Paperwork! Money!

SUMMARY: Oooooooh closing is so close!

I can't believe it has been a month since I said I'd post something daily. Hahahaha actually I am not that surprised. I have been busy, but not significantly with the house buying process.

Now, badda-bing, badda-boom, THE NEXT BIG THING HAS HAPPENED.

The Title Company* left me voicemail late yesterday (Monday) afternoon while I was out touristing that the paperwork is ready for me to sign! And they calculated how much my total payment will be! 

Thar she be! Nice green lawn (it isn't right now because it's summer and not much rain).
Patio with pergola and raised flower planters on the near side.
Small shed on the far side against the fence.
The approximate floor plan! (I'll do a larger version later.)
And my three neighbors on my cul de sac.

Today they gave me a link to a few short documents on DocuSign identifying what my final payment consists of, identifying the buyer and seller, specifying what The Title Company is allowed/not allowed to do and what they will do. Basically that's it. 

So I DocuSigned the docu's. Next, I needed to send them a whole castle-full of money. From two different banks because I split the money up from the sale of my previous house:

• Big Credit Union T*, back down in San Jose, had an online wire form that was easy to fill out and submit there. Someone called me back shortly thereafter to ask questions verifying my identity and asking things like, does this agreement require you to pay unidentified additional monies or ask for money back afterwards. Also whether I know that the property I'm buying actually exists.
• Tiny Credit Union P*, here in tiny Port Townsend, does not have an online form; not even a form online to print and fill out. Have to go in to talk to them. Good thing the one in San Jose isn't like that. When I arrived, someone else occupied the seat with the manager that I needed to occupy to have this done, I waited nearly half an hour. Actually setting up the wire transfer took no more than 10 minutes. They asked similar questions, including whether I knew that The Title Company truly existed and was truly a legit business who would not be a fly-by night thang. (I am paraphrasing all the questions for poetic license.)

So, THAT BIG THING FULL OF MONEY will be out of my figurative hands tomorrow, and into the new owner's hand this coming Monday, and then SOMEONE WILL HAND ME THE KEYS! 

So excited! So broke. [wide eyes not panicking too much really]

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* All company names changed to protect--oh, who knows. But I did it here anyway.

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Things To Get For Whatever New House

 SUMMARY: Things I need or want no matter what house I end up buying

Note: No posts for the past 3 days because I've done nothing house related and a lot of things unrelated. 

When I left San Jose, I made conscious decisions--consciously considered for, in some cases, quite a few years--to not take a variety of furnishings with me. Because: New House! Retirement! Get things I like better! Here are the bigger ones.

• 

  Welllll crud, I don't find ANY photos of the
  guest room and its furniture... after all these
  decades! You can kinda see the white & gold
  on the mirror over the dresser.

  
  Guest bedroom furniture. 
  White & gold bureau, side tables, double bed with headboard, box springs, and mattress-- inherited from my Grandparents. Good, solid pieces and in excellent condition. BUT (a) I've had them for 44 years, (b) they were never really my style anyway, and (c) I've not often had sleepover guests, so it all took up a lot of space that didn't get used often.
  Replacement: I'll definitely have some nice comfy bed for visitors, but I'm thinkin'--Murphy bed! James Bond! I've been reading up on them. With some kind of bedside table (that also folds down!) and a separate bureau...TBD
  
  
  
• Sofa.
  The large ivory fabric sectional served me perfectly for a long time. BUT (a) I bought it used in the first place back in 1991, and it is showing its age, (b) it is simply too low for me these days, (c) it is most useful with several guests (which doesn't happen much any more because EVERYONE MOVED OUT OF STATE, and (d) keeping a couch of that color clean and nice looking for guests when I had ... ta da... dogs! remained an ongoing challenge.
  Replacement: Friends with dogs and leather couches let the dogs on the furniture with impunity and it still looks great. So: Darker color, leather, higher seating profile, long enough to lie down full length.
• Entertainment center
  I got a lovely oak one that matched the rest of my furniture--free! From FreeCycle! in excellent condition. It had shelves for all of my audio/video gear (CD player etc) and plenty of storage for other things. BUT (a) the space for a TV can't be rearranged or changed in size and is useless otherwise, (b) it's so big that one needs a whole wall for it, not flexible, and (c) although I almost never watch TV anyway, the configuration of this one made it difficult anyway.
  Replacement: Not sure yet. Some kind of modular units for the audio/visual gear. So, TBD.
  
  

  

  Big white sectional sofa in the back; entertainment center on the right.

  
  
• Television
  Yeah, I seldom watch TV, but the newer ones are amaaazing. I think I want a larger TV than the one I have (which is at least 20 years old and that I got free from a friend), and I want it wall mounted. Maybe ceiling?!  Maybe silly because I don't watch often--but if I get the right seating and right TV location--probably would watch more
  Replacement:  TBD
• Sewing machine table, sewing machine
  So handy when I did sew stuff. BUT Sewing machine died and newer ones probably don't fit this table. I hardly ever sewed any more. The table took up a lot of space, even though when closed it could be used as a generic large, heavy (i.e., inconvenient) tabletop.  
  Replacement: New sewing machine, but no table for it, thenk yew.

Do not think for even a minute that I have an unlimited budget. Soooooo we shall see how this wish list goes.

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New House Documents

 SUMMARY: So many things to read and sign!

Everyone seems to use DocuSign now for viewing and signing legal docs. Did this when I sold my parent's house. Also when I put my San Jose house on the market earlier this year and then, eventually, sold it. So many documents! I'm an old pro now at signing electronically.

So far for this new house, I've read and, in many cases, initialed and/or signed (maybe not everything, and not necessarily in this order):

• The responsibilities (and limitations) of a realtor (AH is handling my house hunt and purchase)
• The neighborhood (4 houses only!) CC&Rs and CC&R Amendment -- short and sweet (What are CC&Rs?)
• Short Plat (measurement, easements, and survey notes on the property)
• Original Sewer (septic system) permit drawing and info

  

  Partial septic permit

  
  
• Residential Purchase and Sale Agreement: The original offer that I made on the house (5 pages) a week ago and the seller's counter offer, which I accepted (small mods to that document)
• Addendums to the agreement that I will provide proof of available funds for purchasing and that the agreement isn't final until I have had the house inspected and accept the results 
• Blah blah standard addendums coming out my ears (just a few more single-page items providing assorted info), plus the FIRPTA (Foreign Investment Real Property Tax Act), which essentially says, nope, we're all citizens here
• An amendment to the Agreement because I didn't think about my Trust until after the Agreement was signed
• Amendment to the agreement to extend the time for completing inspections by 5 days 
• Septic inspection reports from the last 2 years
• Contract with a property inspector specifying what they do and don't inspect
• Commitment for title insurance
• Preliminary Title Report (13 pages)

Septic system access covers
(as shown on the drawing above)

Yesterday and today, I: 

• Paid the property inspector
• Paid my "earnest money" to the title company; essentially a small deposit which, in certain uncommon circumstances, I could lose if I back out of the sale. Very standard.
• Provided the title company with proof that I have the full cash purchase price covered across various banks
• Discussed with AH the inspector's preliminary verbal report, what items we would ask the seller take care of over the next week, and that I will pay for an inspection of the HVAC system (built-in vacuum) in the same timeframe (and AH will find someone to do the inspection)

Just wait until I get to Signing Day with the title company. Six squillion more documents to read and sign and then--erk--I hand over the purchase price to the title company!

Exciting! And not too scary; this will be the 5th home I've purchased over the years.

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Downsizing: Agility Equipment

SUMMARY: A-frame and Chute are free to good homes, maybe triple jump, maybe more, hard decisions 
(scroll down to "What am I not planning on taking with me when I move?")

Ooops, thought I posted this on Friday (the 16th). Guess I'm posting it now, and just backdating it.)

When I bought my current home, nearly 2 decades ago, my Agility Gung-ho-ness expressed itself dramatically by taking my money. And I don't mean classes or competitions or travel (although those were also true). I mean: Equipment! Full set! Here in my yard! To train fabulous world-class agility champions!

... we didn't get to world-class because I'm honestly too lazy to be that dedicated to training and improving our skills.  But it did help in achieving speed, accuracy, and championships of various sorts and quantities for Remington, Jake, Tika, and Boost.

What I had before moving here

• A teeter, gift of my then-husband less than a year before we split up.  It's not that he wasn't usually a kind and thoughtful guy, because he was. But--life happens. (1998, $400)

• A tunnel, a short 10-foot yellow one for which my agility instructor arranged group pricing, for her students and other agility folks. (1996, $100)

• Cheap weave poles, as in, I bought white stick-in-the-ground fence posts and tried using them (the little tabs all the way up them, however, were not an ideal surface).

• Cheap weave poles #2, as in, I bought a long metal strip from Home Depot and drilled holes in it and used very long bolts over which I dropped PVC piping of the correct size for agility. BUT turns out that that solid-seeming metal strip became astonishingly flexible when dogs raced through the poles.

• Cheap PVC jumps that I made using PVC for the bases and uprights, drilled holes through them, put a longish bolt through the holes, forming places on which to balance the crossbars.  This didn't work well for several reasons (e.g., in one direction, if the dog crashed the bar, the whole jump came down).

• Tire jump, made with an actual motorcycle tire and heavy-duty huge PVC frame and base.

What I splurged on in 2001/2002

• Table: Wood top with PVC base--to change heights, had to change out the PVC legs, which wasn't speedy, but it was lightweight. (2001, $100)
• Weaves: purple powder-coat w/adjustable offsets (screw in pole supports), 20" spacing, 2 folding 6-foot sections for easy transport (2001, $197)
• A-Frame:  From Duncan at Action K-9, one of the earlier makers of high-quality sturdy competition equipment. (2002, $865)
• Broad jump: 5-pc metal and wood, (2 short, 2 medium, one tall), flat tops --all of which made this obsolete for at least USDAA and CPE several years later, if it wasn't already that way because I think it was designed for AKC purposes. (2002, $174)
• Dogwalk: See Aframe. (2002, $752)
• Jumps!: Finally. Four official metal-frame with screw-on metal jump cups (2002, $170 total)
• Teeter base, adjustable height, heavy-duty metal base: Also Action K-9 (2002, $2.75)
• Tunnel: 20' heavy-duty double-walled teal & gray with 4" pitch--totally competition level. (2002, $360)
• Chute (aka closed tunnel): Competition quality plastic barrel with metal stand, 8' blue/purple/white sexy chute fabric! (2002, $251)
• Triple jump, whooo, big time! Purple powder-coated metal, 2 pieces (2002, $127.50)
• PVC for jump bars -- as needed, bought fancy tape and shelf paper to decorate them all with, ditto for the weaves. (Ongoing--minor costs)

Over time, added more jumps, more tunnels; retired jumps and tunnels as they rusted or wore out in the sun, replaced the table top once. The screw threads in my weaves rusted away, so that was useless, so replaced once with someone's no-longer-using 20" spaced official weaves, also eventually had issues, so replaced with someone's no-longer-using 22" spaced official weaves (of course at that time, USDAA had moved to 24" spaced weaves, so really they were no longer official). Resurfaced the teeter. A friend borrowed and resurfaced some of the Aframe.

What am I not planning on taking with me when I move?

• Aframe: Just too heavy for me these days. I haven't used it in several years, plus there is an important bit of damage that I can't fix myself. AND it's the old style textured surface, where now everyone uses rubberized. And it needs one critical bit of work.

• Chute: No one will want this, probably: All agility organizations canned them a couple of years back. Such a crowd pleaser (and I loved watching it), but they added too much time on the course (adjusting the fabric before each dog), and posed a risk to dogs who got tangled which BTW I also thought was unfair because that often added time to the dog's run and, really, there's only so much you can control with a fast dog through a floppy piece of fabric.  I ended up never using it except with each new/young dog or as a refresher once a year or so. So it's in excellent condition.

• Triple Jump: Sigh. Lovely purple thang. I think no organizations do this any more, either.

• Dogwalk: Erk. At the moment, I *am* planning on taking it, but it needs some rehab and repainting and it's the sort of equipment that (because of its weight) I'd likely just set up in one place and leave it there, which reduces a bit its usefulness for anything beyond the contacts themselves (complex sequencing with the walk in the same place always is a little predictable for the dogs...)  Still pondering. (And ditto on the rubberizing like the A-frame.)  

And... really... how much agility training will I ever want or be able to do in the future?  It is just a FUN thing, though!

What I AM planning on taking

• Jumps that are in reasonably good condition. This is maybe only half a dozen...

• Tunnels that are in reasonably good condition.  This might be only one or two... [frowny face]

• Table (... oh, and the tabletop needs cleaning and repainting)

• Teeter with both bases

• Tire jump--TBD?   Dunno--that motorcycle tire is heavy and needs to be retaped and is definitely not competition legal, and the big-old-PVC frame is broken in 2 places (works Oooookayyyyy just in the yard for basic use) that would require sawing and buying more pieces and measuring fit and gluing...  ugh. But the PVC is lighter than metal frames...   
  
  ... oh, also much cheaper, so I could build myself another one for not much other than time and effort. But how much would a real one cost me? Checking online--from inexpensive PVC-framed (but looks better made than mine) or used ones (quality TBD) to top-quality competition: $150 to $625 [really, J&J?!?!? REALLY?! -- I mean, Clean Run has one for $350-$525...]

• OK, tire jump NOT TBD, just talked myself out of taking it.

• Weaves. Even if they are only 22" span.

• Broad jump. I guess. It's not standard by far any more... but it's what I have and would probably work for basic training.

• PVC jump bumps for training (look up Susan Salo jump bumps).

• Tunnel bags - I have only 2 good pairs right now, and they fold flat once the sand/gravel is removed. ;-)

• Misc small other random stuff

Gallery of equipment fame and shame

Dogwalk when only a few years old. Glory days.

Dogwalk is about 30' long. 

Dogwalk needs... um... TLC?

A-frame in its younger age.

A-frame in my back yard. (Go straight across to the right from the green arrow.)
Takes up a lot of visual space and all in one large chunk. 

Aframe now. Mostly usable condition.

But this is a problem (bent pipe).

My teeter gets a lot of unauthorized use.

Why teeter needed resurfacing 10 years back. Replaced with fiberglass.
Currently, the metal parts are rusting and some of those surfaces are peeling away.
But I think it'll be OK.

Old tire parts I dragged out from behind the compost bins. Needs work.
But OK for occasional gentle use at the moment.

When expensive metal jump bases rust away... out they go.

Same model chute as mine. Beautiful colors! Mine has no duct tape.

When tunnels (purple) and tunnel bags (teal) are new and beautiful.

When Good Tunnels Go Bad...
and should really have been disposed of much earlier.

This is what USDAA broad jumps should look like.
Mine are flat across the top and form an upside down arc
instead of an ascending format.

My current weaves (except I've removed all the colored tape).
Weaves also take up a lot of space: 12 poles with 22" between.
(And modern poles have 24" between. So, yep, 22 feet long.)

Previous weaves. The pegs had screw bases so they could be put in line as usual
or you could move them out onto the tab to one side or the other for training.
Those little screw bases' threads rusted away, sometimes the entire screw base.

Tika demonstrates an unauthorized use of weave poles. 
Rules prohibit dogs from lying on their sides and
pulling themselves along the weaves by hooking paws over the poles. 
Such a rebel.

Meds for Tika

SUMMARY: Confounded dog brains, confounded drug prices.

Back on November 10, after that trip to the emergency room, I started Tika on the diuretic Disal (furosimide), 2x/day (half of a small disk-shaped pill).

On November 12, I realized that she also had that anal gland infection and started her on the antibiotic Cephalexin, 2x/day (one green capsule).

After we got the ultrasound done on November 19, which revealed the messy heart situation, we started her on Enalapril to keep her blood pressure down 2x/day (one small disk-shaped pill) and Vetmedin (Pimobendan) to strengthen her heart 2x/day (one large chewable tablet).

So she had 4 meds, twice a day, just chewing up the chewable tablet and the others each wrapped in a slice of string cheese. (Boost also got cheese to keep everyone happy.)

As of November 28, she had done the first one 36 times over 18 days, the 2nd one 32 times over 16 days, and the last two 20 times over 10 days.

Then she rejected the antibiotic. I rewrapped it several times, but by then she (the dog who snaps food from your hand, gulps it down and asks for more) was taking it each time very gingerly and then quickly spitting it out. Eventually the capsule just became soggy and I gave up on that one for the evening.

The next morning, Nov 29th, she spit out that one (with the cheese wrapping) and she also spit out the teeny tiny half of a Disal pill (also with its cheese wrapping). I did finally get her to take them both.

The renter all along has been saying "cream cheese is the best." He watched this production and again said, "cream cheese". I said that I've been giving dogs pills in semisoft cheese for years without any problems until right then and I was sure everything would be fine.

The next morning when I handed her the chewable tablet--keep in mind that she has cheerfully accepted and chewed 24 of them so far--she took it and spit it out immediately. I handed it back to her, same thing. I wrapped it in cheese. Same thing. I broke it in half and wrapped it in cheese. Same thing. What was going through that little brain that suddenly decided she wasn't going to chew those any more?

Finally I smeared it with peanut butter and that worked, but peanut butter is pretty greasy and smelly.

That evening, tried handing it to her plain again, but no, she was having none of it. So I went out and bought a tub of cream cheese. (And, hey, whatever happened to those foil-wrapped blocks that it used to come in? Now it's all in plastic tubs!)

Now she's consuming all the pills again happily as I surround each with a tiny blob of cream cheese. A bit messy but not as bad as peanut butter.

So.

Yesterday I went to the vet's to get refills on everything (except the antibiotics), and laid out over $150 for a month's supply. Yikes! Maybe this isn't as bad as cancer treatments, but that adds up to a lot of money that wasn't in my budget, for every month that she goes on surviving (which I hope she'll do for a long time).

Vet said that he'd gladly transfer any prescriptions that I could find more cheaply at human pharmacies (not the Vetmedin, of course). I'll look into that before the next refills.

Dang health care costs! Plus the price of the cream cheese! :-)

Update: Dec 5, 9:15AM PST: Funny thing: I took this photo a couple of days ago. You can see that the field is sopping wet from all the rain we'd received up through that morning. Just now I notice that the sprinklers are on in the far background! I never noticed them while we were there. Great use of our scarce water resources, eh?

Thank Goodness For Medicine

SUMMARY: Boost: Bladder infection.

Yes, Boost has a bladder infection, and a pretty good one, too. I feel better about the accidents that she had--it wasn't me or her screwing up, it was her infection.

SOOOOO my fourth 30-minute-one-way drive to the vet and back in 6 days, this time to pick up the antibiotics. And say goodbye to another $59.

Now I'm wondering...Tika's been doing a lot of licking lately in that same, er, area, and sometimes a little difficulty peeing. Could *she* have an infection, too? Do I want to spend another $200 to find out? Ack.

I may moan about the costs, but in truth I thank goodness that we have tests to figure out what's wrong and the means to treat it.

The Scary Vet Adventure

SUMMARY: In which we are all traumatized.

September was a rough vet month for all of us here at Taj MuttHall.

On Sept 16 and 17, Tika was suddenly in so much pain that she could barely stand up (as described here). We ended up at the vet for problem analysis.

Tika abhors going to the vet. So much so that, normally, I give her a tranquilizer an hour before we leave the house. Even so, she completely over-dramatizes the vet experience. For example, I pull into their parking lot, I pop out quickly, open the tailgate--and Tika is lying in her crate (instead of the usual "Let's go!" pushing to open the door), shaking. Quivering. How does she even know? Are the noises in that area so unique? I can't imagine that she smells much there--the windows aren't open. But who knows how--she knows.

I coax her out, and as we approach the door, she pulls on the leash away from there. In the waiting room, she paces and whines and will not settle, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. In the examination room, waiting for the vet to come in, she paces frantically in a clockwise circle around my chair, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. You know, those vets stick things where things should never be stuck.  She survives; she's actually very good through the exam, just panting heavily and tense and I have to hold her front end firmly.

I like my vet, but my wallet hates going to the vet, too. I can feel it quivering as we approach the front door.

Tika, as previously reported, decided just before we left for the vet that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her (which the vet confirmed), but I didn't give her a tranq this time because I wanted a better evaluation of her state. So, even for an evaluation that everything is OK, my wallet had things stuck where they should never be stuck--the credit card into the card reader.  $57 for the office visit. $55 for a refill on her Rimadyl for future painful episodes. And the standard $5 for "medical / toxic waste environmental fee". It's printed permanently on their invoices.

Meanwhile, Boost has had some potty issues. A week after and again two weeks after her prednisone stopped, but after she started hydroxyzine (all for her over-the-top scratching), she peed on my bed while lying there. The first time it was right after we went up to bed and she didn't want to go outside before that, while I brushed my teeth. Behavior? Illness? Medication?

So *she* went to the vet last Friday for an exam, and returned again this morning to give a urine sample. We arrived and I opened the tailgate--poor Tika is lying hunched in the back of her crate, quivering. Boost is not fond of the vet, either, but what a difference. The office door was ajar this morning, and she pushed it open to go inside. Her tail starts wagging--maybe it's an "I'm unhappy or worried" type of wagging, and she does tend to snuggle up to me a bit, but SO different from Tika! After the vet examines her, Boost gets off the table and lies down, completely relaxed. SOOOOOO different!

But my wallet still quivers: $57 for the office visit. $40 for "cystocentesis" ("a veterinary procedure where a needle is placed into the urinary bladder through the abdomen of an animal and a sample of urine is removed"), $54 for general urinalysis, $136 (!!) to culture the urine to check for a bladder infection.  And, of course, $5 for  "medical / toxic waste environmental fee".  Holy smackeroons.

Well, we will all soon recover from the trauma, I'm sure. Whoever thinks that owning a dog is cheap entertainment is in for a shock.

The Cost of Vanity

SUMMARY: The cost of "The Campaign"

I keep waffling emotionally on the whole Campaign that I've outlined for this year. I'm just thinking out loud here; I'm sure this is familiar ground.

Cost in weekends: With Tika's age goading me, I'm trying to fit in as much as I possibly can this year in competitions (CPE and USDAA only). You can see what a frightening red mess my calendar is with this plan. This really means probably cutting back again on everything else, because SOMEtime I'll have to do errands and chores and so on.

Cost in, well, money: Tika still needs roughly 90 Qs to finish her CPE C-ATE; with a roughly 74% Q rate, that means we need to enter about 120 runs, at $13/run. Sure, I'll get a few of those discounted for working, but not a lot of them. And as long as I'm running Tika, I might as well be running Boost, so double that.

Oh, yeah, and then there's gas prices going up again, and hotel costs for the winter months.

In USDAA, for Tika's LAA-Platinum, she needs roughly--huh, interesting--90 Qs. With a roughly 65% Q rate, we need to enter about 138 runs at an average of $14/run. Ditto on some discounted. Aaaaaand yes, if I'm running Tika, there's Boost, too.

Cost in other time: Really, if I'm going to be spending this much time competing, I need to push myself to spend more time (and possibly $) training out our weaknesses. And Boost has so many! I'm not sure whether seeing that her littermate Gina is in or near the Top Ten in all five categories this year is a motivator or a discourager. I counted down, and I think Boost actually made it into something like the Top 400 in a couple of categories. But I digress... this means more time, more focus, more planning...

Well, we'll see whether I completely melt down and decide to stop this madness. I entered only one trial in January to give myself a little break and the last one was Dec 9-11, so that's SORT of a month and a half off.

And we'll see whether I run out of discretionary dollars, too. I'm putting this ahead of some other delayed maintenance that I think can be delayed longer. Maybe I should go buy a lotto ticket.

A Good Time Was Had By One Too Many People

SUMMARY: CPE weekend out of town.

I really don't like getting up at 4 a.m. and driving two hours before I can compete in agility. I debated driving up to Santa Rosa Friday evening and staying in the same motel I was planning on staying in on Saturday night, but that meant leaving around 8:30 to avoid traffic and getting there pretty late in the evening, plus my budget is always a little tight and I didn't want to spend the extra $60-ish. Instead, I came up with the great idea of imposing on my gracious cousin and her spouse, who live only a few minutes off of my route and about halfway to Santa Rosa.

Got into the car Friday evening around 8:30, and the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. A few minutes of experimentation and growing panic before it occurred to me to find my spare key and try that. It worked. But I should probably take the car & the key in for a check-up and at least a replacement. That won't be cheap, probably.

I drove uneventfully up to Richmond, hauled my suitcase and computer and camera bag and purse and dogs all into the cousin's house, visited a bit, went to bed, and didn't get up until 5:15, which seems almost reasonable. Hauled everything back out to MUTT MVR, where I was puzzled to notice that the cover on my cooler was ajar. When I walked around to the driver's side, my heart sank as I saw that my door was partly open. Sure enough, someone had been in my car and had gone through the glove compartment and the "junk box" between the seats. That's where I keep my first aid kit, work gloves, cough drops, things like that--oh, yeah, and my old Olympus point and shoot that didn't work the last time I tried it, and my nearly new $500 Canon S95 subcompact, neither of which were there any longer. &%#@*%*!

Also apparently they had used the flashlight from my glove compartment, because it was lying on the floor, turned on, with the batteries almost completely discharged. Why on earth would the sight of a cooler make someone want to break into the car? I don't know what they were hoping for, but I take pleasure in knowing that all I had were cans of diet soda and bottles of water, and apparently those didn't interest them (although they sure dug around in the ice to be sure). And they didn't think to open the ashtray, where I had several dollars worth of change. So, hah!

I *think* that's all they got. I don't really remember what all was in my junk box or glove compartment. And apparently they didn't bother trying to dig around in the fully loaded pile of dog gear in the back.

But now I'm back to no point-and-shoot again. :-(

Still, I was surprisingly calm and undevastated by the whole thing. Maybe because it seems so minor compared to the major theft and insurance disaster of 2 and a half years ago. They didn't even break a window. Really, they slim-jimmed a car to get into the cooler for a beer?! Jerks.

Drove uneventfully up to Santa Rosa (hah, they also didn't steal my FastTrak toll gizmo, I noted as I went across the bridge), unloaded everyone and set up the Cabana Crates and all. About an hour into the trial, someone came to tell me that Boost had ripped open the side of her crate and was lunging out at dogs as they came by.

Sigh.
I don't know whether I can repair this. Might be a duct tape job. We'll have to experiment.

Boost made up a little bit of it by winning two bags of Zukes in the raffle--that'll save me $8 or 10, woohoo.

Saturday ran VERY long, mostly due to a new judge being supervised with long discussions and no nested courses, requiring significant course buils and more discussions each time. Still, I had a good time. I love agility people--and CPE trials. We had a costume contest in the evening with some really great costumes (I'll post photos later), then pizza dinner for about a dozen of us, just sitting and talking there at the show site.

The Motel 6 was comfy and I slept fairly well.

Sunday was a little more efficient. At the end of the day, we announced the winners of the Kevin Gast Memorial Award, which goes to the highest-scoring novice dog (defined as level 1, 2, or 3, who is not in a higher level in any other organization, either). Kevin was a fun guy who died suddenly and too young in 2008. Here's my photo of a blown-up photo they displayed of him and his shelties.

There's now a plaque for the winner and a perpetual plaque with each winner's name on it.

After we packed up, we ran the dogs ragged in the field by the agility ring, then a few of us went out to dinner (Denny's, and actually most of us had breakfast), then I headed home. Had to pull over about halfway home & sleep for an hour in a shopping-center parking lot. Home around midnight.

Anyway--RESULTS:

Tika picked up 8 of 10 Qs (knocked a bar in jumpers, drat, and another oddball gamble where I think she was heading for the correct obstacle and then pulled off--something she never used to do but seems to do more often now. Particularly odd since Boost, the sticky dog, did get it.) Boost picked up 7 out of 10, including that final pesky Colors Q to finish her CL4 title! Whew!

Boost missed BOTH Snookers, and one Standard where I misjudged a handling situation so she jumped a jump in the wrong direction, but she also finished her level 5 fun title, and Tika got her first EX title, EXSt (Standard--that's 30 Level C Qs--in the range of a USDAA Gold title).

Saturday

• Snooker: Well, Boost took herself out of the Perfect Weekend running first thing in the morning--a mess, really, and I think I bobble it so badly that I also confused the judge. Anyway, I just didn't really pick a good course for her, although Tika ran the same sequence successfully but messily as I was late or in the wrong place on my cues. Only a 2nd place for Tika.
• Standard: Boost and Tika both had nice runs, although Boost left the teeter early & I made her down, so wasted some time. Still, both 1st places & Qs.
• Standard #2: Just Boost. I underestimated how far she'd carry out in a certain sequence and so she backjumped a jump instead of coming inside it, but otherwise really nice. And she still came in 2nd of 4 dogs.
• Jumpers: Just Tika.  Nice fast run, fastest of all 50-ish level 4/5/C dogs.
• Gamblers (Jackpot): Tika had highest opening points of all dogs at the trial, but then pulled away from the gamble that I thought was right in front of her, for an NQ. Odd, because Boost--although we had some issues in the opening keeping us from quite as many points--actually got the gamble. So a win for Boost, and still a 2nd out of 4 for Tika despite the NQ.
• Wildcard: Both dogs ran nicely, and fast, too--only 3 dogs of all 70-ish 3/4/5/C dogs broke 20 seconds, and they were the fastest two of those three: 19.32 for Tika and 19.07 for Boost--ALMOST breaking 19!
•  

Sunday:

• Snooker,  again a mess with Boost, interrupted by the judge blowing the whistle when she shouldn't have, confusing me no end; she let us rerun but we were worse the 2nd time. Tika got through it nicely, doing 3 7s in the opening for a total of 51 and taking 1st in her class of 6.  Lots and lots of dogs got the 51 points, which made it even more embarrassing for not being able to get through it with Boost.
• Gamblers: This was nontraditional, and Tika did everything I asked her to except that in doing the 2nd (easier!) gamble, I lost my balance and stepped over the line before she exited the tunnel (another one of those dark tunnels where she seemed to be in there forever, the thing that made me wonder about her vision), so instead of having 70 points which would've been 5 more than anyone else in the whole trial, we ended with 55, and there were 8 dogs with more points than us. Boost also did both gambles, but we had some bobbles here and there, so ended up with only 56 as well. Still--first place in each of their classes, and Qs.
• Colors: Woohoo, Boost finally finished her last Level 4 Q! With a really nice run, 15.07 seconds. Not quite the fastest of all dogs in 3/4/5/C--that was an aussie at 14.78, wow. Tika's run seemed smooth to me, but she came in a lot slower at 16.87--but still, these were the only 3 dogs out of everyone in 3/4/5/C to break 17 seconds.
• Standard: Both dogs I thought had very nice runs. Tika felt only marginally slower by this time, and in fact she came in only 2nd in her group of 6. Boost I did a stupid handling maneuver and had to actually stop in the middle and line her up again. Even so--she was only 1.5 seconds slower than Tika and got a 1st.
• Jumpers: Both dogs had a bar down in the same general area of the course, but not sure if it was exactly the same bar. Nothing wrong with either dog's speed; Tika was 2 seconds slower than Boost although I think Tika had tighter turns. Boost had the 2nd fastest time of all 60 3/4/5/C dogs (.1 slower than on other dog in her exact same class, figures)--one of only 3 dogs to get below 23 seconds, at 5.85 yards per second--and Tika's 2 seconds extra made her only the 10th fastest. Yeh, think she's slowing down a bit.

SKILLS SURVEY:
Tika: Knocked one bar in one Jumpers course. Only one dogwalk and did that fine, one iffy Aframe departure, one turn-away in the gamble. Nothing really identifiable to work on.

Boost: Quite a few weaves this weekend, mostly 6-pole, but did them all great, even the 12-pole that headed into the fence while I moved away in the opposite direction.  Contacts: Leaving most of them early w/out a release; must must must fix this again. Bars: Knocked one in Saturday's snooker, one in our 2nd attempt at Sunday's snooker, knocked one in Sunday jumpers. 3 bars for the weekend isn't bad for her.  Runouts and refusals--just one run-by of a jump in gamblers, one turn-back on a series of obstacles where I got behind--I think mostly it was pretty smooth and she mostly kept moving and taking obstacles. I was pretty happy with her this weekend.

Start-line stays: Both dogs just lovely.

TITLE CHASING:

So, for Boost to get her C-ATCH (Agility Trial Championship)

• 6 standard
• 5 colors
• 2 wildcard
• 3 snooker (can't believe we didn't Q on EITHER one this weekend. Doh! Our Snooker "curse" continues even into CPE!)
• (She already has all she needs of Full House, Jackpot, and Jumpers, go figure--but really that's because you can Q at level 5 in Jumpers with a bar down, which she did this weekend)

For Tika to get her C-ATE (Agility Team Extraordinaire):
She has 4035 points, so needs 965  more. I estimate an average of 21 pts per run based on the distribution of points per class, so realistically, 46 Qs. At an average Q rate of about 80%, that's about 60 runs that we have to sign up for. Am signed up for 15 at WAG thanksgiving. Bay Team March I think will have 9 runs, not sure yet about Bay Team July, either 8 or 10 I'd guess. So that still leaves another 27 runs to sign up for--so another 3 or 4 trials beyond those three.

Sigh. That's still a lot of extra agility weekends.

Gratuitous photo, too cute for words:

Meanwhile, I noticed an odd pattern--so to speak--in people's clothing on sunday.

Milestones--literally

SUMMARY: Odometer, gas prices

Since we went two weeks without agility class or agility of any kind, maybe I'm not driving as much. Although I am doing a little commuting lately.

Thursday sometime, MUTT MVR went past this nice round milestone, and I wasn't doing anything related to dogs, unlike most other significant odometerifications.

It's been two whole weeks since I've needed to buy gas. Back then, at the discount station nearby, I was shocked--shocked!-- to see what prices had gone up to:

Yesterday--same station, 14 days later, brand new shock:

Those drives out to agility trials are looking less and less appealing again.  And bad timing for me to decide that commuting to my client's site instead of mostly working at home is a good idea. Ah, well.

Tis The Season To Screw Someone Over

SUMMARY: Credit card!

I haven't done much with my credit card lately, seeing as how I've been mostly home sick. I did make some buys online, and something at the pharmacy this morning, and something else lately that's not coming to mind.

I do remember joking with someone at some store about how the dogs getting the credit card would be very bad, even worse than the fact that they're always sneaking into my facebook account and posting annoying things. We laughed. [Where was that? Making me nuts not remembering.]

Who knew that I wouldn't be laughing long?!

It probably wasn't the dogs.

Remember at the end of the October when I thought my wallet was stolen and so canceled my credit card and ordered a new one? So didn't have a credit card for almost a week? And then had to go remember and change allll my recurring accounts over to the new number?

Sigh. Doing it again.

I got home this afternoon to find a partial recording from my credit card company: "...unusual activity on your card. If this is Ellen Finch, press 1." Well, neither the dogs nor the answering machine pressed one. So I looked up their number and called, thinking, yeah, well, this *is* December, and so?

But, sure enough, there were a bunch of things that they listed that I didn't recognize from yesterday and today, one that was hand-written that they had already denied and another that they'd denied for some reason. But a couple they'd let through.

Of course, now my online account is frozen for the moment, so I have to wait until the new card comes in and/or for about 3 days for it to be unfrozen, so then I can go through all the charges and identify what's real and what's not.

Here's the kicker: They have a cool tool where you can get a temporary number that's good for a certain amount from a certain vendor for a certain time period. I used it religiously for online orders, until one day, a few months back, that function no longer worked. I called them to say, hey, I really need a number. And the guy to whom I spoke (I have no idea whether I wrote his name down, because it didn't seem important at the time), said, oh, you don't really need to use that. It's kind of nice, but since you have protection on your credit card anyway, you don't need to go through that trouble all the time. Just use your regular number.

OK, so I did. The thing is: If there is a problem--like now--they have to shut down my regular card and number and I have to go through all this fuss and bother and be without a card. In contrast, if someone tries to use one of the temporary numbers, (a) it probably won't go through, (b) they can probably track better where the problem occurred, and (c) my regular card and number are still safe and usable!

He seemed puzzled why anyone at their company would ever tell me not to use that feature. I assured him that I'd go back to using it and hope that it works.

So--merry Christmas. Guess I'm not finishing my shopping until the very last minute this year! And rest assured that I'll be keeping a close eye on my dogs' spending habits.

Maintenance Costs and Built-In Obsolescence

SUMMARY: Garden tools and dogs.

I have this newish lawn mower. Bought it just a few years ago, after discovering that the cost to sharpen my 25-year-old mower was more than half of what a new one cost (on sale). It was only a push mower, no engine parts, so really it could've gone on forever, and how much improvement could they really have made in a manual push mower? But some parts were having trouble staying in place, the height adjustment didn't adjust much at all, and I decided to replace. I freecycled the old one.

Now the new one needs sharpening--did you notice the long and ragged lawn in those weaving Boost photos last wednesday? Because I have to go over it 2 or 3 or 4 times, not a fun prospect. So I'll pay my $65 and wait a week and then hopefully it will once again coup de grace--er, cut the grass--as nicely as when it was new.

The hedge trimmer that I absconded with from friend Steph a few years back--hmm, did I ever pay her for it? think not--tsk--now needs either sharpening or new blades. Because, instead of cutting my shrubs, it's now mostly massaging them. I'm sure the hedges feel more relaxed, but I don't. But sharpening--several places won't do it, the only quote I got was for $75 but they'd "have to see it first". New blades--hard to find them on the web; don't know how old the trimmer is, but they're special order & take 2 weeks and cost almost $50 including postage (that's assuming that the company knows what it's talking about; a couple others said that they're obsolete and no longer available).

I also called the manufacturer for instructions on blade replacement (because it wasn't intuitively obvious). And the instruction manual for this model isn't on their regular web site. The very nice lady found me the manual online, but it has no blade-replacement instructions. Oh, no, she said, you won't find that kind of instruction in any of our manuals. But if you call the service center in Hayward (that is, it's a toll call), and ask for a technician, I'm sure they'd be glad to explain how to do it.

Sooooo I decided I'd spent enough time already on this, went down to Sears which is right down the street and which has some well-rated hedge trimmers, and bought a new equivalent one (on sale) for about what I'd have paid for blades for the old one.

And as for the dogs-- when they're asking you to tote up your annual costs for having household canines, I don't think they usually include vacuum cleaner bags. Mine fill up quickly! Have to replace them almost every time I vacuum. Which is, OK, not all that often, but I probably go through 20 bags a year.

...OK, OK, that's not a *huge* expense, but still--it's one of those hidden costs that just add up. On the other hand--letting the hair fall on the floor is a lot cheaper than taking them to the groomers.

But, if I were to spend some time this week combing, and then using my new hedge trimmer to defrazzle my hedges, and my newly sharpened lawnmower to trim my lawn, man, next week I should be able to get some really nice, well-maintained-looking photos! Looking forward to it.

Customer Service from Arco

SUMMARY: A divergence from dog agility for a moment.

"Get an arco debit card and connect it to your existing bank account! Save the 45 cent fee every time you buy gas!"

How cool does that sound? I mean, who doesn't love saving money? And I buy gas at Arco almost exclusively because it's cheaper than anywhere and it's nearby. I can't use a credit card, and cash is a pain, and the ATM card has a 45-cent Arco fee, but it's still cheaper per gallon than other places and I don't have to waste more time driving farther afield.

(Wait-- dog agility is the primary reason for being in MUTT MVR and for using gas, so this *is* an agility-related post. Ta-da!)

So: I take their brochure home, go to the web site, fill in a bunch of data, and finally get to the point where it tells me to provide info from my card--but wait, I don't have a card yet! That's what I'm applying for! So I have to print a copy of the page with the instructions so I can pick up where I left off when the card (presumably) arrives in the mail.

Which it does, several days later. It has a sticker on the front: "Visit the web address printed on the back of your card". There is no web address printed on the back of the card. Believe me, I read every tiny mangled fine-print word and there IS no web address there.

But there is a web address on the information sheet that came with the card, so I go there. Next, I have to go to my credit union's online site and log in and look for a one-cent transaction that the Arco card has done to make sure it's connected correctly, and get the transaction code, and write it down. Back to Arco site.

(A) I have to read an agreement to get everything online, which I don't like but I have no choice--I can LATER request to get paper copies if I want, but that's a special process. That's annoying and time-wasting but I'll have to do it at some point because I do not want to get my stuff online. Why can't they just let me choose now? Because they're hoping that most people won't bother.

(B) I fill in my name, the card's 15-digit number, the 13-digit "loyalty code" (or something like that), which isn't text that appears anywhere on the card; they have to explain that it's the numbers below the bar code on the card--do they mean to include the digit that's NOT below the barcode? Dunno, it's a zero, so hopefully it doesn't matter. And my name. And my date of birth. And the last digits of my SSN. And the transaction code from my credit union. I pick a username and a password (have to type it twice) and pick a security question and type the answer (twice) and ANOTHER security question and type the answer (twice), and then it tells me that the username is taken and try again.

(C) At least it doesn't make me retype everything. I try another username and apparently that works. Then I get a box in which to to type a PIN of my choice, surrounded by a bunch of hoohah about Java. Well--can't type into the box. So I have to read all the stuff about Java. It's a little confusing (mind you, I'm a software technical writer who's been on the technical side of computing for mumble decades--and it's a little confusing). I click some link that looks useful, and it takes me to a window that talks about Internet Explorer and Windows. I, of course, am using Firefox on a Mac. I have to browse around a bit to finally find instructions dealing with Mac.

So maybe these instructions are Sun's, not Arco's, but it tells me to open a Terminal window and click the magnifying glass. There is no magnifying glass in the Terminal window. It tells me to type something into the dialog box. There IS no dialog box, fer crying out loud, this is TERMINAL! (Like the Run window on Windows.) So I skip that, because it looks like I can go to the next step, which is to type a change directory command. I type it, and there's no such directory. I recheck the spelling and I type it again and there's still no such directory. So I can't very well follow the rest of their instructions.

So I give up on that and return to the PIN window. There's a link there to have them GIVE me a PIN instead of picking my own, and OK, I figure I can probably change it later if I want to, so I click that, and it gives me a PIN, and then it says "there was a problem with your verification, call this number." Of course it's evening, and they're only open during earlier Eastern Standard Times, so I have to wait until the next morning.

Next morning, I call. Go through about 3 levels on the phone tree, and then speak to a person who says this is the wrong phone number, let me look up the right one for you. He gives me the number and transfers me (at least I don't have to hang up and redial). I have to go through what appears to be the *same* phone tree options, at which point I actually speak to the right person.

Well, sort of.

She says, there's no sign that your verification went through, you'll have to try again. And I said I already spent plenty of time trying to get it to work online, I just want to verify it now. She said that it's impossible; they require you to do it through the web site and she apologizes for that, wishes she could help me do that.

She said that browsers other than Windows Explorer just don't work, so use Explorer. I said that I don't want to have to install software I'm not using just to verify the card. She suggested that I find a friend who has a computer with Explorer on it. I said that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard--what ever happened to calling an 800 number and getting instant verification? She said they've determined that it's more secure because of their special Java online security routines.

She continues being very apologetic--says that she has to listen to people call in all the time who can't do the verification because they don't have Windows or Explorer or can't figure out how to install the required Java or the PIN window doesn't work or whatever. She said it's broken and she thinks they tried to fix it but couldn't. She also recommended a Windows system rather than Mac because it might not work on the Mac even if I get Explorer and the right Java installed. She said, Java is always installed with Windows Explorer, so if you use a system with Explorer on it, you don't have to worry about the Java.

Oh, and she said, just before we hung up, whatever you do, don't let it pick a PIN for you, because that doesn't work and you'll have to start over. What?!?

So I get a Windows system, run Internet Explorer, go back to the web site, and it does not recognize my username and password. So I start over from scratch, retyping EVERYTHING (see (A) and (B)) and get to the PIN box--and it still doesn't work! So I follow the instructions about determining whether the correct version of Java is installed, and, guess what, the instructions don't work. So I figure out that, ah ha, Java is NOT installed at all (not simply the wrong version) on the Windows machine with Explorer, so I have to get to the right page to download and install the right version of Java (and the process for getting there isn't entirely clear), and then I have to restart Explorer.

Which I do, go to the web site, and it STILL doesn't recognize my username and password! So I have to repeat EVERYTHING in (A) and (B) and finally get to the PIN window, and, wow, it works.

So, now, between trying to follow unclear, incorrect, and incomplete instructions, having to repeat typing things I've already typed multiple times, trying to figure out what the right thing is to do, getting to a computer that will allow me to do what I need to do, calling support and going through various phone trees and filing a voice complaint about what a mess this is, downloading and installing software that I was doing fine without on every web site I've visited in the last year or so including many online purchases and online banking, FINALLY NOW I can save 45 cents each time I buy gas at Arco. Which is about 30 times a year.

Given the number of what could have been billable hours but weren't because I've spent getting it all this done (and now typing this note), I figure I'll have to use the card for about 15 years to break even.

I love saving money.

Cars Got Passwords?

SUMMARY: How does it know I made the last payment? Looking at my bank statement?

Paid off MUTT MVR in January. Figured I'd take it in for a check-up in early February, which was wayyy overdue. Didn't look bad at all, only >>gulp<< $900 worth of maintenance and repairs. Plus one more thing that they needed to order a part for, another $150 (including labor).

Took MUTT MVR back today to get that part installed. I walked home with the dogs--35 minutes over 2 miles including plenty of halts for reminders about pulling on the leash. Nice day for a really brisk walk, too.

The work was pretty quick, took them only a couple of hours, even with all of the recall business they're having to deal with at the moment. Their shuttle came & took me over there, I paid my bill, got into MUTT MVR. Rolled up the windows that the technician had rolled down--and--

Crunch, the passenger side window made an awful noise and just stuck halfway up. I know it's not something they did, just miserable coincidence. It made a funny noise a week or so ago when I had it open and reclosed it. That was the window broken into last May and replaced. Thought maybe a piece of broken glass was still in there and had jiggled loose, but of COURSE didn't think about it when I took it in this morning.

They managed to manhandle it closed so I can drive around without rain or pigeons coming through the window. Labor estimate to take it apart and see what's wrong--another $130. Best guess, it's the whooziewhatzer scissoring mechanism that raises and lowers the window. Bet that's not free.

How do vehicles KNOW that they're paid off?! Curses.

Trick Dog Titles

SUMMARY: Why don't I think of these things?

Not only has this clever woman published a book of 101 dog tricks, but she has grouped them into 4 levels of difficulty and has associated Trick Dog titles with them! And for a mere fee, you, too, can register your dog, then (apparently for additional fees) get certificates with your dog's name proving that you've earned the titles.

You have to have witnesses sign a statement that they've read the trick description in the book so that they know how it's supposed to be performed, so you can't just say, yeah, I did it.

Plus now (for a fee) you can earn your trick dog instructor certificate, too!

Why do *I* not think of these things? Because the form for earning your titles is so inviting, and I am SO wanting to earn those titles. I am such a sucker--

Earn Your Trick Dog Title.

Agility the Sport of Submillionaires

SUMMARY: Time to win the lottery.

I try not to think too hard about it. I try to make sure my checkbook balance doesn't drop below zero. But, really, agility isn't cheap and it isn't getting any cheaper.

This April features the now-entrenched annual 4-day extravaganza of agility known as Haute TRACS, co-hosted by two clubs.

Not only does it cost me two days off work--plus whatever lodging or camping fees I care to pay (unless I want to drive 2 hours out and back every day--then it's just gas and argh lack of sleep...)--but just the entry fees are astounding. It's not that much more than twice a 2-day weekend of agility, but they are cramming every class known to mankind, multiple times, into their four rings of step-right-up agility entertainment.

Here's what you crazed agility addicts get for your agility dollars:
DAM Team (5 runs. Plus wouldn't "5 Run Dam" be a great name for a rap group?)
Steeplechase (1 run guaranteed plus 2nd round if you qualify)
Grand Prix (1 run)
Standard (4 (!) runs)
Gamblers (3 runs)
Snooker (3 runs)
Jumpers (3 runs)
Pairs Relay (2 runs)

That's wayyy jeeez holy dogedo a bunch of running! Particularly with two dogs. I love it--great exercise mentally and physically for me and the dogs, lots of friends and excitement.

Can't say I wouldn't be happier with only 2 or 3 days, though; four days is a very long, very exhausting weekend. Which makes one think that one should take *another* day off work on Monday to regroup one's depleted axons and muscular fibers.

And the entry fees for all this, if you choose to enter everything, per dog? $270. If you have the know-how and the willingness (latter is a big issue), you can sometimes earn free entries for ONE dog by working your buns off in a trial job all day. I do this whenever I can. And that also sometimes earns me bonus money-off certificates to save up for future entry fees. So I'm lucky enough to get a fairly big discount for this trial. But that does not, alas and alack, translate to free.

Now, horsey people (aka my sister) would tell you that the entry fees are trivial compared to horse show entry fees. Plus I can throw my dogs in the back of my van and they can sleep with me on my hotel bed. Minivans and hotel beds get a little crowded when you cram in those horses (plus you think your spouse's feet are cold under the blankets, try horseshoes).

I would have added that, with dogs, if you mess up, you're not likely to get thrown head over heels and land on your head and end up in the hospital unconscious (like you would with horses) except that exactly that happened to a club member earlier this year, but still I think it's less common with dogs than horses.

So, anyway, it's a good thing I'm the sister who grew up liking dogs. Sister can have her horses and horse shows!

Plus, "Sister Can Have" would be a great name for a rock band.

Good News/Bad News

SUMMARY: To start the year running, I've got good news and bad news. And more good news. Etc.

Gratuitous dog photo: Dogs love riding in the car around the neighborhood when they don't have to be in crates.

• Good news: My house appraised for much more than I thought it might in this market.
• Bad news: That means my property taxes will keep going up, not down like so many other people's.
• Good news: That might mean that it's a shoo-in for my refi application to go through. Just waiting to hear when closing should be--I think--

• Good news: Paid off the last 73 cents on MUTT MVR last week!
• Bad news: It's wayyyy overdue for its xxx,000 mile check-up.
• Good news: Passed its smog check again.

• Good news: Tika has been running around like a lunatic without her bootie and no signs of a sore foot. Ran her two runs (jumpers courses with weaves) and she was fine. Haven't tried contacts again yet.
  
• Bad news: She continues to look, every once in a while, like she's sore for a few minutes or more.
• Good news: It goes away again. But I wish I knew--our next trial is in just under 2 weeks, and she's signed up for a day of agility.

• Good news: Boost loves doing agility.
• Bad news: In class last week, after we've done virtually no agility for 3 weeks, she popped out of the weaves EVERY time at the 10th pole as I moved away from her. Instructor said, well, I had to support in in N following ways, and I was maybe rude and said, no, I don't have to, this is why we practice weave distractions down to the bone at home until I can't get her to pop for any reason.
• Good news: When I finally just picked her up, carried her off the field, and put her away until the next run--then the next time, she did the weaves all the way through.

• Bad news: Shattered tooth down into the root. Happy New Year! The dental surgeon I had to go to to get it excavated said I didn't *quite* win the prize for the most pieces of tooth to be dug out.
• Good news: Didn't hurt before, hurt afterward more than I had hoped but less than I had feared, and only for that first evening, and it's been fine ever since.
• Bad news: I dread finding out how much an implant is going to cost. No dental insurance.

• Good news: Doctor says, Those things? They're harmless. They're called ruby spots (cherry angiomas).
• Bad news: Yeah, you'll probably keep getting more. Yeah, they can get bigger.
• Good news: Can burn them off with liquid nitrogen. [Like warts, I guess.]
• Bad news: THAT's not a fun procedure. And it can scar. Either way, I'm going to end up looking like a giant polkadot by the time I'm 100.
• Good news: Remind myself: they're harmless.
  

Tika sees another dog while on leash:

Competitive Dog Sports -- Another Pass-Around Thang

SUMMARY: About me & my dog sports.

Found on Facebook. I'm posting here because I've answered many of these questions before and I'm just going to link to 'em. If you want to do this note on facebook and tag your dog-sport pals, copy & paste these instructions as well as the rest of the content:
Copy and paste the content below, then erase the other person's answers and put in your own. Tag as many Dog Nuts as you can think of, including the person who sent it to you as "first tag." Don't be shy to make your answers long, if need be.

NOTE: This will be a very long read if you also read the links in which I answer some questions at length. Don't you have something better to do with your time?

List the dog sports in which you compete. If you have a particular favorite please tell us, and tell us why!
Agility!

Is there anyone you'd like to thank or BLAME for getting you into competitive dog activities?
My obedience instructor started taking agility classes and recommended it to me. For my active, eager dog. Who is also clearly to blame.

Please tell the story of how you got started in dog sports. Where/when (year please, don't be shy!)/why/etc.
Remember, you asked. (First competition: January 1996.)

What is your FAVORITE thing about dog sports, and what is your LEAST FAVORITE?
One answer, from June 2009, on "why agility?"
What I hate about agility? Disappointing myself, sometimes; the expense; the amount of time it takes away from everything else in my life.

What breeds or mixes thereof do you/have you owned? Please list their name, their breed (or mix thereof) and then their BEST quality as a sport dog and their WORST quality as a sport dog.
Whoa, can you believe I've never done a post on this? (At least not that I'm finding.) This would make a good future blog post. Summary:

• Remington, Squirrelhund (Lab/Shepherd probably). Almost never dropped a bar. Loved to learn. Could be pretty fast. Extremely sensitive to my moods and shut down a lot.
• Jake, Semidachshund (sheltie mix probably, maybe beagle?). Took forever to learn anything new. But once he got it, very reliable.
• Tika, Craussie (Aussie cross, maybe Husky?). Pretty darned fast, loves doing agility, easily distracted, fights the "rules" every step of the way. 
• Boost, Border Collie. Extremely fast and driven. Loves to learn. Very focused. Wants to do agility. Light on the concepts of keeping bars up and doing weaves from beginning to end.
  

How many dog beds do you currently own and what did you pay for the most expensive one?

• Double-thick bathmats once were primary dog beds. (3 or 4, bought on clearance for about $15 each in the early '90s. Tucked away now or used at trials when sleeping in the van.)
• Official dog mats, thick pile fleece with blue border. (3, one in kitchen, one in crate in bedroom, one for trials. About $15 each at pet stores through the years.)
• Raised PVC bed frames with rip-stop "hammock". (3, one in office, two in kitchen. Bought one at giant February AKC dog show at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds. Two bought at USDAA Nationals in Scottsdale. $55 each in 2001. )
• Big thick dog bed cushion with zippered cover. (2, both in office, one on a PVC bed frame--which the dogs take turns using--one from Costco about $20, one won in agility trial raffle.)
• Down-filled bed with stuff bag. (1, stored in closet, won in raffle.)
• Giant fleece/fabric sturdy throw used as dog bed in my bedroom. (1, won in raffle.)
• Smaller fleece rectangle with raised sides in my bedroom. (1, won in raffle.)
• Spiffy actual nice plush dog bed, bought for Jake with a Christmas gift certificate to PetSmart (so it was either free or $79.99, depending on your viewpoint, which could make it the most expensive). (Jake died only a month later, but he loved it while he had it. Tucked in the corner of my office, Boost uses it all the time. Tika sometimes uses it.)

(Short post in which this photo originally appeared.)

What is the most you ever paid for a large bag of dog food? Probably $55. Same thing sells at a discount at nearby Pet Club for $35.

What is the most you have ever paid for a dog toy, and what was it?
No clue. Probably in the $20 range from time to time.

List the vehicles you have bought specifically for traveling to and from dog competitions.
MUTT MVR! Read my 2005 post about it in the Quintessential agility car.

What is the furthest you have ever traveled in order to attend a dog event?
Scottsdale, Arizona (USDAA Nationals 2004,05,06,07,08).
Second furthest: Either San Diego, CA (USDAA Nationals, 2000 and 2001), or Eureka, CA (2002, chasing the last gambler's let for Remington's NATCH).

How many dog-related pieces of clothing do you currently own?
As of March 2007.

How many dog toys do you own? Don't forget to include the ones in the car and in various closets and at your in-laws' house.
As of November 2008. (Remember that you can click on a photo to see a larger version of it to make out more details.)

(Read the original post that goes with the photo.)

How many dog-related books do you own?



Remember that you can always click on a photo here to see a larger version of it if you want to browse bowser titles yourself. (Read the post that goes with the photo.) Here's the list of the books as of 2006. (Read the short post that goes with the list.)

Have you ever been bitten by a dog? If so what were the circumstances?
Accidentally when Jake and Remington got into a fight between me, the couch, and the coffee table.

Has your dog ever peed/pooped/barfed someplace that they really shouldn't have? If so, tell us what happened!
Are you kidding? I own dogs! Duh!

Has your dog ever stolen a major item of human food? Tell us!
Not that I recall.

When competing in dog sports, did you ever admire someone else's dog from afar so much that you will always remember that dog? If so, please tell us all about it.
So many dogs! Several Border Collies stood out, including one who would eventually become Boost's mom. Several mixed-breed dogs! I love their distinctive looks and how well they do even against Border Collies.

Of all your friend's dogs, which dog would you like to take home and keep if you had the chance? You can list three, just to be fair...or just one if you're ruthless!
I've had such a wide variety of my own, I now know that there is no perfect dog. Any one will have its issues and its successes. I don't covet others's dogs.

What has been your most embarrassing moment thus far while competing in dog sports?
Probably a tie between:

• Me and Jake running a beautiful first half of a Pairs Relay course, to have our partner cry, "Where's the baton?!" as I came racing in, empty handed. (That's an automatic disqualification.)
• Running into the teeter totter. Read about it here.

What has been your most shining moment thus far while competing in dog sports?

Oh, so very many! Jake's MAD (the first I ever earned). Remington's NATCH (my first dog's championship, FINALLY). Winning Full House with zillions of points over and over in CPE trials with Tika and Boost. Boost doing the weave poles correctly! Winning a ribbon at USDAA Nationals with Tika in an individual event. Making Team finals at the USDAA Nationals with Tika. Finally getting Jake's 5th Gamblers Q for his ADCH. Finally qualifying for Grand Prix semifinals with Tika with a smooth and beautiful and aggressive run. Having a Perfect Weekend with Tika. Earning a trophy at CPE Nationals with Tika--one Q away from a perfect 3-day Nationals with 1sts or 2nds in everything (and I mean of everyone competing, not just her class). Remington getting excited about agility again and running like when he first started. Jake jumping into my arms at the end of a run. I dunno--I could go on and on. 220 trials over 14 years--lots going on in there!

What are your goals for the future with your dogs?

Not sure any more. Once upon a time it was to win More First Places and Make It To the Nationals Finals. But now, I dunno, I'm thinking "retire and do a lot of hiking."

If the Dog Fairy could grant you one wish (sky is the limit), what would it be?

I love my dog family the way it is now. Love the dogs, love how they get along together, love how they've come along in their training. Don't want to have to start over again. Keep them around and healthy and active for many many years.