Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day

In many ways this is a bittersweet day for me, as this is the first Valentine's Day since 1998 that I haven't been able to celebrate Flash and my anniversary with her. We have both come a long way from that day 12 years ago when my little bundle of trouble came home, but I can honestly say she was the best Valentine's gift I ever got (and probably ever will!). She really is an awesome dog, and hopefully next year we'll be able to eat cookies and sit around together.

I was, however, able to go up to Syracuse for an agility seminar with Tracy Sklenar, where I met Mom and Queezle. The Q was very happy to see me, and we had a good time and learned some things we need to work on with her jumping style and confidence (Mom didn't bring Flash because it was too cold for her to be outside and she would have just barked like crazy the whole time if she was inside).

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

February Already?

Sigh... I've been slacking. In my defense, I was attending 3 extra classes on top of my actual 5, so the world will just have to forgive me. The good news is, after two weeks of going to four different Creative Writing classes, I got in three! I was then able to pick the time slot that made the most sense for me and politely declined the other two offers. So I am now down to 5 classes and 18 credits, and I'm even enrolled in all of the classes I'm going to!

In other news, I finally found a reason to be glad I don't have any dogs with me. Yesterday coming in after my last class I discovered that there was barbecue sauce all over my sneakers - by sticking my hand in it as I went to take them off. I washed most of it off but they still bring back memories of summer picnics, and would be very enticing to any canine companions.

I haven't seen my own beasts since January, but I did have a brief run-in with an elderly Border Collie near one of the dorms. When I first saw her she was moseying around in the open area between two buildings, and then she headed to one of the doorways. She looked kind of lost and there were no other people around, so I went up to her to see if she had contact information on her collar. She wagged her tail and smiled at me, and as I checked out her star-studded collar a man talking on his cell phone opened the door, said, "That's mine," called the dog in and shut the door. Granted, I was not going to steal his dog, but a college campus is NOT the place to leave your dog unattended! I haven't spotted them since, so I don't know if they live in that building or if they were just visiting.