Sunday, December 18, 2011
So Much for My Resolve
I promised to post more often. I failed. I'll start over in 2012. Update on Zazzles: We're up to 6 points.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
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.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
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.
Monday, August 11, 2008
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.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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*
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*
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