Top of the Rock

We finally made it out to the new Top of the Rock complex at Branson. It’s based around a golf course but they have several scenic restaurants and a museum and a few other things to do. We mostly went for dinner and the views. Dinner was good. Views were wonderful. It’s worth the trip out there. Lovely place for a sunset. 

AKC trial

No, we didn’t compete.  But I did attend the local AKC agility trial yesterday. We sold shirts for MOKAN, visited with old friends an got to see former foster dogs Shea and Trip compete. Trip was very excited to see me but Shea didn’t really care. Epic came along to help and make new friends. So we used the Halloween setup to get some festive pics. 

Dogs dogs dogs

Helping out at work 

Tearing stuff up at home. 

Halloween craft night

I joined Kristen and Kennedy for some crafting this week. We decided to do fingernail polish dipped pumpkins and melted crayon pumpkin. First you need to make the pumpkins an appropriate base color. Usually white but I also did one black. Pumpkins are not easy to spray paint because the paint just rolls down. But after enough coats they were ok. 

The nail polish dipping has a bit of a learning curve but I’m pretty pleased with the result. 

Crayon melting is pretty straightforward. I liked the black. 

And now they are happily decorating our front porch!

Last weekend

Saturday we had a MOKAN booth at pets and pumpkins. We were hoping to make good money since they expected a large turnout. But apparently most people just attend for the free games and candy. Which wouldn’t be that bad if they didn’t charge us $80 for the booth space and we had to bring candy. 

Later that night we went to the Thomas Rhett concert in springfield. I have pretty high concert standards and I’ve gotta day, he was fantastic! Looking forward to seeing him again!

And Sunday, Guinness got adopted! We are officially foster dog free for the rest of the year and we are ready for this break!

Hershey Half Marathon

This year was my pick for the destination half and I picked Hershey!

We left bright and early friday morning.  And while getting up at 3:45 AM wasn't fun it did allow us a full half day to enjoy Hershey.  We stayed at the Hershey campground which was super convenient to restaurants, shopping, and all the attractions.  We hit Hershey chocolate world pretty much right away and we were very excited.  So much chocolate and chocolate themed stuff.  We were very much kids in a candy shop!  In fact, we went to chocolate world every day while we were there to shop or eat!  We also took the little tour they offer. 

Here are some of the things we ate over the weekend.  Everything was amazing.

We also visited Hershey park which has lots of fun looking roller coasters.  However, I was only able to ride three as they make me sick now.  We also visited downtown hershey, experienced Choctoberfest as well as the local outlet mall and the botanical gardens and butterfly house.

Sunday was the race and the course was really nice with many changes of scenery and few hills.  The weather was cloudy but not too hot or cold.  Real candy was handed out around mile 11 and candy finishers medals were waiting at the end!

We rounded out our trip with a fire and some s'mores.

 Hershey is a chocolate lovers paradise and I'm so glad we went!

These things happened

Little fluff princess turned eleven last week.  She got some smoked meat on her dinner.

The pasture princess wasn't eating well.  Then I found this sore in her mouth.  A few doses of pain meds and some antibiotics and she seems much better.

Epic is officially an Australian Cattle dog now and ready to compete in three organizations.

Guns, Vegas, and the future

I don't usually make these kinds of posts.  I think about them, but mostly they stay in my head.  But we attended a large country music festival earlier this year, so the events in Vegas hit a little close to home.

I'm not totally anti-gun.  I don't think all guns need to be banned. If you enjoy target shooting or hunting, or want a gun for home and self defense I'm ok with that.  I can even envision scenarios where if I lived alone in the middle of nowhere or in a big city I would consider having a gun.  But I am absolutely in favor of more gun control. I don't think anyone and everyone should be able to purchase an unlimited amount of weapons, and then tote them around all over in public.  I don't think people need semi-automatic weapons or assault rifles.  And I certainly don't think people need enough weapons and ammunition to take out 500 people in the span of 15 minutes.

That said, I'm not going to tell you that what happened in Vegas, or anywhere else for that manner, is only about guns.  Mental illness, disregard for the law, grudges against society, and general lack of respect for human life all play a part.  But it is partly about guns, and saying it isn't makes you look just as foolish as those who blame it entirely on guns.

But here's the thing, what I think, or you think, or what anyone thinks doesn't matter.  Nothing changes based on what we think.  People are still dead.  Families still mourn.  Hundreds try to cope with the mental and physical injuries inflicted during this event.  Gun control advocates use it as a political platform, and I don't blame them.  Gun proponents spew their tired arguments about why guns are not the problem and post ridiculous memes that don't help victims heal anymore than changing profiles pictures to say Pray For Vegas.  Both sides spout statistics in their favor. Local news stations will run stories on security at local venues for upcoming events.  People will think twice about buying that concert ticket, taking their kids to a public park, or booking a vacation for a popular tourist attraction.  But eventually, most of us will go back to living a normal life and this will become just another sad day in American history.  The price you pay for the "right to bear arms."

I hope it's not always this way.  I hope someday people feel safe doing normal things, that today's children grow up to a better world, that we don't continue to wake up to these kinds of headlines.  But in a country that clearly prioritizes universal gun ownership over universal health care, that hope is fading.

Still a rock star

Legend had another tremendous weekend at the local UKC trial.  In total she ended up a perfect 7/7, with five 1st places, two 2nd places, two high in trial, and four new titles.

Saturday was a long day.  We competed in both rounds of Advanced vehicles and her first one she found the hide in 10 seconds.  She definitely caught the attention of the judge here and she was very complimentary to Legend all weekend.  Second round wasn't as fast but she did a nice job of working the odor between cars and getting to source.  We also knocked out the second leg of her Superior exterior title and then in the afternoon the first let of master exterior.  The day dragged on forever thanks to a late start, lots of briefings, and lengthy search times.  They were still doing vehicles by headlight at 8:30.  We got ours all done before dark but they were using my car so we got home after 9:00.

Today was a better time schedule.  I didn't need to be there early since I wasn't in the early classes and they did a much better job of moving things along. We completed both legs or our Superior vehicles and also finished master exterior.  Even though it was moving so much faster than yesterday I ended up skipping my last exterior search.  I didn't want to bust my perfect weekend and I had dinner plans.

These last two UKC trials have been huge confidence boosts to us and also good experience.  We have an NW3 in November so hopefully all this will help!