method - after putting twist onto the yarn with the spindle, I put the spindle between my knees to hold it steady while I draft out more fleece and allow it to spin into yarn.

First batch of a yarn single complete!

First batch of yarn single off the spindle and wound into a ball.  The next piece of roving to be spun is in my lap next to the now-empty spindle.

More yarn is made from the second piece of roving!  Morgain also gave us samples of three different other fibers (although of course I cannot remember what they are now) to try and spin at home.  Two of them are purple, yay!

Two spinning singles complete, off the spindle, and wound into balls.  The next step is to ply the singles together (in the opposite direction that they were spun) in order to make a two-ply yarn.

Plying the singles into yarn - it was hard to keep those tiny (and uneven!) balls of yarn from flying off my lap and onto the floor!  I see why so much additional equipment can be helpful for something as simple and portable as spinning is supposed to be.

Completed two-ply handspun yarn, on the spindle.  I haven't taken it off the spindle yet, but the next step is to skein it (not wind into a ball) and then very gently wash/wet it so that the wool fibers "wake up" a little and nest together.  This is supposed to smooth out the plies and make the yarn look a lot better, although with my very amateur first attempt I don't know how much it will improve!

I had a lot of fun at the class, and ended up buying another spindle (ooooh purpleheart wood) and some additional fiber and other bits and bobs from the Carolina Homespun booth at the expo.  I've spun up the rest of the main fiber we used in class, and am planning to work on the other samples next and see if I can get more consistent yarn and possibly thinner yarn as well.  This is a physical skill more than it is a mental one, it's all about training my hands to do what I want them to do, and I like that a lot.  Yay for learning new things!

Here is a 5-week post-surgery photo of Curzon.  He's continuing to be awesome, with full health and activity levels as he bounds across the house and plays tug with anyone who will come near him.  Apart from a slight wrinkle in his skin, the scar is almost invisible now, and it will only become moreso as his fur continues to grow in.  That's my boy!

And last but not least, here is some of the pretty fabric that I bought at the expo all cut up using my Accuquilt Go! cutter into 3.5" tumblers.  The sparkly and marbled fabrics are all hand-designed, and the batik fabric was just pretty and in the right colors.  I'm planning to make a tumbler quilt for myself using a wide variety of purples and dark blues, including some of these special fabrics that I like so much.