V A C A T I O N ! ! ! !

Tomorrow we are off for a long overdue vacation.  Haven't been on a "real" vacation in 2 years - like the kind that lasts at least a week and where you go somewhere for that week.  This one is different in that it is totally dog oriented but it still counts!  Can't wait!  Here's the plan...

Drive A LOT, visit Wolf Park, visit Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, go watch last chance AWI qualifier, Jack and Tali compete UFO competition, Jack and Tali compete at AWI competition, hopefully visit the Disc Dog Hall of Fame, sight see on the way to Michigan, Disc Dog B&B with Apryl and Ron and then more driving A LOT and see some stuff along the way.

The one glitch in our plans?  Groovy came in heat last Wed. or Thurs.  Should be fun!  Sat. and Sunday will suck cause she'll have to stay in the car or at the hotel but she's got the green light to be at the B&B so we are looking forward to working her there on both disc stuff and fear stuff!

Now I'm off to bed... got to go to work for half a day before all this fun can begin!  Just can't begin to describe how happy I am to not be working for the next week and a half!

All hail Dr. Latter

This past Monday I took Tali to Dr. Latter (chiropractor).  She's been slowing down lately (see earlier post about her getting older) and more recently hasn't been jumping as high or putting in the extra gear needed to get the longer tosses on double throws.  She even hit Jack in the head on an over which has never happened before so I figured something had to be wrong and hopefully it was something Dr. L could fix vs. her hips having taken a fast turn for the worst.  Dr. Latter found 2 spots out of whack.  We waited till Wednesday to try a little freestyle... she seemed to do a little better.  Then Jack worked on her routine Friday and Saturday night.  Friday she looked really good and Saturday she looked awesome!  Hooray!  Gooooo Tali!

Saturday herding

Today we went herding... it wasn't a great day - the sheep were being buttheads but Groovy did a great job of getting them out of the corner (with my help and encouragement) but she definitely had more confidence in that situation than she has in the past.  They weren't budging for Clue (Cindy's dog).  We had about 5-10 minutes of good herding but somehow Groovy bit her own tongue at some point and we had to stop to get her some water.  After that the sheep were done - they had been "bad" all day so we called it quits early.  Sal and Tex weren't having any success either.  Something had the sheep upset.  I'm excited about next week though.  Groovy is going to learn pen work in preparation for the ASCA trial in November!  We might also work on some directionals too!  Very cool!  :)

Groovy herding a few weeks back

Book update...

Since my last book update I have finished listening to Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson.  Loved it!  Highly recommend it.  Bev is listening to it now even though she hasn't listened to gods in Alabama yet which has connecting characters.  I'm interested to hear how that changes ones perspective.  I keep trying to come up with my favorite Joshilyn Jackson book but really I love them all.  The best I can do is say that The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is my 3rd favorite and the other 3 flip flop for 1st and 2nd place depending on what part of the book I'm thinking of at the time.

I also just finished a book called Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos.  Belong to Me on Amazon  I enjoyed the book.  It wasn't Joshilyn Jackson good but it was still very good.  Funny thing is when I was almost done with the book I happened to notice the quote on the back of the book.  It was a quote by Joshilyn Jackson about how much she enjoyed the book.  WEIRD but neat!  I picked it up on sale and thought it sounded like it might be good but never noticed the quote till I was almost done!  Belong to Me is mostly a story about friendships with some family drama thrown in.  I give it a 3 paws up (out of 4 paws of course!).

I am just about to finish up a book by Sandra Brown called Bittersweet Rain.  I don't believe I had ever listened to Sandra Brown but I'm not sure.  The book is good - definitely kept my interest.  It has a lot of um... "romantic scenes" in it.  Sometimes I had to laugh at the many ways to describe various body parts in various states of "romance".  I'll just leave it at that.  Nothing wrong with diving into a "trashy romance novel" now and then.  Not that it was trashy per say but you know what I mean.

Picked up 3 more books today on sale... this is becoming an addiction...  :)  At least I can sell them back once they make all the rounds!

Herding Rocks

This past weekend Groovy and I went herding again at Cindy Elliott's place.  For the first time *I* did good at it.  Cindy had "obstacles" out - a Y chute, some gates (using barrels), a cone, etc.  I asked Cindy to tell me where to go.  Magically once I had stuff to do it made all the difference in the world in my ability to actually herd with Groovy.  I guess it made it more like agility - I had a course and knew where to go and had to figure out the right handling moves to get there.  Whether or not that's the traditional way to learn herding I don't know but it worked for me!  :)  Here are some pics that our friend Liz McGuire took - thanks Liz!

The look of the feeling of satisfaction!

BUSY weekend but FUN!

Wow... what a busy weekend but busy with fun stuff!

Friday evening I took off from work about an hour early and Jack, Tali, Groovy and I headed up to Chris' house to have Chris, Jack and Kota practice pairs.  Tali and Groovy both got to practice as well and did well.   Groovy was pretty confident (for her), she willingly got out of the car (sometimes even that is a struggle), walked around a bit, was very cautious of Mike and Julie but functional and she even practiced some (just so long as the discs went nowhere near Mike).  After practice we went to Chris' next door neighbors how for folks to cool off in the pool (Chris is long term house sitting).  Tali let me put her in but would get right back out.  I didn't try it with Groovy cause scary Mike was in the pool!  :)  She did well with the other dogs running around the pool area and although nervous handled herself well.  After the pool we put the dogs back in the car and grilled out and hung out for a while till it was time to head back home.  Got some neat pics of an Osprey that flew by with a fish in it's claws... here's one.

Saturday AM Groovy and I went herding at Cindy's.  We split the lesson with Sal and Tex.  It was HOT but Groovy did really well.  She has the proud title of being the first student dog to ever work Cindy's ram!  :)  And said ram (as well as 1 other ram and 3 wethers) didn't give her a bit of trouble (apparently those aren't the easiest kind of sheep to work).  I got lucky and didn't have to work Groovy - Cindy did it all (thank goodness as the ram head butted her once).  It is much more enjoyable to watch my dog work than me be confused about what the heck to do but I know I have to get in there and learn so we can get ready for the ASCA trial in November.  Groovy had no fear at all working those sheep and to prove that she's becoming a good little stock dog she even voluntarily jumped in the stock tank to cool off!  That was a first.

From herding we rushed back home, packed up and headed down towards south Florida to hang out with our friends Jason and Andrea.  We had been planning to do a big disc practice day here at the house for CFDDC members on our new field but the tractor STILL isn't working so those plans just weren't working out.  As an alternative Andrea suggested we come down there sometime so we took her up on it.  It was a good little trip for several reasons.  1) It was a good test drive to see how Groovy might do on the upcoming road trip to Illinois and Michigan.  2) It was fun to jam with some of the south Florida disc dog crowd.  3) It was a good way to get to know Jason and Andrea better and 4) they have an AWESOME pizza place by their house with awesome chicken parmesan pizza.  I must have some more of that some day!

Saturday evening some friends of Andrea and Jason's were there and our friend Donna came for a bit as well to check out a dog that the Rigler's are fostering.  Everyone played with their dogs getting tips and hints from everyone else. Jack showed the Rigler's some different tosses and we all talked about routines and such.  It was pretty cool.  Groovy did awesome!  She came out of the car and played right away.  Didn't care about the people there at all!  Tali was kinda slow and pokey but it was HOT.  Later on we had that awesome pizza and watched a movie.

Sunday AM we ate breakfast and headed out to Jam some more.  Their friend Amanda joined us as well.  Interestingly enough Groovy had more trouble with this small crowd than the larger one the day before.  She also had a big problem with Jason and was barking at him a lot.  We tried something new and put the girls in an expen (Groovy, Tali and Jam came along for this little trip) instead of their fold up crates.  This gave Jason the opportunity to toss Groovy treats from a distance and slowly work his way closer.  In the end he was petting her and feeding her treats from his hand!  BONUS!  She played really well and Andrea and Jason helped Jack work on his disc placement for back vaults.  Groovy has been learning vault foundations for the past few weeks and had been doing takes from me and from Jack but we hadn't progressed to an actual toss yet.  Sunday the first vault toss Jack tried with her she caught and it was beautiful!  Here's a pic below... nothing great in terms of a pic but still cool that I got her first one on "film"!

Groovy has good hops!

The girls watching Jack play with Moxie

 (Recognize anything in this pic Sarah? Remind me to give it to you when you drop off or pick up the dogs this weekend.)

It was an exhausting weekend but a great one!  Groovy made some real progress and that was the best part! This weekend coming up should be low key - or will hopefully be low key.  I'm dog sitting Trinity and Java Duke all weekend and herding on Sat. AM with Groovy but other than that it should be a chilled out weekend.

Joshilyn Jackson books

I am really enjoying her work. She has written 4 books so far and I'm listening to the 4th one now. I listened to them in the following order:


The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

gods In Alabama

Between, GA

Backseat Saints


They were written however in the following order:

gods in Alabama,

Between, GA

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Backseat Saints

Without having finished Backseat Saints I'd say that gods and Between are my two favorites but I'll say for sure once I'm done with Backseat Saints. I really love the stories though and find myself continually interested and wanting more. You know the "I can't wait to drive home from work so I can hear more of the story" feeling. I came across Joshilyn's work via a sales table at Books A Million in Columbia, SC on a recent road trip. Normally books discounted to $10 are just OK but I really enjoyed The Girl Who Stopped Swimming enough to look up the author and order 2 more of her books on Amazon. I wasn't 1/2 way through gods in Alabama when I got back on Amazon and ordered Backseat Saints.

I could sum up each book but then I’d be afraid I’d give something away… just know that they are VERY southern in nature. That’s obvious with the gods and Between books just by the titles. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming takes place in Pensacola, FL and Backseat Saints in Texas. Joshilyn reads her own books in all but one. I love her voice and accent and therefore take pleasure in having her read it to me. I find that I hear a southern accent in my head when I write about her books… LOL! You likely won’t have the same issue I’m sure – I just tend to pick up a southern accent pretty easily.

A few more tidbits… Two of the books connect and those are gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints – there is a minor character in gods who is the main character in Backseat Saints – her name is Rose Mae Lolly. I’m on disc 5 of that book and am enjoying the connection. I don’t think it’d be an issue to read Backseat Saints first but again can’t say for sure quite yet. Also, there is a supernatural element to The Girl Who Stopped Swimming that isn’t found in the other books. One other last tidbit… just as you can’t experience living in the south without religion being a part of it Joshilyn’s books bring that in as well. The main characters in her book aren’t necessarily actively religious but they bring their religious upbringing and/or religious family into their character… it’s a part of their personal baggage. I find it not only amusing but quite accurate. I have heard members of my family or friends say things folks say in the books as it relates to church, God, morals, levels of honesty and chasteness, being Southern Baptist or Catholic. It’s pretty funny and Joshilyn knows her stuff here.

I guess that’s all I’ll say on this author and these books… as you can tell I really like her work. Another gal at work has listened to 1 or 2 of her books and enjoyed them very much as well and her background and life experience is pretty different than mine so that tells me that Joshilyn is good despite the fact that I connect with tiny portions of various characters of hers. I hope you’ll check her out!

Books I've been reading lately...

OK - well since I'm just starting this I have to catch up so I'm gonna do a quick listing of the ones I can remember of late... this is more for me than for you so feel free to not read this post!  :)  Might take me a while to actually post this one and certainly these books will not be in any particular order.

• Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card - Science fiction - quite good - would recommend.  I call it Harry Potter in space minus the magic and instead of going by school grades you go through Ender's life from kid to adult.  Of course really only the first book is Harry Potter like but that kinda set the tone.  It's good stuff overall though - if you can handle reading about life in space, aliens, alien wars, etc.  Here is a link to learn more:  Info about Ender Series  Some day I might listen to the Shadow series mentioned but I was kinda Ender'ed out and moved on to other things.
• Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - this is a great book and I highly recommend it.  Sorry Sal and Bev it isn't mine to let you borrow but I bet you'd like it.  Sarah's Key on Amazon  It takes place in two time periods - modern day France and WW II France.  I learned a lot about how the Jews were treated in France at that time and it was a very moving story.  It's been a few months since I've listened to this book and it's the one of the ones that stays with me the most.
• Picture Perfect - Jodi Picoult - kept my interest but wasn't anything special.  Sal already listened to this one and agreed it wasn't one of Jodi's best by any means.,
• Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton - decent book though you have to listen/read through a lot of sea battles between pirate ships.  It kept my interest and there were parts that I really enjoyed.  Of course with my obsession with the Caribbean it was neat hearing about some of those locations from a pirate perspective.
• Dog On It - Spencer Quinn - This is a private detective/who done it type of story however it's from a dog's perspective.  The PI in the story has a dog and it is from the dog that the story is written.  Kinda dorky but kinda fun.  The author certainly inserts very cute dog behaviors in to make it more authentic.
• Your Heart Belongs to Me - Dean Koontz - A pretty typical Dean Koontz story though not one of his best ones.  It's about a heart transplant patient who is haunted about the transplant.  Interesting twists and turns but again not one of his best.

That sums up most of the ones as of late that I can recall.  I'm know there are a few more but I'll remember them as they make their way back to me in the rotation of audio book listeners that surround me.  Of course there are 4 books I haven't mentioned and those are the ones from Joshilyn Jackson... I think I'll write about her books in a separate post as I really like them a lot.  This post is getting long enough.  :)