My Official Girl

Just a super short entry right now... Athena is OFFICIALLY Straylight's Affinity In A Row! I got an e-mail from the AKC letting me know they got her paperwork. (Uhh yeah, I really did procrastinate that long...) We have a registration number and everything. I can't wait to go make an account on the AKC site, lol.

Yippee!

OMG A MEME

To be perfectly honest, I've been blogging over a year now and have managed to avoid doing any and all memes. I very nearly caved when Phoenix Says did the purse one (where you empty the contents of your purse and show it off, very interesting for pack rats!)... But this one is a book related type, and well, I just have to.

This one comes from Patience:

Rules:

1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.

2. Open it to page 123.

3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.

4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same.

I currently have two books going, whenever I put my huge book of really hard crossword puzzles down. Those are Duma Key, a new book by Stephen King, and The Dark Half, an old book by Mr. King.

Duma Key: Wireman said nothing for a little while. The torn umbrella flapped. I had time to think, Well this was a potentially interesting friendship that's not going to happen, but when he next spoke, his voice was calm and pleasant. It was as if our little side-trip had never occured. "Part of Duma's development problem is simple overgrowth."

Dark Half: She sighed, looked down at her beer-bottle for a moment, then raised her head again.
"That's actually pretty lame, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid so," Alan said kindly, then looked at Thad. "You ought to be down on your knees thanking God for your alibi now, even if you weren't before. You do realize this makes you look even tastier as a suspect, don't you?"

Whee! :D And for the record, I am really liking Duma Key. Stephen King's writing as aged well. it makes me think of a good scotch or wine or something, where the flavor and aroma deepen with age. Every sentence has a taste or a texture that you want to savor before going on. I'm only like 100 and some odd pages in, which is HIGHLY unusual for me. I normally dig in and don't let go until I'm done. But I'm taking my time. It's not very often that I get to read new Stephen King, lol. I'm almost always buried in a reread of his old stuff. (Have I mentioned that I love Stephen King? I highly suggest him to ANYONE who likes reading. Any genre. He is that good.)

Anyway, I've got to run. Babies are calling.

PS. Ugh. I forgot linkage... I'll edit this in a few minutes to include proper links.

Deadly Plates!

I forgot to mention this...

Yesterday, Sully managed to drop a plate on his toe while trying to hand it to me. It didn't fall flat (that would be like buttered toast falling butter side up!), but with the edge directly at the base of his big toe toenail. He wailed! I snuggled him all up on the couch and thought that was that.

He kept telling me his toe hurt, but I sort of just assumed that was him doing the broken record thing. After all, he is -still- reminding us that the cat scratched his foot, and that happened like 2 weeks ago.

Caayn comes home after his appointment yesterday for a few minutes and Sully shows him his toe. OMG. Half of the toenail was purple! He's walking around with his toes pointed up so he doesn't have to put any weight on the one. By nap time he is rendered to shuddering, gasping cries of pain. I gave him some motrin to take the edge off the pain. He stayed in bed until after 6pm!! He wasn't asleep, he just didn't want to get out of bed. I had Caayn bring the tv down to his room with the PS2 so he could watch a movie. (Hehehe, perfect opportunity for Caayn and Lochlan to catch a nap with Sully!)

Today his whole toenail is purple, and the blood blister causing the purpleness is bulging out from under the nail. Caayn thinks the nail will probably fall off!!! Seriously, who knew plates could be so deadly? I mean, he's dropped plates on his toes before and this has never happened. Poor kiddo.

Congratulations Athena!

Athena finished her basic obedience class! It's official. She is not very good at sit-stays (she wants to lay down), but she did manage to wait the full 2 minutes during the down-stay, getting up just as we were told to return to our dogs.

As a fun little exercise at the end, we did heel-downs or something like that, where you walk around with the leash draped over your arm. The point is that your dog obeys you and the leash doesn't fall off and you don't need to grab it to correct your dog. Athena would have done well, except this gal walked in with her charpe (no clue how to spell that breed; they are the really wrinkly ones) who seems to have a bit of an agressive temperment and a shiba inu--the two of them kept snapping and barking at each other. And ever since that pit bull got Achilles, I've been very short leashed when around any dog who I've seen be snippy. One of the times we went around that corner (which happens to be the corner that Athena has the most trouble with anyway, she always wants to duck in there and hide), the dogs broke out in a snarling, barking fit, and I grabbed the leash... Boo. I think she would have lasted a bit longer.

Now I have a little certificate stating she finished Basic Obedience to go along with her 2nd place ribbon from the B match. Yay!

There happens to be a dog show in Fargo at the end of May that I am thinking of entering Athena in. The numbers have been pretty good considering the state the show takes place in (27 whippets in 2007, and then 18-20ish in 2006 and 2005)... Plus I am pretty sure I'll be seeing some Affinity dogs there. :) I'll really need to work on my handling skills though, since I KNOW I am not very good at them. I'm getting better at getting Athena stacked quickly (and well), which is a good thing. I just need to figure out how to get a look of interest on her. At that B match, the whole time in the ring her ears never once perked up.