Practice Drills - Continued

Continuing on from here.

Alas, when I went out Saturday to practice, I discovered they had picked up my course to mow the field.  And they had set up new courses all over the place, including encroaching on my 40' x 50' space, despite the fact that I chose an out of the way spot that is rarely ever used, where the grass doesn't grow!

It feels like my project is being thwarted.  No matter. I set it up again.  I marked the fence with yellow rope to tell our yard man not to mow this spot.  Then I received an email from a club member who complained that no one member can commandeer a spot all for themselves and she'll break it up whenever she wants.  I need to get our Agility Director to put out a notice that this is a sanctioned experiment to benefit all our members, not just me.

Last night my tent stakes came in so I'll go ahead and prepare the holes for the tumblers. We'll see what happens next.

Upwards and onward!

Practice Drills at my Dog Club

I finally finished a project I started last spring, getting permission and setting up a section of our club's field for PRACTICE DRILLS.  I screwed a weather-proof letter box (like realtors use in front of houses for sale) to a tree, and the plan is each month or so I'll put a laminated copy of some Practice Drill in it for all our agility members to use.  I found 4 sets of sturdy colored tumblers in blue, green, orange and pink (4 for $1) at Dollar General, and used 2" stick on numbers 1-12 on each set.  I'm starting with Clean Run's series of the Back Yard Dog . . . . . I have 4 years worth of those so I won't run out soon.   I color-coded each course on the article to match the tumblers. This is probably only doable in fall-early spring when the grass isn't growing and the course can stay up for awhile.  I can recycle the laminated copies (I have a laminating machine so it's not that expensive) every few years if I run out of time to find new ones.

I tried the first 4 sequences myself a few days back, first with Maxie then changing the bar height for Lucky, in beautiful pre-fall weather, and it was quite a workout! The dogs enjoyed it and were jealous for their turns.  Noticing that a little table would be convenient, I brought one of my plastic ones from home.

Alas, I went out there for class last night and someone had already removed the tunnel and knocked over/moved some of the numbers.  When I got home I sent out notice to club members about the project, and added a polite line about not disturbing things.  Today I ordered some tent stakes (which I found cheap on amazon.com) and I'm going to poke a hole in the bottom center of each tumbler (with a hot ice pick) and secure each tumbler to the ground.  Hopefully this will deter dogs, wind, and people from moving them around.

And the little project keeps growing.  I am now thinking of a way to keep track of who uses it.  If it isn't much used, it won't be worth the effort.

Upwards and onward!

My Parent's 65th, and I'm Stuck Home With The Dogs

Kiwi Daisy Fruit Bouquet

Yesterday was my parents' 65th Wedding Anniversary!  No way I could make it to Cape Coral, Florida or leave my pack at home alone all day for a week.  The rest of the 28 kids, grandkids and great grandkids, who are scattered all over the place (see list below), couldn't go either except for my brother Londo who lives in Tampa, his son Mac and Mac's daughter, Angela (both in from Washington State), who all took them out to lunch.  Carole helped me contact everybody, and all pitched in together to send a huge floral centerpiece with 2 tapers, a Kiwi Daisy Fruit Bouquet, and a dozen chocolate covered strawberries made to look like long stem roses in a box, which Carole ordered online from Edible Arrangements. Various family members spent time on the phone with them and comparing notes with each other.  It was a festive and exciting day.  And appropriately expensive!

Floral Bouquet, which smelled good.

The strawberry roses, in a long stem roses box.

I also scribbled out a little essay , just thoughts that I unfortunately didn't have time to refine or turn into a poem by the due date, and printed it up on specialty paper, entitled

Marble Plaque

Madeleine et Lou! Les Chefs Francaise/Americanne!
Reflections on 65 Years of Marriage

I rolled it into a scroll and mailed it to them in a box with a card signed with the names of all 28 of us, a pearl bracelet for Mom, and a white marble plaque which reads: 

"Family, because two people fell in love."

Mom is wearing her pearl bracelet. The green bouquet of
Chocolate Covered Strawberries is what came in the long red box.

Eating FRENCH fries on their 65th!  How appropriate, for a FRENCH war bride!
Dad, Mom, Mac and Angela.  Londo is taking the picture.

Londo, Mom &; Dad

All this together was a feat of coordination over several days, all arrived on time, and it had the desired effect of overwhelming them. They have called several times already to say thank you and recite each and every gift.

Lon brought a cake.

Here are the 28 names that were signed on the cards:

Kids:
Londo & Linda
Dave & Carole
Michele & John



Grandkids:
Melynda, Jennifer, Heather
Scott, Mac
Anne, Margo, Ryan
Nathan

Great Grandkids:
John, Marie, Jordon, Jimmy, Angela, Amanda, Blake, Laura, Kelsey, Caitlin, Kristin, Dylan, Jonathan

I was chastised for not including the names of the great great grandkids, but I simply don't know who they all are or how many.  If I have misspelled someone's name or you would like me to correct this list, write to me at msfry@pmnotary.com

P.S.  8/1/2010 Yesterday, Londo's photos of the occasion arrived.  So today I was finally able to illustrate this little memoir and send it around to everyone.