Christmas Continues!

This year was my first year participating in the ornament exchange from the Circle of Sheltie Friends message board. It is sort of organized like a Secret Santa ... except it's not really secret and you exchange Christmas ornaments instead of presents.

Today, our ornament arrived from Binx and his owner!

So cute! I love the personalized snowflakes. Thanks so much Binx!!

CARO Rally-O Videos

At the HCKOC CARO Rally-O trial on October 3rd and 4th, a friend was able to get some video of many of the runs. She was kind enough to send me copies of Gio's and Romeo's runs. They both did SO well at that trial, I am thrilled to have their performances documented!

Gio - Excellent B - Round 1
If it weren't for that darned jump redo he would have had a perfect 200/200 run!


Gio - Excellent B - Round 3
Again, an NQ, but some of the individual elements were really nice!


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 1
Final score 198/200


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 2
Final score 197/200 and finishing off his CARO Rally Bronze (CRB) title


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 3
Final score 200/200, first leg of his CARO Rally Silver (CRS) title


Huge thanks to Sophie Brunet for taping the runs and putting the videos all together!

To Grandmother's House We Go

I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow, headed to lovely San Francisco for a conference on qPCR (aka "work stuff"). I always have a hard time leaving the boys behind, I stress out so easily. But they are staying with my mom, so I know they are in capable hands and will be absolutely spoiled and pampered all week.

I've packed their over-night bag of all the important things ... toys, food dishes, leashes, and treats ... Romeo helped.

"What's all this for, ma?"

"It's all going in the bag? And the bag is going to grandma's!?"

"What? We wouldn't want you to forget ME at home!"

I have one day to do touristy stuff. The rest of my trip is booked up with the conference and workshop goings-on. I was hoping to book a tour of Alcatraz, but when I checked their website they are all booked up for the evening tours ALL WEEK! *pout* So I think I will head down to Fisherman's Wharf and take in some festivities there. Seems like that is the location of most of the touristy stuff anyways. Has anyone been? Any recommendations for a good sea food supper?!

These are a few of our favorite things ...

Inspired by our buddies over at Jacked, today I thought I would showcase some of the boys' favorite things!

Gio's favorite things are pretty vague, really. Most of the items in the picture merely represent a wide array of things that Gio loves! His food bowl represents food in general, he doesn't actually TASTE anything that goes in his mouth. So he loves it all the same. And the tug toy represents the act of tugging. He'll tug on anything, this is just one of the many options. The sheep, though, is a special toy. He loves that squeaky above all other squeakies. The leash, is the object of focus at any time. He knows exactly where his leash is at any moment of the day. Because leash = going somewhere, and that is ALL GOOD! And the clicker is very much like the leash. The clicker = training, which again is ALL GOOD! And finally, the tennis ball. That is self explanatory. Nothing more needed there regarding the tennis ball obsession that is Gio's life.


Romeo's favorite things are equally vague. The bag of treats representing any treat-like substance or any edible item given as a treat. The clicker again representing training, which in Gio's words, is ALL GOOD! And the ball representing any ball of any texture or size. As long as it rolls, can be thrown, and is therefore chase-able. Peanut butter (also synonymous with Cheez Whiz in Romeo's world) is a very specific love. Likewise with the squirrel (of which we have three getting equal rotation) and the large rubber pig.

So ... what are YOUR favorite things?!

Powdery White Stuff

We had our first snow fall of the year today! A bit earlier than is the norm in this area, but not totally unexpected. I really do enjoy the winter, though I wish we had had more of an autumn this year. But there is still hope. I doubt this first snow fall will stick around long, as we are supposed to be back in the positive temperatures next week.


Best thing about the first snow fall ... Fresh Snow Zoomies!

Holy Flyin' Furball

A friend, Rebecca, caught some pictures of Romeo at a recent agility class. We were practicing jump work, so she really caught the fur flying!



Beautiful pictures, Rebecca! Thanks for sharing them with me.

You Are My Sunshine ...

Just one of those days where all you want to do is find a nice patch of sunlight and have a nap!

Beautiful Artwork!

I frequent a lovely Sheltie message board, Circle of Sheltie Friends, and on that board they have a feature called Mascot of the Month where two Shelties are named MOTM each and every month. Their story is written up and posted for all to see. Additionally, one of the resident Sheltie-a-holics compiles submitted photos of the MOTM to accompany the story.

Romeo has been chosen as one of the MOTMs for August 2009!

I checked out the board this morning to see that his story has been posted along with some absolutely stunning photos by our resident computer image guru, Mo. I've received permission from Mo to post them here and show off her wonderful work to the world!

Sporty Romeo

Romeo Candids

An Epic Playdate!

(You're really going to get sick of hearing those puns, Epic's momma!)

Meet Epic.



Epic is the cutest Jack Russel Terrier puppy EVER! As much as I love Shelties, I have to admit that they aren't really the cutest puppies, especially when you compare them to something like Epic.

Epic is owned by a friend of mine, mom also to Benny (you may remember Benny from "Ode to a Benny"). He is a fiesty little pup that is still firmly entrenched in the carpet-shark-learning-to-deal-with-my-terrierness stage. So, in his owner's endless pursuit to socialize the beasty, we met up for a play date.

Normally, Romeo will play with anything that moves and Gio will firmly ignore anything that isn't food or a ball. Tables were a little turned tonight, as Gio seemed to really draw Epic's attention and Romeo flatly refused to acknowledge the wee hairless beasty. Epic is still learning to get over the "just because it barks it doesn't mean it is going to eat me" idea, so the Shelties fit into that plan just nicely. In a Sheltie's world, barking goes hand in hand (err ... paw in paw?) with playing, and running, and excitement. At first, Epic was a little hesitant about the random loud noises, and there was a lot of this ...


But he figured out that the barking was in no way directed at him (unless he was monopolizing the ball), and came to deal with it all quite well.

Epic's first attempts to play with Romeo were thwarted when he became entranced with Romeo's (abnormally long) tongue, and decided that he would find out what it was in the only way that puppies now how ... with his teeth.


Romeo put a stop to that right away! And Epic turned his affections towards Gio.


Romeo finally did indulge Epic with some play, eventually.



But it was a lot more fun to just chase Gio around, mainly because Gio always has a ball in his mouth (BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!! *gasp* BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!). For a little guy, Epic has already learned all the important things in life ... ball drive and tug drive!





And being the stellar teachers that they are, the Shelties took it upon themselves to teach Epic a few other essentials.

Like how to scope out a good tree for peeing on.


Or which blades of grass are the tastiest.


Of course, there was also lots of running. And whenever possible, full body contact running.





I think they are a pretty cute group, don't you? (Of course, I may be just a teensy bit biased.)

If you want to follow along on Epic's great adventure, check out his blog!
Jacked

Bison RMBs

The boys each enjoyed a bison RMB for supper last night, courtesy of our new meat buddy, Jen!



They are GREAT. Huge gobs of meat still on the bone. Just perfect! Thanks Jen (and Spike and Sophie for sharing your haul. Hope you enjoyed the sheep.).

The boys dug in with gusto! Love that bison! But, while normal RMB chewing is fun and all ...



... it just lacks a certain ... style ... flare ... synchronicity?

Gio and Romeo now present, for the first time on Life is Better with Sheltie Hair ...

SYNCHRONIZED RMB-ING!

Ready ... and ...

To your right, two, three, four


Center, two, three, four


To your left, two, three, four

Sure, their routine could use a little work. But for a first time, not too bad, right?!

While they enjoyed their bison, I made my own little treat. Sour cream cookies! YUM!

Green Thumb/Paw

With it being May long weekend, and the weather finally acting like it is summer time (we had snow last week ... yes, snow in May), I thought it was a great time to get out on the yard. It's not much of a yard, a patch of green with a lot of weeds and some very hard dirt. But I am hoping to make it into a little bit of something enjoyable eventually.

Mom came over to help (thank goodness for moms!). We bought bedding plants and spent the afternoon digging, raking, and planting. While I eventually want to cut some flower beds and add something a little more permanent to the yard, this year I am mostly working in pots. Just want to get some color going back there so it looks like more like a garden and less like a vacant lot.

Romeo was great at supervising the pot arrangements.



While Gio helped collect all the garbage that has blown into the yard over the past who knows how many years.



I wound up with 4 planters. Two large round ones full of Cosmos, potatoe vine, and labelia. And two long planters that have some wonderful dahlias and a row of morning glory seeds along the back. I'm hoping the morning glories will climb up my porch and fill that in nicely.


I've never used dahlias before, but I have to say I am quite smitten!



Mom hacked a flower bed out of the random patch of grass/weeds/dirt in the front of the house. And I have loaded it full of chrysanthemums and Johnny jump-ups. It doesn't look like much now, but hopefully they will fill in nicely and keep coming back year after year.

Then we raked the whole yard. It was full of leaves and garbage from years of neglect. But there are patches of grass spread around, so it isn't a total loss.

Of course, Romeo was a big help in making sure that we didn't accidentally rake up any of his toys. Gio was mostly busy hunting lady bugs.


"The boys" bought me a bird feeder for Mother's Day, so I finally got to hang that up in the back corner as a final touch.



All in all, I am pretty proud of how it looks! Of course, it's no Royal Botanic Garden, but it is mine.