Another week

Not much different around here.  I sent Shea's bio in so now we can officially start getting tons of inappropriate applications and hopefully a few good ones.  She's doing well, seems mostly housebroken and overall a pretty good pup.

After my disappointing 10k two weeks ago I started doing some harder workouts and it paid off.  This weekend I ran my fastest 5k in 2 years.  I'm excited to see what I can do after a few months instead of just a few weeks.  I also won my age group and this year earned a bag of candy instead of a watermelon, which is what this race has awarded in the past.  

I spent the rest of the weekend deep-cleaning my house.  Moving furniture is very disturbing when you live with four long haired pets.  Yuck.  But much better now.  At least temporarily.  

It has gotten pretty hot and humid here.  I'm trying to cool the house down enough to get in a workout but by the time the AC catches up it may be cool enough to run outside.  Or at least no different.  

Socks is blending in well.  The big horses seem to like him.  Speaking of big horses, Squirt got his joint injection done so hopefully he will be getting around better now.  

That's about it.  I have a short work week thanks to the holiday, and just randomly having off tomorrow.  But I make up for it with a 6 day work week next week.  But, that should be my last 6 day week for awhile.  Actually I'm not planning on any 5 day weeks for awhile either.  Going to hopefully take some time and enjoy the summer a bit!

Weekend Update

Trial report:  The girls and I (including Shea) headed to the local AKC agility trial Saturday morning.  As per our plan, we ran jumpers only.  Legend got a Q, Lyric was fast and happy but didn't do all her weaves.  Nice fast entry though.  The biggest hit of the day was Shea.  Everyone loved her and she found the day to be quite exciting with everyone wanting to give her treats and love.  We even found a 4 month old border collie puppy for her to play with-so much fun watching them!

ORT report:  Sunday morning Legend tested for all three nosework scents so she will be able to enter trials (as soon as she is ready).  I'm happy to announce that despite limited practice with anise and clove, she still passed all three and will be good to go for all levels of competition.  Eventually.  But at least step one is out of the way.  

Concert report:  Sunday afternoon Linda and I headed down to Little Rock for The Band Perry/Blake Shelton concert.  As you might expect it was excellent and well worth the trip.  I enjoyed Blake Shelton, but for me the highlight was TBP-I've said it before, but I'll say it again-if you get the chance to see them live, do it!  They are so much fun in concert.  As an added bonus they had one of the opening acts return during set changes to enterain so you didn't just have to sit there and be bored between acts liks usual.  Genius idea, not sure why more people don't do that.  

Puppy and other updates

The crate training, and house-training in general is getting much better.  One accident the second day and none since them.  That we can say for sure.  Her blanket smelled a little like pee when I checked it today, but now sure when that was from.

She's starting to play with toys and really loves sheepie.

 She also passed the kid test.

 Speaking of kid, she also spend time playing with ponies.  And learned why you watch your toes while around horses (she will be fine).

 And, no, she has not yet outgrown the joy of the water hose.

 One more pic of sheepie love, just for fun.

In other news, Legend has been totally off her Phenobarb for 12 days.  So far, so good.  Also, she takes the ORT for nosework on Sunday.  And finally, we got word that Lyric has been approved to take the therapy test in the fall.  All good stuff!

The drought is over!

After two years of adult dogs, we finally have a foster PUPPY again!  Yes, she's five months old, but she still have puppy teeth, so good enough.

"Shea" is a sweet little 22 lb female border collie.  She was found running as a stray with what a appeared to her littermate.  He is red and white if you are looking for a different flavor.  I have not met him but they say he is just as sweet.

The shelter was calling them Romeo and Juliette.  While that's a pretty name, it is 1) a little creepy for brother and sister and 2) a mouthful.  Shea is Gaelic for "admirable."

We don't know a lot about her yet other than...she gets carsick (three stops on the way home) and is not crate trained (after an extended period outside she promptly peed and pooped in her crate).  But I'm sure she will catch on quick.  In her defense she has been 4 places in 4 days, met a lot of new people and dogs, lost her brother and been spayed!  But she's a very sweet girl, loves people and belly rubs.

Also, some genius docked their tails.  Grr.  But still cute.

 Love her silly face in this one

 I'm pretty sure this is the "adopt me" shot!

In case you haven't seen enough...

Socks got a bath.  So I took more pictures.

Don't worry, tomorrow something different.

Horses and Ponies

Yesterday was not a great day for photos, but seriously, if you had a pony this cute could you resist?

Maine and Canada 2014

Bear with me, I'm going to do this all in one post!

We spent the first half of our vacation in and around Bar Harbor, ME.  It was Cheri's year to pick the half-marathon trip and she chose Maine.  This time, we decided to take the husbands and make a vacation out of it.  We stayed in a super cute cabin on a large pond, complete with canoes and kayaks.  Which by the way, I still don't think are that much fun.  Anyway, this is the view from our cabin.

We spent the first few days doing some hiking in Acadia National Park which is really beautiful.

These photos are all at or near Sand Beach-the only part of the  park's coastline that is actually a sandy beach.

 Don't be fooled though-even though it was almost June, that water is NOT warm!

Many of these were taken along Great Head Trail and Ocean Trail.  Both are very scenic but Ocean trail is easier and longer, offering some really fantastic settings.  

Otter Cliff

These are from the summit of Cadillac Mountain.  This is the first place in the US that sees the sunrise.  But you have to be there at like 4 in the morning.  We skipped that, but did enjoy the evening views.

  Jordan Pond-we were only here briefly but there are some trails that go around it which are probably pretty.

 Our cute little trail friend.

 We also took a few other short trails.  There is a lot of granite in Maine.  All the trails to the ocean end in a big jumble of rocks, many of which are large slabs of granite.  Subsequently, everything is Maine is made of granite-sidewalk curbs, flower gardens, they line the streets and highways with big cubes as "guardrails" and more!

This is the quintessential photo of Acadia.  It can be found all over town on artwork, postcards, maps, etc.  What they don't tell you is it's not easy to get that shot!  If you go around the trail to the other side of the house it's completely underwhelming and not at all scenic.  If you take the trail down on this side, it ends in a pole of rocks and very jagged  shoreline with an obstructed view of the lighthouse.  You have to climb down the rocks all the way to the ocean to get this.  Or be in a boat.  While not too challenging I would not suggest anyone with small children or mobility issues try it!

Sunday, was our race.  Our "support crew" did a good job of meeting us at several locations on the course, even though they were not too excited about the signs we made for them.

We were sad that this half-marathon gave glasses instead of medals, and kind of lame t-shirts as well, but the coastline we views we had while running were really spectacular.  And the weather was perfect this time (as opposed to foggy in year one and rainy in year two!).  They did have ice cream and pizza at the end, but we had to wait awhile for the pizza.

We got a huge kick out of this newspaper article we saw-yes, the spelling of Jesky is different but still-how funny!  That would have been a really interesting vacation!

 Our last night we had dinner in Bass Harbor-there are little lobster towns like this all over.

 Kelly and her husband drove up and spent a few days in Bar Harbor, joining us for dinner both nights-we had a lot of fun and some good visiting and catching up.

Monday, the rest of the crew headed home and we make the drive to Quebec City.  It's really pretty, and very unique place.  But be prepared to do a lot of walking.  400 year old cities are not designed with cars and parking in mind!  In addition, Old Quebec is literally built on a cliff.  So when they speak of upper and lower town, they really mean it!  There are several flights of stairs to get you between the two!

This is a really pretty time of year to visit Quebec-they have a ton of lilacs and other flowering trees and bushes that make everything look and smell wonderful.

 This is taken from just outside town showing you the old town, boardwalk and the river.

 The biggest attraction is the Chateau Frontenac, a very large and famous hotel.

 There are many dessert places in old Quebec. I ate this for breakfast one morning.  It was delightful.

 Just outside town a few miles is Montmorency falls.  While a very striking waterfall, the surroundings leave a little to be desired.  One side is a bare cliff and pretty ugly.  And they must have had a rough winter because there was a lot of construction and clean up going on with some debris still laying around.

We spent the last day (really half day) in Montreal as our plane would leave from the Montreal airport early in the morning.  We had limited time here which is just as well since a visit to the city required yet more walking and all we had done on this trip so far is walk and run!  It was exhausting.  But we did the trail up Mt. Royal to see the overlook of the city and the this cross.

 The view of the river from the pier

 Notre-Dame Basilica-we were too late to go inside.

Luckily we have the weekend to recover, but with all the barn work I did yesterday I'm not sure that's going so well!