Back! And Back To Routine

For pragmatic reasons, I love the routine. I love the structure of it ... I know my life is kind of orderly. I just like that better. - Andrea Martin

I'm still suffering from agility hangover today, so bear with me.

After a crazy weekend -- during which I still managed to maintain my NaNoWriMo word count (yay me!), I'm ready for a quiet Monday.

RE: NaNo -- Maria Zannini said in a comment a couple of days ago, "Maybe a mysterious letter arrives..."

And I thought ... OKAY! Let's do that.

So, a mysterious letter has arrived for Geoff. I don't have a clue what's in it -- guess I'll find out when he opens it (he hasn't yet, his night at the charity auction was stressful and exhausting).

Any thoughts as to what might be in the letter?

And, I'm still working on placing all your objects in the story. I have BIG plans for the stuffed pig coming up. *G*

RE: Agility...

Saturday was interesting and exhausting.

It took place at a different dog's gym and this place does professional AKC agility tournaments. The difference in terms of equipment quality and space was amazing. I love where we are, but our equipment is worn out and much of it it jury-rigged (using water bottles as weights on the chute, for instance).

This place's stuff was incredible. It practically sparkled. It was also AKC regulation -- so the frame was steeper and the jumps were different. Thankfully, Dakota wasn't fazed in the least.

There were about a dozen kids there, ranging in age from 5 y.o. to 16 or so (two of the girls drove themselves, so they had to have been at least 16). The rules for junior handling is kids up to age 19.

There were four groups based on experience. Because my DD hasn't competed professionally, she had to start in the beginner group. This was both good and frustrating.

The good? It was FAR less stressful for her. The frustrating? They pulled all but the simplest of obstacles (we had no chute, no teeter, no dog walk and few tunnels) and the courses were ridiculously short. But DD has to "Q" or qualify at each level in order to advance. The other frustrating thing is that THIS competition didn't count her last junior handler competition scores. Apparently different clubs do things differently.

So now she has TWO binders with check lists to keep track of.

They did well in their runs, though. Dakota did get distracted once -- she was running out of a tunnel at one point and saw the teeter off course, but pretty much right in front of her. She LOVES the teeter. So, of course she had to go and do it... thankfully it didn't disqualify them, and they still finished in the allotted time with only the one fault.

They competed in four different "games" -- she "Q'd" in every one and got first place in her class.

On Sunday, we had the fun match at our dog gym. DD ran three different dogs and did fabulously. The course was challenging and a lot of fun. I videoed everything, though I discovered that my camera's memory card wasn't big enough (it's EIGHT gigabytes!!) and that the battery wasn't good enough for the entire day. I the middle of the second batch of runs, I had to hurry home and grab my laptop, download the videos and charge up the camera. As a result, I missed about eight of the dog's runs (including two of DD's).

Dakota's team came in second and she came in first in her class. Though there was another dog who had the best overall time, she ... how do I put this nicely? ... okay, there isn't a nice way to say "she cheated" so there you go. This is an advanced dog, and the owner didn't have her do closed poles, even though she is more than capable. As a result, she ran down the middle of open poles which cuts off a couple seconds from her score. She only beat Dakota by less than one second, so ... :::shrugs::: . We know who did best. ;-)

I'm still working on getting all the videos posted. I'm not going to put them here -- you can see DD's face too clearly. But -- to all my regular commenters, if you'd like to see them once they're ready, shoot me an email and I'll send you the link.

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Today, DH goes back to work. Only for two days (he's off again for just over a week starting on Wednesday), so it will be back to routine. I'm relieved. I really don't do well when things just .... happen. DH is not the kind of person to do a lot of planning. He's very spontaneous and has a habit of not telling me what's going on until about five minutes before it happens. Drives me wonky.

Ah well, such is life.

How was your weekend?

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You Are Innovative

You're the type of person who is always putting a new spin on things. You are very creative. You sometimes feel like you are a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, but that's okay! You'll build your own square hole. You are cutting edge to the point of being avant-garde. You are extremely inventive. You can't help but be original. You love to experiment and try new things.

The Sandwich Test

Okay ... but mostly, that sandwich just looks yummy. I may have one just like it for lunch today.

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