The Lone Star State Classic - Dallas, TX July 8, 9 & 10, 2011

Our first show!

After a good deal of internal debate regarding whether or not I could handle the pressure of a dog show on my own, without the help or guidance of a mentor, I decided that I'd give it a try. Even if we walk away empty-handed, it will give me the opportunity to expose Zazzles to the sights, sounds, smells and overall hustle and bustle of dog shows. So out we set.

We went to Market Center in Dallas on Thursday morning to claim some space in the non-reserved grooming area. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about leaving my things there with no one to keep an eye on them, so on Thursday, I just took over the grooming table and crate to hold our space. We were packed like pickles when we came back Friday to get ready for our first show sponsored by the Texas Kennel Club. I quickly made friends with our new neighbors; since I was solo at this show, there was no one to pal around with.

Our ring time on Friday was reasonable. Despite hours of practice, I'd never done anything like this. We stood and watched while all the class boys did their stuff and the Winner's Dog was named. Then we were up, and Zazzles and I headed into the ring and around. This judge had chosen to use the "ramp" an apparatus we'd never practiced with before. We'd just watched all the boys do it, and everyone knows girls are smarter than boys, so how hard could it be, right? Zazzles went half-way up the ramp, then jumped off to the front so I had to go around, pick her up, and set her on the platform at the top. I'm sure I blushed, looked at the judge and said, "We've never practiced this." Fortunately, our little misstep didn't seem to bother the judge. She looked Zaz over, then told me to take her down and back, and awarded us 1st place for the 6-9 puppy bitch class. We were the only entry in that class. My next blunder was that I didn't wait for the blue ribbon, and the steward called me back in by waving the ribbon in the air and saying, "Excuse me, this is your ticket back in!" After the other bitch classes were complete, Zazzles and I went back into the ring to compete for "Winner's Bitch", and this is where it gets really exciting, because we won! First time in the ring, and we won. WOW! Winner's Bitch and Best Opposite Sex. Zazzles' first point!!

I guess my decision to go ahead and give the Dallas show a shot paid off.

Saturday, we had an early ring time. We didn't win Saturday, but we did get a reserve. So, I went home and did my homework on the judge we would have Sunday.

Our judge for Sunday was Randy Garren who just so happened to judge Keeshonden at Westminster in 2010. That means, not only must he know his stuff, but there are videos available!!! So, guess who studied Randy Garren on Saturday night? Nope, Zazzles lounged around. I watched all of his judging from Westminster, so Sunday I knew exactly what to expect. I'm not sure if I can credit my preparation, or the fact that I have a really nicely bred show bitch, or maybe some of both, but Sunday was our day, too! Zazzles took another Winner's Bitch and Best Opposite Sex. Point number 2!

What a great first experience! Now, on to San Antonio!

Outrageous Blogger

Apparently I missed the part where it said that to be a top-notch blogger, one must post blogworthy events in a timely fashion. This is a skill of which I am entirely devoid. So, now, in an effort to compensate for my inability to write about things when they actually happen, I'll attempt to recap the goings on of Zazzles and myself and our "Texas March of Death" in the month of July. Hold on to your pants! This is going to be a wild ride.

Darkenwald Join The Chase

In January, I acquired "Zazzles" (Darkenwald Join the Chase), and made her the newest member of the Siekierski family. Since then, we've been working on obedience and conformation, and are getting ready for our first shows this summer. This is going to be a new spin on an old blog, since my babies aren't babies anymore. Here you can follow Zazzles' adventures on her trek to fame.

Emily: My sweet bunny girl

Some of you may already be aware that last Thursday (August 7, 2008) we lost our precious Flemish Giant Rabbit Emily. Emily would have been five years old this coming November. She suddenly became very ill with renal failure that wasn't due to infection, and there was nothing medically we could do. We received news of the vets diagnosis Wednesday night, and made the extraordinarilly difficult decision to have her euthanized. As I gently stroked her soft fur and comforted her through the tremors that her body was having, she gave me her last kisses and ground her teeth before she went to sleep peacefully around 2:45 in the afternoon last Thursday. We had her cremated and will keep her ashes in a bunny shaped box.

Needless to say, I'm am extremely sad and miss her very much. Emily was Pete and my first pet together, and was very much like a baby to me. I am overwhelmed by emotions when I think or talk about her, and it will take time before I'm able to discuss her life and death rationally. I need space and time to grieve and thank you in advance for providing that to me.

Fox 4's Candidate Matchmaker

What about me?

I found this online, but what about ME?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

A Bloggable Occurance

So what do you do when your everyday ordinary life takes a turn for the strange, and even borders on bizarre? You blog about it!

Last night at about 8:30 p.m., Pete was taking a shower with Alex because they had both been out in the backyard and had gotten pretty dirty and sweaty. I was holding Teagan and we had gone into the master bathroom to see if I needed to get Alex out of the shower and dry him off. Pete was complaining that the water was too hot, and that it wasn't getting cooler in spite of the fact that he was adjusting the temperature. I reminded him that I had experienced the same phenomenon a couple of weeks ago, and I had to turn the water all the way over to cold before it would get cooler and then readjust it to be warm again. (I think that we must have a worn out washer or something in the faucet.) When all of a sudden, I heard a loud crashing, shattering sound. I had no idea what had happened; I thought that maybe something fell. I proceeded to check the closets for fallen rods, the nick-knack shelves for broken figurines, and the front bathroom. I thought, considering the violence of the crash, that maybe the mirror had fallen off the wall. Then finally, I figured it out: A full, unopened, 12 ounce can of Dr. Pepper had crashed thorough our bedroom window. Thrown presumably from over the brick wall that separates our backyard from American Boulevard, the can had managed to break both panes of the top half of our bedroom window. Fortunately, the blinds were down and closed, so the can appeared to have hit the glass and broken it, become lacerated and spewed soda all over the backside of the blinds and between the remainder of the panes of glass, and then fallen back out onto the ground. Before I realized that the damage had been caused by this can of soda, my mind was racing: "Had our foundation suddenly shifted?"; "Did someone hit an incredible fly ball from the softball fields at EDS?"; "Did a roller coaster car fly off the Texas Giant and fly all the way across Grand Prairie only to smash into our back window?". Okay, so I never actually thought the last scenario, but the others were definite possibilities.

So, Pete and I were left with a lot of broken glass to clean up, and a window to patch (we used cardboard and duct tape) as quickly as possible before the entire fleet of West Nile laden mosquitoes came to reside in our house, but before we started our clean-up, I felt it appropriate to call in Gil Grissom and his men .... actually it ended up being Officer Keck with the Ft.Worth Police Department. The officer came out and took a report of "criminal mischief" and advised me on how difficult it is to remove an Oleander and prevent it from growing back. The officer said that the can couldn't be used as evidence, because apparently soda cans pick-up quite a few fingerprints in their journey from the bottling factory through the convenience store or soda machine to the purchaser and then finally through our bedroom window. He theorized that someone may have tossed it out the window of their car, but I disagree. I have a couple of theories about "who done it": My first theory is that Jon Douglas Rainey from the Discovery Channel show It Takes a Thief threw the can through our window to get back at us for recently installing a cipher lock in the garage, but I think they do most of their filming in New Jersey, so that is a bit of a drive. My second theory is that TXU (the electric company) is angry that we keep the thermostat set at 78 degrees in the summer and they don't think they're sucking quite enough money out of our pockets as it stands, so they decided to break out one of our windows in an effort to make our house less energy efficient, and thereby take for themselves every last nickle and dime we have this summer. Or, maybe it was just some teenager walking down the street, up to no good who suddenly had the brilliant idea to toss a can of soda through some one's window, and we happened to be the unlucky house he was by when this idea took shape.

We contacted our homeowners insurance, but at last check they were still sorting through all the other claims from yesterday and hadn't yet found the time to look at ours and schedule an adjuster to come out. I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome.

I know that Pete was hoping for a little excitement in the bedroom, but something tells me that this isn't what he had in mind. *wink*

The lights weren't on, but we were home

Last night we had some severe thunderstorms with reported wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour. We dodged the bullet as far as damage, but we did get to sit in the dark for about five hours. We spent about 30 minutes taking shelter in the closet while the storms were right over us. No one should ever have to spend 30 minutes in the closet with Alex. Anyway, the lights came back on around midnight, so we got up and reset all the clocks and Pete set his alarm to wake up this morning. We've been getting to hear the tornado sirens go off at least once a week for the past month. I guess we're in the midst of a fairly volitile severe weather season.

Potty Training Update

Great news ... Alex hasn't had an accident since last Wednesday (04-11-07)!!! I'm so proud of him! He's even dry when he wakes up in the morning.

They call it an Epiphany, but that's a big word ....

So, we're going to call her "Piffy" for short. Meet the newest member of the family: 7 week old, blue Flemish Giant bunny girl Epiphany.

To move or not to move ....

I was thinking of moving the blog because it seems that Blogger has been going through some transitions lately and I've been unable to access my blog from my computer. So, out of curiosity, I tried accessing it from Pete's computer and I had no problem. Hmmmm ...... maybe it's not blogger that is having the problems. I think I'm going to sell my computer. Does anyone need a boat anchor?

Anyway, now that I've figured out what the problem is, I'll try to keep things updated more often!

Let it Snow

Over the weekend (January 12 - 15) we were basically hunkered down awaiting what was hyped to be a "wicked arctic blast". Apparently the storm had a history of icing in Oklahoma and as I understand folks to the north of us, even Pete's parents in Wichita Falls, felt the brunt of the icy conditions. Here in Dallas-Ft. Worth, however, it seemed to be much ado about not a whole lot. I know that there were some treacherous road conditions, and Pete did choose to work from home Monday in an eff0rt to avoid driving with the crazies. Most of the roads around us were simply wet. With the temperatures having been in the seventies a few days prior to this weather maker, it was just too warm on surface roads to stick and cause many problems. We did stick close to home in order to keep our family safe.




This morning, we woke up to a surprise! I think the weathermen were surprised, too. There was about a half inch layer of icy-snowy mix on the ground, and it was still coming down. The snow didn't accumulate much, but what did stick around allowed Alex the opportunity to make his first ever snowman. While his snow man was petite (measuring in at about 10" tall) it was a big "conventure" (Alex-ese for adventure) .





We hope that if you have inclement weather, you make good decisions about when to venture out. Stay in and stay safe.

Happy Birthday to Teagan!

Teagan turned the big #1 on Sunday, January 7th!!! Can you believe she's a whole year old? Can you believe that I haven't slept through the night in over a year?

We didn't have a party because she doesn't like crowds, so everything was pretty low-key. I did get her a cute princess cake. Aunt Teri visited her during the afternoon, and the Aunt B and Uncle J visited in the evening, so Teagan got to eat cake twice!

New Year .... New Blog

Well guys, it's a new year ..... Who's up for a new blog? I resolve to get back into blogging on a regular basis, so check back for new posts!

Friday's Weekly Doctor Visit

For the past three consecutive weeks, we've been to see the doctor on Friday. This is quickly turning into an expensive trend, but we can't seem to get Alex well. Two weeks ago today was the trip that diagnosed him with bacterial conjunctivitis, which we managed to conquer. Last week, he was diagnosed with an ear infection and croup presenting asthma, so we had to get a nebulizer and start giving him daily breathing treatments. Thursday around 3 in the afternoon, when I got Alex up from his nap, I noticed that he seemed unusually warm. I took his temperature and found it to be 101.9, so I gave him Tylenol and we called the doctor's office. It seemed strange to me that he would be running such a high fever considering that we had just finished a round of antibiotics that were prescribed last week. The doctor wanted to see him today, and upon looking in his ears realized that the infection was still rampant. He gave us a couple of options: We could get an antibiotic injection today and then follow it with another round of oral antibiotics, or we could take a series of three injections (today, Saturday and Monday) which is a bit more aggressive. I opted for the latter in an effort to nip this thing in the bud. It seems to me that Alex has been sick off and on for more than a month now, and since illness generally precipitates foul moods, he has also been quite difficult to get along and live with.

Tomorrow, we are going to make our best effort to let Alex take a train ride on the old Tarantula in Grapevine as a part of Grapefest. Hopefully, he'll feel up to it and have a good time.

Teagan's doing well, and I entered her picture in a photo contest. I'll let you know if she wins!

We'll Miss The Crocodile Hunter

We were very saddened when we awoke Monday morning to hear that Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) had been killed in a freakish accident while snorkling at Batt Reef off the coast of Northeast Queensland. He was one of my favorites, and it feels like a friend has passed.

Friday's Big Drama

Alex woke up Friday morning with a little crusty stuff in the corner of his left eye. I cleaned it up, thinking that he had probably gotten soap or shampoo in it last night during his bath, or maybe he had a little abrasion. An hour or so later, I noticed that there was more purulent (pus-like) discharge. It got progressively worse as the day wore on. Pete had come home around 2 to meet with a plumber that our home warranty company sent out to check a leak in the water heater, and Alex who was in his bed to take a nap heard Pete and jumped up demanding to see Daddy. Pete and I decided that we should call the doctor's office for an appointment. Pete took Alex in to see Dr. McGonnell, who has recently joined Forest Lane Pediatrics. The doctor said that he has Bacterial Conjunctivitis, and prescribed an antibiotic drop that we have to instill in both of Alex's eyes three times per day for the next five days. I told Alex to tell anyone who asks him what's wrong with his eye that Teagan punched his lights out. He giggled and told me, "that's funny".



As if the last couple of days haven't been stressful enough, around 9 o'clock this evening I was washing a load of darks and I decided to put the denim shorts that I had been wearing all day in with the wash and change into my pajamas. However you want to describe it: fortuitously, unwittingly, carelessly .... whatever, I left my phone in the pocket. Sadly, the Motorola Razr doesn't come with its own flotation device, and it drowned. If only it had been packaged with an airplane seat cushion, it might have stood a chance, but then I guess it wouldn't be one of the thinnest phones on the market. Needless to say, I'm phoneless, at least for a few days until the replacement that Pete quickly and graciously ordered me arrives.

Thursday's Big Drama

Thursday, Alex was begging to go to McDonald's for lunch. I talked him into going to the mall where he could have a kid's meal from Chick Fil A, and then go to the play area. I felt that he deserved a special reward, because he was doing so well on his potty training. So, around one, we headed out to the mall. On the way, Alex fell asleep, so I decided that I would just turn around and go home, scoop him out of the car and put him in his bed so that he could take a decent nap.

Highway 183 in the East bound direction is usually pretty light in the afternoon, but at one point, traffic became congested and slowed to a stop. I stopped, but the person behind me didn't. Fortunately, I had stopped with enough room that the impact didn't push me into the truck that was in front of me, so the accident was contained to just me and the person who hit me. And, no one in either vehicle was injured. I immediately pulled off to the shoulder, called 911 and requested police back-up. I got out of my car and walked over to the other car and took a pic of the license plate with my cell phone, tried to call Pete's cell, and work and got no answer, got a pen and paper from my car and proceeded to ask the driver of the other car for a driver's license and insurance card so that I could take down their info only to quickly become aware of the fact that they did not speak English. I verified this by asking, "Hablas Ingles?" to which she replied, "No". I stood around waiting for the police, and called 911 again to make sure that they were indeed on their way. It took them more than 10 minutes to get there ... good thing nobody was bleeding! When the officer got there, he asked what had happened and I told him that they rear-ended me, and explained to him that they evidently didn't speak English and asked him if he spoke Spanish, which unfortunately, he didn't. He did, however, know the Spanish word for "insurance card" to which they replied that they had none. I gave the officer my driver's license and proof of insurance, and stood around trying to calm Teagan down while he and the other officer who showed up a bit later to help him out filled out paperwork. Here's the kicker: The girl was driving a car that didn't belong to her, without insurance, and without a driver's license. Satisfyingly, she was ticketed for all the aforementioned violations and I believe "failure to yield", too. However, we are left to sort out getting my car fixed (we have comprehensive coverage, but there's a $250 uninsured motorist deductible) and our insurance company has to try to track down these people (the driver and the owner of the vehicle) and try to make them pay up. And, unfortunately Bedford hasn't yet jumped on the bandwagon of north Texas cities that instantly impound uninsured vehicles that are involved in an accident.

My RANT #1: We spend over $1400 per year on car insurance, and we have clean driving records, obey traffic laws, don't get tickets, are in that 30+ married group that supposedly has to pay less for insurance, and drive modest vehicles. If we cough up that kinda capital, so should everyone else. Yet part of the reason that car insurance premiums in north Texas are so high is because it's common knowledge that an overwhelming portion of the population is going to get insurance for the one month that they must to have it to renew their registration, and then drop it. If they even bother to go as far as getting it and registering their vehicle. My solution: Make the penalty for getting caught driving without insurance so severe that everyone pays for it for fear of the alternative. I say, shoot the uninsured on the spot! (*wink*) We don't need their kind of trash on our streets, or drinking what little water we have left, either, for that matter!

My RANT #2: If you're going to move to the United States, learn to speak the language. I would never gather together a gaggle of my friends and relatives, move to Russia illegally, and expect the people who were already there to learn English so that they could talk to me. Yet, in Texas that's exactly what happens when you look around and suddenly realize that Caucasian, English-speakers are in the minority. I know that we have really good Mexican food here, but I don't think it's a fair trade. I know that there are a lot of business owners who enjoy paying $2.50/hour under the table, but they should have to be accountable, too. Don't get me started on immigration reform!

Alex's Progress

After the stress of so many "failures" on Monday, I took Tuesday off from potty training. I know it was probably confusing to Alex, but I had to have a sanity break.
We resumed training on Wednesday, and Alex had four successful potties, and three accidents. I made a stupid mistake by putting him down for his nap with his training pants covered with plastic pants, and he peed on everything in his bed. So, Wednesday turned out to be a heavy laundry day! He really has no control over what happens while he's sleeping, so I've decided to let it slide if he pees in his pants while he's asleep. Note to self: Make Alex wear a pull-up for sleeping!

Thursday was great! Alex had one minor accident when he peed a tiny bit in his pants while rushing to get to the potty where he was able to finish up his pee pee (or woo woo, which he's taken to calling it). He didn't even wet while he was asleep. What fabulous progress! (be sure to read future posts for more info on Thursday)

Today, Alex was able to make all his pee pee's in the potty, but for whatever reason made a poo poo in his pants this morning. That's really unusual in my opinion, because to this point, he had been able to make his poo in the toilet every time. I cleaned him up, and he was basically back on track for the rest of the day. (be sure to read future posts for more info on Friday)

Go Pee Pee in the Potty

We've started seriously potty training with Alex. Sunday morning, I got him out of bed and took him straight to the toilet. He sat on it off and on for three and a half hours and didn't pee in the toilet or his pants. Around 11:30, I made him a bath, and as soon as he got in the water, he let it fly. I think Pete and I were both feeling frustrated and defeated by at this point. We fed him lunch and put him down for his nap, and resumed training after he woke up. Last night he had his first success. He told Pete that he needed to go, and went to the toilet and peed in the potty. We danced and cheered and had a celebration. This morning, I got him out of bed, and straight to the toilet, again. As if repeating yesterday, he refused to pee. I let him off the toilet and put a pull-up on him. We've convinced him that he can't let the spaceships printed on the front of the pull-up disappear (that's what happens when he pees in them). I asked him about half a dozen times if he needed to go pee pee, and reminded him what to say to tell me that he needs to go, yet the first time I left the room, he proceeded to wet in his pants. I scolded him and made him do nine practice runs of going to the toilet. At the end of the practice runs, I told him that he should try to sit on the potty and go, and then I left the bathroom to tend to Teagan. While I was out of the room, he made a poo poo and a pee pee in the toilet. This time, he even managed to point his "pokey" down and pee in the toilet. Once again, we had a big celebration, and I let Alex call Pete and tell him of the success. As his special reward, I took him to Chuck E Cheese for lunch, and before we left the house, I made him sit on the potty and try to make a pee pee. He put about three drops into the toilet and told me that he was done, so I went over with him the instructions for letting me know when he needed to go. After we got to the restaurant, before Pete could even get there to meet us, I asked Alex if he needed to go pee pee, and he said yes, so I took him to the toilet. To my dismay, he had already peed in his pants. He fell asleep on the drive home, so when he wakes, I suppose we'll start all over again. I think that I'm going to have to stay home-bound for about two weeks straight to accomplish anything.
I guess you win some and you lose some.